Kongeparken and Thanksgiving

Well, Brendan came home from Outdoor School on a "camp high" and he has been in a pretty good mood ever since! That is nice - it seems to have had a positive impression on him! Even though the "high" is wearing off and he is reverting back to his "usual" self, it is good to know that maturity is hiding away in his little mind and is there when he is ready to use it!

Friday afternoon, Kyla and her dance class had their end of semester performance. It was cute and she really enjoyed being in the dance class with the high school girls that were teaching it.

Today, Saturday, was a pretty busy day. We headed off to Kongeparken about noon for a special weekend event at "King's Park" which is similar to a Six Flags, but on a much smaller scale. It was all decorated for the holidays and had Christmas-themed and winter activities going on. The great thing about it...totally not crowded and everything we did was included in our special tickets! Most of the rides were closed, but there was a sled slide thing and a fun house deal and a couple other things, but the really neat part was all the crafts they had set up around the park for the kids to do. Brendan and Kyla each got to decorate a huge gingerbread cookie, decorate a plate, go to the "chocolate factory" and learn to make a chocolate treat in a plastic mold, build a wooded tray, roast marshmallows, eat hot dogs, drink cocoa...I am attaching a few pictures.

Shortly after that, we headed over to the Thanksgiving dinner being hosted by North Sea Baptist Church. It was a nice dinner - music, a message, fellowship with friends, good food - nice to spend time being thankful for all our blessings! We sat at a table with Wendy and Lamont and Bret and Stephanie and their two girls (one is Abigail, a friend of Kyla's).

Tomorrow, Kyla is going to Anouk's birthday party and then we are having our much anticipated "Sardine Party" after our trip to the cannery a few weeks ago. We actually have 3 families, possible 4 coming over...so, we may be packed in the apartment like sardines as well! Oh, well - the more, the merrier!

Monday we have some friends coming over for a goodbye dinner. Steve and Cheri and their girls will be moving to Kentucky next week. They are some of our NATO friends - we really like this family and are sad to see them go after just getting to know them! Their daughter, Hannah was on the same soccer team as Brendan and we just hit it off with them! It was their home we went to when we hung out with the NATO folks and had a great dinner a couple months ago.

So, things are just bopping along for us. I have been cranking out gingerbread cookies for every occasion I can think of and was super excited the other day to fine a few special grocery treasures at the MENY market! Dr. Pepper, Pop Tarts, REAL brown sugar, and a few other fun things...

On tap for this week - the COP Spouse's Christmas Luncheon at a fancy restaurant downtown!

We have been very lucky to have sunshine everyday this week! Despite that, the temperatures are still well below freezing (-4 degrees C) and there is still heavy frost and now the lakes are beginning to freeze over. The roads have stayed fairly ice-free, but any rain now would definitely make for slippery conditions! You definitely are more cautious walking and driving because there is certainly patches that could send you to the ground if you aren't being careful! I will have to get pictures of the lake frozen over - quite a sight! Apparently if/when it freezes 15 inches or so deep, they allow ice skating on the lakes...that should be interesting...

Outdoor School Week

Well, it is that time again...I need to give my report on the goings on here in Norway!

Friday morning we went for Brendan's appointment for his arm. They did an xray and decided to (thankfully) remove the cast! His wrist and elbow are very stiff so we are doing "exercises" to try to loosen and strengthen them back up. His bone didn't heal perfectly straight so it doesn't look quite normal, but doctor still says it should straighten out and we are supposed to come back in 6 months for another xray. I think we were all just glad, especially B, to have the cast off!

We had a fairly busy weekend - Friday evening the new couple that moved in downstairs came up for dinner and then we grilled steaks with the Darbys on Saturday evening. And let me say, the steaks were amazing - best we have had since we have been here! It was worth the extra money to get them hand cut at Idsoes meat market! Dan marinated them and Spencer manned the grill - YUM!!! On Sunday, we went to church and then took Spencer bowling for his birthday - Kyla's idea! We had a great time! The other big thing past weekend was getting Brendan packed for Leirskole at Gullingen - a 4 day, 3 night school trip! He was very excited about it, although a bit nervous. I am the one that is really anxious about it. They left Monday morning and will return Thursday afternoon. So far, so good, it seems. The 4th grade has it's own website and they are posting pictures each night from the day's activities. I was happy to see Brendan in several photos looking happy. You can also look at the website so you can see where he is - there is snow in the mountains and there are pictures of some of the kids sledding! http://www.iss4thgrade.com/

It is definitely weird with him being away - the evening was so quiet here with just Kyla. She says she is enjoying the break from her brother, but I suspect she will be missing him soon and ready for him to be home again!

The weather here has been actually quite nice. Today especially - lots of sun and a heavy frost that gives the illusion of a super thin dusting of snow. It is cold, but not miserable. The good part is it has generally been rain-free this last week, so the cold isn't so bad without the wet. They are very good about sanding the streets and using a gravel sand for the sidewalks to keep them from being slippery, although there are certainly slippery spots. What I am definitely thankful for is the underground garage at our apartment! No ice to scrape off in the mornings! If we look out toward the mountains, we can see snow on the tops also. I will try to get a picture sometime soon. I am just usually in the car and driving when we can see them!

Speaking of being thankful...it is kind of strange to be in a place where Thanksgiving isn't observed. We will be going to a big potluck Thanksgiving celebration on Saturday being hosted by the church we attend now, North Sea Baptist, but still not the same. We will miss seeing family and the traditional turkey dinner and football on Thursday!

The city is decorating for Christmas, however. When I was in downtown last week, they were stringing greenery across the streets and today in the mall I noticed them hanging little white lights from the ceilings. There is also quite a bit of Christmas stuff appearing in the stores. I have already made a couple batches of gingerbread...mmm,mmm!

The days are getting shorter here and we are nearing the weeks of least daylight. The shortest day will be December 21 with the 3 weeks before and after being the weeks of the shortest daylight hours. Right now, it is getting light about 8:30-8:45 and getting dark again by 4:45 or so. We are always glad when the sun shines brightly in the day!

That's all I can think of for now...attaching a few pictures since I haven't the last couple times.

Just another week

Well, I can't say there is much to report here. Spencer was a little under the weather at the end of last week and Kyla and I are dealing with allergy flair ups, but otherwise we are all doing fine.

Brendan went for another sleepover at John's on Friday night and then we had John's family over for dinner on Sunday. It was nice - his parents, Bill and Christine are a lot of fun and we had a great visit. Otherwise, we had a pretty lazy weekend.

Even though the day light hours are getting much shorter, this week has brought sunshine every day and we are glad for that! We literally try and "soak" up as much sun as we can when it makes an appearance! It is getting light around 8:30 or so and is dark again by 5:00. From what we are told, the shortest days will be from early December to mid-January, so about 6 weeks of really short days and then they will gradually get longer again. It has been fairly cold, but not just miserable cold yet. I think it being dry out helps a lot and also keeps ice from forming!

I guess there are a few interesting things to mention...we are now on the hunt for a particular spring that attaches to the clutch of the car. I was driving and heard this noise then a "clunk." The afore mentioned spring landed in the floorboard of the driver's seat...thank goodness all my pedals still worked! It appears to be a clutch return spring but, of course, the Ford dealership "has no idea" what part it is...even though we showed it to them. Spencer is working on plan B for finding the spring since he can likely install it himself if we can just get our hands on the correct part. We certainly don't want to wait too long because I would hate to do any damage that would require another visit to the repair shop...!!!

Next, the apotek (pharmacy)...what a joke! You can't buy hardly any allergy-related medicines here without a prescription! Crazy! You can get several antihistamine kinds of things, but no decongestants...but if you need a nosespray, there are probably 15 different kinds. For a cough, 2 choices only. A suppressant or an expectorant. No combo things that work for multiple symptoms...like an antihistamine/decongestant/cough kind of thing. Ummm, like I told the lady at the pharmacy, we don't run to the doctor for allergies, we just handle it ourselves, but here, we can't buy what we need. I brought some from home, but definitely should have stocked up a little better! We ran out of the Benadryl meltaways the other day. Thank goodness all of our allergies have been much better here! This is really the first big bout of them we have had and really, I don't think it is as bad as it would be in Texas.

Today, I spent over an hour on the phone with Verizon... what a joy that was - although it was made better thanks to the wonderful customer service person that took my call - bless her heart! She was great and stuck with it until she got it working - spoke English without any accent (which was helpful), and obviously knew what she was doing. She even took my number and called my house phone here in Norway so we could try all kinds of stuff with the phone. She was about to give up and turn in a network help ticket when it finally kicked in! She even stayed on with me to test out the email and and instant messaging! Yvette in Verizon global customer service ROCKS!

In other news, Spencer had two job offers within his department this week. After careful consideration and numerous conversations with his immediate boss and other involved people, he decided to pass on both for numerous (and valid) reasons, but the "big guy" in projects said there will be other opportunities in the near future...should be interesting to see how it all plays out. I think the head projects guy here likes Spencer and sees his potential and that is a positive thing for sure!

Well, London is a booked trip now for early December - a girls' trip with 2 friends! Mostly on a shopping mission (I am getting my list together), a spa trip for a little pampering, and tickets to see Mamma Mia! I am so pumped! It will be a very quick trip for sure - a Monday evening to a Wednesday night, so just over 48 hours of jam-packed fun. There won't be any sightseeing on this go round!

We head back to the doctor about Brendan's arm on Friday with our fingers crossed for good news and hopefully no more cast! I have to say, he has done pretty well with it and figured out how to do most everything he would normally do without much assistance. I also know he has done plenty of stuff that has made me cringe and probably would have the doctor cringing as well - like running down slick sidewalks and climbing on the school playground...he is supposed to be leaving for outdoor school on Monday with or without the cast...Mom has reservations about the trip, Dad is all for it. It will be a long and weird week with him away (and quiet, needless to say!)

To end, I feel the need to share my latest observation regarding fashion in Norway. Early on it was man-capris...now, I am picking on the ladies...ummm, ladies, please note, there IS a difference between tights and leggings...they are not interchangeable. Tights are NOT the same as leggings and quite honestly, some of you should not be wearing either of them at all in public. And, don't even get me started on the boots...

I have been a slacker on pictures lately - my apologies. We have just been doing every day normal stuff - nothing picture-worthy.

I am sure I had some other interesting observations, but I will have to think of them again and share them on a later blog...gotta keep you coming back for more! I did notice I now have 3, yes, count them, 3 "followers" - thank you!!!!! At least I know someone is reading my ramblings :)

Hugs to all!

This week in the news...

I can't believe it has been a week since I last updated things - we had a busy and fun weekend and then it was back to the usual stuff, I suppose. I will briefly mention...I am a total loser as I forgot to take my camera on two occasions, so I am lacking for pictures for this blog...I know, shameful!

Last Thursday, Dan and I had a fun time checking out shops downtown and we ate at a place the serves traditional Norwegian fare - believe it or not, it was much cheaper than most of the other restaurants in town.

Friday morning, Wendy and I took off to drop off cakes at the craft fair and do a little shopping. I have to say, I had the "biggest craft fair in Norway" built up in my mind as being a lot bigger than it actually was...I was thinking Nutcracker Market when really it was more the size of Heart of Katy...but, nevertheless, it was fun to walk around and check out all the hand-made wares. I picked up a scarf with a matching ear wrap made from alpaca and some wooden items hand-painted with traditional Norwegian rosemaling. It is actually hand-painted by a lady named May who is the president of the PWC group I am in. She makes beautiful things!

Last Friday afternoon, Spencer left work a little early and we went to do a quick preview and price some ideas for Christmas. It was nice to go out on our own for a couple hours. One thing for sure here, we miss having babysitters readily available! The week ended with sleepovers for both kids. Brendan went to his buddy, John's house and we let Kyla have a friend over here, Madeleine. Both sleepovers were successful and we re-grouped about mid-day Saturday for a family outing. The weather was nice, although cold, so we headed over to take a walk/hike on a trail we have been wanting to check out. It was fairly muddy after the rain last week and we were on a pretty small footpath for some of it, but we ended it with a nice view! This trail was part of a group of trails that all connect called Melshei. We hope to make it back over there sometime soon to check out some of the other trails. We did have to choose a simpler path since Brendan is still in his cast and the steeper climbs are just too hard without two hands!

Saturday afternoon and evening, we headed over to our friends', Peter and Helen's house. Helen is from the UK and their little girl goes to the British School. Saturday, Nov. 6 the British School was hosting the Guy Fawkes Day Celebration and they invited us and another family to join them for the festivities. For those of you who aren't familiar (we had to google too!) the Guy Fawkes Celebration is a very big holiday in the UK! It is basically a celebration commemorating the foiled plot of Guy Fawkes to blow up Parliament in the early 1700's. They burn his effigy on bonfires, have fireworks, etc. It was quite a show! Following the celebration, we headed back over to Peter and Helen's for dinner and fun and lively conversation! We met another expat family who works for Statoil and we girls made tentative plans for a quick 2-day trip to London for a little shopping and a show! I hope it all falls together!

Sunday we visited the North Sea Baptist Church again and were treated to hearing Michael Howard preach. We heard him preach a couple times while he was filling in at the International Church back in July and Sunday he was the guest pastor at NSB while their pastor was out of town. He delivered another great and thought-provoking sermon based on the Prodigal Son but with the focus being on the elder brother instead...

After church, we met up with Dan, Sheila, and Ella for a return trip to the cannery downtown. It was the first Sunday of the month so they had the fire going with fresh smoked sardines for taste-testing. We have plans for another "sardine party" but I am thinking I am going to expand it to include a couple other families. We then made a stop for hot chocolates for the kids. From there, we headed over to Lamonte and Wendy's new apartment downtown right near the cannery for dinner. We had a great time checking out their new home, visiting, the boys trying out new beers, and eating homemade spaghetti (Spencer was in heaven!)

Then it was back to the usual...however usual didn't last long. I was just getting started on my walk Monday morning with the ladies and my phone rings...a number from the school...Kyla is at the nurse's office with a tummy ache. Great...I am not convinced after speaking with her so suggest she lay down for a little bit and I will call and check back in 30 minutes. We start walking and I call back with my fingers crossed that she is miraculously better, but no, so we turn back from our walk and I head up to the school. Kyla has absolutely no other symptoms and I get her to eat a banana trying to convince her to stay at school, but the nurse and her teacher are of the "better safe than sorry" opinion, so home we go. Kyla proceeds to watch TV, read, color, and basically have a lazy day at home with absolutely no other symptoms except dark circles under her eyes and a little pale - a sure sign of being tired, yet, she just "couldn't" fall asleep. The bright spot - I got to try out my gingerbread recipe - not bad, not bad at all! They have a slightly different texture and taste but all in all should work out great!

Alas, back to school she went on Tuesday. Dan and I had plans to try out a Mexican restaurant downtown, but we get over there and wouldn't you know, they have recently changed their hours and are no longer open for lunch...nice...so Plan B - Phileas Fogg. I finally tried creamy fish soup and it was delicious! Mussels, crawfish, hunks of the "catch of the day" served with fresh homemade bread!

Tuesday night, I notice Brendan's cast is crumbling around his hand and is literally broken across the top of his hand...ummm great...so first thing Wednesday morning I unwrap the ace bandage to try to do some damage control until I can get him in to the doctor. I take off the ace bandage to find there is a huge crack at the elbow too. I am now wondering how long that has been cracked! So, I use my masking tape to try to get it back together and with the slit in it from previously, the cast is just a mess. Numerous strips of masking tape and a re-wrap of the ace bandage, I wait for 8 am to call the clinic. I get through to someone just before I need to leave to get the kids to school and they say to bring him in. I am thinking, "super!" - maybe they will x-ray and such since we have to come back next week anyway...ummm, nope. They literally take off the ace bandage holding it all together, and then use a fiberglass wrap to cover the cast, masking tape and all, and then send us on our way. Really? Absolutely no concern that he has possibly damaged the healing bone. So strange...

So the rest of Wednesday was spent at the PWC monthly meeting and following that, Wendy and I headed out to IKEA for a little shopping and then over to Kvadrat (the mall) for lunch and more shopping. I found a few small things but left most of the money spending to Wendy :)

So, weather and dark update... it has been a beautiful weekend and week - sunny and clear, but very cold! Any puddles left on the ground are icing at night so thankfully it has been dry this week. It is getting light around 7:45 and getting dark again by 4:45 or 5:00 in the evening. The days are definitely feeling shorter and it is weird for it to be dark so early. We are to the point where Spencer is leaving in the dark and returning home in the dark and very soon the kids will be going to and from school in the dark as well.

Tomorrow is PWC movie day and then Friday we have the kids' parent/teacher conferences at school.

Work is going fine and Spencer is certainly taking every opportunity to impress the management and make himself invaluable which is a good thing. He has been asked to sit in on some meetings and seems to be doing what he does best and getting attention by being the amazing smart guy he is and being able to see how all the pieces fit together to make this project run smoother.

In other news...the COP Spouses' Group has picked the date and location for the spouses trip - Early February, Budapest, Hungary!!! I am so excited!!! We will be booking soon and there seems to be quite a big group of us going! It should be fun!

Oh, and how could I NOT mention, my girlfriend, Sharisa surprised me with a phone call today! It was awesome to talk to her - what a treat! She and her family are living in Chester, England right now and their two year stay was extended! We compared notes on our vacations, what we can and can't find in our "host" countries, and had a fun time catching up with the each other - totally miss seeing you girl!!!

Post-Halloween Week...

So, I have a few observations as I look back on Halloween in Norway...

First, from what I hear, Halloween is just catching on here in Norway. I have heard that it has only been in the last couple years that you could even find Halloween things in the stores and that is pretty obvious based on the limited supply of costumes, decorations, and even individually wrapped candy. Speaking of candy...

Next, it is quite odd to see some of the things kids received trick-or-treating. Although my kids only went to organized activities (not door-to-door, which is only done in a limited way, mostly where more expats live,) unwrapped candies, especially gummy-type candies were handed out along with pepperkakke (ginger) cookies just dropped in the buckets. Very strange...

And last, licorice...I have always noticed a lot of licorice-flavored things here - everything from gum to candy bars to gummy candies - but seriously! And I do mean the black licorice (my grandpa Shackelford would love it!) Gum...licorice gum...YUCK! If I am not mistaken on my translation, it also appears there are cough drops that are licorice-flavored. Ewww...

As for the rest of the week, just the usual, I suppose. The weather is definitely turning colder and the daylight hours are shrinking. We had our "fall back" time change this past weekend so now it is light in the morning about 7:30 or so, but dark by 5:00ish in the evening and getting shorter by the day. It is strange for it to be so dark so early and it is easy to lose track of the time. Spencer and I both think this is going to be a bit of a trial for us and will take some getting used to. I have started taking an Omega 3 vitamin supplement with Vitamin D since everyone says you really need to, especially during the winter. I am also making a concerted effort to drink more milk. The sun only makes token appearances and rarely is out for the whole day, although Monday was an exception.

I also made play-doh for the first time here. I had to get one of the ingredients at the apotek (pharmacy.) Yes, really...called Alun. Oh, and my friend, Ronda told me they sold the syrup I need for my gingerbread and she even bought me a jar. Today, I went on the hunt for the other ingredients I need...the one stumbling block, brown sugar. Very hard to find here, but I got lucky and found a treasure trove at the second store I went to, Helgo. Now, I have to find some cookie cutters...mine I apparently had packed and put in storage. So, so glad I will get to try my hand at my homemade gingerbread! Hopefully I can get it to come out as good here as I did in Texas! It will make great gifts!

Now on my mind...Christmas gifts. I am thinking I better get on that soon. It will be a fairly simple Christmas here for several reasons. One, we will actually be in Prague the week of Christmas and we are so excited about our trip! Air, hotel, and tours are booked! Second, the availability and price of things here is a big turn off, so we are looking to find one or two special things for the kids and leave it at that. Third, we have no room in the apartment! They have plenty of stuff to entertain themselves with and space is a premium! Tomorrow, I am going to hang out with my buddy, Dan and we are going to do some price-checking and idea-getting...

This weekend is the huge PWC Christmas Craft Market - they are expecting somewhere in the neighborhood of 8000-9000 people! It is the biggest craft fair in the entire country! Because I am a PWC member and donating a cake for the cake and coffee stand, I can go an hour early for a preview time on Friday and you can bet I will be taking advantage of that! Wendy and I will be there to drop off cakes and shop!

Saturday evening we have been invited to our friends' Peter and Helen's to attend an event being hosted by BISS (the British school) to celebrate Guy Fawkes Night with a fireworks show! Apparently this is a huge event in the UK and the British school is celebrating here as well! We are looking forward to it!

Sunday, it appears we will likely have dinner plans other friends - Lamonte and Wendy.

So, we are definitely staying busy and our social life is in good order - we have made lots of friends here! I can already see it is going to be quite tough to leave here when summer comes and it is time to move on.

I am including two pictures of rainbows we saw on Oct. 18th from our balcony. Truly a rare sight, a double rainbow - you could see the full arc on the opposite side of our apartment off the other balcony - they were amazing! The one on the left is much lighter but both were clearly visible! I have never seen as many rainbows as we have in the short time we have been in Norway!