Downtown Stavanger

Since my last blog, I have been running around like mad - doing all the things I want/like/need to do, but staying busy just the same.  I have added acupuncture to my schedule.  I have been having trouble with the sciatic nerve on my left side and our truly terrible topmattress, so between chronic pain and lack of sleep, I was desperate for relief.  I am happy to say, acupuncture is amazing - felt relief from the first appointment!  And, after searching high and low and every store I could think of, we finally found the topmattress like we had in the previous apartment and bought one.  What a difference it has made!  Spencer and I are both enjoying good sleep again!

Last week, a new guy hired for Spencer's project, Jack, was here doing is house hunt visit, so Spencer did a bit of entertaining and we had him over for dinner.  Jack is great - from Louisiana - so we had plenty to chat about!  He is a young, single guy that reminds us of Spencer's buddy, Federico that we got to know when Spencer was working in California.  Both Jack and Federico are part of a thing called the Summit Program that ConocoPhillips does with young and talented people right out of college where they have opportunities to learn various facets of the industry.  Bless his sweet heart, Jack offered to bring us some of our "coveted" items from home when he is back here on business in late April and when he moves here officially later in May.  We just may take him up on a few things...

This week at the school, Kyla had a "share in our learning" time in her music class.  Miss Magda, one of the music teachers, did a great job with the kids showing all the parents what kinds of things they do in music.  This just supports my belief that the international school is wonderful!  They have a music room full of instruments, they sing a wide variety of songs, do musical productions - so super!!!  Kyla is also doing a little after school track and field club once a week for the next month or so.  She is a go-getter!

Brendan has been busy at school with their "Oodle Doodle" projects where they were studying biomes and adaptations in science.  He was most pleased today when he was one of the top finishers in the "Oodle Doodle wars."  They also just finished reading and dissecting the book, The Phantom Tollbooth which culminated in watching the movie today at school.  Now, if we can just get the little lightbulb to "click" on math (yes, math of all things - Spencer's most natural subject!) we would be in great shape!

Today, I had the pleasure of attending a guided tour of downtown Stavanger with a group from the PWC.  The guide was quite interesting and it was fun to learn more about our "home" city.  I am attaching a few pictures from today.  One really cool thing was that one of the ladies on the tour lives downtown in a building with an open access rooftop.  She invited the group up to admire the view from there and it was lovely!

On top of that, the weather today was spectacular!!!  It was a beautiful day to be out and about in town! My friend, Stephanie and I then enjoyed lunch at a cafe in town that serves a traditional Norwegian "hot lunch" special each day for a super reasonable price.










I am looking forward to Friday as well - it is the next PWC Movie Club day - this month's feature, Water for Elephants!  I just finished reading the book last week (really enjoyed the read!) and am looking forward to seeing the movie which will, of course, be followed by lunch with friends!

I guess the other news is that Spencer and I "celebrated" our 14th anniversary this week!  I put celebrated in quotes since the day ended up being a series of "almosts" - Spencer almost made it to lunch with me (I ended up eating with his co-worker, Ian, since Spencer got stuck in a meeting...), we almost made it out to dinner, but a lot of homework drama from Kid 1 ended with me going to the store and making tacos...you get the idea.  But, I still contend, life is good, we are blessed, and we will make up for it another time :)  As I said on my facebook status - "...who would have thought we would be where we are today when we married all those years ago..."

Next for the Beards - our trip to Opio en Provence!!!!  We are so excited about our trip!  So, you can be sure I will have fabulous new pictures (okay, decent pictures...) and lots to share after we return on the 25th!

That is all for now... I am working/thinking on a "fun" blog to do sometime....something light-hearted and not so..."this is what we did today..." report-ish.

Happy Easter, everyone!  We send our love and blessings on each of you!