Still breathing

For those of you who wondered if I survived my take-home exam, I would like to confirm that I am still alive. Barely...

New football player in the family

Johan is going to start playing on Korsvoll's football team in a few weeks. They got the gang together for a picture which will be published in the team brochure. See if you can figure out which one of these little guys is Johan....

Take-home exam hell

I'm currently in the middle of a take-home group exam in math. Can it get any more hellish than this? Feel sorry for me...

Spring is here

When we got back to Oslo after Easter vacation it was spring. The snow is melted - well almost everywhere, at least. The crocuses are blooming. We're all riding our bikes around the neighborhood, and the sun is shining bright.

I love spring!!

Wednesday

Here is what my Wednesday looks like this week -

Woke up with Johan next to me, and Gaute nowhere to be seen. When I fell asleep Gaute was next to me, and Johan was in his bed. I didn't remember any switcheroo during the night, but when I got up I saw Gaute in Johan's bed. Hmmm... Time to have a little chat with Johansen - that's the second night in a row he's come into our room at night - although when he doesn't wake me up, then it's not really such a big deal. :-)

While taking my shower I made the decision to blow off my religion class today. My excuse was that I was going to prioritize, and write a paper which is due on Friday instead. Which means that I have no excuse not to write the damn paper...

Espen woke up in a bad mood, which is unlike him. He hasn't gotten out of spring break mode, though, and doesn't go to bed until much too late. I told him that he was supposed to walk Anders home from school - which he does every Wednesday - and he threw a fit. Then I said that I wanted to take him out after school and buy him new football shoes. "Why do we have to do that today?? I want to play with my friends!" Then I got pissed off because he's been complaining constantly about his football shoes and how they're too small and too old, and bla bla bla. Then he refused to eat breakfast. Nice start...although he did manage to snap out of it and ate his food and admitted that he did want new shoes.

The two oldest left for school, and I told Johan that we could ride bikes to barnehage today - the weather is gorgeous! We rode over there - he wore his Lyn uniform to celebrate their victory on Monday - and I managed to drop him off without any major crisises.

I then sat down and managed to write a rough draft of the paper that I'm skipping school to write. I also vacuumed and washed clothes, so I was pretty proud of myself. When I realized what a good job I had done, then I lost all motivation to keep working on school/house stuff and decided to go shopping. I looked at lots of shoes, but ended up spending money only at the grocery store - although I spent more than enough there. I could buy lots of shoes if I stopped buying food...

While I've been writing this Espen and Anders have come home. They went straight out to the trampoline, though, and from the sound of it then Halvor is here, too. Soon I will have to go out and ruin their fun... Football shoe shopping time.

Tonight after dinner then the boys have to go up to the football field. They're taking team pictures, and they're all going to be on football teams this spring. Johan is especially excited. Then after that Gaute and I are going to a meeting at barnehage. Johan is going to camp next week for 3 days with his barnehage. Just the kids who are starting school are going. He's excited/nervous about it. The meeting tonight is to fill us in on what they need to take and what they'll be doing. Should be interesting...

Time to go bug my kids...

Just a little note to all of you football fans...Today Lyn is playing Vålerenga. Vålerenga hasn't won a game against Lyn for 25 years, so the chances are good that Lyn will be victorious. The games are always close, though, and last year Vålerenga won the series. EXCITEMENT!!

The game starts at 8 p.m. central european time, and we will be glued to the TV. If you go here, you can follow the game live...(it helps if you speak Norwegian, though.)

Heia Lyn!!

An update - the game just ended and Lyn won 2-1. Lyn is the best, and Vålerenga sucks!!

The Norwegian Easter Dream

Easter in Norway....Any Norwegian with respect for himself and his country knows that the place to spend Easter is in the mountains, preferably in a cabin. This year, we finally joined the ranks of Norwegians who take off for the mountains during Easter. Thursday and Friday before Easter are national holidays here, as well as the Monday after Easter. In other words, everyone has time off at Easter.

Easter is the time to take off to your cabin in the mountains, go on long ski trips in the bright sunshine, and eat lots of oranges and Kvikklunsj, a kind of chocolate which is similar to a Kit Kat, and which has become synonymous with Easter and skiing in Norway.

And that is what we did this year. Here is the proof....

We made it to the top of Jomfruslettfjellet, 1137 meters over sea level (3700 feet). Not very high compared to mountains in the U.S., but we felt like we were on top of the world.

There was also a ski race for the kids in the cabins in our area. The Langaas boys beat the pants off of the other kids. All three did a great job! Espen and another boy were the two oldest, so they raced against each other - it was a close race, but Espen won! He got the grand prize for the race, and was pretty psyched!