Johan's summer program

Last night was Johan's summer program. He's almost done with first grade. It's kind of strange - when he started school in the fall, I still felt like I had a little kid, because first grade here is kind of like kindergarten in the States. But now, he's going to be a second grader, and that's a completely different thing. He's a kid now, not a little kid anymore. Now I feel like all of my kids are getting so big...

Lynusklubben's Football camp

Last Thursday Anders and Johan were at Lyn's football camp for members of their kid's club - Lynusklubben. Some of the Lyn players were there to give the kids some tips, and they got some cool football jerseys. Espen was there the week before when they had the session for the older kids.

Global Warming

It's 5:00 pm, and it's 84 degrees. It's June. In Oslo. In Norway. 60 degrees North of the Equator.

More orienteering

Johan got a slight injury when he tripped and fell against a rock, but luckily they had a first aid table set up with someone there to fix him up.

Anders and Gaute at the start.

Espen on his way towards the finish line.

Espen the orienteerer

Yesterday Espen and Anders were in an orienteering race. I'm going to post some of the pictures I took, but until then you can check out this link online. Scroll down about halfway and you'll see two great shots of Espen in action.

Tessy turned 25 yesterday

My beautiful sister Tess turned 25 yesterday. I didn't talk to her, but I have been thinking about her so much. I always feel like I have a special connection with her birthday, since my high school graduation was on her 5th birthday. I can't believe you were only 5 then, Tessy - or that you're 25 now. I love you a lot and can't wait to see you in a few weeks!

Summer?

I see that they're predicting summer temperatures this weekend. Please, please.

For those of you who have been waiting in suspense...

We had a very nice weekend...



We made it to the top of Jomfruslettfjellet. All together we were on a 5 hour hike on Sunday. We brought along our little camp stove and made soup on the top of the mountain.


And we made it back in time to go to a Lyn game on Monday. It was a really exciting game, and they won, 4-3!!

Looooong Weeeekend

We're having another long weekend - Monday is a holiday here. I don't even remember which holiday it is. But a day off is a day off.

We decided at the last minute to go up to the cabin this weekend. I'm getting my hair cut tomorrow at 10:00, so they're going to pick me up after that, and then we're off. Hopefully the weather will be okay.

I can hardly wait for summer vacation. I will be very happy to be done with my last final on June 5th. When I started really looking into it, I realized that it's going to be really hard, so I've started actively studying for it. The system with finals here is so annoying. Our whole grade is more or less based on this one final....

Pictures from the 17th of May

Hurra for Norge!

Tomorrow is the 17th of May - Norway's national holiday. It's officially called Constitution Day, but everyone just refers to it as the 17th of May.

Hipp hurra for Norge!

Soap Box Derby

On Sunday, the annual Nordberg Grand Prix, a soap box derby, was held. Our kids were there, of course, for this big event in our neighborhood. Anders and Johan had a car that they had worked on with Gaute, and Espen and two of his friends, Herman and Andreas, had a car that they had built. None of them were fastest, but everyone gets a prize for this race - a bag filled with lots of cool stuff, like a hat and a t-shirt, water bottle and lots of candy! All together, there were about 60 cars in the race. It's a pretty big event around here - and lots of fun. Unfortunately, Anders and Johan's car rolled over right after they went over the finish line. Just a few scratches, but kind of scary. They're over it, though, and are already talking about the improvements they'll make to the car before the race next year!

Espen - he's pretty American

You Are 67% American

Most times you are proud to be an American. Though sometimes the good ole US of A makes you cringe Still, you know there's no place better suited to be your home. You love your freedom and no one's going to take it away from you!

How American Are You?

What would we do without our trampoline?

Anders in action

Typical Espen

I am a rock, I am an island

Your Birthdate: August 7
You are an island. You don't need anyone else to make you happy.
And though you see yourself as a loner, people are drawn to you.
Deep and sensitive, you tend to impress others with your insights.
You also tend to be psychic - so listen to that inner voice!

Your strength: Your self sufficiency

Your weakness: You despise authority

Your power color: Maroon

Your power symbol: Hammer

Your power month: July

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

New favorite podcast

I have a new favorite podcast. Bill Maher's show, Real Time, is available as a podcast, and I love it.

For those of you who don't know what a podcast is (Mom), is a digital file of a radio (or TV) show which you can listen to on your computer or Ipod - whenever you want to!! I'm telling you, the wonders of modern technology.

I use my Ipod all of the time these days. Chores and walking are things I look forward to now, because that is when I listen to my podcasts. Oh, yeah....

Saturday

Our warm spring weather is gone - it's windy and cold today, and it sucks! I want more sun.

Done studying for the day

I have spent most of the last few days studying (except for the 2 hours I spent in line on Wednesday waiting to get a stamp in my passport - but that's another story). The weather has been so nice - 60-70 degrees and sunny - and I am so sick and tired of sitting in front of the computer.

Now I'm going to go get Anders at school and then go do some errands. Everything sounds so nice compared to studying!!!

Summer vacation

I have a final in one week and have been home all day. Did I study? No. I spent the entire day (plus several hours last night) searching for good hotels/good deals for our summer vacation. I might fail my final - but at least we have some places to stay while we're on vacation.

We fly into Seattle on June 14th, and that night we're staying close to the airport at the Days Inn. The next morning we will check out the Space Needle before driving to Spokane, where we will be staying at the Quality Inn. From there, we will be driving to West Yellowstone the next day. I've reserved a room at the Comfort Inn there for 3 nights. After checking out Yellowstone, we're driving to Ketchum, where we have rented a condo at the Krystal Villa for 3 nights. And from there we're driving to Foresthill. So, what do you thnk?

Sunday

Not much to say today, but it's been a while since I've written anything, and I don't want my readers to feel slighted...

It's a four day weekend here. May 1st is Labor Day in Norway, and since it is on a Tuesday this year, then Monday is a holiday, too. It's nice with a long weekend, but I have a final on May 7th, so I have to force myself to do some studying.

Last night the boys slept over at Kari and Grim's house, so Gaute and I decided to go out. We went downtown and had a couple of beers - nothing special - but it was really nice. It's been a long time since we have gone out by ourselves.

Lyn game tomorrow - I'll keep you posted...

Checkup

Just got back from the hospital with Espen. He had a checkup after his operation - and they confirmed what we were afraid of. His eyes are the same/slightly worse than they were before the operation. He is seeing double to the same degree as before, and his left eye is wandering a bit more than before. They still don't know what is causing this and it seems like his brain is pulling the muscles out of whack no matter what they do. I mentioned today that we were going to the states this summer, and the orthoptist thought we should get a second opinion there, something we were thinking about doing regardless. The opthamology department at the hospital here is the biggest and best in Norway, but they admit that they don't understand what's going on. Espen is nervous now, though, because he - understandably - doesn't want to spend his summer vacation at the hospital.

We have a new appointment at the hospital on May 8th, and several doctors will be examining Espen. Hopefully they can give a referral to UC Davis Medical so we don't have to pay for any appointments there. We'll see what happens, though.

Poor Espen - what is going on with him??

Baby Johan

I found this picture of Johan when he was a baby - wasn't he the sweetest little baby?

Football...and a bit more...

On Sunday, Lyn (aka the best football team) played Odd-Grenland. The boys are members of the Lyn's supporter club for kids, and on Sunday all of the Lynus-klubben members got free tickets to the game and got to go out on the field as the players were introduced. We had 3 pretty excited boys...AND - Lyn won 3-1!

It seems like Espen's surgery didn't go so well after all. He says that his vision is back to the way it was before they operated last week. And Gaute and I can see that his left eye is really wandering - it seems like even more than before his surgery...He has an appointment at the hospital tomorrow - we'll see what they have to say.

Spring has sprung

And we are celebrating with our new bbq...

The ipod

For Christmas in 2005 (or was it 2004??), I bought Gaute an ipod. He had never expressed an interest in having one, but I thought they were so cool and thought he should have one. He uploaded lots of music to it - and then never used it. After about a year of no one using it, I thought it was about time that I started using it. I put some more music on it - and never used it. By that time, Espen had figured out what music was, and I decided that he should be allowed to use it. He deleted all of the music that was on it, uploaded his own music - and used it all of the time.

But - this was an ipod mini, and in the years since I bought it, the ipod nano came it. The nano is half the size, but 10 times the cool - especially if you are 11 years old. So, Espen used his Christmas money to buy himself a red ipod nano WITH HIS NAME ENGRAVED ON THE BACK. How cool is that?

And now the original ipod was available again. Now it was Anders' turn to take it over. He kept the same music that Espen had - but he never used it. I have known what music is for a long time, but by this time I had figured out what podcasts were, too (thanks, Erin). Now it was time for me to take back control of the ipod.

So now I have cool music and lots of cool podcasts on the (my) ipod. And I use it all of the time. Podcasts are so great. I listen to them while I'm doing chores around the house, while I'm making dinner, while I'm walking. Time goes fast - and they're so interesting. My life has changed ;).

p.s. My favorite podcasts, for those who are interested, are This American Life, The Splendid Table, Talk of the Nation, and (my favorite) Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing.

Day 4 (Day 3 kind of disappeared)

Espen is doing much, much better. He's at the point now where it is fun to be home from school. The fact that I bought him a new Play Station game yesterday helped a lot, I think :). The kids from his class stopped by this afternoon with a big Get Well card they had made at school, and that lifted his spirits, too. They were all jealous of him - it was so boring at school!

Johan had a dentist appointment today. No cavities!! He thought everything was so exciting - he couldn't stop grinning from ear to ear. And then he got a prize when it was time to go. A little green plastic toy - he loves little crap like that. He was very happy.

Anders is on his way home from school now. Last summer, a family moved in next door who has two boys the same ages as Anders and Johan. Johan and the youngest boy, Sander, go in the same class, but they're not best friends. Anders and Sebastian don't go in the same class, but they are best friends. They have so much fun together. They both like being outside and building forts out of crap they find laying around. And riding their bikes around the neighborhood. I'm really happy for Anders to have such a good friend next door. Most of the boys in his class would rather be inside playing video games, and that's not really Anders' thing.

Day 2

Poor Pepperoni...His eyes are really hurting him. We just got back from a checkup at the hospital. They took off the bandage and checked his eyes. Everything looks okay, considering. Before this operation, he was seeing double of everything - two images which were above each other AND next to each other. This operation was to make it so that he doesn't see the images above each other, and it seems like it did the trick. They couldn't check all that much today, because it hurt so much. They still need to do another surgery, though, to make it so that he doesn't see the images next to each other. Espen started crying when they told him that. The first operation he had barely hurt at all, and none of us were expecting this one to be much either. It was much worse, though. I asked the doctor about it, and she said that they don't tell people that it is going to be much worse, because it often isn't. Plus, this was worse than they thought it would be, because one of the muscles they were operating on was much further back than it should have been, which meant that they had to move his eye around a bit to get to it (eeewww...). He is not in an abnormal amount of pain, though, and it will be getting better all the time. He has another appointment next week, and they'll do a more thorough check of his vision then.

Surgery's over

Espen's operation is over, and according to the surgeon, everything went really well. It hurt more this time, which is apparently quite normal. The first time is easy, but it gets worse each time. Espen is sleeping now on our bed, and tomorrow morning he has an appointment at the hospital again when they will take off the bandage. Seems like everything is okay, though.

Surgery today

Espen is having another operation on his eyes today. We're all pretty laid back about it since we know what to expect this time. Espen is looking forward to being home from school for a week :). I'll keep you posted about how the surgery goes. If you click on this picture and enlarge it, then you can see that Espen's left eye is looking off to the left instead of at the camera.

On their way to the ski hill

Not much time to write, but here's a picture of the boys in the car on the way to go downhill skiing last Friday. Anders and Johan tried it for the first time, and Espen renewed his love of it. Unfortunately, I forgot the camera in the car, so these are the only ones I have...

The day after Easter

Just when you thought I'd never post another entry to this blog...

I just turned in a paper - the last one for a while. Thing's have been pretty crazy around here, and I feel like I haven't had time to do much in front of the computer except for research and write. Hopefully, thinks will calm down now, though. I have finals coming up in about a month, but studying and writing are two different things...

It's Easter break here - no school!! We're leaving tomorrow morning for our cabin, and we're all pretty excited. The weather has been gorgeous lately - really warm and sunny here in Oslo. There's still quite a bit of snow up at our cabin, but the weather is nice up there, too, and it will be fun to do a last bit of skiing. We're taking our downhill stuff up, too, so we can do that at least one day.

Below is a picture of Anders and Johan when they were having a "clown show" for us a few weeks ago.

Live from York

Just a quick update - I'm writing this from York. I'm having a great time. It is beautiful here. Everyone you turn are beautiful old buildings. And so many great stores. They have the Gap and Borders, for example....

The apartment we rented is really nice. It's nicer than our house, actually, and in a great location. I'm so glad we decided to rent it. The people staying in the dorms are hating it.

The course that we're taking is fabulous. All of the professors are so good, and everything is so interesting.

And one last thing - the food here. I can get English muffins, and good sharp Cheddar cheese. And in the sandwich shop next to the school, they sell individual sized custard pies!

What a dad

I'm leaving for York in just a few hours, but I wanted to write one last blog praising my husband. It occurred to me today that if Gaute was leaving for 2 weeks and leaving me alone with the kids right now, I would be doing a lot of complaining. Especially considering the fact that we are responsible for planning a "European evening" for Espen's class on Tuesday. But Gaute has not said one word. If anyone has been complaining, it has been me, because I have so much to do before I leave.

Gaute is taking it all in stride, and I think he's looking forward to being alone with the kids for 2 weeks. This morning he changed Espen's sheets and discovered that the stitching was coming undone on his duvet. He then whipped out the sewing machine and fixed it. I've been looking at that stitching for a long time, without ever doing anything about it.

I'm looking forward to my trip. I am really going to miss everyone, but I am not worried about them. They're in good hands.

And the latest....

Espen had is 6 week checkup after his surgery. They confirmed what we had already noticed - that his eyes are worse now than they were one week after his surgery. His eyes don't point inwards anymore, but slightly outwards. And he's still seeing double. It's about the same degree as before his surgery, but the opposite. Before, he saw most double when looking down, now it's worse when he's looking up.

Once again, they're telling us that they don't understand why this is happening...

At this point, they don't see any immediate danger, so they want to just wait a while and see how it goes. He has a new appointment on December 18 with the head of the department. Hopefully, he'll figure out something. They still don't know what is causing this, though, which I don't like. Now Gaute and I are wondering if maybe they should do the MRI and all of those good tests again to see if anything new shows up. We'll wait to talk to the doctor in December, though.

The good news is that Espen is feeling great and doesn't really see what the problem is. He is managing just fine - he doesn't even realize that he often tilts his head backwards to see better. The opthamologist who saw him today mentioned first that he might need prism glasses and he was all ready with all of the reasons that this is not a problem for him. After testing him, she decided that the glasses wouldn't help, though, since his vision changes so much depending on which direction he looks in.

We'll see what happens...It would have been so nice if everything was fixed by that one operation...

Yorkshire

The day has nearly arrived for my big excursion to York, England. All of the students from my English class are going to be spending two weeks there, at the Norwegian Study Centre. During the last few weeks I have been dreading the trip more and more, mostly because I don't want to be away from the kids for that long, but also because I've had a lot going on with school, and have felt pretty overwhelmed. Yesterday I finished the last paper which was due before my trip, and finally felt like I could start thinking about going. And now I'm pretty excited.

Everyone who has been to York says that it is beautiful. It is, apparently, the second most visited city in England after London. I'm travelling with four women from my class who I have a lot of fun with. We're renting a car together, which means that I get to try out driving on the left side of the road :-O. We have also rented an apartment together - Click on Riversmead on the lefthandside of the page - that's where we're staying.

We're going to be there for two weeks with a car and an apartment. We can drive around and explore a bit of the countryside. We can also go to the grocery stores and buy food - I think that will be pretty fun. Not to mention hanging out at pubs. Our apartment has a washing machine, too - yea!

Yesterday I bought Wuthering Heights which I'm going to read again. I'm finally going to see the Yorkshire moors.

I'm going to miss my family, and I'm sure they'll miss me, too. My cell phone bill will undoubtedly be huge. But now I'm looking forward to, rather than dreading my trip!

Drama at Ullevål stadium

We went to a soccer game last night - Lyn vs. Brann. We got free tickets - again - really good ones! Brann, which is the team from Bergen, was in 2nd place in the series. They haven't won the series for something like 45 years, and it was looking like they might have a chance this year. Lyn has been pretty middle-of-the-road this year. Everyone thought Brann would win, even though they were playing on Lyn's home field. BUT - Lyn won!! They played really well, and Brann played really bad...And, the Brann fans couldn't deal with that, and started throwing garbage on the field. The police were there, and were worried that a fight would break out after the game, so they had all of the Lyn supporters stay in their seats an extra 15 minutes after the game so that the Brann supporters could leave. Those soccer fans from Bergen are known for getting a little too into the game....

We were there with all three of the kids. The game wasn't over until 10:00, and the kids thought it was pretty exciting, with police and garbage and having to stay in our seats. And they also thought it was really cool that Lyn won!! And, I did, too.

The saga of my hair

I just got back from the hairdressers. I was there last week, too, and had them color my hair. It had gotten pretty blonde due to multiple highlighting jobs. It was too light, and my roots were really starting to show. But last week she made it too dark. I didn't feel like me, and I couldn't get used to it.

Today I decided to go back to a different hairdresser (one I've used before and was happy with), and I had her put som lighter highlights in my hair. I'm pretty happy with it right now. What do you think?

The new steps

Gaute pointed out to me that I never published a picture of how the steps for our deck actually turned out. So, here they are....

First day of school

One thing that happened in August which was very exciting was that Johan started school. He was very excited, and he really likes it a lot! On the first day, all of the first graders meet up in front of the school, and the principal (far right) calls the kids names one by one, and they come up and shake hands with the principal, and then with their teacher. Johan's teacher is named Kikki - she's the one holding the sign that says D. He is in class 1D.




The first day only lasts for one hour, and the parents go into to the class with the kids. Gaute and I were so proud that Johan picked up the "raise your hand" thing right away. He's sitting next to his current best friend, Alexander.



Anders and Espen also had first days of school on August 21st. Espen started 6th grade, and Anders started 3rd grade. Now we have 3 kids at the same school!!

The latest

We had another appointment at the hospital yesterday, and they set a date for Espen's surgery - Monday, September 25th. They really want to do it as soon as possible, and actually moved another kid's surgery back a few weeks, so that Espen could take his spot.

Espen seems fairly calm about the whole thing, but I can see that he's a little freaked out. He makes some comments every now and then. He'll have to be out of school for a week (he doesn't have to stay at the hospital, though), but he doesn't want his teacher to tell the class that he's having surgery until the day of the surgery.

Cross-eyed Espen

I'm pretty sure that anyone reading this already knows what has been going on with Espen this summer/fall. We are so happy that they haven't found anything seriously wrong with him.

But - they are going to have to do something about his eyes. He is still seeing double all of the time, and his left eye is still going in toward his nose, although that varies a little bit. The latest - we were at the hospital yesterday - is that they are going to operate on his eye. The have to "slacken" some of the muscles attached to his eye so that his eye goes back to where it should be. It's outpatient surgery, so hopefully it won't be too big of a deal. The bad thing is that since they don't know why Espen's eyes started going cross-eyed, they think he might have to have more than one surgery. The doctor called today and said that they want him to come in on Monday for an appointment with the surgeon and several other doctors. They are going to make the final arrangements for the surgery, and we will find out more about what they are going to do. He is apparently quite an unusual case, so we've had lots of different doctors looking at him.

I'll keep you posted.

Finally...

So much has happened since I last wrote anything on this blog. I barely know where to start. I think I'll just start making lots of different blogs for different things. Follow along.

For now - here's a picture of the boys when we were doing some orienteering at the end of August.

Family values

So now we're in California. And we're not alone. Josh and Melanie and their kids are here, and my friend Erin is here, and Tess and Jahdiel are here. Plus the daytime visitors - Molly, Bubba, Granny. There are a lot of people here - and I feel bad for Mom who is hobbling around on her broken ankle. But - it is so nice to see everyone, and so nice to have everyone here at the same time.

That said, Erin and I are taking off today. We're goin' SHOPPIN'. It's nice to see everyone and all, but priorities must be made. And then tomorrow pretty much everyone except the old folks and the kids are going to the Oz Fest. (And, yes, Erin and I are among the old folks...) But still, it's nice to have the family gathered together...