Labor Day

Today there was no school. It was really nice last night to have no lunches to make. Making lunches for the kids doesn't take much time. This is Norway, so all they take are two open faces slices of bread with something on them. Anders and Johan almost always go for butter and brown cheese on one set for school and then butter and liver paste for the snack they eat at their afterschool program. This can vary at times, but not much. I had Espen start making his own lunches when he was in 5th grade and already have Anders geared up for doing it next year. Making lunches isn't the biggest deal, but still one more chore that has to be done. And I am so happy when I don't have to do it!



I've been working all day on my English term paper, and I now have 7 and a half pages which are fairly decent. And it's not due until May 9th. I'm pretty happy with that. We're having a workshop in class tomorrow (I have to go to school, even though the kids have the day off) about this paper, so hopefully I can get some more tips to make it even better. But then I need to start working on the portfolio I'm putting together for my Social Studies class. It's due on the 14th and needs a lot of work. Can't wait to be done with school - although the fact that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel with this English paper makes me feel much less stressed.

It's been rainy, yucky weather today. The kids have been hanging out with their friends, here and there. I wish it was nice weather so that everyone could be outside, but they have been very well-behaved. A few years, there is no way I would be able to work on a paper and have all of the kids and their friends in the house, but that is exactly what I have done today. That's a sign that they're all getting older, I guess.

I think Gaute and I are going to go out for dinner tonight. We rarely do - last time we were going to, we decided it would be too expensive and went to the grocery store instead :-(. It's nice to get out and share a meal without the kids, though. Espen, our official babysitter these days, readily agreed to watch his brothers. Espen is a fantastic babysitter. He really steps up when we need him to. The house is always clean and the little guys in bed when he has been watching them. He has even been known to read for Johan. We pay him about 10 dollars to watch them for a whole evening. Extremely cheap compare to what we would pay a "real" babysitter, but he's thrilled. We always let them buy some chips and Coke while we're gone, too, so Anders and Johan are quite happy, as well.

Not sure where we'll go tonight. Hopefully I won't be as nerdy as I usually am, spending hours online before we ever go out trying to find the most perfect place...

The new Coldplay single

The new single from Coldplay is available as a free download right now, if you're interested. Which I was. And it's good.

Our life

Officially, I've been writing a term paper today. And I have gotten a lot done. My method is setting my timer for 30 minutes, working like crazy, taking a 15 minute break, and then working for another 15 minutes. It works for me, and slowly but surely a paper is emerging.

But, during my breaks, I've been reading entries on a blog I just discovered recently. Another Salt Lake City mom who writes about her family. I check out these blogs every morning when I turn on my computer. And they inspire me to write more about my family. I want this blog to be something we can all look back on to remember how things were in April, 2008.

So,here's how things are today, April 30, 2008 -

It's about 5:30 in the evening. We haven't had dinner yet. We used to eat dinner pretty early when the kids were younger, but now we rarely sit down before 6, and usually it's closer to 6:30. Today we're going to have baked breaded cod fillets, homemade baked french fries and peas. A few years ago I had a subscription to Cooking Light and starting in January this year I decided to start using those magazines which I've saved and try to make all of the recipes in them for each month. I don't manage to make all of the recipes, but it's a fun way to try out new recipes. They're almost always good and relatively healthy. And the idea that I have to make recipes from this month's magazine appeals to the nerd in me.

Espen went to Gaute's parents after school today. For the last two years, he has gone over there every Wednesday and done some work for them. Things like vacuuming, taking all of their old newspapers to be recycled and stuff like that. They pay him about 10 dollars a week and make his favorite dinners for him. I think they both like the arrangement. They get to spend some time with him - unlike Anders and Johan he's not that in to going over there and hanging out anymore. Gaute and I are happy that he makes some money so we don't have to give him any :-).

Anders went to his afterschool football academy today. I went up and watched the last half hour. They have a really fun time. The boys in the 4th grade are a pretty tightknit group, especially the ones who are into football. He doesn't go to his regular afterschool program on Wednesdays and Thursdays when he has football academy, but comes straight home when school is over at 1:30. He changes into his football gear, grabs a water bottle and rides his bike up to the football field. We are so lucky to live so close to the school and to the football field, the two main focuses of the kids' lives!

This whole school year, Anders and Johan have been walking home together at 3:30, when they are finished with their afterschool program. I've had to pick Johan up the last few weeks when Anders has been at football academy, however. Today Johan really wanted to walk home alone, though, so we let him do it. He ended up walking home with our neighbor who goes in the same class, but he was really proud of himself. He even has his own key now.

Gaute's been working hard, as usual. He goes to work every day - he is officially a consultant for Guard Systems - he and another guy have made one of the tracking systems they use. But, Gaute being Gaute, he has many, many things he is working on on the side. If you look here, you'll find some of the stuff he works on in the evening. He spends a lot of time on all of that stuff, and although I do complain at times, I don't complain too much, because it's all starting to produce a pretty good extra income (did I mention that we're headed off for a week in Paris this summer?)

Well, dinner's almost done. Time to go down and set the table. Espen has football practice from 7 until 8:30, and then there's a very important Championship League game between Liverpool and Chelsea that I can't wait to watch.

And tomorrow and Friday there's no school - Labor Day weekend!!!!

Bergen

I just spent the last few minutes uploading pictures from our trip to Bergen onto my Facebook page. Facebook has a much better and faster system for uploading pictures than Blogger does, so I've decided to just post a link to my album there, rather than upload all of the pictures again (yes, I know that was a run-on sentence). So - here is the link.

We had a fun time. The weather was crappy, but it was really good to see Tori and Sindre and their families!

By the way, get a Facebook account, those of you who don't have one already!!

Off to Bergen tomorrow

Tomorrow we're taking the train to Bergen. Gaute's sister's son is being confirmed on Saturday. Confirmations are really big in Norway, and nearly all 14-15-year-olds are confirmed. Originally, the confirmations were religious, and a lot of them still are. For those who are not religious, the Norwegian Humanist Society also has confirmation ceremonies. As a type of right-of-passage into adulthood. This is the type of confirmation Sverre is going to have. His older sister, Runa, was confirmed two years ago. The weather during that trip was gorgeous, and we've had a week of really nice weather now, but it's supposed to rain all weekend...

The wedding

On Saturday, my stepbrother, Dan, got married! They have had a website set up for the wedding, and when I checked it this morning they had posted pictures from the wedding. I wish I could have been there. It looks like everyone had a really good time! And it made me feel really homesick for my family...My mom and my sisters - and my grandma - looked great! Can't wait to see you guys in about 8 weeks!!!

Party tonight

For the last few months, seven other moms and I have been planning a party. We've invited the parents of all of the 2nd graders at Korsvoll school. Some of us have been to a similar party for the 4th graders' parents, and it was a great party, so we decided to do the same thing for the 2nd graders.

We've rented the local sports hall (been to oh so many parties there), and have hired a catering firm to provide tapas. We've also hired a DJ who will playing classic hits from the 80's ;-). 92 people are coming to the party!! And it's a sunny, nice day -should be really fun!

Twenty hours working at McDonalds

I filled up my car with gas today, and it cost me $117 - yes, one hundred and seventeen dollars, not kroner. And it's not like I'm driving around in a big SUV or anything. I know that Americans are complaining a lot about how gas prices have really gone up lately, but they've gone up here, too, and until a gallon of gas costs NINE DOLLARS A GALLON, which is what I paid today, then I don't want to hear any more complaining.

Yesterday was a fun day! It was "Tourist in your own city" day, which meant that we could go down to the city hall and get a pass which gave us free admission to all museums in Oslo, plus free public transport. We wandered around downtown and went into a few museums. The kids don't get downtown very often, so they thought it was pretty cool. Then we walked over to the new opera house which just opened on Saturday. Yesterday it was open to the public and we got to walk around (and on) it. (That is not snow on the opera, by the way. It's made out of white marble.) It was incredibly expensive to build, but it is so cool!! You can walk all around on the roof and it goes straight down into the water. Here is a series of pictures of the opera, and here for pictures from the grand opening on Saturday.

Yesterday afternoon, Espen had another game, and he was captain once again! The weather was quite nice when the game began...


...but went downhill pretty fast.


But, the good news is that they won - 6-4! And Lyn won their game last night, too, and they are leading the series at the moment!

No words necessary

Low energy

I've been feeling pretty low on energy lately, and I think a lot of that has to do with the weather. We've had rainy, cloudy weather for weeks, and I'M GETTING REALLY SICK OF IT! I want nice spring weather!

And I want to be done with all of the papers that are due within the next few weeks. I'm severely lacking in motivation to get them done. I will be so happy to be done with school....

But, it's Friday! Tonight is homemade pizza night, and then good Friday night TV entertainment....

Lupine Hill Farm

My mom was inspired and is putting together a blog, too!

Lupine Hill Farm

Go, Mom!

Football nerd

Until my kids started playing football, I had never seen an entire game. And the first games they played when they were in first grade didn't exactly inspire me to become a fan. But something has happened the last 3-4 years. I love football.

Last night Liverpool played an important game in the quarter finals of the Champions League. It was such a great game, and they won, and I couldn't have been happier!

Heia Lyn

Lyn's first home game last night! It was about 35 degrees, raining and windy, but we put on warm clothes and showed up. And were so glad - it was a great game. They won - 3-1!

Looking ahead to the weekend

It's Thursday evening....I have a paper due on Monday, which I am trying as hard as I can to get done by tomorrow afternoon. I have lots of fun stuff planned for the weekend and sitting in front of the computer is not one of them.

Saturday night Gaute and I are going to a party. Should be a fun one - it's an annual party that we've been to several years in a row now.

Sunday night we have free tickets to the first home game that Lyn is playing this season.

Fun, fun weekend!

Downhill skiers

I've been so wrapped up in the whole job search this week, that everything else has been put on the back burner.

But, I felt I should publish these pictures from Easter vacation. On Saturday we went to the little ski hill 5 minutes from our cabin. They were having a race which anyone could take part in. Espen was a bit too cool, but Anders and Johan were into it. I forgot my camera at home, so these pictures are taken with the camera on my phone. Better than nothing, though. The weather was absolutely gorgeous that day, and we had a really good time!

I have a job!

I finally made a decision - I called the principal at Ekeberg school today and accepted his offer of a job there! They were the first school to offer me a job (and my first interview). In the meantime, I've been to interviews at 4 other schools and gotten one other official offer (and would most likely have gotten offers from the other schools as well). The school that offered me a job yesterday was a junior high. They wanted me to teach English and Norwegian. I had to really decide if I wanted to be at junior high or elementary school. And the fact that there is less grading at the elementary level (they don't get grades until 8th grade in Norway) was a big factor. What finally made me decide that this was the right place, however, was the fact that whenever I mentioned Ekeberg school, people were just going on and on about what a great school it was and how the teachers were all so nice. I decided that that is what matters more than anything else.

Ekeberg is an elementary school. At this point, they're not sure which grade(s) I will be teaching, but the principal said that they will have decided within the next month. I am so excited! I feel really good about having accepted this job. I know people who have worked as substitutes at the school and who have done their student teaching there and everyone really seems to like it.

And it is so nice not to have to think about it anymore!!!!

St. Patrick's Day

Yesterday was St. Patrick's Day - and we had green cupcakes!

This week is Easter vacation in Norway - no school for anyone. Gaute is working this week, but Thursday through Monday are national holidays here - all stores are closed and no one works. So, we're off Wednesday evening to our cabin. Lots of snow up there so we're going to get in some last skiing for the season.

Here in Oslo, it's not very wintry, though. Although it is pretty chilly (below freezing at night), we have no snow, and we took out the trampoline over the weekend. Which is always the best sign of spring around here!

Second-graders

Johan has had a loose front tooth for a while. After a lot of wiggling and pulling, it finally came out Friday night.

On Saturday, his best friend Alexander came over - and he was missing the same front tooth as Johan. The two of them looked so cute together!

More about jobs

Today I had another great job interview. I was very happy with this school, too. They were very interested in having me work there, although they couldn't officially offer me the job yet. Although they did let me know that if I got offered a job somewhere else, I should let them know, and they could probably arrange something...

And, what do you know, this afternoon I got a call from the principal at the first school where I had an interview on Tuesday, and they offered me a job! I was more surprised than anything else. I thought the interview went pretty well, but they didn't seem that enthusiastic. Plus, they had gotten 65 applications...But, now I have an official offer from that school. I'm pretty sure that I'd rather work at one of the schools I interviewed with yesterday and today, though. And next week is Easter vacation here. So, tomorrow I think I need to decide which of those schools I liked best and then call them and tell them the situation. If I'm not going to take the job, then I'd like to let the school know as soon as possible so that they can offer it to someone else. It's really exciting, but it's making it hard for me to concentrate on anything else!

And I have a paper due tomorrow that I haven't even started on. So, now it's time to get going on that...could be a long night!

Litt av hvert

Just a few things -

Korsvoll school had a dodgeball tournament for the oldest kids, and Anders' class made it to the final round yesterday - the first time a 4th grade class has ever made it to the final! They lost the game to the 7th graders they were playing against (not Espen's class), but it was extremely close. The 7th graders all came up to them afterwards and congratulated them and said they had played really well. And the 4th graders walked around with huge grins on their faces for the rest of the day!

On Tuesday, Lynus Club had a big kick-off since the Norwegian football season starts at the end of the month. The kids got pizza and they got to meet all of the players in this season's lineup. Big excitement! They made a video and put it up on their website. If you look carefully you can see Anders, Johan and me. Espen was their, too, but he was a bit too cool to be walking around with us.

I took Espen to the orthodontist today. Last time he was at the dentist, she recommended that we make an appointment for him with an orthodontist since his bite was a bit off on one side in the back. The orthodontist said that the problem was minimal, and that he might not need braces at all, but if he does it will only be on a few back teeth. Espen was very happy - I guess he thought that he was going to walk out of their today with a full set of braces on his teeth.

I had a great interview yesterday. I really liked the school a lot, and it seems like they really liked me. They said that they'll let me know either way on the 28th of March. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. But- I have another interview in a few minutes with another school which also seems really good, so we'll see what happens....

One interview down

I had my first job interview today. I think it was my first job interview ever, actually. All of the jobs I've had before have been jobs that I've gotten through other people.

I think it went pretty well. The interviewers were friendly and nice, and I got a good impression of the school through them. I wish I could have seen a bit of the school, though. They had allotted a half hour for the interview, and there was someone waiting to come in after me, so there was no chance to get shown a little bit around the school. They said they're going to make their decision in a couple of weeks, so we'll see what happens.

Yesterday I got two more phone calls from schools that want me to come in for interviews. One tomorrow, one on Thursday and then one the week after Easter. They all seem like good schools, so I'm pretty excited. After going to this interview today, I can't wait to go to more interviews.

Mini-cello concert

The Norwegian government has been sponsoring various cultural events for the schools the past few years - sending kids to concerts and theaters, as well as sending instructors to the schools. This winter, they've had music instructors for the first graders. They're learning how to play "mini-instruments" and then having concerts where they show off what they've learned. They only have two practices before the concert, and I think they did a great job. The kids think it is so much fun to play a real instrument, and they think it's extra cool that their parents come to the concert.

I took some videos, but it seems that Blogger is having some problems uploading them right now. I'll try to post them later.

Another interview...

I got up this morning and checked my e-mail, and there was a message from the principal of another school who wanted me to call him today and arrange a time for an interview. Yippee!

Football game

Here are some cool pictures from Espen's football game yesterday. His coach made him captain of the team!! And they won - 14-1...

Interview :-)

I just got a call from the principal at one of the schools I applied at - and he wants me to come in for an interview on Tuesday. He said they had gotten between 60-70 applications, but that they thought it was interesting that I had gone back to school as an "adult". With the first couple of jobs I applied for, I sent a cover letter which was less than impressive, but I got my act together and sent some great cover letters with the later applications. This school was one of the ones which had a good letter.

I'm so excited - and this gives me a lot of hope that I will be getting more phone calls soon...Most of the schools I've applied for don't have deadlines until the end of the month.

Now I need to read up on this school so I can say something smart at the interview!

Springish

It's 8:30 in the morning, and it's pretty cold right now (23 degrees F), but it's light out and the snow is pretty much all gone. Anders went to school with tennis shoes for the first time since November (although I don't think he realized how cold it was...), and Espen rode his bike to school for the first time since last fall.

It's not true spring yet - too cold for that - but it's so nice to wake up at 6:30 and have the sun shining!!

Searching for a job

I've started sending out some job applications now. I've applied to five schools here in Oslo that sound interesting, and then today I also sent a letter and my resume to a school nearby where I did my student teaching a few years ago. They haven't announced that they're looking for teachers, but I thought that it doesn't hurt to let them know I'm interested. I'll probably do the same thing for other schools that I'm particularly interested in.

A friend of mine who lives about an hour outside of Oslo applied for 9 schools in her school district. The application deadline was on Friday the 22nd, and today she got calls from 3 different schools who are interested in having her come in for an interview. Hopefully something similar will happen to me!!

I'm pretty much obsessed with this job thing, and I know I won't relax until I have a job!

Winter break

This week is a school vacation. Gaute had to work yesterday and today, but this evening we're heading up to the cabin. I only have classes every other day. I went to school yesterday, but I'm skipping Wednesday and Friday. I think I'll manage to pass my classes still ;-)

As I'm writing this, it's about 40 degrees here in Oslo and lightly raining. It sounds so nice to get up to real winter in the mountains!

Name Day

Today is my name day! In Norway, each day of the year is associated with a name, or a group of similar names. And today is the name day for Jill! In the newspaper here, they always have a little blurb about which name day it is, and interview someone with that name. That's about the extent of the excitement. From what I've heard, name days are actually celebrated in Sweden, but according to Wikipedia (my favorite website, by the way), a calendar company randomly assigned the most common Norwegian names to the different days of the year in 1988. So it's not exactly a tradition around here.

But, the interesting thing is that while I was searching around on the web now, I found a site that the Social Security administration has where you can check the popularity of various names, both now and in the past. I've know for a long time about a similar site in Norway, but I didn't realize that there was an American equivalent. I think names and statistics about names are fascinating for some reason, so I was pretty happy to find it. And, I checked the statistics for my name for the last 100 years and was quite surprised. Jill was relatively popular in the 20's but was used less and less often until it reached a low point right around, well, 1969. But, the interesting part is that the name has been gaining a lot of popularity lately and is now up to the same level it was in the 1920's. I actually know someone who named her baby Jill, but I kind of thought that was a fluke. Interesting to think that there are so many little baby Jills around. I've always really liked my name, and I hope they do, too!

Life and stuff

Student teaching is over...forever. Student teaching this year was definitely challenging, but now that I'm done, my overall impression is positive. For many different reasons, the school was difficult, but on the other hand, there were some fantastic students there who I will really miss. I made chocolate chip cookies which I took for them the last day, and they were going crazy - they'd never tasted anything so good. I had to promise to send them the recipe - which I did.

But now that student teaching is over (as well as the fun stomach flu that I had on Tuesday), it's time for me to start thinking seriously about applying for jobs. I've been dreading the process for a long while now, but once I got my act together, I'm realizing that it's not the most difficult process in the world. I've contacted two people who I can use as references and I've written my resume, so now I just need to figure out where I want to work.

At my college on Tuesday, representatives for various school districts on the outskirts of Oslo came and tried to recruit students to come and teach at their schools. It was kind of fun going around talking to them, because when I told them that I wanted to work at a middle school and what my background was, they were practically offering me a job on the spot. Some of the schools aren't far out of Oslo, and it really wouldn't take me more than 20 minutes to drive to them, but I think I'd rather be a bit closer to home (distances are small around here compared to say, California). We'll see, though. The schools in Oslo haven't actually posted any jobs yet. They wait a bit longer than the other school districts, probably because they can afford to. I talked to a friend of mine who is a teacher, though, and she said that practically every school will have at least one opening and that I should be able to pick and choose, so I think I'm going to play it cool for a while longer.

Yes, I still want to be a teacher

Today was much better than yesterday. It was actually a pretty good day - except for the last few hours, when things went downhill pretty quickly. I was actually done with my teaching for the day, but ended up going in and talking to them and trying to set things straight. Most of the kids are great, but the few who aren't are pretty bad and really ruin it. But, on the whole, a good day.

Do I really want to be a teacher?

I'm in the middle of student teaching right now, and it's crazy. The school is totally run down (scheduled to be torn down in a couple of years), and the kids are obviously not used to any form of discipline. I spent all weekend planning my teaching, and it didn't go very well yesterday. Actually, the actual teaching went pretty well, but it's just out of control during recess and between classes. I was so worn out when I got home last night!! I can't imagine this being my life every day. I'm really going to have to do some research before I apply to any schools and make sure that I find a place where I want to work.

And, now, it's off to school...

Taking over the school

This week I started student teaching again. We've had 6 weeks of student teaching every year, at different schools each year. For our final year, we are only going to have two weeks of student teaching, however. I have kind of mixed feelings about it - on the one hand, student teaching is a lot more "work" than being a student. Just the fact that we have to be at the school every day at 8 in the morning. On the other hand, I really enjoy student teaching and feel like it's where I've learned the most during the last 4 years I've been a college student.

What we're doing this year (we actually did it for 2 weeks last year, too) is having what they call a "school takeover". This week us college students are at the school, meeting the kids, getting to know the school and planning lessons. Then next week, all of the teachers as well as the principal and vice-principal are headed to a course in London, while we take over the school. For that week, we are responsible for everything that happens at the school, and we even have a specially appointed group to take over for the administration. It's actually a pretty cool form of student teaching.

But, it's tiring...

Crystal Anniversary

Gaute and I will be married 15 years on July 31st. FIFTEEN YEARS! Not bad, huh?

Doing a little crying last night...

Last night I watched Brokeback Mountain for the 6th time. I LOVE that movie. There aren't very movies that I look forward to watching for the 6th time, but I think could watch Brokeback Mountain twenty times and not get sick of it. It always makes me sob, but I love it.

And Heath Ledger is so fantastic in that movie...and now he's dead.

Friday afternoon

I just got back from a course held by the teacher's union, about applying for jobs and salaries and stuff like that. It was great - they answered a lot of the questions I've had about getting a job and gave some good tips. But it also kind of freaked me out...I am going to have to go out and apply for a job and go to interviews...

But, I don't have to worry about that this weekend! We're going to eat an early dinner (homemade Friday night pizza), and then we're taking off for the cabin for the weekend. Time to hunt down the snow!

Our pied-à-terre in Paris

I just got the confirmation - this cool apartment is where we will be staying in Paris. Scroll down to the bottom and click to see pictures of the actual apartment. The other pictures are from the building lobby.

The latest (and hopefully last) entry about Espen's eyes

Gaute and Espen were at the hospital for a checkup last week, and everything looked great. His one eye still has a tendency to wander every now and then, but he can correct it himself. They were very pleased with how things looked, and they don't want to see him anymore!! That is, I'm sure they'd like to see him again, but they don't need to. It is so nice to be done with that! And I'm pretty sure Espen is the happiest of all of us.

Real winter

This is what it should look like....

Bonjour!

So, I bought tickets to Paris...One of the discount airlines had cheap tickets available. We paid 3500 kroner (about $700) for the whole family. (That seems much cheaper in kroner than it does in dollars!) It's a really good deal! So we'll be there for a week at the end of July. And, as an added bonus, Gaute has discovered that the last leg of the Tour de France, in Paris, will be one of the days we are there! He was psyched, to put it mildly.

Finding a good deal on a hotel is proving more difficult. Rooms for 5 people are pretty much nonexistent. And getting two rooms is pretty expensive, as it's not exactly the cheapest city in the world. I'm thinking renting an apartment will be the best option. But how to know which property management places you can trust?? I'm sure I'll figure it out.

The most popular tourist destination in the world

Gaute is not going with us to the U.S. this summer. He only goes with us every other year, due to the fact that tickets are expensive and seeing my family is not as important to him as it is to me.

Because we're saving so much money on his ticket, we decided to take a family vacation with him after we get back from California. This morning while we ate breakfast, we had a vote to decide where we should go. Everyone named some places they'd like to go on vacation and then we each ranked them. The choices ranged from Legoland to New York, with a cluster of British cities (London, York, Liverpool (Espen's choice :-))). Paris came out the winner, however, so that's where we're going! I'm so excited!!

Winter Wonderland?

It's dark and raining and windy...Today on my way to school, a gust of wind came along and inverted by umbrella and destroyed it. This is not the winter weather I ordered!

Yes, I'm still alive....I just haven't been very motivated to blog lately. I had a really nice Christmas vacation and started back to school feeling full of energy. That lasted about one day. Then it was back to that good old stressed-out feeling. And I don't even have any papers due or anything right now. I just need to get back into a different rhythm - going to bed early and waking up early.

Other than me having tense shoulders, things are going very well here. Anders and Johan started a downhill skiing course that they go to with their afterschool program. It's once a week at one of the resorts here in Oslo.

Espen's football practice has started up again. It's twice a week now and they'll be up to three days a week starting February 1. The good thing is that he and his friends walk up to practice by themselves, so it doesn't disturb life for the rest of us.

Today, Anders and Johan and I went to the library to check out some new books. Although I'm a big fan of buying books, because I like to have them sitting there on my bookshelf, I know that it's also really fun to go the library and check out as many books as you want. Their school is having a big reading campaign right now, and they have to read for half an hour every day for homework, so they're really going through the books like crazy. Even Espen, the boy who "hates reading", has been reading. For Christmas, I gave him a biography of Lyn's coach, who used to play for Manchester United. He is really enjoying it, and I think it's renewing his interest in reading. Luckily, Anders and Johan love reading, so I don't have to try and come up with motivations for them.

We're taking the kids to see a movie in a few minutes - Enchanted. It looks like a fun movie, and they're excited. We don't get out much...

It's snowing like crazy today - Yea!

Action videos...

More fun from last week...

The video of Anders and Johan was taken the second time ever they were on downhill skis .

Romjul på hytta

As you can see below, we have been doing a lot of skiing the last week. Unlike Oslo, there was a lot of snow up at our cabin and great trails. It was so nice to be outside enjoying the winter. On New Year's Eve, it was sunny and about 25 degrees - the second two pictures are taken that day.

We're off to our cabin today. There's not enough snow in Oslo to go skiing, but apparently the mountains where our cabin is have gotten a lot. We're all excited about going skiing for the first time this year. And now everyone has downhill skis, too (well, Gaute has telemark skis), so we're going to do some downhill skiing as well as cross country.

The webcamera at our cabin has been having problems lately, but Gaute is going to fix it when we get up there today, so check back on http://langaas.net/nokia/nrc/glenna.php and you should be able to see what it looks like up there.

I wrote a lot about Christmas Eve, but I should say that Christmas Day was great, too. The kids stayed in bed until their official wake-up time of 7, and then we went down and opened the presents. Lots of good stuff - everyone was very pleased!! Santa brought a new flat screen TV for our new "rec room" in the basement, and Grandma and Grandpa Jim bought us a foosball game, so we are set now. The kids had a good place to set up the new Legos and Playmobil they got for Christmas, between playing with the Playstation and foosball game.

Kari and Grim came over about noon for a Christmas brunch, with buttermilk biscuits and bread and lots of good stuff. They stayed for a few hours, and the kids got to show them all of their new toys. The rest of the day was pretty relaxing - we were all pretty worn out!

And now we're off to the mountains. We'll stay there until January 2nd and celebrate New Year's up there like we have the last couple of years. New Year's Eve at our cabin is so nice. We eat fondue and the kids drink soda out of wine glasses. On New Year's Eve in Norway, people light fireworks, the cool kinds like bottle rockets and stuff like that. When it gets close to midnight, we can see that there are quite a few people up at their cabins, because the sky starts lighting up with fireworks - it's really cool!

Pictures from the 24th

Skating

Yesterday was one of the most beautiful winter days ever. We still had frost coating everything, it had snowed a little bit the night before, and the sun was shining.

We went ice skating on Sognsvann, a lake about 5 minutes from our house....

Christmas Eve

It's the morning of Christmas Eve. As usual, I'm up early, since sleeping in seems to be a thing of the past for me.

I just made my daily list of things to do, and, thankfully, it's not long. I've already made lots of the yummy stuff that we eat at Christmas - gingerbread cookies, candy cane cookies, pretzel cookies, Mexican wedding cookies (my absolute favorites!!), English toffee and fudge. I need to make the Rice Krispie treats, vacuum and wash the floors. I also have to make a quick trip to the mall with Espen, since he hasn't gotten gifts from more friends than he was counting on and has to buy a few more things. He and his friends are pretty in to getting each other things, but luckily that trend hasn't reached the 4th or 2nd grades. Although, he's paying for these gifts with his own money, so I shouldn't complain.

Today is the official Christmas day in Norway, but it doesn't start until the afternoon. It's acually a regular work day until 12:00. Gaute won't be going in, though, and most people who have somewhat flexible hours don't work today. Most people take the whole next week off. The week between Christmas and New Year's actually has its own name in Norway - Romjul. Both the 25th and 26th are official holidays. We're heading up to our cabin on Thursday and will be probably be there until January 2nd.

Today will be the same procedure as last year, and as every year. This afternoon, we will put on our party clothes and at 3:00, we're off to church. I am quite the hypocrite, I know. It's fun to go to church in Norway on Christmas Eve, though. They have three services, at 1:30, 3:00 and 4:30. Each neighborhood has its own local church - Norwegian Lutheran Church, the state religion. The church is packed on Christmas Eve with all of our neighbors, everyone all dressed-up. The service consists mostly of everyone singing Christmas carols, and it's a nice start to Christmas Eve.

After that, we will go up to Kari and Grim's (Gaute's parents), where dinner will be almost finished. Grim will take us down to the basement where we will be served glogg (a type of spiced cider, with and without wine) and gingerbread cookies. Then, it's back upstairs again for the special ribs most Norwegians eat for Christmas, as well as Christmas meat balls and sausages, accompanied by homemade sauerkraut, boiled potatoes and the BEST brown gravy, ever. I'm not a huge carnivore, so I usually eat lots of gravy with potatoes and sauerkraut. And the rice cream which is served for dessert. There's always a scalded almond in the rice cream, and whoever gets that gets a marzipan pig. Last year, Johan won! And he was happy, because, like Anders and me, he thinks marzipan is manna from heaven.

After that, it's time to start opening some presents. While Christmas Eve IS Christmas in Norway, the 25th is still the REAL Christmas in our family. So, on Christmas Eve, we just open the gifts from Gaute's family, and none of the presents that we have given each other. Also, the Norwegian Santa Claus, julenissen, stops by with some gifts for the kids. Unlike Santa Claus, julenisse shows up at the door with a sack of presents and personally passes out the presents to the kids. For some reason, the kids think julenissen, although he is wearing a mask, looks a lot like Grim. Not that they want him to stop showing up, though. The American Santa Claus, though, who comes at night, is real, according to Anders and Johan. Espen is no longer a true believer, however.

In between opening gifts and greeting julenissen, we eat a large number of the delicious cookies that Kari has made. Full is not an adequate description of how I feel by the end of the evening.

At around 10 or so, we head back home, so that the kids can get in bed before Santa shows up. Everyone opens their official X-mas eve packages. Pajamas every year, but exciting nonetheless. Then the kids hang up their stockings and arrange a platter of cookies for Santa (with a carrot for the reindeer). And, as they say, the rest is history....

Summer vacation, part 2

After a night in Spokane (and a great dinner at the food court at the mall (hey, it was great, really - they had a Taco Time)), we drove into Montana and down to the lovely town of West Yellowstone. We considered for a long time camping in the park, or in Grand Teton, but decided that it would be too complicated since we would be flying over from Norway, and we wouldn't really be able to take any camping gear with us. I had been in West Yellowstone as a kid and remembered it as a kind of charming little western town. So much for childhood memories... The town itself wasn't so bad, but the people staying there were pretty scary. It seems that West Yellowstone is the town to stay in if you want to go to Yellowstone, but you can't camp because they don't make a sleeping bag big enough for you.

The kids loved the never-ending supply of powdered sugar donuts at the motel breakfast, though.

We got into town in the late afternoon, and one of the first things we saw was that there was going to be a rodeo just out of town that same evening. Yee-haw! Taking the kids to a rodeo was one of my goals for this trip. It was just a little local rodeo, but the rodeo clown was pretty funny, and we had a fun time.

Summer vacation, part 1

I never got around to publishing my pictures from our summer vacation. I was looking through them recently with Anders and Johan, and we were talking about what an incredibly wonderful vacation we had. So now I'm going to try to get some of the pictures out there.

We flew into Seattle and spent the first night at a not-so-great motel, but we were so tired, that the condition of our hotel was absolutely not an issue. The next day, we got up and drove into downtown Seattle where we paid a lot of money to go up to the top of the Space Needle. It was worth it, of course. The Space Needle was pretty exciting for the kids, especially since it's a Seattle landmark that they see on TV a lot.

From there, we plotted a westward course. We were on a road trip, so we stopped at all of the cool places along the way.



The kids saw their first petrified trees.










Just across the river (the Columbia) from the petrified forest were these really cool metal horses.

Can you hide anything in your shoes that you cannot hide in your underwear?

Hmmmm, what a shock! A new report shows that there is no proof that all of the security measures that airline passengers have to go through make flying any safer.

But surely there's a reason I have to put my lip gloss in a ziploc bag...

Last Day of School

Today is the kids' last day of school before Christmas. They have two weeks of vacation - they start back again on January 3rd. They were pretty hyper this morning!

I took the boys to the mall last night so they could buy gifts for each other and for Gaute. I won't give anything away by saying what they bought, but I can say that they did a good job. I don't think anyone will be disappointed Christmas morning.

Winter Wonderland

A week of:

temperatures around 13 - 14 degrees Fahrenheit

+

relatively high humidity

=

Wasting time with a good conscience

http://www.freerice.com/index.php

More fun than a barrel of monkeys

This was just so much fun that I had to make one more, this time with me and Gaute...

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1534042112

Elfed

The Langaas boys bringing you some Christmas cheer....

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1516118336

Thanks, Midori, for sending me this link....

The birthday boy unwrapping his presents

And the big brothers wishing that they were getting some presents, too...

O Tannenbaum, o tannenbaum

We put up our tree yesterday. We like to wait until after Johan's birthday, because a decorated tree with presents under it isn't the best thing to have in your living room when you're having a birthday party for a 7-year-old. Also, the tradition in Norway is to put up your tree late - the 23rd is the traditional day (that day even has its own name in Norway - Little Christmas Eve) - and then leave it up until January 13th. So people think we're pretty strange for putting our tree up so early. Not to mention the fact that we have presents sitting under the tree. No one can understand why the kids don't just rip into the gifts and start opening them. Which says a lot about Norwegian kids....

While we were decorating our tree yesterday, Anders made a comment about how our tree always looks "kind of strange" when we get the decorations up. Norwegians don't use many decorations on their trees either. Gaute's parents are considering having nothing but lights on their tree this year, for example. Our tree, on the other hand, is covered with all kinds of different decorations which I have been collecting since I was a little girl. My mom has given me a decoration every year, and has done the same thing for the kids (which is good, since there aren't many good tree decorations in Norway). And, of course, the kids have made many decorations at school through the years which also go up on the tree. But, as we told Anders yesterday, that's the way our tree is. His childhood memories of Christmas will include the tree covered with all kinds of decorations, each one bringing back a special memory.

And we all agreed that the tree looked quite nice....

Phew....

Johan's 7th birthday party just ended. Twelve 7-year old boys....it was lively....The great thing was that now that we have the basement for ourselves, we had a place to put them! We had the legos and Playmobil down there, as well as a CD player. They had a dance contest to Radio/Video by System of a Down - and it was really fun!

But now, it's Friday night, the party is over, and it's the weekend....

My friend, the Nobel Peace Prize winner

As I mentioned in an earlier entry, we celebrated Thanksgiving at my friend Karen's house on Saturday. Karen is a geography professor here at the University of Oslo. That I knew. I also knew that she does a lot of research on climate change. But I did not realize that she is a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and one of the lead authors of the report they issued this year. You know, the IPCC, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore.... Albeit, the report had many authors and the IPCC has thousands of members, but she has still played a part in winning this prize. And she is considered one of the winners! Just had to brag a little bit about her...

We had a great time at her house on Saturday night, also. Karen is a great cook, as are all of my other friends who brought yummy things with them. I literally haven't felt so full in years. Couldn't even finish my pumpkin pie!

Christmas programs

Anders and Johan had their Christmas programs this week. Anders' was on Thursday evening. The 4th graders had a great reenactment of the Titanic disaster. It was really impressive - they've been practicing for several months, and it showed.




Johan's school program was a more traditional one where the 2nd graders sang Christmas songs and did some little dances. It was in the morning when school started, and I couldn't be there since I had an exam that started at 9:00. Gaute was there, though, and took pictures!

Final tomorrow

I have a 6-hour English final tomorrow - yikes! Everytime I mention that I have a test in English or a paper due, I get comments like "Oh, that must be easy for you, since it's English". I realize that's true, and I don't have to think so much about the actual language when I'm writing. But I still have to know what I'm writing about! So, basically, the moral of this little story is that I hope I get a good grade on this final, but I don't want it to be taken for granted....

Tonight Anders and the rest of the 4th-graders are performing a musical about the Titanic which they've been working on for the last several months. The 4th-graders last year performed the same play, and I hear it was great. And this year they've added more, so it should be really fun. I'll try to take lots of pictures to post here.

On Saturday we're celebrating Thanksgiving. Since it's not a holiday here, it doesn't seem so strange to be celebrating it so late. I have a group of 4 American friends who are all married to Norwegian men (actually, Janine's husband is British) and we each have 3 kids roughly the same age. We've started celebrating Thanksgiving together the last few years, and it's really a lot of fun. This year we'll be at Karen's house, and all together there will be 9 adults and 15 children!