Stomach flu and a bit more

We were supposed to leave for the cabin today, but Johan has the stomach flu, so the trip has been postponed. Poor little guy - he's asleep on the sofa right now. Hopefully this will be a short term thing, and he'll be feeling better by tomorrow. Tomorrow is Gaute's birthday, and I know that he'd like to spend it at the cabin!

This morning, Anders, Gaute and I headed down to the American embassy to get Anders' passport renewed. We got there right when they opened at 9, so everything went quite smoothly and quickly. In 3 weeks, we should be getting the new passport in the mail. While we were at the embassy, I realized that the stamp I need to get in my passport every two years to prove that I am allowed to live in Norway was going to expire in a few months. So, we decided to stop by the office where I need to get a new stamp. It's always really crazy there, but I would prefer not to take time off work to get it done. We walked in and took a number - we were number 127 and they had gotten to number 54! So, two hours later, they finally got to me, and spent 5 minutes putting a new stamp in my passport... It is the most frustrating, annoying thing!! Always a super long line of people, no matter when you go there!

After that, it was off to the next item on our agenda for the day - signing the contract for the new apartment we bought! I don't think I ever wrote about it on my blog, but last fall we bought a studio apartment nearby as an investment. We have been renting it out and making a bit on it. Gaute has now been really bitten by the real estate mogul bug, so he's been on the lookout for another apartment to invest in, and he finally found a good one. It's a one bedroom, brand new (actually not finished yet) apartment, also within walking distance of our house. It's really nice, with the living room a wall of windows. The price was reduced as we are going to have to paint it and set in the kitchen ourselves, but it will be a good money maker. And we also have in the back of our minds, that our kids might want a place to live when they move out sometime in the future. The pictures below are from the brochure - the apartment we bought isn't furnished, but it has the exact same floorplan as this one.

The apartment is in the tall building in the middle of the picture. Great location, as you can see. That's a big lake on the left hand side, and there are ski tracks starting right next to the building. We live about a 10-15 minute walk away.


This is a drawing of what it will look like - it's close but not quite done yet.


Looking from the kitchen into the entry and bathroom.


The kitchen (with a loft above it which can be used for sleeping or storage)




Looking from the living room towards the kitchen




Looking out towards the balcony. One of the windows is actually a sliding glass door.


The bedroom - it's a tight squeeze, but there are sliding doors into the living room on each side of the bed, so you don't have to climb over each other to get in and out of bed.




The bathroom






The only bad thing about this apartment, is that it is so nice compared to our house, that I wish we were moving in to it ourselves. Would be a tight squeeze for a family of 5, though!!

Cruise pictures - day two (and one from day three)

The view from our cabin at 8 in the morning


Breakfast with an incredible view


Now and then it was nice to take a little break back at the cabin


The sun was in their eyes, but you get the idea...this is Kiel, Germany


The harbor area - our ship is on the right hand side


Yippee!!! They had vanilla Coke in Germany!


The weather was so nice in Kiel compared to what it had been in Oslo when we left (that's our ship, Color Magic, in the background)


Waiting to see the show the second night - this time we got the fancy drinks :^)


All settled in for the night


Back in Norway again the next day - an icy fjord...

The cruise pictures - day one

We got back today from our cruise. It was great! We had such a good time!! Everything was really nice on board - and family-friendly... The boys each had their own key card and they just wandered around the boat, riding up and down the 8 glass elevators (along with all of the other kids on board). They had a different show in the lounge each night, and they were great - lots of great singing and dancing. There's was also an indoor pool with a slide and a "river" and "waterfall". The cabin was very nice, the food was very good, the tax-free shops on board were okay, and Kiel was so-so. That's the short version of our trip since I have to finish getting ready for our next venture. We're headed up to our cabin for the last part of this winter vacation week, and I still have a few things to get done. Before we leave tomorrow, we have to make a trip to the American embassy to get a new passport for Anders, too. He doesn't need it until this summer, but the Americans require both parents to be present, and the embassy is only open between 9-12. If we don't do it during vacation, we have to take time off of work and take Anders out of school to get it done!

Here are some pics from our trip:

Waiting to board the ship


Our cabin


Not the greatest weather in Oslo when we left - snowy, windy and COLD!


Not too cold to go out on deck and look around, though.


This is the TV in our cabin. We could also see a map - or watch Norwegian TV channels.


Anders' bed flipped down from the ceiling - very cool!


Dinnertime


Waiting for the show in the lounge the first night.

Cruise

Today is the day - we're headed off on our cruise on Color Magic. The kids are so excited they can hardly stand it. The ship leaves Oslo at 2 pm - it's 9.45 right now and they keep asking if we can leave now. Since it only takes about an hour to get to the boat using public transportation, I'm trying to explain to them that we can probably wait here for at least another hour. No reason to get there 4 hours before it leaves, since we can't actually go onboard until an hour before it leaves.

I'm taking my camera, so I'm sure I'll have lots of pictures to post when we get back. And I'm sure the boys will have a great time!!

Happy Valentine's Day

Yes, it's Valentine's day. But, even more importantly, it's the first day of winter vacation. All of the schools have a week's vacation, and since I am a teacher, then I get a week's vacation, too. Not a bad deal! I feel like Christmas vacation just ended, actually, so it's hard to believe that we have another vacation already. And not so many weeks until Easter vacation, either...

The weather is absolutely gorgeous, cold and sunny with lots of snow. Anders and Gaute went out skiing, but the other boys and I have been hanging out here at the house. Espen has a football game (indoor) this afternoon, and Johan has a friend over. I've been catching up on my netsurfing and making various Valentine's treats. So nice to have some spare time. The weather is supposed to be just as nice tomorrow, so I think we'll all head out for a long cross country ski trip tomorrow. Grim and Kari have invited us to dinner, so I won't even have to think about making dinner when we get home!

On Monday the boys and I are headed to Germany on the "cruise" ship. We're all pretty excited, but Anders and Johan are especially excited. Hope they're not disappointed...

Up early

I woke up way too early this morning - about 4 am. Instead of just lying in bed, I decided to get up and get going. It's now 4:30 and I feel pretty good - showered and dressed and ready to meet the day. I have a lot of little projects that need to get done at home and at school, and I think that's what woke me (and kept me up) this morning, so I figured it was just as well to get going on the day.

Espen and I had a great time in London. The trip was what it hoped I would be - a bonding experience for Espen and me. The tour of Wembley on Saturday was great - 90 minutes of heaven for Espen. After that we did a bit of shopping. We stopped first at a department store, Debenhams, where we picked up 2 pair of Levis and a swimsuit for Espen. He is growing out of his clothes like crazy, and they now have swimming in gym class once a week. He told me that his swimsuit had shrunk, but I'm pretty sure that he has grown ;-) We also stopped by two of my favorite shops, Monsoon and the Gap, where I also got some jeans and a sweater. Then Espen's quest for the perfect speakers began. He has been talking constantly about getting new speakers that he can hook up to his laptop - preferrably with a subwoofer (he's very into subwoofers these days). So we searched London high and low for some good speakers that he could afford and that he could fit into his (small) suitcase. (Things like that are about 30% cheaper in London.) Finally, we found some - yippee!!

By that time we were both pretty worn out, so we headed back to the hotel. Espen tested out his new speakers with his iPod (incredibly good, sooo much better than the old ones. That subwoofer was just incredible....hehehe.) After a short rest, we walked over to the London Eye. We got our tickets and waited in line. When we got to the security check (there's always a security check...), one of the security guys saw the Liverpool hat Espen had glued to his head and gave him a high five and said something like "Liverpool, cool...". Then he said that since Espen was a Liverpool fan, we could go directly into the Fastrak lane. Espen had a pretty big smile on his face at that point.


After seeing the lights of London from up high, we walked back to the Pizza Express restaurant right behind our hotel. Yummy Italian style pizza and tiramisu for dessert.

On Sunday, we slept in a little bit more, but still got up pretty early by Espen's standards. We went downstairs and had a nice breakfast at the hotel, where Espen got a cup of the world's best hot chocolate for the second morning in a row. Then we headed out to get on the a double decker hop on/hop off sightseeing bus. I thought it would be good for him to see some of the sights, and since we didn't have too much time that would be a good way to do it. In hindsight, it wasn't such a great idea. Hop on/hop off is great if you're planning on hopping on and off, but if you just want to get a guided tour, then it's annoying to have the bus stopping all of the time. We would have been better off just picking something we wanted to do and spending some time there. But, whatever, Espen got to see the sights.

Espen was dying to get to the airport early because he had heard that the new terminal 5 there had so much great shopping. So, after the bus tour, we checked out of our hotel, took a cab to Paddington Station and took the Heathrow Express train to the airport. We got there 3 hours before our plane was to leave, and Espen realized that he wasn't actually all that interested in the stores at the airport - he rarely buys anything from Prada or Chanel or any of the designers... But, he did manage to spend his last pounds on some new headphones for his iPod and we managed to spend some money on food, so all was not lost.

We were tired when we got home, but we had a great time!


Aaahhh, Wembley Stadium...





In the English national team's dressing room, in front of Steven Gerrard's jersey (Liverpool's captain)


A cool pic Espen took of the London Eye

In London on Mom's birthday

This title makes it sound like my mom is with me, but, unfortunately, she's not. Maybe next time....We're thinking about Mom, though.

Espen is with me - and I think it's so far so good as far as he is concerned. We haven't done much more than take the train and tube from the airport to the hotel, but he thinks the hotel is pretty cool. I used my favorite website TripAdvisor to find a great hotel. Relatively inexpensive by London standards, 10 minute walk to Big Ben and the London Eye, and an iMac in each room. The room is nice, new, modern and clean and perfect for Espen and me. We got to the hotel so late last night that we decided to eat at the hotel lounge instead of going out. It was this hip, modern place with low sofas and cool lighting. Espen's face really lit up when he saw that they had Bose speakers. :-D

Today we're off to Wembley Stadium for a guided tour. We have a tour reserved for 10 am, and it takes about 45 minutes to get there, so I booked a 7 am wake up call to be sure we wouldn't be rushed and had time for breakfast. I woke up this morning and looked at my iPhone and saw that it was 7:05 and got pretty annoyed with the hotel since they didn't wake us. But - I got up and took a shower and put on makeup and everything and went back into to the room to wake Espen. That's when I realized that I forgot to change the time on my iPhone. It was still on Oslo time which is an hour ahead...So, Espen gets to sleep for an extra hour, and I'm sitting here on the computer waiting for my 7 am wake up call.

London tomorrow...

Tomorrow Espen and I are headed off to London...hopefully. They have been getting a lot of snow there, and I just checked the weather forecast, and it's calling for 8 inches of snow tomorrow, and they're expecting snow on Saturday, too. I have nothing against snow, but I'm not such a big fan of it in London. Lots of snow tomorrow means that there is a good chance that our flight will be cancelled or delayed tomorrow afternoon...And regardless, it's not so much fun walking around town in the snow. But - I'm sure it will work out okay. We'll have a good time regardless, right?

Snow in London

Just our luck - London has been hit by a snowstorm and apparently it's chaos there - cancelled flights and slippery streets. According to the paper this morning, it's supposed to get worse before it gets better. I HOPE everything is back to normal again by Friday!

Monday evening

Tonight is quite å rarity - nothing going on! No football practice or ski team or parents' meetings. Just an evening to hang out. Gaute and Johan and I are in the living room. Johan's doing his math homework, Gaute's reading the newspaper, and I'm pecking away at my iPhone. Anders and Espen are playing FIFA 09 on the Playstation 3. We had spaghetti, salad and garlic bread for dinner - a perennial favorite. Life is good right now :-)

Back in the saddle

I really want to try to start updating my blog again. It's fun to keep everyone else informed about what's going on around here, but, even more important, it's nice to have as a journal of our life. It's so much fun looking back at the pictures and reading about what we've done. So - here's to a fresh start!

I've spent the last few hours online, making reservations for our trip to the states this summer. We're going to California first, then heading over to Salt Lake, then Zion's and Bryce, before we finally make it down to San Diego. It's always such a relief to finally make up my mind for which dates and which flights are best and then make the reservation! This year, the kids and I are flying into San Francisco on the 23rd of June, a few days after the last day of school. Gaute will join us in Foresthill on July 2nd (just in time for Granny's fun 3rd of July party). Then sometime around the middle of July (not quite sure of the dates) we'll head out to Utah and then down to San Diego where we'll spend about 4 days before flying back home on the July 31. Should be a fun trip - we're all so excited!! It always amazes Gaute and me how excited the kids are for our trips to California. They talk about it all year long - definitely the highlight of their year!!

I also bought tickets today for a little mini-cruise to Kiel, Germany for February 16th. They have a relatively new car ferry which is basically like a cruise ship which travels between Oslo and Kiel, and the kids (and their mom ;-)) have been wanting to take a trip. Prices were pretty low right now, so I made a reservation for the week of winter vacation. Gaute has to work, so it will just be me and the kids, which is probably just as well, as I don't think it's exactly Gaute's dream vacation. We leave on Monday at two in the afternoon and arrive in Kiel at 10 the next morning. Then we have 4 hours to wander around there before we leave for Oslo again, arriving home at 10 in the morning on Wednesday. The kids cannot wait!!

This Friday, Espen and I are headed to London (love that travelling...). Just a little weekend trip, from Friday evening until Sunday evening, but I think we'll have a fun time. I've booked a guided tour of Wembley Stadium, where the English national soccer team plays their games, and he's pretty psyched about that...

Hmmm, when I read what I've written, it's nothing more than a list of all of the trips I'm going on. But I guess that's what's on my mind right now... Still have one more reservation to make soon - tickets to California at the end of September for Tess' wedding...

Now, it's 4 o'clock on Sunday evening, and I haven't even thought about what to make for dinner...Time to get started on that! (And only an hour until an important soccer game - Liverpool vs. Chelsea...)

Merry Christmas!

Christmas is over - in fact 2008 is almost over. It's hard to believe how long a year lasted when I was a kid. Now I blink my eyes and then it's over. We've had a nice Christmas. Santa was very nice to everyone (I'm writing this on my new iPhone). The kids got stuff they needed, like skis and long underwear, and stuff they wanted, like a new Playstation 3.

For the next week or so, they'll be using the outdoorsy stuff more than the electronic stuff, because we're headed up to our NO PC/NO PLAYSTATION zone - the cabin. I can't wait. we'll be up there for about a week and when we're up there we really relax. And I love our New Year's Eve tradition of eating fondue by candlelight when it's cold and snowy outside.

Some pictures I finally uploaded to the computer

I haven't been taking many pictures this fall (see earlier blog entries for an explanation of this...), but I finally got around to uploading the pictures I did take. These ones are from the beginning of September, at a lake not far from our house. Every year they have what they call "Outdoor Day", where all kinds of different organizations having to do with outdoor activities show up and let kids take part in their stuff. And it's all free. So they have a free climbing wall, free kayaks and canoes to borrow, a short orienteering race, and lots of other info. and activities. Oh, and a free breakfast (bread and different kinds of spreads) as well as having bonfires set up with free hot dogs to grill as well as "cowboy coffee". It's really fun, and we've been going there ever since they started about 5 or 6 years ago. More and more people are finding out about it, and it gets more crowded every year. This year, the weather was pretty bad, and we got their early, so we had the place to our selves. We stayed for about an hour, and then we rode our bikes from there into the forest. It was a nice day - even if it was freezing cold!

Obama

I don't have time to write much, but I just have to write a few lines about how happy I am that Obama won the election. I was really getting nervous the last few days, afraid that McCain would end up pulling it off in the end.

It was night here in Norway when they were tallying up the votes, and by the time they finally called a winner, it was about 4 or 5 in the morning here. I didn't stay up - but the amazing thing is that a lot of people in Norway did! I don't think most Americans really realize how interested and concerned people in other countries are about who is president of the United States. The decisions Americans make at the voting booths have huge impacts on the lives of people all over the world. People are so fed up with George Bush, that the thought that American's could actually vote for a candidate from the same party as him was unthinkable. I'm not sure if I would have been able to show my face at work today if Obama hadn't won.

But - he did win! And all day long, people have been coming up to me and congratulating me and giving me hugs. One woman I work with was going to buy a bottle of champagne on her way home from work and celebrate Obama's victory with her family. My little 2nd graders were coming up to me this morning and telling me that they knew that the U.S. was going to have a new president. This is really big stuff around here, too!!!!

Espen - the working man

On Thursday, junior high and high school students in Norway got some work experience and made some money for a good cause at the same time. It was Operation Dayswork, and they were making money to help poor kids in Bangladesh. Everyone had to find a job for the day where they could make at least 200 kroner (about 30 dollars). Some kids took the easy way out and worked for their parents, but Espen and two of his friends went to a hotel not far from our house and asked if they could work there for the day. They said yes (apparently they've had students from Espen's school there before) and told them to show up at 9:30 in the morning wearing black dress pants and shoes and an "ironable" shirt. Espen was pretty excited, and we went out and bought him some new clothes to wear.

He and his friends worked hard all day, changing sheets and moving boxes around and stuff like that. They got free breakfast and lunch and made money for the project, and they couldn't have been more pleased when they got home. We were proud of them!

Organic

The doorbell just rang, and when I opened the door it was the delivery man with my weekly basket of organic fruits and vegetables. About a month ago, I started subscribing and now I get a new batch of in-season fruits and vegetables every week. I love it!! I always have a good, fresh variety in the house, and plan meals based upon what they deliver each week. And sometimes they deliver stuff I wouldn't normally buy, but that's fun, too. A few weeks ago, the basket included five beets, something which I never buy. But I found a great recipe for a beet soup - and I had enough left over for my lunch the next day. It's so exciting each week to see what I get. Today it was clementines, apples, bananas, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, leeks, potatoes, cucumbers and tomatoes. Lots of yummy stuff!

October

I don't really even want to check to see how long it's been since I last posted on this blog, but I know it's been way too long. Ever since school started in August, my life has been turned completely upside down and finding time to sit down and write in front of the computer has been hard.

Things are calming down a bit now, though. During these last couple of weeks, I've actually started feeling like I might have a life again. It's just a busier life than I was used to.

Work has been going really well lately. It's taking time to figure out how things work and how I want my role as a teacher to be, but I'm starting to feel like a "real" teacher these days, which is definitely a good sign! We had a party at work last night to inaugurate out new teacher's lounge. It was a lot of fun. We had a music quiz, and my team won by a huge margin, so I was pretty psyched about that. Nothing like winning!!

Gaute has still been travelling a lot. He was in Germany all this week and in London the week before. It's been tough, for him and for the rest of us, to have him gone so much, and it feels kind of luxurious to have him back again. He'll be here all of next week, which will be really nice.

The boys are doing really well. Football season is over for Anders and Johan, and now they've started cross-country ski team. No, we don't have snow yet, but they have dry-land training for now. They both really like it a lot - lots of their friends are there, too.

Espen's official football season is over, but they still have practice three evenings a week. He's gotten to be a really good footballer, and has been voted MVP several times.

I haven't taken any pictures for ever, either, but I'm going to try to get back on track...But for now, it's Saturday, the one day I have for shopping, so I'm off to buy some paint so that we have it here for the day we finally decide to paint the living room.