October 30th

Tomorrow is Halloween - the big day...

We just finished carving the pumpkin, the seeds are sitting in a bowl soaking, waiting to be roasted and salted tomorrow.

Anders and Johan have their costumes ready to go (an alligator (Johan), and a guy dressed in black with blood all over his face (Anders)). They've each arranged with friends who they can go trick-or-treating with.

Espen is passing on trick-or-treating this year. In addition to the fact that he is way-to-cool for it, he has football practice tomorrow night. I'm going to make sure I have some candy saved for him when he gets home, though.

TGIF

It's Friday afternoon! And we're going to a party tomorrow night. Some of the parents are arranging a party for the parents of all of the kids who are in 4th grade. More than 70 people will be there. They had the party last year, too, and it was really fun. They rent the football clubhouse which is just up the street, everyone takes food with them, and they hire a dj who plays really cool 80's music ;-). It was a blast last year, so I hope it lives up to our expectations this year, too!

The two little guys are going up to Gaute's parents to spend the night on Saturday, but Espen and his friend Jacob are going to be home alone here. I think they are pretty excited - big plans for frozen pizza, chips, Coke and a DVD...A 12-year-old's dream evening!

Substitute Teacher

Today and tomorrow all of the teachers (and the principal and staff) at Korsvoll school are in London, team-building and attending various courses and such. Thus, they have asked the parents to step in and be the teachers for two days. And, what do you know, somehow I ended up being one of the volunteers in Espen's class...

The two other parents who were there with me today are both researchers, and they wanted to do some type of research. Great, I thought, I'm all over research - not! It worked out really well, though, I have to say. We did various types of research on food, and my group looked into what is in food, and how many calories and grams of fat and stuff like that an average 7th grader eats in the course of a day. They got pretty into it, and it was fun working with them. It makes me excited to have my own class....

Still alive

I've been seriously slacking - Facebook has taken priority over my blog lately, but I'm going to try to be a bit better at updating this.

So, what's new? Well, a lot, of course...I spent a week in Glasgow from the 8th to the 16th of October. It was a school trip to learn more about the Industrial Revolution, and for us students to get to know each other better. We had a fun time, although I wasn't terribly impressed with Scotland. Everything was so dirty!




Espen turned 12 on October 1st...

...and he had a new operation on his eye on the 15th. He was a having some trouble reading, which is not surprising, so after consulting with the doctors we decided to try again. It seems like things are a bit better now when he is looking at things close up, which is the most important. I'm not sure if this last operation was the right thing to do, though. The eye which they did the surgery on is still not looking great...We'll see how it turns out.

The invitation we sent out today for Anders' birthday party on Saturday - better late than never! But what a great picture of him...

Anders feirer 9-års dagen!

Look Ma, no tooth

And, finally, Johan lost his first tooth. After much wiggling yesterday, it finally came out right before bed last night. His tooth fairy pillow finally got a tooth in its pocket. And he was pretty excited to head off to school this morning and announce that he, Johan, was now a member of the lost tooth club.

Circus!

Last night Anders, Johan and I went to the circus. Johan had never been before, and Anders was so little last time that he doesn't remember anything. I think they had a really fun time. Anders was most impressed by the acrobats - when we got home, he gave Gaute a detailed description of everything they had done. Johan thought the elephant was most exciting. He was pretty nervous before the elephant came out, but it wasn't very scary at all!

Both of them managed to eat enough cotton candy that they felt sick to their stomachs.

Before school this morning

Anders putting a cover on his new English book.

Espen off to camp

Espen left this morning for camp. He and his class (and their poor teacher) will be spending a week at Jotunfjell camp together with two 7th grade classes from other parts of Oslo. They're going to be up in the mountains, and, weather permitting, they're going to climb the highest mountain in Norway.

They were all pretty excited when they left this morning. Espen brought his Macgyver DVD's since there was a TV with a DVD player on the bus ;-).


Yes, that's Espen at the front of the line.

Friday

Yesterday was the official start of my last year at Høyskolen i Oslo. All of the 4th year students met in an auditorium, and the dean welcomed us. They gave us some administrative information, and then two teachers came to talk to us about what we should expect when we start teaching next year. It was semi-interesting...

What was fun was seeing everyone again, though. It made me realize how many friends I have made during these past few years. It's weird to think that this is the last year. I will miss it...

Although, on the other hand, school hasn't really started yet. Check back in a couple of months when I have papers due and finals to study for...

Another entry

We did so much this last summer that it's hard to figure out where to start...I think I'm going to start at the end and try to work my way back. When we came back from California then Molly came with us and was here for 4 weeks. It was really great to have her here. One of the many things we did was take a short trip up to Kari and Grim's cabin on the west coast. And this picture is from that trip.

Summer's over

Summer vacation is now officially over, at least for the kids. I still have until Monday :-). We have had a great summer, and I have lots of pictures, but here's one of our 2nd grader, 4th grader and 7th grader. It's Espen's last year of elementary school!

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!!