Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category
July 12th, 2010 by kami
I adore Christmas, but when you’re in Norway, you really appreciate Summer!! The evenings are light and long, the temperature is pleasant, and everyone spends time out of doors! BBQs are the thing. We’ve been invited to a few homes for dinner, and every one has been a barbecue: hamburgers, hot dogs (often served in little tortillas instead of buns), pork or kabobs. Most Norwegians have eating tables outside on their deck or yard, and use them frequently.
These pictures were taken at the home of Marcos and Carina Silva. Their home is small, but stylishly decorated, and with a HUGE wrap-around deck (furnished!) that they use for summer entertaining. Marcos loves to invite people for barbecues–he’s Brazilian. (We’ve found that Norwegians are very nice, but more closed and private as a people.) Anyway, we arrived to find a crowd of friends, relatives, and even a family that Marcos had met at the grocery story that very day 
We all had a good time. I didn’t understand much of the Norwegian and Portuguese conversations that were going on, but got to speak English with some.
Little FYI along the lines of BBQing: Grocery stores here sell something called an “Engangsgrill,” which is a little one-time box grill with charcoals and a cooking surface. It’s cool because you can take it anywhere–to the beach or on a picnic–and cook your food! Doesn’t cost much, either.
July 9th, 2010 by kami
This is Hvalstrand, a beach by the fjord. We met there with some families from church, as Annie’s birthday was also on a Norwegian holiday. Had a great time with some great people!
Far right is the Amundsen family. Ågot is my visiting teacher, and Gaute is in the ward bishopric. They have 3 kids.
In the red jacket is Soveig Wyssenbach (sp?). Her husband, Arne, is in the crab-fishing picture. He’s our home teacher. They have 2 daughters. Solveig helped to translate my talk in Sacrament Mtg. She does Faith in God activities with the kids James’age. (The welcome posters that I mentioned earlier were her idea.) Their family gave us the dollhouse and some Norwegian books/games for the kids.
Next (to the left) are the Høgsets. Sally is from England and has been so sweet to translate church for me, and invite us on outings. She helped us with our househunting, and even helped me to get a small job at the Elixia gym where she works watching the kids in the Kidz zone. Her husband is Halvor (Norwegian) and they have 4 kids.
Left, white shirt and gray, are Nick and Hilde. They have three sons. Nick is from Washington state in the USA! She’s Norwegian.
Very left in the yellow is Marcos next to his wife, Carina. Carina is Norwegian, but Marcos is from Brazil and likes to speak with Carl in Portuguese. They have four kids and have done a lot to help us feel welcome. Marcos has spent hours at our house helping Carl with the home improvement projects, as he is somewhat of a handy man.
Little naked body sitting far left Norwegians are much more open with their bodies, and often change clothes right on the beach, or let small kids run naked! It takes some getting used to, but was a benefit on a later trip when Annie was getting her clothes all wet, and the mom I was with convinced me let her splash in the water “Norwegian style” (buck naked). And I did!
View of the fjord.
Hilde and Sally in front.
Swans!
James learning to fish for crabs.
Joseph caught a starfish!
July 9th, 2010 by kami
2 years old! Like Sam’s bike, the dollhouse was handed down from (another) family in the ward!
July 9th, 2010 by kami
5 years old! His birthday bike was given us by a ward family that didn’t need it anymore–nice!
July 9th, 2010 by kami
This is our neighborhood elementary school: Sydskogen Skole. It is very near our home. The kids often take a little short-cut through the woods to get there (far side of the picture). There’s about one class per grade. Kids start school here at 6 years old, and are divided by the year of their birth, not at the September 1st line that we’re used to. So, James is in 4.Klasse and Joseph is in 2.
We started the kids at school a couple of weeks after we arrived. The school directer met with us, and the boys’ teachers have been very helpful. We did our best to help James and Joseph understand their homework, and to follow the weekly outline, or Ukeplan, that was sent home each week. The end of the school year brought a lot of closing activities and field trips. Each class had a summer avsluttning, or closing party with the families, in the evening at the beach. Now we’re out for summer break until August 18! When requested, the government provides a tutor at school for new kids that don’t speak the language (one of many cool benefits resulting from insanely high taxes), so James and Joseph will have a little extra help this coming school year. We hope they can pick up Norwegian quickly enough to get along!
July 7th, 2010 by kami
Waffles are authentically Norwegian. I think it’s funny that the standard Norwegian waffle is heart-shaped. I asked Carl about a heart-shaped waffle iron I found in the kitchen. He said it was a gift from the family he stayed with at Christmastime. I’ve since learned that the heart-shaped iron is something nearly every Norwegian family owns. They like to spread them with jam (I haven’t yet found syrup), and they usually eat them as a treat and not for breakfast.
Some pictures of our family eating vaffler (waffles):
July 7th, 2010 by kami
Annie got her first big-girl bed! She has a room of her very own, at least for now, and sleeps pretty well. AND she is completely weaned from her binky! Nothing like the pacifier getting lost to force her to quit cold-turkey. She really didn’t have a choice! There were some rough spots the first few days, but now she’s doing fine, and I’m amazed at what a big girl she’s becoming!
Carl is nearly done remodeling the boys’ room downstairs (all of our bedrooms are downstairs, on the entry level). Meanwhile, the boys sleep upstairs on mattresses on the family room floor. (We realized we had to get curtains up pretty quick because it currently stays light past 11pm, and we all stay up too late thinking it’s earlier than it is!) In Norway, bedding is simple: one sheet on bottom, and a warm duvet on top. Often, the pillow case matches the duvet cover. That’s all that’s required–no middle sheets and blankets to worry about.
The posters on the wall were made for us as a Faith in God activity, and presented to our kids their first day in Primary (they had asked us what our kids were interested in)! It was a really thoughtful welcome, and our kids love their posters.
As for Carl and I, we’re still sleeping on our king-size air mattress. It’s really pretty comfy, and will have to do until we can afford a new bed because we’ve already over-spent on furniture!
July 7th, 2010 by kami
As you can imagine, our first few days in Norway were busy! I’d already been assigned visiting teachers at church, and they brought us dinner that first night. (I’m really loving my visiting teachers. They’ve done all sorts of nice things for me since, like sending cards and messages, picking me flowers, loaning Norwegian books and movies, inviting for dinner, showing me around the stores, etc. It is SO GREAT to have immediate friends in a new place. I was invited, within the first couple weeks of our arrival, to both a movie night and a baby shower at the homes of different sisters.) On our second night, Christian and Elisabeth Karlsson, who are in our ward and live nearest to us, visited us with pizza. I’d heard a lot about them, and was excited to meet them. They have three sons. They’re in the picture below. Days were spent emptying boxes and setting up basic furniture bought from IKEA–hooray for IKEA! We had to go in to Oslo city to “register” our family with the government. (The waiting time at that office was awful!) Lots to do.
Tired
Don’t they look a lot alike?
July 7th, 2010 by kami
After all the waiting and time apart from Carl, the kids and I were finally due to fly to Norway on April 18th. Then the volcano erupted in Iceland, and our flight was delayed by more than a week! Of all the timing!! So, we waited (it was actually nice to have a little extra time to prepare)…then loaded Dick’s van with all our tons of luggage and headed to the airport on Monday the 26th, instead.
It was hard flying alone with four kids, but not as hard as I had feared. I had a lot of advice and some handy-dandy travel packets from Traci and books from Marla under my belt…and we survived! We flew nonstop from Salt Lake to Paris. We were lucky to be seated near the back of the plane, close to the bathrooms, with two little rows to ourselves. The greatest difficulty came with our stopover in Paris. We had very little time to make it through passports and security. I was carrying a blasted heavy server in my backpack, with other electronics and items that had to be unloaded, plus all the kids had to remove their shoes, you know…it was crazy. I kept trying to herd and hurry the kids. The boys were troopers, each towing his own little backpack. We barely made it! Then, in Oslo, we had to load our ten huge bags onto carts and navigate them, one by one, out to where Carl was waiting beyond security. Phew! Well, thank goodness it’s over!
It was great to be reunited with Carl! I think I was pretty out of it for a while after we arrived, though, what with the time difference, jet lag, and exhaustion. He says he told me things those first couple of days that I have no recollection of hearing I’m doing much better now and gaining my bearings. And we’re in NORWAY!
These are the only pictures I have of our flight: the kids sleeping on the plane.
July 7th, 2010 by kami
Yes, ’twas a season of partings. 
Scarlet, our good and faithful car, had to be sold. But, lo, who should buy her but Joan and Larkin! They loved her, sold her to us in 2003 when they went on a mission to the Philippines, and now decided to buy her back! Sure worked out well for us–and for Scarlet! We hope for Mom and Larkin, too.
The kids spent one last evening playing with cousins while the adults went out to eat to wish us a “bon voyage!” What would we do without such a loving and supportive extended family?!
