Voll Farms

Last week Ave and I went with our friend Elisabeth and her three lovely girls to visit Voll farms. Voll is a sort of learning farm in the middle of Trondheim. For a small fee you can visit the farm and see and touch almost all of the animals. We had a wonderful day checking out the animals, playing at the farm and enjoying each others company. Thank you Elisabeth for inviting us on your outing.the new foal
the girls playing in a playhouse
checking out the chickens
feeding the bunnies

It's Finally Gone

We finally closed on the house and by we I mean my Mom and Dad drove to Butte to do the closing for us. Thanks again Mom and Dad! It's kind of weird that we don't own the house anymore. I'm extremely glad we don't have the financial burden anymore or the upkeep or all the things that caused stress from owning a home thousands of miles away. I'm sad, however, because we had to many memories in this place and put so much work in to it. I'm sad that I'll never get to see it just the way we envisioned it would some day be. Now that's someone else's dream. I just need to remind myself that it's only a house and one day we'll have another one. But one does grown attached to things. I just need to keep reminding myself of all the projects that still needed to be done, the money that needed to be spent on those projects and the fact that I never wanted to spend my life in Butte; when I remember these things it's not so hard. So farewell our blue house in Butte may you give the new owners as much joy as you gave us.

Syttende Mai

The 17th of May in Norway is one of the country's biggest holidays. It is called Constitution Day and is a celebration of the country becoming an independent nation. We were lucky enough to be invited to a friend's commune to celebrate the day. The Holiday in Norway is very much about community. Each area has their own little parade and celebration. The parade included a band and each barnehage (daycare) and school had a sign and all the kids marched with their parents around the community. We marched with our friends and their children and Avery thought it was pretty great. Afterwards we ate hot dogs and ice cream and went back to Mark and Elisabeth's house for a bar-b-que. The thing that stood out for me about the day is how much respect the country has for it. Everyone and I mean EVERYONE was dressed up in their finest. Men wore suits with ties and woman either dressed fancy or wore bunads. The bunad is a traditional Norwegian dress. These dresses cost thousands of dollars and are specific to each region. So a person can tell where someone comes from by the style of bunad worn. It was extremely interesting to view another country's celebration and I'm very glad we got to take part in it. Later that evening we met up with other Norwegian friends and ate dinner at a restaurant called Bryggen Asian. The dinner was excellent although a little expensive with slow service. By the end of the three hour meal Avery was loosing her mind a little so I'm not sure we'll take the small one out there again. It was worth it though and all in all we had a very nice Syttende Mai.

Avery at dinner with Idel who is from Dublin.I sat next to Halvor who is Norwegian, everyone else besides us and Idel were Norwegian. Thankfully everyone here speaks English.

The desert. I took a bite before I thought to take a picture. It was really good it had pop rocks in the sauce which was a surprise but good.

Downtown, just more shots of the clothing.
Playing with new friends. Mark and Elisabeth have three little girls. Avery had a blast playing with them.
Walking in the parade and being silly. She LOVED her horse balloon. Well worth the $20 to buy it! This morning she was holding it and telling it she loved him.
The back of the parade, a ton of people marched in it. No floats just people.
On the field before the parade began.
She really liked the little Norwegian flag.
Where the town met, more Bunads.

Mother's Day Weekend

I had a really great Mother's Day Weekend. Since the stores are closed in Norway on Sunday we made Mother's Day last two days. On Saturday I got my gift of an African Violet that I love. I also made these cinnamon rolls that I frosted with maple frosting, soooo good! So when I woke up Sunday morning I had cinnamon rolls to great me. We took a walk later that afternoon to the fjord. It was a chilly day but it didn't rain so all in all it was a nice walk. Being a good. I swear we can't get the kid to take a normal picture!

View from the beach. The mounds are mounds of seaweed since the tide was out.

My two favorite people. Again Ave wouldn't smile for the camera. We had a good time throwing rocks into the water and picking up sea shells.

Pudding Pops

We found these really cool little popsicle makers at Ikea and of course bought them. The other day I made Jello pudding from the stash that my parents brought over and poured them in and whalla, instant Jello pudding pops! I haven't seen chocolate ice cream pops of any sort over here so this kind of hit the spot. We've gotten really good at being creative and figuring out how to make things that we are lacking. Avery loved the popsicles as you can see.
Speaking of Ikea, I LOVE that store. We can actually find things for reasonable prices, or at least prices that one might pay for things back in the States. Plus they have killer Swedish Meatball dinners that you can buy and take home. We found a route that takes us to Ikea in about a 20 minute walk so it's also a good family outing. The other day when we were walking back Avery told us that she wanted to go to, "King Burger and have a hangaburger" we might have to hit Burger King this weekend. A couple other things she's doing...

Saying, "Let me hear your ear" when she wants to whisper something to you.

Teasing, she'll grab something from her Dad and say, "Na na na na na I got your sword" (it's usually a sword from when they play kung fu.)

When she wants something she says, "Should I have one, should I."

She likes to grab my chin and sing to me as to get my full attention. Sometimes this can go on for like ten minutes.

She is in love with rocks and sticks. Today when we walked to the store it took us like an hour to get there (should have been 20 min) because we had to look at every rock and stick on the way. When we got home she had like 15 rocks in her pockets and two sticks.

Yesterday when I was doing my workout video I tried to get her to do jumping jacks, she said, "I can't Mom it makes me too tired."

The other day she told her Dad he was in idiot. She got a time out for it but I still had to control myself because I really wanted to laugh.

Still calls yesterday lasterday?

Has figured out how to play us off each other already. When one of us says she can't do something she'll say, "but Daddy (or Mommy) said I can do it" when this was never the case. She has gotten a few time outs for this as well. I think we might be in trouble when she's a teenager if she's pulling this one already!

Things are starting to click.

So I'm starting to get things figured out. As far as being a stay at home Mom that is. It's only taken me what three months but I finally feel like things are coming together. Isn't it funny how sometimes one day you just wake up and think, "hey I can do this." Up until this last week I've woken up ever day thinking, "what the hell was I thinking!" I've finally gotten on a bit of a schedule which I think helped a ton. No matter how tired I am in the morning I make sure we're up and running by 9 am and ready to go outside. We've been taking walks to different stores or to the play ground every day. I'm finding this tires the small one out enough that she actually goes down for her nap after we eat. Once nap time is over we do preschool for a half hour or so and then either bake or clean or play or whatever else needs to be done. This usually takes us right up to when Dad gets home. She only really watches TV in the morning, since she still usually wakes up around 6 am but I'm feeling good that we're not plopped in front of the TV the rest of the day. I'm also getting some time to myself, usually about two hours in the middle of the day to do my own thing, or take a nap. This is working and I'm not sure why it took me this long to figure it out! I think in a way I wanted to be miserable here and wasn't letting myself figure out how to live in Norway. There was a part of me and there still is that just wants to pack it up and go home to the States. But then I remember that if I went back home I'd have to get a job and would I really be any happier? At first I blamed it on not having a job. I figured I was happier working. Yet I forgot to remember that when I worked I craved being at home with Avery, kind of a catch 22 huh. Yes I do miss working, I miss the paycheck, I miss the responsibility and the feeling of accomplishment, however, if I was working I'd have missed out on everything I've learned about my daughter in the last few months. I feel closer to her than I ever have before and for that I am so blessed. Yesterday she counted out four M&Ms and it was the first time I've seen her count objects out like that. What an amazing thing to watch. She is such a funny kid and although there are days I'd like to throw her to the wolves most days I just want to watch her and be with her and that makes it all worthwhile. I'm really hoping my new attitude sticks. I'm sure I'll have bad expatriate days when I blame everything on Norway but my guess is that is normal, especially for an expatriate who is also a first time stay at home Mom. Life isn't going to be perfect but then was it ever? Here's to hoping the months ahead bring more positive things and I continue to have a sense of calmness about our decision to move so far away. If nothing else I'll keep reminding myself that I'm home with Avery and that makes all the difference.

Cable

After three months of getting nowhere with the cable company we finally got cable! Since I got to Norway, I had been emailing and calling the cable company explaining to them that our power chord did not go tightly into our cable box thus our cable wouldn't work. We were sent two new power cords that still didn't work. Each person I talked to tried to trouble shoot or didn't really understand what I was saying. One time I called and my phone died before we got anywhere and then we had to wait three weeks to get another phone card (long story lets just say things don't go fast here) so I was getting pretty frustrated. Then Jeff talked with a friend at work who is from Canada and he told us to email the cable and tell them to send you a new box. It was that simple. Why didn't I think to just say give me a new box. Probably because I thought they'd just do that if it was possible. So simple it didn't occur to me I guess. So I emailed and with in a week we had the new box and cable! Now we get CNN and we have an American Sports channel plus Showtime, National Geographic, a bunch of Discovery channels and best of all two Cartoon Networks that broadcast in English! Jeff and I haven't had cable in four years so this really is a treat. I'm hoping once the novelty wears off we won't be glued to the TV every night but the last two nights we've been having fun surfing the tube.

Strawberries

On Saturday night we had a couple of our Norwegian friends over for dinner, Halvor and Linda. It's so nice to finally start having people over for dinner. I love planning a menu and cooking things we might not usually make for ourselves, like dessert. The strawberries here are amazing, they taste like strawberries grown in your garden. So I decided to make Strawberry Tiramisu. I found the recipe a few years ago in a magazine and have updated it a little. It was a great night of good food and great conversation. I thought I'd share the recipe with you.The berries.
Sorry it's sideways, I need to figure my photo editor out.

Strawberry Tiramisu

(make the night before)

12 oz whipped cream cheese or regular cream cheese softened and mixed until smooth.

around 5 cups whipped cream (I supposed cool whip would work but wouldn't taste as good.)

a bunch of strawberries

a cup strawberry jam

Salvadori cookies (ladyfingers)

In a bowl, whip the cream, when it starts to get thick add about a tbs of sugar and tsp vanilla, continue to whip until stiff.

In another bowl mix the cream cheese if you did not buy whipped. Stir the cream cheese into the whip cream a little at a time until totally incorporated. Set aside.

Hull about three cups worth of strawberries. Throw these and about one cup strawberry jam into a blender and blend until smooth.

To set up. I usually put mine into bread pans but you could do a 9X9 baking pan. Put about 1/2 cup of the strawberry mixture on the bottom or enough to cover the bottom of the pan. Line the pan with the lady fingers. Add another half cup of strawberry mixture. Spread about 1/2 inch thickness worth of the cream cheese mixture on top. Repeat with another layer ending with the cream cheese. Put into the fridge and let set overnight. I've made it in the morning to have with dinner and it usually sets up but it's better over night.

Makes 1 9X9 pan or 2 bread pans worth.

Substitution ( I haven't tried it yet but I'm sure you could use any type of berries with this. I'm thinking I'll try blueberries or raspberries this summer. You can also do traditional tiramisu with expresso put over the lady fingers and dusting the top with cocoa powder.)