New Rain Boots

Check'em out! :)

How do I feel today?

Blah.

Cultural differences

There's been several times in the past year that the hubby has just off-handedly mentioned to me, "Hey, we need to get Keira christened." "Ok," I would say absently and continue doing what I was doing.

A few months go by, he'd mention it again and he'd get the same response. Since we were in Germany at the time, there really wasn't any hurry to get this done yet and really, we thought that it would be best to plan it when we moved back to Norway.

So, we come back and Per mentions it again..."hey, we need to get Keira christened."

I couldn't for the life of me understand what the big deal was. I thought that we would just get to it when we got to it. It's not like we were lacking in things to do, especially with the move back to Norway, starting to work again and so on.

I finally booked a date for the christening a few weeks ago and as it turns out, it's the day after what I thought would be Keira's big 2 year old birthday party. In my mind, the big event was Keira's birthday party and not the christening, so it would be ok to have them back to back. I've been in birthday party planning mode...going back and forth about the invitation list, activities, what to serve, etc. blissfully unaware that the christening was a big deal.

How did I suddenly get the shocker that I didn't have my priorities set correctly? I was mentioning to a colleague of mine that I should probably cater in for the christening because I wouldn't have time to cook and plan, with the birthday party and all. Did I have to have a cake? I asked her. She got this look on her face--like "Uh, yes. You need to have a couple of cakes. You also need to bring out the good china and the silver too. Some people wear their bunads to this. It's a big deal."

What?!?!?!?!?!?

When I heard the words..silver, good china, and bunad,then it hit me that maybe it's not the regular casual event.

It's not THAT big of a deal in the U.S. Normally, we just get family together, we go to the church, and then we have a meal together afterwards..no stress...no silver...no cakes...not super dressed up.

Puh. So I had to re-arrange my priorities last night and have decided that I am not super woman and cannot manage two big parties back to back, especially with family staying the whole weekend. I'll downsize the bday party to family and I'll expand the christening list to include close friends and family, focusing a lot more effort on the latter.

Geez. Who knew?

Overachievers are overrated

I've been struggling with finding time to workout. I've got all kinds of excuses, or maybe they're not excuses, but the reality of the situation, of why I am not able to do it...I'm too tired. There's not enough time. I'm too tired. I'm too tired... There's not enough time. I sometimes feel like I'm a broken record.

I've been having a lot of problems with my back recently, a lot of the pain is due to the fact that I don't workout anymore (don't have strong muscles to support my back) and I am back at a desk job. I snuck away for a chiropractor appointment yesterday and boy, did I hear it from him! He's been telling me this for weeks...that I needed to do some physcial activity...walk in the forest (hahahah..NOT), weight training, back training, etc. because I'm in pretty bad shape.

For the life of me, I can't seem to find the energy to do it. I think a part of it is due to going to sleep at 11pm and waking up at 5:30am. Then, I'm go go go for most of the day and when I put Keira to sleep at night, the softness of the bed and the dark, cosiness of the room make me fall alseep for 45 minutes and then when I wake up, I'm definitely not in the mood to work out and it's getting late.

I was lamenting to a friend of mine this weekend about the lack of time and the tiredness that I felt and how I always felt guilty about not doing what I KNOW that I'm supposed to be doing. She said something very smart to me...and I guess I should have figured it out myself. But, being the overachiever that I am, I kind of don't wander down this path...I'm an all or nothing gal. If you can't do it right, then don't do it at all.

She said that this was a stage and that it would change when Keira got older. Instead of focusing on what I used to do (workout 6 days a week), I needed to set a goal like maybe 2-3 times a week and be happy if I manage that. Life is too short for feeling guilty for stuff that I can't help. All mothers go through this and it's not just me.

She has told me this before--about setting goals lower, but that was before I had a child. I used to think that she was a little lazy for saying that she would only work out 2 times a week and she was happy with that. I used myself as a comparison and a Jennifer with no kids, and all the time in the world, could work out 6 times a week.

Well, now the shoe is on the other foot and I truly understand why she set that goal and why she was happy. It certainly beats setting the goals high and never being able to meet them.

So, now, I'm going to try the new way. I will try to work out 3 times a week. If I make that, then I've done great.

Lazy Sunday

This girl of mine woke up at 6am today. Sunday. 6am. I thought that there must have been a HUGE mistake when she rolled over on me with a big smile on her face. I groggily glaced at the clock to check the time. No. No mistake. Sigh.

Here she is lounging in front of the TV watching an educational Sesame Street while I'm in the kitchen desperately trying to make my first cup of coffee.

If I could turn back time

I'm not the kind of the person who dreamt about the big wedding or the huge house or the expensive car. In those sorts of things, I just took things as they came and always just wanted to be happy. The one thing that I had always imagined for myself, though, was to be married to a great guy, live in a nice place with 2children and no pets, of course. Just your regular yuppie couple with the yuppie kids.

I always imagined 2 because I always wanted them to have each other. Just as I am with my sisters, they would never be alone in the world and would be best friends for life.

It's funny how life throws you for a loop. So, here we are, 45 years old, 46 this year, one year has passed since we got Keira and we are now able to apply to adopt for another child again, according to the Norwegian law.

What should we do? Shall we go for another one?

With a full time job and days which seem to end to quickly, I see how much time, patience and energy it takes to raise a child. I'm still young...well, at least I feel young, but I get worried that I won't be feeling this way all the time. How will I be in my 50's? God, I even hate saying that word, "fify." It's a ways away, but sometimes it feels like it's just right around the corner.

Let's say we apply. By the time we finish our paper work, probably about 3-4 months of this year has gone by. The wait in China for a child is approximately 4 years, which puts us close to 50.

Is it fair to have a child when you're 50 years old? Am I going to be too tired? Am I going to have enough patience? Will I be too old? Just enunciating the word "fifty" makes me feel like a grandparent already and I've just embarked on the road of parenthood.

I wish that we had started our family earlier then we maybe we wouldn't be in this predicament. I mean, really, why did I think that I had all the time in the world "once upon a time"? Why did I think that I wasn't going to get older back then?

We have waffled about this back and forth. When we realized that it would take 4 years to wait for a child, we said last night that we wouldn't go for it. Am I going to regret this 5 years from now? Will Keira be sad that she doesn't have a brother or sister? Are we being selfish for not giving that to her? Or, are we doing the right thing by her for not having another child?

I wish that I was 5 years younger. I wish that time would stop. I wish that we could start over.

Sunday fun

We got together with three couples from the Oslo area who had gone to China together with us to pick up a child. It was so nice to see everyone and also to see how the kids had progressed and grown in one year. We had lunch at Anita and Arne's house and then went to the park to enjoy a fabulously sunny day!

Some parting 2010 Easter pics

Here's some more Easter pics from last week...

Back to the Grindstone

Ahhh...yes, the second day back at work after the Easter holidays. I am quite sleepy right now as I'm writing this post.

It's difficult to get up at 5:30am when we've been used to getting up around 8:00am - 8:30am every day, lollygagging around and just enjoying a late breakfast.

On Tuesday, I got up at 5:30am...barely. I think I hit the snooze button a couple of times. Yesterday, I got up at 5:40am and today, I finally dragged my lazy, tired ass out of bed at 5:45am. I could barely keep my eyes open as I was driving to work and here I am, with my hands tightly wrapped around a cup of coffee, wishing desperately that the caffeine would kick in, only to feel my eyelids drooping down and the the screen swimming in front of me as I try to write this post.

All I can say is thank God it's going to be Friday tomorrow and the next day will be Saturday. All I can think about is SLEEEEEEP. zzzzzzzz....

Easter egg hunt

Easter preparations

Making the Easter chickens

Per making pinnekjøtt dinner

All awaiting excitedly for the food

Hmmm...let the games begin

First ski trip out

Here we are with our friend,Wasim, going out for the first ski trip this year. Keira is being pulled in the sled behind.

Prepping the skis

Putting the sled together

Keira in the sled