Weekend fun

Here's a few pics from our weekend. Per had to work on Saturday so us girls went shopping...We didn't find too much, but Keira got to sit down for a few minutes to enjoy a popsicle.


On Sunday, Ms. Keira wakes up bright and early to make brekkie:


The weather wasn't so nice on Sunday either, so we had to make some boller of course...


Enjoying "101 Dalmatians" and popcorn...ahhh...Sundays

And, we had to clean the house a little bit. What a little helper Keira is...

My new found goodie

Praise be the Lord. I have finally finished two audio books! Two! Can you believe that?

I have to say that audio books are AWESOME, especially for someone who doesn't have the time to pee, much less sit down and read a book. I'm sure a lot of my friends will say, yeah, DUH, didn't you know that? Audio books have been around forever!

Per has been telling me for months that I had to listen to the books in the car and on the way to work. He loves them and swears by them (when he's not on the Kindle or the iPad).

Last year...I mean LAST YEAR November, I downloaded the second Stig Larsson book on my iPod to listen to on the way to the U.S. with Keira. The reader was sooooooooo SLOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWW. His voice was boring, he sounded like he just got out of remedial class for English speakers. He didn't change his voice to match the characters, there wasn't any excitement building and frankly...I was bored out of my skull...it seemed that I always found something else better to do. I ploughed through the audio book because I thought that the first book was so great (which I read in Norwegian, mind you) and wanted to finish the series. I just finished it last week.

This week, I started on a David Baldacci book, called True Blue. It had been burning a hole in my iPad since last year also, but I couldn't exactly begin a new one without having finished the old book. Let me tell you. Listening to this book has changed my whole outlook on audio books. I was so down on them because I had such a bad experience with the Stig Larsson book.

But this one, on the other hand, held me on the edge of my seat from beginning to end. When I heard how quickly the guy read and how he changed voices according to the characters, I was so very pleasantly surprised. And the piece the resistance was when the music came on at the end of every major section...it was this crescendo building music like what you hear in a soap opera right before they go to a commercial. I found myself feeling mildly irritated when the music came on because I half expected that a commerical break was coming. Of course, there wasn't a commercial break, but that's how it felt.

Baldacci wrote in some shooting and bombing scenese and even car chasing scenes and the sounds matched the scene. I felt like I was actually there when one of the characters was about to get her ass kicked by a drug gang.

I am sold on audio books. So, last night, I wanted more..more and more. With great hesitation, we downloaded the last Stig Larsson book "The Girl Who Kickced the Hornet's Nest." Why? Because if I didn't listen to it as an audio book, then I probably will never finish the book. It's about 24 hours long. A painful, slow 24 hours long. I'm not looking forward to listening to the guy, but I am looking forward to hearing the story. It may turn out that I can't stand him anymore and just try to read the book.

On the other hand, we've downloaded a new Baldacci book and I can't wait to get started. I just can't decide which one I should start first!!!

Decisions. Decision. :)

Past couple of weekends

Yeah, yeah...I have just been crap at posting since we've gotten back from vacation in July. Once I get off schedule, it just seems to take a couple of months to get back into the practice of posting.

Since we've been back, our days have been filled with activities...but, for the life of me, I can't off the top of my head remember what those activities are!

Some things to note...

Last weekend, we were at the cabin with some friends and had a great time! We biked, we fished, we gathered wild blueberries to eat straight from the ground and we even made a little campfire outside.





This weekend, Per's parents have been with us since Thursday. It's been great fun hanging out with the grandparents.



Wonder what next weekend will bring?

First day at Gullhaug Barnehage

The dreaded day has come....my little baby starts at a new daycare today. I had butterflies in my stomach walking into the barnehage. What would it be like? Were the people nice? Would Keira be happy?

What a pleasant little surprise I got today. Not only were the caregivers nice, but it seemed like they really liked Keira and really knew about how to care for children.

There are a total of 3 caregivers in Keira's "class". There's a blend of kids from 1 years old to a little over 2 years old in her group. There will be a total of 5 girls and 4 boys. All the girls are approximately around Keira's age and all the boys are a lot younger.

We are currently now going through a three day orientation period where the purpose is to get Keira integrated into the system as gently as possible and to make her feel safe and secure.

Today was the first day where we were with her from 9:30am - 12:00pm. Tomorrow, I'll be there an hour or so and then leave her for two hours. On Friday, she'll be delivered around 7:45am and then I pick her up at 2pm. She'll be taking her first nap there on Friday. Then, next week, it's business as usual at the new barnehage.

Here's crossing our fingers that everything goes well.






Lunch time!

Drinking milk from a "big girl" cup

We clean up good, don't we?!

Here's a picture of us from a 40th birthday bash we were at last weekend.

Top 10 Vacation Memories

We're just back from a three week vacation in La Manga/ Murcia Spain. It was such a lovely vacation. All long sunnny days and HOT, HOT, HOT. We lazed around the pool, dug sand castles at the beach, drank fantastically cold beer, worked out, played golf, hung out with friends and slept late. It was soooooooooo relaxing.

I didn't get a chance to blog while I was away due to no internet connection. In a small, tiny way, I felt so out of touch with everyone and couldn't share my rambling thoughts while away.

1. Good friends and endless glasses of Veuve Clicquot make for a great vacation.
2. Some women have no business going topless in public. They probably shouldn't ever go topless in private either.
3. Sand - it's the gift that keeps on giving. It shows up in all kinds of tiny spaces.
4. Crustless soft white bread (sin corteza) is the bomb. You can actually buy it crustless in the stores. Why can't we have that here?
5. I went off on a 6 year old at the pool because he was picking on Keira and being an all round little shithead
5. I need to learn some Spanish so I can tell off people who are pissing me off
6. Even if we're on vacation and don't have a lot of time, it sometimes pays off to do a little bargain hunting anyway
7. The Chinese mega stores have everything you need at a low, low price - from pots, pans to cleaning products to toys to tampons.
8. The Spaniards singing loud and jumping into the pool at 10:00pm celebrating their vicotry in the World Cup.
9. Fresh sardines and fresh anchovies taste even better chased with a super cold glass of beer
10. Taking Keira to pee pee on the side of the road for the first time - it took ages before she could go because she was more interested in the weed tickling her foot than relieving herself.