My little country

I have had many thoughts since July 22nd. The day everything changed in my little country. It is still unbelievable to me that something so horrible could happen. Norway lost its innocence that day. It broke my heart to the core.

And then the strangest thing happened. In a country where people will not talk to people they don't know, in fact, people will think you're crazy if you just smile at someone you don't know, we embraced each other and decided to fight evil with love. So many beautiful words have been spoken in the aftermath of July 22nd. Here are some of my favorites:

"Evil can kill a human being, but never defeat a people." PM Jens Stoltenberg

"(Tonight) our streets are filled with love." Crown prince Haakon

"We are so few here in this country, each fallen is a brother and friend." Bishop Ole Christian Kvarme, quoting Norwegian poet Nordahl Grieg

"If one man can show that much hate, imagine how much love we all can show together." Utøya survivor Stine Renate Håheim

"He took some of our most beautiful roses, but he can not stop the spring." AUF leader Eskil Pedersen

“Even in their deepest sorrow the Norwegians don’t get hysterical. They resist the hate. It is amazing to see how politicians and the whole country reacts. They are sad to the deepest thread of their souls. They cry in dignity. But nobody swears to take revenge. Instead they want even more humanity and democracy. That is one of the most remarkable strengths of that little country.” German newspaper

And the poem "To the youth" also by Nordahl Grieg:

Enemies near and by,
threatening your right!
Under a storm of blood
You have to fight!

Might you then ask in fear,
unarmed and open:
how shall I combat them,
what is my weapon?

Here is your shelter strong,
here is your sword:
faith in mankind,
and in everyone's worth.

For all the future holds,
seek this and tend it.
Die, if you have to, but:
deepen, extend it!

Silent the bullets glide
all through the night.
Use all your strength and love,
stop deadly flight!

War is contempt for life.
Peace is creating.
Add forces to the strife:
death shall be beaten!

Love and enrich with dreams
greatness of old!
Challenge unknown terrain
truth will be told.

Works not yet being built,
stars never seen
reveal them through rescued lives,
able and keen!

Noble is everyone,
earth, rich and sweet!
Hunger and suffering,
caused by deceit.

Crush it! In life's own name
injustice shall fall.
Light, bread and love and hope,
birth right of all.

Forcing all weapons down,
warfare shall cease!
Shielding man's dignity
creating true peace.

Who by his right hand's side
carries a burden,
precious and dear to him,
can never murder.

This is our promise,
from kin to kin:
cherish our fragile Earth,
it's ours to win.

We will protect and keep
beauty and grace -
as if we held a child
in tender embrace!

1991

A few weeks ago I received an invitation to a high school reunion. I graduated 20 YEARS AGO!!!! I can't even begin to comprehend this shocking fact. How in the world is it possible that I got so old? I don't feel old enough to say I graduated from high school 20 YEARS AGO!!!! But the facts are the facts, and I did indeed graduate from high school 20 YEARS AGO!!!!

I'm actually really excited about this reunion. I haven't seen my high school friends since back then. Sure, I've "seen" them on Facebook, but not in person (seeing people in person is rare thing these days, isn't it?) I think it will be so great to meet up with everyone again.

Here are some facts from 20 YEARS AGO!!!!!

- The beginning of the Gulf War



- Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" came out



- Anthony Hopkins freaked everyone out in "Silence of the lambs"



- Extreme came out with the best song ever; "More than words"

- The Soviet Union broke up after president Gorbachov's resignation

- Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan tied the knot

- The Nobel peace prize was awarded to Aung San Suu Kyi

- The legendary Freddie Mercury passed away

- I graduated from high school

I'll have to dig through some boxes to find a picture to share.

My baby is 5!

Our little rascal turned 5 yesterday. She is quite pleased not to be 4 anymore. But to us she will of course always be the baby. It's like my baby sister, who now is 28. She will never be an adult to us older siblings. :) Even though she's quite capable of taking care of herself.

We invited some of Amilia's friends over for a birthday party over the weekend. It was a dress up party, and of course most of the kids dressed up as princesses. (With the exception of a cute bunny.)

We had a lot of fun (I think Link had the most fun because he was appointed to be the prince and got to dance with all the girls.)

Thinking back 5 years:









From the birthday party this past weekend:

Grateful for the little things

Amilia is a very independent young lady. She wants to do everything herself. I guess when you're 4, there are no limits to what you can accomplish. I think it's a great quality.

The other night before going to bed, SHE, of course, was going to say her prayers by herself. This is one of my favorite things that she does because I never know what she will say. I love children's prayers; they're so honest and straight forward. No wonder why we should all become like little children.

Anyhow, this particular evening she thanked Heavenly Father for the buckets at church. Interesting thought..... Justification for this: In case someone gets super-super-super-duper sick at church, they can throw up in the bucket.

I guess she's speaking from experience because she was super-super-super-duper sick a few weeks ago and became very acquainted with our bucket.

So, the moral of the story: Be grateful for the little things that seem so insignificant.

Yellow and blue neighbors

I love our neighbors to the east. The yellow and blue ones. I think Swedes are great people. They're friendly and cool. I love Swedish, it's one of the most beautiful languages in the world in my opinion. It's especially perfect for singing. And I love the country itself. I love Stockholm and Gothenburg especially, 2 awesome cities. I love shopping in Sweden, it's so much cheaper there than here in Norway. In fact, I would go so far as to say that I would not mind living in Sweden.

HOWEVER..... now during these world ski championships, the traditional desire for beating the Swedes has taken over. I guess you could say I'm a "typical" Norwegian who loves to watch winter sports. And it's all about beating the Swedes. If a Norwegian doesn't win, I don't really care who wins as long as it's not a Swede.

So the other day, at the Men's 15 K competition, when the best Swede finished number 17, I had a good laugh. Then when I noticed that the other 3 skiers finished number 22, 34 and 42, I almost felt sorry for them. Almost.

Norway is of course the best nation so far with a total of 12 medals (4 gold, 4 silver and 4 bronze) which I am very proud of. And just to rub it in, Sweden has a total of 3 medals.

Morning munchies

I woke up today with the munchies. Not a good sign. You would think that the problem would have been solved if I had a proper breakfast, but I didn't feel proper and had no willpower or self-control, so I had a bag of Haribo click mix for breakfast. Proper in its own way, you could say. To quote Haribo: "Kids and grown-ups love it so, the happy world of Haribo." Happy indeed! Maybe a bit queasy afterwards, but it was well worth it. I think I'll have some fruit for lunch, though.

The Accident

My parents came back from the States a couple of weeks ago. To my surprise and great pleasure they brought me back a big bottle of Olive Garden salad dressing. My favorite. I was so excited. They gave it to me at church and all throughout the meetings I kept dreaming about how I would enjoy a really good salad after church. (I hope the drooling wasn't obvious.)

After hunting for the kids throughout the entire building, and after getting all of our church bags and whatever else the kids had brought to church that day, I was ready to speed all the way home. My Mom had put the salad dressing in an H&M plastic bag. I wish she had chosen any other bag. Because as I picked up the bag, ready to dive out the door, the handle came lose. Unbelievable. As if in slow motion I watched the bag drop to the floor. Tile floor. And then... the horrible sound of my precious Olive garden salad dressing bottle crushing to pieces. And then .... the smell of Olive garden salad dressing filling the church. I wanted to cry. Honestly. That's how upset I was. As I gathered up the dripping bag, I kept trying to come up with a way to salvage some of the dressing. No success. I didn't really want broken glass mixed in with my salad. (Another thought, can I sue H&M for malfunctioning plastic bags?)

So now I am Olive garden salad dressing deprived. Luckily I can buy another bottle myself in about 4 months.

Oh, calories, how I love Thee!

I have a motto I try to live by: "Calories should not be counted, only enjoyed." Well, in the perfect world it works well. In my world, just looking at calories or even just thinking about them, will add pounds to the hips and elsewhere.

With that said, I want to share a most excellent website with you. Full of calories, sugar and everything else that's delicious. It's absolutely sublime:

http://www.detsoteliv.no/

I apologize to all you non-Norwegians out there, this most amazing website is in Norwegian. (Try google translate? Or maybe too risky in case something gets lost in translation?)

I've tried a few of the recipes, and everything comes out tasting wonderful. I just absolutely love this most mouth-watering website. Give it a try, you won't regret it!

(I went to high school with the creator of this most heavenly website, so I guess that's my claim to fame.)

Life without a computer

Our computer has a nasty virus. Thank goodness I have a comuter genious for a brother who is kind enough to take time out of his busy schedule to try to figure out what's going on. I know nothing about those things. The computer world is a world I feel completely lost in.

As bad as it sounds to be without a computer, it's actually quite nice! All of a sudden we have all this time together! Link's phone is an option if I get desperate, but mostly I just get annoyed because the screen is so small and everything seems like a huge task. So to be truthful, I don't really miss the computer. I'll admit that if I didn't use a computer all day at work, my withdrawels would probably be more violent. Not that I surf the internet all day at work. Just sometimes.

One thing that baffles me, however, is that with all this new-found time on my hands, there is one thing I'm unable to catch up on. It's never ending, and no matter how hard I work at it, it doesn't disappear. Laundry. I don't remember the last time I saw my laundry baskets completely emtpy. I just don't understand it. It's only the 4 of us, but it just seems like the piles never shrink. I find it a little discouraging. I don't know how my Mom did it with 5 kids.

At least I don't have to do laundry by hand in the creek......