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.)