Home Again!

A month in America goes by so quickly! Now we're home again. We're nearly done unpacking, and concentrating on real-life things like dentist appointments and mowing the grass.

One of the things I brought back with me was some really pretty yarn, and it didn't take too many days for me to get started on crocheting a blanket/throw. The urge to play with paper remains strong, though. It should be noted that the following story is pure fiction; our family simply does not do the camping thing. Obviously this little detail doesn't keep a boy from dreaming up a great outdoor adventure.

Inspired by Another Blogger

I'm always so inspired when I go to Beatriz Guzman's Blog .  She packs a lot of energy and color into a scrapbook page so that you keep seeing little details you didn't notice at first. Today I decided to try to put more than usual into a page with this result:

Thanks for the inspiration, Beatriz!

What's in Your Pocket? (And a Walk in the Park Scrapbook Page)

I could have written an essay when I was twelve years old entitled "Confessions of a Pre-Teen Pack Rat". I didn't, though. My mother could have written it from her perspective and called it, "Where Does She Find All This Stuff??" One day while I was at school, Mom went through my winter coat pockets. But instead of writing the essay for me (I never got off that easy), she just took notes on what she found in my coat pockets that day.

I wasn't very grateful. Mortified, more like it. Pockets are meant to hide things, Mom! Not only did she write it all down, she also let my dad keep the list. And in true Dad-style, he gave it to me after I grew up.

1 broken hair brush
1 whole hair brush
a turkey thermometer
15 pieces of wadded-up paper
a padlock
11 pieces of folded-up paper
3 envelopes
3 Christmas cards
a watch
a folded handkerchief
a crumpled handkerchief
a locket
a scrap of denim material
a calendar
1 barrette
2 small keys
3 bobby pins
a pie container
4 stubby pencils
a broken pen
3 buttons
2 nickels
1 dime
3 pennies
5 keychains
2 pictures
1 plastic rabbit
1 pin
1 gum wrapper
a piece of Christmas ribbon
1 marshmallow
cookie crumbs

I've learned a lot since then. For example, I always go through all my pockets before donating my old coats to Fretex (Salvation Army).

Anyway, I don't fill up my pockets like that anymore. I now carry a handbag! Here's one I bought in Düsseldorf a couple of months ago.

Now for the walk in the park. The scrapbook page below pretty much sums it all up. Sunny day, springtime, picking flowers for a bouquet with a few left over to put in her hair.

50th Anniversary

My parents will be celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary later this month! How can this be? I can remember them when they were just youngsters in their twenties. The announcement came in the mail the other day, made by my sister, Krystal. Didn't she do a nice job? And aren't my parents just too cute?

Why doesn't anyone sit on their cars anymore? Oh, wait; the other day we saw a guy sitting on the trunk of his car. He was wearing sun glasses and a suit, had a shaved head, and looked very suspicious to me. I guessed that he was a mafia hit man and was sitting on the trunk of the car to keep the person inside (possibly still alive) from getting out. He looked very calm, so this is a sure sign he was a hit man.

I'm not saying anything more, just in case it's true and I become the next target. (Except that perhaps I have an overactive imagination.)

50 years. That's quite an accomplishment. Of course, I've been teasing them for over a year now, that they might not make it to their fiftieth anniversary. That usually makes them giggle.

Two Days in a Row??

Maybe I'm back to blogging for real...

Today the weather report changed all the plans I had so carefully made for a class field trip. We were going to take the train to a park and spend the afternoon having a picnic and playing before the forecast called for thunder storms in the area. I had to make some decisions quickly, and so I decided we could still ride the train but we would go back to the school for the rest of the party--safely indoors, picnic and all!

In Norway, you have to have a good Plan B any time you plan outdoor activities. The train ride was fun, especially when a train at the station blasted its horn really loudly and made all of us jump.

You'd think that in a country with all kinds of stormy weather there would be some kind of scrapbooking supplies with raindrops or something. Right? Wrong. The last time I checked, there was nothing remotely related to stormy weather except a couple of stamps which I didn't really like. So here's a rainy-day page from scratch instead.

Testing

Testing to see if my blog still works. Maybe I'll even come back sometime. Hah!

How about a photo. Even if I've been having one of the busiest school years of my entire career, I have still found time to take the occasional photo here and there.

So there you are, a photo of my son's hand while he's using his first-ever real power tool, an electric screwdriver. It was either that or a skateboard. I figure you break fewer wrist bones with an electric screwdriver. As a person who has never, ever broken a bone, in spite of all kinds of accidents (it's also nearly impossible to pull my teeth--just ask a dentist who has tried), I am not ready, will never BE ready, to have a child with a broken bone.

Obviously, I have a large stock of cotton wool for wrapping my children tightly.

Anyway, if he got a skateboard I'd be tempted to try it out. And then my previous record of no broken bones might be broken.

Here's another picture...

The above photo was taken on the 17th of May, Norway's Constitution Day. Everyone loves a parade, right?

Status Updates 2010

Happy New Year! 2011 Finally got here...!

And what better way to look back on the old year than by taking a look at some of the status updates on facebook? Here are some of the highlights of my year in 2010: