My New Norwegian Home

Okay, so the title is thanks to Monty Python... A lot of talk about moose has been going on lately. I've learned "moose cakes" aren't a dessert as I first assumed, but rather moose meat. Actual moose. Norwegians eat moose! I'm not sure WHY exactly this surprises me. I knew reindeer, elk, deer, etc. were consumed so why not moose as well? Arild and I were recently invited to a wedding this summer and he made the comment, "I wouldn't be surprised if moose the groom shot and killed is served for dinner." Oh dear.... :-/ This is the stave church the wedding will be held. I'm totally anticipating seeing bunads and typical rural Norwegian scenery! :-)  Anyways, I'm super excited about this wedding we're invited to as we will drive half way across the country (a whopping 2 hour drive!) and the wedding will be held in a STAVE CHURCH! This past January Arild took me to the Norsk Folk Museum in Oslo. I had researched it a bit and found ou...

A few days ago I sold my collection of books to a used bookstore. Eh, I didn't mind. Everything is going digital anyways and I love my kobo reader, so I'll start my book collection there.Walking around the bookstore I found myself wandering to the language section where some guy was blocking the area I wanted to look. He started talking to me and asking if I was a language buff, I said "No, but I have no choice but to learn Norwegian." He looked a bit confused and asked, "Why?" So I explained my fiance is a Norwegian and I'm moving to Norway. He congratulated me and I'm now wondering if there are people that learn foreign languages as a hobby. I'm sure there are. Well, I ended up picking up a Norwegian pocket phrasebook (for $2!!!), so I've been getting more confidence and with that I've been reading to Arild some of the silliest phrases I can find in my very broken Norwegian. We have a lot of fun with this lately and I'm finally fe...

Pure excitement has now hit me. I'm of course staying very calm about everything as I feel very in control of all the current and upcoming events, but reality is now dawning on me and I now am able to relax a bit and start getting very excited about everything. Mostly just being able to see Arild again! We're down to 48 days, so I'm finally able to begin to feel butterflies! :-) Little sister's dress! :-)  Wedding plans are going great and we're exactly where we want to be at and that's way ahead. I have now tied all ribbons to little bottles of bubbles and I'm quite sure if I see another blue ribbon after all of this is over I just might scream. All the silverwear is in napkins and tied with a napkin ring. I'm currently working on guest favors. I've also picked up my dress from alterations and I love it! :-) The dress I ordered for my little sister also came in and is of course very cute! :-) I've also recently met up with our photographer...

I've been researching for my bilingual parenting project and have found basically the same pattern in all advice on this. I just find it interesting that a tiny human being has a brain comparable to a sponge. If you really think about it the most intelligent we've ever been in our lives is when we're toddlers. When immersing children in 2 languages what I found throughout nearly all search results was very similar: it's beneficial to the child to go to a speech therapist, when one parent speaks a different language they should use their native language always within the home or always to the child, don't freak out because the child learning two languages can sometimes be observed by parents as slightly delayed with speaking; it may take them age 2 or later before speaking, and children learning two languages from birth will sometimes mix the languages, but this usually goes away after age 4-5. I'll just use an example here for future reference, I will (futuristi...

Just to update with wedding stuff... I'm beginning to realize that I'm really not cut out for wedding planning. I don't understand a lot of it and at the end of the episode of planning I'm usually saying with a sigh, "Why is this necessary and how much does it cost?" If there's one thing I could change about weddings it would be its female-centeredness. Something that really bothers me is people telling me it will be the happiest day of my life. Um.. no it won't! Please don't build up this idea that weddings should be fairytale like and my wedding day will be the happiest day of my life. It's very strange to me that people have this mindset of a woman's happiness peaking at her wedding day, then leveling off for her "happily ever after." I can already imagine what one of the happiest days of my life will be and I'm certain a very happy day for me will be the day I wake up in Norway on May 26th and reality has totally sunk ...

Recently, Arild and I have been discussing alcohol. He is completely alcohol abstinent and recently, I decided to give it up as well with only one exception being if we ever decide to visit France I must have a glass of wine. Keep in mind, he never asked me to do this, so not to get the wrong impression of him or anything, it was a personal decision for me and I decided it would only be respectful to him if I were to never drink around him, so I tossed around the idea of, "Why even drink at all?" and since I had already given up alcohol when I began dieting in 2011, it seemed like a simple enough decision. I have no problems with alcohol at all, at least when people use it in moderation and are sensible with it. I just made the decision to give it up. We've done a bit of research concerning our countries and statistics on alcohol and drug use. Arild since I've met him has told me his alcohol abstinence is a bit of an issue for him. He avoids social gatherings that ...

This was my mother's view from her doorstep this morning. Much prettier than mine.  This is Skien, Norway and their very mild winter.  Our weather always gets very extreme during changing seasons, especially spring. Friday, Kentucky and Indiana experienced 46 tornadoes and 72 (22ish)degree weather. This morning, I wake up to a snow covered car and 23 (-5)degree weather. We can experience all four seasons in one week in Kentucky! I actually used to think Kentucky weather was normal until I started paying attention to Norwegian weather. Skien, Norway is incredibly stable with their weather and they are very fortunate with that. I know I might dread saying that when I'm ready for a long winter to be over with. Just the other day I was fussing to Arild how I was tired of wearing layers of clothes and I'm ready for shorts and flip-flops. It doesn't look like that will happen today... maybe by the end of this week though! :-) And this was my view this morning....

Ready to get down to business with Coke Zero nearby! Wow, it has been a busy and crazy week, but it has been productive! :-) First off! Wedding stuff! I'm so tired of being on this subject because well, I spent a total of about 4 hours today making invitations and  I was typing out different wedding vows and readings to choose from at 2 this morning! So I'm ready for all of this to be over with although I do enjoy it!!! The invitations will be mailed out in a couple of weeks or whenever I figure out how to correctly make RSVPs, whichever comes first! I've been going through wedding readings and mostly everything sounds so generic or it's something I don't understand at all So, I actually turned to Winnie the Pooh and found something absolutely adorable that I'm including in our wedding ceremony. I'm not sure if it's sad or innocent that we can best relate to a reading from a children's book, but whatever, it's our wedding. :-) I'd like...