My New Norwegian Home

This week = so far so good. Arild has off this week so he has been helping me out tremendously. I forgot to mention something from my last post about returning home! Apparently it's customary for friends of the newlywed couple to play pranks on them in their home. When we returned home, the first thing Arild said was,"Something's off. Someone's been in here besides my dad." We had maybe taken 2 steps inside when he said that. Sure enough, he was right and something was off. First, we noticed the lights in the hallways wouldn't shut off. Then, he checked his desk and what is usually lined up and in order (yes, he's one of those people) was "chaotic" or so it appeared to him. It looked fine to me. The bathroom door handle was in a different direction, there was a note on the bathroom mirror which said something to the extent of, "Arild and Evelyn you light up my life", the TV was wrapped in paper towels and had a note welcoming us int

There are a million things I could update on, but I'll just start with the very present. We're home! All 3 of us! After delays, traffic jams, and not knowing where to pick up my cat after our long flight after 30 hours of traveling, we have made it to our home. :-) I am awaiting 3 more boxes I shipped while in America, but I've unpacked the other 15 and have now made my place in my new home and of course we do need a few more shopping trips as my husband has been a bachelor for 29 years and we are lacking things like extra clothes hangers and shelves. Stella (my cat) is now settling in quite well. We of course knew this trip would be a lot of stress on her and we were worried about this, but she did just fine. I hope we've made up to her by giving her a nice play room. I'll be making a thank you card for her vet soon as she and the staff at our former clinic have been very supportive and had a major headache of trying to get paperwork to this place and that

Ah, so I'm wide awake at 4:30 a.m. and not knowing what to do this early, I'll write! :-) Yours truly. Painted inside this horse is Churchill Downs and previous Derby winners. There are colorful painted horse statues all over the state of Kentucky.  A little over a week ago I picked Arild up from the airport. Earlier that day, an aunt strongly encouraged me to go to Churchill Downs with her to keep my mind off things. So I did. It was by far one of the most important days of our lives. May 12th was the day the waiting ended and we'd never have to be apart again. At the airport waiting at luggage pick up. Then there were several trips visiting family and finally his parents arrived to Kentucky for the first time, after a trip to New York for the first time - let alone their first trip in America. I think and I really hope this trip went well for them. They commented they themselves were picking up on the southern accent and Americans eat cheese on everything

And we left off with waiting... Our lives went back to "normal" and he went back to his work and friends and family and I went back to school and work and family. This time in full wedding planning mode. We finished up our pre-marriage counseling, we picked out this and that and the majority of our wedding planning was finished during this time. Days passed and I continuously checked my vacation approval status only to be disappointed every time, so I tried to ignore it rather than check it every day. I began to ship a lot of boxes to him of my own things. I've only discovered from all of this I have a severe clothes addiction because that's mainly what the boxes I've sent consist of. To help pass the time by, I tried my hand at fixing Norwegian meals and I also welcomed my Christmas break from school, so I studied quite a bit of Norwegian. While I did this, he called this place and that place with questions that I had as well as his own questions and con