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| 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 to write our own vows, but I think we're going with the traditional ones and maybe tweaking a few things. I'll soon be getting my engagement ring and wedding band re-sized as both are too big now. Since I'm on the topic, I'll just share something I find incredibly interesting! Scandinavians wear their rings on their right hand ring finger, whereas Americans, Brits, Australians, well, anyone with any colonization relation to England wears their rings on their left hand. So I am wearing my engagement ring on my left hand and he wears his on his right. Oh and that leaves me another topic to talk about and this was a very fun conversation when this first came up! I was confused and asked, "So you're telling me men wear engagement rings!??!" Apparently it is so common that Arild's words to me in this conversation were, "Why would I not wear an engagement ring? That wouldn't be fair." Men as well as women wear engagement rings in Norway! Norwegian men are branded with the little token on their ring finger that shouts, "TAKEN!" just as well as women at the moment of engagement rather than women showing off their rings, while men have nothing to show that they're in an exclusive relationship to someone they promise to marry until the actual point of marriage. I really like that. I can totally get used to that. :-) With more wedding plans, his parents have now booked their trip here, which is wonderful! I can't wait to see them again! :-)
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| Our engagement rings. |
Moving plans! I have shipped 3 boxes this week and on Skype I watched him open the last 2 boxes I shipped. :-) Also, before my move, my next project to hopefully start this next week is to take all baby/ childhood photos that both parents own and put them on CDs so both parents can have them. I've also decided to quit my job a bit sooner than originally planned. Right now I'm thinking the last week of April rather than the first week of May and this is so I can have more time to spend with family.
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Sharing some childhood pictures.
Mom holding me and my grandparents
are sitting beside us. |
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| Funny because it's so true! :-) |
Moving to another country or well, moving away anywhere isn't supposed to be easy anyways. It's never my intention to make my posts on this blog TOO personal, but I am in the process of moving to Norway and I think it's fitting to document any type of observation or issue that comes along the way. With that being said, even before my decision to do this I knew I would miss my family and now that we're nearing the day to departure I'm thinking more and more about this. Moving to Norway is totally what I want and I am 100% certain I will be happy and pleased with this decision so it's not like I'm having second thoughts at all. I'm just as certain if never did this I'd live regretting the decision made not to move, whereas now, I don't think I'll have regrets about my move, although I will deeply miss my family. I'm very close to my grandparents and I will miss them the most and it will be hardest on me to be away from them, but I am preparing myself for this. I know every trip back I'll be wondering, "Is this the last time I'll ever see them again?" I absolutely adore those two people and they have been a huge part of my life. The people I know as my grandparents are two of the sweetest people on Earth, especially grannie. :-) Of course I'll miss everyone else (parents and little sister especially), but I think it just makes sense to maybe miss people a little more when you're more at risk for losing them.
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On a bus in Tennessee.
Instead of eating the candy in
the box I'm chewing on the box.
Weird kid. |
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Fishing with grandpa.
This played out a bit differently
from a story I was told about Arild. ;-) |
Recently an uncle told me when I leave it will oxymoronically be like a living death and actually, I think he's right. This experience has given me a much different perspective on how I view my relationships with family. I think this situation is in some ways comparable to a terminal illness. I am preparing for the end of my life in America, although unlike a terminally ill person I am beginning a new life. I know I'm leaving soon (unlike a terminally ill person I am coming back to visit) so I'm selling and giving away my things, I'm mentally and emotionally preparing myself, I view my relationships differently, and I spend time with family differently now than before. Just as I was telling Arild the other day, I think this experience has matured me a lot and it's not even over with yet. It's like another area of my brain has suddenly begun working for extra insight and a broader perspective. I view my relationships with loved ones as more fragile, less stable and temporary, rather than taking them for granted. I've began analyzing how certain relationships function between me and loved ones and how some relationships will be more difficult to be away from the person than others. So with all of this, well, this was my plan to begin with, but I'm only inviting closest family and friends to my wedding. I don't want to be distracted or feel obligated to talk to someone I barely know who I only see every 5-6 years. I would just feel guilty from not focusing on the people I love the most. Time is valuable these days, but on my wedding day, I want to be with the sweetest man in the world and just walk outside with him to get away for a bit and enjoy being us. :-)
So there it is. Recording an observation and perhaps maybe, this could help someone seeking info in a similar situation. I know I like to read about expats lives and the situations they embrace, so here is something from me! :-)
T minus 70 days!!!
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