American in Norway

Not sick like CRAZY..(maybe just a little) But sore throat...fever...just M I S E R A B L E ... & my darling husband spent last night trying to convince me that I could be the first case of SWINE FLU in Norway.... (yes, I married him for his charming personality...) "Thanks Honey" as I coughed & sneezed at all over him...(cause if I am going down...so is he!) So how about this SWINE FLU? (not thinking I have it... I am not that big of a hypochondriac...) It is really scary though isn't it? Every morning I flip on the news to see how many more cases have been reported... where it is moving... This week cases reported in Spain & today Germany... Here is hoping none of you/us will be affected...

REFELECTIONS .... To be considered as a winner for this week's challenge, your photo needs to have a reflection of a face in it (Kids - a child's face; Adults - an adult's face.) Be creative ~ the reflection can be in a mirror, glass, water....or any other way you can think of to show a reflection of the beautiful face you photograph! I know this isn't much of a FACE shot... but it is ME reflected in my daughters eye.... I was pretty excited when I saw this yesterday.... This was a so so shot of my daughter... taken at the beach on Sat. BEFORE I ♥ Faces,... I probably would have deleted the shot.... but when I looked closer... I saw my reflection.... I have seen so many cool shots others have done on I♥ faces, where I was just amazed by the subjects eyes... I never realized how easy it is to look in them & see something... So thank you I♥ faces for teaching me something cool! So head on over to I Heart Faces , & see who else is playing! Here is my "baby...

Guess what I found out this evening? I was chosen I ♥ Faces Fan of the Week on iHeartFaces - Sharing Photography of Faces The Week Ahead – Week 16 Photo Challenge and News (Go on click on the link...) there are O N L Y 1,000 + followers & they chose MOI... (high pitched squeal here, followed by a happy dance...) I am seriously THRILLED that they know who I am & that they know that I LOVE LOVE LOVE their site... If y'all haven't been by there, you need to go check them out... Although I am SOOOO out of my league I LOVE to play every week & check out everyone's pictures... that talent out there is AMAZING & sooo many ideas to grab/try... & ONE of these weeks... I am going to come up with something to WOW em all... really I will.... Thank you so much I ♥ Faces!

Something I forgot to share....I was planning on sharing this the day after the TIPI post.. Argh....I KNEW it! - my options... (Kelly, I was thinking the sames thing...marsha marsha marsha..from my favorite bunch...) But of course I got sidetracked..... Then MARSHA...MRS. IDONTHAVEABLOG left another funny comment which made me laugh & I remembered I had to share.... Marsha...why don't you have a blog? ..you are F U N N Y! (or do you & the link isn't showing up?) on the question should I be a dork & camp in the TIPI or not.. Marsha :o) said... I would say C all the way.Sure, people may laugh and point, but there are benefits to looking weird. 1) If you have to tinkle in the middle of the night, you don't have to worry about wondering into a strangers tent 2) If you hear people make comments, you can run up to them and say my favorite line, "don't stare, it may be contigious" 3) Your kids will need something to tell their therapist when they grow up...

It's Friday, It's Friday, Thank Goodness it's Frid ay!!! YIPPEE!I'm playing Candid Carrie's Friday Foto Fiesta Finish again this week .So after you're done here, go over there and check out who's playing thi s week!!! This is my SCANDINAVIAN COWBOY... Dane Colten on his 8th B-day Its THAT time of the year again...Dane's birthday time..... Oh sure, his birthday isn't for another month... but we have to start planning NOW... He told me last year he was O V E R the "theme" parties... he was just too big for them.... (mommy, a little sad...) "Oh okay... honey whatever you want..." So for this year, We thought about a trip to the amusment park... "nah... Magnus dosen't want to go...because Olliver doesn't want to go---" whatever... Go cart racing? RIP off.... it came to about $50 per child for a soda & 15 min of drive time... We are running out of time! What are we going to do? Finally baby boy AGREED to have O...

makes me proud to be almost Norwegian ... Ida Maria was on Jay Leno last night... any of y'all catch it? I posted about Ida here American in Norway: Best day E V E R ! LAST YEAR.... ( I am kindda cool when it come to music... just ask Kelly) Finally Norway has another musical export.... maybe y'all remember the last Norwegians who made a splash in the United Sates.... (24 years ago...) Its about time.... The FIRST Nowegian boys I ever loved... sigh...

This week was SELF PORTRAITS week at I Heart faces.... So many amazing pictures were posted.... there were many brave folks proudly showing their faces C L O S E UP... Proud of every line & scar...signs of the life they have led..... You will notice my picture was PRETTY light.... amazing how the light takes away all of the little lines.... lines that I am not ready to embrace.... hell NO... I started fantasizing about that TV show..."How to Look 10 years younger".... Oh I would totally do it! (although I am pretty sure you have to be missing a few teeth to get on the show...) I'd like to get a few nips & tucks... lift a little here... fill in a little there... sigh.... one of these days... when we hit the lotto... oh the money I would spend... sigh.... this afternoon I opened an email from one of my friends..... with a picture of RUPERT.... I LOVE RUPERT... he is my fantasy Gay Best Friend..... (not really... I already have BEST Gay Friend... I am not willing...

My sister suggested yesterday that I looked like Lady GaGa in the picture I posted yesterday... Um ya...I wish I could run around town in a leotard all day like the Lady... I know my sister & am PRETTY SURE she was referring to the blond hair & the eyelashes... ahem... Thanks to A Canadian in Norway for sending me over to MyHeritage.com find out who I REALLY look like... Hmmm, interesting..... Paula Abdul I have heard before, but James Gardner & Whoopi Goldberg now that was a surprise...

What a HAAARD week to play... But I Heart Faces ,...(I really do!) & I wanted to play... posting pictures of myself , by myself , over the age of 2, isn 't my favorite thing to do. My much older sister (happy b- days sista ) saw the picture & said I looked like LADY GAGA ... I don't think she meant is as a com pliment ... So here it is... My non -Poker face.... So head on over to I Heart Faces , & see who else is playing ! I was pretty sure I had alot of self portraits with my kids...but no... I don't... Hmm, & was he really this little? I need to start snapping more shots with my babies.. This me... in all of my mommy glory... No makeup.. & lots of sun... (Dane & I were just home from a day on the beach...) I changed the background so the beach towel wasn't so obvious. head on over to see who else is playing... I Heart Faces

Shit.... I knew the answer before I asked y'all... just like I KNEW my husband was a dork when he showed up on our first "BEACH" date wearing a Banana Hammock ... (speedo) I told myself he wasn't a dork... he was just very, VERY European .... Nope he's a dork all right... (that is also how I knew I really loved this one... I loved him despite all of his dorkiness...) As the voting continues, I think the general con-census is the LAVVO/Ti Pi is in fact NOT the coolest when you are not camping in Norway.... (please feel free to tell me what you think...) CRAP... because now that the kids know we have a Tee Pee... I will be outvoted 3-1 (of course the 4 & 9 year old think the Tee Pee is cool) So now I am left weighing my options..... I can.. A.) Convince the husband & kids that camping across Europe wouldn't really be as much fun as I had promised & suggest we stay in Norway where Lavvo's are acceptable... B.) Pretend to not know any of them w...

So as y'all know we are planning a camping trip this summer... let me just say we are NOT campers .... Both Bjørn & I camped as children with our families.... but that doesn't make us campers.... But this summer we feel like we are ready to become a family of REAL campers... (although we are not...) which means buying all of the camping gear..... I noticed a sale at a local sporting goods store.. & suggested Bjørn go ahead & buy the tent for our trip.... I picked it out... took pictures of it... he just needed to pick it up..... Do you think he picked the tent up?... NOOOOO.... darling husband came home with a FREAKING.... HUGE...TIPI ... or Teeeee Peeeee as I like to call it.... (the whole southern accent going on there) Bjørn... "its not a teeee peeee... its a LAVVO ..." Me ... "teeee peeee" Bjørn .."LAVVO" You get the picture..... But hubby promised me that LAVVO's are the best thing going... totally cool.. & we won...

Friday Foto Fiesta.. P A R I S ... It's Friday, It's Friday, Thank Goodness it's Frid ay!!! YIPPEE!I'm playing Candid Carrie's Friday Foto Fiesta Finish again this week .So after you're done here, go over there and check out who's playing thi s week!!! I know many of you have seen this before.... but it is still one of my favorites.... Me & my BFF Song for Whoever young, single-ish & backpacking through Europe... with a break in PARIS.... (remember how simple life was back then Kelly?) Guess who is going back to PARIS this summer? Can you guess? Oh yes, I have started making the holiday plans... which includes 3 days at EuroDisney -Paris... & a couple of extra days in the city.. (there is going to have to be a fine balance to keep the kids interested yet learn something at the sametime...) I would love to think this time around I will be a little less funky for all of our Paris pictures... but considering we are "camping" for ...

Needed a few days off because I am T I R E D... I wish i could say I have been doing something constructive... but they were really just mental health days... Thank you to all of you who have asked about Bjørn... I will be making rounds to all of your blogs... just trying to get caught up. Bjørn is doing great... he will be in the hospital until next Monday as long as no other complications pop up. His arm appears to be healing... & he is just finishing his antibiotics.... He told me yesterday that he hopes nothing goes wrong because "it has gone so SMOOTH this time..." What? Whatever... So during my time away from my laptop I was tagged & received 2 awards.... TAG... Donna from Email From The Embassy tagged me for Around the World in 80 Clicks . I’m supposed to share 5 things I love about being a mother. Then tag other mom's around the world... 5 things I love about being a mother... 1.Everything about Dane.. 2.Everything about Eva OK.. I know that sounds like...

I ♥ Faces...Spring.... At iHeartFaces - Sharing Photography of Faces the theme this week is - S P R I N G

I ♥ Faces...My friend & I.... Darn, I was too late this week..(lots going on you know...) this was the photo I was going to use... Dane my 9 year old took it.... some of my favorite pictures are taken by Dane... I really hope he sticks with it

Yesterday, after speaking ro Bjørn, I was going to hop on the computer & post my "MAD AS HELL" post... Thankfully my American Dr. friend called me as soon as she received my message & talked me down.... she tried to explain things to me... Basically Bjørn has a Staph infection... "Gul"... the yellow kind... (that doesn't make sense to me either...) But he is on heavy antibiotics & will be in the hospital probably from 1-2 more weeks. I had my whole list of things I was mad about yesterday.... WHY & HOW did he get this STAPH infection... he has had to have been walking around with this infection for the past 10 months... (any wise medical person please correct me if I am wrong...) WHY didn't they find this when he went to the Dr. 2.5 months ago? instead of shrugging their shoulders & sending him home? WHO thought it would be a good idea to let his scar RUPTURE? Additional things that upset me..... After surgery he was put in a 4 man'...

An expatriate (in abbreviated form, expat) is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person's upbringing or legal residence. The word comes from the Latin ex (out of) and patria (country, fatherland). (stolen from wikpedia...) First let me say that when I start getting all whiny & saying that I want to GO HOME... It has nothing to do with NORWAY ... There are many WONDERFUL things about living here in Norway.... I tend to get down & homesick when I have not -so-good-stuff- going on..... & just want to be home ...my home... with my family. My dearest friend here in Norway is named Leanna (also an expat...) & we know that we can always call each other & say "I am having a I hate (insert country) day..." & vent away.. Do we really hate the country? NOOOOOO... of course not... But somedays... living in a foreign country isn't as glamorous as all of my FACEBOOK friends think.... I thin...

What a year.... just when I think we are D O N E... we get hit with another WHAMMY.... Say a little prayer for us.... Bjørn is having complications with his arm... & looks like they are going to take him in on Monday & open his arm up AGAIN.... Can I just whine a little now... & say (scream) I WANT TO GO HOME! I am SICK TO DEATH of the "mystery" illnesses & ailings here.... Not sure what it is? lets just call it a virus... or i dunno... say that your body is healing itself... (from WHAT?) About 6 weeks ago Bjørn noticed a golf ball sized lump under his scar.... it worried him enough to make an appointment.... What did the Dr. say? Hmmmmmmm... not really sure.... Hmmmmmm took a few x-rays, but couldn't EXPLAIN anything to us.. ( in regards to what it may be...) they did make another appointment to come back & check it a month later..... by this time...(last week) the golf ball, had started getting smaller & moving closer to the surface... they told ...