This weekend is mostly work for me, so it was so nice that MT could spend some hours at his uncle and aunt’s place instead of tagging along with me.

We had a special remembrance service at church where we invited the families, that had lost a dear one the last year, to come and be together for an hour of song, prayers, lighting of candles and hope. It was a good service, but not something MT would have had so much use for. He was better off playing with his cousins.

When I got to their house to pick him up and stepped out of the car I looked down on my phone only to find a message from my brother:

Are you coming soon? Dinner is ready!

It was such a sweet and nice surprise. Tasty as well. Thank you so much guys!!

—————————–> What are you thankful for today?

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This is the fifth post in a series of Thankful post for the month of November 2011. I use the prompts from Katrina Kennedy’s November Photo Idea List as a starting off point and find at least one thing I am grateful for each and every day. If you want to play along please share your thoughts in the comments or link us up to your blog.

It was the people that came that made the day so good. All but one of my extended family could be there. My brother and his family as well. And some of my good good friends too. Some I hadn’t seen for a year or more. So nice to catch up and see how much the children have grown.

As usual I wanted to have a barbecue. Setting out the meat and vegetables and letting my guests take whatever they wanted and grill it themselves. I was a bit worried about the weather, but we did all right. Most of the children played outside for a long time, and we had room in the farm house for all when needed.

Off course I wished we could have been outside all day in the sunshine and soaked up the warm weather; that would have been great! Sitting under our apple treas, going to and from the BBQ as we wished and needed.

Maybe next time. I like to do this kind of birthday celebration every 5 years. I have already placed the weather wish for 2016 Then I want some sun!

Thanks for reading this. I promise there will be some photos from this day eventually…. and maybe some words as well about being 40.

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Look for my 10 on the 10th blog post later today. I need some sleep

My mom cooked us dinner (lovely fish dinner) and we spent the most of the afternoon outside in the beautiful spring weather. MT and his two cousins had fun (most of the time) running around, playing ball and discover nature. They also helped me cut a few branches for our Easter service on Palm Sunday.

My brother helped me with some light issues on my car and my SIL helped me make a wreath of thorns for our Easter service on Palm Sunday. In the evening there were coffee and cakes.

It was a really nice and relaxing day and I’m so glad we got to spend some hours together.

(all photos link to my Flickr account where each photo has a little bit of description to it if you want to read.)

Thank you for looking! Have a great Monday

We’re going swimming at a pool and MT is over the top excited (it’s part of his birthday gift from me). Glad to spend some more time with him before work and school starts up again tomorrow.

I woke up by his little shout of delight. ‘KOAS! Koas.‘ It was his first morning in his new house, in his new country. Everything was new to him, even the language – so he spoke his own; but something made him wake up with a smile. He found a football (a pillow formed as a ball, I might add) in his bed. He loved footballs, I knew that. And even though everything was new to him, it didn’t matter that much. He had a football in his bed and he felt right at home.

I can hardly believe that it’s 5 years since that morning. But today it is.

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Here is a link to a post I made on the 14th October 2005. He’s still a wonderful kid, I’m so blessed for having him in my life. The photo above is taken in Ethiopia on the very day we became a family of two.

I have a verse in the Bible I turn to over and over again. It makes me feel safe in Gods hands; just as MT here was feeling safe hand in hand with his Grandparents. I wish I could put all my worrying to God and let him take care of it for me,  I can’t always do that, but I try often. 

Safe, walking with happy steps.

So do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Somehow I always get new strength when I return to this words from Isaiah 41:10.

So we had a little garden party last Sunday, with my brother + family and my mom and dad. It was so nice to fire the BBQ grill again and be together on one of the few nice, warm and sunny days of August (so far). And MT was so happy, after being a bit sad over missing out on our last gathering in the garden (my birthday, also see below).

The nice thing about Sunday was that it took little to no planning. We just brought with us whatever we had on hand. I didn’t even have time to clean the house before this or set the table outside, we just didn’t care about the mess. It was more important for us to enjoy the afternoon and evening together. And to be honest they are family and know about my quirks and messes anyway.

My brother was nice enough to be the grill chef and barbecue the food for us. Thanks again We enjoyed being together, the food and the weather.

And we had some fun too.

Both kids and grown ups.

Later we spent some time talking about this and that, so great to be together and catch up on life. And the I got some help from all the guys to move a closet into my bed room too. Yay, it was a really good day. Now I have room for more clothes upstairs. Note to self: The closet needs some washing… and you need to fill it with clothes too.

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Anyhow, here is a scrapbook layout I made from the last barbecue in the garden, the birthday one (the one MT missed and felt a little left out of when he realized that his cousins where there and he was on vacation in western Norway).

Credits:
Template by Scrapping with Liz
Papers and element from Finley by Sweet Tomato designs (the red paper and banner is recolored)
Click the image and jump over to Flickr for journaling…

We went to a fair on Saturday.  It’s called Dyrsku’n (dyr = animal) from the beginning when farm animals (horses, cows etc.) where more important then carousels and cutlery.

The fair is local to us and one of the biggest fairs in Norway. We were one of ca. 30000 visitors that day – about 70000 visitor in total for the weekend – and that is in a village of ca. 2500 people. I can remember going to the fair every single year when I was kid; a great September tradition in our family.

MT went there for his first time last year. Now he was eager to get past the gate another time. There is a lot to see, a lot to buy and a lot of people. This time we even took time to watch the horse show.

MT was most interested in the amusement park part of the fair, though – and he went through his tickets like fire (he only had 6 and then his cousin got two so no wonder it went fast). But he got to do what he wanted to (at least almost, because he was too small (thankfully) for a few of the larger carousels and one cost more money than I was willing to pay).

Here he’s driving electric car and below he is in the Ferris Wheel, both with his cousin. He also got to walk through the fun house and jump on a trampoline (his all time favorite last year – this year I think it was the ferry wheel that topped the list).

This year we only went one day so we didn’t do much shopping (nice for my valet), mostly we spent our money on food, sweets and carousels. lol.

We spent a great deal of the day with my brother, his wife and their daughter. Nice!

I’m trying out Lightroom2 this month and I’m trying to develop the photos using presets and some basic adjustments. It’s fun – and the outcome can be quite different than what I envisioned at the beginning. All of these photos where taken with my iPhone (= not good quality photos), but a few of them turned out really good after some time in the lightroom . Let me know what you think!

MT has stated practicing his writing skills.

We’ve been busy running around meeting people today. Some familiar faces (thanks for dinner SIL! + for candy mom!) and some new faces (nice to meet you new colleagues!).

We visited my new office (where I start in October), I’ve been interviewed for a local newspaper right outside one of the churches (the only one of three that I haven’t been inside off) – and only a few 100 meters down from the new house. [Being interviewed is always both a bit scary and a bit fun, I only hope I found the right words and that I didn't say anything stupid(!) - I probably did.] Then we walked to the store and bought a little lunch snack before we headed back to town and stopped by my brother’s house. I so look forward to doing this on a regular basis when we move closer! At around 4:30 pm MT finally got his wish for the day a stop by a indoor swimming pool(s) – he had so much fun and I promised we’ll return once we’ve moved there. He’s getting really good at practicing his swimming, not long before he actually can do it (and not only say that he can swim). [But in the end he got to confident and got into a little trouble. He broke the not-in-deep-water rule, one of the few really important ones when I'm not in the water with him. So he won't be taking another swim in the pool this month.....not that I planned it anyhow.] At the end of the the day we met mom and dad outside the store, just for a quick little chat. Nice to see them too. Not many photos from today, though…

Tomorrow he’s going to a farm with his class. Better figure out where the farm is(!) Night!!

Today have been a mix max of feelings and time spent with family and friends. We’ve both laughed and cried while we celebrated a woman that was very dear to us and that we got to spend so much quality time with.

It was the day of our Grandma’s funeral and we all had planned and gotten different things to do, say or sing. Even a couple of her great grand children placed roses on her coffin to say their thanks.

It’s been a good day, and I’m glad to know that my mummy feels that way to. It was of course sad as well and we all wanted her to be there with us like she’s been for so many years. It felt so good to be together with so many that had loved her and to know that she knew how many of us felt – we are a family of talkers (more or less) and my Grandma was good with reading people.

I’m just leaving you with a few photos from the day. I took a lot of people photos, not many of them any great since I didn’t use flash and people moved around…. Anyhow above and below are a few of those I took today, ending with a beautiful full moon taken outside our house when we got back home.

I’m going to go to sleep now; this day have been far to long already. I didn’t sleep much last night (4-5 hours) worrying about the speech I was going to hold about my Grandma at the funeral (it went well, thankfully) – so I’m really tired to put it mildly.

Below is my favorite, recent, photo of Grandma (or Mormor as I call her in Norwegian = mothers mother). There will be more later in the week about her and about this day. But for now: Good Night!

We went to a family party yesterday afternoon. It was nice to be with them and sort of a tradition each summer. We ate barbecue outside and then cakes and coffee inside (since it started raining). In the late evening the rain stopped and the temperature wasn’t that bad so we all (not all come to think of it, but me, kiddo, my brother and his wife and kids) went to have a night swim in a nearby lake. The water was so warm and we had a great time together. Swimming, laughing, splashing and talking. Love you guys!!

Hoping to return to this lake another time this summer.