And its a snow day!!!!

We had high winds all night long until about mid-morning.  But we woke up to a thin layer of snow outside.  YIPPEEE, the kids and this mommy were excited.  Being from Texas and living there most of my life, snow is very rare except when we went on a ski vacation.  

This is what we woke up seeing outside :-)

We had plans to go back to Little Stars…decisions decisions.  I sent Jan a txt asking how the roads were and he said it was safe.  So the kids and I got into the car and drove to the Little Stars playgroup.  The roads were fine a little snow but nothing crazy.  There were only a couple of mom's today with their children, due to the weather.  I guess everyone was worried about the weather, but we need to get out and about.  We had a good time again, Rebecca really enjoys story time.  Today's craft was a paper roll Julenisse (Santa Claus).  I will be honest I did most of the work, Rebecca tried to us the scissors but was having some issues cutting the circle for the face.    

We headed back home and on our way home we pass the Sverd i fjell (Three swords monument).  Marcus was already asleep so I asked Rebecca, do you mind if I stop and take a photo. She said its ok, I will wait in the car with Marcus.  We always see people out taking photos when the weather is pretty but I wanted to capture a different side.  These photos were taken with full color, no photo editing was performed on the following photos.  It was pretty cool especially since no one else was out there, only this crazy lady from Texas.

 

After we get back home and have lunch, Bestemor came over for a visit and brought some of her famous Chocolate Cake, yummy to the tummy.  Rebecca then decides she wants to go outside and play.  hmmm  its 32F outside, ok but we need to put on warm clothes.  She didn't like that idea, Bestemor said she would stay inside and play with Marcus. He still isn't the happiest when we put all his insulated outerwear on to go outside.  So Rebecca and I get dressed and we go outside.  She is super happy…just look at her.

Making a snow angel

Snow was falling in her eyes…

She is so happy playing in the snow

Mommy watch out, I'm going to hit you with a snowball...

Rebecca's snow angel - not in the same place at photo above

My snow angel 

While we were playing in the snow, Marcus and Bestemor were watching us from the window.  I think he was happy not having to put on all the clothes.  Yes, it was cold.  I put all my ski pants in the ocean freight, so I only have thin pants, but I will be getting some this weekend.  There are lots of lessons learned on packing for a move already.

Norwegian Storm ~ winds 80+mph

I had my settling in meeting the the relocation company assisting us yesterday.  Most of the information I already knew about but I was also given some other helpful information.  At the end of the meeting, they asked if I had heard about the storm approaching…I had heard a tiny bit about it but not much.  Well for obvious reasons I haven't heard anything about it, because I don't read the newspapers or watch the news because I haven't started my Norwegian Language courses.  (But hopefully after we are settled in our house and after the holidays I will start my courses.)  I went to weather.com to view the weather, I had seen the forecast, 40-50mph winds, 100% chance of rain with some snow showers at times and possible wind gusts of 60mph.

So for the entire night, the wind howled something fierce.  Luckily I can sleep through almost anything.     Poor Rebecca gets frightened by thunderstorm in Houston.  I had warned her there might be some rain and wind to prepare her for the approaching storm.  Maybe I should have prepared myself a little better.

We woke up, ate breakfast and got ready for the day.   We had planned to try out a new play group called Tippy Toes, for toddlers.  I sent my friend, Audrey, a text to see if things were ever cancelled due to weather and she replied, "for the most part things go on unless you hear otherwise :-)."  So we put all our rain gear on and got in the car and went out on merry way.  We took a wrong turn again but not to worry, we found our way.  We go into a parking lot no signs or indication of a play group anywhere.  Then I see a barnehage (daycare) class walking so we get out of the car and I walk to the ladies and ask if they are the Tippy Toes group, NO.  They suggest I check in a nearby building.  I walk in and there are about 10-15 retired men sitting at the table having some coffee, I ask is the tippy toes group here.  They look at me like I have 3 heads, so I turn around and think, hmmm.  I look around outside in the rain and wind and see a building similar to a barn with lights on inside.  I told the kids lets try this building, still no signs anywhere, I look up stairs and there it is.  YIPPEE.  Only one mother there with two children and I had met her last week at the Little Stars group, it was nice to see a familiar face.  They were working on crafts, some Christmas cards with glitter so we joined in.  Marcus was more interested in the toys but Rebecca had fun with the glue & glitter, I assisted with the cutting portion of the craft.

Making a snowman card

Making a Christmas tree card

We played a little then, sang songs and read two books.  I enjoyed this play group as well.  We are trying to make new friends and find stuff to do.

Thankfully while we were away the winds and rain had subsided, but when we walked in the house it all started again.  We ate lunch and had some time to play then the weather really started getting worse. The kids didn't get too far away from me the entire afternoon.  Then Bestemor calls to check on us, I act like its just another storm, nothing alarming.  Jan has always told me the storms in Norway are fierce and hurricane like, so I didn't think anything about the wind and rain.  She tells me this storm is a little stronger than a typical winter storm.  Now, I get it…then I look on the internet and see winds in excess of 83mph, yes that is strong as a Category 1 hurricane.  I send Jan a text and tell him about the weather and to be careful coming home…he replies, hey can you go take some photos or take video the trees and sea.  So clue number 2, the weather is bad because he wants me to film it.  So I go out on the porch and the wind nearly knocks me off the porch not once, not twice but three times, HOLY MOLY.  The forecast says the winds should reduce some overnight and then a possibility of snow tomorrow.  Sorry I didn't take any photos of the storm, I wasn't going back out in the rain and wind again for photos :-p

If it snows, you can bet I will be posting again tomorrow.

Catch up...

Sorry its been a few days since the last post.  This past Saturday was a busy day, we drove into Stavanger Sentrum (city center), just to get some fresh air and walk around in town.  Bestemor sent over some newspaper clippings of things to do, and there was a display of gingerbread houses.  After we purchased my Norwegian iPhone we found the location of the gingerbread village.  It was so cute, and it even had an electric Santa train running through the houses.  Some of the houses looked professionally decorated and others looked like Rebecca and I had made them.  She has been begging me to make a gingerbread house, so I think in the next few weeks we will construct one.  Here are some of the photos I took of the gingerbread village…

Santa's train moving at high speeds

Rebecca's favorite…Hello Kitty

These two could have watched Santa's train fly around the corner forever…

Then in the afternoon, I met Gunn at Kvadrat (shopping mall in Sandnes) for a little shopping.  She gave me much needed information on the types of stores, although I am sure I will be asking a lot of repeat questions.  Things are a lot different here in Norway than at home in Houston, I miss my Target and HEB!!

Update on Car Shopping - We did buy my car, its a Volvo V50, I am really liking it.  I haven't had any issues parking as of today.  It isn't any of the cars I drove on the first two days, I found it when I was solo.  I did take the kids back and transferred both car seats for a test drive, being tall isn't all its cracked up to be…we need leg room and with car seats involved I had to make sure everyone was comfortable.  I enjoy driving a manual transmission again, but I could change my mind if I get stuck in traffic too many times ;-)

 

Little Stars play group

Today, we went to a play group in Sandnes called Little Stars.  I found this group on a Facebook page for expat parents here in Stavanger.  The ages range from infants to 5 years, but I believe Rebecca was the oldest today.  I think there were about 7-8 children today, which was a good size for our first time.  We were dressed and left almost on time, its a struggle trying to get these two Texas born children to put on layers with long sleeves & pants.  We arrived about 10 minutes after the play group started, because I took a wrong turn, well sort of I was in the wrong lane of a roundabout and had to exit.  There were only 3 other children when we arrived, but people kept arriving until 11:15a.  Rebecca was a little reluctant to start playing at first and needed time to warm up.  Marcus found some cars and trucks and started playing immediately.

There were tons of toys for the children in a big open room.  They had a fabulous play house with a kitchen inside.  It was open play until around 11 then we all sat in a circle and sang songs.  There were finger puppets and then it was story time.  I don't recall the  name of the book, but it was about whales.  Then later, I was informed by Rebecca it was about hump back whales.  She really enjoyed it when Tracy was reading the book to the children.  They provided a fruit snack for the children during story time, which was very nice. 

Then it was time to paint blue whales.  It was a good thing Marcus had a blue shirt on, because he was getting paint on himself as well as the paper.  They really had a good time painting.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Today, it's Thanksgiving in the USA.  Before you ask how Norwegians celebrate Thanksgiving, they don't ;-) its an American holiday.  This is when the Pilgrims and the Native Americans came together and had a feast, remember.  But don't worry we had our Thanksgiving dinner this evening.  It was sort of an adventure to get all the ingredients.  A typical dinner with my family would be a big Turkey, cornbread dressing, purple hull peas, sweet potato something, mashed potatoes, fresh cranberry sauce, homemade rolls, and lots of desserts. Today, we had a turkey breast, it was absolutely delicious, moist & tender, and the best part it only took 90 minutes in the oven. For my cornbread dressing, it had a little too strong of a corn taste to it, but I used Polenta instead of corn meal for the cornbread (corn meal isn't available here in Stavanger, so I had to use a substitute).  I also didn't have any celery, so that could have been it too.  So for the first cornbread dressing in many years without my mom pre-baking the cornbread I did ok.  I will definitely need to do some practicing.  We had mashed sweet potatoes and they were delicious and some canned green beans.  For dessert, we picked something up in the frozen section of the grocery store, it was a chocolate cake, but for a better description it was a brownie bottom, a chocolate mousse with dark chocolate shavings.  It was YUMMY, both kids asked for more. Sorry I didn't take too many photos today, I was trying to get things prepared so we could eat at 5 when  Jan came home from work.  Thanks to Bestemor for going to the grocery store with us and doing a lot of translating and asking the employees questions to make my American meal.

our 1st Thanksgiving in Norway

Today, I have thought a lot about what I'm thankful for, since I am not searching through the newspaper looking for the super deals for Black Friday.  It's my family and friends, both at home in Texas and here in Norway.  These last few months, have flown by and I can't believe its almost December, but so much has happened in such a short time.  We found out we would be moving to Norway mid-Setpember.  We listed our home and sold it in less than 30 days.  Packed up all our belongings and had them either shipped to Norway via air freight or ocean or put in storage.  I have always been the type of person who prefers to do things myself, but I have had to ask for help many times over the last few months.  I don't think there was ever a time I asked for help that I was told, no.  Some of my asking for help wasn't for fun tasks or was at the last minute, prior to the move and now we are needing help with logistics on this side of the Atlantic as well.  I am so lucky to have such a wonderful family and group of friends, you have no idea how much you mean to me.  

A family farm adventure

One of Jan's friends, Janus, told us about a farm that was having a type of "open house" today.  We have been to one before but not this one.  We drove to the farm…it was crazy busy.  The weather was a little on the cold side but sunny which is probably why everyone was out and about.  We walked up and started looking for the animal.  We saw a chicken coop but I don't think any of us went inside.  The next animal we saw were rabbits..

They were so curious...

Rebecca wanted to touch a little rabbit so bad..

This man offered to let her hold the rabbit but she was nervous

Marcus and I started walking out towards the goats and the sheep.  Rebecca and Jan had fallen behind and then when they caught back up to us…he said some girl walked up to Rebecca and asked her in Norwegian if she wanted to hold the rabbit but didn't really wait for an answer and put it in her arms…isn't this sweet.

Marcus isn't too comfortable in his new cold weather clothes so he likes to be carried a lot. 

Mr. Sheep was posing so I had to snap a photo.

She is so happy running around playing, the cold weather doesn't bother her

Lots of people enjoying the farm

 They had a snack area for visitors to buy Lapper (a version of pancakes) which Rebecca loved.  I think Marcus was a little nervous about trying it and didn't have any, but Rebecca ate his.  There were picnic tables and they were full of people.

The following photos are from the farm…it was very pretty looking out over the sea.  This nature in the country is so beautiful, I could snap photos all day long.

An actual adventure...

This morning, I left to go on my car shopping adventure alone.  Jan took the kids on an adventure by the sea.  From what I was told, it was an adventure just getting out of the house.  We had purchased some proper Norwegian winter clothes yesterday and getting the kids to try them on was exhausting.  I can only imagine what it was like doing it alone.  I think they had a good time…here are some of the photos from their adventure

yes, picking up ice with bare hands…

hmmm, what should we do now?

I think I will STOMP on it and break it!

Little brother coming to investigate.