Quick update. . .

Life is getting busy here, and my computer is on the fritz. Seeing that the nearest Apple repair shop is in Oslo, it might be a while before I am fully back "on line".

Quick update, on things I really intended to write entire blog entries about, but can't seem to find the time. . .

1) uhhhh. . . so, this kind of delayed news, but. . . we bought a house! We took possession about a month ago, and immediately tore down walls, ceilings, floors, and 50 years of bad wallpaper choices. Will definitely write more on this later.

2) am beginning to pack for the upcoming move. We must be out of our rented house at the end of June, but our "new" house will in no-way-imagineable be inhabitable. So, we'll spend 3 weeks in a friends house while they are on vacation, and then hopefully move half-way into Our House.

3) it has been exactly one year to the day that the international movers pulled into our driveway and began to pack up our every belonging. It was a much anticipated, exciting, exhausting, nerve-wracking, incredibly stressful, sad, bittersweet day. It truly seems much longer than a year ago.

4) have heard that a letter from SAFH (regarding my nursing license) is on its way! Erik has been calling their office for literally months trying to reach the person handling my case, and was told today (the first time he has spoken to someone since before Easter--yes, two months ago) that a letter is in the mail, and they are requesting. . . verification of the hours that I worked as a nurse. We are crossing our fingers that this is all they need, and that I am now at the top of their "to-do" list.

5) summer seems to have arrived, along with torrential downpours and glorious evenings. Greta is excited about wearing shorts and has new sandals that arrived along with her Great Aunt Martha and Great Uncle Gary from Boston. We had a short, but very sweet visit with our favorite Jewish uncle and Greta's #2 producer of handknit gifts.

6) as of today, the sun sets at 10:51pm and will rise tomorrow at 3:45am. It essentially never gets dark. This makes it very difficult to convince oneself that it is actually time to sleep. Thankfully, Greta has only once asked why she was going to bed when "it's still daylight out". Tika, on the other hand, begins wandering around the house around 4am, wondering why the rest of us aren't stirring yet.

And that's the news from Lillehammer. Where all of the women are blonde, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are even blonder.