christmas 2008

Merry Christmas! Yeah I know I'm a bit late. I have been very busy stuffing my face with lollies and chocolate. It have gone so far that I'm dreaming of having fish for dinner tonight..

We did have a good celebration though. There was good food - lots of it. Presents, surprisingly many actually to just be the two of us. Music, fun and of course lollies... way to much lollies.

The tree

our yummy dinner

sweet

silly

Christmas day - 31weeks,6 days

advent

3 years

milestone

On wednesday afternoon I stepped onto the tram on my way home from work and for the first time ever I had three people jump up and offer me their seat....

It never happen when I was pregnant with Sami. I still remember having to ask a young guy if I could please sit when I was 36 weeks. Yeah I know it was in the middle of the winter and I was all bundle up so I probably looked more fat then pregnant. But the fact that Hameed had to practically push and carry my up the 3 steps onto the tram because I was so swollen in my legs I could not bend my knees should have clued people into that I might needed to sit down.

Anyway I guess I'm looking pregnant now and not just fat

27 weeks

I had to smile at the line with my ticker for this week. New Jersey is a fair distance from here but I am very tempted to drop kick the next person who ask me 'how are you feeling?' The worst I think is that it is usually women who ask me, women who have been pregnant, women who probably still got sick of that line. Yet they still ask.

I think the only one worse is one of my co-workers who keep asking me 'how is your baby' - I never know how to answer that one. I assume Sarah is alright. She seems to be growing as she is getting stronger, but I can not see or talk to her so I have no idea how she is really is.

I'm still pretty comfortable and sleeping very well at night. I sure appreciate it. I enjoy being able to still be very active and work full-time with very little problems. I am tired at the end of the day and most of my weekends goes to sleep and rest but I am still doing very well and my feet are not the tiniest bit swollen yet.

Last Saturday I got another niece. My brother in law called right after she was born and was so excited. We got very little details out of him though. Thanx to my sisters in law we got to see picture and even got a name. She is named Mariyam Eshal.

no pink clothes

My number one grip about expecting a girl while I am living in Australia is that there seem to be close to no clothes to be found that is not pink, purple or otherwise ridigelose frilly and girly.

I started to search online for more options and found clothes in Norway which was more my taste and since I finally found something I went a bit bananas and bought heaps. I think Sarah should be set with tops for a while.

And talking about girls. Hassan and Fahy welcome their baby daughter last night so I got a new baby niece. The report is that everything is well with mother and baby and dad is over the moon.

growing

20 week scan

1 year and 7 months ago, Hameed and I went to our first ever 20 week scan. I still remember how excited we were that day. We were joking and laughing on our way to the hospital and still discussion whether we should find out if we were expecting a girl or a boy. At that point the 20 week scan just meant being able to find out the sex for us.

Then our world came tumbling down. We found out we were expecting a boy, but he had lots of problem. That 20 week scan more then 1 year ago was the first scan in a long row of scans and tests and there seems to be something new to worry about every time.

Today we went for a 20 week scan again. Today we were very well aware of that the important part of the scan was to see if this baby have any of the problems her big brother had.

Today, 1 year and 7 months later, we got that joyful scan we were expecting the first time. Everything looks prefect and healthy and it is a girl.

my new favorite

some days ago..

actually 19 years ago (wow I'm old). This is my school picture in 9th grade. I was 15.

introducing pepito

this is pepito at 12 weeks, 4 days. Very cute

So far everything looks good. Still nervous, but not as bad as we were. Pepito is schedule to arrive around mid February.

more trouble then help..

My computer is struggling with old age and I guess me spilling water and tea on it every now and then does not help much either... About 1 year ago my computer decided that he did not want to be shut down anymore. If I try, he just restart. The only way to shut it down is to hold the power button down until it does shut down - which you of course are not supposed to do.

My computer also sometimes decided to go very S L O W and do some random things every once in a while that no one asked him to do. My husband has been using my computer a bit more lately and all this little quirks are driving him insane.

So today he decided to reboot my computer. It was about 1 hour of work which would have been fine if the result had been as desired. It turns out my computer like to be rebooted just as much as he like to shut down. It was impossible to fix the problems... And then of course after figuring this out my husband was tired of my computer so I was left with a computer less useful then before. I had no MSN anymore or Firefox or my bookmarks. So basically my computer nerd husband has been more trouble then help for me. After pouting a bit I got him to help me put everything back on so now things are pretty much back to normal.

I can feel it

Australian Idol is starting tomorrow and for the last weeks they have been driving me insane with their ad for the show. The ad is the top 100 singing a song called 'can you feel it' and since they play it all the time it get stuck no matter how much I dislike the song. I'm not really feeling it but I will still see Idol - I love that show.

What I can feel though it was the first day of spring is getting closer. It is 9 days left and today it was sunny and so warm that I was able to skip the jacket and just wear a jumper. The sun is something I never will be tired of feeling.

one day at the time..

Today is 1 year since Sami left us. This has been a difficult and long week but we have gotten though it one day at the time. We know it is better for Sami to be in heaven but it is still hard without him.

I found a quote and I like to think this is true for Sami.

An angel opened the book of life and wrote down the baby's birth. Then she closed the book and whispered: "too beautiful for earth". ~author unknown

sweet

I'm reading a blog written by Mrs Hub. She has 3 kids and have decided to give them some special memories. One of the things she is doing is to serve them dessert for dinner once a week. As nice as that sound I always wonder how they get full of just dessert. I'm perfectly able to eat dinner and 2 serves of dessert.

On Saturday though, Hameed decided to by a apple crumble for us to cook and he got icecream too. He got home from the store about 2 hours before our normal dinner time and apple crumble sounded so much better then dinner so I decided to cook it right away and have it for 'dinner'. It was great. Looks good,right?



But as I suspected it did not fill me for long so a few hours later I had to make dinner anyway...


My little sister Solgunn is also very sweet. This is Solgunn. I promise she is very nice even though she look scary here.



Tomorrow Sami would have been 1 year old. We still miss him terribly and it is hard not to be able to celebrate his first birthday with lots of presents and cake smooching. My sister was think of us and decided to send us a little care pack. She wrote a nice little card and included a copy of her favorite movie and a big block of chocolate. Solgunn, I know Hameed told you already, but it meant so much to us. Thank you!

lazy sunday

Given how cold it has been here lately I thought the picture or lazy polar bears where fitting.

Today I have done nothing. Non. Nada. Nix. Well I have eaten and surfed on the internet, but I have pretty much not lifted my butt from the cough all day. It has been so nice.

My husband wanted to visit a friend today and since I was feeling very lazy I decided to stay home. He left me this morning not showered yet in front of my computer and came back home about 6 hours later... I was still in the same spot and had yet to shower. I felt a bit bad then and have now got my self cleaned up.

I loved being able to be lazy though and since it is so cold there is not much else to do.

bad parents

Recently there has been a big fuss in the news about child neglect cases that has been discovered.

A few weeks back the police found 18 month old twins dead in their Sydney home. They had been look into their bedroom. The dad apparently knew nothing about this (even though he was at home) the mum's responds when the police found them was "oh, I guess I didn't feed them enough". I feel so sorry for those kids.

Then this week a family with several children who used to live in Victoria had their children taken away from them. The children are severe malnourished and filthy but it seems like they will be alright after proper medical treatment and care.

This lase case have caused the public to demand child protection do their job better and also share information with agency in other states. This family had raised concerns when they lived in Victoria. The neighbors had called the child protection, but when investigations started the family upped and moved to South Australia. Police was finally able to intervene after one of the children had been hospitalized which cause the authorities to check on the rest of the children in the household.

I will never understand how anyone can treat children like that.

Narnia

Hameed and I went to see the new Narnia movie the other day. We have VERY different tastes in movies so it do not happen often that we agree to go to the movies together. Anyway we did agree on seeing this one and we both liked it oki. The movie was not great but it was not bad either. It has been so long since I read the books that it took me a while before I understood what was going on. We both really loved the last song though. It is so beautiful I almost feel like crying when I hear it...

come on out

I added a visitor map to the blog and it has been interesting to see where people who read my blog are from. I was expecting one from Hommersaak, Norway (hi mum) and I think the one from Canada is Lisa, but I have no idea about the rest.

So If you read my blog please leave a comment. I promise I'll visit your blog in return.

counting down

I never like winter. Well except from the snow part. I do love snow. But I do not like winter as in being cold all the time, having to wear 4 layers of clothes and lots of rain. Not to mention the illness. I ALWAYS get sick when it is winter. I'm just now getting a bit better from a bad cough which has made me unable to sleep for a few night in a row. So now I am tired and cold.

All winter is good for is to curl up under a blanket and sip hot chocolate. Let's hope September 1st will be here soon.

birthday show

all about me

it is my birthday and I have gotten a fair bit of attention, which is cool but also a bit awkward.

Anyway, the day started with a birthday greeting from my husband. When I got to work I found out my co-worker had let all the parents know about my birthday so I got some happy birthday wishes. Another co-worker got 'my' kids to sing for me (I am so getting her back on that one).

At lunch time I found out that they had bought a ice cream cake so I could share a birthday treat with 'my' kids. And of course they had to sing for me again. In the afternoon all the kids in the whole creche came into my room. I got a present from all the staff and another song. Yay.

A bit after 4 a delivery guy came to the door with a giant bouquet of flowers.As soon as I saw the flowers I suspected it was from Hameed and I was right. They were beautiful.



When I got home I got another song, cake and a card. Hameed also made me dinner - yummy lasagna. Today have been all about me and I guess I deserved it since I am now a whole year older.

love thursday

On my last day as a 33 year old I got a parcel from my mum and my sister. The parcel contained two of my favorite things; chocolate and a knitted sweater.

The sweater was a bit to short, but still nice and warm. And the chocolate... the chocolate was so good that it was a miracle I still had something left to take picture of...



Happy love thursday

tuesday thirteen

today's thirteen is about movies. Thirteen movies worth seeing more then once.

1. The notebook. I don't think I ever have cried as much watching a movie as I did watching this one. But still I love it. Probably my favorite movie ever.

2. Empire records. We came across this movie accidentally actually. My sister and I got 10 movie at a special deal from the video store and there was some mix up so we ended getting Empire records instead of some other movie. Bored as we was we watched it anyway and I think we are all glad we did. Every time I see it I wish I worked in a record store.

3. Much ado about nothing. Another movie I watched just because I was bored. I was alone at our summer house and meant to study for exam. One night I decided to watch the movie instead thinking it surly would be boring seeing it was a Shakespeare movie. Boy was I wrong. I never knew Shakespeare could be so funny.

4. Pretty woman. I remember my cousin (a guy) saying this was a great movie and since I was very much looking up to him then (! was 16, he was 18) I rented it as soon as I could. My favorite scene will always be when Vivian go back to the store which refused to let her buy anything and tell them they made a big mistake.

5. Dirty dancing. I think all the girls in my class had a crush on Patrick Sways. Well everybody exept me. I would have love to dance as well as him though. I didn't really *get* the song "time of my life" until I met Hameed.

6. Juno. I borrow this movie from a girl I work with and it is actually one of the few movies both me and Hameed liked. The story is great and the humor is awesome.

7. Monsters Inc. I have no idea how many times we have seen this one. Again this is one of the few movies we both like and when there is nothing on tv this is a easy choice.

8. Freedom writers. I am a sucker for stories about a great teacher turning bad student into nice kids.

9. Hotel Rawanda. Sad, heartbreaking and also a movie which make you remember how good your life really is.

10. Shrek. Love animation movies and this one has great lines also for adults.

11. Shrek 2. One of the few movies were the second movie is just as good or maybe even better then the first one. Puss in boots is to cute.

12. Schindlers list. A long movie, but so worth seeing. It is horrible and even worse knowing it all happen. A great movie to see so you never forget.

13. Bourne Identity. My husband will be very surprised to see this movie on my list. It is actually one of the few action movies I did enjoy. However the first was good, the next two was a bit to much.

no wonder

Australia have a weight problem. I bought a chicken sandwich and a bottle of water for lunch today and had to pay 7.30. If I had bought a can of coke instead of water it would have cost me 5.00..

its a giraffe*

*apparently there should be an ' e' at the end of giraffe

"my" kids are for some reason become totally into giraffes and since our program is supposed to follow the kids interest I thought I give them a giraffe to look at.

In one of my more creative modes I decided that the tall window was perfect for a giraffe. I am not however creative enough to draw a giraff, not even a funny cartoonish one, so I tricked Hameed into drawing it for me.

He drew the giraffe on a big piece of butcher paper so all I had to do was to sticky tape the paper to the window on the outside and then paint the outline. I started the painting yesterday and finish up with the yellow parts today. The kids though it was cool and all day they have been telling us: 'its a giraffe'. And that is were we as staff have fun and say something like; oh I thought it was a cow - yes we are mean.

The giraffe turned out very good. She is still in need of a name though, any suggestions?

suits him

Hameed has to wear a suit for his job interviews and such and really I am not complaining. I think he looks great. He on the other hand is not to keen on this suit thing and would prefer wearing jeans and a t-shirt. He changed his clothes pretty quick after he got home.The only reason I got the photo was because I jumped in front of him with the camera as soon as he got home. Aren't you glad you got to see how good he looks?

Please don't look at the mess behind him...

tuesday thirteen

I have seen several blogs having thursday thirteen. I figured I change it a bit and do a Tuesday one instead. Here is my list for today.

Thirteen things I miss from Norway

1. my mums freshly baked bread. Nothing is like coming home and be able to eat warm bread with heaps of nutella.
2. chocolate. Norwegian chocolate just taster better.
3. the first day of spring. We have spring here too but it not quit the same. I really miss the feeling of that first day when you realize it is warm enough to not have to wear your big coat.
4. 17 of May celebration. I'm proud of that the national day celebration in Norway is mainly focused on kids. It is always lots of fun too.
5. small candy. I really really miss being able to go to the store and buy a BIG bag of small candy.
6. Hot dogs. Norwegian hot dogs are better.
7. being able to go into a grocery store and buy a bag of sweet buns and chocolate milk for breakfast or lunch. This was one of my staples when I was a student.
8. dialects. I love that if I talk my dialect properly people who live in other parts of Norway have trouble understanding me. My dialect have lots of special words.
9. be able to go home to my parents house when ever I feel like it. Even when I lived in Oslo they were still only abut 30 min plane ride away. It was always nice to land on our local airport,Sola, and feel 'home'
10. dolly pizza. THE best pizza in the whole world.
11. annoying my sisters. Don't think that one need any more explanation
12. blueberries. There is blueberries growing in the forest in Norway( well at least there were)Pancakes and fresh blueberries is just sooo good.
13. christmas. It has been 5 years since I had a 'proper' Christmas at home. I miss the food and all our quirky traditions.

memories

I made baked ziti for dinner tonight. Baked ziti was one of my very favorite dishes when I was living in America, so eating it again brings back some good memories.



Even as much as I like it, this is only the second time I have made baked ziti. Don't ask me why. It is defiantly not a difficult dish to make...

Hameed got to taste it for the first time tonight and I believe I got approval to make it again later.

****************************************
Good job Rick for giving a go at the idiot test. You did pretty well. The answers is as follow:

1. Yes.
2. One.
3. All of them (12).
4. The beggar is her sister.
5. He can’t be buried if he isn’t dead.
7. No — because he is dead.
8. They aren’t playing each other.
9. 70
10. White. The house is at the North Pole so it is a polar bear.
11. 2
12. 50 cent piece and a nickel. (One is a nickel, the *other* one isn’t.)
13. The match.
14. Half-way, then he’s running out of the woods.
15. 1 hour.
16. 9
17. None — Noah took them on the ark, not Moses.
18. Meat.
19. 12
20. yes (number 6)

the idiot test..

1. Do they have a 4th of July in England?

2. How many birthdays does the average man have?

3. Some months have 31 days; how many have 28?

4. A woman gives a beggar 50 cents; the woman is the beggar’s sister, but the beggar is not the woman’s brother. How come?

5. Why can’t a man living in the USA be buried in Canada?

7. Is it legal for a man in California to marry his widow’s sister? Why?

8. Two men play five games of checkers. Each man wins the same number of games. There are no ties. Explain this.

9. Divide 30 by 1/2 and add 10. What is the answer?

10. A man builds a house rectangular in shape. All sides have southern exposure. A big bear walks by, what color is the bear? Why?

11. If there are 3 apples and you take away 2, how many do you have?

12. I have two US coins totaling 55 cents. One is not a nickel. What are the coins?

13. If you have only one match and you walked into a room where there was an oil burner, a kerosene lamp, and a wood burning stove, which one would you light first?

14. How far can a dog run into the woods?

15. A doctor gives you three pills telling you to take one every half hour. How long would the pills last?

16. A farmer has 17 sheep, and all but 9 die. How many are left?

17. How many animals of each sex did Moses take on the ark?

18. A clerk in the butcher shop is 5? 10” tall. What does he weigh?

19. How many two cent stamps are there in a dozen?

20. Did you noticed I skipped a number?


I'll give you the answers tomorrow...

love thursday

Love is having a husband who buy you a big block of chocolate just because.. (which you of course finish up in 10 minutes flat)

True love is when said husband the next day just smiles and shake his head when he find HIS block of chocolate on your desk like this:


And then he laugh some more when he sees how you carefully left the wrapper on his desk in hope he would never suspect anything..



Happy love thursday

let them eat cake

sometimes I get struck by lightning... something which turns me into a domestic goodness. Well sort of. I yet have never got to urge to clean anything - doubt it will ever happen. But cooking. Sometimes I love cooking.

When I cook it mostly goes wrong.I have to many plans and try to make the most complicated recipe I can find... the result are more often then not bad. Very bad. Unlike my husband I do not have the gen that makes me able to just throw something together and it taste great. That is actually totally unfair. I had cooking classes at school. He cooked his first meal EVER in February 2003... A few times though I seem to get it right. Yesterday was one of those days.

It did not start to good. I had planned to make an easy dinner and then make a cake for dessert. I wrote a shopping list and went to fetch what I needed. Well home again I discovered that even with a list I forgot to buy half of the things I needed. My husband asked why I even bother writing a list... I can see his point.

Anyway with a bit of thinking I decided to make a pasta salad for dinner instead. Looks pretty right? You can find the recipe here



Hameed was not to fond of the idea of pasta salad for dinner. Basically he is not a salad lover. And then I read the recipe and noticed I forgot to get tomatoes and oops I also forgot to get dressing... I am not to big an of tomatoes and figured I could mix something together to make up for the missing dressing. I also added chicken to the salad instead of ham. That was totally planned though as my husband is not a ham eater.

I cut everything up and cooked the pasta. Mixed it all together and drizzle a bit olive oil and balsamic vinegar on top. And it was good. Actually it was more then good it was GREAT. Even my no salad loving husband like it and asked for seconds.

And then there was cake... Unfortunately there is no picture of said cake as my camera got left at work and we have manage to swallow the whole cake in less then 24 hours...

Yep, the cake was good too. I was on a roll last night. The cake is made after a recipe from my mum. It has nutty base and hazelnut chocolate mixed with butter and icing sugar as a topping. I was wondering how it would turn out as being here in Australia I did not have the *right* chocolate and sometimes a slight difference in ingredients make it taste 'wrong'.

I was worried for nothing. I did accidentally spill a little pepper on top of the cake (I had to do something wrong) But it still tasted very very nice.

The cleaning on the other hand... I'm a messy cook so there are dishes almost up to the ceiling in our kitchen. I. am.to.lazy. It is a shame there is no cake left, or I could have bribed someone to do the cleaning for me...

just

have to start writing something - anything - to get back into this blogging again. So whats new? This weekend was mothers day here in Australia and I felt pretty down about it. It was hard to be reminded about mother's day and the fact that my son is not with me to celebrate it. I did not get any cute little present he had "made". Hameed did his best to cheer me up. He took me out and bought me lunch and cake. And then we went shopping. It was alright. At least it made the day go faster.

Work have been very busy the last weeks. The cute boy is not so cute at the moment. He have started to throw things. Anything really, toys, bikes, big wooden blocks. and if it happens to hurt another child is seems to be even more enjoyable. Talking to him has not help at all. In fact it seems like giving him any attention for all this throwing just makes it more fun... Well fun for him it is. I am about to sprout a heap of grey hair soon if he do not stop it. I had a talk to his mum and dad last week and hopefully by using the same strategy at creche and home we can get the cute boy back.

Diva at No chick trix linked to a news story about a 3 year old who have never fallen asleep. I can't even begin to imagine how that must be like for his parents. The 1 hour nap 'my' kids take every afternoon is so needed and I think we would have gone insane if they did not sleep.

I talk to my parents yesterday and I find it a bit amusing. They had 22 degrees there and were feeling so warm. We had 17 degrees and were freezing out butt of... I have already got my scarf and beanie out it wont be long before I need my big warm winter jacket too. Lets hope this winter goes very quickly.

and then I remember...

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me. (Psalm 23.4)

cute

one of my day care kids is struggling a bit with his speech development. He has however seem to have picked up what is important to be able to say when he spend his days surrounded by women...

He walked up to one of my co-worker, pointed at her t-shirt and said: "shirt", "I like". Later he told my boss: "jacket" "I like".

Who needs to be able to talk in full sentences when you at the age of two know how to give compliments and totally charm every woman around you...

torturing advice

yes I know it sounds cruel. I just discovered though (very painfully too) that chili must be a perfect device to get people to spill all their secrets.

I used about 1/3 of a chili in last nights dinner, granted it was extra hot chili, but I was not prepared for how bad it hurt after. See there is a reason for why Hameed should do all the cooking. Anyway, I washed my hands. Washed them again and again. It did not help. Of course I forgot all about it and touched my face and my eyes.....Ouch did that ever hurt.


Evil chili

This morning I washed my hands several times again AND took a shower. You should think the chili was gone or at least pretty much gone... Do you know what hurts more then accidentally touching your eyes? Touching them on purpose while trying to stick your contacts in.

Ouch! ouch! ouch! For a while there I thought I was going blind. 5 containers of eye drops later, my eyes feels somewhat oki. I might possible keep my eyesight anyway.

So I did some research and it seems like it is recommended to wear some of these when you cut chili:

protective gloves

Unless you have one of these to handle the cutting:

husband

I promise I will remember that for next time there is any chili involved here in this house. After all I sort of like my eyes.

Some more research (thanx Mr Google) and I found some tips on what could help me right now. I'm of to try one of them (or possible all).

lemon juice

olive oil

pots of stainless steal

I keep you posted. Any bets on whether or not we have chili for dinner tonight?

icy pole

I really wish that I still could enjoy eating one of these instead of feeling like one! It seems like we skipped Autumn completly and went straight to Winter. I'm cold!

Yes, I know it is more cold in the northern hemisphere and I really have nothing to complain about compare to that. But I will complain because I want to and I am really to cold to care about other people.

my oh my how big my teeth are

I went to get a good clean of my teeth at the dentist today. It has been a long time since I got a proper clean and my teeth were full of plaque which I could not get rid of no matter how much I brushed.

The back of my front teeth looked yucky and quit yellow. The dentist cleaned them all up and I realized that all the plaque build up had made it feel like my gum were going further up on my teeth then it really is. Now with my teeth all clean they feel so long and big and 'skinny'. It feels a bit weird actually.

I got strict instructions about flossing everyday. Now can someone tell me how flossing between my teeth will prevent plaque being build up behind my teeth? I just don't get it.I did however promise to be good and give the flossing a try - specially since she was so nice and gave me a pack of floss for free.

love thursday

today I cherish the fact that I am married to a man who support and share my view on never giving up. We have been trough more set backs then we ever imagine the last 2 years, but we are determined to keep being positive. One day we will be grateful that we did not give up.




Happy love thursday.

yours is the glory

Happy easter!

My sister Annette's 1 grade teacher gave her class the assignment of learning all the words to 'yours is the glory' (well in Norwegian). I am not sure if it was because my sister and parents sang that song a lot so she could learn it or because it is usually played during easter, but it has become one of my favorite songs.

I remember my very first easter here in Australia. I went to church on easter morning and I was feeling a bit homesick. Nothing felt quit right. At the end of the sermon we were told to stand up and sing 'yours is the glory', I did not think much about it, but then the music started to play and I recognized the song. All of the sudden it felt right again. I could stand there and sing 'yours be the glory' as loud as I could knowing my parents and siblings would do the same just hours later. It was real easter anyway.


Another part of my families easter celebration is hiding sweets. Introducing that part of Easter celebration to my husband has not been very difficult. There is chocolate involved and Hameed would never say no to chocolate. This year he was in charge of buying in the chocolate for the easter and did a pretty good job hiding it for me. My mum would be proud.

I got 7 of these cadbury eggs. Hameed thought the egg cartoon in the fridge was such a clever hiding spot that he hide 4 of them there.

I did a bit better job though (maybe because I have more practice) and I had to give him some hints so he could find his last egg.


Happy man after finding his last egg.

so lazy...

so very lazy. That is me. Lucky for me I have trained my husband very well so I do not really need to do a thing. He cooks, he clean and does what ever pleases me. Yes, I'm spoiled :)

Maybe I can talk him into updating this blog for me too...but on a second thought that might not be a good idea as he is worse then me to update blogs.

Since last time I posted my parents have celebrated their 35 wedding anniversary. That is pretty great. I used to remember their anniversary, but ever since I moved to Australia important dates like that seem to be impossible to remember. I actually talked to my mum the day before their anniversary and she reminded me about it and STILL I forgot. I was saved my the time difference though. So they did get a congratulation from me even though it was already the morning after here.

Right now I'm enjoying my easter break. It is so good to have some days of from work to rest and relax. Eating my bodyweight in chocolate is not to bad either...

Happy easter to everyone!

If I had a million dollars

This song was mention on a forum I read today. I had to look it up and it turns out to be a pretty cool song. I have heard of the band before - bare naked ladies. It was actually Rob's (which is sort of my 'other dad') favorite band. Well after Elvis that is. He played some of their music for me but I can not remember liking it to much. But at that point of my life I was pretty much stuck on Savage Garden...

So what would you do if you had a million dollars?

street party

last Sunday was (finally) the day of the Sydney road street party. It was a bit cold this year, so there was less people then I remember from last time (which probably was not a bad thing). There was still lots to see and much different music to listen to.

A guy making 'art' out of old lighters.

Some street performances. I think they were meant to be some kind of jugglers. I took the photo just for the outfit..

A giant Scottish man, who also had a giant 'dog' with him. The 'dog' would randomly lay down and 'pee' on people around.

A rock band that was not on the official program. They seem to just have set up their stuff outside their store and of course they were the best band of the whole street.

There was several stalls with food, which all smelled so nice - picking what to eat for lunch was not easy. Hameed enjoyed looking at all the stalls with second hand books, cd's and comics. I liked the clothes and the art stuff. And of course I could not resist dancing a little in the street to the music (which is when Hameed pretend he don't know me..)

Here is a little 'taste' of the music at the street party. There was a group rapping and I shoot this little video because they said a girl was going to rap, she was not very good - but hey it was a girl!

Next year my sister, Solgunn, totally have to come and visit at end of February. I know she would have loved the street party.

getting back on track

we only have one computer here in this household now as Hameed's computer decided to go black. Now, I know many households with more then 2 people are perfectly able to share just one computer, but for us its hard. It's not that we are so bad at sharing,we just both need computers. We spend (probably way to much) a lot of time on our computers and its also our main way of communicating with friends and families. My computer time have been limited a bit and I have neglected this blog more then I planned.

So what's new? Not much really. I got new glasses and on Tuesday I will get contact lenses. The contact lenses is just a free trail. I had contact lenses before and then I hated it. They made my eyes so sore and itchy. It was sad though, because it would have been so much easier not having to worry about glasses. Well, last time i tried was about 15 years ago so when they told me that contact lenses have been approved a lot since then - I believed them. And it certainly didn't hurt that I am able to try them for free first.

My favorite tv show have also started back up; the biggest loser. There is no one I really want to win this time, but it is still cool to follow the show. Watching the biggest losers also made me realize that I should get back on track with losing some more of my weight. Back in September I decided to lose 10 kilos. I manage to lose 7 by mid December and then I was so proud of myself that I just forgot everything about eating right and exercising so now I'm back up 2 and some kilos again. So starting from tomorrow (its always best to start on a Monday, right?) I will work on those last 5 kg.

Oh and today we are going to the Sydney road street party. I have been looking forward to that for a year!

there was love and valentine

I just did not have time to post about it. We had a nice evening. Dinner was take away Indian food and we both got flowers and chocolate. Hameed thought it was a bit scary as we had almost chosen the same hiding spot for our gifts. We also both bought roses and our cards to each other was actually very similar.

I thought it was cute.

Hameed found these great photos so I thought I have a go myself. I took lots of pictures but this is the only one worth sharing.




Happy (very belated) valentines day and love thursday

60 things

(because I'm lazy tonight..)

60 Things You Possibly Didn't Know About Me

1. What is in the back seat of your car right now?
don't have a car..

2. When was the last time you threw up
about 1 year ago - bad case of gastro

3. What's your favorite curse word?
shit

4. Name 3 people who made you smile today?
Hameed, Henry,Eva

5. What were you doing at 8 am this morning?
Trying to get a boy to stop screaming already

6. What were you doing 30 minutes ago?
reading my newspaper

7. What will you be doing 3 hours from now?
sleep

8. Have you ever been to a strip club?
no

9. What is the last thing you said aloud?
I want to bring those (pineapple pieces) to work tomorrow.

10. What is the best ice cream flavor?
cookies and cream

11. What was the last thing you had to drink?
lemon flavored tea

12. What are you wearing right now?
pj pants, t-shirt and woolen socks

13. What was the last thing you ate?
bread with nutella

14. Have you bought any new clothing items this week?
nope, I have been looking though

15. When was the last time you ran?
sometime back in uni. Think I manage 3 min.

16. What's the last sporting event you watched?
Tennis final

18. Who is the last person you emailed?
the lady that co-ordinate early intervention

19. Ever go camping?
yes. Didn't enjoy it much

20. Do you have a tan?
on my arms and top of my feet, yes.

24. Do you drink your soda from a straw?
nope

25. What did your last IM say?
bye

26. Are you someone's best friend?
yes

27. What are you doing tomorrow?
Working. Then celebrating valentines day with Hameed

28. Where is your mom right now?
In Norway somewhere. Most likely around the Hommersaak area

29. Look to your left, what do you see?
piture of laisha

30. What color is your watch?
its silver, but I never wear it

31. What do you think of when you think of Australia ?
home

32. Would you consider plastic surgery?
never

33. What is your birthstone?
no idea

34. Do you go in at a fast food place or just hit thedrive thru?
I go in. There is no drive thru around here as I know of.

35.How many kids do you want?
I would like 4 more

36. Do you have a dog?
Nope. Don't really care for animals

37. Last person you talked to on the phone?
Some lady that thought I understood Italian. After she had ramble on for several minutes she finaly stopped to catch here breath and I got to say ' hey, do you speak english'

38. Have you met anyone famous?
Depends on what you mean with 'meet'. I have been to the same event as Susan Sardon, Christoffer Reves and a few more people. But I never talked to them or even come very close to them.

39. Any plans today?
Go to bed

40. How many states have you lived in?
1 in USA, 1 in Australia

41. Ever go to college?
yes, for 7 years..

42. Where are you right now?
at my desk

43. Biggest annoyance in your life right now?
I need to pee, bad... but just want to finish this first

44. Last song listened to?
something by the Wiggles I think

46. Are you allergic to anything?
yes.

47. Favorite pair of shoes you wear all the time?
sneakers

48. Are you jealous of anyone?
no

50. Is anyone jealous of you?
I'm sure there are.

51. What time is it?
bedtime

52. Do any of your friends have children?
yes

53. Do you eat healthy?
yes I start with the healthy food and then..some chocolate

54. What do you usually do during the day?
wipe noses, give cuddles, break up fights, change nappies, sing songs, dance around silly, read books, build train tracks, feed lots of little people and sooth them so they can have a sleep.

55. Do you hate anyone right now?
nope. hate is to strong word. I disliked one person, but she is out of my life now (hopefully)

56. Do you use the word 'hello' daily?
No, I'm more a 'hi' person

58. How old will you be turning on your next birthday?
34

59. Have you ever been to Six Flags?
no

60. How did you get one of your scars?
Sami's birth was a c-section so I have a nice line across my lower belly.

lazy

This is how we get most of our junkmail now a days. The delivering person is getting to lazy to actually put it into each individual mailbox...

something fishy

I grew up with parents who both love to eat fish. When we (my sisters and I were younger) we were "forced" to eat fish several times a week. Yes, my parents were mean. I never really liked fish, but I'm still glad that my parents did not let me just skip out of the meal and eat junk food and lollies instead.

When I was old enough to cook my own food though, I decided that enough was enough and what fish I already had eaten probably would give me health benefits for the rest of my life (I can dream right?).

My husband too grew up with eating lots of fish. The only difference is that he still love fish and he get stars in his eyes when he talked about his mum's deliciouses fried fish. (Here is were I go: 'ewwww')

As I become a bit older (and possible wiser) I have to admit that I do understand that eating fish is good for me. I still do not like it much though so there has been very little fish around here. I have however started to enjoy cooking more and during one of my searched for new recipes I came across 'Ben's fish'.

I tried to make it as it seemed easy enough. I cut out the olives and served it wit cous cous instead of green salad to make it more filling. The first thing I noticed while making this dish was that it smelled so good. Which is strange, fish to me smells worse then it taste. Hameed came home while it was still cooking and his first comment was 'wow smells good'.

Then we ate it...and oh my. I had one bit and quickly shuffle down the rest. I was tempted to grab the rest of Hameed's food as well. It was good. Actually it was delicious. I never, ever though I would say that something fish was good. I dare you to try it.

love thursday

this week I have worked the late shift. The late shift starts at 9.15 and by then all the kids in my room have usually arrived. It is quit nice to come to work, open the door and have 15 kids jumping up and down because they are so happy to see you. There is hi and greetings for everyone, some cuddles and kisses and then I'm allowed to say morning to my co-workers. Only a brief hallo though, before I'm dragged of to look at what ever the kids have been playing with or working on. Those moments are when I really love my job.

Most of the kids I have this year are in their second or third year of child care. They have been at creche since they were just weeks or months old and as long as they can remember I have been there. Rocking them and singing for them when they felt sad. Wiping their snot away and making sure that they all got lots of cuddles and tickles each day.

My co-worker this year have been working with the older children the past 2 years so 'my' kids are not as comfortable with them as of yet. I'm the big hero. The one they all always ask for and sometimes the only one who knows how to make things feel better and how to give a pat on the back just the right way so they can fall asleep.

It is very flattering. Truly is. And even though it is hard work I love these kids to pieces.

there should be a parent test.

I'm sure I'm not the only one thinking that there should have been some sort of test you have to pass before you are allowed to become a parent. Working in child care where I each week meet more then 30 families (and that is just the families with children in my room) I have seen my fair share of poor parenting.

My biggest thing is parents who let their kids run the show. I'm all for choices and think children old enough to express themselves should be allowed to have some choices. But that means choosing whether they want jam or cheese on their sandwich. Not choosing when they feel like taking a nap, changing their nappy or whether they should hit the child next to them or not.

Some parents I get to know fairly well and then I am not shy to tell them my honest opinion. I have rules but I'm not very loud. As soon as the kids get to know me and what I expect, a look from me, and they stop what they are doing wrong most of the time.

Today I had to go to a government office, I tried to apply for a health care card and of course as the rules are in government offices, you have to wait in line for a long, long time.

At the office there was a woman with two kids. Just from looking at them I will guess they were about 4 and 6. These kids were running amok at the office, close to knocking people over several times. And if that wasn't enough they were also screeching LOUD. Very very loud. I feel sorry for the old people there. The woman (which I assume was the mum) did not say a thing. I don't understand how she could tolerate it, but it did not seem to bother her at all. It did bother me though, so as soon as the kids came close enough to me I gave them my stern look. And it worked... for about 2 min, then they were of to bounce off the walls again. I was lucky enough to finish up what I had to do so I could get out of there.

Mir is writing about here experience with misbehaved kids. I'm amazed that she did not say anything to the parents, I so would have.

more answers

seems like I should had spelled it out a bit more clear what I was trying to say in yesterdays post. It was not that we have been married for 2 years and 2 months that was so special. Although I do know about people not even making it to two months, so I guess its great that we made it so far. The special part was the date yesterday...We celebrated 2 years and 2 month on the 2nd of the 2nd. See that was very special.

MaryBeth asked me earlier for a photo of 'harry potter' without fringe. Yesterdays photo shows how I look like with my fringe pinned back, which is close to how it looked when all of my hair was long.

Lisa wanted to know what price Tsonga was holding in my post about tennis. Truthfully, I have no idea. I goggled Tsonga and the picture I posted was the nicest one I could find. From what I have gather too he is fairly new to the game, so maybe some national price from a contest in France.

And last, I just had to share this. Pretty cool.

Dina Keeps Going and Going.

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very special

2.12.2005



2.2.2008



- two years and two months later, so special that we had to celebrate.