Various

I love magazines.  Marathon sends me my magazines.  I hate to get rid of my magazines, but I also hate to have stacks of magazines all around the house.  So I tear interesting pages out and put them in a folder.  My folder was getting pretty thick.  Most pages have recipes on them.  Recipes I've never even tried, but they sound good.  For September I've decided to try a new recipes six nights a week.  We're rating them to determine what gets put into the rotation and what gets recycled.  It's going pretty well, a few will make the regular rotation, there are some that need improvement and so far nothing has made it into the recycling bin.

Rory is still loving school.  She often asks to go on days that are not school days.  LilleGym started again last week and she's still loving that.  Today when she got dressed in her LilleGym shirt she was ready to go, right then!  Class didn't start for another two and a half hours.  So for about two hours I was asked go? gym? until we finally got in the car.  On Fridays we go to the international playgroup and Rory really enjoys that too, several of her classmates are there as well as friends we made when we first moved here.

Our Slingbox is working!  Fingers crossed that it continues to work without any problems through football season.  We stayed up late to watch the Oklahoma State game.  The following Sunday was a long day.  We did not stay up for the South Carolina game, but recorded it and watched it as soon as we woke up Sunday morning.  Rory was very patient with us through most of the long game.  She now says go Dawgs, sic 'em, let's go D, Hairy Dawg, Uga, and touchdown.




   

A visitor, a birthday, a boat ride and a marathon

On Tuesday, August 25th Kay arrived for a week-long visit.  After finding a really great fare from Philladelphia she decided to visit for Stepler's birthday on the 26th.  Rory and I picked her up from the airport after Rory's first day of school.  Rory napped on the way to the airport, but was so excited for our second visitor that she was not able to nap once we got home.


Rory started the birthday celebration off by sleeping in!  (Sleeping in = later than 6:20 when our alarm goes off.) I cannot complain about that, but it did mean that I had less time than I thought I would for making the birthday blueberry rolls.  They were supposed to be rolls, but they did not roll, so we had blueberry bread.  Tasty, but not pretty.  Birthday dinner was pizza out, followed by gifts, yellow cake (from a box per Stepler's request) with (homemade) fudge icing and ice cream.  Rory was delighted to help her dad open his presents.

Stepler took Friday afternoon off and we all took a Lysefjord cruise to see Preikestolen.  We had hiked there when Hannah was here visiting, but this was a completely different view of it.  It looked so much smaller from the water.  Just shows how high up Preikestolen is.  Rory loved being on the boat.  For awhile we were sitting on a bench beside the boat waiting for 12 other people to show up so we would have enough for the tour to run.  Rory was so excited to be there and couldn't understand why we weren't getting on the boat!


Saturday evening Rory stayed home with Kay while Stepler and I went out for dinner.  It was very nice to go out by ourselves.  While having drinks we saw participants in the Stavanger Marathon, some finishing, more starting their final lap.  We'd heard less than good things about the marathon because it is a loop course and the streets are not closed.  No thanks.  And Saturday was not a good day for running - I think it started raining right as the marathon started and didn't stop.  Seeing the marathon did get us talking about running one in 2010.  Stepler's interested in the Midnight Sun Marathon and I'm still looking - Prague, Berlin, Dublin?

Rory's first day of school

Rory started pre-school today at the British School.  She's in Playgroup and will go every Tuesday and Thursday from 9:10 to 12:10.

When we arrived at school there was a sign telling us which class Rory is in (Playgroup B) and where her classroom is located.  As we made our way down the hall to her classroom we found her name over a hook and hung her rain coat on the hook.  We sat down on the bench to put her indoor shoes on and then headed into the classroom.  Rory was a little disappointed that her friend Hannah is in Playgroup A, but as soon as her teacher showed her the play stroller she was happy.

Since she wasn't upset at all, I left the classroom after just a few minutes of watching her play.  I did wait in the lobby drinking coffee and talking with two other moms for quite awhile, just to make sure everything was going well before I left.

Rory squealed with excitement when I arrived to pick her up.  But her teacher reported that she'd had a great day - didn't cry at all and participated in all the day's activities.  She even had paint on her fingernails to prove it.  When I asked Rory if she liked school, she said, "yes, fun."  It didn't take her long to fall asleep once we got in the car.

Hoping that Thursday goes well too!

Anniversary

Our anniversary was earlier this month -- seven years!  The actual day fell on a Monday this year so we celebrated a little on Sunday.

Sunday morning we took Rory to the beach.  She wore her new long-sleeved rash guard shirt to keep warm in the North Sea.  There must have been a storm out at sea because there were seaweed and jelly fish on the shore and at the edge of the water.  Not the prettiest day for being at the beach, but Rory seemed to have a good time.

That night we went out for Indian food and took Rory with us.  She really enjoyed the Masala sauce, dipping everything in it, sometimes just her fingers.

The Queen Mary 2 came to town for our anniversary so we went down to the harbor to take a closer look.

Getting back to normal

Things are returning to normal around here after our visit to Georgia and having our first visitor to Stavanger.

Rory and I left for Cairo on Wednesday, July 1st.  We got to meet baby Brock for the first time!  It was wonderful seeing everyone, eating Mama's food, hanging out with Sanford, having Chick-fil-A for lunch, sipping Starbucks lattes, shopping at Target, getting my hair cut and enjoying Mr. Chick chicken strips.  Rory particularly enjoyed going outside all the time. 

We returned to Stavanger on Wednesday, July 22nd (we left Georgia on the 21st).  My cousin Hannah came with us!  Hannah was here for ten days and we stayed busy while she was here.  The first weekend Hannah and I flew to Oslo where we started the Norway in a Nutshell train tour on Saturday morning.  Unfortunately a power outage delayed our train by almost three hours and we missed our connection to all the really cool sites we were to see.  So we just took a train ride from Oslo to Bergen, interrupted by a long ride on a taxi-bus.  Very disappointing, but we did enjoy our evenings in Oslo and Bergen.  I tried whale steak in Oslo, it was okay, but the mushrooms, spinach and potatoes served with it were very good.  In Bergen we had sushi.  Other than enjoying our dinners out, we also had the opportunity to explore both cities a little bit.  Oslo seemed to be a real city and Bergen was similar to Stavanger, but bigger.  

Last Tuesday was the only really pretty day that we had while Hannah was here and we all hiked to Preikestolen, one of Norway's most famous sites.  I found it to be a challenging hike, but well worth the effort.  Stepler and Rory went along too, with Rory in the backpack.  Since it was too long of a hike for Rory to stay in the backpack the whole way and there was no way that we were were letting her out at the top, Rory and Stepler hung out at a swimming area and had a snack while Hannah and I went to the top.  (Stepler had been once before while Rory and I were in Georgia.)

While Hannah was here we also explored downtown Stavagner, Old Stavanger, visited the Oil Museum and put our toes in the North Sea.  We also ate a lot!  Hannah and I are clearly bad influences on each other.

She left very early Saturday morning and each day Rory has asked to go upstairs to wake her up.  Today she started saying no Hannah upstairs.  Stepler also left on Saturday for his field trip to the Arctic.  So after a lot of excitement and time with other people, it's just me and Rory until Thursday night.     



   

Runnin'

Since moving here I've been trying to run regularly.  The wonderful weather and gorgeous scenery have helped.  Rory and I have gotten into a good routine, getting out the door for runs more mornings than not.  Rory seems to enjoy it and knows what clothes and shoes I wear to run.  Runnin' she says when she sees my gear coming out.

Most mornings we just run about 30 minutes, with a slightly longer run on the weekends.  I have gotten into a rut of running the same route, just out the door to a nice street, down the street for 15 minutes and then back.  It's a nice pretty run without too many hills.  For some reason this morning I thought it would be nice to run to Little Stokka Lake.  It's a beautiful lake, but the run there is so much more difficult because of all the hills .  There is even a hill around the lake that I have to walk up when pushing Rory in the stroller.  What was I thinking?  Today was the hottest day we've had so far and we got a later start than usual.  I survived, but it made me thankful not to be running in the Houston heat.

Rory has mostly given up her morning naps, but often on our runs she can't help but fall asleep.  Maybe that's why she loves runnin' so much.
  

Waiting...

We'd been told the battery could take up to four days to work its way through Rory's system.  Luckily it didn't take that long, reappearing on Monday morning.

Rory was her usual self all weekend long -- 

these are pictures of her having fun on our back balcony on Sunday evening.

looking at Mom inside

rearranging the furniture

up close, way too close