A Week at the Beach

We spent five days on the Oregon Coast last week and I was having too much fun to stop and write about it. Since we’ve been home I’ve been in hyper-mode trying to get the house and yard ready for our house sitters who came last night. Time goes by way too quickly.


I’ve decided whenever we head to Oregon (my old stomping grounds) we need to stay at least a week as there is just so much to do and we love to do our favorite things over and over again. We have friends to visit, which could use up all our time if we let it, but then we wouldn’t have time to collect sand dollars at the beach or fly wooden airplanes off the Astoria Column.

We hit low tide at the South Jetty and managed to scoop up about fifty pounds of sand dollars. Kory still shakes his head every time I pick one up, wondering why I do so. We’ve yet to find a good use for them but it’s always such a thrill to find a whole one, I can’t fight the compulsive urge to pick it up and bring it home.

The little boutique next to the Astoria Column sells three flyers for two dollars. We’re too cheap for that so we head off into the nearby woods and look for the airplanes that the winds have lodged into treetops, then fallen after another wind has cast them down. It’s like a year-round Easter egg hunt. We found about thirty of them last week, along with several parts. Kaleb took several of the spare parts and made some new and improved airplanes and had a great time with the test flights, seeing how well they flew. Some of them did even better than the original design, so that was our homeschooling for that day. (It’s hard to crack school books when on vacation at the coast.)

We were in Oregon to attend a shareholder’s meeting of a bank we invested in a few years ago. They are doing pretty well, considering today’s economy. We also looked into buying a coffee shop down there, run by a friend of mine. It’s for sale, but there is another person in front of us, wanting to buy it, so we’ll see how God leads. We always appreciate open and closed doors that guide us into and out of all kinds of ventures.

We’d spent the day down in Cannon Beach prior to going to the shareholder’s meeting in Seaside. We were out of gas when we left Cannon Beach and didn’t find any gas stations on our way to the bank so we decided to get gas afterwards. I was also almost out of cash and needed at ATM. After the meeting I forgot to get cash as we headed north back to our friend’s house, where we were staying. We were running on fumes so I drove slow and steady, hoping to find a gas station. We miraculously made it to Costco to fill the tank before we were stranded and had to call for help. As we were getting gas, we were trying to decide if we should stop somewhere to get dinner as we were all a little hungry, but since we were nearly out of cash at the moment, we decided to just skip it and head back to our friend’s house. We’d snacked a little on the food they had at the meeting, but it wasn’t like it was dinner or anything. As I was pulling out of the gas station and on to the Costco side street, I saw a Costco pizza box lying in the middle of the road. I slammed on my brakes and told Kaleb to jump out and see if there was anything in the box. Sure enough, there was, an entire pizza, and it was still warm! We took it as manna from heaven and headed back to our friends and ate a road kill pizza for dinner with them (it hadn’t been run over or anything). I’m not sure what was more amazing -  that we found a pizza in the middle of the road, or that we ate it. I imagine someone set it on their car roof and took off without putting it in the car, and there it was, fresh from the oven. God provides in mysterious ways. We’ve had a few good laughs about that one all week.

We stayed with our friends, Jan and Larry, with Kory and I in their spare bed and Kaleb on a mattress on the floor. One night Jan woke me up about 12:30 with a frantic tone in her voice saying, “Kaleb is in our bed!” It was the funniest thing. He got up to use the toilet and apparently sleep walked into the wrong bedroom. He just climbed over the top of Larry and settled down between the two of them. Jan said she just laid there wondering what she was supposed to do, until she finally decided it was my problem. I carried him back to his bed. He had no memory of the entire incident.

At a union meeting a few weeks ago, Kory won tickets to a play in downtown Seattle. We had to get home from Oregon in time to attend the production of “On the Town” at the 5th Avenue Theatre. It was a musical with lots of dancing - a very lively production – which was good because we were tired and I could have easily fallen asleep that late at night after having driven most of the day. Kaleb spent the evening at a friend’s house and we didn’t get home until early Sunday morning.

It feels like we live this feast or famine social life – either we are booked up solid, or we are just sitting around at home wondering what the day will bring. I’m not complaining, because we have it good and in five more days and we’ll be back in Norway! Woo hoo!!

The Countdown Continues...

We are all counting the days until we leave for Norway again, but the excitement is tempered with a certain volcano in Iceland that may very well squash our best laid plans… We’ll get there when we get there. I’m packing up already, anyway.



We’ve gotten two emails recently from the wives of cousins telling us there was a big work party over at our condo this week and many relatives showed up to clean everything, get rid of Aunt Ruth’s personal items (but they left some household items for us) and get the condo ready for our arrival as they are all so looking forward to our return. That was a pleasant surprise. I expected we’d spend the first few days doing cleaning, but now I can scratch that off my to-do list for our first week back in Norway. Woo hoo. It will be nice to unpack our storage unit and get settled into our own place and finally call it “home” – okay “second home,” but still….


I should be further along preparing our house here for the housesitters (cleaning closets, weeding, straightening out cupboards), but I’m not. I got side tracked this week (and last) hunting down dead relatives again –not mine or Kory’s, but this friend of a friend (Stuart) that I met who is 100% Norwegian. His grandparents came over from Norway more than a hundred years ago but he’s never been there. He had just enough good information to get me started and I’ve been able to track his family tree on most branches back to the mid 1700s and some to the 1600s. It’s just too easy once a person knows how to do such a thing. I should have been a detective – I love hunting down all that information. I’ve sent Stuart a lot of records available over the internet for births, marriages, confirmations and census records for nearly all of his ancestors for the last two hundred years. The Norwegian government/State church started keeping written records in the 1600s so if they haven’t burned up in a fire or something, it’s pretty easy to track down the dead if the general area of their residence is known. I know I’m addicted to this process but at least it’s a productive addiction and no one gets hurt.


I nearly called Stuart at one this morning when I realized that he and Kory might be related. If they aren’t, they at least both had ancestors living on the same farm in the 1800s. I won’t be able to connect all the dots until I’m in Norway, but it was a pretty incredible discovery. I love how small our world is.


Kaleb continues to be a nearly perfect child in every way. This invention of mine is incredible! I don’t care if I get a patent or not, it’s worth all the money in the world to me because it so radically transformed his behavior. What a miracle. He’s done so well in school and in piano, with his chores and his attitude, it’s hard to get used to. I’m going to make a few proto-types and see if it’s as effective with other kids, because if it is, I’m really on to something here. Thank you, God!


The tulips have peaked and were mostly all topped this week so the traffic will no longer be making me crazy. Kory is also deeply involved in the well (no pun intended) and is closer every day to getting that up and running in time for summer watering season, so he’s not driving me crazy either. When he has a project, he stays pretty focused and out of trouble, even if he is on my “list” for his political stands…. He spent all day at the Tea Party Rally in Burlington this week, and unfortunately, got photographed with his disgusting and disturbing sign he made about our current administration. When will he learn that praying for someone is way more effective than slamming them? It’s what I have to do now, with him.

Oh, How I LOVE Company!

Our house is all quiet again, which sometimes makes me sad. The last several days we’ve had company here non-stop - friends up from Seattle dropping in while they were out on a tour of the tulip fields; a good friend flew in from Colorado to visit us for a long weekend; and Kory’s cousin’s daughter was here from Norway with her friend on their round-the-world tour in 94 days. This is the life I love – having a home full of people, conversation, late nights and good wine. It doesn’t get much better.

I often leave the mess that’s left behind from having guests here just so I have extra time to relive the memories while I clean it up later. If the house is all cleaned, sometimes it seems as if no one was here - but my friend Paula is a cleaning demon and the house is in much better shape now than when she arrived – so there are no worries I’d forget that visit.



Just as all our company was getting ready to leave this morning, I got an e-mail from a homeschool mom, inviting us out to her house to see a 42 foot gray whale that washed up on their beach out on Samish Island. None of us had ever seen a whale up close and personal before so we took advantage of that rare opportunity before the tide came in at noon. What a sight it was. The barnacles attached to it were still alive and fresh blood was still oozing out it’s mouth. Poor thing. The girls here from Norway were most impressed with the whole thing, which surprised me a bit since they thought the tulip fields and all the bald eagles in the area were the “bomb” and nothing could get better than that. It was nice to give them something to remember. Photos will help with that, too. (In the photo above, Kaleb is the one in the orange jacket.)


Life is back to it’s usual pace now and I’m no longer anyone’s tourist guide. Many of the tulip fields are topped and there was no back up of cars in LaConner when I went in to the gym today. Whew. My only stress now will be dealing with Kaleb and his new GLASSES! My sweet boy informed me last week that he wasn’t able to see well out of his right eye. I took him in to the eye doctor and sure enough, he couldn’t even read the top E! Yikes. I can’t imagine him being responsible enough to keep track of glasses, as he’s near sighted and won’t need them when he reads, so having them off and on and off and on is causing me a bit of angst… but I won’t borrow trouble just yet. I’m still coming down off the stress from all the tulip traffic out in the valley in front of our house. One day at a time.


But speaking of stress… Kory has recently joined the Republican Party and was voted some delegate for something or another. He spent his Saturday at some convention and I couldn’t have been more disgusted, but this is his new passion. Somehow he really feels like he’ll make a difference. I couldn’t disagree more. We can’t talk politics in our house because we want to stay married. It’s not that we disagree on things, it’s just that I can’t sit still long enough to hear all that his heart contains on certain issues. I’m just thankful we’ll be in Norway during the State convention, or else he might really go overboard. Already he has a political sign plastered on his van that is so offensive to me I won’t ride in that vehicle. He loves his freedom of speech and all the more so if he feels like it bothers some people. He is mischievous to the core. Oh well, I gotta love him anyway.


The other day I got on Google earth and “walked” around our old neighborhood in Norway – looking at the rooftops of all the houses to our friends and family there. I’m starting to miss the simplicity of our life in Norway and I’m very much looking forward to our return. Aunt Ruth, the one that currently rents our condo in Aalesund, has finally got a permanent place to live in an assisted living home, so she will be moving out on the 23rd of April and when we arrive in May, we can get settled and make it our own home away from home. Then hopefully we can start having company from America come visit us over there because I REALLY DO love company! We have it so good, sometimes I feel guilty.

A Few Special Days

This past week we had quite the wind storm blow through our neck of the woods. A large branch came flying down and landed on Kaleb’s tree fort (see photo). The honey-do list for Kory just keeps growing as home repairs never cease.



This past week also held two very important days in our house – April Fool’s Day and Easter. Kaleb kept asking me if they ever happened on the same day. He was quite concerned that someone might think the resurrected Christ was just an April Fool’s joke. His mind goes to strange places sometimes.


Our Easter was wonderfully traditional at Grammy J’s. After dinner we had the usual egg hunt with her grandkids and then we all played a few rounds of Golf (a card game). We love that she adopted us. She’s the most godly woman I know and a natural born teacher. Before we left the table, she got out her notes and it felt as if we were sitting around the feet of Jesus as we were queried on Bible trivia from Good Friday to Sunday morning – “What were the names of the men who took Jesus’ body down from the cross?…. Who were the first women at the open tomb?…” stuff like that. Amazingly, Kaleb answered the most correct questions. We were all impressed.


I wasn’t so impressed with him on April Fool’s Day, however. That kid lives all year to pull pranks on us and it’s the one day a year he can get away with it. He’d be in deep do-do any other time, so it’s almost like a “get out of jail free” card for him. Kory is no help as he heartily condones all his mischief.  But this year I thought Kaleb went a little overboard.


We had the usual food coloring and hot sauce in our toothpaste tube, but he was a bit careless with the red food coloring and now we have permanent spots of red on the hardwood floor outside the bathroom. He glued the toilet paper roll so it wouldn’t roll but he also glued the dining room chairs to the floor –with super glue! One is still stuck there. The others have come free, but the pads that were under the chairs are still stuck fast to the hardwood floor. The spot where he super glued a quarter to the floor is not only missing some of the finish, but has a big gouge in the wood where he finally pried it off. I find all this stuff very disturbing but Kory thinks it’s funny. He reckons that Kaleb will inherit the house one day anyway so if he trashes it in the meantime, it will ultimately just affect his inheritance. I beg to differ. I’d like the house to stay in a somewhat composed state while I’m still living here, which hopefully will be for many years to come. I want the last laugh.


I was so thankful when April 2nd arrived. Buttered door knobs were OK the first few times, but when Kaleb kept rebuttering them, the “trick” got a bit old. So did the bowl of corks he delicately balanced on top of several doors – so when the door was slightly bumped – the corks fell on our head. Better that than a bowl of water, I guess (a trick from last year). He froze all of Kory’s underwear, but knew better than to touch mine. And he added yellow dye to the toilet tank water so it would never flush clear. Kaleb also loves to put little packs of ketchup under the toilet seat so it squirts out in all directions when someone sits on the toilet (usually me). That kid is relentless. But now, thankfully, life is back to our version of normal.


We’ve cared for a dog here for the past two weeks that I returned today. He was the cutest little guy from Summit Assistance Dogs. He is going into training to be a hearing assistance dog, but he had kennel cough so he was in quarantine with us until he got better. We were a little sad to see him go, but we know he has an important job to do. He’ll be living a life of purpose, which is something I’m not sure I do everyday, so at least it was nice we got to help him do it.  Life goes on.

A Very Social Week

This past week has been like none other. My sweet boy is back. Just as I was at the breaking point with him, I prayed for wisdom and help from God, and He delivered! About ten days ago I woke up with an image in my head of something that I needed to design as a behavior modification tool to help Kaleb see just where he stands. I won’t go into the details because according to my friend, John Foreman, I could make a million bucks on this idea and he’s already contacted a patent attorney on my behalf (he’s even more excited about this idea than I am). I made the first prototype and Kaleb’s been like a new kid. Of course, there are rewards for good behavior involved, but it’s a lot like giving little immediate gratification treats to dogs in obedience training. It has made our house here on Pleasant Ridge a rather happy home. I’ve got no expectations about making money on this deal – in fact, I’d make them and give them away because I know they work, but I’ve shown them to a few other moms and they too think it is brilliant. They said they’d pay me $20 on the spot (it costs less than that to produce) as they thought it was so clever. All I can say is, Thank You Jesus and Hallelujah! It really does work for Kaleb and he’s been so obedient, hard working, kind and responsible for the last week or so that I was afraid to write about it - worried things might change, but no, I do believe we’ve turned a corner. Woo hoo!



We’ve had lots of company this past week – especially over the weekend. I attended a retreat in LaConner with women from my old church in Bothell. Six of them stayed at our house because literally, “there was no room at the inn.” I loved it. Then Sunday afternoon some old high school girlfriends came up to see the tulips and we had more than a few belly laughs. A few other friends came on Tuesday for lunch and to see the tulips and Wednesday a few old MOPS leaders (Mothers of Preschoolers) came over for a little 10 year reunion gathering. We liked working so well coordinating the MOPS meetings we used to have that we just might have something new up our sleeves for the future. We’ll see how God leads.


Last week the editor of the local paper told me I can consider myself a “local celebrity” now as she’s gotten many compliments on my “Nuggets From Norway” feature column in the paper and many are talking about it. She is going to submit it into a newspaper competition, she thinks it’s so good. Woo hoo! I stopped by the Norse Café in town (a new little bakery place) and asked the owner if she’d been reading my column. She said she LOVED it and gave me a big hug. She told me people come in asking if she is friends with me and she said she didn’t even know if I was a man or a woman – but now she can tell them all we are friends. She was too funny. We had a good long chat about all things Norwegian and I’m heading back every Thursday to buy cardamom bread, fresh from the oven.


This week I also got to meet one of my “loyal readers” of the blog I kept in Norway – a friend of a friend who is here from out of town and up until this week, a total stranger to me, but now I love him dearly (Hi, Bubs!). I think he memorized all my blog postings as there wasn’t anything I mentioned that he didn’t already know. He was excited to meet me and he also was very encouraging saying how much he loved my writing. So I’m all the more convinced to start marketing these excerpts and go for the gold… maybe someday I will get a book published. Stranger things have happened.