London’s calling louder than ever.  I can’t believe that only in a few short weeks we’ll be hitting the streets of London and then heading to Toronto.  I usually spend so much time overplanning our trips but this time I’ve practically left everything until the last minute.  (3+ weeks is last minute for me!)  The last time Ørjan and I were in London it was a short trip but it was definitely easy to get around only being two.  Now we’ve got the challenge of travelling with two little ones I guess this means we’re new again considering this is London we’re talking about.  I was very sour about London because it was never one of my choice-destinations but I suppose it can’t be all that bad.  At least this trip will give Ørjan an excuse to break out the new video camera I bought him for Christmas.  Now on to the list:

• purchase Visitor Oyster Cards
• plan day trip to the zoo
• pack the London Suitcase
• budget for shopping trips
• print and organize all maps
• call to confirm (i must triple confirm!) all reservations
• pack extra bag for the kids
• buy/pack memory cards
• research restaurants (we have some special dietary needs)
• map/organize all intineraries and scheduled events
• reserve all online ticket purchases

A good song to listen to while (and definitely later) reading this is For the Good Times by Johnny Cash.

By this time next month we’ll be back in Canada and I’m still not sure how I feel about it.  For a while I’ve been saying to myself and others that I haven’t really missed much about home.  Ever since the Olympics I’ve been re-evaluating my feelings and my sadness about leaving Canada almost five year ago.  I’m a Canadian and I always will be but since moving to Norway I think I’ve become what they call Norwegianized.  I’ve adapted to its culture after a long period of refusal but there are so many things about my life and my values that won’t go down.

For the past week I’ve been re-watching the opening ceremonies (thank god for our enormous HD dard disk!) and been crying at all of the performances.  I suppose it doesn’t matter which generation you grew up in, being a Canadian in any decade has somehow and always be the modern and the classics.  Whether it be brief heritage moments on tv, Hockey Night in Canada, or Roll Up the Rim, the small things are big parts of who we are.  I used to cringe at those horrific commericials featuring Rita McNeil and her friends but now small memories like that bring such a warmth to my heart.  I miss watching David Suzuki on CBC, I miss documentaries about Pierre Trudeau, and I miss how everything has to be written in both English and French.  As a Hamiltonian of over 18 years Niagara Falls and the CN Tower never seemed so big because I must have visited them more times than I count, but when I see photos from people that have visisted them for the first time I feel somewhat sad.  To me these places were small and insignificant and hardly worth photograping, but today I realize they involve some of the greatest memories of my life.

I grew up speaking French and even won French awards at school but today I can barely form a sentence without having to think about it.  I read and understand it perfectly but when I try to say something simple I blurt out Norwegian instead.  I spent a good three years of highschool obsessed with Margaret Atwood, Carol Shields, and Leonard Cohen and found such inspiration from their beautiful and provoking work.  Unfortunately today none of my shelves house their work.  It’s a little sad.

If you ask me (or Canadians in general) what it means to be a Canadian there is no real one answer.  I can only tell you what my Canada means to me:  My Canada is true patriot love.  I love my country because it has given me so many opportunities to fulfill my dreams and realize who I am as a person.  I grew up as a typical Canadian with mixed ethnicity – I embraced both sides and found many communities to welcome me.  My mixed heritage gave me inspiration to learn and love the different and new.  I grew up speaking English and French, and then later German.  My mum tried teaching us Chinese but I quickly gave up after I realized it was much easier to read cyrillics and speak Slavic languages.  Despite this looking back I now see that multiculturalism wasn’t just a concept that was shoved down our throats at school, it was something we lived.  Sure, Canada and all its politics aren’t right, but it’s a country that respects its people as well as its land.  As a Canadian I do say, “Eh”, but it’s nothing to scoff at.  We say it to be polite which is something to be proud of.  I don’t even know what a canuck or a hoser really is but the only thought that comes to mind is SCTV’s McKenzie brothers.  As a Canadian I say thankyou and think Rick Mercer is one of the best entertainers of all time.I grew up knowing that Canada Day wasn’t fireworks and a family bbq, it was a family day and a Canada Day special at Parliament in Ottawa with Shania Twain.  My Canada will and always be Pierre Trudeau and Jean Chretien.  I have some very fond memories of being able to bum around studios thumbing through sheet music while listening to Sarah Slean and Glenn Gould on my gigantic cd/mp3 player. My Canada was staying up late doing mathhomework while watching latenight reruns of Just for Laughs and flipping through Canadian Living and Chatelaine while waiting in the dentist’s reception room.  I could go on about how wonderful free healthcare is and what are taxes really paid for, or that we own hockey, but it seems irrelevant when there are so many great gems from my country.  We are skyscrapers and the wilderness, we are generations of proud heritage, and we are a people that embrace changes and our differences.

I’m not sure where I’m going with any of this.  If you didn’t catch him at the opening ceremonies, this sums up perfectly how I feel.

And you know what, I know all the versus of our national anthem in both Englisn and French.  Ørjan says I’m a geek but that’s ok.

My twitter and facebook account is now flooded by myself and my friends…

CONGRATULATIONS CANADA!

What a fantastic game.  Now I really must go to bed because it’s almost 1am over here.

Oh wow it’s been a while since I last posted here.  I’m probably going to have to read this over a few times because while I type this I’m not evening looking at the screen.  I’m lying on the sofa watching the Gold medal game between Canada and the US.  After being sick last weekend with the stomach flu from hell, I managed to pick up a cold from the kids and felt completely miserable.  Of course I also had to work this weekend and midway during my 10 hour shift I almost passed out.  I never told anyone because I just wanted to push it behind me and work through my last shift of a 6-day workweek.  I ate some lunch and tried not to stress and luckily for me it seemed to improve my mood.  Ørjan called me at work to say that his mum was coming to pick up the kids and take them for the weekend.  This instanatly changed my mood and all I could think of for the rest of my shift was that we would finally have some time alone.  For the first time in a while we wouldn’t have to worry about Sophie coming up to our bed in the middle of the night or Magnus waking from another nightmare.  (They’ve been doing both almost on a weekly basis.)  During the last half hour of my shift Ørjan came down to work and waited for me while we closed.  We walked up to Hemnes Mat og Vin Hus and ate a nice dinner with wine (I know, we’re so grown up!) and walked home to a tidy toddler-free house!  We had a bit more to drink, watched the Olympics with some Saturday treats, and went to bed late feeling guilt-free.

This morning I slept in until 9:30!  I can’t remember the last time I did that and wow did it feel so good.  I instantly jumped up and made us a delicious breakfast and then fell right into work-mode.  I started planning the rest of my day and decided it was best to make use of the actual free-time that we suddenly had.  I picked up my Sonia Rykiel (H&M) order on Friday but waited until today to go through everything.  Pure love at first sight!  She really is the queen of knit.  I have to admit though, my favourite was the mini-Sonia knit doll and Sophie instantly fell in love with her.

I also made good use of my time and started sewing a new pillowcase for Sophie.  While Ørjan was busy installing wallplates in Magnus’ bedroom I was busy thinking about decor for Sophie’s.  I remembered that I had some extra Amy Butler fabric stored away and thought it would be perfect to use for such a small project.  I’ll be honest though, it’s been a while since I’ve used a/my sewing machine so it took at least a half hour to get used to the settings.  It also didn’t help that the instructions for my new sewing machine were only in Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, and Finnish.  I managed, but boy those diagrams were worse than the ones from IKEA.

The evening came to an end with dessert.  Fruit’s healthy so I’m ok with making it bad.

Right now Magnus is sitting on the sofa with us and it’s almost 11pm.  He’s been out of his bed three times already but we’re not stressing over it.  I’m too psyched about this game to get upset.  I am however incredibly tired and wish I could just go to bed now knowing we won the game.

I have no idea where this came from but for the past couple of days I’ve been seriously ill. Friday morning seemed like any other Friday: Up before 6:00, kids at daycare for 7:45, and I was at work grilling before 8:00. I had what we call a “loose tummy” that morning but I chalked it up to poor eating. Suddenly into the first 15 minutes I started to feel serious pain in my shoulders and arms. I started to feel dizzy and achy and all morning I was running to the toilet every chance I could. Thank god Ørjan finishes work early on Fridays because I called him in a panic and he rushed over with some helpful tablets. I thought that maybe it just might be indigestion but later that night I had a seriously high fever and I was running to the toilet every 5 minutes. At one point it felt like labour pains because I had so much pain and they seemed to come on like contractions. Now I’m at the point where my stomach is gurgling like Homer in Homerpalooza.  I’ve been trying to eat because after 2 days of nothing I’m starting to feel it, but each time I try to eat I just become more and more nauseous.  Ørjan’s been really great at taking care of the kids , running errands, and letting me rest, but I’d rather be on my feet right now because I hate being sick and whiny.

It’s after 2am and I’m still awake.  I just want to sleep and nothing more.  And did I mention that I just finished the period from hell?  No really, I haven’t had one this bad since I was a teenager.  Effing hormones.

It’s almost here!

Stupid me volunteered to take an extra shift on Saturday which means I won’t have the time to place my order online. Luckily I saved and organized a list for Ørjan so he can do it for me that morning. (If he doesn’t forget!) It was smart to take the shift because I’ll need the money to pay for my order ($300+ US) but it’ll mean yet another Saturday spent at work. Sigh. All in a day’s work I guess? It’s a good thing that a Saturday shift pays around $400.

I’m not sure where to begin so for now so it’ll just be bullets:

EVENTS:

• 07.02.10 – 13.02.10: Magnus and Sophie’s 3rd and 2nd birthdays. Both the kids were sick and had diarrhea so there wasn’t much of a birthday party.
• 14.02.10: Mother’s Day (Norway) and Valentine’s Day.  Since we had just finished with the kids birthdays, and since I was working extra shifts, there wasn’t much time for any celebrating.  It was also Chinese New Year and Fastelavn but I couldn’t be bothered to make any other food because I was just dead tired.

ACTIVITIES:

• Baked for work and the kids’ birthdays
• Put way too much effort into a cake that was half eaten – still fun though!
• Spent many-a-days creating forts in the living room and stepping on crumbs after a week with the kids at home
• Finally got around to framing more art and making more plans for renovations
• Planned and budgeted a little towards our London trip
• Called home to Canada quite a bit
• The Olympics – We watch, record, and argue due to our competitiveness!  I love it!  Go Canada!
• Placed an order at the Olympic Store

There’s so much going on right now I’m not even sure where to begin.  In the meanwhile here’s the chocolate-marzipan cake I made for the kids’ birthday party this past Saturday.  Meet Quatchi and Miga:

• mail off updated info to NAV
• laundry x3
• pilates x3 (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday)
• sign up for PULS
• write birthday announcement for RanaBlad
• make-ahead and freeze dinners
• CHILI!!!
• frame artwork
• buy all supplies for birthday bake-a-thon
• clean kitchen
• bake for Magnus
• confirm and research for London trip
• clean living and wash the floors

I’m feeling fairly good at the moment because I realize I actually have time for myself.  This week I’m only working evening shifts (with the exception of my work weekend) which gives me so much more time in the mornings.  Free mornings mean I can sleep half an hour later, I can eat breakfast with the kids before I take them to daycare (instead of me taking them early and them eating there), and I can squeeze in some housework and pilates.  It feels so good to be able to have some independent time even if it means I’m not relaxing on the sofa. It also means I can meet with Ørjan for lunch and he can fuel up before he has to return.

The weather has become frightful again as it’s been anywhere from -14°C to -22°C.  We had severe cold only a few weeks ago and then it rained.  Slush, snow, and then black ice for another week was not a treat.  Yesterday’s walk lead to a surprise when I looked down and noticed my hair had frozen.  I didn’t realize how cold it was until I looked down and it was as though someone had spray painted my hair white.  Now it’s back to the February norm and it’s manageable now that the sun has returned to the arctic circle.  I feel so human again with a little daylight/sunlight.  With so much more light the house feel more comforting and I’m back in full-gear to finish the renovations in our bedrooms.  Around December we pretty much called it quits because it was so difficult to do anywork in the dark.  (Rewiring outlets in darkness and painting without natural light is a big no-no!)

Lately I’ve been using some of my free time to research and plan our London trip.  For a while there I was feeling very negative about this trip because 1) I’ve never had the desire to visit any time soon, 2) London is insanely expensive, and 3) I know I’d be doing most of the work for planning/organizing and childcare duties.  At this point I’ve done all the research and bookings for our hotel and transportation from the airport.  Ørjan ordered tickets with an arrival time in London at 22:10!  This means that we’ve had to hire a service to drive us to the hotel with two very exhausted toddlers.  If you’ve got young children you know exactly what I’m thinking.  Sigh.  Oh well, the hard part is over.  Now the fun part of planning our daytrips are only ahead of us.  If you have any suggestions for London (or a child-friendly London) please comment!

This Sunday Magnus turns three.  We haven’t planned a party for him because we’ll combine his and Sophie’s birthday next weekend.  I should do some light baking and bring out a few gifts though because he deserves it.  Which reminds me, I came up with a menu and a baking plan for their birthday party but I cannot for the life of me find it.  I guess this means I’ll have to go through my bookmarks to find that cupcake recipe that took me days to locate.  Oh well.