Well, our planned trip out on the Viking ship had to be postponed due to bad weather. It has been rainy here for the past week…. actually the last month! Today on the news they said we only have had 3 days without rain in July! I am hoping August is a little sunnier. We have rescheduled the Viking ship trip for tomorrow, and as of right now the weather looks like it may cooperate. The sun actually came out around 10 pm tonight for a bit and the last weather forecast I saw just called for cloudy skies. On Thursday we will be traveling by bus and train to Trondheim. It is a larger city a bit north of here where some of our relatives and friends live. We are traveling up with our friends Jessika and Anna, and will be staying with my cousin, Else. We will be there for just under a week, and then will fly back to Alesund to spend our last week here before we return back to the states. Send lots of good weather thoughts our way!

July 6, 2007

We had wonderful weather for a first full day in Norway. The sun was shining and the temperature was in the upper 70s/low 80s. We ran a few errands and spent a little time in town with our friends Jessika and Anna before heading out to the beach at Volsdalsberga with my cousin, Anne. We had been there a few times on our last trip, but since hten they have trucked in sand, so the beach isn’t just all rocks. It made it much nice for walking in and playing in, but it also makes the water a bit dirty which made Lanie not want to actually swim in it. We were able to get her to jump off some rocks into some clear water away from the sand and she loved that, but the water was a bit on the chilly side so after a couple of times, she was ready to just go back to play in the sand and water. She kept trying to talk to the other kids to try and play with them but since she speaks English and they speak Norwegian the language barrier was a bit difficult to overcome. I think she may start seeing the benefit of speaking Norwegian though!

July 4-5, 2007

After our stay in the Flagship Lounge in Chicago, it was off to London. We flew in a 777 and the business class seats are about the size of first class seats in smaller planes. It was pretty comfortable and Lanie fell asleep before they even got us our dinner. She slept the whole flight until I attempted to wake her for some breakfast. That didn’t work too well, so it was probably only about a half hour before landing when she actually woke up. We had a few hours in London, most of which were spent walking across Heathrow Airport! Word of advice; if you ever have to fly through Heathrow make sure you wear your walking shoes and that you have at least a 2 hour layover if you have to make a connection! We made it to the British Airways Lounge and they had a children’s room with a TV and toys which kept Lanie occupied with her Mormor, while her aunt and I took a look around the airport shops. At first look, the prices seem great, but then when you have to double them (it’s about $2 to 1 pound), then it’s not such a good deal! Finally, our flight time came and we got on our 3rd flight of the trip. Again, Lanie slept pretty much the whole flight. We arrived in Oslo, and had to deal with passport control and customs, so we had to collect our luggage. It is neat here in Norway with the Duty Free shop because they have one right in the baggage claim area, and with your incoming international boarding pass you can take advantage of it. So we did a little shopping there while we waited for our bags. We then sailed through customs and made our way to the SAS desk to check our bags in for our final flight to Aalesund. Unfortunately, they are the only airline flying into Aalesund and because they are not a partner with American Airlines or British Airways they don’t care that we were traveling internationally, and only give us the domestic baggage allowance. With a little re-arranging we managed to get everything checked without any charges for additional luggage, unlike on our trip in 2005. We had a few hours layover in Oslo, but after dealing with customs, rechecking bags, and getting Lanie something to eat (polser, of course) we didn’t have too much time left before we were able to board the plane. Unlike the other flights, Lanie was wide awake for this one, while I was so tired that I had a hard time keeping my eyes open! Of course, Lanie helped make sure I did!

Once we got in to Aalesund, we collected our bags. After I had gotten all of the bags off the conveyor belt I went to get the carts and my backpack (which had all of my money, passports, etc), and it was missing! I was about to come completely unglued, thinking someone had stolen it, when we saw Lanie standing by the conveyor belt which was still going around (at one point the items enter through a opening in the wall, and go around into another opening). She was grinning and at that moment I saw my backpack coming out the other side! Lanie thought it would be fun to put Mommy’s backpack on the conveyor belt and watch it go around! Needless to say, I was relieved and infuriated all at the same time! After that, we made our way out of the terminal and to the bus that took us into the city (the airport is on one of the many islands around Aalesund, and the bus has to go through tunnels that go under the sea to get from island to island). The bus stops right near my cousin’s apartment, where Lanie and I will be staying for our time here. She came down to help with our luggage and we finally were able just to relax a bit after a very long trip!

The other day we were driving to one of our relative’s homes for dinner, and Lanie’s aunt, known to all as Kikishell, asked Lanie in Norwegian “Do you understand what I am saying?” to which Lanie responded, “Jeg snakker Norsk!” That translates as “I speak Norwegian!” At the time we had been here 5 days. She is catching on very fast. It is fun to hear her using new words and phrases. Lanie will be looking at the things around her and just start asking what the names of everything are in Norwegian. It will be so fun to see how much she learns in the next 4 weeks!

Well, we are on our way to Norway! We left today out of DFW at 1:00 p.m. and will get to my mother’s hometown, Alesund, tomorrow around 8 pm local time. It will take over 24 hours of traveling! So far, Lanie is doing well, but the wait here in Chicago is annoying her quite a bit. She just wants to get on the plane! She slept most of the way to Chicago, but didn’t get as long of a nap as she usually does so I would have to say she is a bit on the cranky side, but overall doing very well. We are spending our 5 hour layover in Chicago in the Flagship Lounge which is for First Class travelers (no, we are not in first class, but my mother and sister are, so we were able to come in as their guest. It is a nice place to wait but a bit on the snobbish side. We were told when we came in that we would need to make sure we kept Lanie quiet or we would have to leave! They do have food and adult beverages so we’ll put up with the snobbery! It is very nice having two other people here helping keep Lanie occupied, especially when she won’t listen to me she will usually listen to one of them!

Anyway, I will post again when I have an internet connection and when I start taking some pictures I will get them posted as well!

I just remembered something Lanie said the other day that really made me laugh. We went to her doctor for a visit and they wanted to collect a urine sample. Since getting her to pee in a cup isn’t really possible, they put a urine collection bag on her and we sat there waiting to see if she would produce a sample. She wasn’t really happy about it and kept asking me, “Why is there a bandaid on my butt!?!” I could not keep from laughing!

A couple of weeks ago my computer went on the blink. I was afraid I might have lost all of my photos, especially after what had happened with the laptop on New Year’s Eve. Well, David was able to back-up all of my pictures and other important things, but we still cannot get my computer to boot up properly. So, when we finally figure out what is going on and get it up and running, I will definitely post recent photos, including some of Lanie swimming. It really is a sight to see!

Other than the computer issues, things are going fairly well here. David made it through another round of lay-offs at his company, but is now in a different position. He really liked the position he was in, so we will have to see how things go. I am actually enjoying my new job a lot more than I thought I would and seriously considering continuing in this position beyond this school year. I think I may be much more suited to this than either of my prior teaching positions.

And as for Lanie, the one you all come here to read about, she is doing great! She continues to amaze us on a daily basis with the things she says and does. She is definitely two, and makes sure we know that every day. There is a lot of saying “NO” and “It’s not fair!”, which are probably her two favorit things to say right now. We are still dealing with her crawling into bed with us every night in the middle of the night. Neither one of us wants to get out of bed to put her back in hers, and I think we both kind of like her being there to tell you the truth. We’ve tried to start potty training, but Lanie really isn’t interested yet, so we will just give it time. I guess since she seems to be doing everything else ahead of what is expected, we can let her slide on this one thing for a while!

I will try to post more later and hopefully my computer will be up and running soon so I can post those pictures!

This is an actual, unretouched photo of Alana’s picture towering above Times Square in New York City!

The story is that Time Magazine is running a promotion for their “Person Of The Year” award, and allows anyone to submit a photo to be displayed on the big-screen. If they use your photo (they use most of them), they’ll send you a snapshot of it as it is displayed in New York.

Here’s the official link, to see the time/date it was displayed:

Alana in Times Square

The original photo is this one:

How’s that for neat?

This morning, as we were getting ready to leave, I had to put the car seat from David’s car in the car next to Lanie so my parents could use it today. Well, the only time Alana has ever seen me put another carseat next to her is when we have gone somewhere with Rylee and Cassy. So, when I put it in, she started to say “na-na,” which is what she calls all of her friends that are around her size ever since we spent so much time with Anna (whom she called “na-na”) in Norway. Well, since she has been calling Rylee “na-na”, I told her that no, Rylee wasn’t coming with us, and then she said in her sweet little voice, “Ry-ree.” It’s really the first time she has gotten out anything close to Rylee’s name and it was just so darn cute. Of course, she immediately went back to saying “na-na” everytime I said Rylee after that, but I know she CAN say it when SHE wants to!

As for her friends that are a bit bigger than her, them she calls “me-me.” It started when she started calling her friend Amy that but now it just seems to be all children older than her. We were out for ice cream last week and there was a little girl there probably around 6 years old, and she started calling her “me-me.” Then we had someone over to the house who had her 5 year old son with her, and, again, “me-me.” So we have an awful lot of na-nas and me-mes around!

Last night, Alana and I met our friends, Cassy and Rylee, for dinner at Sushi Rock in Plano. Rylee was born the same day as Alana and we like to get together so the girls can play. Well, we ordered the girls some rice and vegetables, of which Alana ate some, but she was more interested in our sushi rolls. She managed to get a hold of a piece of California roll and proceeded to shove it in her mouth. She got a pretty good bit and actually seemed to like it. When she got a bit more of the crab in her mouth, she wasn’t quite as pleased, I think mostly due to the consistency (it was kind of stringy). Unfortunately I did not have my camera with me, so no pics! But we did have a good time and the girls got to run around a bit together when we went out for ice cream afterwards.

Before we left to go eat yesterday, Alana had fallen in the bathroom and hit her head against the side of the bathtub. She just cried for a minute and then was fine, so I didn’t really think much of it. Then at dinner, Cassy asked me what happened to Alana’s head next to her eye. It had started getting red and seemed to just get redder as the evening progressed. This morning when we got up, Alana had a bit of a black eye. She is always getting all these bumps and bruises. I keep putting of taking her to get some professional pictures taken until her latest bruise heals, and then she just gets another one! I guess if I keep thinking that way she’ll never get any pictures taken!