project life in 2012: weeks 18- 22

Here's the last installment of project life in 2012!

week 18

This week: I worked on some custom projects for my mom and my mom-in-law.  I went on an awesome, yet challenging, cross-country ski trip. Other than the ski trip, it was kind of a slow week.  Josh had exams, so he couldn't participate in the ski trip.

week 19

This week: The start of the Christmas festivities!  We started decorating more and I made a tiny tree from branches in the forest.  The biggest thing this week was a visit from Josh's Uncle Frank Kline.  He came for just a day and half, but we really enjoy showing him our home, hiking and Christmas shopping.

This story continues after the jump.

what we love about winter: sledding.

Living in Oslo this winter has turned me into a winter lover- at least, a lover of winter when winter includes lots of snow.  People in Oslo seem to come alive in this cold, snowy weather and there are lots of fun snowy activities to do.  There are probably more people out and about in the forest than there were in summer. Joshua and I have also gotten into the spirit of snowy activities.  One of the things we love about winter is the sledding. A few weekends ago, a group from Christian Union went sledding at really long sledding track called Korketrekkeren (or cork screw) at Frognerseteren (an area in the North Forest around Oslo).  We rented a toboggan to share, walked over to the sledding track and flew down the hill.  Seriously, we flew.  We didn’t quite know how to steer and we only kind of knew how to slow down. During our first run down the hill we slid off the track and into a tree. No major harm done, just a face full of snow. After that we were both a little scared to keep going, but we persevered.  We quickly figured out how out how to steer and decided that one person would do the steering, not both.

The course was way longer than any sledding hill we had every encountered before.  It's about 2 kilometers long and took around 10 minutes to get down.  The end of the hill brought us to a Tbane stop and we just rode the Tbane up to the top of the hill to sled down again.  After a few runs we stopped for a lunch break in the lodge.  It was super crowded, but we found a cozy little room just for us- it was actually a conference room that we probably weren't supposed to be in.  After a couple more runs we headed home.  Doing five or six runs, combined with traveling up to Frognersetern, took most of the day. It was a great way to spend our first Saturday back in Oslo.

Yesterday Josh and I decided to go sledding again by ourselves for a fun date.  We each rented our own sled (or sledge as the Brits say) and we didn't hit any trees!  This time we knew how to steer and we knew where the dangerous turns were.  Five runs down the hill felt like enough for us.  It was a lot of fun, but we think it's probably our last Korketrekkeren sledding outing for the winter.  Perhaps we will take out our little plastic sled and slide down the hill near our apartment.  

Happy Winter!

around here.

We're back into the swing of life in Oslo, which means plenty of time for outdoor activities!  We've already gone sledding (more to come on this crazy adventure later) and we rented skis.  Josh's classes have begun.  He has two classes, one about consumption and another about success stories in the field of development, both of which are somewhat intriguing but do not really pertain to his areas of academic interest in the slightest. He goes to SUM for a two hour class on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  No classes on Friday means plenty of time to cross-country ski (everyone around here does it, or so it seems); yesterday he went skiing twice!  Though we've only gone a couple times this season, he really enjoys skiing and seems to be a natural at it.

The most exciting news for me is that I have two jobs!  I work at Ungdomsakademiet (Youth Academy), where I tutor a high school student in English.  We meet for two hours twice a week.  I'm really enjoying getting to know my student and planning lessons to suit his learning style.  My other job is a babysitting gig for three young Norwegian kids (ages 5, 3.5 and 1.5).  I pick these kids up from barnehage (daycare), which means getting winter gear on the two squirmy younger girls.  Then I get them to walk up the hill to their house while I push the youngest in the stroller.  It's not always easy to get up the hill, but when we get home they start to draw or play with their ipad and I make their dinner in peace.  The parents hired me because they wanted an English speaking babysitter.  The dad is a native English speaker, so they want the kids to grow up bilingual. I find communicating to be the most interesting part of the job.  The kids understand English really well, but pretty much only speak Norwegian.  Occasionally they say an English word, but never full sentences.  I think my Norwegian comprehension abilities are sky rocketing.  I usually understand what the kids want to tell me and if not, I ask them to show me.  Both my jobs fall on Tuesday and Thursday, so I have the rest of the week to plan lessons, practice skiing, workout at the gym and spend some time being crafty.  I'm in the process of getting my etsy shop up and running again.  

Other than our time spent at school and work, we are enjoying spending time in our home together, hanging out with friends, attending Christian Union and, of course, trying to get better at cross-country skiing. Our home is feeling more homey & cozy these days.  We have put up some new decorations and photos on our walls and we usually eat breakfast and dinner together.  I'm loving the french press that was a christmas gift from Uncle Frank. And, our letter wall is growing!  Most recently we received a letter from Obama's dog (actually from my Grandma Ann).  Maybe you can see it in the top right.  Thanks to all you who have sent us letters.  We still want to write back!

greenville goodness.

On the plane ride home to Oslo I wrote a list of some of my favorite memories from the last week or so in Greenville.  Some is the key word here.  It would take a whole day to list all the goodness of our time in Greenville, so this is just a portion of the good memories.  I felt blessed by so many people.  Here's the list:

game nights, cookies and SNL with friends

a hug goodbye to erica

a really good conversation with my dad at jo's java (in honor of his 50th birthday)

watching my cousin mary ride her bike

walking a mile with my mom on our last day in greenville

a car ride with josh with a beautiful sky and good music

hearing grandpa matt's account of his birthday morning + celebrating his birthday

helping my mom organize the house

breakfast with nat

a double date with michael and kelly

laughing a lot with elise at jo's java

snuggling and laughing with my college roommates

visiting jordan and niqui in decatur

the hymns at st. paul's

two hugs from grandma ann the day we left

the usa tour.

Joshua and I are so thankful that we got to spend a month in the U.S. with our family and friends.  It was great. We spent about 10 days in Seattle with Josh's family.  We snowshoed, we made granola, we sang carols, we ate together, we saw The Nutcracker, we opened stockings and presents, we laughed and talked and had a great time. It was over all too soon. We headed over to Greenville, Il and spent Christmas with my family. We had about 3 weeks in Greenville.  Somehow we managed to pack a lot into those 3 weeks. We ate fondu, celebrated Christmas, attended our friends' wedding,  went skiing, celebrated the new year with friends by playing loads of games, attended church at St. Paul's three times, ate a few of my Dad's world class omelets, watched SNL, played games and celebrated a few birthdays. And, we spent SO much time with friends- we had coffee dates and dinner dates and lunch dates and breakfast dates. Oh so many wonderful dates with people we love.  Now for the photos.  I hope this gives you a glimpse into the quality time we spent at home. 

Thanks, friends and family, for sharing the holiday season with us.  We love you!

project life in 2012: favorites from weeks 4- 17

Woah.  I didn't exactly realize how behind I am on sharing my project life spreads here on the blog.  I may have mentioned before that it's been tricky to work on this project on a daily basis because I can't print photos very easily in Oslo. Therefore, I've slacked on posting about project life each week. Because it would be an overload to share every page from the past few months, I'm sharing snippets of some of my favorites weeks.  This turns out to be a lot of weeks, actually.  It's been a good year!

week 4:

week 5:

week 7:

week 9:

week 10:

week 11:

week 12:

week 13:

week 14:

week 16:

week 17:

You can see my previous project life posts here. I started by using one page per week, but after a while I realized that I was taking a lot of pictures and had quite a bit to record.  So I switched to using two pages.  Every now and then I have an uneventful week or I don't take many pictures so I use just one page.  I love how flexible this project is.  Actually, I love everything about this project.  I love the process and the reflection that I do while putting the spreads together.  But I also love the end result.  I love the daily memories that I've recorded and can reflect on 10 years from now.  I love that someday when we have kids, they can know what our life was like in 2012.  I still have some pages from november and december to complete and I look forward to continuing this project in 2013!

For those of you interested in starting this project, look here to learn more about project life.  For those of you scrapbookers or other project lifers,  here are the supplies I used in these pages: Black Signature Binder, Project Life Cardstock- Cobalt Collection, Photo Pocket Pages Designs A and B (I have this variety pack),  buttons and paper tabs from Ormolu, colorful Sharpies, American Crafts Slick Writers. American Craft Thickers. Washi tape from this etsy shop.  Lots of kraft cardstock, because it's my favorite.  Since I'm pretty thrifty, I mostly use supplies I already have.