Finally...

..another update from our cold and stressful lives up North! We've been pretty busy lately but I'll try to recap what has been going on over the last couple of weeks. Right after Jackson left we had a period of really cold weather, and a couple of days it was actually closer to -17 degrees when I was driving Isabelle to child care in the morning. Although Norwegians (and especially Norwegian child care centres) believe firmly that there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes, I do believe they actually decided to stay inside at Barnehagen that day!

There is still a fair bit of snow lying around, and I suspect we won't be getting rid of it for a few weeks to come still... It does make a pretty impressive sight though - this photo was taken before our last snow fall, which added another 30-40 cm on top. The edges of the path leading up to the house (which James have worked hard to clear) are actually higher than Isabelle at the moment!


In addition to school and everything else, James have started taking Norwegian classes to improve his Norwegian before entering the work force. In addition to his two 3-hour nights of norsk a week, he is also currently undertaking a Norwegian culture class to fulfil his requirements for a permanent residency. Poor James actually has to attend this, uhm, crap two hours a day, four days a week for SIX weeks! This is an example of what he is learning...


I pick 5. Only good thing I suppose is that the whole thing is done in Norwegian, so at least it does improve his language skills!

Mimmi and Bett returned from their one week hot weather extravaganca on the 15th, and of course they could not resist bringing back a whole heap of presents for their little angle. James and I barely received a 'hello' upon their return - which was not really all that surprising... I'm sure these googles will be great come summer and beach-time: