I've Been Tagged

Okay, I don't know that I like this tag because I am not really the most organized or neat freak person around, but here goes. Thanks Eliza. Here are the "rules" for this game of tag. You are supposed to take pictures of the following things just as they are - no stopping to clean, straighten, or to wipe a child's nose: The kitchen sink, the fridge, the toilet, the closet, the laundry room, your favorite shoes, your favorite room, and your kiddies. No cheating!

Here is my kitchen sink.

My fridge, quite full today, I am getting ready for my once a month cook day tomorrow, Wednesday.

My toilet, pretty clean considering it is the one everybody uses all day long, everyday.

My closet, no it is not organized by color, no it is not neat, sorry.

One of my favorite rooms in the house is the Family Room. we spend lots of time here and I love the way the decor has come together.

My Laundry Room. I would like to say that you caught me on a bad day, but to my dismay, it usually looks like this. It is our laundry/mud room and the catch all for everything.

These are my favorite shoes. I truly live in my flip flops.

And these are my children. Love, Love, Love them.

So I tag Melanie, Jaidi, Melinda, Lindsey, and Nigel.

Jacob...An Accident Waiting to Happen

Or maybe that should read "An Accident Happened". Any of you that know Jake know that he is basically a whirlwind of energy, sometimes called an accident waiting to happen. Well once again the accident happened. Sunday night Jake jumped down several of our stairs and landed on a toy that happened to be on the landing. He was not able to put weight on his foot without severe pain so I took him to the doctor on Monday morning. X-rays were taken and though there is no fracture the doc says he has a deep contusion or bruise on his bone. The doc splinted and wrapped his foot and said he cannot put weight on it for 5 days then has to be rechecked by his pediatrician. So here he is on crutches. He is getting around pretty well and adapting to the crutches though he makes me very nervous on them. After carrying him all around yesterday, I am glad he has them today. He is a heavy boy to lug around everywhere.He is very disappointed that he cannot play baseball this week and hopes his foot feels well enough that he can play next week.

Finally back to Normal

Well, I think our clocks are finally back to normal. The first few days that we were home, the kids were waking very early in the morning, but the last 2 days have been better. I am slowly getting the house back to normal as well and catching up with all the laundry.

The last 2 days have been beautiful outside and we spent a few hours at the pool enjoying the sunshine. I really missed the sunshine while we were on our trip. Those days that Mr. Sun did visit were great, but not often enough.

I was amazed when we got home by the weed invasion in our front yard, so I spent a morning just working in the yard. The kids helped me do the weeding and Kaylee mowed the lawn. I was very relieved to get that done. The yard looks really nice now.

Last nght Mike and I went out on a date. We haven't been out just the two of us for several weeks, so it was really nice to get away. We went to see the new Indiana Jones movie. I know it has been out in the theatres for weeks, but like I said we don't get out too often and when we do, we don't often go to the movies. I really liked the movie though the idea seemed a bit far fetched to me. As I expected, there was a lot of action and I have always loved Indy.

Well, I guess I am off. We have church and meetings today, so I need to head off to the shower.

It's a Crazy, Wonderful Life in Pictures

I have created a sharing site for my pictures with shutterly.com. You can find it here or at the link on the side of my blog. I am very excited about this fun way to share our life in pictures. On the page I have also included links to the Photo Books I have been working on using the shutterfly website. To view them, just click on the book and it will take you to the viewing site. It is my new favorite way to scrapbook. Check it out.

Chronicles of Norway Pictures

I just wanted to mention that I have added pictures into all of my Chronicles of Norway posts. If you have already read them please look again to see the pictures.

Some Norway Funnies

I was washing the dishes after dinner one of the first nights after we arrived in Norway. One of the kids said, "Mom, where's the regular dishwasher." I replied "In Norway, it's me." They were shocked that there wasn't an automatic dishwasher.

When we visited the Castle in Oslo, Kyle and I needed to make a trip to the restroom. This is what I found.

Without the usual boy and girl pictures on the doors, I was a bit uncertain, so I made an educated guess. I figured Damer must be dame which is girl, so we went in. Inside the restroom were 2 stalls and just after we walked in a man came out of one of the stalls. I immediately blushed and asked "Am I in the wrong one?" He was also foreign, I think he was Asian, but he said yes I was in the wrong restroom. I rushed out completely embarrassed and ran into the other restroom only to find a urinal right inside the door. Now I was even more embarrassed, but at least there were no men using it when I walked in. Feeling again secure with my original educated guess, I laughed for the sake of the man who was in the women's restroom and didn't even know it and I took Kyle back into the restroom for the "Damers". Once again breathing a huge sigh of relief that the men's room was unoccupied when I entered. This was one time I wish I would have invested in a Norwegian/English dictionary.

Final funny for today. After a long day and a chaotic trip to the mall. Jacob was sitting in the front seat next to grandpa. In all the innocence of youth he looked up at grandpa and totally out of the blue said "We're not always this annoying." I busted out laughing. If I remember correctly this was just a few minutes after he pulled the "Need Assistance" alarm in the restroom at the store. Jake is about the sweetest and most loving kid ever. He is very busy, very active, sometimes causes trouble, and can be annoying and loud sometimes, but to hear him say something like this completely unprovoked had us all laughing for days.

Chronicle of Norway (Part 6) Our Trip Home

Well we are home. And tell me why am I up typing this at 5:00 am? Who knows, my clock is off a bit I guess. Or maybe it is because the kids' clocks are off. The boys were up at 2 am ready for the day. I couldn't get them to go back to sleep, so I have been up with them ever since.

Well on Tuesday morning we got up at 4:00 am (that is 8 PM on Monday in Colorado by the way) to get ready to leave. I couldn't believe our time in Norway had already come to an end. We packed up our final items, got dressed, and had a bite to eat. It is about a one hour drive to the airport from where mom and dad live and dad went along to show us the way. He drove his own car so he could get back home. Thanks dad!!

We arrived at the airport at about 5:30, checked our luggage and were on our way through security and passport checks to the gate. Our plane left for London at about 8:00. The flight was packed this time. The kids were pretty crazy, but we tried to keep them occupied. It was only a 2 hour flight to London, but we knew what was ahead. We had a 3 1/2 hour layover in London Heathrow which has to be one of the worst configured airports I have ever been in.

We got off the plane and there was a small seating area there before going back into the terminal and we decided to spend as much time there as we could to avoid the crowds in the main terminal. We spent about an hour and a half there and the kids were able to run an play. Then we headed to the main terminal to wait for our flight to start boarding. Mike took the boys to buy snacks and then I took the girls. As I was headed to the shop to buy treats I noticed it said that our flight was boarding. I said WHAT? we still had about an hour and 15 minutes before I flight was scheduled to leave. We bought our snacks and went to gather Mike and the boys to head to our gate.

What a surprise we had when we got to our gate. We found out we were going to be bussed from this terminal to another, then we would have to go trough the security checkpoint in the new terminal again and walk to our gate. UGH!!!! what a mess. After we finally arrived at our new gate it was utter chaos. Nobody knew what was going on. It took forever for them to get us boarded and we ended up being about 45 minutes late to leave London. With 5 kids this was a nightmare!!! But they gave us a box of chocolates when we got on the plane, so that made everything all better. (not really)

The kids on the bus to "the other terminal".

The plane ride was the longest plane ride ever!!! I swear that 9 hours just absolutely dragged on and on and on. The kids didn't sleep much and I swear Jake and Kyle had to go to the bathroom about every 15 minutes. But I watched most of 4 different movies. We kept the kids occupied with the movies the plane offered, Disney channel the plane offered and our own Ipod movies, Dvd player, DS, and gameboys, and lots and lots of treats. They did pretty well, but it wasn't easy.

We arrived in Denver at 4:00 in the afternoon, but we weren't done yet. We had to go through customs and passport checks and claim our baggage. It took almost an hour before our luggage was all gathered and we headed out to meet Pete and Mel and our car and Mandy. (Mandy was sure excited to see us) Thanks Pete and Mel for coming to get us. We loaded up our 10 suitcases, 6 carry-on bags, my purse and Mike's computer, all the kids and we headed home. We arrived home at about 6:40 pm. All the kids except Kaylee were asleep in the car. We carried them in and all our stuff and everyone fell asleep except Mike and I. We finally headed to bed about 9:30. We had been up for 25 1/2 hours straight. We were beat.

Kyle woke me up about 2 am. I coaxed him into my bed where he slept for about an hour. Then both he and Jake were up for good. No matter how I tried, they would not go back to bed or sleep so I got up with them. I figured if I'm up I might as well be typing, so here I am. I think I am read for normal life to begin again. I am sure I will be tired for a day or two while I get back on schedule. But it will be fine.

Our trip was such a wonderful experience. I am so grateful that we were able to do it. It will be an experience the kids will never forget. Mike and I are already starting to plan our next trip (for just the two of us). Hopefully we can go in about 5 years. That is what we will plan for.

P.S. I ate WAY too much chocolate, ice cream and deserts while we were there. I managed not to gain any weight though somehow. Yay!!!