learning - studying - wrecking your brain

Language study - what can I say about it? It messes with your head, your emotions and your life!
One day you feel like you are getting a hang of things and you are making good progress and the next day you feel like you have learned nothing, you sound like an idiot and you wish those stupid people of Babel would never have tried to built that tower - reaching a tower that reaches to the heavens, come on, people, what were you thinking?!?!?! :-)

If any of you know somebody who is trying to learn a language right now, please, give them a break, a hug or a pat on the back, because learning a language is seriously humbling!
Why? Well, while you might be able to sound reasonably smart in your own language, now you sound like a 3 year old (and that would be the best-case-scenario, usually you might be closer to the 1-2 year old :-)). And you are always tired which explains, why toddlers need so much sleep - because they are learning a language! :-)

I know that I should be thankful, and I AM, for a wonderful language teacher,  a funny bunch of class mates and the most understanding husband in the world, but sometimes, I guess, on those days that make you feel like you will never get the hang of it, you want to vent a little bit and today, oops, that turned into the post of the day.

The picture of the day is showing the very cool online program that we are using in class. It goes along with the work book we are studying with.

look!

Look what Erlend brought me from his trip! A giant, no wait, a GIANT lollipop :-) He sure knows me well :-)! Have not decided yet whether to eat it in one sitting or never to eat it because it is too cool to be eaten :-).

waiting, preparing...

...no I am not talking about the meaning of advent, but about waiting for Erlend to come back tonight and preparing/cleaning/decorating the house :-).
My mother in law gave me some Christmas decorations and my sister in law gave me some as well so I tried my best to make the house look more "christmasy", hehe, I even used the presents we have wrapped as decoration.

last night

Tonight is the last night I am I am not staying at our house, the last night away from Erlend (it is not even funny anymore that he is not here, I just want him back, I have stopped to function proberly without him).

To celebrate the first snow we had today (melted right away though) we had some real hot chocolate (made from chocolate bars and milk) and Sarah and I played some domino with the kids. Sarah and I are both so tired. I think that is partly because of lack of sleep but also because it just takes it out of you missing your spouse so much. Now we are going to curl up on the couch like two very sad wives who cannot wait for their husband's return tomorrow. You may call us losers, we call it love! :-) (27 hours until they are back, but who is countig? :-))

Thoughts on a rainy Saturday afternoon

Getting married to Erlend I did not only get a wonderful, incredible, best-ever husband, but a big amazing family-in-law with it! I love my new family-in-law. There are nine precious nieces and nephews whom I love to babysit and hang out with and there are my parents-in-law who have been so accepting, supportive and yes, even my language teacher (Thank you so much, Bodil!).

Then there all of Erlend's siblings plus their spouses. We love hanging out with every single one of them and we know that we are so blessed having so many brothers and sisters on either side of the family that all get a long.

As Erlend has been at meetings in Spain for the last week, I have moved in with my sister-in-law Sarah, whose husband (Erlend's oldest brother Markus) is in Spain as well.

When Erlend and I first got together, I was around people who knew Sarah and many of them told me, that we would get along so well because we were so alike and guess what? They were right!

We love hanging out and doing things together and ever since we met we have been surprised to find out how similar we are in many things.

Of course, there is the obvious:

• we both love the Lord first and foremost and want to serve Him with our lives
• we are both in an international marriage
• we both met our spouse at the Bible school in England
• we both have long dark brown hair (which is the reason why people say we look alike)
• we both KNOW that we have the most amazing husband in the world :-)

But here are some of the things in which we are alike:

• we both love wearing sweat pants
• we both like the colour purple
• we both talk fast and much
• we are both baby snatchers (we "fight" over who gets to hold our baby niece :-))
• we both like cheese doodles, chocolate and raw cookie dough
• we both HATE mice! 
• we both get the creeps thinking about or touching that green foam decorating stuff
• we both love efficiency (I am German and Sarah's ancestors are as well)
• we have the same taste in movies (yes, we both love the romantic comedy stuff)
• we both cry at movies
• we are both nosy
• we both tend to be dramatic (which makes us good matches for the chilled Røsvik men)
• we both have on our bucket list to work in an orphanage
• we were both initially scared to back out of our parents-in-law's driveway

Okay, this is getting long and only the stuff I can think of of the top of my head. I guess the bottom line is that I am so thankful to God that he has put Sarah along side me for this time in my life - she is such an encouragement! (she has gone through the whole language learning/culture shock experience 9 years before me). I love you, Sarah!

wrist warmers

My very wonderful sister-in-law made these wrist warmers for me. They are so comfortable and give me warm hands at all times - I love them! Thank you, mARTe! :-)

Spain

Enjoying 24°C and good meetings in Spain!
- Erlend -

Stratos!

Yesterday, as I was laying in my bed sick and miserable, my sweet father and brother -in-law brought me chocolate :-). Now my sister and mother-in-law will eat it together :-)

today's accomplishment

Today I did not too much except trying to get some strength back, I tell you, 3 days of a bad headache (I don't think there are actually good headaches but anyways) it takes it out of you...
But I sat down and made a long planned advent calendar for Erlend...it is hanging of our curain rod in the living room :-)

no picture because...

Today there won't be a picture, because I look in no way presentable for one and Erlend isn't here....I have been in bed all day with a seriously mean headache and a fever, but unfortunately the feeling like I have to throw up any second is gone, so there is a good change to yesterday.
Erlend has made it safe to Spain and uhm yeah no that is all the news I have for today, nothing else to tell :-).

he is leaving....on a jetplane....

Tomorrow Erlend will fly to Spain for a week. No, it is not what you think, he does not need to take a break from me in a warm nice holiday location - he is going for meetings of NTM with his brother. We hope that Erlend will find out more about some countries we are looking into as posibilities for us to move to and serve in.

This might seem pathetic to some of you, but we have been dreading this for a while now, as it is the first time we will be seperated since we got married...so prepare for lots of "I miss him so much" in the next weeks blogs...

early Thanksgiving dinner

Today we were invitded to a Thanksgiving party with family and friends. We do indeed have so much to be thankful for, we are so blessed in so many ways. Thany you, God for your kindness and generousity towards us!

Okay, I admit it, this is not a picture of the turkey we ate today, (I forgot our camera) but ours looked at least as good and the meal was fantastic. Thank you Markus and Sarah for hosting!

another day of language study

Life here is not always interesting -  some days are just everyday stuff - I guess, hence the name "everyday" :-). Today we had another day at our Norwegian course and we have been joined by another German lady. It is nice to have somebody to talk a bit of German to, as I do not use it otherwise (and it feels like I am losing it  :-)).
Here is a picture of us during our lunch break, which we take very serious :-)

already...

....we are on top of our Christmas shopping... did a huge bit of it today....my German heart rejoices :-)!

bring-your-wife-to-work-day

Today I had the opportunity to spend the day with Erlend (and who in their right mind would not want to do that?!?! :-)) - going to work with him. It was a great way to see some more of beautiful Norway (see scenery pictures) and so experience first hand, why Erlend is always so so so tired when he comes home from work. But enough said, let the pictures speak:

 Erlend and his "work tool"

 preparing for loading

 one of the places we picked up a delivery

 these things are a lot more fun to unload, then you get to roll them

 securing the cargo, very important!

 waiting for the ferry

 being silly while waiting for the ferry

 being happy to be together while waiting for the ferry

 beautiful fjords

legend has it that a troll took a bite out of that mountain top...

joke of the day

I saw this today on my mother-in-law's fb-page and I am posting it because it is one of the first Norwegian cartoons that I acutally understood - language wise :-).

Roughly translate: Two stupid chickens
The one on the left side says, "How can I come over to the other side?"
The right one responds, "You ARE on the other side, you idiot!"
(emphasis edited by the translator :-))

playing Mama

After school today I got to watch my niece and nephew, make dinner with them, read stories to them, make up stories for them, sing and pray with them, help them brush their teeth and tell them they could read for 15 min before I will come and turn of the lights - yes, I do feel a bit like a mommy :-).

 Photo booth is always a good babysitter tool :-)

Yet another birthday party

Our nephew had his 7th birthday this week and today he had his family birthday party. Here is a picture of him with our present, we played it tonight and it is a lot of fun :-)

It came, it's here!!!!!!

My norwegian person number came in the mail, and so now I am officially registered as living and working in Norway! Praise the Lord! Thank you to all who have been praying for this!

only funny for Germans...again

Erlend hat heute ein Foto von diesem Lastwagen geschossen...es ist ein ziemlich gewöhnlicher Anblick hier in Norwegen. Falls ihr es nicht entziffern könnt... da steht TOTENTRANSPORT...hält aber nicht was es verspricht :-)

Erlend's work - driving in fog

cleaning, vasker, putzen

Says it all, doesn't it?

our little gullklump

Today I watched our youngest niece during her older brother's birthday party.
She is not well right now, she has had these bouts of fever lasting several days and she has had them many times now.
Please pray for our little pumkin that the doctors will find out what is wrong with her, so they can give her the treatment she needs and that our almighty God will heal her. Pray also for her parents, that God will give them grace, patience and peace in this time.

walk around

A few days ago we were at Erlend's parents house and it was so beautiful outside, we decided to go on a wee walk and Erlend showed me were he used to play as a little boy.

watching football

After a nice Sunday morning Bible study we went to watch a football game on the big screen. As you can see Erlend and I are both in the picture....it was taken by our brother in law James....and yes, Erlend is wearing a scarf because he is sick, not for fashion reasons :-)

Our team Ålesund won 2-1 and with that won the Norwegian cup!!!

day out at the aquarium

Today we thought was a good day to get some more Norwegian culutre study done and learn about fish and stuff :-) so we took two of our nephews to the aquarium.

 some of those fish hide really well and you have to look closely to find them

 this one is for you, Jon :-)

 trying to fish crab or is that crabbing a crab?

 I was impressed with the up close experience the aquarium offered

 if you dared you were allowed to touch a lot of the sea creatures

 watching the penguines having dinner

 and also we could feed some of the big fish with smaller fish...

more health measures for our laptops

after dusting the laptop yesterday, today we got it a new fan under thingy whatever you call the thing that makes the laptop stay cool and hopefully healthy :-). It is very recommended to do this by computer experts. Funny though that through that the 'lap'top turns it to a 'fan'top. Oh dear, bad play on words, I better stop right now...

cutting hair and cleaning laptop

My brother in law was in need of a hair dresser and I was in need of a computer nerd (sorry James :-)), so we decided that it was a good idea that I would cut his hair and he would use his skills to take my computer apart and make it dust free ("Dust is computer cholesterol", if it is too much it ain't good :-)).