great books

  This is just a post about a good writer, Chautona Havig.  Her books are great and not at all embarrassing to read.  Visit her blog at Just The Right Escape and enter her giveaway of a kindle.  Her books are .99 on amazon now through cyber monday.

Boulder Field

  This is a picture from a boulder field that we went to a few months ago.  It was created from either an earthquake or an ice slide.  It had huge boulders,some the size of a house.  It blocked a stream and seamed to create a dam.

We are trying to get use to the darkness here.  It stays dark till about 8 am and starts getting dark at about 4:30.  It will get worse as we get into December.  

The girls had another gymnastic competition and they did well.  We don't really know scores, but they seem to be doing things well.  AY is working on back tuck and ariel on beam.  AN is perfecting her back tuck on floor.  We are just hoping that they keep their skills up and continue to get new ones.

T is doing well I school and has joined the photography club.  I think we might try and print some of her pictures and sell them.

N is doing good in school, but having to do some adjusting to taking test in a set amount of time.  So for all of you homeschoolers who have kids who will go to college, set a time limit for test.  

We will not be celebrating thanksgiving till Saturday due to it not being a holiday here.  There are a lot of Americans with the oil industry and one company is letting the church we attend use their facility to hold a dinner on Saturday.  It is weird not getting American holidays, but you get the holidays of the country you are in.  I hope you all have a wonderful thanksgiving with family and friends.

Another Week in Norway

Snow in  October.  Norway is a place that is never boring.  It snowed most of the day on October 26th.

We are trying to stay warm.  They do not have central heat so it is done with something like space heaters and wood stoves.  I have not yet gotten the hang of starting the stove, so we may be cold while the husband is gone in December.

It is getting dark her by about 4:45 pm.  During Decmeber we may only have five to six hours of daylight.  That will take some getting use to just like when we got here it was light until midnight.

We will not really celebrate Thanksgiving.  Hubby will not have the day off and the kids will go to school.  We are planning on going to the one hosted by the church that Saturday.  It is really different not having some of the holidays.  Some people take their kids out of school, but I don't see any real reason to do that since hubby will be at work.

I have thought about what I could post and I think I will do something on what we are eating here, ie my menu.  It is different here because it is not easy to get things and we don't have a big freezer.  I am also trying to go gluten free.  Just me though not the entire family.  I am going to see if it makes a difference in how I feel.  

Have a great week.

The Hike to Preikestolen

This a picture of one of the views from preikestolen.  The city of Stavanger and a wonderful sunset.  This picture was taken by T.  We keep telling her she needs to sell these pictures.

This is preikestolen (pulpit rock). This is a cover of a hiking pamphlet.

Yes we hiked to there.  It was very interesting.  If you are afraid of heights not for you.  It took about two hours to make it to the top.  They say there is a trail and sometimes there is, but the other times you feel like a rock climber.  Our three mountain goats loved it.  It did get a little scary when you hang to the rock to get to the next area.  We also had to climb up a little waterfall.  There were is some very beautiful scenery.  There were mountain lakes with waterfalls and just gorgeous views of Stavanger and the fjord.  It is definitely a must do if you come to Norway.  We saw every age making this hike.  You can also see that there are no safety fences.  They believe in leaving nature alone.  That being said our group did not venture close to the side.  Some people do actually BASE jump from the top.  I decided that I would leave that to them.  Anyway just wanted to tell you of the latest hike.

21 Days To A More Disciplined Life

I love the website moneysavingmom.com.  The writer has put it a book 21 steps to a more disciplined life.  For the next day she is offering the book on amazon for .99.  Please check it out.  crystalpaine.com/21-days-to-a-more-disciplined-life/

Have a great day.

Driving In Norway

The view from the top of preikistolen (pulpit rock).  It is called that because that is what it looks like from the fjord.

Ok so driving in other countries is always a challenge.  If you go to England you drive on the left side of the road.  If your drive in Germany you can drive fast, and by the way you learn to drive fast or get run over.  Other countries seem to have no real rules.  Well Norway has rules they are just different than ours.

So here we go!

If you are driving down a road and someone comes in from the right they have the right away and you have to stop and let them go.  There are no stop signs you just have to know this.  We have almost gotten hit a few times for not remembering. That means when you come to the road you slow down and almost stop to see if someone is coming because they will not stop.  Now if you are on a priority road that rule does not apply.  How do you know you you say.  Well there is a yellow triangle on a sign that means it is a priority road.  It can also change to one or no longer one as you drive down the road.

Ok remember I said no stop signs, well they also have very few red lights.  I think I might cancount them all on one hand.  So what do they do instead of red lights and stop signs?  They have round abouts or rotaries.  These are intersections that have a circle in the middle and you drive around the circle to either go straight, right, left, or go back the way you came.  The first one in has the right away.  It is crazy, but seems to work once you understand.  I will try and take a picture so you can see for yourself.

They do not drive above 55 mph, which drives the hubby crazy.  The truth is you can't really go much faster due to the layout of the town and no real highways.  They say they are highways, but they are not like what you and I think of whe we say highways.

So that is driving in Norway.  It is an adventure, but we are getting use to the differences.  I just hope we remember them when we come back to the states.

The Cost of Living in Norway

T took this picture on a hike.  There are sheep everywhere.  It is a very pretty place, but expensive to live here.

So here is the breakdown on living here.  Our rent is 5000+ dollars depending on the exchange rate.  The military only gives us an allotment of 4500+/-.  We looked at over 20 houses to rent.  They were ok, but most only had one bathroom, and after living in a hotel for a month and one bathroom I did  not think that we could do that for three years.  All of the house were laid out wired from an American perspective, but some more than others.  One house we looked at had a basement room that you went right into from the stairs and it was a bathroom.  You went down the stairs and rightbtobthebleft of the door was a toilet.  If that was the only room not so bad, but there were rooms off of that room.  Anyway that is the house story.  Internet, electric, phone, and cable cost us about 550+/- a month.  We can't really use the phone, because each call cost money per minute.  I only use it to call London for approval for dr appointments.  It is a toll free number so I think I don't have to pay for it. More on the dr thing another time.

So lets talk about food.  Milk is 4.30 a half gallon, if you can find a half gallon.  Most places only have it by the quart and then it is about 3.00.  Grapes are about 4.55 for .55 pounds.  A dozen eggs are 7.00.  A pepper mix which is one red, one yellow, and one green is about 3 dollars (I believe that was on sale).  2.9 pounds of bananas was 3.85.  A pint of coffee creamer is 3.00.  A head of iceberg lettuce is 2.75.  A fourth a pound of ham lunch meat is 4.21 and salami for the same amount is 6.00.  A single cucumber is 2.88.  A half a pound of tomatoes is 2.60.  That is just a few of the prices.

I do try to shop the sales.  So if nectarines are on sale we may have them this time instead of apples.  Sometimes there is not much on sale and you just have to pay the price.  The don't have coupons, but I have found a place that I would call the big lots of Norway.  We are still trying to do the Dave Ramsey program and pay with cash, but it has been hard gettingnangood idea of a budget. We think we may have one now, but exchange rates sometimes make it difficult.  

Next time I will talk about the shopette and the cellar, which are places to shop on the base.  I hope you find good deals this week.