Dumb

What is dumb?

A) Going to get your sons passport renewed on the first day of spring break when their hours of operation on any given week are M-F 9:00am - 1:00pm thus having to pull them out of school otherwise....

B) Going shopping with said son who wanted whole milk and I told him we needed at most 4 - with our 3 gallons of 2% or it would go bad ... said son only hearing the word 'four' thus getting 4 gallons of whole milk - and me not even noticing when we checked out.

Anyone out there that wants a gallon or two of milk - come by the Hurst Shop-O-Rama!

I'm going back to bed now...

Addendum: Jen says I better blog that she came and got my excess milk so no one else tries to come shopping!!

So ... Ryan is being left out ...

Yeah, sorry about the blog crap - I still have a headache and can't seem to stop posting. Yeah, he sneaks on my blog every now and then - he will SO appreciate the pink ribbons!

For My Jessie

Stavkirke - first 'pilgrimage'

Here are the more spectacular Stavkirkes ('stav shirka') from our first 'pilgrimage'. You would think that Stave Churches (english translation) were defined by the wooden exterior, wooden shingles, the exterior intricate design ... but you would be wrong.

In Wikipedia it states:

A stave church is a medieval wooden church with a post and beam construction related to timber framing. The wall frames are filled with vertical planks. The load-bearing posts (stafr in Old Norse) have lent their name to the building technique. Related church types are post church and churches with palisade walls.

So pretty much named after a freaking post holding the entire thing up (that 'load bearing post' up there in the definition) in the interior of the church. I think the outsides are very pretty, though. Some were just butt ugly and I didn't care that they were by definition Stavkirkes, they just didn't make the cut.

Heddal

Heddal Interior

Nore

Rollag

Torpo

Udval

Migraine

Yesterday - my day of total inactivity was actually due to a huge headache that I was trying to distract myself from. Sitting in front of the computer at least was not making it throb any more than regular - so y'all had to suffer through some pretty horrific scrapbooking. I am really hoping practice makes perfect! I would pull some of the more horrifying ones off, but that darn rule of 'no deleting' I have imposed on myself. I blame my poor judgement on my throbbing head.

The night got no better:

10:00 - went to bed, tried to relax and forget the headache.

1:00 - fell asleep

2:00 - woke up to actual fireworks in my head. Explosions of light behind my left eye and blind in that eye. Staggered out of bed, thew up (NEVER good on a throbbing head) and got my migraine medicine down.

2:00 - 4:00 practiced my relaxation exercises and tried to not want to die.

4:00 - decided that dying was the better option - was going to wake Gary up and tell him to shoot me in the head, but he was sleeping off his jet lag so peacefully ...

4:00 - 6:00 still trying to relax, but loosing it, decided if I couldn't get it under control, Gary was taking me to the emergency room ... or shooting me dead .... his choice.

6:00 - double dosed on migraine medicine, Excedrin and a sleeping pill.

6:30 - drifted off to sleep

8:00 - woke up (exhausted) to just yesterdays '7' throbbing (on a scale of 1 - 10 - I never drop below a 3 - my migraine was about a '15') and was so happy I started to cry - which upped it to an '8' - so I quickly stopped.

8:00 - 9:00 just laid as still as I could and got it down to a '5' and was elated to be relatively pain free - it felt WONDERFUL!

9:00 - got up and bathed to get ready for church - Ryan said he would go to Sacrament meeting with us and I was not missing that for the world!

9:30 - back to bed with a throbbing headache, relaxation exercises

10:00 - up trying to put on makeup

10:30 - threw up, back to bed, gave up on church

Bummer....

Now Jessie is here - not the quietest soul in the world, so while they watch a movie in the bedroom at a volume that my head could not tolerate, I am at my computer, yet again - distracting myself.

Y'all will bear the brunt ... Stavkirke's to follow.

It's not that I didn't have anything to do today ...

... it is just a plain fact that I refused to do any of it. I did enjoy learning how to cut out flowers from some of my floral photos. The photo would be full of crappy flowers, but have one gem - good to know how to recover the photo.

Row Boat

About in April, or May of 2006, we felt time running out on us. We had arrived on July 5th, 2004 and had immersed ourselves in the Norwegian culture, taken trips to our ancestral towns in Sweden, visited Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Spain, England, Italy and driven all over Norway, but still, there was so much that we had not seen and time was slipping away.

We decided to takes some weekends and head out on what I called our 'Stavkirke Pilgrimage'. All but one Stavkirke are found in Norway and by count there are about 27 or 28 depending on the definition of a Stavkirke. I took the map and mapped a round trip to Bergen (Oslo would be found on the (Easternish) southern tip if Norway, Bergen is on the lower western portion of Norway) trying to hit all the stavkirke's I could along the way. We did this twice - photographing about 17 in all.

As you can see, they are not in this photo, I don't know why I explained what we were doing on this trip - I will go through my Stavkirke photos later and post the more spectacular ones. But we were blessed on one trip with the most beautiful weather you could imagine. We pass hundreds of small lakes with the traditional red houses and barns - Norway seemed to have particular colors you could use for your house - yellow and red were popular, as was a white cream, our green and black was less familiar but you never saw a bright purple or hot pink house anywhere - I don't know if this was state sanctioned or just good taste of the Norwegians. So all the small towns or groupings of houses we saw looked very similar to this grouping.

But on this particular day, every lake we drove by was pure glass! We had to stop and take photos of all of them, Ryan and Jessie and Charlie getting very bored in the back seat. We hit pay dirt at one little lake where two beautiful canoes were docked. One was bright blue and is not in this particular photo. And then there was this wooden one - a beauty in its own right, but on a lake of glass with a traditional farm behind it - depicts what we saw a hundred times over, just more beautifully on that particular day.

Stabbur

Many Norwegian houses we saw, had a beautiful large shed like building on the property. We asked about this and were told they were generally (but not all the time) modern built 'stabburs' a building that was built off the ground so that air could circulate under it. They always became wider as they got taller and were never given a reason for this. Sometimes in beautiful graceful curving arcs. In this photo it is very squarish. It was where they stored their meat and other things that they wanted to keep cold. Now days, they are used as a guest room, a shed or anything Norwegians want to use them for, they are just more comfortable having a stabbur on the property, many much more intricately designed than the house itself.

This stabbur is in the Norwegian Folk Museum which has buildings from ancient huts to the beautiful Stavkirke's that dot the country side (Stave Church). More on our 'Stavkirke Pilgrimage' later. This one resides next to a Stavkirke that has been moved to the Folk Museum from it's original place which now has a replica - and is on our drive to the beginning of our "Norway in a Nutshell" tour from Oslo.

Huldra

Continuing on our "Norway in a Nutshell" tour, we take the Flåmsbana (bana meaning train, or course - ie golf bana is golf course) up to the top of the mountain from the tiny town of Flåm that is right at the end of the fjord that comes the furthest into Norway's land mass. Halfway up the mountain, we stop on a bridge with a giant waterfall that flows under the train.

If you look closely, you will see 'Huldra' a mythical Norwegian creature dancing on the rocks by the the water. She appears in two different places and only shows herself at certain times of the year so we were lucky to get a shot of her. You cannot see it, but she is a beautiful troll (much to the downfall of human man) and hides her tail that all Norwegian trolls have under her dress.

Lori's Giveaway

Ok, I am cheating right off the bat since I am scary and NO ONE would want to get a surprise gift from me! An I would feel so dejected if I got no takers. So here are the original rules: (via Leslie and Laura - who I trust completely will come up with perfectly reasonable objects - Oh, I might cheat and head to Jens and see if I can get 3 gifts! - I trust her too):

Original rules:
This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2. What I create will be just for you.
3It'll be done this year. Hopefully sooner than later.
4. You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be sewn, painted, written, scrapbooky, or be something totally random that I come up with on a whim. I may even bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!
5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

See, now right there number 5 would send people running from my blog - 'cause I CAN DO strange!

So to be on the safe side I am cheating:

1) I will give the first 5 people to comment a photo, their choosing, the size up to them (as long as I can print it out) and frame. The catch is you have to come over to my house and decide on a photo on my computer. I won't even be offended if you pick one of Gary's since he has been taking photos longer than I have.

2) Since this is getting out of hand, I won't even require you to do the same on your blog! The gift stops here!

Hows that? Safe enough? Ok, you have to come over to my house, but I rarely bite.

BærumVerks

This is a place near our home called BærumVerks - oddly enough in the area called Bærum. It is actually behind all the shops - a quiet little spot with a waterfall that I thought was beautiful. It an old iron works factory turned into an upscale shopping centre, and my downfall. I LOVED to shop there!

One thing they did do there was make things the old fashioned way - it was a place that kept the old traditions of handicrafts alive. They blew glass, made linens, and my personal favorite - wooden containers called Tine's (pronounced: tina). I must have 20 and they are displayed in a collection in my home, with some spread out being used for more functional purposes. They are hard to describe, so I have taken a photo and included it. They call it their ancient 'tupperware' since the tops seal and have a tricky way of getting them off.

This one sits on one of our end tables and holds all our remotes for the TV, DVD player, Sound system and cable box - looks much nicer than them just laying there ...

Voss Church

Also a small town on the "Norway in a Nutshell" tour (see following post). This is where we usually stayed since by Norwegian standards was a 'largish' town and had a few hotels. We were there on one of their National Holidays where everyone wears the traditional clothing called a 'Bundad'. They are very intricately made, very expensive and the embroidery and the way the dress, the belt, the purse are made can tell a person what fylke (county) you are from, whether you are married or single, and many other things - so everyone you see - you know a bit about them. I liked the bunad design from Voss - Oslo's was ugly so I got my mother-in-law a doll with the traditional bunad from Voss as a birthday gift one year. She called me and I was surprised that the first thing out of her mouth was not 'thank you' - it was that her hair was brown! I had not given it a second thought since there are very many brown haired Norwegians. When she passed away - I brought her home with me and she is sitting on my shelves that I affectionately call my "Norway shrine" being full of treasures I found while in Norway and all very traditional Norwegian items.

One thing about Scandinavia - they are not all that religious, in Norway Sunday was a day to get out in nature - take a walk, go cross country skiing, etc, not necessarily go to church. But every town we drove through there was always a pretty little church. On road trips, Gary and I caught ourselves saying over and over again, like a mantra: "Pretty little town, pretty little church" at every town we drove through.

Waterfall Near Gudvagen

This waterfall is on a very tiny road that switchbacks up the side of a mountain from a tiny town named Flåm and a fjord and on to the next destination on a route called "Norway in a Nutshell". You pretty much see the most beautiful parts of Norway and experience all the highlights of Norway on this tiny tour: a breathtaking train ride in the Flåmsbana train straight up the mountain, the beautiful waterfalls, the spectacular scenery, a jaunt on a ship on one of the fjords, etc. Everyone who came to visit us went on the "Norway in a Nutshell" tour - via the Hurst tour guides. The unlucky ones did the first trek with Gary - who to this day will at the drop of a hat do this part again - ride his bike about 75km to the tiny town of Flåm and start the tour from there. (Flåm - the å is called the 'angel a' because of the halo above it and is pronounced like a long 'o' so Flåm would be pronounced like 'roam' is pronounced ... there Norwegian 101!)

Viking Ship

I promise ... this will be the last one for the day!

This is a photo I took at the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo. Tried so hard to get a shot with no people it it, but only two little ladies was the best I could do on a busy day at the museum.

Ski Jump

In Oslo, we lived at the top of a mountain and there was a ski jump built for the Olympics ages ago that we drove by every day. From downtown or out in the fjord, you could see the curving silhouette of it and it seemed to define the mountain.

In honor of it being torn down to build one that is up to code for the 2010 international ski jump competition that will be held there, I decided to post my favorite photo of it. I was winding down the mountain on the way to the market when I saw that the clouds had all dropped into the fjord leaving a beautiful photo op. Turned around and went and got my camera (not something I need to do now, there is always a camera in my car when I go any where ... I mean what if you run into a two headed zebra and you are without your camera - you never know ...).

Keeping Me Busy

Courtney requested more photos of Norway in a comment .... probably not of our house ... but in honor of this freezing cold day (I can't seem to get warm) this photo seemed appropriate to work on.

Since the sun never got very high in the sky and there were only about 4 or 5 hours of light, some days were just gloomy. I loved the icicles and snow blasted on the house in this photo, but didn't like how icky the day looked.

Enter photoshop - now an artificially happy day! But I think the photo depicts the icicles and snow on the house a little better.

Oh, and now that someone has requested photos, I might just go hog wild here ... wanting to distract myself - just comment and tell me to stop it!

"Nearly Done"

Got an e-mail from Gary titled: "Fw: PRIV: Assignment Approval Notification - Hurst" - the PRIV part meaning Private - so here I am blogging about it, bad, bad Lori. And this message from Gary:

"This is the next to last step before these become official. Nearly done."

And, all of a sudden it became real ... too real for me. Gary is my best friend and he is going away. How are we going to work this out? What am I going to do? How am I going to keep my shit together? Basically a full on panic attack - a fear of what is ahead, a fear of being apart, a fear of the the unknown.

Then I remembered an article (if you will) in, of all places a Scrapbooking Newsletter (yes, you can mock me - I read them - so..... Molly Mormon). I get one every day from this site and it always has a snippet of writing called 'Muses by Ro' - the owner of the Scrapbooking company. I have been thinking about it lately and wanted to read it again today. Had to go find it in my deleted bin:

**************

Fear of the Unknown - a terrible fellow. He stands in hip boots and shakes fists in the air.
He pulls frightening faces. He points and he paces. He laughs when he scares you. He just doesn’t care.

Fear of the Unknown – a terrible wild man. He’ll rip up your sofa and steal all your bread.
He’ll total your car and embezzle your money. He’ll fire you, disown you, and leave you for dead.

Fear of the Unknown – a powerful fellow ’cause that’s what he’s told you and that’s what you think.
But the truth of the truth (and it’s time that you knew it) is that Fear of the Unknown’s a weak, sniveling stink.

He is vanquished forever when questions are answered - his ill-mannered questions that torment at night -
the questions that stand in the back of your closet - that jump out and get you and give you a fright.

“What if you fail here?” He whispers and teases. “What if they fire you and send you away?
You’ll starve, don’t you know? You can’t handle disasters. You’re weak. You’re a coward. You’re foolish and lame.”

“What if you’re sick?” He mentions while moaning. “What if you’re so sick that you pass away?
You’ll leave them behind without any money. They’ll suffer and hate you when you’re in your grave.”

Fear of the Unknown – a persistent fellow. He sits in the parlor and rides in your truck.
He follows you closely and sticks to your clothing. He walks in your shadow and laughs when you’re stuck.

Fear of the Unknown – a sham of a fellow. His questions of terror you do need to hear.
So listen and grab them and hold them and squeeze them. Write them and read them. Get rid of the fear.

Prepare for the worst things, the worst that he asks you. Decide what you’d do if your nightmares come true.
Consider each one, from beginning to finish. How would you manage? What would you do?

And then he will leave you, old Fear of the Unknown. He’ll leave you alone. He will go far away.
Preparing and planning when you hear his questions are certain to scare him. He’ll go without pay.

’Cause Fear of the Unknown loves shadows and darkness. Fear of the Unknown loves terror at night.
He doesn’t like bravery or courage or action. He doesn’t like people who put up a fight.


***************

And it calms me ... because this? I'm gonna put up a fight.

Slipping

Gary tells me on the phone last night that I am slipping - I didn't post anything yesterday. I am thinking that with only TWO DAYS until he gets home - I have shown considerable restraint with my ranting and raving via my blog while he has been gone. Pin a gold star on my forehead - I stayed (basically) sane. I hope that is a new trend since he is only home for a week then gone again for 3 weeks ... only to come home and, well, move out.

That: I'm seemingly sane, no ranting, no raving thing? I think I am saving up.

For Gary

Gary wanted me to do what I had done to the previous photo to a photo of our house in Norway. So ... here you go:

My List of Things To Do is Not Progressing

But I don't seem to care. Stayed up all night and discovered the Holy Grail of Photoshop - taking a .JPEG graphics file and converting it to a .PNG or .GIF file (yeah, yeah, yeah - you don't know what that means & you don't care ... it makes the background transparent - which is a big deal in my neck of the woods).

Decided to treat myself after the dentist and his hygienist tortured me for an hour this morning by editing a file.

Before:

After: Cool, but have absolutely no use for it what so ever. Will count it as practice.

(Not bad for a photo I shot out of a moving car ... while driving, though)