Today is Norway's Independence Day - Gratulerer med Dagen! Hipp Hurra for 17.mai! I love living here in the US and I can't imagine living anywhere else, but there are days like today that I wish I had the power of Superman and I could just take off and spend some time in Norway. It's a lot of fun to be there for this celebration. There are kids parades and certain school's get to go in a parade in downtown Oslo to go in front of the palace and wave to the king and queen and their families, and you can eat as much hot dogs and ice cream and Popsicles as you want and there are games and fun in different places. The school bands walk in their own neighborhoods at 6 am to wake everyone up to get ready for the day, and as a teenager I always thought they could skip that part. As an adult however, I kind of miss that. No, that doesn't mean that I want anyone to come and do that outside my window now, but it does have a certain charm to it. Yes, being in Norway for this occasion is fun. They try to do something similar to celebrate here in Utah the first Saturday after the 17th, but let's face it - It falls short in comparison to the real thing, way, waaaaaaay short!

While I have been on here writing, my brother Michael in Norway called on skype, so I was able to talk with him and my sister in-law, Helene and their kids. My mom was there with them, and that was a nice surprise to see and talk with her as well:) It seems like they have all had a great day, but I know, even without them saying anything that it would have been a PERFECT day if I was there! LOL!;-} Oh dear, anyway - I wish all my family and friends a spectacular day and night and maybe sometime soon we can be there again for this fun day:)

This last Saturday we went down to Sandy to help celebrate Derick's grandma's 90th birthday. It's his only living grandparent, and it's nice to be able to see her when we can. It was fun to see all the aunts, uncles and cousins we usually only get to see whenever there's a wedding or a funeral. It's a shame that those are the only occasions we get together. You know we don't see a lot of each other when one of Derick's cousins said that he had no idea that Derick's brother Cary has a 14 year old daughter! Lol:)

OK, I guess I need to write here about the thing I mentioned last time. It's nothing earth shattering, but it's a big deal to us. Derick has a new job! Well, he is still working for Marriott, but he gave his 2 weeks notice and he is exiting that job sometime next week. I believe it will be a good thing for him, and we are excited. I can't say that though, without saying how incredibly blessed we have felt for him being able to have had the job that he has had. He was able to take a whole month off with pay last year when we went through all that we went through with Jake, and they have been very nice in other ways as well, so it is a little sad, but it's something that has needed to be done for a while.

Yesterday a lady from American Monument came to our house, and we have finally ordered a head stone for Jake's grave. It is just a simple head stone without any fuss, and we are happy with it. She said that it would be delivered sometime between now and July 31st, and they would let us know when so that we can be there when they put it up. A lot of people have asked me where his grave is, cause they have gone there and not been able to find it, but in not so long you will:) I miss him.

I forgot to write about this: Last week McCall ran into (and I mean it literally) a friend of his and got a black eye and a concussion! They ran into each other, but McCall got the worst of it. I didn't really think anything of it, cause he came home and said that he had gotten a goose egg, it was above his right eye. Well, as anyone with kids know, this happens, so like I said I didn't think anything of it, until later that evening. We had my brother and sister in-law over and I told McCall to come and eat some dinner. Well, he took one look at it and decided to throw up, but not like when you have a bug, it was just a little. After a while he was able to eat something. He threw up again later on and then that was it. We weren't sure if we should take him in and get him checked out or not, but we decided against it, cause what would they really tell us? Yeah, he has a concussion, wake him up every so often and that's it. I did wake him up every hour from 10:30 until 3:30 and he only made us worried once when he couldn't remember his birthday. He could tell us his name and how old he was and Zane's birthday, but he had to say all the months of the year before he could tell us his own birthday. He was fine the day after, but I kept him home from school just in case. The next day you could really tell he had a black eye, and the day after that it looked even worse. It doesn't bother him, though, which is good.

I am done writing for now. I had a lot to write this time, which just goes to show that some days and weeks are dull and other days and weeks can be very eventful:) I hope you all have a wonderful and uneventful day;-}

I am home alone. I look out my kitchen window and it's very dark over the mountains toward the north, and when I look out my living room window it looks more like just an overcast day. There's even a patch of blue showing, and that makes me optimistic that it just might win over the darker clouds. A girl can only hope for nicer days with no rain for a while and the sun to shine for longer than a day at a time. I guess it will come soon enough, and I will enjoy every minute of it:)

Derick came home a week ago yesterday and we were all excited for that! He had a good time, but he is glad he doesn't have to make that trip on a regular basis. The school must have gotten really cheap tickets, cause they flew from here to Denver, from there to Dulles in Washington DC, then onto Senegal and then to arrive in Johannesburg. From Dulles to Senegal is 9 hours and from there to Johannesburg is another 8 hours! That's a looooooong time! They also went to Cape Town, which is another 2 hours flight from Johannesburg. CRAZY! Maybe they should have spent a couple hundred dollars more on each ticket so that they didn't have to travel like that, but then I guess tuition would have been more, since that's where they got the money from. Anyway, it's behind us now, and I for one am SO happy to have him home!:)

We celebrated Mother's Day here on Sunday - Happy belated Mother's Day to all you wonderful women! It really shouldn't be called just mother's day, cause there are plenty of incredible women everywhere that don't have that opportunity. We went and saw Derick's mother's on Saturday, so that we could just stay home and enjoy on Sunday, which we did:) Derick knows that I have wanted a nativity set for a while and they have an annual Creche exhibit here in Midway every December, with nativity scenes from all around the world. My favorite are always the ones from Africa and Asia, so what he got me for Mother's day was a nativity scene from Africa made out of banana leafs! It is awesome and I love it! The kids made me cards and they are so cute:)

Our car has decided to give us more grief. Lucky us, right? Hopefully one of these days it will be fixed and I can do what I need to do during the day and not have to wait for Derick to come home from work;-} I am thankful that we even have a car, it's just such an inconvenience when it stops working, like every other mechanical or electrical thing...

I came across this while I was reading the Ensign from April today, and I want to share it:
A prominent American judge was asked what we as citizens of the countries of the world could do to reduce crime and disobedience to law and to bring peace and contentment into our lives and into our nations. He carefully replied, 'I would suggest a return to the old-fashioned practice of family prayer.'

Looking out the window again, it looks like the blue sky is all gone, but it isn't raining, and I am glad!

I hope that the next time I write here I can have some good news about something that I can't write about yet, if I don't I probably won't mention it. How's that for suspense??? The kids are gonna be home soon, so maybe I should make it look like I actually did something today;-}

It's Easter. This has always been my favorite holiday. Yeah, I like Christmas and Thanksgiving too, but Easter has always been my favorite. Little did I know in years past how much I would really come to understand the significance and importance of this holiday. It's because of what our Savior did for us, a couple of thousand years ago that makes it possible for us to live again after we die. I have always known this truth, but it hasn't been until this past year that I have come to truly believe in it as I do now. I miss Jake so much each and every day, and some days it's very hard to want to get out of bed. But - the knowledge that I have about life after death is something that I can never deny and because of that I go on. I am also extremely blessed to have such wonderful kids and a husband that loves me, and I want to be the best I can for them. I came across a quote the other day that I want to share here too, cause I shared it with the ladies I visit teach and on facebook. "Part of the reason the Savior suffered in Gethsemane was so that He would have an infinite compassion for us as we experience our trials and tribulations. Through His suffering in Gethsemane, the Savior became qualified to be the perfect judge. Not one of us will be able to approach Him on the Judgment Day and say, "You don't know what it was like." He knows the nature of our trials better that we do, for He descended below them all." Glenn L. Pace, Ensign September 1988. I love my Savior.

Derick left for South Africa yesterday morning. Because his plane left at 6:50am, we decided to stay at a hotel by the airport so that we didn't have to get up at 3am to be ready to leave our house by 4am. Derick and the kids went swimming in the hotel pool Thursday night and they had a great time. I guess our kids are kind of spoiled when it comes to going to hotels, cause Zane had just asked the week before if we could go to one, so he lucked out:) We went to the dentist yesterday too, and that's down in Salt Lake as well, so it worked out perfect. None of us have any cavities - YAY! After that we went and visited our friends the Potter's. We haven't seen them since Christmas so it was about time! Ingvild and I talk a lot on the phone, but it's way better to see her in person:)

I am very excited for Derick to have school behind him. It has been a lot of stress for him to balance work, school and home. All work and no play can be very stressful, so I hope he is able to relax and have a good time in Africa, even if he is traveling with people he probably wouldn't pick himself to go places with.

Well, the kids are still awake, so I need to stop for now so that I can get them to go to bed. McCall is giving a talk in primary tomorrow, he is going to read an article out of the Friend about Easter, it's the easy way out for me;-}

We colored Easter eggs today. This year I didn't buy just regular dye, I got a pack that they could decorate their eggs as monsters. It was fun and the kids liked it:) These pictures were taken before Zane got a haircut, that happened this afternoon.

Spring break is almost over:( I am very ready for summer to be here and school to be out for a while. Derick commented one night that the kids think it's summer already because they have been staying up waaaaaaaay past their regular bed time. It has been so nice though! Not having to worry about bed time or getting up at a certain time or homework, just chillin' at home - LOVELY! The weather could have been nicer, but at least the kids were able to enjoy being outside without jackets, and that's something:) Hopefully Derick only has one more class to go to and then he is DONE! The one professor is a dope and he needs to get over himself and really figure out how to be a professor - a GOOD professor! Anyway, I am so very proud of Derick. I know that he didn't want to go back to school last fall, after losing Jake. He just wanted to come home to us after work, so I admire him for continuing on, even after he really didn't want to. I can't put into words, in English or Norwegian:) of how much I love that man. He makes me extremely happy and I am so blessed to be his wife. The one thing that he has to do before being able to say sayonara to Westminster College for good, is going on a foreign trip. He chose South Africa, and he leaves on Friday:( He'll be gone for 10 days, and I am not too excited about it. He had to do this to be able to graduate, it's a part of the curriculum. He could chose from South America, Asia, Europe and South Africa. He wanted me to go with him, but since we went to Norway for my dad's funeral in January we really can't do that right now, and I also have no idea what we would have done with the kids for that long. I just hope and pray that he is safe while he is gone. Somebody told me once that it's easier to be the one leaving, then the one staying home and I believe she was right:) Oh yeah, so I got myself a new phone on Thursday! I have had the same phone for the last 5 years , so it was about time:) It is intimidating me a little bit, but I'll get over it eventually. It's bigger then my old phone and I can't just put it in my pocket, which is a bummer cause I really liked being able to just have it in there. The guy at the store transferred all my info from my old one to my new one, and today I was looking at all the pictures I had on there. There were so many of Jake. I haven't looked at those pictures in a while and it made me cry a little to see that handsome little guy. I miss him. OK, so about that Heber Valley Milk place. Not impressed. I can't believe it even passes as a store. They have hardly any inventory. There's an ice cream counter, and some cheeses and unpasteurized and unhomogenized milk, that's it! Oh wait, they also had Winder dairy chocolate milk and they charged $1 more then the store here in Midway called "The Store". To say that I was not impressed is an understatement. At least now my curiosity is stilled and I don't have to go there ever again:) I also decided to say no to what I was asked to do. I just can't do it. I seriously had a headache for 2 days because of this, and I finally felt at peace when I decided to not do it. It's nothing major, but it's something that I can never see myself doing - so I won't:) Now all I have to do is let the right people know... Our windows are open and I can hear my kids and the other kids in the neighborhood outside playing. I love that about spring and summer:) I ordered a couple of Adirondack chairs from HSN a little over a week ago and they came this week. They had to be assembled and Derick was able to do that, and today was our first day of using them - AWESOME! I think It'll be nice to sit out there this summer. Yes, spring, I am ready for you to come and stay a while IF you bring nice weather;-}

I am having such a hard time with myself today! I said yes to something that I wish I had said no to. I even told myself a long time ago that if I was ever asked to do this I would never say yes. I called my friend Ingvild and complained and I cried a little too, but that's also because it's that time of month so I am more emotional than usual. Anyway, she is such a great friend and told me that it's something I should pray about and see if it makes me feel differently. So, that's what I am going to do:) I really hate that I'm feeling this way. Right now I am going to stop thinking about it, it just gives me a headache. Other than this going on, I am enjoying this beautiful day.

The kids have spring break this whole week, and although we are not going anywhere, we are going to enjoy it:) It's such a happy feeling to see that things are 'waking' up again after a long winter, and to see buds on trees. I went on a little bike ride this morning, it felt great to be out there when the air is still crisp and to feel the muscles working:)

It is also a great feeling knowing that your house is somewhat presentable and not just in the living room, but all the rooms! It's typical though, that no one ever drops by unannounced when my house looks like this, it's only when it looks like a tornado hit that people drop by. Oh well, I am enjoying it anyway:)

I need to look into getting a headstone for Jake's grave. It's something that I am not looking forward to do, but I know it needs to be done. I sure miss that boy. Derick cleaned out our garage a little over a week ago and we got rid of a trike, a bike and a scooter with three wheels. These are things that Jake should have been able to enjoy this spring and summer. Dang it! Life is really hard at times!

There is a new dairy store that has opened here in Midway called Heber Valley Milk. I have never been there, but I want to try it out today so I think I'll head on over there in a little bit. Wonder if there really is a difference that you can tell or if it's just something that people say. If I remember next time I write here, maybe I'll let you know what my opinion about that place is:)