Catching Up

My goal was to blog every other day at least aaand I failed. But over the past few days, I've been either busy or sleeping so that's a good enough excuse for me. So here are some pictures of what I've been up to lately. 

So the other day, I made Tuscan Sausage Soup. Courtesy of Pinterest and Feast on the Cheap.  (recipe: here) Mine turned out like more of a pasta but it was soooo yummy, and even better the second day. Trust me.

In other news, autumn has continued to look amazing here. The current week's forecast is rain, rain, and rain so I'm glad I captured a picture of a nicer day. Won't last much longer now.

Annnd it snowed one day, so I wore a ski jacket and panicked. 

Then, I went to Trondheim from Thursday through Sunday to visit my favorite people. I haven't done a lot of traveling around Norway so it was really weird being in a different area with different dialects. I LOVED it and will most likely head back in a few months. 

at the student bar

we made sushi one night :)

view from my bus window

Now I've returned to Bærum so it's back to au pair days and finishing my never-ending classes. Hope everyone's having a good week!

Reese's Puffs + a cold Saturday

Finally, it's the weekend! I'm using it to study, which is a bummer, but I'm so glad I'm getting some much needed time to recharge. Yesterday, I received a huge box of goodies from my mom, making her the world's best mom. I mean it. I asked her to send a few things that I "needed" and she went above and beyond. I should be stocked on the basics for a while now.

YAS

I've been binge eating Reese's Puffs since this photo was taken.

Today, after a very lazy morning, I've made my way to Oslo where I'm doing a bit of reading for school. It's getting colder outside and by Thursday, the high is supposed to be only 45 degrees! As I write, I'm sitting in a warm, candlelit coffee shop listening to Frank Ocean and drinking a hot cup of coffee. I can't wait to finish my schoolwork so I can come here just to read a book and relax. Snow shouldn't be too far off either and I'm so excited for my second Norwegian winter. 

flashback from October 2009 :')

Unfortunately this Government reading isn't going to do itself so I'm off. Have a good weekend, everyone!

Leo's Lekeland

It's been so busy around here that I haven't had the energy to post the past couple of nights. Aside from schoolwork, I've been doing my normal daily stuff with Amy, plus helping take the girls to and from school, plus cooking and cleaning. It wears you out. Just another reminder to wait to have kids until I'm completely 100% ready to revolve my life around little humans. 

Yesterday, Amy and I went to this enormous indoor playground called Leo's Lekeland. It was unbelievable. There were slides, things to climb, ball pits, trampolines, and a place to order food (which was surprisingly good). I wanted nothing more than to be a kid again for the day. I frolicked around with Amy but I was constantly ducking under things because I'm 5'7" and had to keep saying to myself, "Don't look like you're having too much fun, you're so embarrassing..." 

(not my photo)

This was the only picture I could find that shows the scope of this place. You could say she had fun.

Right after I took this photo, I realized how hard it's going to be to leave at the end of my year. To say so many goodbyes again, but especially to leave this nugget. I spend so much time with her each week that it's impossible not to grow attached. For now, I'm trying not to think about it too much. 

I've got a Skype date awaiting me, so until next time.

Best Babysitter Ever

Today was my big day alone with the girls and amazingly, it went SO well. Huge pat on the back for myself. After breakfast, I let them watch some cartoons and Pippi Långstrump (just discovered Pippi Longstocking is originally Swedish, what do you know?). I figured I would get ready while they were calm, and decided not to look like a slob. Slowly learning that looking good makes me feel better throughout the day, even if I don't have huge plans. So hence, makeup: 

P.S. this top is from Goodwill

We then went took a trip to the park which turned into a serious leaf hunt. 

Then, we used the leaves to make turkeys.

And in the spirit of October, proceeded to make whatever you want to call these.

If you know these three, you know it's nearly impossible to get through a day without considerable screaming and fighting but I somehow managed everything so well and feel like I can conquer anything. Trond is home now so I'm going to do schoolwork and take it easy the rest of the night. Hope everyone is well!

5 METER JUMP

It was cloudy and lovely today. I will always love rain and will never be able to explain why.

This afternoon we went to a different indoor pool and you guessed it, I jumped off the 5 meter platform. I don't know who I am anymore. Aizea was too scared the entire time and I got a burst of courage from wanting to see her overcome her fears. I just stepped off and didn't think twice about it. It worked! After I jumped, she went for it and of course wanted to go again... And again... I remember being much older than her and chickening out any time someone pushed me to do something out of my comfort zone. Proud of both of us today :)

There it is, everyone. (photo: Marius Morstøl Jenssen)

Lucia is leaving for the airport around 4AM for a business trip in Spain and since Trond doesn't get back from his trip until late tomorrow afternoon, that means juggling the three girls for around ten hours. I'm mostly worried that Amy is going to absolutely lose it once she realizes her mom is gone. But we'll hope that isn't the case... 

Until tomorrow!

Swim Day

I was at the pool ALL day and pleased to say I went down the slide probably twenty times. There was a screen at the end that showed how fast you went and Aizea and I shaved our time down to 9.06 seconds. We named ourselves the Slide Queens (the king was a large man that kept getting 8 seconds). The wave pool was, well, a wave pool. OH! And I jumped off a three meter diving board a few times (as 5-year-olds somersaulted off the five meter one). But if you know me, I've got a big problem with heights so any time I do something like that it's a huge personal victory. Yes, I held my nose.

Tell me 9 seconds isn't good. (photo: Øhman Rolf)

I think Amy enjoyed her ice cream.

I'm also super excited because Phil has booked trip number two, and now I can start counting down. 

Long distance is shitty and these long weekends are everything.

The rest of the evening is dedicated to my Government essay so I'm hoping for productivity. Wish me luck!

playdates & pizza

Today's big outing was a playdate with another au pair from the Philippines. These kind of days make my job so much fun. While we ate pizza and talked, Amy and Nicolai scurried around the living room shouting at each other in baby language. Amy doesn't have a lot of experience with one-on-one playing, but she was a perfect angel. Nicolai even grew a bit attached to her, fussing when she left his side. #amysfirstboyfriend :')

My day has otherwise been uneventful. I sort of dragged my feet the entire day and when I looked at the clock it was 9PM. I can't afford these kinds of days with my course deadlines coming up... At least the weekend is here!

Tomorrow we're going to an indoor swimming pool with a wave pool, lazy river, AND rock climbing wall (in the pool) and I'm almost positive I'm more excited than the girls are. However, I'm checking out for the night so I can get a little work done before bed. Goodnight, everyone!

misc:

au pair probs