Veti og Ole-Kristian

Big progress in the adoption process

2011-11-30T00:04:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone.

After 2 years with unsuccessfull IVF tries, a year with paperwork and half a year waiting for the results from the colombian authorities we are finally at the point where ordinary couple would say: "we are pregnant" or "we are expecting" because today we got the approval for adoption from Colombia.

However the waiting time from now would roughly be about 3 years, but its like a promise of a baby we got today.
Not twins or a whole family at once, but one little girl or a boy from 0-2 years old.
This is to be celebrated big time.

Summer guests.

2011-08-06T20:02:00.005+01:00

This summer Veti's sister Maylinda with her two kids Aranit and Ebigell have had their schools summer vacation in Norway with us.
They came early June and are going to stay till the school starts late August.
This is their first vacation outside Albania ever, and they have had so much fun even thou the summer weather has been horrible in here.

Condo renovation

2011-08-06T19:36:00.001+01:00

We have been working like mad for the past two weeks painting our condo.
Our part is the upstairs part only, but the owner below painted his too.
Here's the before and after:

More updates

2011-05-24T04:13:00.001+01:00

Hi.
Yesterday we went for a full day programme again, it started with a pickup from the Hotel at 08.30 AM and we went straight to a cultural dance show followed by a trip to factory outlets first a textile factory, then a silver jewelry factory and at the end a wood carving outlet.
Souvenirs were bougth at all places and here are the pictures.

Later on the same day we went to see the ricefields and a ecological coffee plant on our way to and from the Vulcano mountain where we had lunch.

It was really cool to try out all the different types of coffee and tea they made there and we got some at their store before we left...

At the end of the journey we went to feed monkies in Ubud.

Bali updates

2011-05-22T09:39:00.000+01:00

Hi.
Yesterday we did a full day program.
Rafting and Elefant Safari

Today Ole-Kristian went out to the Nusa Dua Reef to snorkle.

Bali - Nusa Dua Beach Hotel and Spa

2011-05-20T09:55:00.001+01:00

Hi folks.
We are having so much fun in here, this is a really really nice place and we would recommend all of you to do a holiday in here some day.
Our Hotel is a Spa resort with all kinds of spa facilities, 6 pools, 8 restaurants, and tonns of recration and fitness opportunities.
Yesterday Veti had an appointment at the hairdresser in our hotel and right now she is doing a 1.5 hour antiaging facial spa and on top of that she is going to have a 15min neck and shoulder Balinese oil massage.

Here is some pictures from our pool life.

Tomorrow we are going for a Elefant ride thru the jungle and rafting on one of the wild rivers in here.
We will update our blog with more pictures in a couple of days.

Let the fun begin

2011-05-15T16:05:00.002+01:00

I arrived in Singapore yesterday, and so far I am having a wonderful time.

Yesterday I got here at 4pm. The trip was long and I slept little on the plane, but we managed to walk to see the city and we went to a water show last night and Ole Kristian had made a reservation at a restaurant after the show. You can find all the brands in here, but most people prefer Prada, Gucci, Louis Vuitton or Burberry. This city is just shops, litterary shops, and people in here are very fashionable. People go out in Prada shoes, Burbery clothes, and Gucci bags. The little kids walks around in Burberry clothes, its crazy.

Today i went to see the platform West Elara its called. It is very big, We went on the tour for two hours and I still wasn't seeing all of it.

There were about 1300 people working on it and I was the only woman on the platform, they were stairing like they have never seen a woman before. 95% of the workers were indians and the working conditions on those workers weren't the best conditions, but they were given helmets and glasses. As Ole Kristian was trying to give me a tour on the plattform, many indian workers as soon as they saw Ole Kristian they tried to find their glasses and helmets to put it on. After seeing West Elara it was time to eat lunch at 11 and everyone lined up to get out of the rig to go to the food court and we were touring just a little more and by the time we were done the line was really long, but as soon as they saw us they open the way for us to go ahead, I felt embarassed to cut in front of the line, I would have been happy to wait in line to get out of the plattform, but they see the Norwegians as the owners of the rig. So the Norwegians comes first at everything on this plattform.

I went home and went to sleep til Ole Kristian came back from work. Its Sunday today and he came home early from work, so we managed to take the taxi to the beach and were there for few hours. One the way back to took the cable lift, where you can see all over Singapore. It was a twenty minutes ride but it was amazing to see and experience.
Here are some the pictures.

Sentosa Beach Singapore

2011-05-11T10:47:00.001+01:00

Vacation time

2011-05-06T15:56:00.002+01:00

Next week friday Veti is leaving Norway for a 2 two and a half week vacation, first in Singapore with me for a few days and and then we are going together to Bali for 11 days at this spa resort http://nusaduahotel.com/
We are planning to make a few updates if possible during our vacation time.
We are planning to make this a dream vacation with a lot of time spent together.
This is what I'm doing while waiting for her...

Yesterday and the day before we had blue sky and 38 celcius or 100Fahrenheit in the shadow here in Singapore, so the weather is for sure ready. I took this picture at the Sentosa beach today, here in Singapore.

Condo Project

2011-04-20T20:26:00.001+01:00

This is our investment, its a condo that really needed and still need a lot of care.

We are at the moment totally renewing the interior.
New bathroom, kitchen, wallpaper and doors.
The bathroom and the kitchen has gotten a whole new electrical system and piping.
Whilst Ole-Kristian has been doing the bathroom and the tilework Veti has been working with moulding and painting of walls and windows.

Here the other day my Angel veti came with dinner and we had a picnic on the floor in the middle of all the dust.

We have been working like animals now for the past 3 or 4 weekss and we still got a lot to do, but we can now see an end to it.

We would need to do wallpaper in the bedrooms and the living room and mount all the stuff, like bathroom furnitures, kitchen and doors and put all the wooden lists up.

Today we took a teampicture in front of the rig.

2011-03-05T08:45:00.001+01:00

This is the West Elara operations and preparations team in Singapore plus some guests from our head office.

February updates

2011-02-22T15:00:00.000+01:00

This month we have celebrated Ole-Kristians birthday, he turned 32 this year.
We had the entire family over for coffee and deserts for his birthday.
We have also celebrated Ole-Kristian's granddad Oddmund's 85th. birthday.
Her is a picture of Oddmund and Janne, from that day.

This month Ole-Kristian has been home til now, and he has been working constantly day in day out with the remodeling of our investment.
Its s condo originally built for the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer and then later moved to our island in pieces.
This is a module based house, made in finland and shipped out in pieces.
This gives a lot of benefits for the contractors but for house owners like us we can't see any benefits.
The bathroom was made as a unit, that was craned into the house with everything installed.
Remodeling of this turned out to become a complete makeover, nothing could be taken care of.
Walls, cealing, electrical innstallation, water and drainage pipes, bathroom furnitures, heated floor, everything is taken apart and thrown out.

The thing is that the bathroom was linked with the kitchen and a bedroom, so we had to do upgrades there too.

This first picture is from when we were ready to start putting up new plates on the walls.

The picture is taken from the kitchen side.

The red boxes are electrical boxes mainly for the kitchen, green outlets with black tubes is water and metallic tubes are ventilation from the condo downstairs.

The white locker is a box where all pipes are connected, according to newer laws its required for all new installations, so a professional tubefitter had to do this work and have it documentized.

Now, the next pictures is how it looks as of today, ready for painting and wallpaper.

The bathroom inside is not ready yet, but once the plates are put, we are gonna put tiles in there.
The goal is to upgrade the condo into such a level that a high monthly income from it can be defended and so that we won't have any worries and huge extra expences to our investment for years.

West Elara

2011-01-14T13:33:00.000+01:00

Hi.
I am in Singapore at the moment, working at a shipyard where the jackup rig West Elara is beeing built for Seadrill. Here is some pictures of the rig.

Christmasday

2011-01-14T13:03:00.000+01:00

We invited the entire family for buffet style dinner this year.
On the menu we had Turkey with stuffing, Salmon, 3 different kinds of salt food cold cut meat including the home made norwegian classic "rolled sausage" (rullepølse) made of lamb belly (among others), home-made focaccia rolls, different kinds of salads, several different kinds of cheeses, crab meat (personally catched) and much more.
For dessert we had home made peanut butter cream cake, home made pear cake, mixed strawberries and blueberries from our own backyard together with vanilla ice-cream, home made caramel pudding, and more.
Kids menu:
Hotdogs in french hotdog bread, chicken nuggets and for desert they had 3 layer home made yelly with vanilla sauce.

We had a really great time with our family.

Camp Cousins 2010

2010-07-26T01:33:00.002+01:00

Leaders, Rangers and Recruits of Camp Cousins 2010

The hungry crew is waiting for hamburgers and sweetcorn

The boys sure love the sweetcorn

Climbing a 100m sand dune over loocking Lake Michigan

The boys swimming in their birthday suit (naked) at night

Papa, (Clare) cooking breakfast suasages and bacon

Cooking omelets in the morning for breakfast

Our Camp site with clothes drying from the nights heavy rain

Anders Rottschafer and Max Tendero

Grant Vos

Hudson Rottschafer

Luke Rottschafer

Wilson Rottschafer

Peter Vos

Oh no, we are running out of Macaroni&Cheese mix

2010-07-04T21:33:00.003+01:00

On the other hand... we are going to the states in about a week from now.

Can hardly wait to see and spend time with our amazing family over there.

The roof is on

2010-06-25T15:59:00.003+01:00

More Garage pictures

2010-06-17T22:07:00.000+01:00

Garage under construction

2010-06-13T09:18:00.001+01:00

Winter pictures

2010-02-04T23:43:00.006+01:00

Here is some nice pictures from the past few weeks.
It has been such a nice wintery weather in here, snowy fields and mountains with sun.
This Sea Eagle was out looking for food or maybe Troy, but I managed to take some pictures of it, it is really big.

Happy new year

2010-01-02T19:16:00.004+01:00

Hi friends and family.
Been a while again since we have updated this blog, thats for sure.
In here we have 2 feets of snow and temperatures right below 0 Celsius..
I don't think we have had this much snow since I was a kid.
Who said global warming?
Anyway here is a picture from yesterday late night, me skiing right behind our house with our house in the background.

This christmas wasn't hectic in the beginning of it, except for a few family partys, but right before, during and after new years eve it was very hectic for me and Veti since we had the entire responsibility for a youth service with food and everything at new years eve. Here is a picture of the serving of food to 150 youths.

Here is a picture of one of theese days you would been glad that you didn't have to go to work really early. It took us more half an hour just to find the car.

Casting Crowns

2009-11-08T22:41:00.005+01:00

The garage project

2009-09-27T13:28:00.005+01:00

Ole-Kristian and Karsten have been working for one week now in the most horrible weather with wind and heavy rain to make the foundation for our new garage.

They have accomplished their goals and are gonna take a break while Ole-Kristian goes for a 10-day High Voltage course in Tønsberg, one and a half hour car ride from Oslo.

Veti is spending most of her time with the lord or just reading, she is in the middle of a pile of Janette Oke books. Here the other day she said; "I can't belive it I finished a whole book in a day"

Summer 09

2009-09-20T18:50:00.009+01:00

Last time I wrote on this blog was like forever, so bare with me when i write down all the highlights of the things that has been happenning since last i wrote. We have traveled to Albania, Traveled to USA, had two new addition to our family, a lot of projects through out the house. So thats the highlight, so let me explore little on each one of them.
Albania trip, lots of amazing moments happend there, spending time with my parents and my sister and her kids, Aranit and Ebigail.

Ole Kristian helped so much with fixing things around the house, mainly electrical work. I had a great time with my mother and talking to her about God.

One night we talked from midnight until five in the morning. We traveled to Vlora where we spend time with one of my best friends Elvira. That was so much fun. Three weeks after Albania trip we traveled to USA where we visited my other family for three weeks.

We had a lot of amazing experiences in the states. Meeting for the first time Lucy June, and Vivienne Branch my nieces. Vivienne was born August 28, the day before we traveled back to Norway. We celebrated two birthdays while we were there.

My father and Ole Kristian took four of the oldest nephews camping for a night, our three year anniversary, celebrated Christmas in August, spend lots of time with my family, nephews and nieces.
Ole Kristian helped my sister and brother in law with the renovation of their new cattage, went shopping, met with my friends, sorry that i couldn't see all of you once more. The days went so fast that three weeks felt like three days. Drank sturbacks everday.
Now that we are back to Norway we have started a new projects.

We are going to build a double garage. Its a project that will take at least one year since my husband loves having hobbies where he can build something. So that will keep him happy for at least until he is done with it than he will have to come with another projects.

Projects

2009-04-29T22:09:00.006+01:00

The past three weeks I have been so busy.
It started with digging out to continue the brickwall and to prepare for Veti's rosegarden. Karsten borrowed a excavator and he helped me to have it done as quick as possible.

I have also been helping my grandmother with a complete remodelling of her livingroom.
I think she is pretty happy with the results in her completely new lingroom that is now white and bright... since I painted the roof and the walls almost white. "latte"

Her old floor flew out thru the window and a new one was installed.

My grandmother is the cutest and kindest person in the world and like my inlaws she is ready to serve me coffee and chocolate at any time.

The weather has been wonderful this past 3-weeks, and the spring is really here, wich means Veti and I have spent a lot of time in the garden, but we got ongoing projects so the results must be showed later, when it is all done.

Sound mixers desk

2009-03-18T23:35:00.007+01:00

The last 3 weeks Ole-Kristian have been working on constructing a desk for the sound mixer at the Prayerhouse.
Here is some pictures of it, it is not completely finished yet, but there is only a few details missing to it, like a list of oak on top of the edge of the front and side walls.
All cables can now be stowed inside and thru the double wall in front and out of sight also thru a chamber under the floor.
It is designed big enough for 2 computers, one for recording of sermons and one for multimedia purpose. There should also be space enough for a future light-dimming console. Hopefully with all work spent on this desk, it will serve its purpose for many many years.

Smokeybones

2009-02-27T19:07:00.005+01:00

27.Feruary, 2 months no update on this blog, what has happened?
We are so sorry, and we hope to update this blog more often from now on.

Here the other day I found Smokeybones ribs in Ålesund at the downtown butcher.
For those who doesn't know what Smokeybones is, it is a restaurant in the states serving the best pork ribs known to men.
I bought 2 full rack rib sides that was already steamed and marinated with barbeque sauce. So today I served Veti a real american meal, just look at the pictures.

I must be honest, they were far from beeing anything like the ribs at Smokeybones, but it sure filled our belly and it made my wife feel like home too.
Hopefully I'll have the real thing soon.

Happy New Year!!!

2009-01-01T05:32:00.004+01:00

I really wish that I could have been home with my wife, family and friends at such a day but unfortunately someone must work when others don´t in this kind of business.
Veti and I would like to wish you all the best for 2009.
I haven´t even seen fireworks this year but for all of you who tought fireworks wasn´t that fancy this year, take a look at this:
Sydney, Australia 2009

Christmas preparations

2008-12-11T18:25:00.012+01:00

Christmas is now for sure coming soon.
Whilst some people think Christmas is still a week or two away and haven't decorated a thing, have other families been done with all their decorations both indoor and outdoor for weeks already.
We must be of that last kind, since we are even done with all the presents.!
Veti and I can now just sit down, relax and enjoy it all knowing that this Christmas is not gonna come like a surprise to us like for many other people.

Today after beeing married for 2.5 years Veti is finally trusted with the knowledge of the very secret family recipes for "Rundstykke ®" that only Kari can make, and she is here right now as I'm writing, teaching my wife all about how to make "Rundstykke ®"
Rundstykke® is Norwegian and means Roundpiece it is a tiny baguette kind of a roll that we all love for breakfast.
My wife and my mum didn't make only one kind of Rundstykke, they made 3 differnt kinds and on top of that they made Foccacia that had olives and crystalized salt on top. Just look at the pictures and see how blessed I am now finally having a wife that can make Urkedal's Rundstykke and Foccacia.

Fall pictures

2008-11-02T23:18:00.004+01:00

I have been thinking of adding pictures for a long time, yesterday Selma came dressed as a witch for halloween and I just had to take some pictures.

This fall we have done so much in the garden and around the house and Veti have been working on her flower beds at both sides of the house, even in pyjamas!

The weather has been extraordinary beautiful this year and it continued into the fall, here is from one of theese days we were just sitting outside with ice-cream and Troy loves Selma and the leftovers in her face.

Lately the weather has changed to the fall and winter weather we are used to, so I bought Veti a Husqvarna sewing machine so she can do indoor hobbies thru the winter.

Veti and the workers from the christian kindergarden she is working at had a weekend in denmark, here is their group picture.

My wife is very beautiful and I love her so much.

Youth ministry

2008-10-03T23:48:00.004+02:00

Hi.
It has been a while since last add in here, today I added a new link, a link to the Prayerhouse youth ministry's web page.
Veti and I are deeply involved in this ministry, specially with the youth nights every other saturday, but also thru practical work and leadership.
The webpage has been upgraded lately with new pictures, enjoy.
www.iufweb.net

Summer in Michigan

2008-08-19T19:27:00.003+02:00

At the end of a very nice summer we had to make it complete with adding a 9 days with our american family.
Here is some of our pictures of a wonderful time with a wonderful family.

Everything is bigger in the states, even the blueberries.

The boys with new swimming outfit just for the picture.

What a wounderful place to be, we love this place.

Special Guest this summer, Elvira Rama

2008-08-19T18:53:00.010+02:00

This summer Veti had a visit of her best friend Elvira for 2 weeks in Norway. She comes from Albania and Veti met her the first time as she was working at the missionfield in Kosovo and she was also her Maid of Honor when we got married in the states 2 years ago. They had so much fun together while she was here and we got to show her some of our country too.

This is ment as a proof of swimming in the ocean can be done even in Norway.

2008-08-15T21:44:00.001+02:00

Midsummer day

2008-06-25T23:56:00.003+02:00

This year as every year we have a huge celebration for midsummer day, it's called "Jonsokaftan" in here, don't know why, but that's what it's called.

At Jonsok we normally have a grill out with family or friends, in my family we gather at the beach by my parents, we have a huge fire and my dad has made a grill that can serve a lot of people. My parentses friends and family is also coming there, so there is a lot of people gathering by the fire in there.

In Ålesund they have a tradition of making a huge fire, up to 100 feet of a high construction made of pallets given by lot of companies around.

Veti and I took the boat to the city to watch it, but since it had been raining the past few days it was to wet to really burn properly and fast enough for us, so we didn't wait long enough to really see it burning properly.

Oreo Cake

2008-05-31T17:47:00.005+02:00

Siv, Ole-Andre's wife made the best cake ever for a few weeks ago, I got the recipe and I made one for Veti's Biblestudy last monday so I could make Veti happy and at the same time eat some more of it. Its called Oreo Dream Cake I think and it is so good that it's hard to explain it.
Here is some pictures of how our garden became at the frontside of our house now that the wall is done. Veti has been working so hard with the garden part, yesterday and today she spent hours weeding in the garden. We had to make a new lawn there to make it perfect, it has just started growing. The bushes are Bridalspirea, they are gonna become big and cover some of the wall in front.

2008-05-17T11:03:00.014+02:00

Pictures from the Girls-trip 2008

Veti had all her sisters and her mom from the states this week.
They stayed here for only 6 days, but I think we managed to show them our place pretty well, here from Bakkebua at Valderøy.

Mom was collecting beachglass and some was just relaxing, it was such a nice day.

A tiny crab was found, what an interesting creature.

Hiking up the over 500 steps up to Fjellstua viewpoint over Ålesund.

Picnick at Oksebåsen, one of our nearby islands.

Give him a chocolate and he's a happy camper. (with a can of coke)

On our way to Hellesylt to take the tourist carferry to Geiranger.

Just one of the locals, a Budeie from Geirangerfjord.

At the ferry to Geiranger

Dinner at Union Hotel Geiranger

Thoug we have been at restaurants, most of the food has been served at home.

We hope to see you all soon.

Liv-Karin and Jørgens wedding

2008-05-02T19:25:00.006+02:00

Here is some pictures from Liv-Karin and Jørgens amazing wedding at the very beautiful and delightful spa-hotel Alexandra at Loen Fiord.

It was not a big wedding, since they invited only the family but it was so nice to do this as a family since it became a whole weekend. Below is the new Lundberg family.

Liv-Karin and Jørgen had ordered the most amazing meals and desserts for the reception, and the table setting and the food was called a royal setting.

Selma acted like a Angel the entire weekend as always.
I have never had a more relaxing and refreshing weekend as this ever before. The hotel is famous for its food and the huge Spa section and it has a lot of swimmingpools, whirlpools, showers with different types of aromas, different types of saunas, ice-bath, massage jacuzzi's and you can get many types of treatments there. It was also funny because some of the pools were outdoor and we were sitting there in one of the whirlpools looking at the huge mountains around full of snow.Since the wedding was on friday, we spent the entire weekend at this hotel about 3 hours away from our hometown. At Saturday before lunch we were doing som shopping at factory outlets, since this place also have three clothing factories of three famous and good brands. (Skogstad, Moods and Ricco Vero). Saturday evening we had buffet at the hotell, people won't believe us if we told how great of a buffet that was. Sunday after breakfast and Spa we went home full of energy for the near future.

Another brick in the Wall

2008-04-03T18:58:00.003+02:00

The last two weeks after easter I have been working with the wall, that we have planned to make in the front of our house for a long time ago but finally could start working on.When I started we had 15 inches of snow and it was freezing cold outdoor, so we had to remove tonns of snow before we could get started.My dad has a tractor and I borrowed a trailer from a farmer including a vibrator-machine from another guy, but most of the work has been done by hand.

Our land looks like a constructionfield now, but we can already tell how nice it is gonna be once we are done. Veti has also been helping so much, doing men's work.

When the wall is done Veti is gonna use her green-fingers making a garden out of the new area we have gained.

I am hoping to manage most of this wall before I am going for work next week, but I still got another wall at the other side of our drive-way but that one is not as big. I am hoping to do that one as soon as I'm back from work.

The war against dust

2008-02-24T00:42:00.004+01:00

Today Veti has been cleaning the entire house, whileI have stayed outdoor, mainly in the garage, remote to Veti's cleaningprocess indoor. I tried to go inside for a break, but I was afraid that if I stayed there I would need to help out, so I had to disappear, therefor I made it to a pee-break, Veti think I only came to pee, hihi
I started to clean the garage, got some tools into system and I test runned the chainsaw, just to hear the engine sound of it. I have also been digging for our future brick-wall and I made something to secure the post-rack so it won't fly away in one of our winter storms.

Later when I thought it would be safe to enter the house, 6:30pm, when the darknes forced me home and indoor, I discovered the house being perfect in order and not a single dust anywar in the house, freshly decorated, new table cloths and with the natural perfume of a clean house. Veti have done such a wonderful job as always, and she was still smiling like if the house had been tvice as big it wouldn't been a problem to her.
She asked me to vacum-cleaning, the kids bedrooms, only because it was 7:00pm and we had to meet Sonia and Karsten at 7:30pm to visit some friends of us who had invided us for dinner, so she could wash the floors and be done faster to have time to get ready, but it was fair enough for me. I was happy to help. Have a great weekend everyone.

Uncle O.K's birthday.

2008-02-10T21:57:00.000+01:00

Dear family, thank you so much for your birthday wishes, you all made my day very special.

To answer your questions Grant, Peter and Tessie about the Norwegian birthday traditions. We do celebrate birthdays in here, and we have birthday cakes, aunt Veti baked so many, but without any candles to blow out on top but it was very beatifully decorated.

I got candy and presents too. Aunt Veti gave me tools and a pair of socks, so I can fix things for her and be warm at my feets at the same time, I hoped for a power washer that she did not buy me but maybe your mum and nanna would bring me one from the states and put it in their luggage. :)

To Anders, Luke, Hudson and Will, thank you so much for making the happy birthday banner for me, it was really cool.

To Max, Lilly, Bea and Ezra, thank you so much for your happy birthday e-mail, I know you wanted to make a phone call, but Max, Ezra and mum has been sick, hope you all are better now.

I have heard from aunt Veti that papa has bought another seadoo, a blue one that maybe takes even sharper donuts, can hardly wait compeeting with you guys who's the fastest donut rider.

We are gonna have so much fun, I'we heard Papa and Nanna also have a new teamwork project that need all of us in work.

My brother, Karsten, and his wife Sonia is building their new house, and this weekend me and aunt Veti has been helping out so much with the wallpaper and the bathroom tilework.

Tomorrow I am gonna continue, helping my brother while aunt Veti is at work.

So we need to go early to bed tonight.

What an handy husband I have?

2008-01-18T20:56:00.000+01:00

I think it is time to write something new on this blog, and since there is always him writing I thought that I will do the writing this time. What else can i write about than bragging about my blessed husband, whom not only he has an full time job with Seadrill, but he is also a fulltime student, as well as he can't keep his hands away from fixing or repairing things, and always comming up with new ideas how to make things better, not to mention making his wife happy.

Just today he was supposed to pick me up from work after work, and he forgot the exact time so he came half an hour early and he did not want to admit that he forgot the time, he said, I came to tell you I love you. The other co-workers were amazed and said that Ole-Kristian needs to have a meeting with their husbands and teaching them how to impress their wifes because they were really touched by what he did to me, and in a way a little jealouse. He always tries to bring a smile on my face even when I am mad at him and it works like a charm every time.

As you can see on the picture, he is starting to make a base for brick wall in front of the house. It will make the house nicer looking but also it will make the land little larger by making a 5 feet high brick wall and fill the gap with sand so that it will be flatet out like the rest of the land.

I have been working everyday at kindergarden so by the time that I come home from work the dinner is also ready for us to eat. What else does a woman want? a husband who can fix things and make food.

Her is a foto of him in the garage taking a coffee break, and of course he is chocolate holic as well, so usually there is little dessert along with the coffee.

I am a very blessed woman. Thank you God for saving Ole-Kristian for me before the creation of the world You knew my husband. Thank you for Your Blessings on my life and Thank you that he is Your child. I Love You.

American Turkey dinner

2007-12-30T22:51:00.000+01:00

Veti and I had the whole family over for dinner today, a meal we have been planning in details for a long time. So yesterday we were making Stuffing, Cheese cake, Waldorf Salad, creme brulee and we prepared the turkey. Veti decorated the table with decoration stuff that she bought specially for this time, it turned out perfect! We went to bed really late and very tired yesterday, but we had to set an alarm early for today so we could put the turkey in the oven early enough. Together with the turkey and the Waldorf salad we had potatoes, brocolly and a sauce made of turkey brot, cream, spices and a special tasteful gel. Chef's secret.

We made it at time and had it all ready for 3.30PM and it was all on the table when our emminent guests sat down. I guess we had a success, since it also became unbeliveable silent around our table once my family started to eat. My dad said: This is a sign of great food, when everyone is this silent while eating. (specially my family)

Sorry, no leftovers.

Troy has been such a nice boy, chewing on the present from Maudy.

Thank you Maudy, Troy says.

Christmas At West Venture

2007-12-26T08:39:00.000+01:00

This christmas I had to be at work, some times it happens and last christmas I was home so I'll guess this was my turn.

I would have loved to be home with my wounderful and highly loved wife, nothing can compare with beeing with her.

But we have had a great time, thinking of how great of a food they served us theese days.

The first picture below is from the 24.th, our chef is presenting the traditional norwegian christmas dinner.

At any time for the last 4 days we have had tonns of deserts and sweets, here is a picture of some of it.

This is a picture from the first christmas day, the 25th.
We had Seafood like shrimps, lobster, crab, scallop, salmon in many different ways, different types of herring salads and king crab, just to mention some. There were also some seafooddishes like musse soup, fried scallop etc. Most of it came fresh helicopterborne the day before.

Norwegian wedding

2007-12-10T00:21:00.000+01:00

For me it all started last tuesday when we had the bachelour party with the groom and my friends, including my brother.We dressed the groom up in a Santa-Claus outfit and gave him a few tasks that he had to do at a shopping mall. Like going into expencive stores asking for the Santa-Claus deal which supposedly he had read on the paper, that everyone who dressed up as Santa got special deals. While we had a hidden camera and recorded every move he made and showed it at the wedding.

The wedding itself was of the norwegian traditional kind.

One o'clock was the service at the church, followed by the wedding party going and taking pictures while the others were having fruits and drinks at the reception.

Dinner was at 4pm until 7pm then an hour break while everything was cleared away and it was decorated again for coffee and desserts at 8pm and more people arrived just for this last part of the wedding. As you will be able to see it from the pictures there were more than enough food and more than 30 different types of cakes.

Another special thing is that the presents brought to the wedding is opened there so people can see what the newly couple recieved.

By midnight we had soup and bread and we got home 01.30am and we weren't the last ones to leave. I am sure the parents were there a lot longer gathering all the presents together and there were so much food and cakes left over that they invited a lot of people the day after for left overs.

By the way, Veti recieved her last answer from her Norwegian test, the written part, she passed as usual.

A special visitor

2007-12-10T00:12:00.000+01:00

Here the other day we had the privilege to have Selma for few hours to ourselves.

She learned so much about computers, look how interested she was together with Ole-Kristian

while she and I was reading the news on the computer.

Veti wanted me to change her diaper, but I said you change I'll watch.

Meg: Send Tess her for few months so I can learn it properly.

Selma is so cute, and such a wonderful kid, easy to take care of.

What is Ole-Kristian doing?

2007-11-27T21:24:00.001+01:00

Veti, Veti, Veti, but what is Ole-Kristian doing?

I am taking tonns of courses both for Seadrill and myself.
Last week and during the weekend I was taking a course to get a Machinedrivers-certificate.

I took a 40hour course for machines like digging machines, bulldozers, dumpers and heavy traktors. Personally I am going to get a digging machine-drivers certificate, the plan is to buy a digging mavhine together with my brother who also took the same course.

I am also taking a internet based VHF-radio course to get a radio operators license and next week I am going to Stavanger to take a written test for this course.

This week I'm in Bergen at a Freefall-lifeboat crew course.

I am going to be one of the crew members in one of our 4 freefall-lifeboats at West Venture so therefore I need this course now.

At the same time as all this I am still working on my schoolwork, since I am taking 2 normal schoolyears this year to become an electrician group L, or the newer name, technical electrical engineering.

So that's what I am doing, beside of taking as good care of Veti as possible.

Veti got her norwegian drivers license

2007-11-19T18:55:00.000+01:00

Veti passed the test today by driving like an angel together with a sensor for about 45 minutes and she passed so now she got a norwegian drivers license.
By the way, she have also recieved her norwegian test results for the oral exam, and she passed, as always.
She is very very proud to become even more norwegianized.

We bought ourselves a Nintendo Wii and this weekend we have been having almost the entire family here for tennis matches and bowling.Our IP-phone is not working, it is broken and they are going to be replace it with a new one hopefully this week, so we do only have our cell-phones at the moment.

Veti speaks Norwegian!

2007-11-11T08:50:00.000+01:00

Veti just had her final test, Norskprøve 3
I am sure she was best in class even at the final test, but we are waiting to recieve her results. She hardly slept before the big day, but I am sure she is relaxed now.

I am at work and I have been away for a week and a half now, so I do only have 4 more days and I am going to be home for another 4 weeks.
I just had to change my work schedule, so I am not going to be home during christmas this year, to bad but I will be home between christmas and new year.

So we need to start buying the christmas presents and we would need to decorate early this year.

Just another IKEA trip

2007-10-29T23:18:00.000+01:00

This weekend Karsten and I fullfilled Veti's and Sonia's dream by taking a weekend off, just to spend time together at IKEA.

We left on friday, just after Veti was done at work and we headed north for Trondheim wich is the second largest city in Norway and that's where the closest IKEA mall is and because Veti hasn't been there before.

All hotels in Trondheim was fully booked, so we had to rent a tiny cottage, but it was also a really cheap way of staying over, less than 200$ for 4 people 2 nights. Perfect. But the cottage consisted of one room with two bedbunks and a small coach it was nice and very cosy, just look at the picture how cute it looks.

Early saturday morning we left for IKEA, and we were by the entrance door before it even opened. We had many rounds inside the big IKEA mall, first we were just looking and making the to-buy lists, then we had breakfast, then we were shopping, then we had dinner, then we did some more shopping and then we had hotdogs and coke before we left. Here after round 1.We arrived there 10.00AM and left 07.00PM so we spent 9 hours at IKEA!!!!!
I doesn't dare to tell how much money that left our pockets, but it dare to say this: It is gonna be many years till I go there again.When we left home we brought with us an empty trailer, we filled this one up to the roof, and I am not kidding when I say that we had 1.tonn of IKEA products in the back of it with us home.

Here at round 2 and packing of the Trailer on the parking lot.

But it made our wifes happy even though the christmas presents is gonna be small and we are broke.
Even though we spent a lot of time at IKEA this was not just an IKEA trip.

Later that night at Saturday we went to the Tyholt Tower, a 225 feet high rotating tower in the middle of Trondheim with a restaurant on top. It is a pretty nice restaurant and we spent many hours there eating, laughing, and having a nice quality time together.
On sunday we went back to downtown of Trondheim, to take a closer look at the huge catedral called Nidarosdomen where the kings of Norway has been crowned before they take the throne, and to eat breakfast, which we had a really good one at a nice hotel before we headed home, a 7 hour car drive.
Today I have been putting together what we bought for the upstairs and I made a cheesecake for Vetis biblegroup and of course helped making everything perfect for her since she had a huge test in Norwegian language today.

I am also occupied with the construction of a kiosk at the prayerhouse, and I bought a kitchen at IKEA that is going to be mounted for the kiosk. But when I do that I will tell about it in the blog.

Here are some of the pictures of what we bought at IKEA for the upstairs living room.

What a summer

2007-09-30T21:24:00.000+02:00

This summer we have been on the move practically all the time since the end of may!!
It started with Veti travelling to Albania and Italy while I was at work, continued with me and my parents travlling to Albania, met Veti and her family and stayed with them for almost 2 weeks before we went home.
I went to work again, 2 new weeks, when I came home we had a time in here with a boatride and the making of Karsten and Sonias basement of their new house.
I went to work again and Veti travelled to USA, since Megan, one of Veti's sister broke her leg so terribly bad that she needed assistance from the whole family even all the way from Norway. (no kidding) When I came back from work I also travelled to the states, and we have had the most wonderful vacation ever.
Now we are home again, but I would like to tell about the trip we had.

We have stayed both in Grand Rapids where their house is and in Holland where their cottage is by Lake Michigan. Me and Veti adore both places, but the cottage is the ultimate summer place, close to the lake, with private beach and a nice cute cottage facing against the lake and the sunsets, here my parents in law live the whole summer.

During this 2 weeks we first of all spent as much time with eachother as we could, we made a gocart for the grandkids, first aid on the seadoo, outlet shopping in Michigan city, trip to the Henry Ford museum and car factory in Detroit, smokeybones baby backribs with the guys,

breakfast in Saugatack, sunday family dinners at the cottage, just to mention some.

Susan was making the most wonderful dinners every sunday for the whole family, I think she made food for 28 people or something the last Sunday.
We had outdoor camping with tents at the cottage, or lets say some was camping. Dad borrowed an extra Seadoo for a week and we had one each making trips to very nice places like Holland and Pigeon Lake driving mainly at full speed as we like it.

Veti and I bought a whole lot of stuff, like clothes and picture frames for our wedding pictures.
But we did also recieve some, so our suitcases had a total weight of more than 100 kg = 220 lbs
and that is not because I bought a chainsaw!!

What made it so perfect?
First of all, my dad in law, Clare have been taking care of me almost every day with ice creams and pancakes and my mum in law Susan has been providing coffee at all times, and I mean all times.
The weather was very nice, warm and sunny whilst it was raining like crazy in Norway.
That we got to spend so much time with the family.

THANK YOU SO MUCH MUM AND DAD!!!

An amazing boatride

2007-08-01T23:02:00.000+02:00

Veti and I went for a boat ride last weekend, since our family boat is finally working after an engine problem. I wanted to show Veti one of the most beautiful places that Norway has.

Although we went to two places, one called Valldal, a place well known for strawberries, and let me tell you they melt right on your mouth like a candy. Valldal is also known for a place nearby called Trollstigen but you have to have a car to see that place, so this time we missed it.

Although Valldal was nice to be at and the strawberries were delicious, and so was the weather, little sunny and few degree higher than Ålesund, it cannot come close to compare with the other place called Geiranger. This is the second longest fjord in Norway and its known for it's title as a World Heritage place.

A lot of Cruise boats visits this place and just two days before we went there Queen Elizabeth the II was there. In fact when we arrived there we saw an cruise boat that says Holland America Line.

The boats goes thru an narrow area and both sides are mountains and a lot of Water Falls. One place had 7 water falls and its called 7 sisters. Most of the top of the mountains had snow still. The nature was very beautiful , just a breath taking place and you can definitly see God's hand in this amazing place. Everyone who comes to Norway must go there. As a little prove of this amazing trip we have included some of the pictures so you too can have a chance to see it second hand, although first hand will be better. Garanteed.

The place has a small town with a lot's of small shops that sells very expencive Norwegian traditional Arts and Crafts like knitwear. Just look how sad Veti became when I said we couldn't afford a single hat for her.

Just for laughts; Guess which one is our boat?

Siste sommernytt

2007-07-26T23:36:00.000+02:00

Siste nytt fra oss er at vi har fått malt mye på huset, siden vi leide lift måtte vi bruke den maks i to dager, så vi har begge stått skikkelig hardt på.

Men så ble huset helt forandret også, når vi fikk malt med hvit rundt vinduene og verandagjerdet. Men vi ser at vi trenger nok eit strøk med hvit, men vi begge hater å male så vi må ha en pause.

Bortsett fra det har vi besøkt Anders og Turid Beate, som har fått ei skjønn lita jente, der fikk vi også smake på kake og kaffi. Kjekt at dei har blitt 3 dei 2.

Ole-Kristian har hjulpet Karsten og Sonia med murene til huset dei bygger på Vigra og nå er murene så og si ferdige, mangler bare eit strøk slemming så kan Engen Maskin komme tilbake.

Innimellom alt arbeidet har båten blitt litt brukt, var innom Erkne og Storholmen en kveld og tok dette bildet ved Storholmen fyr.

Ellers så skal vi også på båt-tur denne helga, da blir det Valldalen og Geiranger.

Kanskje det snart kommer bilder derfra.

Nå er vi væl hjemme fra Albania

2007-07-22T12:35:00.000+02:00

Veti reiste 2 uker i forveien, dei brukte hun til å være sammen med sin familie både i Albania og Italia. Siden hennes 3 brødre arbeider i Italia reiste hun fra Albania til Italia og var der en uke før hun reiste tilbake til Albania.
Jeg og mine foreldre kom ned den 7.Juli og vi var der i 10 dager til vi kom hjem nå for noen dager siden. Vi har hatt det kjempefint der nede, varmt var det også, rundt 35 grader jamnt.
Vi har vert på noen utflukter sammen med familien til Veti, så vi har sett mye av Albania og hørt en del om historien til landet.
Albania kan forresten anbefales som reisemål for hvilken som helst sydenreise.
Se bare noen av bildene.

Nå er vi hjemme og Karsten er i full gang med å mure murene til huset som han og Sonia bygger sammen, så jeg har bare med å infinne meg med at jeg må bruke mye tid på dette fremover.

Bilde fra tomta til Karsten

2007-07-10T20:12:00.000+02:00

Her kjøm nokre bilde fra tomta idag 10.07.07.
Det e no utført 5 sprengninger og imørga skal dei ta tre, og da er dei ferdi. 800m3 er sprengt, og ferdi sprengt nå ein gange det med 1,6 for å få antall kubikk med stein. Masse masse...

Åååå Ole Kristian masse gratis mur stein, berre komme å plukke ut... Osssssjjjj

2007-07-01T03:14:00.000+02:00

Da er jeg på jobb igjen, etter ei fin tid hjemme på 5 uker denne gangen.

Skal bare være ute en uke denne gangen og reiser på ferie lørdag 7.Juli sammen med mamma og pappa til Albania der Veti allerede er og har vert no en stund.

Har snakket med henne hver dag og hun storkoser seg sammen med familien sin.

Hun har også vert en tur til Italia, der hun har 3 brødre og flere onkler, tanter og søskenbarn.

Det er mye varmere og mere sol nedi der sier hun, og jeg velger å tro på det, gleder meg derfor til bading og slikt i Albania når jeg kommer dit om en go uke.

Her på West Venture går livet sin faste rytme: spising, jobbing, spising, kaffe, spising, jobbing, kaffe, spising, søvn. Jeg går opp litt i matchweight hver gang jeg er ute, men ingen ser det.

Jeg arbeider i Teknisk avdeling nå, som instrument/data tekniker, under opplæring væl å merke. Mye å lære her ombord.

Jaja, nok vås for denne gang, det er snart kaffi.

Jonsokaften

2007-06-24T00:04:00.000+02:00

Vist du ser nøye etter på bildet, det er tatt ved midnatt og du kan fortsatt skimte bålet på Jangarden, det var bra stort i år, Erling satte fyr på det rundt klokken 20.00
Vi har spist alt for mye fet mat som vanlig, men det var nydelig!!! Grillen til jørgen fungerte meget bra, hønsehuset brann med svart spill olje røyk og alle hadde det kjempefint. Vi har hatt det kjempefint, mamma fikk være sammen med veninnene fra skaret.
Erling var bålsjef i år og han sørget også for at fjæra ble rensket for litt driv-ved.
Kåre og Jon spillte ball med Troy, til Troy ikkje orka meir, skal litt til.
Besten og Janne var innom og dei fikk også smake fra grillen.
Alt i alt en perfekt jonsokkfeiring med uvanlig godt vær, ikkje ein vindpust eller noe regn.

Graving på Valderøy Bedehus

2007-06-19T19:46:00.001+02:00

I dag og i går har vi transportert bort masse fra Valderøy Bedehus til tipp-plass i grushøla på Jangården. Eg har brukt hengeren til Fylling familien i dag medan Kai Andre har brukt dumper hengeren til Furnes Maskin på Godøya.

Det har gått rimelig kvikt i dag, bortsett fra da eit røyr ble gravd ov og det viste seg at der var både kloakk, drens, strøm og vannrøyr i jorda der vi skulle grave, full pakke altso.

Men nå har vi fått kontrollen på dette og vi veit hvilken retning det går der vi skal grave.

Tipp plassen har eg ikkje bilde av, men vi har fått fyllt opp ganske mye for å si det slik.

Ca 5 meter ekstra utver går det no, for den som er kjend.

Lagt på med meir masse fra gjøsundneset, men her må vi til med mye meir etterhvert.

Noen finere jordmasser er tippet oppå marken ovenfor grushøla.

Rekner med å arbeide full dag også med dette i morgen.

Og jobben vil nok ta hele uken og væl så det...

Motorsykkeltur og kaffislabberas

2007-06-17T20:42:00.001+02:00

Jeg var så heldig å få treffe Harald Austnes på bedehuset lørdags-kvelden da han var ute å luftet Hondaen sin. Jeg spurte bare frimodig om han kunne låne den bort for en tur, og han fortalte at han hadde ikkje mindre ein 2 sykler! så kanskje vi kunne dra sammen.

Perfekt!! Veti har lenge sagt at hun kan tenke seg en slik opplevelse og jeg har vert sugen på sykkel siden jeg solgte for snart 3 år siden.

Så i dag har vi vert på tur, eg og Veti sammen med Harald og sønn.

Turen gikk fra Valderøy, Vatne, over fjellet til Fiksdal, Tomrefjord, Vestnes, Ørskogfjellet og vi hadde ei pause på Sjøholt for så å kjøre hjem om Glomseth og Magerholm.

Utrolig fin tur som også Veti kan skrive under på.

Takk til Harald Austnes!!!

Da vi kom hjem, 16.00 hadde vi en knapp time før det rauset inn med familie medlemmer i heimen vår, faktisk hele familien bortsett fra Karsten og Sonia som er på jobb, var på besøk i dag. Vi har servert is, vafler, brownies og mors rabarbra pai. Kjekt med mye besøk og Selma har vert i storform, se bare bildet, hvordan hun koser seg med oldefar.

På torsdag reiser Veti til Albania og Italia for å vere sammen med sin familie i 2 uker medan jeg er på jobb. Jeg mamma og pappa reiser også til Albania så snart jeg kommer hjem.

Klargjering av tipp plass på Jangaarden

2007-06-14T21:05:00.000+02:00

Dagen begynte med montering av Rot-lys på Casen, ettersom Fylling familien har gått til innkjøp av saftblandere fikk vi kjøpe eit av dei gamle.
dvs: Håper pappa aksepterer å betale 500kr for dette når han kommer hjem.

Etter at det nye lyset var satt i rotasjon begynte eg med å fjerne døde trær i grushøla, fant raskt ut at pappa si motorsag va fullstendig håplaus, må startes hele tiden og ofte med mye haling i snora. Hentet da Karsten's nyinnkjøpte Jonsered Turbo sag, da ble det dreis på sakene.

Det var mange trær som var døde og jobben var tidkrevande ettersom noen var halv-veis felt allerede og var innpressa i skogen. Men har fått fjernet ein del og laget litt stronger til ved men det er mye igjen. Kay Andre kom så med eit lass pukk som eg smurte utover med skjeret. før han kom med 4-5 lass med flis som vi har fått hente gratis på gjøsundneset.
Dagen gikk fort unna, mye traktorkjøring både på meg og Kay Andre, men det blir mye bedre å kjøre på dette underlaget når vi skal begynne kjøre bort masse fra Bedehuset neste uke.

Glassblåsing på Hadeland Glassverk

2007-06-10T21:50:00.001+02:00

Denne helgen har vi viet til Oslo landets mange muligheter sammen med Tine og Gard, Siv og Ole-Andre.

Vi reiste hjemmefra tidlig Lørdags morgen med bil og oppsmurt niste.

Veti sov så og si helt til Lillehammer og trafikken var snill hele veien.

Da vi kom frem traff vi Tine og Gard som vi har vert så heldige å få overnatte hos. Faktisk er De så snille at vi har fått sovet i deres seng medan dei har måttet ty til sofaen!!! Takk. Litt senere på lørdagen kom Siv og Ole-Andre, da ble det badings i Sandvika, og senere storstillt grilling på Gard's nye gass grill, (WEBER).

En fantastisk kveld!

I dag, søndagen, har vi vert på Hadeland glassverk, blåst glass har vi gjort og. Det var en veldig fin plass, med museum og mange "turist butikker" med glass, porselen, honning og mye annet. Det som ble høydepunktet der var likevel ikkje noe av dette!!, men maten som vi spiste, Huset's Hamburgertallerken, den var dritgo, men vi ble veldig mette, for det var store greier.

Etterpå badet vi ca 2 km fra glassverket, i ferskvann, utrolig deilig, fint sted.