What's new

I have a week off from work before we leave for the US. I've been spending it in the garden. Weeding, planting etc. Getting it ready for a 3-week absence. It's really looking nice. We have been eating home grown spinach, radishes and turnips in salads all this week. The beans and sweet peas have come up in the nick of time. I can't wait to see how much everything has grown when we come back.

The last few mornings I've been waking up feeling a little blue. I think I am dreading seeing Mother and Father as invalids. Being a continent away their situation is sort of abstract to me. I guess I am a little afraid to really face it, let it become real.

I chase the blues away by running in the forest with Topsy. We've been out orienteering every morning while Tor is at work. Like dancing, orienteering refreshes and renews me.

But I was going to summarize what is new in this family:

Ingvild is finishing her first year of dancing High School. Her dancing has steadily improved through the year. Her grades are good, especially in the subjects that were final for this year: English and Science.

Irene is thinking of going back to school to get her high school diploma in the fall. Meanwhile her boyfriend Stian finally got a job as a plummer after 7 months of unemployment. They have bought a boat together with a couple of Stian's buddies, and have been fixing it up. In a couple of weeks they hope to have it on the water.

Tormod has taken a break from college. He has gone to the US "to seek his fortune", promising to come back if he hasn't found it by the end of november. At the moment he is working at a garden center on Martha's Vineyard for room and board, while looking for paid work and getting his drivers licence.

Audun went to Bosnia with the Red Cross Youth organization in May. They visited several Romani camps and red cross organizations there. It must have been an interesting experience.

Tor is leaving his job at the dairy farm where he has been for the past 6 years, to manage the isolation facility of the pig breeding assosiation, thus changing his focus from cows to pigs so to speak.

Nothing new with me, except that I was rejected by the International Red Cross for their delegate course because I lack specialization. My backup plan is to go back to school to in January, provided the colleges don't consider me too old.