Old fashion mail

Remember back in the days when friends wrote letters and actually sent them by mail? I miss REAL mail! I love the simplicity of technology and how easy it is to keep in touch with family and friends so often, but I miss sitting down with paper and pen to write a note that will one day end up in my friend's mailbox.

Mike's dad is one of the few who is really good about still using the mail box. Besides bills, he may be the only one we receive anything from in our green box. Today we received anyother care-package from him. Inside the cardboard box with our address on top, we found a car each for the boys, a couple of gossip magazines for me (which I'm not embarrassed to admit that I love!), and a cute Halloween onesie for little Olivia. I think Mike received a car magazine of some sort but I got so excited about the stuff for me and my kids that I forgot to look - sorry! ;)

Thank you for all of the great things you send us, Grandpa Glenn!!!

My theory on the local baby boom

I just had a group meeting at our local doctor's office for all of the moms in this area with babies born in August 2010. There were 18 of us, which is A LOT of babies for such a small area. Apparently there is a baby boom going on here this summer.

Here is my theory:

Last summer/fall, there was a lot of talk in this town about the lack of daycares. We have quite a few, but not enough to offer daycare for the youngest kids when they were ready to start. Last September, there were a couple hundred kids who did not get into daycare, leaving a lot of parents confused and frustrated about how to manage work and family life. Norway has a law requiring cities to provide daycare spots for ALL kids born before Sept. 1st, so parents planning how to deal with childcare after a year of maternity leave can secure it ahead of time for the following school year.

My thought when I heard about this law was that our next child should be born before Sept. 1st so that we didn't have to stress about our finances if we didn't get daycare when I was going to start work again. We decided to try having our third baby in August to make life easier for us... because if we didn't get daycare when our baby turns one and I need to start work again, we'd have to wait an entire year for an opening (unless people move and spots open up, and our name was towards the top of that waiting list).

Apparently, I wasn't the only one with this thought. The nurse said there are more babies in one month in this town than there has been in a looong time. I can't wait to hear the results of babies born in September and October here. My theory is that the number will be really low!

We'll see if I'm right!!!! ;)

An appointment, what?

I had a good laugh today... I don't know if it's at myself because I'm so forgetful lately or what, but I found it funny.

First of all, let me add that I had no plans of going anywhere besides work today! So I get a call and it's the secretary from the doctor's office. Here's our conversation (translated into English so I don't have to write it twice):

her: Hi, this is Heidi...
me: Oh hi... (thinking: umm, why is she calling)
her: I'm sorry but we have to cancel Aiden's doctor appointment today due to his doctor being sick.
me: Oh ok... (whoops, he had an appointment?!!?)
her: If you'd still like to come in, I can weigh him and try to answer some questions for you.
me: That's no problem. We can just reschedule for another day (cuz I had no plans of going in today)


Phew! Good thing the doctor was sick so she had to call me. I had NO clue that Aiden even had a doctor's appointment coming up!
Note to self: how about I write it on the calendar or phone next time!?! hahaha

I heart skype

AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo Msgr, Myspace, Facebook, Twitter..... The list for online networks to make socializing easier for us lazy people who can't pick up a phone could go on and on. It has gotten completely out of hand, yet I'm right there in the front row following along with the continuous changes.

My most recent addiction this past year has been Skype. I absolutly love Skype and am so thankful for it! It allows us to call our family and friends on the other side of the world for free (if they have skype) or close to nothing (if you call from skype to a normal non-skype phone). We use Skype all the time and can talk for as long as we want without ever worrying about the cost of the conversation. It's amazing!

The only negative thing about it is that the connection can be bad at times, so there have been times where we've gotten so frustrated that we've simply given up and called from our normal phones. This isn't often though!

So for you guys who are choking on expensive phone bills, I definitely recommend looking into Skype!

You don't have to use it for long-distance calls only. We have actually called my family on it a few times too (they live only 15 minutes away from here. hehe), but that has been so that the kids could talk to them using the webcamera. :)

Well, my skype contact list is up and a few friends are on so I think it's time to Skype a little. Have a good day!

Helping others

Seriously, I love helping people! Nothing feels better than knowing you made a difference in someone's life, even if it's just by something little to begin with.

Mike always makes fun of me (in a fun teasing way, not mean, so don't get it wrong. hehe) about how I'll go out of my way to help out someone. But it's true...! If someone needs something, I love to help out, and if I can't, I like to connect them with a person who can.

This summer, a friend of mine was talking about how her vacation plans got messed up because their plans with their puppy got messed up. It turned out they couldn't bring the dog and didn't have anyone to take care of him while they were gone. A friend of mine from work is awesome with pets and needed the extra cash, so there ya go, she was able to help out. I didn't do much besides a quick phone call, yet they were both so sweet and thankful afterwards! I saved my friends' vacation with her family (sounds a little dramatic but they were her words and they made me happy so I'll use them...hehe) and my other friend made some much-needed cash. It was a win-win for us all.

This week, my mom was in desperate need of some helpers at her work for a few days here and there so she asked if I knew of anyone who would be good at working with kids. I called two of my friends and they both said Yes! :) One of them was really excited because she needed the money and the other one is searching for a job so this will be a great way to get her foot inside the door. Again, I didn't do much, but at least I made three people happy and it made my day too! :)

And with that, I'll leave you this quote:
"There is no more noble occupation in the world than to assist another human being - to help someone succeed."
- (whoops, I logged out of the page before I wrote down the author's name)

Damn keys!

I was so frustrated with myself today!

I took my sweet ol' time after work today. I picked up Aiden and Elliot at daycare (we don't have kindergarden here so it's all daycare until age 6 when it becomes school) and headed home. I had groceries in the car, dinner planned out, and hope to get in a little hike before it was time for baths and stories.

I was so disappointed when I reached into my purse and there were NO house keys there. Mike was home when I left in the morning, which he never is, so I didn't grab my keys on the way out the door. Are you kidding me!? I was so mad!

So back into the car we go. Since we haven't lived in the house THAT long, we still haven't given any family or neighbors a spare key (but that's gonna change now!). This meant that the only way I could get into the house was to go get Mike's key. His work is a 30-minute drive from our house, which is a LONG time when you have two hungry kids in the car.

After an hour of driving and some snacks and drinks that were left from their lunches, we made it back home just fine. I am still a little bitter with myself, but the unexpected roadtrip ended up being quite fun! We might just have to do that soon again... only next time it will not be during dinner time! ;)

A walk down memory lane... of haircuts!

We're celebrating my grandparents' 80th birthdays soon and giving them a book with stories and pictures that we've collected from all of the family members. So last night's task was to find some pictures of them. I have all the recent ones saved on my computer of course, but I had to dig up the old photo albums to find the rest.

First of all, I LOVE photo albums! It is so fun to sit down by your bookshelf and go through the albums with old pictures. I have several scrapbooks, both that I've made myself and that I've gotten as gifts from friends. This generation is gonna miss out... It's just not the same to scan through your computer files to look at memories. You gotta have the big, heavy albums to flip through or it's just not the same!

As I was flipping through the pictures, I couldn't help but to notice the different hair styles we had. There were so many awful hair do's! I started out having cute hair, but it quickly changed and went through many awkward looks. In daycare I had the ultimate tomboy look with short hair. All of my friends were boys so to fit in, this made sense. Then I became all girly-girl for a while in elementary school, which was fine. From then on, it all went down hill... haha! It started with the crimped hair, then the extremely high bangs, followed by a short period where I dyed my hair green, then red, then black. I can't believe my parents let me because it absolutely didn't not work for me! Since then it's been long, super short, braided, colored, highlights-gone-wrong look, you name it...

But hey, the different looks made for a good laugh as I was walking down memory lane yesterday :)