Halfway through November!?!?

I almost fell out of my chair today when I saw the expiration date on the crabstick salad I bought at the store...December 26th! Do you know what that means? That means that my favorite time of year is whizzing by all too quickly!

(Is there anyone else that has a strange obsession with calculating time and special dates in the framework of food expiration dates? I've done it for years. The expiration date on a milk carton can drastically alter my mood. Yeah, I know I'm weird.)

Speaking of milk cartons, we are frequently asked about the price of food in Norway. I have my latest grocery store receipt sitting by the computer and I want to shock your socks off. But that will have to wait for another day this week. (Translation: Markus is not here at the moment and conversion is not one of my strengths. My recipe book has recipes in 3 languages using various measuring systems, and I am constantly having to stop and close my eyes and think really hard to convert temperatures and amounts. I have several charts I've made to help me, but I still manage to confuse myself and make mistakes all the time. My brain can't handle it all!)

Today, Emma and I had two visitors at school...

They were very well-behaved and quiet. :-)

Emma is doing so well with her sounds and letters. Soon we will be putting together sounds and reading short words! (And I'm not sure who is more excited - Emma or mamma!) 

We also made pumpkin spice cakeballs (dipped in white chocolate!) with my sister-in-law and her sweet little pumpkin who was kept out of the cakeballs by my mother-in-law. :-) I hope they are good...I've been thinking about them since last fall, but am a little nervous to try one in case all that hard work doesn't meet up to my expectations!

This afternoon I had a piano lesson and we spent the entire lesson on the floor...playing with playgdough! Trying to learn the notes on the staff has never been more fun! :-) Some days I feel like the lessons are going really well, but other days (like today) I feel so discouraged with the language and about my ability to clearly explain concepts and ideas.

Emma has said so many funny and sweet things lately. She keeps randomly throwing out these big words (today it was "consequently" and "accustomed") in the middle of sentences. It's so funny to listen to! 

Tonight she was looking at a pony poster she got in a pony magazine in Germany this past spring. (It's all in German...tante Anne, you will have to read it to her sometime!) There were pictures of several castles spread out across the poster and she was studying it carefully. "Mamma," she said pointing to one on the far right, "This is the Philippines castle where Thea and baby Izzy are. And this one," pointing to another one, "is the Norway castle where I am. And this one is the Florida castle where Grandma Esther and Olive Juice are." Then she pointed to the biggest one in the middle. "And this is Heaven where we're all going to live together forever."

And I guess that is all...stay tuned for some shocking food prices in the next few days...

-Sarah-