Bæring i pappas skjorte

Nøden lærer naken kvinne å spinne! Etter middag i Ghent, Belgia, ble 3-åringen min kjempetrøtt og sovnet i armene mine - og vi skulle ikke tilbake til Brussel enda. 

Mannen min tok da av sek skjorta si og jeg lagde en slynge - ikke perfekt men det fungerte!

Ok - final juice and THIS one I am excited about!!

Because this is the Almond Date Milk juice!!! It is blended - not juiced - so it is more "meaty"! So excited - and I hope I do it right because I have never made almond milk - just bought it before... This is a protein packed drink with vanilla, almonds, dates and cinnamon and it is such a great way to end a (horrendous and starvation lined) day of juicing! It is thicker and more chewy and it is like a dessert!!

http://www.vegancooking.com/recipes/juice-6-almond-date-nut-milk-with-vanilla/

Vanilla Almond Milk

Ingredients

• 1.5 cups raw almonds - I used a 250 g bag of almonds - it is slightly more than 1.5 cups - it is more like 1.75 but I wasn't counting before and I am not doing it now. 
• 6 cups filtered water - yeah - or tap water...
• 6 dates -- dadler - so darn hard to get a hold of during the non-Christmas season... see the picture of what I found! 
• 3 tsp. vanilla extract - jeg brukte Bourbon vanilje ekstrakt - økologisk konsentrat - kjempedyrt fra Traktøren! 
• Up to 1 tsp. cinnamon (kanel)
• Up to 1 tsp. nutmeg (Muskat)
• Up to 1/2 tsp. cloves, allspice, and/or ginger (cloves=nellik / allspice=allehånde / ginger=Ingefær)

Juice 5 - the RED one - who knew I liked beets!!

Ok - there are few things I find more disgusting than pickled beets - but I actually LOVE normal non-pickeled ones - something I learned at a dinner party at Steve Gaines house in 2011. They were so good - and once I started seeing them in recipes I had no doubt that I would use raw ones!

Problem is that they are not easy to find in Norway - but at Asian grocery stores, you will! The one in Heimdal rocks my world! Meny also has them - but wrapped in plastic and super expensive!

Juice #5: Beet, Broccoli, Kale, Parsley, Celery, and Apple

Ingredients

• 6 beets - I use a knife to take off the two root-parts. Then I cut them in four.
• 3 cups broccoli florets - this ended up being just a broccoli bunch really. 
• 1 bunch dinosaur kale leaves
• 1/4 cup parsley - hehe I overdid it again! Did a whole bunch - but I like the taste!
• 1 bunch stalks celery
• 2 cups green grapes - yeah - that is for sweetening it I guess. Not very much, 2 cups. It is just under 0,5 liter.
• 2 apples

Juice 4 - the LIMEONADE (not lemonade - lime)

I am pretty psyched about drinking this one since it has my favorites - ginger, lime and green apple - and water!!! That is it - and the majority is the green stuff! But I have SO much more ginger in it than the recipe says - I have two big chunks! Pictures at bottom!

Also - I have no agave - so I am guessing it might be a bit sour LOL

Juice #4 - Ginger, Apple LIMEONADE!

Ingredients

• 6 apples - I used green ones. I just wash them and divide them in four! 
• 7 limes - remember to peel them, I use a sharp knife!
• 1.5-2 inch ginger - ok - I totally overdid it here - I had to big bits!!!
• Up to 36 oz. filtered water - eh, whats that?? I used tap water. Gonna have to do! We are in Norway after all

Juice 3 - another green one, but with pears this time!

Juice nr 3 is finally done - and in the fridge as we speak :) Yet another time I had a little bit too much, but that is quite ok - better more than too little! Another fun fact - my son William helped me - he loves using the juicer LOL

This is the recipe - once more from http://www.vegancooking.com

Green Juice #3: Kale, Spinach, Celery, Grapes, Pear, and Cucumber

Ingredients

• 1.5 bunches dinosaur kale -- I used 1,5 box of GRØNNKÅL again. Pretty pricey at 25 NOK per box but heck - that is where the green in "green" juice comes in!
• 10 oz. fresh spinach - yeah - another "how bad can spinach be for you" so I just emptied out the box this time! 
• 1 bunch Romaine - another one of the Kinakål.
• 2 cucumbers
• 1 bunch celery
• 4 pears

Morning juice nr 2 - with pineapple - yummy

So - nr 2 in the workings - and it was a much faster one to make because it didnt have so many darn ingredients thank God!

Morning Juice #2: Apple, Pineapple, Mint, and Lemon

Ingredients

• 2 pineapples - I got whole ones and one was half rotten so I only got 1,2 unfortunately
• 3 apples - I did green ones :)
• 6 bunch sprigs mint - yeah, what is that exactly??? I got three of those pots of mint they sell at hte grocery store and I took the springs from two of those. I am planning on planting them outside and hope they will keep growing to offset future costs - cause these babies were costly!
• 2 lemons
• Optional: 1 bunch kale - I did this!

So - I did this one too - and it was super yummy actually - but could be better with the right amount of pineapple - since I only had 1,5 and not two. Also, I did not really taste the mint so next time I will go for 3 of those pots cause 2 did not cut it! I did add the kale - mainly because this juice did NOT give me 1,5 litres but only 1,2 -- so smaller wine glasses next time around I guess...

Juice 1 - Morning Green Juice

Ok - yes - well - I got started late so my morning juice is going to be my 13:00 (1 pm) juice today! This is the recipe from Vegan Cooking: http://www.vegancooking.com/recipes/morning-green-juice-1/ 

Morning Green Juice #1

Ingredients

• 1.5 bunches dinosaur kale (you dont get this in Norway so I took GRØNNKÅL instead)
• 10 oz. fresh spinach (ca 3 dl but I just took a big handful - cant have too much spinach, can you?)
• 1 bunch Romaine (here I just took Kinakål since I have never seen Romaine here)
• 2 cucumbers
• 1 bunch celery
• 3 green apples
• 1 cup parsley

Directions for juicing! 

1. Wash everything thoroughly and prepare for your juicer. I have and love this Phillips juicer: http://www.lefdal.com/product/hjem-husholdning/kjokkenapparater/HR1871/philips-juicepresse-hr1871-00 - which range in price from 1400-2000 NOK. I got it for my birhtday in 2012 and it has been used a LOT!
2. Pass through the juicer. Serve room temperature or shake with ice. I usually use a wine glass with ice cubes and a fancy straw. Will show pictures later!
3. Makes enough for 3 juices, approximately 0,5 liter each - which is why I put it in a 1,5 liter old coke bottle. 

Here are some pictures of this process - that actually took 1 hour - and that was only for the FIRST juice!!! I am exhausted - this must count as todays workout!

Starting with the end - me relaxing with a wine glass of fabulous green juice!

The veggies - green stuff - ready to be juiced

finished juicing half the veggies - need to transfer to bottle!

Transfer to bottle! Notice my fancy reused bottle :)

Finished juice 1! 

Ever wonder what happens to all the veggies that you have liquified? Well - its still there - just VERY dry! So now I have it composted - and the juicer is clean and ready for me to make juice nr 2. I am just not ready...

Juicing for 3 days!

So I am going on a 3 day veggie-juice stint again - and I am excited and badly prepared unfortunately. I know I am supposed to have had a couple of caffeine free days, but I had coffee this morning and I just cant hold it off any longer - I have to start now - before my diet goes totally out of control!

So here goes - I am going to follow this recipe: http://www.vegancooking.com/juicing/3-day-juice-cleanse/

Theres 6 different juices, and I take one every 2-3 hours! These are the juices - with their links to the respective recipes.

• Juice 1: Kale, Spinach, Romaine, Cucumbers, Celery, Apples, and Parsley
• Juice 2: Apple, Pineapple, Mint, and Lemon
• Juice 3: Kale, Spinach, Green Grapes, Celery, Pear, and Cucumber
• Juice 4: Ginger Apple Limeade
• Juice 5: Beet, Broccoli, Kale, Celery, Apple, Grape, and Parsley
• Juice 6: Almond Date Milk with Vanilla, Cinnamon, and Nutmeg

The most difficult part of juicing is:

1) deciding to do it (3 days with NO food whatsoever is kinda tough at times)
2) getting all the ingredients (I just got back from 4 different stores - who knew Agave was this difficult to find in Norway... I didnt even find it btw...)
3) finding the FUNDS to pay for it - you think those commercial juicing clubs are expensive??? They are not, I am sad to say... http://vibrantearthjuices.com/ - the one I used a couple of times in the US - is 195 USD for a 3 day cleanse (6 juices per day). That is with bottles, labeled, and all the veggies etc. I just spent just around 120 USD on VEGGIES alone... and I do not have individual elegant bottles (that face it makes it more fun to drink). I have huge recycled 1,5 litre coke bottles... SO if I could, I so would have someone just deliver it to my door...
4) finding the TIME to do it... who am I kidding - I just spent 3 hours driving for veggies, and spending half an hour talking about it on this blog (of course) and after this, it will be about an hour of juicing I suspect...
5) Finding the willpower to finish off 3 days of liquid diet. Then again - once you have written a list like this you realize that after having done 1-4 you HAVE to actually drink your veggies too LOL

So - wish me luck - I have now done 1-3 and I need to move on to 4 - the actual juicing!

These are my veggies - on the counter - ready to be liquified:

So its official - we are going to Vietnam this summer :)

So - our little big family of six are taking a couple of planes and are spending 4 weeks in Vietnam this summer!! Pretty psyched - who am I kidding - I am SOOO excited!!

I have created a Pinterest board for where I want to go and what I want to do while we are there too:
http://www.pinterest.com/racheltiller/vietnam-summer-2014-must-see/

I have also read extensively the blog called the Dropout Diaries - where an expat talks about life with young children in Vietnam - which is cool - since mine will be 13, 9, 6 and 1 when we are there :)  http://www.thedropoutdiaries.com/2013/09/vietnam-with-kids-more-travel-tips/

Hoan and my brothers engagement

We are flying in to Hanoi from Paris - an 11 hour flight (that will be fun with a 1 year old - the rest will become besties with their respective ipads). We will stay a couple of days in Hanoi, just checking it out. After 2-3 nights there, we will take the train to Hai Phong - which is approximately at the top of the right part of the "H" in Hanoi on the

After a summer together in Norway

map there. This is the third (3rd) largest city in Vietnam - but that is not why we are going there - we are going there to see our dearest sweetest HOAN - who was our au pair some years ago and who is now engaged to be married with my brother Ole Andreas (who is flying in from New Orleans around the same time to come see his fiancee while they patiently wait for her to get a visa to come marry him in the US - another time consuming and filled with too much rage story).

This is a picture of Hoan while living with us in Tiller - and meeting my brother for the first time and immediately hitting it off with him. She is back in Hai Phong now - has been for over two years now, patiently waiting for the INS to get itself in gear and let my brother and her move on with their lives and start one together! Shame on the INS...

Hoan in Vietnam at a market - January 2014

Anyways - I am looking so much forward to seeing her again!!! I talk to her on Facebook - and my brother of course talks to her all the time - and she is just as beautiful as always! She has lots of friends - and just works a lot for very little money - but she never complains as she never has. She is patient and loving and just so kind and sweet.

She has also met with our new au pair - who we will also meet while we are in Hai Phong. Her name is Phuong - and she is 22 years old and she actually found me on facebook the other day and added me as a friend there :) And she is also just wonderful. Hoan says she is very sweet and very good with children - she has an 11 month old baby sister and apparantly is just wonderful with her - which is so important to us since she is going to be providing for little Cornelious while she is here!

We are so excited to meet her and her family - I know it is going to be tough on all of them with her being so far away, and I want them to meet us to see what kind of family it is that they are sending their daughter to in Norway to be an au pair for. I want them to feel content with it, and know that we will treat her so well!!

More later on our trip plans for our weeks in Vietnam - just getting so excited to see our extended Vietnamese families!!

Tettinntil - my website about babywearing - is having its yearly meeting!

THIS IS THE 7th ANNUAL TETTINNTIL-YEARLY MEETING/GET-TOGETHER!

Tettinntil has had yearly meetings of forum members wanting to learn more about babywearing and meet their online friends since 2007, when the first meeting was held in Oslo!

This is the second year in a row that it is held in Bergen - and the third time total!

And this is the official welcome and "how-to" registration message:

Registration for the yearly meeting:
Place:  Fana Folkehøyskole, Bergen
Date: 14-16.juni

Registration deadlines:
If you want to stay at the school, or come by and eat lunch and/or dinner, the registration deadline is:
Sunday 5.may

Deadline for payment
When staying over, a 250 NOK deposit needs to be paid by the 10th of May.
The rest needs to be paid by the 1st of June.
For those visiting for the day only, but with meals, the total payment needs to be in by the 1st of June.
Pay full amount to account number 97225242643 - Remember to mark the payment with your forum nick and your name.

Payment Alternatives:
1. Accomodation 2 nights (friday-sunday)
Meals: Friday; dinner. Saturday; all meals. Sunday; breakfast and lunch
Price 1630 NOK

2. Accomodation 1 night (saturday-sunday)
Meals: Dinner Saturday. Breakfast and lunch, Sunday. 
Price 900 NOK

For those of you that order accomodation under alternative 2 you can also order lunch for Saturday if you want to. Lunch will be late, depending on when people start arriving. 
This lunch will be an extra 125 NOK, totaling 1025 NOK

3. Day visit Saturday and Sunday
Meals: Dinner Saturday. Breakfast and lunch, Sunday. 
Price 550 NOK, extra for partner 450 NOK

4. One day visit: Saturday
Meals: Lunch and Dinner
Price 425 NOK, extra for partner 325 NOK

5. One day visit without meals.
Price 100 NOK paid on site. No payment for your partner. 
We appreciate if you let us know if you are coming, even if you dont need to register for a day visit.

Extra for a single room is 90 NOK per night.

Children under 12 are free.
If you want a mattress for your child, the school has those available. Rental of sheets is an extra 80 NOK. If you need a travel cot you need to let us know beforehand by mail. The comittee has a limited number available.

Registration is final and no refunds are given!

Registratin needs to include the following:
- Name
- Nick
- Payment alternative
- Double or single room and who you will share the room with (if any).
- Number of children and age of these and whether or not you need a mattress for them to sleep on.
- Allergies/intolerance for food/food preferences.

Send your registration to: TIlandstreff2013@gmail.com
We are expecting a full program the entire wekend with wrapping-workshops, activities for the bigger kids, hikes in the arboretum and much much more. We expect the meeting to be done around 3-4 pm on Sunday.

We hope we will have a great turnout!

Link to the venue Fana Folkehøyskolen and the Arboretet på Milde which is the closest neighbor.
Hilsen landstreffkomiteen

Just prepared a birth-announcement add for the official paper in our town :)

www.adressa.no is the official paper in our town - Adresseavisen - and today I realized I had not put in a "newborn" add in the paper - which is of course a tradition I need to uphold!

So here goes - this is the one for adressa and I am quite pleased :) Now off to find out how much it costs to put in in the local paper in Arilds home town as well - hopefully it is free... this one cost 140 crownes - which is about a bit more than 20 bucks.

Our fourth child was born on April 18th 2013

His name is Cornelious and he is perfect!

He weighed 4500 grams (9.8 pounds) and was 53 cm long - just perfect.
The birth was traumatic for me - I have never made any claims to being unafraid of giving birth - on the contrary - I am scared to death of the pain associated with it. After three births, I knew what I was going to - I thought.

Only this was worse than any other time.

The pain was excruciating.

He started to push himself out when I only had a 4 cm opening and he was out after 10 minutes (of pure torture and hell) and had I not already decided that this was my last child, this would have made my choice easy.

The worse part though was him not breathing or moving or having any color at all once he actually joined us in the real world - he was just lying there still, not moving, with four midwives and a doctor trying to wake him up.

It took three minutes before I heard the cries from him, and it was another half hour before he stopped that crying - my poor little boy.

But did I mention that he was perfectly beautiful? And that he looks exactly like his siblings when they were born?

Let me share some professional photos that were taken of him at five days by Linda Kristiansen Photography here in Trondheim!

My friend died this weekend

This is the book her son wrote.

Inger Anne soon had to fight again though, as did her family, because not long thereafter, the breast cancer spread - despite her having had operations and everybody thought that this was it. This time, it reappeared in her liver. She started her fight again - this time not only for her self but for her children, fighting for them to be seen, and for children of cancer patients to be acknowledged as well - for someone to see their pain and undesrtand that this was a war the whole family was going through - not just the patient. 

Ever since my son Theodore started daycare I have known Inger Anne - I first heard her speak at the parent-teacher conference for our 4 year olds and I immediately knew I had met my match - this was a woman that was MORE into attachment parenting than I was, and even more vocal about it - and she was willing to fight! I immediately knew I had to get to know her - but I did not know how. People streamed around her and wanted her attention, and she was professional and curteous - yet a bit distant.

But our children found each other fast, and soon, I was invited to her house for the boys to play, and we started talking - about our families, life, our children, our careers, and something I had not known, her breast cancer.

All was well though - she was well! She had fought the cancer off, and life was moving on - and I was so happy I had met her - she was perfect in every way. We shared our values, our frights, or concerns, our love for our children and our committment to our families and bringing up our children in a world where there was too little attachment and too much distance. We also shared our love for our jobs and our committment to our work as well - and we shared bottles of wine and good laughs and gossip - and I found I had met a true friend in Norway - something which I had longed for for so long.


Once again though, Inger Anne won- and they got rid of the cancer beast again - and life was moving on - until it happened again - and this time it went for her brain - and I at least started getting worried. Inger Anne had calmed everyone around her down - told us not to worry - she knew she was getting old and that she was going to beat this. This was just another fight - they were getting through it. She even ran a half marathon last year, with brain cancer - and wow - I was so sure that she was beating it - she had me believe it! She never once let me know if she had doubts about the outcome of this illness - never.

It was not until this fall when I read this article in the news that I suddenly got scared and called her up, not having seen her yet after we got back from California. The TV interview was from the hospital, with her high school son crying next to her, telling his story about how it has been living with a mom that has cancer. And that was when I heard her say the words I never thought I would her from her. She said she had come to terms with understanding that she would not be around for as long as she had hoped to be.

My heart stopped and I started crying and I called her - and once again - she calmed me down. She was home again, and the recording was a few weeks old, and would I want to bring the kids over for lunch one day.

So we went, me and my two youngest, and the kids played as usual just great together, while Inger Anne and I talked and talked about life in general, gossip, and other stuff - just like before. We touched upon her cancer once in a while, but she was sure it was all going to be all right. She was on chemo, and though they had said no more operations, she was sure the chemo would take care of it. We talked about normal stuff that friends talk about, like weight gain and husbands and kids and school and work - and as I left, it felt like it had always felt - Inger Anne was going to live forever.

But she wasnt.

Today, December 17th, when I picked up my son William from school, he asked me if I had heard about Berits mom. I asked what he was talking about and he said, you know, Berit at my school, you know her mom dont you? I immediatley got worried and started panicking and did not want to know but had to ask him what he meant and he said she had died this weekend.

This weekend, my beautiful friend Inger Anne died - the strongest person I knew, with the strongest family, four amazingly brave children, a husband who kept his back straight and did what he had to do while facing his wife dying - this weekend the whole family lost the battle against cancer.

And we all lost a wonderful person who lit up the room and had strong opinions and a heart so loving and caring - and she is gone.

And I feel empty. I dont know how to talk about it to the children without crying. I dont want to alarm them - I dont want them to worry they will lose me. But I dont want to hide my pain either. But I have to - I have to do what Inger Anne did and be strong.

These are some links:

1. An article with pictures that show her how I remember her when I first met her - from September 2007 - right after she was back from maternity leave and around the time I first saw her at the parent teacher meeting at preschool: http://www.adressa.no/forbruker/helse/article950584.ece 
2. From an article in the local paper right after her third round of chemo - this time the brain cancer was gone on the one side and 50% reduced on the other - and she had won a personal trainer to take her up to the Oslo half maraton: http://byensnaeringsliv.no/bn/artikler.php?artid=5112
3. From the launching of the book her son Ruben wrote: http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/distrikt/nrk_trondelag/1.8387937
4.  From an article I did not read - but where I would have found out that she was not going to make it after all: http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/distrikt/nrk_trondelag/1.8343436
5. The article I read when I realized that things had gotten worse for her and the family: http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/--Jeg-er-sa-stolt-av-Ruben-7006272.html

My Skappelgenser is done :)

So - I was lucky - because when I went to Jens Hoff - our local yarn store - and asked if they had the eluding Iris Alpaca yarn - which all of Norway is looking for to make the "original" Dorthe Skappel sweather - they said I could order it in white and they would have it the following week.

I think my jaw might have dropped a couple of inches - because nowhere in Norway is any store making such promises nowadays - the yarn is SO popular that it is sold out even from the producers in Peru LOL

However, true to word, one week later the yarn arrived, and I bought that and 7 skeins of Du store alpakka Tynn Alpakka (thin alpaca) - also in white - and set off home to start knitting the fairytale sweater that had gotten so popular this summer and fall.

And - tada - it is DONE - and it is pretty fabulous, I must say - it is just what I expected - completely oversized and super fluffy - and it was very expensive (just the yarn was about USD 140 plus I spent weeks knitting it).

But it is yummy and I wear it all the time - I get the chills easily nowadays (since I am so skinny now LOL) so it is amazing to wrap myself in this great ball of sheep and just enjoy the warmth of it :) The pictures are in our back yard with my Chihuahua and I - and a cashmere scarf from Ann Taylor that I got for Christmas a few years back from my mom - LOVE IT! The pictures are modified with Instagram.

My friend is fighting for her life, and her 15 year old son has written a book about being a child in this situation

My friend Inger Anne is strong, gorgeous and has a winning personality. She fights fro the weak, and she practices attachment parenting and has raised four beautiful and strong children - the youngest of which has had to live with her mom fighting cancer since she was born. She is now six years old, and her mom has fought the disease several times - in her breasts, her liver and now, in her head... and it has always been serious - but this time is worse.

Inger Anne, however, throughout this process, has been fighting not only for her life, but also for society to acknowledge that cancer not only affects the patient, but that the children are vehemently affected as well - which is too seldom brought to the surface.

This is an article (in Norwegian) from three years ago when she had just gotten diagnosed with liver cancer, and she brought up how - regardless of how sick you are - your first concern as a mom will always be how your children will handle the situation, and how they feel.

http://www.tv2.no/gmn/dinhelse/naar-mamma-har-kreft-2869110.html

Her oldest child, 15 year old Ruben, has chosen to describe this now, and as a junior high school writing project, he has written a 100 page book that has been published now, where he describes both with humor and sadness the life of living with a mom with cancer.

http://www.adressa.no/nyheter/trondheim/article6391901.ece

and why am I only now bringing it up? As I read the article yesterday, I realized, I had not known how far this had gone - and that this time, this could be it. I was getting used to Inger Annes optimism and joy, about her trust that she would grow old and she would see her children grow to be adults. I *knew* with her that cancer could NOT kill her - she would make it - I knew she would. And then, I went to the US for a year. I got the usual christmas card where everything looked as usual with the family - they were happy, the children were doing well, and all seemed "normal" - as normal as can be when cancer is looming in the background. Theodore also got a card from their youngest son, who he went to daycare with and played soccer with later, and we missed them a lot. Coming back to Norway has been hectic, however, and I had only been following Inger Anne on Facebook, and all looked well there as well, until she posted that she was in for chemo again - and the floor fell out from under me - and now this article.

And I realize, that they are living their own personal hell, while I am living my banale life - not appreciating the gift of life I have. I could not sleep all night, stayed awake from 2 am, just thinking and crying and being sad that such a beautiful life is being worn down right now - though she is fighting still.

But seeing her words in the paper, saying she had prepared the children now for the probability that she would not grow old like other moms, that broke my heart. Hearing her resign to the illness and see that this could be it - that broke my heart - as I know it must be killing her family inside and out.

I was holding my children hard today, hugging them, trying to remind myself to find joy in every little thing, and act around them as if I had lost them yesterday - but got them back again - experience the joy and happiness of having these beautiful children, my loving husband, four brothers, parents - and all well and all alive. I need to appreciate more - and not let the stress of life, and pure banalities, get to me and destroy the gifts I have been given.

Have a blessed day - and please - keep Inger Anne and her four children and her husband in your hearts and prayers and hope for a miracle so that we can keep this amazing woman around for years to come!

Then 

Flash from my babywaering past!

What a memory rush - from when Bella was a wee 7 month old baby girl and Theodore wasnt even 4 years old - only 3,5... Time has flown and wow, today, Bella is almost 5 and Theodore is almost 8 years old! And my babywearing days have been gone for a long time - how sad...

2 half marathons have been finished now - my 3rd and 4th in my life!

So - I realize - most dont actually understand how fat I used to be and I dont really want to rip up in those pictures but I might just have to share one or two from my hay days of no-exercise and lotsa food period! This all ended in January of 2010 - when our au pair Hoan took a lot of non-flattering pictures of me over Christmas and I suddenly realized for the first time that I was fat.

At that point, I was 89 kg/196 pounds - and I am only 162 cm/5.3 feet -- with a resulting BMI of 34 - so grossly overweight.

But enough about my obese life period that lasten until 2011 - I took charge and decided to change my life, and in November 2011 I ran my first half marathon in Santa Barbara, California

and in March 2012 I ran my second half marathon - with my 11 year old son William - in Hollywood, California. 

 

Then on September 1st, I ran Trondheim half marthon (which was hell, btw, with two identical loops instead of just one long run) with my friend Kristin!

And finally, on September 22nd, I ran Oslo Half Marathon!

Am I happy now? Am I healthy enough? By no means - I still weigh 68 kg/149 pounds which is a BMI of 26 - and I need to be 65 kg/143 pounds to be at the high end of the "normal" scale. My goal is to end up around 60 kg/132 pounds which is right at 23 in BMI and in the mid range of "normal". Weight focus? Maybe - but that is the result of my fight to loose the weight over the past two years.

Skappelgenseren - the Skappel Sweater!

So I am officially obsessed with this sweater now - which is an 80s inspired basic heavy oversized sweater - but I need a new project and I need it fast - I am so sick of my needlework project making advent calendars for the kids right now LOL

So I want to make myself an awesome sweater!

Problem? Oh yes - turns out the yarn for the sweater is sold out all over Norway because of this new craziness where even teenagers are screaming for the chance to knit this sweater! I see online that hawks that were able to buy all the yarn in the country are knitting them for sale right now - for the price of 1800 crowns - USD300!!!!

The yarn itself is actually 150 dollar so I guess it is not so bad considering the work, but heck, a 300 dollar sweater... not sure I even have one! Actually, take that back, I am 100% sure I do NOT have one LOL (yet).

So - this is the sweater - from mariaskappel.no - as well as the recipe (in Norwegian)! I am obsessed now... and very excited to start knitting once I FIND THE YARN!
http://mariaskappel.no/

Oh, and why is it so famous and special? Dorthe Skappel, the woman who created it, is a famous TV personality in Norway. She is now a grandmother, but a gorgeous one at that, and she loves knitting. So she knitted this sweater for herself, but her daughter, Maria Skappel (who is also a beauty) took it and commercialized it and she is now selling yarn packages with all you need to make the sweater - and the site broke down almost immediately!