If one man can show so much hate, think how much love we could show, standing together.

The following days our nation mourned. But in that mourning people started focusing on love, strength and unity rather than fear, anger and revenge and all over the country people gathered to participate in different rose ceremonies. Natalie and I went downtown Drammen to pay our respect and sympathy to those who had lost their loved ones.

Deathly Hallows ~ the Horror of Evil 7/22

The day was here. The day we would watch the final chapter of Harry Potter. Friday July 22nd 2011.

The movie lived up to our expectations. As Harry engages Voldemort in a duel throughout the castle, I was overwhelmed by the horror of evil of the Dark Lord. I almost choked and literally felt an evil spirit surround me. I get quite involved while watching movies.

Little did we know that at 15:25:22 Norway suffered a horrible terrorist massacre. After the movie we stopped to pick up Michael who had spent time at a friend's place. We were told that the dad in the family who is a doctor, was called on duty due to a bomb explosion in Oslo. I hurried home to listen to the news and my heart just broke when the second attack occurred less than two hours later at a youth summer camp on the island Utøya.

It was devastating. The day Norway lost its innocence. Tears. And more tears.

Sparkling stones that shine so bright, rest on my ears to my delight.

In a marriage, you take some and you give in some. Glenn and I have had different opinions on whether Natalie should get her ears pierced. Glenn is not much of a jewelry kind of guy. Not a whole lot of bling and gems coming my way, that's for sure. When I was around Natalies age, I wanted to have my ears pierced but my parents wouldn't let me. I went to a friend's house and she sedated my ear by putting a clothes pin on it for a while, sterilized a needle by holding it in a flame and just jabbed it in there. I had a pair of earrings I had gotten from a teen magazine. Not gold or silver, I can tell you. Turned out I got a bad infection that hurt a lot. The holes were crooked and on one ear I had five holes on the backside. Ouch!

I am pretty sure Natalie is not the disobedient child I was, but I decided it was time for the rite of passage as far as pierced ears go. As a price for being such a great big sister and just because she is such a doll, Natalie and I went to the salon just after we came back from our vacation. A friend told us about an anesthetic cream called Emla that we bought at the pharmacy. Those of you who know Natalie, are probably familiar with the fact that she has great fear of needles and pain. But the cream worked miracles and the girl at the salon praised her for being the best girl she'd had at the salon ever.

Yeah for Natalie! Cute girl!

I did a lot of Pinteresting things lately

So there seems to always be tons of excuses for not keeping an updated blog in the blogosphere.
The past few months I have spent all my free computer time on Pinterest. It is such a great place to get inspired and have creative inputs. I love the concept of sharing, and it is wonderful to see so many creative and talented people around the world. So there has been a lot of pinning ~and no blogging. However - I do feel the need to keep our family history on track. There are so many memories to keep and moments to preserve!
And the kids are growing up too fast...


I am quite sure I won't quit my pinning habit, though.
Feel free to come on over and see my boards.