We Are Going To Look For…

...More Rain

For the Easter vacation, we are going to Bergen, which is probably one of the wettest cities in Norway.

When we lived in Beijing and we found out we were moving to Norway, we did some research and the only weather data available for the closest city to Stavanger was Bergen (160 km/100 miles north) and it was frightening:

Average precipitation: 235 days a year – Annual precipitation: 2.250 mm (89in) of rain. BUT despite being so far north (further north than Saint Petersburg, Russia) Bergen’s weather is relatively mild (!)


So here we are on our way to Bergen… weather forecast seems to be pretty good, fingers cross.

This is Norway!

160km/100miles - 5 hours!

Bergen: 2 days + 1 day

Voss & Surrounding: 2 days

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bergen

BBQ Season…

...Opened At Casa Suiter

We don’t wait for the weather to be clement… we just decide mid-April should be the opening of the festivities!!

It started at 12am and finished at 10.30pm. I would say we had a good time.

One of our guests had many talents:

Spencer the dishwasher

Spencer the bbq supervisor

Spencer the wannabe rock star

Spencer the piano teacher

And Spencer smoked everybody at the beers drinking (non) contest!

Photo...

...Shoot

My friend Desiree organized a two days kids’ photo shoot for Tijn & Lieve, a small boutique at home specializing in non used and used children clothes.

I tagged along today, mainly entertaining the kids between shoots. My oh my, that’s a lot of work trying to keep those kids entertained and focused!!!

Helpful boyfriend always a plus :-)

And this is what you end up doing to get THE shot you are after!

sorry Dez

And this little one was all over me:


and this is Tijn (of Tijn and Lieve)

working it!!!

Happy Birthday…

...Patricia

April seems to be a very popular month for birthdays… that’s the 6th so far we are celebrating since the beginning of the month!!

This time I got to do it with the Frenchies (yes I know 2 encounters in less than a week... what's going on?!!) but I wasn’t aware I was going to celebrate a birthday. Patricia invited us under the false pretext of celebrating Spring and Easter!!!.


This group was actually a pretty international group: French, Norwegian, Venezuelan, Moroccan, Portuguese,...

Happy Birthday…

...Catherine

After an anniversary it’s a surprised birthday lunch for my friend Catherine, organized at my other friend Julie’s house. Catherine was one of the first people I met when I arrived in Stavanger last year. My 2 kids and 2 of her 4 kids were in the same class. Chloe and Auriol became really good friends and Halcyon and Jeremy were playground buddies!!! And thanks to Catherine I got to go to the (ConocoPhillips) Girls trip to Paris last year and Budapest this year.

Jane couldn't be in Stavanger for Catherine's Bday lunch so we are sending Catherine to Jane in Aberdeen!!

Julie is the best hostess ever

Great group of Ladies

Happy Anniversary…

...My Friend Shauna (& Spencer)

She wanted to surprise her husband with one of my “Multiple” photo… so I obliged :-)

Happy 14th Anniversary

Easter Egg Hunt…

...With The Frenchies

Stavanger Accueil (the French Group) organized an Easter egg hunt in Rogaland Arboret followed by a picnic… The weather was just perfect for a day out in the sun and I got to play nice meet new Frenchies.

Baseball Season Is Upon Us…

...Need To Clean The Fields

We received aN mail from the organizer of the Baseball team to come and help prepare the fields for the start of the season. This photo was attached to the mail

Can you see how hard I worked last year?!!

And this year

Team work... Jeffrey & Chad's style

Another team work... Celine & Lori's style

Turning A Year Younger…

...In Beijing (April 2008)

Decided to go down memory lane and dig out some photos from my crazy (birth)day in Beijing in 2008. Twelve hours of fun… starting at the rising of the flag on TianAnMen Square at 5am and finishing with a Margarita at one of our favorite hang out place at 5pm. In between there were some subway ride, American breakfast, bowling, karting, lunch, laser tag and a lot of giggling… Oh and I rocked the all day

Pictures here


PS: need to do the same with the pictures from last year birthday in St Barts… I’m a little behind ☺

An Apple…

...A Day

Won’t keep the doctor Celine away… from her computer.

Last animated pic... I promise!!

Apple in my hands… Plum in my hair

New Year... New Color!!

Happy Birthday…

...To ME

Celebrating the 1st anniversary of my 40s!!

From last year in St Barts

I got loads of Facebook messages, emails, phone calls, special cards which made my day, and I have some lunches with friends planned!!


Oh and I got spoiled

Yeah me

and Chloe too (a little early for her birthday but we couldn't hold any longer!!!)

She was thrilled... can't you tell?

And Then…

…There Were Four

Back to normal.
Chloe had a great week at her school ski trip and Jeffrey (after a canceled plane out of Copenhagen) made it home in the middle of the night… with plenty of goodies!!!


Pre birthday present. Jeffrey does know what makes me happy (even if he doesn’t know how to express it!!)

great wake up call!!

April Is…

...A Fool

Here’s one of the best prank I’ve seen on the web today… especially for a deprived Starbucks gal ;-)

Read about it here

I did found the Google Motion highly hilarious too but I’m a Google fan

Read about this one here

Oh and my Pinterest page was all upside down!!

Party Time…

...Is Over

From two to three little piggies pair of legs…Look who's back home after her week-long school ski trip

Still missing something....

Photographer, Prophet?...

…It’s All The Same!!!

My husband is starting to appreciate my photography skills.

Hey that picture of the view from our window on the blog is kinda cool…maybe you can print it and frame it for my office.

This conversation was done via email… sent NOT to my personal email address (I might have seen it faster) but to our common email address which I check once in a blue moon ;)

Sure dear!

I guess like we say in French: “Nulle n’est prophete en son pays” ('No man is a prophet in his own country' or 'A Prophet Hath No Honour in His Own Country')


Oh and this is the photo he's referring to.

Lesson…

...Learned

Another Facebook update ;-)

On February 1st I wrote on my wall: Just dropped my external drive with ALL my photoshop work on it... I may as well die right now.

Well almost 2 months later and a lot, A LOT of $$$$$$ later (nothing is cheap in Norway) I got it back and they retrieved everything. Lesson learned. Repeat after me: “I will backup everything multiple times, on multiple devices”.

Never thought a 3x4” piece of plastic would make me so happy!!

Jeremy Has…

...A Secret Admirer

Last October I posted on my Facebook: I’ve just found out that Jeremy (6.5 btw) just had his first official break up. Reason invoked: "She kept on following me. Boyfriend was ok for a few days but then it was too much". Of course he did the only way men do it, he told her friend to tell her!! BUT they are still friends and can have play dates.

Well a couple of days ago I found this in his school bag… a note from a secret admirer. (see it’s not signed!).

It turns out she still has a crush on my little Jeremy… Not to out her but her name starts with a R, end with a Y and might have the letters O and R in the middle -maybe in this order, maybe not ;-)

and now it has been documented for posterity !!

It’s Party Time…

...for Celine & Jeremy

Jeffrey is off to Paris for a week… hopefully finding me a Macbook pro (Birthday's present) and an iPad2 (belated Christmas' present).
Chloe is on a ski school trip until Friday

That leaves Jeremy and I all by ourselves for 4 nights…. What to do? What to do?

Mother-Son Time

I Survived…

...The Road Trip

And the Frenchies and had a great time with our… British friends ;-)

The end of a great weekend. Bye bye skiing Celine and snowboarding Celine!!

Every good thing has to end

And here’s a little video of my first attempt at snowboarding.
I didn't even cut the end of the video to save me from embarrassment -Yes my butt still hurts!!

Live From…

...The Norwegian Ski Slopes

Ready to hit the slopes:

Where should we go first?

The view was amazing:



The Suiter enjoying their day on the slopes @ Hovden

Gorgeous day

We Are Going On…

...A Company Ski Trip

Going to have to be nice to the Frenchies!!!.

5-hour plus drive (one way) for a 3-day ski trip and that’s if all the roads stay opened and the ferries are on time (depending which way we are going).

Ok so we decided to play it safe and took the south route...

Too bad we cannot just go on a straight line ;-)

Taking a break on our 5-hour drive to Hovden

Starbucks in the middle of nowhere!!

Going to the Hytte Norwegian style: Park the car, backpack on your back, cross skis handy.

Ready, Set, Go

I Am A…

...STAR*

Yes I am indeed a Spouse Traveling And Relocating… because the "Trailing Spouse" etiquette is not a flattering one (read my point of view here!)

Of course I am...

* The term was coined by Apple Gidley (aka ExpatApple).  Do read her article on the sisterhood in the Expat life... so so true

Feeling…

…Crafty

Feeling a little nostalgic of my previous life in Beijing…

Ok the truth is I was looking for something in my well organized mess and found a stack of old business cards from China (I talked about the importance of business cards in Asia here) and looking through them each and everyone brought back tons of wonderful memories, especially of our weekly (or was it bi-, tri-weekly?!) LDL get together ("Let’s Do Lunch" – "Ladies Do Lunch") with the girls (ok a man was sometimes but rarely allowed!!!). I decided that they shouldn’t be hidden out of sight in a dusty box so I framed some of the cards and displayed them in our living room. I like to frame weird things!!!  That was project Number One

A small representation of all the restaurants we've visited :-)

Project Number Two was a cover for my Chloe’s kindle…