Pilaris - blog

2008 was absolutely a year I’ll remember, both for positive and negative reasons. I have already written about it all in previous entries, so all I’ll say is that I hope 2009 will be much more positive.

S. V. and B came December 22th and left the next day. It was great seing them again, even though it just was for a few hours since I worked.

E and I decorated the Christmas tree on December 23th. This years tree is huge, so I actually don’t have enough ornaments. Have to buy more before next X-mas!

Christmas eve started with watching telly before I drove to pick up mum. Then it was a bit more telly and waiting for the turkey to be done. A wonderful dinner where the three of us ended up far too full as always 🙂 A bit of relaxing on the sofa before we got going with the presents. I had warned E about the number of gifts, but I don’t think he believed me until he actually saw all of them 🙂 We all got lots of wonderful things, and I was happy to see that E and mum was so pleased with what I’d bought for them.

On Christmas day we drove mum home and then went to E’s sister T and her husband T for lunch. Relaxed for a couple of hours before heading home again, just as full as the day before. No dinner that day 🙂

Saturday December 27th, we went to H and M for dinner. Their daughter E had gotten so many presents, and it’s so much fun to watch her development each time I see her. 2 years old now 🙂

Sunday December 28th, D came to us. He could hardly get inside before he wanted to open his presents, and he was very pleased with everything.

We had a great dinner on New Years eve, and just relaxed for the rest of the day. Watched some telly and a couple of films, and then went out for the fireworks just before midnight. Stayed out for about half an hour, took lots of pictures, called mum as always and sent lots of text messages.

On January 1st, we packed bags and went for a walk in the woods, and found a spot where we built a fire and BBQ’ed hot dogs. It was a bit cold, but we all enjoyed it. Drove D home that same night.

Yesterday, E and I did a bit of shopping in town. E has wanted a SLR camera for ages, so we ordered one last night, hopefully he’ll get it within a week. I hope his enthusiasm will rub off on me too, because I miss the feeling of really wanting to take pictures.

Now there’s just today and tomorrow left of my vacation, and then it’s back to work on Monday. Can’t say I look forward to it, but money is a necessity.

I’ll be posting lots of pictures in my gallery, check out the home page on my web site to find out where to look.

Happy New Year everybody, hope it gives you all you want!

Nothing much has happened the last few weeks.
Christmas dinner at my mums tasted amazing, and we stayed in the sofa for the rest of the evening, not able to move at all.

E has been home on sick leave since the last time I wrote, so I come home to dinner every day. He’s also done lots of cleaning around the house, so the Christmas decorating has been really easy this year. I just can’t believe how kind and helpful he is, and how in heavens name I deserve this man!

December 13th was spent celebrating E. L.’s second birthday. She’s such a big girl now, she’s learned to say thank you and a few other words, and it’s so easy to understand what she wants. Several times she came and pushed my arm, wanting me to play something with her or following her to her room.

Yesterday we were at the yearly Christmas concert. This time it was in Fredrikstad Domkirke (Fredrikstad cathedral), a lovely church with great acoustics. It was E’s first time at this concert, and I think he liked it enough to come with me next year as well. For the first time my mother could’t come with me, she was on the bus coming home from Denmark when the concert was. I really missed her being there, the concert has become our Christmas tradition.

S. V. and B. are coming over to the “correct” side of Norway on Monday to celebrate Christmas with B’s sister, but they’re stopping by here first from Monday to Tuesday. I have to work those two days, but E’s home. After that, I’m not going back to work until January 5th, can’t wait for a few days off!

Christmas eve will be spent here with E and my mum. Then we’re invited for lunch at E’s sisters on Christmas day and for Christmas dinner at H and M’s on the 27th. We’ll have D here from the 28th to the 1th.

As I’m writing this, I’m listening to Händel’s Messiah online from ABC Classic FM after a recommendation from J. Can’t say that I’ve heard it before, and classical music is not really my cup of tea, but absolutely worth listening to!

There’s one thing I ask for every Christmas, and I’ll end with this request this year as well: I’m dreaming of a white Christmas…!!!

Thursday November 20, I went to C to take pictures of her daughters. I took pictures of her oldest when she was 7 months, so we wanted to take pictures of her youngest now that she’s 7 months as well. In addition, we tried to take a picture she could use as Christmas cards, but I wasn’t successful with that, so we took more pictures three days later. You can see some of them in the folder My friends children in my gallery.

In October, I got a text message from two of my friends, telling me that I was going to Oslo with them November 22 for shopping and surprises. The three of us do this every year, but I usually get to be a part of planning. I picked up C and we picked up S, and we arrived in Oslo at about 2:30 pm. I was told that we had about 2 hours for shopping, so we walked around Byporten and Oslo City, but I didn’t find anything that I wanted. I didn’t know what we were going to do next, so S and I just followed C while C talked to her sister on the phone. When we stopped, C found out that her sister had guided us to the wrong place, so she called her againg and got the right directions. After having enough time to begin with, we now were in a hurry, alomst running through the streets of Oslo. And 30 seconds before we arrived to where we were going, C told me that I wouldn’t get any Christmas presents from either of them, because they were taking me to Edderkoppen Theatre to see Sound of Music with a Norwegian cast. It was just wonderful, I enjoyed it from start to end. But it was strange hearing the lyrics in Norwegian, since I only know them in English.
After this, we went to The Scotsman for dinner, and then drove home. Found E sleeping on the sofa and got him to bed at about 1:30 am.
Thank you S and C for a wonderful and brilliant Christmas present! Could get used to this you know 🙂

Yesterday it was time for the yearly Christmas party with work. E started getting a cold on Friday, so he should have stayed at home, but the thought of eating a good Christmas dinner made us go. We were at Haldens Klub (like last year). Just stayed for the announcements about who’s This years leader and This years coworker, then dinner, then a bit of chatting. Got home at about 10 pm and straight to bed. Pictures can be found in the folder Christmas party with work November 29, 2008 in my gallery.

Today we’re invited to a Christmas dinner at my mums, and I know it’s gonna taste much better than the good food we had yesterday 🙂

We have started planning the wedding. Lots to think about, lots to forget and hopefully remember before it’s too late 🙂 But you know me, always wanting to plan everything in good time 🙂

Can contain traces of nuts? I was perfectly aware of that when I bought the bag!!!

(sorry to those of you that don’t understand Swedish)

I didn’t feel any better when my sick leave was about to expire, so I called the doctor again and got another active sick leave. Have been to work on and off and I’m getting better, so I guess it’s back to full time again on Monday.

E and I went to Oslo on Saturday. There is a dog fair that is held yearly that I haven’t been to earlier, and since E hasn’t been to anything that has to do with dogs, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to ease him into the dog world if we’re ever having a dog again. I must say I was a bit disappointed, it was smaller than I imagined and not that many breeds had their own presentation. But we got to see lots of different activities, like agility, rally obedience, rescue dogs, military dogs and freestyle. And I got to talk to representatives for a breed that I’ve considered (Eurasier), and what they told me made me decide that this is not the breed for me. I need to have a breed that don’t get tired of training after a few minutes, and this breed does exactly that. But it was fun talking to them and saying hello to the dogs.
There were lots of shops selling things there. Obviously they were selling dog stuff which I don’t need at the moment, but you could also buy clothes and shoes and furniture as well. We found jackets that we both loved but couldn’t afford, so E called his mother and asked her if she wanted to give us jackets for Christmas, which she thought was a great idea, so now we’ve got wonderful warm jackets at home. It’s actually two jackets in one. You can separate them and the innermost can have the sleeves removed and be used on both sides.
All in all it was worth the trip and the costs, but I want to take E to something else the next time, maybe a dog show or an agility contest.

Yesterday would have been Arkas’ 11th birtday. I worked a few hours and because we’ve got so little to do at work these days, E left work with me at about 10 am. We bought roses and went to Arkas’ grave. It was hard, and I kept feeling guilty for not being home on his 10th birthday last year. I still miss him so much.

E and I have talked about getting engaged, so we went to choose rings three weeks ago. I didn’t want to know which date, so I waited for him outside the shop. We picked up the rings on Friday, and I’ve spent every day waiting for something to happen.
Well…after we came home yesterday, we just relaxed and ended up putting on a movie. After a while (about 3:45 pm), my friend SV called. We talked for a few minutes, and he asked if E had proposed yes (I told SV a while ago that we had bought the rings), and I said no. Then he told me to tell E to get down on one knee. I just laughed and said “what”, and he repeated it. So I turned around to E and told him this, and he did it and held the ring up to me! All I could say was Yes! Yes! Yes!
These two boys had been planning this for a couple of weeks, and I hadn’t noticed anything. I’m not the romantic type that requires dinner with candles and all that stuff, so this was the most wonderful way E could have done it. I just love that man, and I’m so happy that I’m going to spend the rest of my life with him! We have to save money before we can afford to get married, so it’ll take a couple of years before that happens.
After this, E made a great steak dinner for us, and we relaxed the rest of the evening.

I had read that there was to be lots of shooting stars in the sky last night, so we went out to take a look just before we went to bed. It was so dark outside that we didn’t see where we placed our feet, but it was a clear sky with lots of stars. While we waited to see any movement in the sky, we suddenly heard a grunt in front of us, so we turned around and ran like crazy inside again. We tried to find out what kind of animal this was, but it had disappeared. Next time, we’ll check the yard before we go out! 🙂

I haven’t been feeling well for a few weeks. Talked to the doctor a couple of weeks back, and we agreed that I’d stay at work, but do different things than usual. It ended up with me cleaning and cleaning and cleaning, both work spaces and other rooms. I didn’t feel that helped me much, and I started getting more and more dizzy, so I went back to the doctor Thursday a week ago, and I got an active sick leave, which means that I can work as much as I want to and stay home when I’m having a bad day. So I stayed home on Friday, worked a few hours on Monday, stayed home on Tuesday, worked a few hours yesterday, staying home today and are working a few hours tomorrow. This has worked out fine, but I’m back to working full time from next week if I don’t get worse.
It’s been really strange to be home alone these days, it’s amazing how fast you get used to not living by yourself 🙂 And I’m having trouble finding out how to keep myself busy while E’s at work.

Talked to J on Skype today. It’s been ages since the last time, so I suprised her by calling, and we had a lovely chat. Great hearing her voice again, I really need to call her more often.

I’m not looking forward to November 18, as that would have been Arkas’ 11th birthday. I keep thinking on how good he was at unwrapping his presents all alone, leaving a million tiny pieces of paper all around the house 🙂 A visit to his grave that day is required, wishing him happy birthday and telling him that I still love him.

That’s it for this time, I’ll write more when I’ve got more to tell you. And remember that my web site now has a guest book that desperately cries out for visitors! 😛

My darling boyfriend has spent the last few days working on my web site, and now he’s finished! The layout is what I wanted, and the guestbook is working, so feel free to take a look and leave a comment either here in my blog or in my guestbook.
Thank you E, you’re too kind!

It’s been over four weeks since Arkas left us, and my emotions have
been going in all directions. The first few days was extremely hard,
hearing him running over the floor, hearing him barking and “talking”.
I kept turning around to give him a treat while making dinner, I kept
wanting to take him outside when it was bed time, and I kept seeing him
beside my bed when I woke up in the morning, him happy for me being
awake. But life somehow pushes us forward, even if we don’t want to.

My birthday was Saturday October 4, and I had invited a bunch of
friends over. Four showed up, and we had a wonderful night with dinner,
cake and snacks. Thank you S. V., B., H., M. and E! You helped me get
my mind off things for the evening. Pictures can be found in my gallery.

My friend K. in Haugesund invited me and E. to her and her boyfriends
wedding October 11., so E. and I drove on the 9th. Arrived after 9 1/2
hours, and the evening was spent talking and cuddling the three dogs
Diesel, Embla and Kiba, and the three cats Virus, Chili and the
nameless kitten.
I wanted to show E. a bit of Haugesund, so on Friday, we drove downtown
and took a walk through Markedet and Haralds gate. We also met E’s
nephew T. for an hour. We then drove to Amanda, and then to the church
where the wedding was going to be the day after. We were supposed to
meet S. V. in the evening, but he got held up at work in Stavanger, so
we drove to the premises where the dinner party was to be after the
wedding and helped K. and T. with decorating and getting everything
ready. We then drove to their house where we stayed for the weekend for
a wonderful kebab pizza.
Saturday morning was spent trying to kill time before the wedding
together with the maid of honours boyfriend L. and T’s son K. Drove off
to church way to early, but that’s typically me 🙂 The ceremony was
amazing, and one of the shortes weddings I’ve attended. The bride and
groom went to the photographer, and all the dinner guests went to the
premises where we got a welcoming drink. As soon as the bride and groom
arrived, dinner was served, together with lots of wonderful and
thouching speaches and songs. We were about 30 guests, and before
coffee and cake, another 20 guests came. We had a wonderful evening,
and it was an honour to be a part of their big day. Pictures can be
found in my gallery.
Stopped by S. V. on Sunday morning before driving home. We had Monday
off work, since I know how tired I am after driving that far.

Tuesday we went to the vets and picked up Arkas’ ashes. Stopped by a
flower shop and bought four red roses. I had found a large stone in my
garden that I wanted on the grave, so that he’d have something from
where he lived for the last three years. E. dug the grave, and I put
one of the roses in the hole together with the ashes. After filling up
the hole and putting the stone on top, we put down the rest of the roses; one
from my mum, one from E. and one from me. It was hard…extremely hard.
On one hand, it felt like I was holding my boy for the last time, and
on the other hand, it didn’t feel like my boy at all. But the main
feeling I’m left with, is that he’s home again, he’s with me again.
I know I’ll miss him for the rest of my life, and I know that there
will come lots of times where I’m reminded of him, but I’m getting to a
point now where I can talk about him without crying, and I can even
smile when thinking about things that were typical for him.
I’d like to finish for this time by giving you a link to an entry my
boyfriend has written in memory of Arkas. It’s in Norwegian, so sorry
to those of you that don’t understand our language. Click here.

That’s 10 years, 9 months and 28 days. Take away the first two months that I didn’t know you, and we’re left with 10 years, 7 months and 28 days. That’s almost one third of my life, which you were such a big part of.
We’ve shared so much over the years. Laughter, tears, joy, pain, happiness, sorrow. Rain and sunshine. Snow and fog. Four houses. You got to try the new car two times.
You gave me every emotion there is…joy, frustration, anger, peace. You and I were one, you gave me the feeling of being wanted, of being a mother.

Thank you Arkas for being mine, for loving me the way only you could.
Take care of yourself, take care of my father and Santo, and we’ll meet again, all of us, on the other side of the Rainbow bridge.

I love you and miss you!

It’s been ages since the last time I wrote, sorry about that.

Both rooms are now finished, pictures are in the gallery on my website. We’re going to paint some of the furniture as well, but there’s no rush on that.

We’ve now got a new car! Picked it up last week, and are very pleased so far. It’s a Peugeot 307 from 2002 with a gold-yellow-colour. It’ll be a sad day when my old car is sold, but we need the money and we don’t need two cars, so it has do be done.

E has now been living here for a few weeks, and things are going wonderful. We’ve had his son D here several times, and we’re going along great. He loves his room and he loves my piano 😉

We’ve had vacation for the last two weeks, and are going back to work tomorrow. Can’t say that I’m looking forward to it, but I still haven’t found another way to get money.
Our vacation has been spent at home.
We took a trip to Nordens Ark on the 17th. Six wolves cubs have been born this year, but we only saw one of them. And for the first time, I got to see the otter. Pictures in my gallery.
E’s mother A and stephfather T came on the 20th and left on the 25th. E turned 37 on the 20th, so my mother and A picked up A and T at the train station and came to us for BBQ-ing. Pictures in my gallery. E was overwhelmed by all the presents, and he even got more the next day when we went shopping while waiting for our new car.
We had a water leakage on the 24th. The pipes from the bathroom upstairs was blocked, so it flooded into the floor upstairs and came down through the kitchen ceiling. T was very kind and helped us open up the pipes again, but there probably is water left in the floor upstairs. We’re going to start up a hot air fan in that room, hopefully it will help.
After dropping A and T off at the train station on the 25th, we went to Strömstad to visit K again. We also stopped at the wine and liquor shop to shop for K and T’s wedding in Haugesund in October.
Visited H on the 28th. Haven’t seen her for ages and they’re going to Crete for a week September 7th. Great to catch up with her again.
C and R have spent two weeks in Turkey with their children A and L. Haven’t seen them since they got home on the 27th, but I’m looking forward to hearing how the trip went.
We’ve had D most of our vacation. Sadly, S hasn’t been able to visit yet, but her room is ready and waiting for her when she finds the time.
My computer crashed the other day, and E spent three days trying to fix it. I started thinking about where to find money for a new one, but thanks to my clever boyfriend, it’s now working again. Luckily I’ve got backup of everything, so nothings lost.

A couple of weeks back, we saw a cow moose and her calf on the field next to our garden. Yesterday a lonely cow moose came into our garden! Quite an experience to have such a big animal so close, thank God she didn’t come closer!