spring has sprung! and a new stage in life begins...

Spring has finally sprung, lots of snow on the ground still, but everyday we can notice it receding on the lawn in front of our building. It feels so good to walk on bare asphalt again, and this morning I noticed some hestehov peeking through on my way home from the gym. In February, I wrote about how spring makes me feel so light and high; though I'm not quite there yet, there is something about this time of the year that makes me feel so exceedingly excited. Yet the body is still sluggish, struggling to shake off the heaviness of winter. Maybe it's spring allergies as well, a dull headache in the front of the head.

It's Easter week and tomorrow we'll be heading up to my parents' cabin in the mountains. Then next Monday we fly down to Barcelona for a week. Last week we had a little roadtrip through the heartland of Norway (through Telemark via Kongsberg, Notodden, Skien and Porsgrunn on day I, then along the coast of Vestfold via Stavern, Larvik, Tønsberg, and Holmestrand on day II).

Here I am with Lilly in front of what used to be my grandmother's house (in Porsgrunn):


We're also looking ahead to our trip back to the States this summer to pack up my office and our house, and our move over to Eidfjord, a small town in the innermost part of the Hardanger fjord where my dad has a house he inherited from his sister. We'll be staying there next year, taking turns writing and watching Lilly. St. Olaf did not grant me an extension of my leave, so I quit. I don't want to return to the excessive work hours of a place that does not support my time to write and do research. We'll be sad to be gone from friends there, and there's so much in the States we're homesick for (I have a list of things I look forward to doing while we're back this summer!). So I'm glad we'll be keeping (at least) one foot solidly planted there; what with all our friends and family there. Since I first moved to the States, back in 1995, I've been so happy to have two homes. It makes me feel richer (and less claustrophobic).

We've put our house in Northfield on the market and hopefully it will sell okay. We hope to make enough money on it (or at least not loose any!) so we can buy a used car over here.

Lilly has three teeth now, is a very quick crawler, and loves getting herself up into standing position, holding on to whatever. She'll play peekabo forever, and loves it if we mimic her by shaking our heads when she does so. She laughs often, and it's a very contagious laughter.