Norwegian Frost

Kim is an amazing person.

When we were married in 2002, she had just finished her four year degree to become a Registered Nurse. She was quite bothered that the system was set up to award her two Associate’s degrees, rather than a single Bachelor’s degree, which required another couple years of study. She vowed to me at the time that she would be returning to school to get her Bachelor’s degree at some point, even though it typically meant no difference in pay for hospital nursing. She had set a goal for herself of having a Bachelor’s degree, and wasn't about to let anything stand in her way. Kim is great for goal setting.

For the following five years she worked full time while I finished my undergraduate degree and went to graduate school, and we had Megan. She switched to part time in order to take care of Henry and Megan when I graduated and we moved to Washington DC. She continued working after having Eli, never taking more than a couple months off for the births of any of our three children.

Kim has been a nurse in three states and 7-8 hospitals. For a time in DC she worked two nursing jobs, and most of her career she has spent as a hospital float nurse, which means that they send her to whatever floor needs additional staff that shift. This has made her a very versatile nurse. She has worked medical-surgical units, oncology, cardiology, intermediate care and post surgical. Her shifts have always been 12 hours, night and day, which are tough as hell. Being a nurse is not like my office job -- while she is at work she WORKS. On her feet for 12-15 hours, lifting and moving patients, charting, making care decisions. When we were first married, I used to visit her in the middle of the night during her break. She usually took 15 minutes to eat something quickly, and then kick me out so she could get back to her patients.

When we moved to Utah a couple of years ago, it was the first time in our marriage that she didn't work. It made her antsy. She was enjoying taking more time with the kids and being near our families for once, but Kim always needs to be improving herself or accomplishing something tangible. Things came to a head when she was in a serious ATV accident and sustained a traumatic head injury that put her out of commission for nearly six months. For Kim, being bed ridden, having difficulty reading and thinking, and having no energy were all signs that it was the perfect time go back to school.

She enrolled in a full time Bachelor of Science in Nursing program. Eli was going to part-time preschool, Henry was in half-day kindergarten, and their muscular disorder means that Kim has to take extra time with them every day to do simple things. She meets regularly with the physical and speech therapists, coordinates their care with social programs, and gets us involved in things like Shriner's wheelchair program. Most of the time she did her homework at night and on the weekends, while the kids were in bed and she could focus. Her first semester she earned a 4.0, and was awarded a scholarship to continue her studies.

As happens so regularly in our life, we decided to make a dramatic shift after her first semester and move to Norway with a career opportunity for me. This put her studies in serious doubt, as she first had to convince her program to allow her to complete her degree as an online student, and then had to manage an international move while taking no break in her coursework.

If you have never moved internationally, imagine the stress, energy and coordination it takes to move and multiply that by ten. Navigating immigration, figuring out rental agreements and banking, locating appropriate schools, understanding even basic things like grocery shopping and getting around the city -- it all adds up. Kim is the center of our family, and bears the brunt of the kids' complaints, my craziness and our overall strategic and day-to-day planning. Within a few months of moving to Norway she had straightened out all the arrangements needed for us to survive, and had moved on to enhancing the experience for us by getting Megan additional Norwegian lessons, finding a swimming therapy class for Eli, and arranging for Henry to receive a wheelchair that would work in the snow. All while earning another perfect GPA.

A few weeks ago she finished the final course of her BSN, graduating cum laude and checking off one of her life goals. She is an inspiration to me, a great example for our kids, and an overall amazing person. I am so proud of her, and so happy that our lives are hitched together. It took her all of a day or two before she began thinking about her next goal in life -- will it be graduate school? Training as a neonatal intensive care nurse? Certifying in yoga instruction? Probably all of these things and more.

Way to go, Kimmie.

I had a great time with Henrik, Jarle and Christoffer this weekend doing some winter camping in Norefjell.

We hiked in on fjellski, which are similar to traditional skinny cross country skis, but with a metal edge to (mildly) help with turning while descending. We started at night, and hiked for a few hours by headlamp. It was pretty windy, but not too cold -- in the upper 20sF.

We set up camp, and hunkered in. The wind blew all night, and when we woke up, visibility was poor, and it had cooled down considerably.

We hung out in the tents for the morning, waiting for the weather to improve.

It never really did, so we decided to stay with our first camp, and build some additional windbreaks for the tents.

Christoffer masterminded this latrine

We did a short excursion to find the nearest cabin. It didn't look very inviting.

We spent another night in the tents, and our windbreaks worked beautifully. I learned that traditional downhill skiing doesn't translate at all to fjellski on the way down. Despite a few faceplants, this was a perfect Norwegian weekend.