2011

"Det året det var så bratt" A Norwegian saying, translates something along the lines of "The year that was steep" meaning it's been a tough year.   I did an 'End of year' post on TBF and realized 2011 has certainly been that.

To sum it up(it's a rather depressing read, but hey, Pssst, there are puppy-pictures at the end - feel free to skim over and/or skip):

Winter and spring: Fought the Health and Social Service peeps and lost – sort of. Fought insurance company and lost - totally. Dealt with daughter's depression and anxiety attacks. Dealt with kid sister and her psychotic bf (he's in a mental institution now and I wont be sad if he stays there indefinitely...sorry sis). Sister in law got breast cancer and had to remove her breast, part of her lymphatic gland and part of her muscle in one arm, followed by chemo and hormone treatment. Bad case of fibro and inflammations. Psoriasis outbreak and major hair loss. They discovered a brain tumor in my mom's head, but luckily not a cancerous one. Doctors decided to leave it be and monitor it with regular checkups – for now.

Early summer: Grandma Crazy passed away. Lots of family drama and fights between my father in law and his two brothers with families. Got my doctor to fight the Health and Social Service peeps for me and won – sort of.

Summer: Health got better, hair starting to grow back.. My dad suffered a major heart attack, underwent surgery, then had a minor stroke and then another major one (on my birthday) and nearly died – worst day of my life. All of it during the time-span of 10 days. He lost most of his sight, ability to speak and his balance, but struggled through it and trained himself back to his old self. He's my hero and I love him to pieces!

Fall: Hubby inherited some money from Grandma Crazy. We covered the down payment so daughter could move into a new mould-free flat. Huzzah! My mother got diagnosed with Parkinson. Another round of psoriasis and hair loss. Dog got sick - 1 week of painful terror!

December: Health and Social Service peeps decided I am permanently disabled, reducing my monthly income with about $500. Big fuckin' suck! Since this basically means I no longer need to deal with their crap, it's a 'win', albeit a somewhat sad one. We got a puppy.  But a very sick puppy.   Car broke down.


This is copied and pasted from my post.

December decided to dump some extra crap on us before the year was done...My father in law fell down the ladder - he didn't break anything, but he got badly bruised and as his back was ruined from before, he is still in a lot of pain and barely able to move around.

We didn't manage to fix the old car- CRAP! So we bought a 'new' old car - same type, Volvo 940, 3 yrs older and with stick shift instead of automatic. YAY! -  that also broke down - December 23rd - CRAP-CRAP!

Hubby, my hero, managed to fix it, but not until he broke a fuel hose and drowned himself in gasoline. As he is allergic to all kinds of solvents, he got sick as a dog. Of course, being the hero he is, he pretended otherwise and helped prepare the moose roast dinner. And he dressed up as Santa for the benefit of his 3 youngest nieces/nephew. Poor guy fell asleep in his chair twice during the  Christmas Eve dinner party at his parents.

My hero!

Christmas day was spent at my sister's, where Georg found a new best friend in Olga, my niece's boxer  ...and a gooey, stinking mud-hole. He was one stinking, happy, dirty dog!

The bath we had planned on postponing until he was properly settled, was suddenly unavoidable. Seems he is settled quite thoroughly, as he didn't mind the shower and he absolutely luuubed the attention and the hair-dryer treatment afterwards :P


The drooling, clean monster is sleeping flat out on his back with his paws in the air snoring loudly. He's adorable.

It doesn't get more relaxed and laid back

Anyways, I'm not sad to see 2011 end. Good riddance! In comparison, 2012 will be great. I just know it!

And with that I leave you with two good friends who brightens up my days, no matter how dark and shitty they get.

Laika and Georg, two good friends. Georg shares his blankie, Laika shares her toys.