Exchange Student

All day today, Kiwi was at an orientation for foreign exchange students. It was in the basement of a church that I have attended in the past and have bad memories of-- but that is another story. All the kids were sitting at round tables when we walked in playing Uno and Rummy-o and adults were milling around waiting for the meetings. Kids and adults were separated into different groups and meetings were started. I did not find the adult meeting all that interesting. The leader is used to dealing with non-english speaking people so she repeats herself... over and over and over. I teach special ed... and have teenagers, so I am accustomed to having to repeat myself more than once, but this lady was driving me crazy. I heard about the perils of Facebook at least 7 times. And if you want to know about the necessary forms to take a foreign exchange student to Canada or Mexico... I heard about those at least 5 times. I could not escape soon enough!

I left Kiwi at the church because after the meeting they were having a party for the exchange students... including pizza, board games, snacks and dancing. Kiwi called me half way thru and asked if I could drive a friend of hers home. I said sure... When I picked them up there was empty pizza boxes, tired looking teens, loud music and chaperones that looked ready to go home. Kiwi and her friend, Xed said good bye to their friends and headed for their coats.

In the car, Xed said that this was the best day she has had in the US so far. I asked her how long she had been here. She said she arrived here in August. I was shocked.... I asked Kiwi if it was her best day too and she said no, that she had had many happy days. As I drove, Xed explained that her host parents were both in their 60's and had no children in the home. She said that she had been disappointed by the parents often because they do not come to things they say they will (such as her recent award banquet) and they are always late. She has not gone to anything besides school and the mall since she arrived. When we pulled into the driveway, Kiwi commented that the house was very large, Xed's only comment was that the house was so messy she would not let friends in. Xed was very polite as she got out of the car, thanking me and telling Kiwi how happy she was that they both went.

I feel very sad for Xed. She has come here all the way from Russia and it does not sound like she is having a good experience. Kiwi said that she is not allowed to use the family computer very often to speak to her parents and is not feeling very comfortable in the host house. I am so hopeful that Kiwi can say that we always made her feel like a member of the family and she has a better understanding of what an American family is because of her stay with us. We are not perfect but we do love her and we try to treat her like all of our other children. I talked to Kiwi on our way home about the situation. I told her that if she wanted to include Xed in more activities our family does to just let us know. We already have 5 kids.... what's one more?!!

Dyslexic's untie!!

I am wondering why I decided to put myself through the "Biggest Loser" contest at school. I am not a fan of the show and I never win this type of thing anyway. I guess I sort of look at it as a donation... and a chance to join in with the in-crowd! The school nurse is in charge of the weigh in's for everyone and I now truly believe she is dyslexic. I have nothing against her or her stupid scale that reads down to the 10th of a pound. She is actually an excellent choice to do the weighing.... she is taking her role as weigh-in(er) very seriously and is no light weight herself, so I like her.... but her dyslexia will be an issue for me. 

I read the scale the first week as XX9.3# (please I am not really telling!!) She read it as XX3.9.... wouldn't matter except today when I weighed in it was XX4.5.... I am doing a little happy dance to myself in the clinic bathroom because I am thinking... "A loss, way to go!!" My mental dance was stopped short when the nurse said, "Cough up a dollar for the gain!"  "What?!!" I ask, indignantly. No, my math isn't great.... but come on!!! She shows me last weeks number, and sure enough she wrote down 3.9. I have been eating like a rabbit and exercising like it was going out of style and I GAINED 1/2 a pound!!!!! I am positive what the number said, but also believe that she was right to stand by her written chart, since she is in charge. So as I told Megamom today, I think I am headed down the right road to be the "Biggest Gainer!!"

Ok, so in my mind I lost 4.8# this week... but I'll try not to pout too much and I'll pay the damn dollar!!!! :) 

Aunt Dorothy

Ok, so Aunt Dorothy isn't really my aunt... but that is what I have always called her. She is actually my grandfather's twin sister. Aunt Dorothy was always very sickly. I remember as a child being led into a quiet room during family gatherings where aunt Dorothy would be. All of us kids would go in one or two at a time and be told to talk to Aunt Dorothy and say good bye. We had to go in with the knowledge that it was probably going to be the last time we'd ever see her. She always talked to us like we were all that mattered to her. She remembered little details... like what instrument we played or what books we liked to read, the kinds of details that other adults did not recall. I really liked her... but she scared me a bit because she seemed so breakable.

Well, its many, many years later and Aunt Dorothy sent me a letter. She sends things to me every once in awhile, just to keep in touch. Things like my mother's baptism record and pictures of my mom and uncles as a child. The letter was on real pretty colored stationary with a matching envelope... I thought that was cool. She wrote to me saying how much she missed seeing me, Pepper and all the kids (she named them all!) at the holiday gathering that our family had that I decided to skip this year. She also sent photo's of the party. There were lots of people in the pictures I hadn't thought about in a long while. I was disappointed that I missed seeing my cousin Kelly. I haven't seen her since her mother's funeral.... I was named after Kelly's mom. My Uncle Larry was there too, from Georgia. He is looking older. My favorite memories of him were watching him dive off the roof at family reunions into the pool... and his famous super-duper butt flip off our diving board that was always amazing! That was the fun, young Larry. The current Uncle Larry isn't as fun... he irks me every year when he sees Pete and Dill and asks who they are. Every year I tell him they are my sons and he loudly says, "You never gave birth to any kids." When I say, "Well, you didn't either!" I get to hear the fun, young Uncle Larry's laugh so I try to ease up on how agitated he can make me.

At the end of Aunt Dorothy's letter she thanked me for the written update in our Christmas card (Pepper wrote it this year) and told me how lucky my family and I were to have each other. Yeah, I am. I shouldn't be so hard on my relatives... there are lots of them I do like. I plan to go to the next family gathering... even though I know Uncle Larry still won't remember my kids!  Grrr....

Out for Mexican with Germans

Last night Dad B took the family out to dinner. He had a guest from Germany staying with him for a few days and wanted Boris to meet his family. Dad B met Boris online, they are both into comic books and have been online buddies for about three years. Boris had to come to Chicago for work then had a couple days to drive over and meet Dad B. For days we had been teasing Dad B that Boris was probably an axe murderer.... well known in Germany. We were all surprised that Dad B was letting Boris stay at their house.... no one more surprised than Dad D!!

Boris was very nice. Probably in his mid-20's. He spoke english very well and smiled a lot. I liked him. We also kept teasing Kiwi that they should become engaged. After all, they are both from Germany!  Dad B kept telling Kiwi that it was an old world custom that he choose the groom for our exchange student.... and that he should get a goat as the dowery. Goat? Heck, I'd want a BMW!!! Kiwi was not very amused but they were both very good about the teasing during dinner.

Boris is headed back to Germany today.... it was nice to have met him.

Family Party

Had a big family party at the house today to celebrate January birthdays. Dill and Kiwi had more celebrations... and gifts. Pepper did not think her parents were coming. Dad hurt his back and was not feeling well, but Mom called this morning and said they were going to make it. Pete had a friend over and Dori's boyfriend and Mom were here. Dad D's parents and sister came with her kids. Uncle K and Aunt L came. Pepper's brother and partner was here... So there were lots of people at the house. 

Couple funny stories.... 

Kiwi and Dill were standing in the kitchen with the cake. Everyone was gathered waiting for the candles to be lit. Aunt L lit Dill's pretty quickly... he had 7. But Kiwi's 17 candles took a little more effort to light. She had just finished lighting all the candles and said "Ok, all set" meaning that we could all start singing "Happy Birthday" Kiwi thought Aunt L meant it was ok to blow them out.... so she did. Aunt L's face was priceless when she realized she was going to have to re-light all the candles! (Dill blew his out too once Kiwi did!!)

Dori's boyfriend Ned and Ned's Mom came to the party. Once they left Uncle K said that Dori needed to thank him because he did not scare Ned. (He teasing told everyone that he was going to say that if Ned hurt Dori he wasn't afraid to GO BACK to prison) Dori said, "Ned doesn't scare easily." Uncle K came back quickly with "Obviously, he is dating you!!"

The party was very nice. Dad D made a great cake with Mario and Yoshi racing around on it. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves... even if they loved picking on me about our chilly, drafty house. (Dad D's sister had to show everyone she was wearing long underwear and two pairs of socks!!) Next year we should celebrate January birthday's in August... of course they will all still complain because we don't have air conditioning!!  :)

very disappointed....

The Biggest Loser group at school has become the Amazing Race. Our walking group is no longer fun. What kills me is I was going to quit. I had already decided that they were pushing too hard and were not interested in what I wanted.... nice conversation, a tension release from the hectic school day and a little time with friends. I know I am not a fast walker. I know everyone could "lap me" if they wanted... today they proved it. We had 4 new people join the group today. They had been talking about joining us for a few days and finally did. They said they were worried that we went too fast and that they would not be able to keep up... I foolishly assured them that it would not be a problem. Skip, Megamom and Pepper decided that it was no longer a club but an all out opportunity to haul ass and took off at top speed. Three of the new people and I continued at our normal pace, but it was obvious that we belonged on the short bus of the group. I really doubt any of them will feel comfortable joining the group again. I am really disappointed about that. I am also disappointed that I was even talked into coming back into the group. Skip, Megamom and Pepper all told me when I said I was quitting that they missed me and really liked having me in the conversation. Well they sure did not show it today.

I thought the goal of our walking club was to encourage each other and be supportive. I feel so let down. I hope my friends feel proud of their walking accomplishments, because all they did was make me feel like crap... discouraged and left out.

Dill's Winter Program

We went to Dill's winter concert tonight. It is so cute what the music teacher could get the kids to do. Clapping their hands, waving their arms, spinning around on the risers in different directions. It really was a nice little show. Its great to go to these thing too. There were about 100 kids in the program and probably over 200 people in the audience watching. It was weird thinking that in 11 more years these kids would be graduating with Dill. The class of 2020. It sounds far off, but I think it will be here very quickly.

Pepper joined her schools Biggest Loser Contest. She is looking at all the labels on our food to decide which things are now edible (meaning worth their points). She is depressed about how fattening her beloved Carmel Lattes are. Our evening ice cream is now being replaced with popcorn and we've probably seen our last pizza for awhile. I am actually glad we are revamping things... it is time to get more serious about being healthy. I guess I should eat better so I can keep up with the walking club. They keep upping the number of laps we are doing... I am pretty sure they don't really like me and are trying to kill me!! They try to trick me by not saying how many laps we are on and chatting to keep me distracted... but I am on to them!! :)