Stone Fox

Me: How was school today?
Dill: Ok, but I can’t read the book I want to.
Me: Why couldn’t you read what you wanted?
Dill: Because I am only in the “O” reading group and it’s a “P” group book.
Me: What book?
Dill: Stone Fox. It is about a dog sled race across the snow. There is a dog that ends up dying, that part is sad; but the boy who is trying to win the race to help his grandfather wins, so that part is happy.
Me: Wow, so it’s a good book?
Dill: Yes. If I were a Director that is the book I’d turn into a movie.
Me: Do you want to be a director when you grow up?
Dill: No.
Me: How do you know so much about the book?
Dill: oh…. I read it last year.

First student: Teacher! Look how big I am now.... I weigh 62 degrees!
Second student: Are you learning metric?

The Car Radio

Choosing a radio station in the car is always a challenge when there are lots of kids in the family. When I was always the driver it made sense that the driver (or Pepper in the shot gun spot) got to select the music. Now that we have teenage drivers and we are starting to let them use the radio while they are driving, it is getting more challenging. I really do not like rap or super slow or screamo stuff... in fact my favorite is no music at all. But... sometimes we scan through the stations and try to find a station everyone likes. So one day, Macy was driving and Pepper was scanning through looking for a station. Music started playing and suddenly Macy yells out, "Stop... I approve of this station!" I was sitting in the middle row, next to Dill. At the word "Stop!" I had braced for impact and threw my arm in front of Dill spilling his Lego people everywhere (to try to protect him from whatever was headed toward us!) Ahhh, the joys of living with new drivers! :)

Youth Hunt

This weekend was youth hunt. That means that only youth age 10-18 can have a firearm and go deer hunting. Pete got his first deer. He was in a tree stand with a friend from church. The two had decided to give it 5 more minutes because football was starting soon.... and Pete saw 3 deer coming into sight on the far left.

He got one. An excellent shot. Today we spent a few hours learning to process it (next time I think I will pay to have that job done!) and we now have 30+ pounds of venison in the freezer. Pete can't wait to head out again. Lexi, Jay's daughter says she's going to get one too.... Pete says bring it on! We definitely have a hunter in the family! :)

The ATM

A friend of mine was at the ATM and discovered $11,000.00 more than she expected in her account. She was quite shocked to see the huge balance on her receipt and did not know what to do. Since it was after hours and the bank was not open, she smiled, held her receipt up and calmly explained to the video camera attached to the ATM machine that the error had been made. It may surprise you to know that no one inside the little ATM box responded. ☺

Many Choices

One thing about having a foreign exchange student living with you is that you notice things that you could normally just take for granted. For instance, Americans like choice. If they are presented with one of something often the first question will be, “What else ya’ got?”

This was noticeable for the first time when we took KC to the mall to find a case for her phone. We went to the kiosk and the man saw what kind of phone she had and began pulling rows and rows of cases down for KC to look thru. By the time the man flew all around his kiosk there must have been 60 differently decorated cases for KC to choose from. She ended up not buying any, there were just too many options for her European mind.

Next we went to Target (this is Pepper’s favorite store… we go here a lot) to find shampoo and conditioner for KC. She could not believe that two rows of the store contained just shampoo and conditioner. For the sake of personal hygiene and some help from Pepper, KC did make a selection this time.

Tonight, KC is cooking dinner for the family. She told us that it is not a traditional Danish dish, but one she has made before and really likes. We went to Meijer’s for the ingredients… with the recipe her mother emailed her in Danish. There were a few challenges like going from metric grams to ounces and pounds, but the two of us figured that out like champs (and good guessers). There were also some linguistic challenges like finding spices… she translated one to “ther-ree-me” As a speech therapist I am a little embarrassed at how long it took me to figure out she meant thyme. She also had an ingredient listed called “sweet chili powder” which I could not find anywhere at Meijer’s. KC decided to just use regular chili powder and we’d get a little ‘kick’!

When we got to the noodle aisle, KC saw a package of “wide egg noodles” as we rounded the corner. It was in the gourmet section and they were called “Amish Kitchen” which is a brand I had never tried. (We go for the Meijer brand, what I have a coupon for or what is on sale) We put the over priced little devils into the cart and then KC looked down the aisle. Her jaw dropped. She could not believe that there were so many options. She read one box that said: egg noodles. She said, “Aren’t ALL noodles egg noodles?!” So we walked along and I showed her the spinach noodles and the tri-colored noodles and the gluten-free noodles….. not to mention all the space and size varieties. We ended up just sticking with the over-priced Amish ones and moved on.

I am looking forward to this new dish, it will be great to have the kids all critique something someone else cooks! I’ll let you know how it all turns out. ☺

Funeral Discussions…

I went to my Grandmother’s funeral yesterday. Quite a few people were present considering she was 95 years old and she attended a lot of her closest friends and family’s funerals already. There were a lot of family and people I knew growing up that I probably really won’t see much anymore because she is gone. Funerals are sad. The place smelled like flowers and Leafshine (the stuff florists use to make plants look healthy) and the room was very sterile and bare with several chairs pushed up against the walls around the room. My Grandmother’s coffin was beautiful with gold and painted flowers and she looked very peaceful in her purple dress and simple wedding band.

There were lots of discussions and updates that people were sharing… including the fact that a certain speech therapist cousin of mine is pregnant (But shhh….. she doesn’t want anyone to know!) BTW… speech therapist cousin: everyone KNOWS! ;) Here were some of the best things I heard or overheard….

Aunt N has a fantastic British accent. My sister, who is in sales said she wished she had that accent because people with accents can sell anything. Aunt N. said (in her fantastic british accent) “Oh I know deary, the problem has always been that I must believe in something to be able to sell it. A long time ago I sold Mary Kay and this woman wanted to buy several hundreds of pounds worth of the stuff. I looked at her plain face and just had to tell the poor girl that it would do nothing to help her.”

Uncle L was up for a visit one Christmas from Georgia to visit Grandma. As they rode up in the elevator to see her, Uncle L carried a large box wrapped in Christmas paper. Uncle R was carrying nothing. Uncle L asked, “What did you get Mom?” Quickly, Uncle R responded, “A plane ticket to Georgia.”

My cousin was telling her kids about a time she and I went camping in our Grandparents new RV. We were probably about 12 years old and my Grandmother asked us to use the RV commode for peeing only because the tanks had to be emptied and she did not want them to get dirty. (There were flush toilets in the campground she asked us to use if we needed to) At the luncheon following the funeral, my cousin confessed that it was her that used the RV bathroom for more than peeing and how terrified she was on the whole trip that Grandma would find out.

My Uncle R was talking about a visit to my Grandmother when she was feeling down. She spent about 15 minutes talking about how tired she was and useless and un-necessary. She cried and said God was punishing her by keeping her alive and in the nursing home. My uncle barely hesitated for a minute before saying, “Mom, did you ever think that maybe God was keeping you here to punish ME?!” Grandma couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

Following the funeral, we all went over to my Grandmother’s place to see if there were any items we wanted to keep. My sister got my Grandmother’s Grandfather clock and loaded it into the back of her pick up truck. Everyone left at the same time, in his or her own vehicle. Uncle L caught up to my sisters truck so he could hang out the window as they drove down the road yelling to her, “Ya got the time?!!” :)