Saturday

In half an hour we will leave for the exchange student orientation at the home of the local rep, so this should be interesting. E is excited to meet the other students and I am curious to see what the other families are like. One is a single man, and the other is a couple without children of their own. Their student is only here for a half-year, so there will only be two students remaining after the end of January.

My ear is healing slowly, at least it isn't itching as much, and I am continuing to worry about the spot on my face. I hope to get a good report, as the dermatologist predicted, but I happened to notice a spot of brown in the middle of the excavation site. I checked my invoice, and it reads "shave exc" which I guess means shave excision, so he just scooped it out. I'm not sure if he left some because he wasn't concerned about it being anything, or if he left part of one thing and removed all of the other, because he did say they were a couple of different things in one place. But as usual, I will panic myself until I hear from him.

I suppose it's good that I didn't hear yesterday, but if he wasn't concerned, he may not have put a rush on it. And if I hear good news, ::knock wood:: I can find something else to worry about.

Yesterday Megan and E went to Six Flags with an old friend and classmate of Megan's. They had a good time, but they didn't get to go on a few of the coasters because they were either closed or had ridiculously long lines. Maybe they can go back for FrightFest at some point. I'm sure E will start to make her own friends and schedule some of her own activities once school starts anyway.

Brian is also getting anxious for school to start. He is running out of things to do this summer and hasn't really been being terribly social lately. I just hope that he can focus better on the schoolwork this year; if he doesn't, I intend to get a complete evaluation done, so I can have some professional guidance as to which areas might need special attention. He'll be doing swim team this year, and also playing baseball, and that coach schedules and changes practices as if nobody else has any other obligations. It can be really difficult. I'm a little concerned about overscheduling Brian, but we've tried the other route already, scheduling almost nothing, and that was not successful.

Brian's group at church also enters the first of the two-year progam that turned me off when Megan participated. Add to that that they are restructing the classes and have made a good friend of mine one of the leaders of Brian's group, which admittedly I find a little awkward.
What I didn't like with Megan was the focus on fundraising for the 'pilgrimage' to England, which just comes at such busy times, and I didn't send Megan, so I may also not send Brian. This tends to be an unpopular decision, and his group has been better structured and run throughout the years, so it promises to put me in an uncomfortable position for sure. I have to determine if participating in the group brings a benefit to him of some sort; otherwise I would stop sending him to the classes, and just take him to church and let him keep doing his volunteer jobs. Then next year, he'll have to take part in the grueling confirmation class, which is separate, but together with that same group.

In other news, Kevin has been back to work for one full week now. He is already talking about trips to Orlando, Norway, Finland, and who knows where else. We're trying to figure out how we are going to work the Christmas holidays with visitors from out of town and Megan's presumed training trip, which hasn't been announced yet. In fact, they still haven't even posted the schedule of winter meets, which makes it difficult to plan anything for the rest of the year.

Yawn!

Well, I am exhausted ... I don't know how E is keeping her eyes open!

Her plane ended up landing at 5:19, just 2 1/2 hours late. Megan and I went to the airport and Kevin and Brian went to stake out a spot at the concert, and good thing they did, because it ended up selling out and it was packed!

E cleared customs in record time, she was out in just about 40 minutes, and we rushed to the car and then I got lost. It worked out well though, I ended up on Route 1/9 and I bet I avoided some rush hour traffic on the Turnpike, because we hit it on the Parkway when I finally found it. Then we came to a grinding halt in concert traffic, and we would probaby still be in it, if not for the advice of a friend, who said bypass it, turn around, and get into PNC from the other direction. I wish that advice had come 30 minutes sooner!

Anyway, I parked the car in a ditch and we had a bit of a hike to the complex, but it wasn't too bad. We totally missed Cheap Trick because of the traffic, but we caught the end of the Heart, and they were pretty good. Just ask the 80,000 lesbians who came out of the woodwork to watch them! Journey was pretty good, but Heart may have been the best. I was just glad we got out of the parking lot with hardly any trouble. My ditch was located right next to the entrance to the parkway south.

In other news, tomorrow is our appointment with the guidance counselor, at 10am. I must get to bed now! Just wanted to throw out a quick update in case anyone was wondering.

And She's ... Delayed

So far, the plane has not taken off. This is the worst day so far! Even the day that the plane was late, it took off an hour and a half late. Even yesterday it did that and was still relatively on time. I can't imagine why, the plane was on time to Denmark last night, maybe a little delayed, but that seems to have been its way. But this morning, I woke up and checked, at 7:30 our time, so 1:30pm their time. According to the SAS website, the plane is not going to take off for two more hours!!!

So, such is my punishment for risking the concert tickets. Another flight tracking site says it will take off at 2:15, which is in half an hour. So I'll go out and water the shrubs and just hope that by the time I get back in, she will at least be airborne. I guess technically we really only need to get to the concert by 7, I don't think they close the gates if you're late, but ... grr!! Now I have to see if we send someone to the concert, like Kevin and Brian, to hold us a pretty good spot on the lawn, or if we just take the chance and all of us show up late. I guess we'll wait to see what the actual arrival time will be. As of now, SAS estimates 3:44.

Kevin is checking the airport information, and the other flight that leaves at the same time (for DC) left on time. So, what is the problem? I'd be a wreck being on that flight, in light of the recent airliner news out of Spain. The plane that was involved in that crash was actually owned by SAS, according to Kevin.

I hope E is not totally exhausted and unable to make it to the concert! We'd have to give the tickets away in the parking lot. :-O

Anyway, in other news, I still have not totally cleaned the house, but as I expected I would do, I convinced myself that it's best to get it presentable, but not spotless, so she knows what she's in for right from the start. I also need to make some phone calls, to try to line up some housecleaners for the school year. I can't let it go as I like to do, if I have someone else living in the house! I spent yesterday taking Megan to a store that someone had given her a gift card to, and she roamed around for 45 minutes, unable to find anything, all the while texting people who were sending her their schedules for school. We had to rush home after that so she could see hers. She was happy with it, or as happy as one can be when one has geometry, pre-calc and chemistry every day. Afterwards I went to the doctor because I messed with a small bump behind my ear and it grew to three times its size. I self-diagnosed it as a sebaceous cyst that needed antibiotics and the doctor took one look at it, and gave me some. On the drive home, I got a migraine in the car wash.

Stay tuned for updates.

E Minus 1

So it is our last day with just the four of us. Megan has some summer reading to finish up, and also a chemistry packet (they have a test on the third day of school, they had to teach all of this to themselves over the summer), and Brian has baseball tonight at 6. I've been following the SAS flight that goes back and forth to Copenhagen, and it was on time on Monday, but over an hour delayed yesterday. This morning, it was an hour and a half late landing in Denmark, but was still scheduled to take off on time, in fact to land three minutes ahead of schedule this afternoon in Newark. Not sure how, as it seems to have taken off 40 minutes late. Tailwinds? But we will keep watching.

We survived Megan's gala last night, the kids had a good time. A police car even drove by at one point, and didn't take anyone into custody, as far as I know. There wasn't even much of a mess to clean up, just some cups out by the pool and a bunch of leftover junk food.

We ended up getting Megan an LCD flat panel TV for her room. Then I was able to move her old one into E's room. A problem has arisen, of course. First, the LCD TVs are best when they get their signals through cable boxes. We have this one directly linked to the cable. Second, we thought her old TV had an inferior picture, but in the other room, it does not. However, the brand new LCD does! So obviously it's a problem with the cable in her room. But we'll work that out. It's a nice TV.

So the plans for today are up in the air. We are still considering a visit to the Old Folks Home in Philadelphia, but that's looking less and less likely as time goes by. Megan wanted to go, to be trapped in the car for 3-4 hours, so she might finish up that reading. She isn't enjoying The Devil in the White City very much. Reading comprehension is not her strength, and this one is very full of detail, apparently. They were all complaining about it yesterday.

In other news, the two main floors of the house, and the main bathroom, are now respectable. That just leaves the three other bedrooms (E's is fine, the door is closed to protect it from roaming cats), the hallway and the master bath. That won't take long. We plan to leave for the airport tomorrow at 1, unless the flight ends up being severely delayed. Which it had better not!

15 Candles

Well, this is it. I am officially over the hill. The Doll took Megan out shopping for her birthday, not lunch since she still feels toothless, and I happen to notice the card. It said, "Happy 15th." And I thought, "No! That just can't be."

But it is. Fifteen years ago this moment, I was in the labor and delivery 'recovery' area at Winthrop University Hospital, being fed pound cake by a woman who had tortured me for hours leading up to that moment. Her name was 'Fitzy'.

And so Megan is 15. I have no card for her, and no present! We don't know what to get her, although we have tossed around a few ideas. Luckily, part of being 15 is sleeping until 2:00 in the afternoon, so I have time to sneak out and get something, at least a card. Plus she is having a few friends over later on to swim and have pizza. Which is why this was the only day with 'isolated thunderstorms' in it for the week.

Today also marks our second-to-last day as a family of four. I can't help but think how strange it must be for E, to be at home in Denmark thinking, "today is my second to last day living here, until next summer!" She is getting excited. I'll be happy when we have her schedule set on Friday, then I will feel like all of her ducks are finally in a row.

The sports physical form totally confused her, and of course, I can't begin to tell her about the ridiculous visit we had to the school. I decided to stop by to pick up the packet that I would need to register her. While there, we encountered much idiocy. First, we met the secretary, who tries to be helpful, but really doesn't check with the right people before telling us what we have to do. So I was told I have to have ANOTHER form notarized, to state that E is not our legal child, but that she is living with us, we take responsibility, and to prove our residency in the township. Note here that I also will require two proofs of residency AFTER I have this notarized, which, in order to do, I must present a notary with two proofs of residency. Also remember that I have two children in the district, and I have already submitted piles of paperwork and notarized documents in order to obtain board approval in the first place.

In this district, every endeavor is a clear case of the right hand not knowing what the left is doing. Only it is actually more like the pinky finger doesn't know what the ring finger is doing.

But then they told us that there was a notary in the main office, and she could probably do it on the spot. Excellent. I'll fill in another form, if it means I don't have to drive to the bank and wait for a notary to finish filing her nails. But the woman said no, she didn't want to do it. She said we should go to the bank, where the people actually know who we are and where we live. Huh? What? What bank does she think we go to? Mickey's Main Street Savings and Loan, where everybody knows your name? But off to the bank we did go, and coincidentally, I did know the notary, but that had nothing to do with her working at the bank, our kids are in school together.

And now we're ready. We also found out that E's guidance counselor is NOT the swim coach, but a nice older man who knows his stuff, but has a hearing problem. Like when his phone rang, he looked around and said, "is that mine? oh! it is!" But he also offered to come in just to meet with us at 10am Friday. Which was nice.

The guidance counselor also told us that the schedules are being mailed out tomorrow, which was of interest to Megan, but he answered a few questions and read us her brutal schedule, which starts with honors geometry and ends with honors chemistry, with the teacher she had hoped not to get (but expected to, he teaches all but possibly one section of the chemistry honors classes). She was also disappointed because she had hoped to have the old swim coach for History, and she got someone else. We also met her new guidance counselor (the old one retired) and he seemed very nice.

In other news, I did not accomplish much around the house yesterday. I really need an incentive, and having a house full of kids tonight will provide that. I'll focus on the downstairs today while Kevin puts the bathroom back together, and then tonight, to keep me busy, I'll straighten up the upstairs. Megan actually has a lot of summer reading and work to finish up, and I suggested she might want to do this before E gets here - although E will have summer work of her own, I don't think they exempt her because she 'just found out' . Megan wants to go to the beach, since it's her birthday, but I told her that once you're 15, it's the hard-knock life for you.

Let the Rains Begin

Megan is off to her beach practice, being driven by the Favorite Boy's sister. So of course, the skies are opening up and great rolls of thunder are booming. I had volunteered Kevin to drive everyone home (she went straight from the beach club) so that he could get a video of their drill where they all look like the Ants from 'A Bug's Life' when they march around and encounter a leaf. It doesn't look like this will work out for tonight. Or maybe it will. One never knows with the weather these days.

As evidenced below, the guest room is finally ready for E. I bought that giant pillow and fleece throw today at Kohl's with my 20% off coupon, which I later handed to the man behind me, who was sorry that he had thrown his away. I was disappointed not to have been handed the one by the woman in front of me, who had gotten a 30% scratch off coupon! I only got that once, and I lost it.

Kevin is still "on vacation.".He had to build the dresser and desk for E's room, and hang the mirror and corkboard. He also has to hang the same mirror in Megan's room, but we need to rearrange a bit first. The next project is painting the bathroom, and he is still on call for the Doll. I'm not sure what she wants him to do, but it involves her computer and a phone line.

However, she is not well. He is on vacation, so she has a malady; it never fails. First of all, her dog has a UTI. Now to her. She has been talking about something with teeth for so long that I have no idea what she is talking about. I thought it was cosmetic, but now it seems that several teeth are having root canals. Let me just preface my next statement by saying that when she first moved here, I told her who my dentist was and she said her dining-out friends said that he was terrible, and cost one of them a tooth. Now, she has been through several dentists in four years.

So she is having these root canals, and her teeth are always in pain. She has been back to this dentist so many times and it keeps getting worse. They give her drugs, and she is also taking other drugs; of course all of these drugs make her sicker. She called this morning, asking for a ride to the "specialist" (hmm: endodontist? shouldn't one start there in the first place for root canal?) some time today. We made sure we were available, and didn't go far from a phone all day. At 3:30 she called and said she would like to go tomorrow, so I told her that the morning would be fine. It's Megan's last day volunteering at the school, and we'll be around. So 15 minutes later she calls back and says they're not in our town tomorrow, they're 20 minutes away, and her appointment is at 2:15. Typical.

And as for Kevin, remember the blackberry drama? How it was to be turned off for the two weeks? Then it wasn't, but he could only email people at his level or higher. Well, the email has been going on and off all week. Today, someone sent him an email complaining about one of his employees, who does have a poor work ethic. Kevin forwarded the email to his boss. Or so he thought. He actually forwarded it to the unethical employee. Which sort of makes them even from the time this employee accidentally copied Kevin on an email he sent out trying to get himself another job. That'll teach Kevin to work on his vacation.

In other news, I called the school yesterday to try to get an appointment to register E, and the secretary hasn't gotten back to me in two whole days now. Sigh, more of the same. I don't know what it is with this district. There is no huge rush, but she's going to have to get through her summer reading in almost no time at all, and I don't know if she will be able to get on a sports team, either. Also, I don't know if her medical information will be sufficient. I might have to take her to our pediatrician to get the forms approved by a local doctor. Anyway, I did send her the pictures of the room, so maybe I'll hear from her soon. She's been emailing back and forth with Megan now, as it should be. One more week!

One More Week!

Hard to believe, in just one week from tomorrow, E will arrive. I tried calling the school today, and the secretary never got back to me. She gave me a whole list of things I am supposed to provide, hard to believe I really need to do all of this, but then she never got back to me anyway, so I don't really know what that is all about but more of the nonsense this district puts people through. I have time. Eventually I will get an appointment, and we'll go in, probably the week after next, when Kevin goes back to work.

Brian has been off all summer from his piano lessons, but he had one today. A few minutes after the teacher left, the doorbell rang .. it was him. He had taken out our mailbox, but good, on his way out of the driveway. Sigh. So there is another job for Kevin, once he paints the bathroom, hangs the mirrors for E and Megan, and hangs the corkboard in the spare bedroom. Oh, and connects the phone or something in his mother's apartment. I don't really understand what that is all about. Anyway, that was our excitement for the day.

In other news, Megan had her beach practice and they had to go in the water. she said it was all full of jellyfish, but none stung her. Maybe that will help her get over her fear and do some more ocean swims! We stopped at Applebee's for some dinner on the way home. I always like to go there because they have my favorite wine and a weight watchers menu. Then everyone else orders horrible things, and I feel bad. I should really stipulate that we all MUST order light foods.

Life After C

Well, life is back to "normal". The house is a mess, and the laundry is always all over the dining room table again. Puff has spent the entire morning outside of her lair for two straight days now. I guess she senses that she has the house back, even though C never troubled her at all, in fact would not have even if he HAD been able to set eyes on her.

Last night we had a swim meet and we LOST! I'll post the video of Megan when I get it uploaded from the camera. It isn't the sort of video she usually likes me to post of her swims ;-) (heehee) Anyway, we really shouldn't have lost this meet. We have not lost to this team in at least the nine years that we have been with the team. It was a combination of the other team having some strong swimmers, and our team making up the meet sheets more to let everyone have a turn to swim than trying to win the meet. I think perhaps we underestimated them; they have never even come close to beating us (or, for that matter, practically anyone else!)

So we will be there for one more meet, tomorrow's, assuming the rains clear before it starts. I hope so, because next week we will be away if they have to make it up. We're also missing the only sure loss of the season (irrelevant, now that we have two additional losses) because of Y Nationals in Maryland.

As I began to type this up, I had a call from the exchange student agency. The rep informed me that she has placed two other students in the area, a boy from Sweden (a senior) and a girl from Germany, who is also 15, like E. She is going to have an orientation at her house for the students and their families, some time in late August, I suppose. So, that should be another interesting experience. One host family has no children, and the other is just a single man. Megan thinks we will be the "coolest" ones there. I said, yeah - as long as you don't act dorky.

But in other news, I am still waiting for the rains to come, but from the boom-boom-booms, I would say they are on their way. Brian is doing a baseball camp this week, which will be cancelled perhaps in case of extreme rains. Wait, strike that, that was way too much booming. I think it might be fireworks. Either that or I'm heading to the basement! More later. Video to follow.

Talking, and the Time of Your Life

He talked! He screamed! He danced around!

The day did not start out so well. I was discouraged and counting the days. Then we had a turning point (which I won't go into here) and C came out of his shell a bit. He also called home, which seemed to cheer him up. I would expect he would ask if he wanted to do this, but I guess if you don't talk, you don't ask. And then the rains left and I got an idea to try the waterpark, despite the questionable forecast. I couldn't see any more clouds on the radar and thought we'd at least be good or an hour or two of the three hour session; and surely any camps would have rescheduled their trips if they had planned them for the day.

The plan could not have gone better. Patrick et al ended up coming along with us as well, and although C says he has been to a waterpark before, I am not really sure if he has. He went with Brian up all the big slides, and coming down he'd just be a huge display of teeth. They ran from slide to slide, climbing billions of steep staircases with barely a wait at all, and then C split his time playing in the back on the gentler rides with Patrick. The park, which was practically empty to begin with, was closing at 5:30 for a private party, so although our wristbands were for 3 hours only, and should have expired at 5, they didn't bother to throw us out until they closed the park at 5:30. And then we did the go-karts again. I even let Brian go on this time, and he loved it too. It was much tamer than the other time, only the four of our kids, and then one man with a small child in his car.

Megan had practice, so we came home and C and Brian played video games while I made baked ziti. Now they are still asleep, of course, but I must wake them all up, because today is the day that C is going to try swim team practice at the beach club; and, perhaps, a race in the meet tonight. Megan is not going to the meet. She is going to a concert with four Chinese girls. But, says the mom of one, don't worry. They don't speak Chinese ALL the time ... more later.

In other news, E has left for a ten day vacation, so we won't be hearing from her for a while. I left a message at the school, trying to find out what they want me to do as far as bringing her in in August. Also, an electrician I had spoken to in June, who insisted he wanted to do the job of installing back yard post lighting for us, seems to now be avoiding my calls, and I have lost his cell phone number. I left him another message on the work phone yesterday. I am really annoyed, not because we can't get the work done, but because I would have returned the lights I bought for $300, had I known there wasn't anyone interested in doing the job. Oh, and we are getting a new roof. I don't know when that is, either, but there is a big sign out on the lawn. I asked Kevin not to schedule it for this week. That's all I would have needed, roof tiles flying everywhere while trying to manage having C in the house for ten days!

Of Moles and Men

As I slowly recovered from the sight of Brian's report card, Megan's showed up in the mail. She completed another year with nothing less than an A, and in fact, mostly A+'s. Since these are all in honors classes, they will be weighted more heavily than a regular, non-honors class would be. So when they calculate class rank in two years, this year will give her a boost. and, hopefully, she can keep it up, although she has some really tough classes next year, including honors chemistry and a second math class in addition to the required geometry.

Anyway, that was one small consolation, although not an unexpected one. And if only she could put that kind of effort into cleaning her room, or washing her face and hair, or even caring for these warts that she has on her foot, another source of angst for me. About two years ago, they were only one wart. She had a pedicure, and the wart was filed. It blossomed. I took her to the podiatrist, where we had had such luck the last time, and he started the same treatments. It seemed like they were working really well, you couldn't see anything, but he said that he could still see a small bit of it, and freezing would take care of it. So he blasted it with the liquid nitrogen, and it responded by multiplying like chipmunks. Now it is a pile of warts, and I will not go back to him. He said the next step was laser surgery to remove it.

But we have appointments at the dermatologist next month so I'll show it to him. He's very good, too. Really, they are not a problem, but they are unsightly. I have told her to try what he recommended, 'wart stick' followed by duct tape, but she doesn't like to use the wart stick because it makes them stand out more initially. So that's a saga for another day. She also has a mole on her shoulder that is looking scarier, and Brian has his large 'congenital nevus' that needs to be rechecked. I'm sure it hasn't changed, but I try to stay on top of it anyway.

The Christ Church Pilgrims left on Friday for their pilgrimage to Northumbria, England. They left without Megan, and two others from their group, but one of the two is a disabled boy so that is a different story. I have been feeling slightly guilty about not having sent her. I regularly follow a few caringbridge sites, and I am still following the page of the swimmer with the brain tumor.

This girl was an Olympic hopeful a few years ago, at the age of 15, when she was stricken with brain cancer. An initial surgery was supposed to be all it would take to halt this non-aggressive cancer, but three months later, it was back, and it was aggressive. A second surgery rendered her unable to use one side of her body effectively, and dramatically stunted her speech. Over the past few years, she has been fighting, with her parents (mostly her mother) by her side the whole way.

Through it all, she has never stopped swimming. Her father got a new job in Seattle, so they moved across the country and had to find all new doctors, friends, and schools. She continued to swim. The tumor was back and she was told there was no hope, but they found a clinical trial for her. That held the tumor at bay for quite some time, and then there was a change again. Still, she swam. Just over the past few months, she was selected to represent the US in Beijing at the paralympic trials.

Then she got sick again. One of the tumor sites (I guess) bled into her brain as a result of the radiation it received. Also at the same time, they discovered cancer cells in her brain stem. She had more surgery to clean up the bleed, and just underwent more radiation on the brain stem; it was her only hope of halting this dizziness, which had put her Olympic dreams on hold again.

Anyway, in reading this blog for the past few years, I have followed her many travels to exotic places, and read of the things she has done with her family. It all makes me feel very small and insignificant in my little world where I didn't want to allow my daughter to travel to Northern England to tour monasteries and revisit the roots of the Episcopal church. I am not so much saying that I wish I had let her go, as I think that we need to do more of these things. The Fresh Air Fund and the exchange student are a step in this direction, but we are still keeping ourselves in this little world, and part of the problem is swimming. It is so all-consuming that there is no time to live. For any of us...and for what?

Well, those are my thoughts for the day. In other news, C called us yesterday morning! All he said to me was "yes" or "no" but then he got on the phone with Brian and talked a little more. I was surprised to hear that he is only going into 5th grade, which is two years behind where he should be, which is probably not unusual, but is unfortunate nonetheless. We have still been emailing back and forth with E, but now she is off to a week-long adventure at an outdoor concert series. I hope she never asks me to allow her to do anything like this! I'll have to defer to the agency rep. I wouldn't want to allow her to do anything where she might potentially not survive! Finally, we are off to the Blue Claws game this afternoon. Our church bought a bunch of tickets, and then they were unable to sell many of them. I bought five to bring a friend for Megan, thinking Brian's group would be there anyway. But we were the only family in the group that bought tickets, and Megan couldn't find anyone to go. So it's just us, and our one extra ticket. They were only $6, so I consider it a donation to the church.

Damn those Ducks.

Not enough wine in California, I say. It's just been one of those days. I let Megan skip her beach club practice because she had two Y practices yesterday and was just worn out. I dragged Brian out of bed and took him, because he needs it. I went for my walk and was sweating bullets from the humidity. I thought I must have bullet holes in my face and blood was pouring out, but I was just sweating.

Anyway, come back to find out that between bees and lane line issues, they did a beach practice instead of a pool one. Waste of time. Then it started to rain. But at least I wasn't the one to crash my car into the seawall, as the Favorite Boy's sister did. Oh well. A lesson learned about the hood of your car being longer than you think it is.

So then our E saga continued. I realized the paper she had been sent told her almost nothing about us. She had Megan's Facebook, but that is mostly meaningless banter, plus it says she is married to someone named Michael, before that she was married to Charlie and before that Michael and Charlie were married to one another. But E doesn't know that. So I sent her a whole email telling her about the town and the school, and attached a few pictures of us, and, lo and behold, she still wants to come! So she will be here sometime between August 21 and 26. She said her original date was the 23rd, but other students are leaving on the 21 and 26, so she will travel with them if possible. I told her the 21st is better, but we will work it out no matter what. We have our physical appointments for the school sports forms on the 26th in the morning.

Oh, by the way, the board approved her enrollment last night. Now we just need an official letter.

But then, the mail came. Sigh. Oh, make it stop. In the mail was a letter from the schools. I thought it would be Brian's test scores, but worse, it was his report card. He received three C's this marking period: spanish, science, and language arts. I am so upset about this. Somehow I feel the school will not think it is worth getting this upset over, but I certainly do. Social studies was a B+, as was math; math should have been an A. I do not know what to do with this kid anymore. So I took him to baseball, and came home and poured myself the largest glass of wine that I could hold. It just never ends with him. I was expecting report cards tomorrow. And I still have the test scores to look forward to. Oh, help me, please.

Oh, yeah, and Megan's SAT2 scores were finally available online. Her friends texted her and said they got a 540 and a 560. I couldn't log in and then finally managed to. She got a 530. Not so good. The others studied and prepared more, but honestly, that is out of 800, so none of them are getting into any school based on those scores. Any school that requires an SAT2 in the first place will look for a grade of 700 or higher - perhaps even an 800. But I don't think most schools actually even require them anyway, which renders this nothing more than an exercise in test taking. The girl who got the highest score left the most blank. The others must have lost points on their guesses. Megan, rocket scientist, answered them all.

So that is that. In other news, um. Well, we have strange white bugs in the soil under one of the plants in the yard. I am going to try to trap some and take them to a garden center. Hopefully they are easily eliminated; I hope the plant will at least bloom. It looked like it had been doing so well up till now! Oh, and the shed. Kevin's shed is being delivered on Saturday. He is so excited! And the neighbors who already hate us because our pool ran water past their driveway for ten days will be really furious when they see this thing show up!! Haha!

Little Update

This morning, in my gmail, was an email! It was from E! She received by mail a piece of paper notifying her of her placement. It didn't have any of the additional information that I rushed to fill in, in fact, I think I know what it was, it was the "placement notification" form that I had to complete.

So I have written her back and she has written me again, but I have also turned her loose on Megan, and vice versa, so the two of them are Facebook friends. Since she hadn't been sent any pictures, these are the first images she is having of our world. However, the only one in those pictures who is identified is Megan, so she still has no idea what the rest of us look like.

The board meeting is scheduled for tonight, but they have lost a member. On Sunday night, one of them died. I don't see any notification on the website that they have postponed the meeting, although the wakes are today. The funeral is tomorrow, so perhaps they either went to the early wake or will adjourn from the meeting and go straight to the evening session. At any rate, perhaps I will have a confirmation on the approval by later tonight; then we can start to make plans with the school.

In other news, the beach club swim team people have helped me out a little by adding C's name to the roster, so he will be able to receive a swim team t-shirt, and practice with them, and also swim in the two meets scheduled for the week he is here (if he is so inclined). They waived the $50 charge, but I did say I would pay the guest fee if we were staying at the club. All he has to do to race is swim one lap of freestyle, so hopefully he can do that. Maybe Megan can work with him a little before the first meet. Oh, and Brian's neck seems to be better. Maybe he just slept on it wrong, or perhaps it was something to do with the cold water when he swam that morning. That was my little reality check, in case I was getting too comfortable in life, the way the ducks were lining up and all.

Summer: Day 1

My day:

Headache from two glasses of wine
No milk in the house, artificial creamer is congealed
Cat pukes three times while I drink black coffee with a headache
Megan shows up with small boy from next door before I get to vacuum the pool
Ants invade my rose planter

My accomplishments:

Ran dishwasher
Changed Litterboxes
Watered shrubs outside of fence
Did some laundry
Got rid of headache
Walked and fed dog
ate lunch
Vacuumed pool

And so it begins.

In other news today, Brian invited a new kid over, and the kid came...within a minute, they were riding their bikes up to the shopping center. Now they are at this kid's house, and nobody is home. This will NOT be the way the whole summer goes. Megan is back, and worrying about her volunteer swim lessons. Yesterday, when she went to do it, the guy asked her and the only other girl to write the names of the kids on certificates (they had to ask the kids for their names) and the other girl ditched the chore and jumped in the pool with the kids. Megan was stuck writing certificates for two hours, and nobody helped her. She's afraid she will be stuck with that again today. Oh, and our neighbor drove by and told Megan to tell me that E is on the agenda for the Wednesday meeting! Seems like it may end up happening after all!!! Stay tuned!

School's Out for the Summer!!! o/ o/

The last day! It's here and it's over! And it is beautiful outside. Brian is at a party (not much of one, thank God, I was worried about the guest list but most of the ones I worried about decided it would be too boring and didn't go) and Megan is at the Y teaching the week-long Learn to Swim lessons and then practicing afterwards. It's very quiet in the house, and Puff is even out. She just hopped down from the window, but she is ignoring me, pretending not to hear.

It was a fairly uneventful week aside from one inappropriate comment made by a 5 year old yesterday, I told the counselor about it and the little girl was sent home. Nobody really seemed too affected today, she was back and seemed as happy as could be. I hate when things like that happen on my watch, but I couldn't just ignore it.

This morning we had a brief power reduction (not quite outage) and the carbon monoxide detector was going off in the basement. I unplugged it and went out for a walk. There was a dead mouse in the driveway! I passed a fire truck responding to a call about a neighbors CO detector. I cut my walk to two miles and came home to find the dead mouse was nowhere to be seen, and the lights were back on. I put the CO detector back in the basement, and it's been fine. The only problem is that there is another chipmunk in the pool, as well as a big dark spot by the drain. Gah. I want to go sit out there and read my book, it's so beautiful out, but I don't want to scoop the munk (or munks!), but I don't want to know it's there, either.

The big news is that they have reopened one of the roads that was closed about six weeks ago in town. It was slated for these HUGE improvements, which one would assume were done to improve traffic flow. Well. I just sat in traffic for ten-plus minutes to go through a light that would normally have taken three or four at the most. About five lanes of traffic were all trying to get into one lane to make a left turn for the Parkway. Ridiculous. These people call themselves engineers and planners!?! Maybe their goal was just to make people hate that area so much that they will continue to find alternate routes, thereby cutting down on bothersome traffic in residential areas.

In other news, everything is pretty mellow for now. Megan got her letter from the summer program so we know she will be in a class with autistic kids, probably 2nd and 3rd grade or so. It should be a good class. I spoke to my board neighbor briefly this morning and she told me she is working with Dr. NoCallBack and they are "doing everything they can". I found this odd, as she had also been gung-ho about it when last we spoke.

It's like Dr. NoCallBack has some big concern, that she can't tell me about, but she tells all my supporters and then they become non-committal about the whole thing. All I know is that if they end up rejecting it, after all of the hoops they made us jump through and all their rude inattention to our messages, emails, and calls, I will be furious. Not even so much because we won't be able to host the student, but because this will have taken nearly two months, wasted the time of the two ladies at the agency, wasted my time, gotten my kids' hopes up, and, most of all, wasted the time of poor E, who has done nothing but apply for a year abroad. This is honestly the most blatant display of inefficiency I have experienced so far in this district; and if they reject her, I think I will send my letter straight to the superintendent. If there is something missing, we have not been made aware, if there is a concern, nothing has been said. They just seem content to drag it out forever, which implies that they are processing the information; but something nags at me that there is more to it than that.

A Handle on the Pulse

The blood pressure monitor arrived! It is my latest toy. I am no longer afraid I am a high blood pressure candidate although I will continue to monitor, and to try to lose ten pounds. The first reading I got was a little high - 128/75 - but the pulse was 92!!! I was afraid of myself! I took a couple more readings, a few minutes apart, and as the pulse came down, so did the BP. By the final reading, it was under 120/80 and the pulse was 78.

Megan asked me to take hers. Her pulse was low, of course, somewhere in the 50s and she had the BP to match. I had had a glass of chardonnay, which I had read can raise your blood pressure, so I was not sure what to expect. Well. My pulse was 66 and the bp was 117/70-something. Hah. The secret must be that I have to schedule all my doctor's appointments after Happy Hour.

So one mystery is solved: Megan emailed the woman from the special ed program and she is, in fact, accepted. So she will be working in the special ed classes for the summer on MWF from 8:30-12:30. That's really OK. It leaves us the entire afternoon for activities and leaves her with much less idle time. Now we just have to wait to see to which class she has been assigned.

Otherwise, the package from the exchange student agency will go out in the morning, and Dr. NoCallBack will have it on her desk by Wednesday at noon. I'll let my board President neighbor know so she can be on the lookout for it, and she will go and thumb through to try to ensure that it gets on the agenda by the 25th. And so we should have no news before then as far as that goes, but once the 25th rolls around, we will know for absolute certain if we are approved.

In other news, it's the last week of school, I spent the day with my kindergarten friends and we had a lovely time. Tonight I convinced Megan not to go to swim practice, she has her algebra and Spanish finals tomorrow, her worst day, and it's a late night for swimming tonight. Also, we were expecting violent rains. I hear the pool was closed at 7, but the storm had pretty much blown through here by the time that they were supposed to have gotten in the pool. I had Wren at the vet today for her rabies shot and he said she looks good. I was a little concerned she had gotten thin, but she was half a pound heavier than last year, so she must just be thin compared to the rest of the tub-o-lards we have around here. She was not happy with the whole experience. She managed to get herself under the towel I had put for her to sit on, and when the tech came out to call her, the receptionist said, "Wren's not here."

Friday the 13th

All in all, it was not such a bad day. First, no news from the exchange agency, so I don't even know if she has sent off the package. I need to find out, because I did my part and had the affidavit notarized, then overnighted it to the rep so she could stick it in the package. I also called my neighbor, who happens to be the president of the board, and filled her in, and she said to let her know on what day the package will arrive, and she will make a point of looking into it. I relayed this to the rep, but she hasn't gotten in touch with me at all. So I don't know if there's a hold-up, or if she just assumes I know all has gone according to plan. I sent her another mail late last night, so maybe she will answer. She is the one who is "on the ball" but sometimes she isn't that good about following up with news.

The other rep is still on vacation until the 19th. But I won't dwell on it. I'm sure we'll hear soon enough. I would have expected to have heard from E by now, so I don't know what it means that we haven't. But when I opened my link to her profile, her status showed as 'placed'. However, that's on our end. She may have a different status with the agency in Denmark; I don't know how that works.

Yesterday I just did some walking and went to buy some more orange lilies for the yard, because the ones I got last year came in so lovely this year. I only have them in one small spot, and if they were in a few, there would be splashes of color all over. So I or Kevin will have to dig them into the ground this morning. I have to spend the day housecleaning, because some of the baseball boys from the Little League team are coming over to swim at 4. Megan has to study for her midterms, which are next week, because we have the race track and the Doll's birthday dinner tomorrow, and won't be around for much of the day.

Then last night, we had to go to a swim meet at Princeton. Megan was in three events, but she scratched the 200 breast because it's not one of her stronger events and she wanted to save some strength for the 400 free at the end of the night. It worked out well because she came in second, and her time was pretty good, considering that that was the first time she's been in a 50 meter pool since last July. She came in 11th in the 200 back, she didn't really swim that so well, but again - first time in a long course pool in almost a year. Luckily, they swam the events last night from fastest to slowest, so she was in the first heat of the 400 free, which went off at 8:00. The last heat was scheduled to go off at 9, so we would have been there a whole extra hour if they had done it the way they normally do. We were out so early that we decided to stop by and surprise our friends in Princeton, so that was fun. We sat and talked with them for an hour or so before heading home.

So that was that. In other news, Kevin took Brian to the fair and he won all sorts of junk prizes, for the mere sum of $32. Brian informs me that his current score on the Spanish final is a 93 out of 102, and that is not including the written part that he took on Friday. This from the kid who had dropped to a C in the class. He told me one of the questions, it went something like this:

If Johnny likes cats and dogs, which class would he prefer:

art
something else
biology

He chose art. I am quite sure it's biology.

Anyway, Megan plans to rest and then study - she is awaiting mail from the school letting her know if she got accepted to the volunteer program at the extended year program for the special ed kids. Two other girls got their letters already, so we don't know why she didn't, other than hoping that it's just our backwoods post office. There have been other times when we get our mailings the day after everyone else, because of the ZIP code. One of the other girls does live in the same ZIP as the school, but the other does not. However, she doesn't live in our ZIP, she lives in a different one. So we will be watching the mail today.

A Little Bit of Luck

So one positive twist finally twisted: I got a call from the regional rep, the one who knows her stuff, and after talking to her I feel like everything is under control, as usual. She is going to get the affidavits on her end, and I will write up a quick letter stating that I take responsibility for E while she is with us, and should any problems arise, I will handle them and notify the agency, who will follow their protocol at that point. I can stop by the bank and have it notarized, then drop it at the district office tomorrow after my dentist appointment. Also, the local rep is going on vacation on Friday, so the regional rep will take it from here, for now.

She also said that she is going to let E know who we are, and she will have the option to refuse us (she didn't say this, I asked), of course, although the rep doesn't think this will happen, she says it never does in this part of the country; occasionally in some random desolate part of Idaho where they really only want exchange students to keep them company, but not normally in the major metropolitan areas. She first said E would have our info maybe tomorrow, but then I got another email telling me we had to give our details for background checks online (we had been waiting for approval from the school) so I just did that. I don't think it takes very long, but I don't know if it's done in less than a day. So soon we will at least be able to correspond.

The rep also told me that she found out a friend of hers is the one who got J2. J2 apparently has a boyfriend and has been asking if he can come visit (this is against the agency rules, actually) and has some other "issues". So she told me that I am better off with E anyway, despite my initial infatuation and heartbreak over losing J2.

More later. No other news.

Minor Irritant

OK, well I was mistaken. There is a board meeting on June 20. We will not have to wait until July after all. I was so irritated by all of this that I called a neighbor who happens to be the president of the board of ed this year, and explained it all to her. She said that there is a meeting on June 20 and she will do everything she can to ensure that it gets on the agenda for that meeting, as long as we have handed in all the information that has been requested.

This morning, when I opened my email, there was one from the woman at the other agency, saying that she had gotten enrollment approval. I took this to mean that she considers this as good as a verbal OK, where the woman I am dealing with has her head all in a tizzy because a few simple documents have been requested. They want three affidavits: one stating that there will be no expense to the district, another stating that the student does not expect to graduate with a diploma, and a third (from me) stating that I take responsibility for the girl while she is here.

My rep objected to the third, which concerned me. I have said it before, I am not sure she is on the ball. She doesn't always read her emails before she writes to me or calls, and she can't accomplish anything without checking first with the regional rep. I'm also a little concerned that her role is going to be so great that she will get under my skin. She keeps reminding me that she will be here for me if there is a problem, but also that she will be here if the student has any problems. I just feel like she is going to be intrusive. It's almost like she wants us to have problems, so she can get involved. She even said she will be at the airport too, when we meet the plane.

She also thought it was unreasonable for the school to want to see her proof of insurance, and I don't know why that would be a big deal either.

And that is where we stand for today. I guess I am just waiting to hear from the agency as far as if they have been able to compile all of this paperwork. I don't know why it is a big deal. If I had gone with the other agency, we would be able to correspond with our student, and to make plans. I'm not going to go ahead and get a room ready until I know someone will be living in it. After all this, the girl could still turn us down. Maybe she wanted California or something, I don't know.

Many Things are Happening!

So this afternoon, as I was playing with photobucket, I suddenly noticed that there was an email in my gmail! I looked and it was from Dr. NoCallBack!!! Of course, gmail freezes on my desktop so I had to hold my breath while I waited for it to open. All that it was was a quick note saying, thank you for your patience, and if you will review the attached and forward to my office I will submit it for board approval.

I opened the attached document, and all that was was a list of procedures apparently set forth for handling foreign exchange students in the schools, written a year ago. Some of this we have already provided, but they are asking for a few other things as well. The area rep has now also gotten involved, but she misunderstood the 'request by' date of June 19 to be the date of the voting meeting, which is in fact not until July. There are two main issues: permission from the Principal (shouldn't be a problem, I don't think) and approval of the board (I don't think this will be either, but one never knows). I'm going to email the board woman that I spoke to and just let her know that I did hear back at last, and to expect this to come up at their July meeting. I wish I could have spoken to the regional rep, she is really on the ball at all times, and makes me feel more confident that things are going smoothly. The other woman is very nice and helpful, as I said, but does not exude experience and confidence. She is the one we will deal with the entire year; but I think she will be fine for that. This is just something she never had to handle before.

So I don't know if this constitutes a verbal OK or not, but I guess I will find out about that later on tonight, when area speaks to regional. I'm still not sure the process is in confident hands, which makes us seem a little unprepared, but hopefully not enough to make a difference. I think we're on a learning curve in more ways than one. Had we had this list a month ago, we could have put it all together and sent them exactly what they needed, instead of a bunch of random information. They got more than they needed, and they're probably appalled at having to sort through it all.

So, more later. I don't know if it can be a verbal OK without the principal's permission, but he is the one who referred us to the others in the first place. So, stay tuned. They want the girl to sign the school handbook, and they can't very well ask her to do that without telling her what school it is. Also, she has the right to refuse us; so it isn't fair to ask her to commit to a school without knowing with whom she will live.

In other news, the church fair began last night and Megan wants to go there after swimming. I must get down and figure out what's for dinner, since it took me over an hour to upload the photos for the below slideshow, and then to have some back-and-forths with the exchange student issues. And tonight, I must call C!

Stop the Insanity

So we still await response from the district office. I am somewhat at my wits' end and about ready to throw in the towel, but that would be admitting defeat and giving in to the bureaucrats. I had emailed the assistant superintendent on Friday, assuming he'd see it this morning and maybe get back to me. He must have checked in last night, because he sent me a quick note telling me he had given it all to the no-call-back woman.

So again, at a standstill. I emailed him back and thanked him, but mentioned that unfortunately, she is the one who has not returned our calls for nearly a month. He replied again that he would speak to her today. I am finding this whole experience disheartening. Incidentally, I have not seen either of my kids' state test scores either, which is her supposed function, and the reason for her inattention. And I stand behind my allegation that if she is that busy, she shouldn't be leaving at 4. Too busy to even call back and let us know what the delay is? So I sent her another email and explained that if she is not going to allow this, we need to know, so we can release this student and allow her to find a tolerant and cooperative school, one that perhaps appreciates the fact that its residents pay $12,000 a year in taxes for less services than neighboring districts provide. (I did not use these exact words, but I did realize too late that I had addressed her majesty as 'Ms.' instead of 'Dr.'. I suppose that is another strike against us.)

I am just becoming more and more disgruntled. If I don't hear something today, I will contact that board member that I kept running into. She is the one who told me the board has agreed that they support these programs, and would like to see more of it. It's making me more and more regret that when we sold our house, we didn't buy a new one in an entirely different school district!

Anyway, that's that. I ignored a sub call this morning so I could get some things done. I have so far filled and started the dishwasher, gone for a walk, and walked Molly. I have just gotten out of the shower and need to pay some bills. Then I will run some errands. Meanwhile, in other news, Brian's dreaded chorus concert scheduled for tonight has been cancelled due to the heat wave. It is now scheduled for Thursday night, when Kevin will be unable to attend. This will be our last one ever, since Brian isn't going to do chorus next year because he dislikes it almost as much as I dislike going to these concerts. In order to get a good parking spot (meaning one that will not trap you in the lot for an hour once the concert has ended) and to get a seat, you must arrive an hour or more ahead of time, and then just sit in the gym. Then it becomes increasingly crowded, and tempers start to flare. Finally, by the time the concert begins, there are people lined up in the doorways and, probably, out in the hall where they can't even see. The concert itself is fine, they do a reasonably nice job. But we've watched it for four years in a row now, twice a year, and enough is just enough. At least last year, Megan was in the elite singing group and had a few extra roles. There are about 200 kids in the chorus, it's just absolutely insane.