900th blog- Welcome Falco

Falco arrived on Thursday.  He got into Chicago on Wednesday around 2 pm, then waited with the other students until 12:20 am to board a bus to come here. Their bus got in around 7 am, but I could not come to pick him up until after 11 am.  He was sitting with 4 other students when we got to the area rep's house.  Definitely, he liked the sign we made for him.  He was pretending to be one of those folks to spin signs on the side of the road to get people to come into a business.  This worked out perfectly since his name is on the welcome poster.

 

he said he was not tired, so we drove through Clifton to see the University area.  Then headed toward our area.

Oh- I forgot, we also met C.  C will be staying with us for 1.5 weeks starting on 24Aug while her host family is out of the country.  She seems pretty nice. She is not pictured.  I will have to get a picture of her and Falco on Saturday.

Rocket and I were thirsty so we stopped to get a drink and Falco and I were hungry, so we got some food too.  This is a local hamburger place "big boy". 

Falco's first American hamburger.  I felt very bad for him, he was so cold.  Apparently the bus was super cool and then the restaurant was cold.  But, I think he will adjust to the air conditioning.  He did comment that it was very hot outside.  yesterday the temperatures felt like 100 F (40 C) and it is supposed to be even hotter this weekend. Of course, it is also very humid, so it makes it even worse when you go outside.  Even Pablo does not want to go outside right now.

After eating, we had to waste some time before the school enrollment office opened, so we went to the library and got Falco a library card.  We showed him the music area and the DVD area.  We were able to contrast the difference between his city library and ours.  The biggest difference is that I had to sign for him to be able to check out any materials (versus only allowing him to check out books, or only juvenile materials). We also commented that there are only 4 libraries in his city.  I think we  have 22 branch libraries.  I can't wait to see his and C's reaction to the downtown (main) library. We went to the school office next and waited quite a long time to be seen, but our portion was very quick and he is now registered.  Hopefully, the guidance counselor will call on Monday so we can go pick classes for him.

 

He said he was still not tired, although he had been up almost 48 hours, so we headed to the fabric store to get some fleece so I could make him a quick blanket.  I figure he will be cold here at least until the fall when I turn off the AC.  After this, we headed home to let him unpack. 

 

He is searching through his suitcases for the gifts he brought.  He brought me a cookbook and I have already looked through and seen so many foods I remember from my childhood.  I think my sister is going to be happy to see some of these back on the menu here.  He also brought a sachetorte.  We will have eat that next week- maybe as a last day of summer treat on Thursday.

Rocket and Falco played outside for a while  throwing the football and jumping on the trampoline.  Once they were done, it was shower time and then some relaxing around the house. 

Falco got a  big shock when his school bus pass arrived.  he has to be at the bus stop at 6:45 am in the morning, school starts at 7:20 am.  He was very shocked and not too happy.  Hopefully, the transition to school next week will not be too bad.

 

The boys ended up watching a movie and I grilled hamburgers and cooked corn on the cob.  After dinner, we watched some Olympics and then took a walk around the neighborhood (it was still sooooooo hot at 9 pm (21:00 hours).  He headed off to bed at 9:30, finally exhausted from his travels and the start of his adventure here in the US.

 

Today, I have to work until 12 noon, then we are off to swim with friends.  Friday night is usually movie and homemade pizza night, we'll see if that holds true for today.

 

Love and hugs,

Deb

Whirlwind weekend

Another whirlwind weekend here.  People keep telling me we are so busy all the time, but I feel like it comes in spurts, not a continuous wave.  I think the fact that I blog about things lead folks to assume we are always busy, but usually during the week, other than sports practices and scout I try not to schedule anything.  Personally, I am ready for some down time- 9 more working days before no school, no work and some rest and relaxation.

 

Let's sum up where we were last week, Monday night was PTO meeting for me (I am the treasurer), then Tuesday was supposed to be a scout meeting for planning the summer campout (I did not go), Wednesday was basketball practice, Thursday was tree sale night for us.  We had the 5:45- 9 pm shift. This is something extra.  We had to take 3 shifts, at least 2 on a weekend.  The money earned by the troop covers the cost of the bus/gas/new equipment for the troop/ a large part of the food budget for campouts and other things.  So while Falco will not be a scout with us next year, he is benefitting from the work done last year at the tree sale and he is working this year to "pay it forward" to the troop.  Rocket has benefited since March from the work done last year and he is paying it forward to the coming year and the new scouts coming into the troop in March 2017. I don't think either of the boys fully get that someone else paid for them and now they are doing the same for the incoming boys.  I think it is a life experience thing and it will be years before they truly understand.

Having hot chocolate (one of the things the troops provides to the boys during tree sales).

my view most of the night.  The job Falco picked for himself was to restock the tree stands when trees were sold and I helped him because you need 2 people to carry the trees and tied onto the stakes.  Again, this feeds into the not understanding that someone worked last year knowing they were aging out in the early part of the year, thus receiving little to no benefit from selling, but their work allowed Falco  to participate at NO cost this year.

Friday night we had plans to attend the Christkindlmarket in Hamilton.  When we got there, we could not find it, so we went to the hotel to ask directions.  It was in the hotel!!!  Now the Christkindlmarket are outside events in Europe.  We missed the other 2 here in town, but I will check them out next year just in case Falco comes back for a holiday.

Back to the story- I was mortified at the christkindlmarket, Falco was laughing.  I was so embarrassed as an American for Falco to experience this.  We stayed like 10 minutes, long enough for Falco to get some funny pictures, me to look at the cream puffs that looked like they had been sitting out for days and for Rocket to buy a chocolate covered pretzel and water.  I checked my phone and we ended up driving down the street to an outdoor light show.  the show is a drive through show.  We had a good time looking at lights and I was able to laugh about the christkindlmarket experience by the time we got home.

 

Rocket took the pictures below as we were driving.  Since he had to turn the flash off, the pictures are blurry. 

 

Saturday we had 2 events, 3 if you count Rocket's basketball game that conflicted with event 1 for the day.   AFS had the holiday brunch for the students and families on Saturday from 10-1 pm.  This has been on our calendar for months.  Basketball registration was 2 months ago, but the schedule came out on Monday, 28Nov.  the scheduled showed Rocket's game at 9:30 am.  Well basketball lost out.  I don't get why the basketball coordinators don't get that starting the season in holiday season means people already have plans.  They should have a tentative schedule out in October just so people block off time on calendars.  

Anyway, after the brunch, we headed downtown for the holiday concert at the Pops.

 

The boys got to see Santa and Mrs. Claus.  They are such handsome boys.

Rocket conducted the "orchestra" with the penguin.

I got to have a selfie with Frosty (who was a Mrs. Frosty)

me and my boy. he was so tired.  He ended up taking a nap during the performance, falling asleep about 15 minutes before intermission.

The AFS students at the brunch. Not everyone was here

Falco and the boys.  the one in all black is also going home at the end of the semester AND he is on the same flight as Falco all the way to Europe!!  It sounds like he will spend the night here and I will take the boys to the airport in the morning for their flights to Chicago.  Poor boys, they will have to overnight in Chicago before their flight home to Europe. 

Sunday, we had church and the family over, then we headed out to sell some more trees.   It was raining and for our 4 hour shift, we sold 2 trees.  We had cleaned out the deep freezer and Rocket pulled all the ice from the sides to bring to the fire.  Again, learning about the properties of water, heat and the resulting steam.

I brought stuff to make smores.  this is Falco standing in the rain cooking the marshmallow.  We all think the big marshmallows are too big- they don't get soft in the middle.  But, the smores were yummy.

 

We got home at 9 pm and we were all tired.  I made it to 11:30 so I could see the weather.  this week, the cold air final arrives.  By Friday the high temperature will not even reach freezing (-1 C).  I was looking at past years and we already had snow by this time in past years so I really cannot complain about our warmer winter so far, but I am going to complain once the snow gets here.

 

Love and hugs,

Deb

shopping with Falco

On Sunday, we took Falco out to breakfast and then shopping (our usual routine).  He was amazed by Target.  I can not wait to see his reaction to Walmart (he requested to go there) and Costco.

he is just overwhelmed by all the choices in the chip aisle.

 

The adventure continues.

bucket list item and getting ready for our next exchange student

Saturday night, J and I took the boys to the drive in movie theater to see "The secret life of pets".  I have not been to the drive in since I was kid.  When I was a kid, our parents would load us up in the station wagon with our sleeping bags and pillows and we would sit in the car and watch the movie.  there was a speaker that was put on a pole next to the car.  it was a summer activity and I remember it fondly.

Today, the boys are in the back, but they had to be in the seats on the drive to the theater and we will have to put the seats back up at the end of the movie so the boys can be buckled in their seats.  J has a SUV, so we could open the hatch back and let the boys watch the movie.  Unfortunately, the hatch back had to be tied down so it did not block the view of other people.  J and I sat in our collapsible chairs (she calls them bag chairs) outside the car and instead of speakers, you tune your car radio to a specific frequency and you listen to the movie on your radio.

Our view as the movie started.  the boys ended up sitting in the chairs for a while and then they headed back into the car for the remainder of the movie.

enjoying snacks from home as the movie started.

Sunday was national Ice Cream Day.  Not that this family needs a national day to have ice cream.  We headed to the local ice cream parlor where they had ice cream cones on sale for $1.49 (which is about 2 dollars cheaper then usual).  Rocket had Lemon ice cream, Mam had Peach ice cream

and I had chocolate hazelnut (a limited time flavor).

after Rocket left yesterday and I took Mam home, I started working on changing the bedroom around.  L will be here in 4 weeks.  Rocket and I need to get used to the new set up.  So I am in Rocket's room- my bed barely fits.  I had to take the foot board off in order to have a room door that closes.  The stuff animal is Rocket's but he has indicated it can be donated, so it is leaving this week.

this is the bins that house Rocket's toys.  the upper bins still have toys and the lower bins will be my dresser as there is no room for a dresser in this room.  The top looks disorganized, but it is neatly organized for the moment.  After Rocket gets home this coming weekend, we will finish going through the stuff on top to see what can be thrown away/donated or sold.  The last thing we will do is work on the shelves where all his stuff animals are sitting.  He has indicated he wants to only keep 2, so the rest will be donated and then we are setting up the shelves with his motorcycles and superheroes.  Definitely the room is beginning to look like a tween's room, not a little boy's room.

 

Back over in the master bedroom (my former room), the 2 twin beds are set up.  I like the set up, though I still have to clean.  Rocket will have the bed with Orca whale on it.  L will have the other bed.  There are 2 dressers in the room, the white one will not fit at the end of Rocket's bed, which might be good.  L's dresser can also be moved as there is still plenty of room.

And clearly I still need to clean up some of my things in this room.

 

I think we should be all set for L by the end of this month.

 

Love and hugs,

Deb

 

 

the next adventure begins

Before we get to the fun stuff, here is a picture of my cutie sleeping on the couch.  He is such a handsome little man.

Bug standing in the room, almost ready for Y to arrive.  We are going to host an exchange student again.  We are hosting Y who is 16 and is from Japan.  He will have a nickname eventually, but for now, he is just Y.

One cleaned out closet- it has not been this clean in 5 years

 The desk area.  this used to be where I worked all day. 

Waiting at the airport.  Bug looks so excited (not!), but he really is excited.

Here is Y, he was so excited to see us that he ran the last few feet. 

Our family for the next 10 months.  So excited to be on this adventure.

Y, sitting at the district enrollment center going thru the class book.  He is quite overwhelmed at the choices of classes he can be taking.  We got him registered, but could not get him registered  for classes because they had not entered his information into the system.  Hopefully they will get him entered so we can get him registered for classes by Tuesday.

Bug has soccer practice this evening, so stay tuned for lots more pictures over the next few days.

Love and hugs,
Deb