Our newest family member

Mia arrived all safe sound last week and it's been a bit of a whirlwind since then. (Actually, the whirlwind started way before her arrival but it's definitely intensified since.) We picked her up from the Indy airport Wednesday and grabbed a quick dinner before heading back to Lafayette. I would have rather had a nice dinner and proper intro to Indiana cuisine but knowing that she'd been traveling for nearly 13 hours and was arriving at 1 am Norwegian time, we opted for fast food. After our quick bite, we made the one hour drive to Lafayette where the boys gave her a quick tour of the house and showed her to her room.

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She was able to stay up for a few hours to get settled in while everyone got ready for bed. We were all so excited to finally meet her and Nicklas' concern about not being able to understand her was quickly squashed. Her English is excellent! She's been a great addition to the family, so polite and helpful and very outgoing. I think Mia can make friends with just about anyone.

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On her second day in the US, we took her to the high school to register for her classes. She was able to get in to everything she wanted and has a nice mix of academic and "fun" in her schedule. She's taking the required English and US History courses and is also registered for Algebra II. That will be interesting because math in Norway is integrated. The students take Math I, Math II, Math III, etc. which is very different than learning math by subject like we do in the US. She is also signed up French III, parenting, theater, and a current social problems course. While at the high school, we introduced her to a few teachers, got her student ID, and locker combination.

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Wanting to join an athletic team, Mia considered trying out for Volleyball. While we were at the school, the team was practicing so she meet the coach and watched practice for awhile. Since she's never played on an organized volleyball team, she ultimately decided soccer (which she's played for several years) might be a better option for her. They were practicing as well that day so the Polack took her to meet the coach and watch the team practice. Their first game is this week so they've been working hard. Mia will be on the JV team and must attend 10 practices before she's allowed to play. It won't take long to meet the requirement as the team practices every day except Sunday's. School stuff took most of the afternoon so we opted to eat out for the evening and took her to one of our favorite "American" restaurants - Texas Roadhouse. After dinner, we stopped by a sporting goods store so she could buy soccer cleats, socks, and shin guards. Once we returned home, we made our to-do list with everything we needed to accomplish over the weekend.

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Friday morning we set out to get Mia a bank account and cell phone plan. It was a hot day so we spent the afternoon at the pool before taking the boys to their school to meet their teachers for the school year. Seeger is so excited about starting Kindergarten, especially riding the bus, and Nicklas can't wait to see all his friends. Mia had soccer practice that evening and then it was dinner and movie night. She wanted to watch something funny so Nicklas pulled out some of his favorites. She chose Elf which had us all laughing. It would have been perfect, although the heat outside definitely reminded us that it wasn't Christmas time. Mia mentioned that she had learned a new word at soccer - humid. She now understands what it means!

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Soccer again on Saturday morning and then we had an early lunch scheduled with a few other families who are hosting exchange students. I think Mia was excited to meet some of the others although she wasn't able to sit with them and really chat. Luisa is from Germany and Aor is from Thailand. We're supposed to all get together once a month so I'm sure they'll all get to be friends. The other two had already started school so Mia was interested in hearing about their experience. After lunch we went food shopping, had dinner, and then made a trip to Target. Mia had been to Target before and was happy to tag along. We both tried on shoes and commented about what we liked it and didn't like. As a mom with only boys, this was so much fun for me! I'm usually in and out of stores which I need to shop so I'll enjoy having someone to shop with. Later that evening, I dropped Mia off at an all-ages club for dancing. She had met a girl at Volleyball practice who invited to come hang out. As she spent time getting ready and making plans, it really hit me that we now have a teenager in the house. It's very exciting yet kinda surreal. The Polack and I have never had to "wait up" for our child to return home from an evening out. I think Mia had fun hanging out and meeting new people and her friend as already invited her to sleepover next weekend. With so much going on, I asked her to put the invitation on hold a few days before discussing it. I don't remember doing planned sleepovers in high school so I'm not sure what I think about the invitation but I'm definitely glad that she's already involved with social activities.

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Sunday was a birthday party at a local park for my nephew. It was a great opportunity for Mia to meet more of our family and enjoy yet another American experience. Again, I was amazed by how outgoing and social she is! She even spent time playing with the kids which was so sweet of her. Here are photos from the party. Seeger is watching Ben open his gifts and Mia is playing with Nicklas and Anna.

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After the park, we went back to the high school so Mia could try her locker combination and find where her classes are. While there, we were able to meet her French teacher. She's registered for French III but her teacher seems to think she might want to do French IV. Luckily French IV is offered during Mia's study hall so she decided to attend both for a few days to see which might be better for her. Sunday evening was quiet - dinner and hanging out around the house. With the first day of school looming, we wanted to take it easy. Everyone was in bed early.

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Here is a photo of Mia and the boys standing at her locker. (Mia is wearing her new shoes she bought at Target. Super cute!)

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The next few weeks will be very busy with back to school activities, Mia's soccer, Nick's flag football and IU football games. And of course we want to plan activities for Mia which we'll hopefully squeeze in among everything else. What are your suggestions? What are the must-do's we need to organize while she is here? Leave me a comment or send me an email at ngkubat at yahoo dot com.

RTSDAT

Sorry for being MIA lately. I was in in Austin for work early last week and on Thursday, the Polack and I headed to Vegas to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary. Ten years!!! With only 28 hours between trips, I didn't have time for blogging. (So now you all know where my priorities lie!!) ANYWAY.... even though I'm six days late, I'm still doing a RTT. They're too much fun to miss! We'll call it Random Thought Six Days After Thursday. Or RTSDAT for short.

1. I have WAY TOO MANY posts swirling around in my head. I have grand ambitions to post them all in the next two weeks but I'm not making any promises.

2. Mia arrives today. TODAY!!! And I'm supposed to go about my regular business until we leave for the airport this evening. But really, I'm so, super excited (and a little nervous... but mostly just excited) to do anything remotely productive.

3. I miss the Gilmore Girls.

4. I had a doctor's appointment yesterday and he was running 90 minutes late. Ninety minutes!! No one bothered to tell me. Grrr....

5. We took the red eye from Vegas Monday evening. We left there at 11:15p Vegas time and arrived home at 5:30a Indiana time. I slept about 2 hours on the plane and that was it. I'm still recovering.

6. Mia arrives TODAY!!!

7. I'm thirsty. And tired.

8. Some kids started school today. It's only August 12!! Why does it feel like school starts earlier and earlier every year? Because it does - that's why!!

9. I'm running out of things to say. I think it's because I'm so tired. And thirsty.

10. How is it possible that I don't have anything more to say when my first thought was about all the posts I have been thinking about? It must be the lack of sleep. And drink. But probably mostly the lack of sleep.

I'll be back normal (relatively speaking) in a few days. Promise!!

Random Grumpy Thought Thursday

Woo wee, it's been a busy, busy day. I have a mucho importante meeting at work tomorrow and on Sunday, I leave for Austin. Monday and Tuesday is the annual conference I'm in charge of organizing every year. Add this to the fact that Freddie has an infection and required two trips to the pharmacy, I had to get not one - but two wedding gifts ready for the weekend, I had to clean out my car (for said mucho importante meeting), I had to stop by my brother's to drop something off (and play catch-up since we hadn't talked in the past six weeks), I had to go to Target to return the pants I bought YESTERDAY (because I'm AN IDIOT - I tried on two pairs and mistakenly bought the WRONG pair), my in-laws needed us to stop by to look through some old things they're getting rid of, the Polack had to pick up some computer related items from a friend, and oh yeah, we had to eat dinner. After getting home an hour later than usual from work. Well let's just say it again. Woo wee.

I'm not in the best of moods.

The Polack asked what this post would be like since I'm grumpy. Can you believe he called me grumpy?

Anyway...

Oh yeah, random thought thursday.

1. I'm so tired. Mucho sleepy. Why am I so tired lately? Is something physically wrong with me? Is this a sign of getting old? I should probably just start going to bed earlier. If only it that were easy.

2. My to-do list seems to be growing, not shrinking. What's up with that? I need a personal assistant. I know - I need a butler. That would be, like, so cool.

3. Austin is a cool place and all but I really have no desire to go there again this summer. Especially since it's been 110+ degrees.

4. My house is so dirty. I have no idea with I'll be able to clean it.

5. This week, the Polack and I bought mucho furniture. Mucho. As in new family room furniture, furniture for the basement-that-will-take-months-to-finish, and a new dining room table + chair set.

6. I need to get some serious sewing done. For sanity's sake. But it ain't happening anytime soon. Does that mean I'm slowly going crazy. Let me check. Yep, definitely crazy.

7. Furniture + upcoming vacation + basement project + new office/workcenter + life in general = lots of money. As in mucho amount of money.

8. Did I mention that the Polack and I are going to Las Vegas? It's our 10 year anniversary. Vegas baby!

9. I love the song Come On, Eileen. I don't know any of the words to it but I sing it anyway. It always makes me smile and I got to hear it today when I was on my way home from work. It was the perfect pick me up for a crazy day that was only half over.

10. We FINALLY got Mia's travel itinerary. FINALLY. She arrives a week from Wednesday. Yippee!!

See I wasn't too grumpy, was I?

Vegas baby!

Preparing for Mia

With less than four weeks to go until our exchange student Mia's arrival, the Polack and I spent the weekend getting the house in order. We've moved the office/sewing stuff out of the fourth bedroom so we can begin setting it up for her. The closet in that room is huge - seriously, it's about 24 square feet - so it took the better part of a day to clean it out. Yesterday we picked up a bed to set up and in the next few days, I'll sweep and dry mop the floors and we'll bring up the dresser we have stored in our basement. It's slowly turning into a fourth bedroom!

Since we use our living room as the family hangout, our family room was fair game. We decided to turn it into a workcenter. We set up our computers and my sewing stuff. I'm so excited to have my sewing stuff downstairs. You can see a photo of it on my new quilting blog. I've decided to maintain two blogs - one personal and one for my quilting.

Getting in the spirit of things, Nicklas decided to prepare for Mia's arrival too. He made the Norwegian flag and I think he plans to take it to airport when we pick her up. We're all getting very excited!

Random Thought Thursday

Following in her stiletto steps, I'm stealing Random Tuesday Thoughts from Mom in High Heels. (And many others, I'm guessing.) Only, I'm going to do mine on Thursday's since Random Thought Thursday flows off the tongue a bit better. (Hey, I'm all about alliteration!)

So here it goes...

1. Kids today rarely use email. Texting, facebooking, and IM'ing are much more prevalent. This is just an observation, not a complaint. I constantly have to remind my students to check their email every 24 hours. I wonder if email will someday be as rare as a phone call? I do love the concept of IMing but sadly, no one I know really uses it.

(I can't believe I just used the term "kids, today...". Yeah, I'm getting old.)

2. Someone asked me why I wasn't on Twitter. I don't really have an answer. I probably should be but it just seems like another way to suck the time out of my day. I can barely keep up facebooking and blogging...

3. Divorce sucks. I understand (sorta) why people get divorces yet I'm always shocked when I hear about it happening. It makes me sad.

4. Why is the toilet in fourth stall in the work bathroom taller than the other five? And why are there only two rolls of toilet paper compared to the four rolls that are in other stalls?

5. Nicklas expresses so much emotion on his face. He should really go into drama. I think he'd make a great actor. His grade will be putting on the Wizard of Oz for an end of the school year celebration. He wants to try out for the part of the Scarecrow because he "doesn't have a brain" and it means Nicklas can "act all crazy". I really hope he gets the part.

6. I've hit a wall with the Get Fit Challenge. I've done well and lost about 20 lbs but I'm in a slump that I'm desperately trying to get out off.

7. I'm still not used to seeing Stringer Bell on The Office. I don't think I ever will be.

8. I should probably stop drinking diet soda (see #6). And I definitely need to drink more water.

9. I wonder how our exchange student, Mia, pronounces her name? Is it Mee-ah or My-ah? She arrives in August. I am super excited.

(Mia or Mia's mom, if you're reading this, let me know!)

10. Seeger has the best smell to him. It's addicting. Sometimes when I'm sitting in my office at work, I can almost smell him and it always brings a smile to my face. How long will that smell on him last before he turns into a stinky boy?

The chores weren't meant to be

As a parent, I try my best to always plan and prepare to stay on top of the household activities. This is especially important in the spring when the Polack is immersed in the baseball season and the boys are in the middle of tennis/swimming/soccer/baseball. I'm constantly checking my calendar to planning who has to be where at what time while trying to fit in things like homework and dinner and chores.

So imagine my surprise when Nicklas's soccer practice was cancelled yesterday and the Polack arrived home earlier than usual from baseball practice. By 6pm, we were all at home with no plans. No plans? Free time? I literally didn't know what to do with myself. The boys had no problem though. It was a beautiful evening and they spent every minute outside. I thought about having them help me with some housework but then I decided I didn't want to waste a gorgeous evening. So while they played with some neighborhood kids, the Polack and I took a walk around the neighborhood.

There is a bush right next the walk to our front door. It's pretty and I love the red but I hate the thorns because the boys always seem to touch the branches and get hurt. (Plus it's a pain to prune!) Anyway, I have seen a bird flying in and out and wondered if there was a nest. When we were outside, I decided to check it out. It's pretty thick so I kept leaning in closer and closer to take a look. Everyone was watching me, including the neighborhood kids and I hadn't even seen the nest when all of a sudden, the momma bird flew out. It scared the be-jesus out of me and of course I screamed. Everyone got a kick out of that. I did take a picture and if you look closely, you can see two eggs.

Speaking of family activities (was that the point of this post?) we were finally allowed to make contact with our exchange student. She and I have friended each other on facebook so it's been great to see photo's of her. (Although it stinks that everything is in Norwegian so I can't actually read the captions or comments!) She told me that when she was given our names, she immediately googled us and found this blog. So she's been showing our pictures to her family and friends in Norway. We're very excited to meet her and I'm anxious to get her room set up and ready. After tennis/swimming/soccer/baseball ends, of course!

9 years ago....

During our family celebration at Easter nine years, the Polack and I had some exciting news to share with our family. It was joyful, although a bit unexpected, therefore we pondered how to "present" the news to everyone. As the hosts of our annual Easter dinner, we decided to incorporate the news in the annual Easter egg hunt. (Although there were no children at the time, as adults, we still had Easter egg hunts.)

We spelled out our news on the Easter eggs - a four letter sentence with one letter on each egg (with four different egg colors, one color per word). After finding the eggs, our family worked to put together the puzzle. With some hints, they were able to spell out our message:

We're having a baby.

Some squealed with delights, others stared at us in disbelief. The Polack and I had only been married for nine months and no one was expecting a grandchild/niece/nephew from us so... so... so quickly. But life is funny that way. Nicklas was born seven months later.

This Easter, we had news to share once again. We thought about hosting another Easter egg but decided against. Rather, Nicklas announced to the adults, "Guess what? I'm getting a new sister!" No delighted squeals, just more stares of disbelief and lots of questions. After watching the adults flounder a bit, we announced that this fall we're opening our home to an exchange student.

The Polack and I have been discussing this for the past several weeks and while we have always been interested in the possibility, we thought it might be better to wait until our kids are bit older.

But like I said, life is funny sometimes. I've been talking to other host families and learning more about the program. My mother hosted a French student for a month when I was in high school. It was a great experience for me and my family.

This is something that feels so right to me and knowing how passionate I felt, the Polack quickly jumped on board with the idea.

After scouring the host organizations website, we decided on a country and we've been looking at profiles of the female students. We've even picked one out. And I'm super excited.

This next school year will be a huge adjustment for us. We're opening our lives to a complete stranger, a teenager no less, and it will be an experience of a lifetime.