What was Life Like before Dry Erase Boards?

November 14, 2014

 

It has been too long since I have updated my adventures.  Yes, my R & R has come to an end, and a busy one it was.  I realized, even with no 9-5 job, life got busy.  The good news is that I did lose three lbs in the three weeks that I was here.  Lots of sleep and lots of unpacking burns calories…plus, Jason’s cooking J  Yes, boys and girls, eating out (a.k.a non-floating military buffet) can make one gain calories in a cinch. 

Alyssa, Jason and I had a great time catching up.  Although I wouldn’t say it was a staycation in the fact that there was work to be done daily, I can say we spent more quality time together..Probably more than one would have done in a year.  I played catch up with Alyssa, taking her to/from school, volunteering twice in her school and catching up with reading lessons, taking her to ice skating lessons.  Halloween was fun.  Dress-up part was, but the trick-or-treating was rather quiet.  We live in a community that didn’t bring a lot of trick-or-treaters like Fountain Springs.  There, we were normally out of candy by 9  PM.  We had plenty left and enough to fill Alyssa’s b-day piñata.

King and Queen of the House as proclaimed by Alyssa.

Speaking of b-day, I’ve started some early b-day planning, and holiday projects because I am not going to be around for Thanksgiving or Christmas.  We did Christmas photos in early November at JCPenny, I just started some shopping yesterday and gift wrapped them; Alyssa and I did Halloween and Thanksgiving crafts…We did LOTS of projects.  I had planned this before I left Baghdad.  I printed out these templates I got from Pinterest and each day before school, Alyssa had a preprinted note with some animal jokes drawn on the back..Thank you, for my spare time I was able to do all of this.  Pinterest had awesome ideas for projects.  The remainder of the time, we visited Kabooms, Monkey Joes and Game Room, and caught up with friends at the theater.  She really, thoroughly had a great time.

Alyssa made friends with kitty boy, our neighbor's cat

As for Jason and I, we kept busy with house projects.  I helped up-pack more than half of the boxes inside the garage.  I surely hope I made a dent..I think I burnt about 150 calories a day for the first week and a half.  I also spent a quarter of my time interviewing nannies. I come to find that the nanny company charges a minimum or $1,600 referral fee. How crazy is that!! I will have to report my finding to the work-life care manager.  She referred me to an excellent agency that set up interviews, references & background checks, but it was 10x that much more..Wow.  Well, Ms. Bo was never the one for an eye for detail.  Finding nannies through other web site may require additional leg work but I’m sure it would not cost as much as $1,600 (that is military discount quote) too…

Some of our work from Pinterest

 

I did however, make use of good time and that included planning Alyssa’s birthday; she chose her theme and the invitation list, as well as the favors for the goody bags.  I told her that she should also think of games, and so far we have a few that we are recycling from her b-day last year in Swaziland.  One is pin-the-pony although it won’t be a pony this year!  Alyssa and I also got to do a manicure spa via this Groupon.  They were oober late that we ended up not going out to eat for one of our dinners.. But my nails are still pretty and Alyssa got a free manicure, thank you!! That was one way for them to make up for the lateness.  I also got an eyebrow wax and had planned for a shampoo but I’ve learnt my lesson not to use Groupon.  It is far easier to drive 2 min to the local shop for a $30 wash/blow-dry then to save ($60) on a so-called Salon that we have no knowledge about.  I used to love Groupons in the beginning but a truly good deal is few and far in between.

Going back to volunteering at Alyssa’s school…I had a BLAST.  The first week was great, I taught kids about veterans which just happened to be up my alley. Although I am not one myself, I work among them, for them and with them.  Plus, arts & crafts is my thing that day, so that was fun.  The second time I went, Alyssa was in my group and this time we had to learn about architects (career week at the school)!  One thing I did for sure, I made the kids write way too much..heheh.  Alyssa wanted attention from mommy and I had to divide it among 6 kids, all whom were funny, had shining different personalities and were like mini-adults.  They were so smart.  Well two things I learned:  Multi-tasking is for sure not my thing; though I do well with children, I’m not sure a full-time job is suitable.  I could probably do a substitute teacher every now and then, and secondly; I am just not firm enough.  Of course anyone can learn new skills, but you need patience, firmness and the ability to multi-task to be a first grade teacher.  Poor Alyssa..She didn’t think I spent enough time with her but I guess one day she’ll understand that mommy had to be shared.  How can kids make one feel guilty at such a young age.  The gene of pleasing others before family runs strong so not everything comes naturally.

So, a few things I’ve learned about the school system – I still think listening skill should be taught in schools.  Unfortunately reading and writing is still among the top skills taught/learn but even as adults, many do not listen well unless of course they happened to be born with that skill.  The modern-age classroom uses the dry-erase boards and the SMART boards now, which reminds me all of the adult-training facilities I have been in mostly do not even use chalk boards anymore.  Wow, with all these changes it really gets one to think – how did we come so far with learning in today’s world?  Aside from one girl in my group, none of the kids could catch up writing my 7-sentence paragraph about what an architect does, LOL!  Of course, I don’t have the mind of a first-grader either.  Here’s a picture of Alyssa using the electronic SMART board.

Speaking of fun stuff we did, Alyssa finally caught up with some of her crafts that she opened in the household effect shipment that came in..One of those was Dr. Seuss “Book about Me.”  She had to fill in the blanks with all of the thing about herself, her neighbor and of course community helpers.  Momma was determined to help her get those signatures..The two momma helped her get was the grocery store checker at Publix and our mailman.  Funny story was we spent nearly 1.5 hours outside one day playing with the outdoor cat while waiting for the mailman to arrive.  In the book it says most children’ won’t get the signatures but I assure you, Alyssa will get a signature from everyone including the tall man (one over 6’3” and one with a beard).  I told her, Alyssa go to the basketball courts..You’re bound to find someone tall there (bad momma).  Also, man with a beard, our friendly neighbor told us her boyfriend grew a beard so he wouldn’t look young, I told her that she could get his autograph… Well, she will end up getting a signature from Santa probably for the man with a beard as daddy suggested.  Subtle but smart… Yeah if it were mommy, I probably would have approached the man with a beard from the grocery mart or the man who * had both* at the airport. He probably would have felt like a freak but nevertheless…..the oh-so-subtle blackberry.

 

Well, this is getting long and my fingers are tired from typing but at least I’m closer to reaching my destination.  Man, where IS Texas?  I’ve seen nothing but water the last hour and some minutes.  Maybe it’s Texas, Paris??!!  Anyhoo… catch up more later.  This will probably be posted when I get to Amman.

November 15, 2014

It turns out that momma was on the starboard side of the ship so I got the lovely ocean view.  Arrived safe and sound in Texas.  Now, in Frankfurt on the way to Amman.  I had two minutes before boarding that I didn’t have time to post my blog.  They had free wifi internet at the airport..Imagine, not too many places have free anything.  I’m looking forward to getting to Amman where I can enjoy a cup of Starbucks Oreos frappucino.  I forgot to weigh my carry-on and one thing I forgot to pack was snacks.  Getting used to 3-4 hours in between meals will be hard.  Good news is *weight loss* hopefully.