I have this continuing problem with missing socks. Maybe I am not the only person who suffers from this problem. Where do the socks go? I really don't think the washer or the dryer eats them and I don't think our laundry lady (me) is slacking in her job and losing them when she folds the wash. After laying out all our single socks on the counter in the laundry room, I made a horrific discovery...
None of the missing socks belong to me. They belong to people in my family who are older than 49 and younger than 47. Interesting.
I have never thought I was addicted to caffeine. Oh I know everyone else says it is highly addictive but I just never bought into the idea. Bob? Oh yes, he is addicted to caffeine. He MUST have coffee to get up and go. If he doesn't get enough caffeine, he knows to take two Excedrin because that will equal the caffeine amount he needs. Me? You can guess where I am going with this essay. I can drink coffee all day and sleep most of the night. (My sleep habits aren't normal at all anyway.) I never really thought caffeine mattered. I was immune! I do have one or two other addictions-
Polish Pottery
eBay
shoes
scarves
anything Coach
bargain hunting
spending money
Starbucks
my family
travel
My list is quite long but looks really indulgent and enjoyable, nothing like being addicted to Caffeine.
Anyway, I have been sick for the past 4 days with food poisoning. This was horrible and I am blaming it on a BLT (minus the L and the T) that I ate on Tuesday at 11am. By 5pm I was dizzy and aching all over. I thought I was getting a cold. I fed the girls their dinner but didn't eat. At about 8pm I decided I just had to go to bed but first, I ate another BLT (minus the L and the T) because I thought I was hungry. BIG MISTAKE!!! By 11pm it was clear that I was ill. I didn't get really bad until Wednesday around 11am and then I just couldn't do anything at all.
I am sure this is more than you need to know but I am getting back around to the caffeine addiction topic. Bob came home from a week in Prague on Friday morning. He made me some soup and left me alone. My head was killing me along with everything else. It was the worst headache I have ever had...ok I am exaggerating because if you know me, you understand that I actually had the worst headache in 2007 and I wrote all about that in June of 2008 on this blog. You can read about it if you want but that is an old story. Finally this morning after lots of complaining on my part, Bob told me to get up and drink 2 cups of coffee, take a shower and eat some toast. He claimed I hadn't had coffee in 4 days and needed to feed my caffeine addiction. I said I was not addicted to caffeine but followed his directions. Within 10 minutes I felt better, not great, but definitely better.
OK I will admit it. I get to add "addicted to caffeine" to my list of addictions. When you look at that list it should go right in between Starbucks and my family because those are the three things on the list I think I enjoy the most!
Last weekend Leah and Jenn went to Disneyland Paris to play with the ISB orchestra. They took the same trip last year. This time around Bob and I went along to chaperone. We got to stay in a very unique 2-star hotel. Please remember Bob stays at 5-star hotels all week long and even gets upgraded more times than not. We had the job of making sure kids went to sleep at a decent hour and got up in time to travel to the park to play in their concerts. We were there for 2 nights. Below is a picture of the hotel...actually it would be classified as a motel since the doors of each room open directly to the outside. At least it was clean but it was very tiny and Bob and I had twin beds..We were each in charge of groups of kids while we were at the park and had to check in with them frequently. Bob had all girls to look after which means I think his job was easy. I had mostly boys to keep up with. One time during the first day my group of 4 7th grade boys called to say they lost their money and couldn't eat. Here is that phone conversation...
7th grader: Hi Mrs. B
Me: Hi
7th grader: We lost all our money and now we can't eat.
Me: Were you robbed?
7th grader: No
Me: Did you drop your wallet somewhere?
7th grader: No
Me: Then where did your money go?
7th grader: Into the video arcade.
Me: You spent all your money in the arcade? All of it?
7th grader: Well we still have 3 euros.
Me: You have a problem.
Needless to say I gave them money to eat and a huge lecture. Then I made them swear that they wouldn't set foot in the arcade again. Their problems were not over though. The next day one of those squirrelly kids lost his ticket and couldn't get back in the park when they went from Disney Studios to the Magic Kingdom. One of the girls in Bob's group lost her ticket too. He had to sprint to the front gate from the back of the park to give her another ticket so she could make it in time to perform.
We have seen Disneyland Paris many many times. In fact, this visit was our 12th! But traveling with performers meant that we entered the park from the back. We saw the Christmas decorations ready to put out in a few weeks and the old Halloween decorations rotting in a holding area. We were told by our guide, Isabelle, that we were not allowed to take pictures or the magic would be ruined. She had a good point because now that I have seen the backside of all the hoopla, I am not as excited as I was before. We didn't see anything horrible like Mickey without his head but we did see Darth Vador readying himself to go out into the crowd. Yes it was a lot of work topped off with a bus ride that took double the time it would take in a car, but we had fun and would probably chaperone again.
Our tiny hotel room circa 1971.It was very clean so I guess it could have been a lot worse!
I am not sure how many people actually watched the live streaming of the volleyball game, but I understand the video actually stays on the website for quite some time and you can view it over and over and over and over... My dad watched and yelled at he screen and coached the girls through cyberspace!
The first half of the video is actually our U12 team. They are in blue. The coach is dynamite and was Leah and Jenn's 5th grade teacher. He came to ISB that same year so we were new together. Bob and I have watched his progress as a well respected and totally effective educator since then. He empowered our girls to make their own decisions and grow as international citizens. He really had a very positive effect on them. International citizen seems like such a lofty phrase that only a politician or a salesman might use but really the girls have become exactly what that label describes. They live in Belgium but they go to school with kids from all over the world. Their first assignment in that 5th grade class was to study cultures and religions all over the world. Back home in Indiana they would have been memorizing the capitals of the 50 United States. Granted they still don't know the capitals but hey, they can learn that anytime!
Anyway, the first game on the video is U12 and they are in blue uniforms. The 2nd half of the video is the U14 team. Leah and Jenn did not play in the first game. You can see them in the 2nd and 4th games playing next to eachother, numbers 6 and 10, with their hair in a ponytail. Honestly it is pretty hard to see who is who. They both had some great sets at the net and equally good serves. At the very end of the entire video, Jenn and then Leah are the last servers.
This weekend the team plays at Luxemburg on Friday and Saturday. Bob and I will make the short drive on Saturday morning to catch their game.
That's right all you volleyball fans...If you really want to see 14 year old girls play volleyball you will have your chance today at 5:15 my time. Just follow the direction below. Our team will be wearing white shirts. Leah is number 10 and Jenn is number 6.
1. Go to this website http://www.isb.be/page.cfm?p=2624
2. Click on the words Go to ISB Live Streaming Page
3. Enter the password 1170bxl
4. There will be choices for older videos but you will be able to watch the volleyball game sometime around 5:15 our time which is 11:15 in Indiana and 10:15 in Chicago/St. Louis.
Enjoy!!! (Just let me know if it doesn't work. You will still be able to see the game for the next week or so.)
That's right, Bob is 50 years old. I think his exact words were, "It's just another day." He got to celebrate with Maria on Saturday and his parents on Sunday. Then he flew home Monday morning (his actual birthday) to Belgium and celebrated with Leah, Jenn and me. And then he flew that same evening to Zurich and celebrated all over again with his team and coworkers on Tuesday. The cake just never ended for him! He got a very nice watch, some beautiful clothes, promises of future fun from the kids and a chance to drive in a race car. Nice. I will secretly take a few pictures of him this weekend so we can see what a 50 year old really looks like. But truthfully, I think Bob has never been better. He is a great dad and a great husband which are quite wonderful accomplishments for someone of any age!
Dear Bob and Maria,
Thank you so much for shopping for birthday presents for the twins. I am only the slightest bit jealous that the two of you got to be together in the US yet again just a month after we were there in Sept. And the items you picked out were so cute. I am sure Leah and Jenn would love them, if only they fit. You both lovingly picked out size adult extra small. Maybe in your memory Leah and Jenn are still young and short. But alas, they are 14 years old and tall!!! Leah is 5'7" and Jenn if 5'6". They wear adult size medium! At least the watches you bought fit them ok.
Love,
Julie/Mom
Parents Weekend at Purdue was a blast! We got the see Maria do her thing on the football field as a trainer for the Purdue Big Ten Football Team. She was great! None of the players got hurt so she didn't have to administer CPR or carry that big stretcher out onto the field.
It was a quick trip for Bob and me but it was so nice to be there. I am sure it is hard for Maria having her parents so far away. We can't just stop by for the weekend without it being a major event with international flights and tons of planning.
Bob and I actually flew from different locations. He traveled from Zurich and I came from Brussels. Bob's travel was flawless, mine was not. My flight took a detour to Canada so I ended up landing in Montreal, Toronto and finally Indianapolis. My luggage was lost somewhere between Brussels and Montreal so every time I went through customs I was questioned because I had traveled across an ocean without anything but a purse...very suspicious. While in Canada trying to arrange to find a way to Indy, I made a few phone calls on my US phone not knowing that I racked up $900 in roaming charges! AT&T thought my phone was stolen and alerted me. When we figured out what had happened, AT&T charged me $30 for the error and wiped out the $900 fee. I can't say enough about their kindness.
And in a blink, our weekend was over. Bob and I traveled back to Brussels together and landed all in one piece. The twins had a great weekend too being "babysat" by their old teacher, Mr. A. He took them to volleyball games, taught them how to make Carbonara and introduced them to a TV channel called MTV. :) Now they can cook and listen to music at the same time. (To clarify, I think it is actually a video channel and not MTV because it is just music and not reality TV.) I think they had just as much fun as we did!
