Fury over Detroit News Article!

Reading this article has me FURIOUS.  If you haven't read it, read it below and then let me get on my soapbox for a few moments.
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fdetnews.com%2Farticle%2F20101118%2FMETRO%2F11180420%2FHigh-teacher-salaries-under-scrutiny-in-Michigan&h=ea967

How many teachers REALLY only work 9 months? Let's be real. We have 10 weeks of summer between school years during which we attend and PAY FOR OUR OWN professional development courses and workshops and plan for the next year and SPEND OUR OWN MONEY purchasing school supplies so that we can teach the next year.




Unlike most companies that fly their employees, business class no less, to all parts of the world for fancy seminars and conventions, all expenses paid including food and drinks. Unlike most companies that offer employees bonuses, often equal to double their yearly salary, for jobs well done.



And, I am appalled that they are comparing my PROFESSION with blue-collar jobs. I went through 4 years of undergraduate university for my Bachelor's Degree, did 1 full year of unpaid student teaching, and earned my Master's Degree. I did not just waltz out of high school and into a factory. I worked damn hard for my education, paid a lot for said education, and every teacher earns every single penny we make for educating the future of our society.



It is time for people to stop comparing kids to auto parts. We can live without fancy gadgets and cars. We cannot live in a world where we have uneducated children. It is time to value education and stop complaining about teachers' salaries. If it weren't for well-educated teachers our society would have no future. The only way MI is going to rebound is by people getting skilled at jobs other than factory work. Guess who teaches people marketable skills? TEACHERS.



Parents, should be proud to live in an area that pays it's teachers decently. It means that your child is getting a good education. Especially, if in your district your teachers are paid decently, have smaller class sizes and have parents who actually participate in their child's education by volunteering and attending conferences.

Buh-Bye Adenoids

After five long years of suffering through ear infections and chest infections, there is a light at the end of Delainey's tunnel. 

Nearly every year, she has had 2-3 MAJOR ear infections, the kind that leave blisters on her ear drums and require multiple rounds of antibiotics.  But, the frequency was never enough for doctors to prescribe putting tubes in her ears.  So each fall, winter, and spring as soon as she had a sniffle I'd wait for it to turn into an ear infection and head to the doctor for some more pink medicine.  In the last two years, her infections seemed worse.  The were more painful and often followed by chest infections like the one that had our first visit to Frankfurt last February include a trip to the Frankfurt Children's Hospital with a slight bout of pnuemonia.

Further, her pre-school teachers had her screened for speech delays and recommending getting her hearing tested last spring.  We did both, and the consensus was that she had slight hearing losses during each infection which made her learn sounds incorrectly.  So, at her latest check up here in Germany, I mentioned all of this history to the doctor who said.  "I'm fairly certain it's her adenoids."  Huh?  What are adenoids and why hasn't any other doctor mentioned them before?  I'd heard tubes and speech therapy being tossed around as ideas, but this was the first mention of adenoids.

So off we went to a new ENT, who took one look at her nose and mouth and said "Yep, they are too big.  We should remove them immediately."  Just like that, in perfect English (although not before he fooled me by saying he only spoke German, Spanish and Italian and let me falter for a full 5 minutes in German, only to laugh as I got stuck on the translation of the word "blister" and say "I'm just kidding.  My English is very good.").

So, here we are 2 weeks later, adenoid-less.  Delainey was such a trooper.  Jason took the day off and we both took her to the day clinic where they did the procedure.  She was given what we were told was apple juice in the waiting room, but was some high-test stuff based on how after drinking it, she kept falling over and couldn't walk like she had downed a few shots of vodka.  By the time they called us back to anesthesia, she was pretty loopy.  They were so good with her.  They had given me a special numbing bandage to put on at home to numb the area of the IV port so she didn't feel it at all, especially after having the magic apple juice. 

Here she is with Jason, slightly out of it already, and waiting for the anesthesiologist.

They let her sit on my lap while they gave her her "sandman milk" in the IV.  Within 20 seconds she was out.  The doctor whisked her out of my arms, promising to take good care of her, and said he'd be back to get us in 15-20 minutes. 

Only 10 minutes later, he came out and said she was done!  He took us back to recovery where she was sleeping soundly. They had covered her up with her special blanket and tucked her penguin "Petal" in beside her.  

 She woke up about a half-hour later and was given gummi bears and cookies and apple juice by the nurse.  She liked that they had even given Petal a matching bandage on her wing!

We were able to leave the clinic by lunch time.  She was a bit sleepy the rest of the day, but she was chatty as ever and her appetite wasn't bothered at all!  We had promised her ice cream and she had at least 4 bowls today!  She even ate a normal dinner.  Tomorrow, I expect her to be good as new.  She'll be staying home tomorrow and Friday from school, but I doubt she'll be feeling any worse for the wear.  

I'm hoping getting rid of those germy things makes for an easier winter on us all.  I'm also hopeful she'll begin to hear better and speak more clearly. 

She and I both felt very loved by all the prayers and good wishes we got from friends and family members.  We had messages from  bunches of people in 6 states and 4 countries, all sending their love to my cupcake.  Thank you all for thinking of her today and I'll keep you posted on her recovery and resulting improvements!

Halloween!

We had a fantastic Halloween this year!  Our friends from Australia, the O'Briens, were still in town and we introduced them to Halloween- American Style! 

We had discovered that all were welcome to Trick or Treat on the US Army base, so we decided to take the O'Briens there.  We spent the afternoon shopping in Wiesbaden and had lunch at the American Sports Bar- I even found Miller Lite!  Light beer is so unheard of in Europe!  No one here respects it as "real" beer, but I was happy to find it.  This is how we started our "give the Australians a taste of America in Germany" evening.

After our late lunch, we met up with friends from school for Trick or Treating.  Aidan was a skeleton (but his pic wouldn't upload) and Lainey was a fairy:

Here we are ready to get some real American candy!  I've had enough Gummi Baren, danke!  I was on the look out for Starbursts and Three Musketeers!

And they are off!  It was just like home!  Lots of families had decorated outside and were dressed up and playing scary music.  I asked Aidan if he remembered Trick or Treating at home, but he doesn't!  So it was a great experience for him.  Sometimes, while experiencing so many new things as ex-pats, I forget that our kids don't remember much of the American experience because they were so little when we moved.

Lainey and Lucy caught on quickly, and just kept saying "this is the BEST Halloween ever!".  Megan and Damian couldn't believe how much candy there was and how many kids there were.  Halloween is much smaller in Australia. Lucy and James may want to move to the US after this experience!

The kids made a big haul, and even I got some of my favorites on trade!  I had brought a few bags of candy to donate to the cause and I bartered my bags of German candy for Starbursts, Three Musketeers and Sour Patch Kids.  YUM!!!  I think we may need to find a dentist in Germany after all ;)

Since Trick or Treat was on Saturday, we spent Sunday, the real Halloween, at home recuperating from our fun-filled week.  We finally got around to carving our pumpkin too.  We thought we might have some Trick or Treaters in our neighborhood, but we didn't.  At least our house was decorated and a little spooky!

Fun with the Bailkoskis and O'Briens

Last week we had lots of visitors!  Our two closest family friends from Zurich came to visit us.  Both families now live in England so it had been a few months since we'd seen them last.  We all lived in the same apartment complex in Zollikerberg and had become very close friends.  Aidan, William, and James are all the same age, and so are Lainey, Lucy, and Teddy.  Kirsten and Megan helped me with my transition to Switzerland, were my main support system there, and continue to be close friends.  Jason and their husbands get on great, too.  It is hard not living by them anymore, especially realizing we probably won't ever live near each other again.  Soon, we'll be on 3 separate continents, once the O'Briens go back to Australia and we go back to America! 

 So, we enjoyed spending time all together last week. 

We didn't actually do much.  The kids were just beside themselves to see each other and rarely left the playroom.  We adults stayed up late catching up, playing trivia games, watching movies, and drinking a few beverages.  It was so easy to have 8 others in our house! I couldn't believe how smoothly it all went.  We did a few fun things like go to a great restaurant with playground and to an indoor pool, but that was about it!  The rest of the time we just enjoyed seeing each other again.

We'll be spending the week between Christmas and New Year's with them in England, and I'm really looking forward to another great week with great friends!

Teddy, Aidan, William and Lainey at breakfast

Tea time with Teddy

Lainey and Lucy playing at the restaurant's playground

Climbing trees at the restaurant

Friends forever!

Early morning Lego construction site

Saying good-bye to the Bailkoskis. 

I always knew Lainey took after Jason...

Not only does she look like Jason, but now she's going start the "spare parts" removal like him.  My dear husband has had everything removed that can be without missing (much).  In fact, he said to me the other day that he is surprised he still has his extra kidney.  As a child he had his tonsils, appendix, wisdom teeth, and something else I can't remember, taken out.  It looks as if Delainey is following in his footsteps.

I just found out today that she's got to have her adenoids removed.  She has had recurrent ear infections since she was a baby.  Last year she had one so bad she had blisters on her eardrums and required strong pain medicine to get through it.  The one she had earlier this year turned into a chest infection (beginning of pneumonia).  We've been to two ENTs and two speech therapists who all agree that her ear infections have caused temporary hearing loss which has caused some speech delays and bad speech habits.  So, now we think we've figured out the culprit...the adenoids.  Apparently, they swell with each infection and stay swollen which then makes the air flow from nose to ear weak.  Then bacteria grows and fluid fills the inner ear.  That fluid can stick around even after bouts of anti-biotics for months without proper air flow.  So, basically, its possible that Lainey has been hearing-impaired (like with earmuffs on) for a few months of every year!  Now add to that, new languages and accents, and no wonder the poor kid is hard to understand!  Plus, now I'm noticing it's interfering with her learning to read.  She doesn't sound out letters and words properly and doesn't recognize that the sounds she makes aren't what I'm making.

Hopefully, this minor surgery will make a major improvement in her health, hearing, and speech.  I'll keep you posted...

It's not Taco Bell, but it's something!

 It's a Chi-Chi's!!  A real, honest-to-goodness, tastes just like I remember, Chi-Chi's Mexican restaurant.  And where did I find this, you may wonder...why in Luxembourg of course!  The teeny, tiny, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg has a Chi-Chi's.  And we in American no longer do.  So,  OF COURSE we had to eat there!  After a week of icky French food it was such a yummy treat.  I'd drive back again, it's only 2 hours.  I'll happily drive that for some good Mexican !

We didn't know there was a Chi-Chi's there when we decided to drive through Luxembourg on the way home from Paris.  We just figured we'd make a slight side trip to check off another country off our list of places we've been.  We planned just to stop for lunch, therefore being there long enough to "count".  (We also drove through Belgium, but since we didn't stop, we can't "count" it.)  Luxembourg is quite a pretty town with a gorgeous palace that we didn't have time to explore.  We only walked around the pedestrian zone and ate some yummy food.  I'll go back for more Chi-Chi's and more sightseeing someday. I want to see the palace and figure out why every postcard of the royal  family had them all looking in different directions instead of at the camera...weird.

Overlooking the palace

 

Stone steps that led to a park just below the palace grounds



Paris- Ooh-La-La and ARGH!!!!

We had planned to spend 2 days in the City of Light, but thanks to terrorist threats we decided to only press our luck 1 day.  We took a hot, smelly, crowded, and delayed train from Disneyland Paris into the city.  Let me tell you, French trains are NOT like Swiss trains.  Ew. 

But, I digress.  Let me start by stating I LOVE Paris.  I just get a happy feeling, an ooh-la-la feeling, a I-could-just-sit-at-a-cafe-and-people-watch-all-day feeling when I'm in Paris.  Someday, I want to go to Paris and just absorb the Paris-ness of the city. 

But, alas, this was my third time in the city and I have yet to just sit and absorb.  This day was meant for warp-speed sight seeing.  Get in all the highlights in less than 10 hours.  I think we did a good job and the kids and senior citizens (sorry, but you guys do fit the age requirements of the term) did a great job of keeping up with me!  I led them all around the city and didn't leave much time for meandering.  We marched through neigborhoods, into Notre Dame, down the end of the Champs-Elysee, through the Jardins de Tullieries, and through 2 sections of the Louvre.  The only breaks we took were during the Seine boat cruise, a quick lunch, and a stop to feed ducks in the Tulieries. 

 In the Louvre, the kids almost broke us adults down.  They got their second wind and had Audio Guides.  Actually, they were really cool Multi-Media guides that had video and pictures and games for kids to play hide-and-seek like games at exhibits.  They were on a mission to listen to every commentary possible and to find the Mona Lisa.  My favorite part of this visit was when Lainey was listening to the commentary about a Botticelli.  When it was over, she pulled me to the painting and said "Mommy, this painting is about a guy who was in the Battle of Jelly".  (Botticelli=Battle of Jelly to a not-quite-five-year-old's ears).  After about 3 hours of trailing behind the kids, we finally begged and convinced them to leave the Louvre.  I'm not sure if this proves that my kids are highly cultured children or that my mom, aunt, and I are highly un-cultured.  Either way, we finally left the Louvre around 7pm and headed back to the train to go back to our hotel.

You'd think my story could end there, but not yet.  This was a vacation with Delainey.  Seeing as we were leaving the next day and she had yet to throw up or need to be seen in hospital, I should have realized something was still to come.  As we were connecting trains to go back to our hotel in Disney passing through the turnstyle at the train station in Paris, at rush-hour, Lainey got her hand stuck in the turnstyle's sliding door. 

She starts SCREAMING and I'm trying to pull her hand out and there are masses of people trying to get home from work pushing behind me. 

Her hand is STUCK. 

I'm afraid to pull too hard, I don't want to break it.  She's still SCREAMING.  I'm sweating, my mom and aunt are panicking, people behind us are yelling.  Finally, after the longest hour  (or 45 seconds) of my life, a man reaches in and yanks her hand out.  I didn't know whether to hit him or thank him for interfering.  He tells us to go see a policeman.  Lainey is still crying and now shaking too.  I find the police man who is apparently used to this sort of thing happening.  He leads us to a bathroom and says "She'll be fine.  Just run some cold water on it" and leaves us.  Luckily Lainey can move her fingers and nothing seems to be broken or permanently damaged.

No vacation is complete without a health-scare from Delainey.

We managed to calm her down and get back to the Disney area.  We took the kids to Rainforest Cafe for dinner (I know, how French!) and then we all crashed into bed.

Maybe my next trip to Paris will be more relaxing.  Maybe not.

 At the Trocadero overlooking the Eiffel Tower.  We decided not to go up it this time due to terrorist threat evacuations earlier in the week.  Aidan was bummed.  He REALLY wanted to go to the top.

 Outside Notre Dame

 Lighting candles at Notre Dame

 On the Ile-St.-Louis.  This neighborhood was so quaint.  Lainey loved all the flower sellers.

 Bertillion ice cream, supposedly best in the world!  We concur.

 The busy Champs-Elysee and Arc de Triomphe

 The pyramid at the Louvre

 Learning about masterpieces

Mona Lisa