The Ugly Side of Cupcake Decorating

Cupcake decorating starts out as just a little good-natured fun.  Every time we (the Alexander family and I) make cupcakes, I always get Marissa to "smell" the cupcake and I smash it in her nose.  It's a tradition.

But today Marissa retaliated against Jule for some odd reason.  She got Jule's nose.

And then Jule taught Marissa a lesson.  Again.

 Oh, the joys of baking with kids!

We did create some great looking cupcakes in the end, though... except for the ones that look like cat poop.  Those are Jule's and Marissa's.  :)

Homecoming Dance 2012

Well, Jule's first and last Homecoming dance has come and gone.  Below are pics from before and during the dance...

Getting hair styled at La-Tee-Da.

Getting make-up done at Merle Norman.

 

Jule's dress was purchased at Dillard's.  We got a great bargain!  Dillard's is one of my favorite stores.  They carry very high-end merchandise, but twice per year they have a sale that is unlike any other.  They mark their end-of-season merchandise down to 65% off... and then another 40% off of the already reduced price.  And because Jule's dress had a few missing rhinestones (that we replaced) I wheeled-and-dealed another 10% off.  We got the same deal on her shoes and accessories.  Needless to say, her whole outfit was a great deal. 

 

Lynn at La-Tee-Da Salon did Jule's hair for the night.

 Her make-up was done at Merle Norman in North Little Rock, Arkansas.

These are some of the pics that Jule took with the camera while she was there...

Taylor, Jule, Kenzyah, Andrea

Taylor, Nom Sum, Jule, Kenzyah, Anna, Andrea

Taylor, Jule, Kenzyah, Andrea

So glad she had a great time!

Welcome to Moe's!

Jule experienced Moe's for the first time yesterday.  Moe's Southwest Grill is what I call a "Mexican Subway" restaurant where the workers make your food in front of you like building a sandwich at Subway restaurant.

When you enter Moe's they always shout "Welcome to Moe's!"  Then you order from a menu that has the most odd names for the food.  Jule and I both ordered a "Joey Bag of Donuts."  There are no donuts involved.  It's a huge burrito with rice, beans, chicken (or whatever meat you wish), cheese, lettuce and a number of other choices to pile on.

The names on the Moe's menu come from T.V. shoes and movies.

Mosquitoes Love German Accents

On Tuesday and Thursday nights we sit on a soccer field and watch soccer practice.  The only problem is that there are horrible mosquitoes there!  Check out Jule's feet with anti-itch medicine all over them!  I think the mosquitoes like her because of her German accent!  Maybe if she wouldn't talk so much when she's out there, then they would not attack her!

:)

Favorite Things: Hoops and Yoyo

I'll be doing some future blog posts about things that Jule has found that she likes here in the U.S.  These are, again, more to remind her of these things years later.

One of her favorite things:  Hoops and Yoyo

Who are Hoops and Yoyo?  Hoops is a pink cat, and Yoyo is a green rabbit.  Hoops and Yoyo tend to get overexcited and commonly start yelling or talking really fast.  They both love coffee, cookies, and any treat.  They like to do anything that is fun.  They're always happy, and always try to have fun no matter what happens.

In Jule's bedroom she has a Hoops and Yoyo daily calendar that gives her a "pep talk" every time she changes the date.  I get a chuckle each time I hear "This could be the best day of your life... or the worst..." in the cute little voices.

Here's a little Hoops and Yoyo to brighten your day.

Even if you don't speak English, you'll understand why these little guys (and their blue friend Piddles) are fun to watch.

Presidential Election Year in America

Jule gets to witness an election year in America!  We have an election every four years, and there is a two-time term limit on any candidate.  Our current president is Democrat Barack Obama.  He is running for re-election against the Republican candidate Mitt Romney.

I'm quite sure she'll LOVE this photoshop job!

No matter what you hear, both men are good men.  They are smart, successful, dedicated family men who want nothing more than to serve their country.  They differ in philosophies of how to manage the complexities of our government, but they both want to serve and try to do better for us... for U.S.  There are millions of people here (as in any country) who wish to complain about how bad we have it.  They are not willing to lift a finger to make a change, but will only lift their tongues.  These two men, if nothing else, deserve our respect for trying to do something.  The job of president is undoubtedly the most stressful job in this country.  It comes with the luxury of having 150 million people (half of all Americans) hate you every day.  Kudos for both candidates for being willing to give up their lives and sanity for four years to do the best they can do.

I am thankful for those who serve, even though I don't agree with all policies.

Best of luck to both candidates as we near November!

And for a little fun...

Click here to make Jule dance with Barack Obama!

or

Click here to make Jule dance with Mitt Romney!

1980's Day at School

Jule's 1980's look for homecoming festivities at school today... complete with "tight rolled" jeans, Strawberry Shortcake shirt and a side ponytail.  :)

Homecoming Tradition

If you're on Jule's Facebook page, you probably saw that I posted that Jule got her "homecoming" dress for this weekend.  I think that homecoming is an American tradition, so let me explain this cultural event that Jule will attend!

"Homecoming" is what it sounds like... coming home.  It is a time during the school year when alumni (past students) return to the school to remember the good times.  Generally this event is centered around a game of some type.  For Jule, this will be an American football game.

All week the students celebrate in preparation for the Homecoming game.  Jule has to dress a certain way each day for school.  Monday was "pink day" and today is "tacky day" (bad style day).  I'll post pictures of each day later, but I can tell you that today it looks like Jule got dressed in the dark.  Her clothes do not match, that's for sure.  We dug through my closets and boxes of clothes last night to find something else for her to wear that was "tacky".  I'm actually glad that we didn't find anything that looked tacky enough.   :)

Friday night will be the "Homecoming" football game.  Generally there is a "Homecoming court" of four or five boys and girls (couples) who have been nominated by the students to see who will be king and queen.  The students of the school vote to determine who wins, and the coronation of the king and queen is generally done at the football game.  It's just a tradition. 

To the left you will see the Homecoming princess and queen from last year at North Pulaski High School, just a few miles from Jule's school.  (I couldn't find a picture of the Sylvan Hills queen from last year.)  This just gives you an example of how the girls dress for Homecoming night.





The king and queen then reign over the Homecoming dance / banquet that is held the next night.  The girls dress in their sparkly dresses and dance the night away.  Boys generally wear a suit.  (Homecoming is not as fancy as Prom, where the boys wear a tuxedo and the girls' dresses are even more formal.  If you don't know what Prom is, I'll explain in a later blog.)  Jule's Homecoming dance will be held in the school cafeteria.

This is the Homecoming Court from this year at Sylvan Hills

I'm not going to give you any clues about what Jule's dress looks like.  You'll have to wait until Saturday night / Sunday morning to see!  :)

The Report Card says....

Jule is flourishing here!  :)  Check out these grades!

"Pink Day" at School

Jule's "Pink Day" outfit at school to celebrate homecoming.

Sunday = Fun Day

We slept late on Sunday and then headed out for a quick lesson on powered paragliding.  My father showed us how the rig works, let the kids try it on to see how heavy it is, and then showed us how the wing (parachute) works with the wind.

Grandpa Marret flying over so that I could get a good picture.

Jule in the powered paraglider rig.

Next, we cleaned up the shop where we were staying and then headed back to Pocahontas for lunch with my mother.  She had made Goulash for us.  I know this is a dish made in Germany at times.  She makes it in more of the Hungarian style.

With bellies full, we headed out to the Eleven Point River about 8 miles from my mother's house.  She has a friend (Fred) who owns a cabin on the river.  This is where she spends most of her days.

This river is very clear and very cold because it's spring fed.  This year, we've experienced quite a bad drought in this part of the country, so the river is extremely low.  On a normal year, the log we're sitting on would be many feet / meters under water.

As we were sitting here, I was telling the girls that the snakes are REALLY bad in this area.  The most feared are the copperheads and the water moccasins (aka "cottonmouth").  These are poisonous snakes and are native to the area.  And just at that time my mother spotted one watching us from a few feet away.  I HATE snakes.  I run and scream like a crazy person.  So at that point we quickly got off the log and back onto ground where I can run.

We (well, they) did a little fishing with worms.  All the kids caught fish.  Marissa caught probably the best one... a Kentucky Bass.  We were doing catch and release, so no fish fry.  :(

Because of homework, we left around 3 p.m. to get back to Little Rock around 5 p.m.

We had a good weekend.  The weather was spectacular, as you can probably tell from the pictures!  Blue skies, not too hot, not too cold.  Juuuuuussssstttttt right.  ;)

Super Saturday

Our weekend plans focused around being outdoors.  We got plenty of it, and we have mosquito bites and sunburned noses to prove it.

We had traveled from Sherwood, Arkansas to Neelyville, Missouri on Friday night, making a brief stop at my mother's house along the way.  What's in Neelyville?  Nothing worth stopping to do, except that it's where my father owns a warehouse.  In this warehouse is a bedroom where I stay when I visit, as well as a bathroom and my father's office.  The rest of it is filled with cars and airplanes and tractors and motorcycles... that kind of stuff.  It's a good place to get in trouble.  :)

The young ones stayed up playing cards, darts and "left,right,center" dice game.  I went to bed early to prepare for an early Saturday.

When we got up Saturday, we decided to go flying in my father's ultralight airplane.  Flying is one of his many crazy hobbies.  The below video is Jule's takeoff.

Jule said that while she was in the air, they flew over some people on tractors.  The people looked up and waved at the plane, and Jule waved back.  She said it was like on movies.  :)

Next we ate a bit of lunch and then decided to see if we could get Jule onto a combine (or harvester, as I think Germans call it.)  We rode the back roads in true redneck style... on a trailer pulled by a four-wheeler.  We sat on boxes and lawn chairs to make the ride a bit easier. My father said that we looked like a band of gypsies, and I think he was right.

While we were on the trailer, we crossed a set of railroad tracks.  The road sat parallel to the tracks for a few miles.  And to our luck, a Union Pacific train passed by.  So, I got the kids to do the sign for "blow your horn."  (I don't know if this is an international thing or not.  I would imagine not since Americans are typically less serious about everything.  But to do it, you make a fist with your hand, put your arm in the air, and do a "pulling down" motion over and over to get a trucker to blow their horn.  It's just a friendly way of saying "hello.")  I had never tried to use this sign on a train.  It's typically only used on the highways with 18-wheeled truck drivers.  Well... the train operator DID blow the horn for us and oh my...  it was deafening!!!!  I had underestimated how loud it would be when we were so close!

Union Pacific is one of the largest cargo train companies in the U.S.

We finally made it to the Arndt family rice crop.  Jule and Marissa loaded up into a large tractor to be taken to the combines.

                    Jule is in this combine.  ===>

American grandpa Marret was giving some information about how rice grows and is harvested.








We returned home (the warehouse) to finish our day.  Jule and Marissa loved riding the four-wheeler.  And for some reason, Jule loved going in reverse.

Also, she rode (and crashed on) the Orange County Chopper bicycle below.  Apparently she spun out on the gravel.  I didn't see it happen.  My father told me he just looked over and saw her lying on the ground.  :)

The next thing we did was teach the kids how to shoot.  Shawn (Marissa's dad) showed Jule how to use the gun safely before we started target practice.  Jule was a natural.  In my family, we teach kids at a young age how to handle guns... not necessarily just to teach them how to use them, but more to teach them how they are dangerous.  Since guns are so prevalent in the U.S. it's better that they understand how to keep it in safety mode, why you should never point it at anyone (even if you think it's unloaded) and how to make sure that there are no bullets in the gun.  Kids will be curious.  It's better to allow them to be curious in the presence of an adult who can teach safety than for a kid to pick up a gun alone and NOT know how to handle it.  This is our philosophy, at least.

While shooting, my father prepared some foods for Jule to try.  My family hunts... not for sport, but for food.  We do not believe in shooting an animal just for fun.  My father smoked pheasant, deer and wild dove (not the white ones!) for us to try.  We also had burgers, hotdogs, rotel cheese dip and chips and baked beans for dinner.  It was all so good!

We watched a few movies later on Saturday night and then went to bed around 1 a.m.  We had a busy Sunday planned, as well... so this old woman needed some sleep!  :)

Rice farming!

Watch out! Jule doesn't have her license yet!

Flying High!

She's in the air!

Our Weekend Plans...

This weekend will be all about the outdoors!

We'll be headed north to visit with Jule's American grandma and grandpa, so a few things are definite... we will have good food and good times!

Friday night we'll make a two hour drive to Pocahontas, Arkansas.  It is a small city of only about 7,000 people.  The city is named for the Native American princess Pocahontas. Pocahontas is where my mother lives.  She will have a good meal prepared for us.

Our weekend travel map...
Point A = Sherwood, AR
Point B = Pocahontas, AR
Point C = Neelyville, MO
Point D = Poplar Bluff, MO

After we eat, we will head east to my father's location in Neelyville, Missouri to get some sleep for our busy Saturday.

And Saturday... Jule will drive the biggest thing on wheels that she will probably ever drive in her life.  As I write this blog, I haven't told her about this yet.  But I'm sure she'll figure it out before Saturday since I can't keep my mouth closed... rather, I can't keep my fingers from typing.  :)

So, my father has arranged for us to help some of the local farmers in their harvest of rice.  She'll learn to drive a tractor (we call it a "combine" pronounced "kahm-bine" in this instance) like the one above.  In America, the farms are very large.  According to my research, the average farm size in Germany is approximately 48 hectares (118 acres in America.)  Here, farms are very large... usually over 1,000 hectares (over 2,500 acres) so the use of large machinery is necessary.

We will do other things on Saturday, as well.  My father has some small motorcycles that we will practice driving, as well as four-wheelers.  (Don't worry... it's all flat land, no trees, with only dirt and we will NOT go fast.)  Also, we will practice shooting a "BB gun" at cans.  No  worry on this either... it's what kids play with and is really harmless.

Sunday we will travel back to Pocahontas to go fishing on the Eleven Point River before returning to Sherwood.  We will be hoping to catch bass fish.

Hope you have a great weekend planned, too!  :)  Much love from America to you!

Jule's first sneakers

We have become quite active here in the United States. We play soccer on Tuesday and Thursday nights while we watch Dylan and the German boys practice, we work out and dance to Michael Jackson. A pair of sport shoes is necessary... plus they're really what the kids here wear to school anyhow. The styles are slightly different between here and Unna. So Jule got her first pair of sneakers and workout gear last night. She likes how comfortable they are.  And she looks so cute in her sporty stuff.  :)

Intro to India 101

I happen to be drawn to people of different cultures.  I have friends here in Little Rock from Mexico, India, The Philippines, Japan, Indonesia and many other places.  As I've mentioned before, the U.S. is a "melting pot" of people from various cultures.  I know it's like this other places, as well, but it is much more evident here.  

So, as a part of Jule's adventure here I want for her to meet and learn from some of these people that I respect very much.  These people have come to America, oftentimes without knowing anyone (just like Jule did), and have made a good life for themselves.

One of these families is the Samantaray family.  They are from India.  The husband, Rashmi, works with me at Verizon.  His wife Rajani and I met in the Masters program at University of Arkansas - Little Rock.  She and I became quick friends, and then I realized that I worked with her husband.  It's a small world!  Rashmi and Rajani have two children:  Kaushal (10 years old) and Manushri (2 years old.)

Rajani was kind enough to invite Jule and I to their house on Sunday to try authentic Indian food.  I know that Rajani can cook very well, so I knew that if Jule is to experience this food, then at Rajani's house is the right place!

The foods that Rajani prepared for us were:

Main Entrees

Basmati Rice

Paratha (layered bread)

Chicken Curry

Potato and Lima Beans Curry

Cauliflower, peas and tomato Curry

Sambhar (lentil soup)

Chips

Dessert

Gulab Jamoon

Falooda with Ice Cream

Paratha

Cauliflower, Peas and Tomato Curry

Chicken Curry

Sambhar

Potato and Lima Beans Curry

Falooda with Ice Cream

Gulab Jamoon

While at the house, I wanted Rajani to share with Jule some of the traditions of the Indian culture.  Rajani explained to us how girls of Jule's age are forced to stay alone in one room for 11 days when their bodies change to become women.  During this 11 days, the whole family and neighborhood celebrate each day with so much food brought to the girl's house.  She told us that this tradition is for two reasons... one to give the girl time to rest while her hormones are changing.  The other is to officially announce to the world that the girl is now ready to find a husband.  (Rajani has clarified that this type of thing isn't followed by everyone... it is a family tradition mainly in Southern India that is becoming less followed over time, especially since many girls want to get an education now.) 

Rajani's family was "old school" and still believed in arranged marriages.  Rajani told Jule how immediately after she emerged from the room, she was bombarded with offers of gold and land to marry this boy or that boy.  Rajani's family was well-respected for their strong values, so Rajani would bring a large dowry (gift) from the boy's family in exchange for her hand in marriage.

Rajani also explained to us things like why Indian women wear a red dot on their forehead.  I was just glad that Jule got a chance to add a few pieces of information to the travel bag that she's carrying in her head!  :)

Anita has asked me why I wanted to have an exchange student.  I have several reasons, but learning from people like the Samantaray family is one reason why I wanted to share my life with a student.  I have been so blessed to be given the opportunity to see beyond the borders of the United States.  The education I've received through the generosity of others is far more important than any degree hanging on my wall.  Now is my time to give back.  :)