Bio: The Alexander Family

By now, you may feel like you know the Alexander family.  They are, obviously, my best friends in this area and for good reason.  They're good people.

Shawn Alexander and I grew up together in Poplar Bluff, Missouri -- about three hours north of here.  We graduated from high school in the same class.  We parted ways, as did all of us, expecting to never see each other again.  But along came Facebook and our 15-year reunion.  I signed up for a Facebook account in 2008 to find people for the reunion, mainly.  Then one day when sitting at work I got a call from Shawn.  We found out that we live only about 15 miles apart down here in Arkansas (and had been this close for MANY years), and the rest is history.  Shawn works for a large company called Pitney Bowes and he has several hobbies, one of which is wood crafts.  Shawn is extremely talented and makes beautiful things from furniture to finely-crafted pens from rare woods.

Shawn's wife, Wimee, has since become one of my best friends.  I think of her like a sister.  Wimee is originally from The Philippines.  She became a physical therapist in college and then was recruited to the US to work here.  She met Shawn in Poplar Bluff while working at a hospital there.  Wimee today works with young children on the Little Rock Air Force Base.  Wimee is a great example of a wonderful mother to her children.  I'm not sure how she manages the schedules of three kids, but she somehow does.  She has a kind and loving spirit, and she's quite fun to be around.  The one thing I must mention is how GREAT she is at cooking.  Jule hasn't experienced Wimee's Filipino food yet, but surely she will before she leaves.

You've undoubtedly seen the three kids in pictures on this blog.  Jordan is the oldest boy.  He'll turn 16 in just a few days.  Dylan is just one year behind him.  Both boys are smart and are in a special school here for gifted and talented students.  They have very different personalities, but I like each of them for their quirks.  Marissa is 10 and has taken on Jule as a big sister.  (Wimee told me last week that Marissa will be upset when Jule leaves.)  Marissa is your typical pesky little sister.  She likes to start trouble with Jule, and Jule always teaches her some good lessons.  (Like the cupcake pictures you've seen here.)  Marissa is a very "girly girl" and loves to have her nails and make-up done.  This is my job normally.  :)

If you've ever had friends you can depend on 100%, you know the comfort and joy of surrounding yourself with people like the Alexander family.  They are important to me in so many ways!  I am grateful for their friendship and how they have welcomed Jule into their family!

Jule's Halloween Costume

BABY JULE ON HALLOWEEN!

Jule decided on a functional Halloween costume.  We found this cute "one piece" pajama set at one of my favorite stores, Target, for only $20.  So she got a costume and something warm to sleep in.  Good pick!

Happy Halloween from America!

Halloween is a BIG DEAL here in America for kids and adults alike!  Jule will be attending a Halloween party with her friends Andrea and Daani.

Here is our Halloween gift to Benedict (Jule's brother)!            :)

And here is Jule's Halloween pic!

And more funny pics from our trips to Halloween stores!

Corn Maze

We decided to go through Schaefer's Corn Maze tonight since it ends tomorrow night (Halloween).  We were a bit disappointed with the maze.  The corn stalks were really short this year since we had a drought in Arkansas, so it wasn't too difficult to figure out how to get out of the maze.  But here are some memories...

The maze in 2012

Children of the corn?

Andrea couldn't help herself... she must eat the Jule corn.

Apple Bottom Cheese

This post is mostly an "inside joke" for Jule's memories...

Apple Bottom cheese, boots with the fur (the fur)... the whole club wuz lookin' at her...

Here's the "apple bottom cheese" she was wearing in the club with her furry boots:

Apple Bottom JEANS

Jule made the Honor Roll!

I received Jule's grades last week as well and attended my first "parent-teacher conference" at Jule's school.  I am happy to report that I have an HONOR ROLL STUDENT!

Making the "honor roll" is a big deal in American schools.  This means that Jule is one of the top students in the school and has over a 3.5 grade point average.  Usually students get special recognition at the end of the year and their names printed in the newspaper!  This is also something that they place on college/university applications.  See below for an explanation of American school grading.

In America, we have only four passing grades.
A = 90% to 100% = 4 points
B = 80% to 89.9 % = 3 points
C = 70% to 79.9% = 2 points
D = 60% to 69.9% = 1 point
F = 0% to 59.9% (this is a failing grade) = 0 points

So Jule has seven classes.  She made six A's (24 points) and one C (2 points).  Her GPA (grade point average) is therefore (24 + 2) / 7 classes = 3.7 grade point average.

Why did Jule get a C in a class?  Well, first let me say that her grade was 79.2% -- so ALMOST a B if you look at the chart above.  However, you should know that this class is a 12th grade Anatomy class and is VERY hard.  Her "C" grade was exceptional considering the difficulty + the issues with translating medical terms.

Jule has told me that she's doing better in school here than in Germany as far as grades are concerned.  You may think that American school is just easy, but you should ask her about the differences between our schools and German studies.  Jule's books are HUGE in comparison to her German books.  She reads quite a bit.  She also has many tests (sometimes one test per week in each class) as well as big class projects and quizzes and writing assignments.  In addition, she has each class every day.  Usually when an assignment is given, it is due the next day.  So, perhaps American school is NOT that easy!  She is doing VERY well!

Hot Springs

Sunday we took a drive down to Hot Springs, Arkansas to enjoy another beautiful fall day!

Jule next to one of the fountains that pipe up the hot water from the springs.

Here is a little information about Hot Springs from Wikipedia:  Hot Springs is traditionally best known for the natural hot springs that give it its name, flowing out of the ground at a temperature of 147 °F(64 °C). Hot Springs National Park is the oldest federal reserve in the USA, and the tourist trade brought by the famous springs make it a very successful spa town. It is famous for being the childhood home of President of the United States Bill Clinton. As Hot Springs National Park was the oldest federal reserve, it was the first to receive its own US quarter in April 2010 as part of the America the Beautiful Quarters.

The city takes its name from the natural thermal water that flows from 47 springs on the western slope of Hot Springs Mountain in the historic downtown district of the city. About a million gallons of 143-degree water flow from the springs each day. The rate of flow is not affected by fluctuations in the rainfall in the area. Studies by National Park Service scientists have determined through carbon dating that the water that reaches the surface in Hot Springs fell as rainfall in an as-yet undetermined watershed 4,000 years earlier. The water percolates very slowly down through the earth’s surface until it reaches super-heated areas deep in the crust and then rushes rapidly to the surface to emerge from the 47 hot springs.
A small channel of hot spring water known as Hot Springs Creek runs under ground from an area near Park Avenue to Bathhouse Row.

While in Hot Springs, we ate lunch at Rolando's and stopped for take-home cupcakes from Fat Bottomed Girl's Cupcakes.  We also had fun in a few of the swanky shops that line the downtown area in Hot Springs.

Mini-Golf, Hayrides & Hibachis

Today was gorgeous outside again.  Fall is here and the temperatures are getting cooler, so we're trying to spend as much time outside before it gets too cold to enjoy the outdoors.

We started our day by playing mini-golf in Cabot, Arkansas.  This was Jule's first time at mini-golf.  We all need some practice!  We were quite horrible.

Next we headed out to Scott, Arkansas to a small farm that has hayrides during the Halloween season.  It's called Scott Pumpkin Patch.

Jule and Dylan Alexander.
Jule, Dylan and Jordan are all 15 years old at the same time right now!  :)

Jule and I beside a Cypress tree.
Cypress trees were a favorite of my grandfather (my dad's dad) and he raised groves of them.
He also gave saplings to anyone who stopped by the house and asked people to name the tree after him.  :)

This was our "look funny" picture.

Lastly, we took Jule to Crazy Hibachi in North Little Rock for a hibachi show and good eats.  We ordered sushi again and Jule is now a big fan!  :)

Jule and our sushi at Crazy Hibachi.

Wimee, Dylan and Jule at the hibachi table.

We Survived "The Torture Chamber"

Tonight we visited Jule's first (and possibly last) haunted house that is typical around the United States in coordination with Halloween.  These usually begin around the first of October and end the first Friday in November.  Jule tells me that in Germany there are similar things, but that they're not so scary and there are not so many.  Just in this area there are probably 10 to 15 of these houses of terror.

The haunted house we chose is one in Benton, Arkansas called The Torture Chamber.  I had read reviews of this one, as well as some information about the man who designs the maze of terror each year.  It sounded like this one, if any, would give Jule an experience that she would not forget, if we made it out.

The last time I had been to a haunted house production was when I was about Jule's age.  I got so scared that I punched one of the ghouls in the face and ran.  The ghoul chased me through the maze with a chainsaw and tackled me to the floor in order to take me out to the police.  I got in big trouble.  I am, obviously, not the kind of person to punch anyone in the face.  It was a pure reaction.  They say that humans have a "fight or flight" reaction when faced with fear.  I had a fight AND flight reaction.  To avoid going to jail, I promised the policeman that I would never return to a haunted house.  For over 20 years I have kept that promise.  Until tonight.

We went to The Torture Chamber with Wimee Alexander and my friend Jessica Keane.  Jule was going to enter with Jordan Alexander and his friends who were already there, but she decided at the last minute to go in with the old folks because she "wanted to hear me scream."  I think she heard plenty.

Here is an example of what we experienced.  We couldn't take video in there, but Jule and I agree that this video is very close... except that our experience was much darker.  Most of the time you couldn't see anything in The Torture Chamber.

And below is the OFFICIAL audio of all of us.  (If you listen at the beginning, you can hear a monster telling me to put my phone away.)  It's ten minutes of screaming, so it won't be of much fun for most of you to hear.  I had put my cell phone in my pocket.  But Jule's brother Benedict might enjoy hearing his sister scream.  You can only hear her occasionally because the phone was in my pocket and I was terrified.

I don't remember any of this.  I think my brain blocked it all out.  I especially don't remember screaming like that!

Bio: Jule's American Grandma & Grandpa

Today is my birthday.  I am now 37 years old.  I've always thought that birthdays should be more about the person who GAVE life than the person who was born.  So today I'll tell you a little about Jule's American Grandma and Grandpa.

On days where I have not much to report, I'll be writing some very short biographies about people in Jule's life here in America.  This is, again, for her memories much later on.

My mother, Nancy, was born into a family of nine children.  She's somewhere in the middle of those nine.  Her father (Lloyd) was a WWII veteran who was wounded in battle, but continued on after recovering to help liberate Auschwitz.  He later became a forest ranger.  Her mother (Johnnabelle) stayed at home with the children, of course.  The family struggled to make ends meet.  My mother saw some of the worst of times as a child.  She began working at age 14 to help the family with expenses and didn't stop working until about seven years ago.  Her work ethic, as well as the poverty she endured as a child, made her a great mother.  She made sure that I would never be hungry or cold, that I would have a good education, and that I would be protected from the evils of the world.  She wanted to make sure that I had a better life than she did.  And she succeeded.  Today she spends her days in retirement with friends and, mostly, fishing on the Eleven Point River where Jule went fishing earlier this year.

My father, John, is the oldest of three boys to my grandfather J.R. and grandmother Marie.  (Well, my grandmother's name was really Thelma, but I didn't know that until after she passed.)  My grandfather was a farmer, so my father grew up around plants and animals.  My father is a Vietnam War Veteran.  He met my mother while they were both working at Southwestern Bell, a telecommunications company that was large in the 1970s.  They married and I came along a few years later.  He went to college and got an accounting degree when I was young.  He then began opening businesses.  He has done well in business, so he has been retired for many years.  He still does the accounting for the one remaining business, but he spends most of his time traveling and having fun.  You've seen pictures from Jule's weekend at my father's.  Lots of fun things to do up there.  When Jule leaves, I'll be living up there part of the time.

Jule is Crocheting!

In Jule's Arts & Crafts class she is crocheting!  This is like knitting, but with only one hook.  She's doing very well.  And for some reason, the cat (Fizzgig) thinks she is the best crocheter ever!  He is fascinated with her work!  The below picture is the FIRST TIME he has come to Jule to sit beside her.

Vacation Day 4: Washington D.C.

THIS BLOG POSTING IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION

There is so much to see and do in Washington D.C. that you really must stay for a week to take it all in.  But obviously we didn't have that much time, so I thought it would be best for us to see the city via open-top bus.

Washington D.C. is fairly easy to get around using a map.  The streets are named for states east to west and are numbered north to south.  The one confusing thing about the city, though, is that it's full of squares on the intersections of these streets.  At the square, though, there may be ten streets spurring off the square, so you must be really careful when going THROUGH the square that you stay on the street that you intended.  When trying to get to our first bus stop I wasn't so careful.  We walked for over an hour to get to a place that was only fifteen minutes from our hotel.  My fault.

Once we FINALLY got on the bus we headed to the top.  We started our tour by going through Georgetown, a historic neighborhood in Washington D.C. that is pretty "hip" due to the large number of college students and brightly colored homes that line the old street.  Georgetown is actually older than Washington D.C. by about 40 years.

Example of the unique Victorian-style homes in Georgetown.

We also rode the bus through Foggy Bottom (where most the University students live) and along the Potomac River.  The Smithsonian museums closed at 6:00 on Saturdays, so we didn't have time for much sight-seeing during the day.  We decided that there were two of the nineteen museums that we wanted to see the most:  The Natural History Museum and the American History Museum.

We stopped first at the American History Museum.  There are so many things to see, but here are some of the highlights...

Smithsonian American History Museum highlights...

Saturday night... 

We decided to walk the streets of Georgetown to mingle with the crowds on Saturday night.