The Christmas Tree

I put the Christmas tree up on Monday.  We don’t have a very big tree, and we have a LOT of ornaments.  Normally, we put the tree up in one corner of the living room.  I’m not sure why we chose that spot initially, I think it was just the path of least resistance.  If we put the tree there, we don’t have to move any of the furniture. 

 

I thought maybe since our ornament collection is getting rather large, we should put the tree in the front window.  That way we can put ornaments all around the tree, not just on the side facing out from the wall.  I was thinking this way the tree doesn’t look so crowded, and you can see it from the street, lending a more festive air to our house. 

 

So, I rearranged the furniture, put up the tree, and called the C-man up to see it.  He was home sick from school, so I was soliciting his opinion.  I was also trying to tear him away from the television for a couple minutes.

 Calvin came upstairs, looked at the tree in all its lit-up glory in front of the window, and said “mom, that’s not where it goes”.  Then he turned and walked away.  I suppose I could have used this opportunity to explain to him that change can be a good thing, and so on and so forth.  I could have explained why I put the tree in the window and told him he would get used to it.  In the end, however, I didn’t do either of those things.  Instead, I sighed, put the tree in the corner and put the furniture back the way it was. I probably should have handled that differently, but I just decided this wasn’t a battle worth having.  Or, as I have been known to say:  this isn’t the hill I want to die on. 

 

I’ll try again next year. And this time I will give the children fair warning.  I will start telling them I plan to put the tree in the window sometime around Halloween.

School Plans Update

I just got back from a meeting with Princess O’s teacher, Mrs. R.  She had helpfully printed out the grade level expectations for 4^th grade, and checked off what Her Royal Highness has already accomplished.  So now I know what to concentrate on while we are in Rome.   

I met with Mrs. K, the C-man’s teacher before Thanksgiving, and she had a lot of helpful advice too.  I’ not so worried about him though.  Second grade seems well within my capabilities, but fourth grade looks a lot more complicated.  

I did find out both of them will be need to study the human body.  I guess I will wander off to Borders this week and look for a good, age-appropriate book.  I’m sure I can find something.  Plus, I should have a 20% off coupon from Borders around here somewhere. That’s always nice.  

I feel better after meeting with them, but I am still nervous about this.  My concerns are two-fold.  First and foremost, I don’t want them to fall behind.  The last thing I want is for one of them to walk into the classroom next year, and be lost.   

On the other hand, I also don’t want to cover so much that they get ahead of their class.  You may think this sounds presumptuous.  However, I have some friends who home school, and they have told me you cover the material a lot faster at home than they do in a traditional setting.  It makes sense when you think about it.  You don’t have to keep stopping for things like assemblies, and you aren’t dealing with crowd control all the time.  

I made arrangements with both teachers for the kids to email the class and send postcards.  I am hoping both classes will send emails in return.  That would be fun.  I also really want them to keep journals while we’re gone.  The C-man hates writing, but I think he might go for it if I let him use the computer.  I think it’s the manual labor he dislikes, not the creative side of it. 

The only other thing I can think of off the top of my head is a typing program for the laptop.  Both children are very impressed with my mad typing skills, and want to learn to type as fast as I do. 

 

Hey, I’m posting from the coffee shop!

Wow, here I am typing on my very own laptop computer.  It is my Christmas present from Tom.  I’m so pleased.  We don’t have the house set up for wireless internet yet, so I am at Panera making sure this all works.  So far so good.  I will continue to use it and get used to this keyboard, but I will wrap up the box and put it under the Christmas tree so I have a present to open.  Yay Tom.

 This should come in very handy while we are in Rome.  I can use it to write my blog entries and then just upload them from studio.  I can also use it to keep a journal without all that pesky hand-writing, and I can use it to keep track of what the kids are doing for school.  And if I get bored, I can use it to write the great American novel.  Because it’s just that easy, right?

I am discovering right now that if you actually use this on your lap, the keyboard is in exactly the right position.  It’s when I put it on the table that things get funky.  Hence the name “laptop” I suppose.  There is something on here called iweb that I will have to fool around with.  But right now it won’t open.  I probably have to restart my computer but  I don’t want to do that right this second.  This is so cool.  I think the children are very jealous.  I’m sure they will want their own computers now.  Too bad for them.

Where is Alonso going?

It has been 12 days since McLaren and Alonso announced they were going their separate ways.  And still no word on where Alonso is going next. 

WHAT IS TAKING SO LONG?!?

 My latest theory is that as part of his separation agreement he can’t announce anything until after the McLaren appeal of the Brazilian Grand Prix.  That is set for tomorrow in London.  I realize that doesn’t make any sense, but I’m grasping at straws here. 

I really thought Alonso would make an announcement within a couple days of the split.  But, as usual I was wrong.  I am always wrong about this stuff.  I have never once guessed a silly season move correctly.  I’m terrible at this. 

Originally I said the likely suspects were Renault and Red Bull.  Well, the deadline Renault gave Alonso has come and gone.  Plus, now the Renault team are also being investigated for spying.  I think maybe Alonso was dragging his feet on the Renault deal because he knew about the spying allegations and the upcoming investigation.  It was McLaren who made the accusation after all.  And, I also think it’s possible Flavio Briatore originally gave Alonso that November 6^th deadline because he knew the spying allegations were coming too, and wanted to lock Alonso in before they hit.  I have a lot of theories, most of them completely baseless.  Just like this one. 

The Red Bull rumor said Alonso and Ross Brawn were both signing with them.  Well, Brawn signed with Honda this week.  Perhaps the source of the rumor just had the wrong team?  But then what are they waiting for?  Why not announce Alonso ASAP to strike fear into the hearts of your opponents?  He is at 2-time World Champion after all.  Again, I go back to thinking he can’t announce anything until some date predetermined in his separation agreement. 

All I know is this is making me crazy.  I just want to know already.  So, Fernando, hurry up will you?

Not Just One Bed After All

Whew!  I had an email last night from the coordinator of our Rome Program, and she says there are a twin bed and a futon in the second bedroom.  Huzzah!  Of course, this means I don’t get to go to Ikea.  But I printed out the maps and directions to the two Roman Ikeas anyway.  You never know what you might need, and Ikea has everything we could possibly need for the apartment.  And cheap too.  

I guess Princess O will be getting the futon.  I think she and the C-man had a deal that she got the bigger bed in Rome since he had the bigger bed in Sydney.  At least, she thinks she has a deal.  I’m not sure the C-man was actually involved in that negotiation.  

I’ve been looking at apartments available for rent in Rome online.  Just to get an idea what to expect.  So far they all look small but cute.  This is encouraging.  

In other news, there really isn’t any other news.  I plan to go through all the home school stuff in the next couple days so I can meet with their teachers after Thanksgiving. 

 They also have to take the Iowa Test of Basic Skills sometime in the near future.  The home school assistance office had suggested we take them before we leave, but I have made an executive decision and we will do it when we get home.  We just have too much going on right now with the holidays approaching and extracurricular activities.  The tests are very time consuming, and I don’t want to overwhelm them, especially the C-man who is only in second grade and hasn’t taken these tests before.  If we wait until we get home we won’t have to squeeze them in.  We will return before school lets out so we will have loads of time with nothing to do because their friends will still be in school.  The ITBS will give them something to do besides fight with each other and watch the Disney Channel.  Won’t they be pleased?

Problem Solved

OK, so I think I’ve solved the only one bed problem.  I was talking to my brother on the phone about it when I had a moment of inspiration.  And it can be summed up in one word:  Ikea.  I think it was my brother who suggested there might be an Ikea store in Rome.  I checked and there are not one, but two.  Oh, huzzah!  

I looked on the Italian Ikea website, and it looks like they have futon chairs that fold out into a twin size bed for about 70 Euros.  So now the worst-case scenario is we squeeze in for a night or two, then I get to go to Ikea.  

I love going to Ikea.  I have been known to travel great distances and cross state lines just to wander around the store with no intention of buying anything.  I especially like the little fake “apartments” they have set up throughout the store.  Tom, on the other hand, hates Ikea passionately, so I’m assuming he will not be joining me.  That’s fine.  This way I can take my time and wander around, and eat meatballs.  I will have to take a taxi home with my flat-pack, but that shouldn’t be too much trouble.  Or maybe I can have it delivered.  I wonder how you say that in Italian.  I’ll have to look it up. 

Ah, nothing like the satisfaction of averting a crisis.

Only One Bed?!?

Tom told me last night that he hears our apartment is really small.  OK, that’s fine.  I was expecting that.  I know European apartments, in general, are much smaller than what people are used to here in the States.  Then he dropped this bombshell:  there may only be one bed in the kids’ room. What?!?  Are you kidding me?!?  Only one bed?!?   They can barely stand to sleep in the same room, much less in the same bed.  Oh, that is so not going to work. 

I guess in a worst-case scenario each kid could take one bed, I can alternate sleeping with each kid, and Tom can sleep on the couch.  Of course that is assuming that the bed in the children’s bedroom is big enough for two people.  What if it’s a twin?  Then what do we do? Tom is under orders to get more information pronto.  Meanwhile I will sit here and panic. 

It is certainly better for me to have these little Moments when the children aren’t looking so I can figure out the best possible spin to put on this for them. 

Or maybe I won’t have to.  Maybe they can just find us another bed.  Please please please please please.

A Few More Things Done

I’ve been spending a lot of time today looking at hotels in Greece, specifically Santorini.  It’s built up a lot since my brother and I were there back in the dark ages.  Why, you may ask am I looking at Greek hotels?  Because we are going to Italy, that’s why.  And what better way to spend my time than by looking at hotels hundreds of miles away from where we will be.  This is called denial.  But, no, it isn’t.  It is called research because we are thinking of going to Greece for a week in May before we come home.  See?  I got more done today than I thought.  Well, that’s a relief.  There is a very fine line between research and frittering away your time on the internet. 

I got a couple other things accomplished today too.  I mailed in the home schooling forms that will allow me to take my kids out of school without the truant officer breathing down my neck.  Although, that would be pretty difficult since we won’t be here.  Those same forms will also let me re-enroll them in the fall even though we won’t have any school records from next semester.  Hopefully, I did it all right.  I sent it to our home schooling assistance office.  The woman I have been working with there has been very helpful, so I am assuming that if I did something wrong she will call and tell me before she passes it on to the Powers That Be. 

I also looked up Italian train passes.  It looks like those are not what we want.  They are only good for 2-7 days of travel in a 2-month period, and they are expensive.  I guess we will just have to buy tickets as we go along.  On the plus side, Princess O and the C-man get to ride for half price because they are both under twelve.

 I guess next I should look up Roman public transit.  However, I am 99.99999% sure that website will be in Italian, and I’m equally sure it will be beyond my rudimentary skills.

So that’s two things done, and one more to add to the List of Things to Do.  Two steps forward, one step back.  Isn’t that always the way? 

We also learned we will have a 2 bedroom apartment in Trastevere.  That’s all we know, and that’s all we’re likely to know until we walk in the door.  Won’t that be exciting?  Apparently Trastevere used to be the Roman red light district, but Tom assures me that it isn’t anymore.  So maybe the children will be getting more of an education than we thought.  We shall see.

Home School Panic

I’m back to being paralyzed by anxiety.  I was doing pretty well there for a while, getting some stuff done, making my lists, and my lists of lists.  Pulling myself together.  And then I realized we are leaving NEXT MONTH, and paralysis set in once again. 

I really need to think more about the home schooling stuff.  We had parent teacher conferences last night and I mentioned to both teachers that I would be in touch about sitting down to go over where the kids need to be when we get back.  The C-man’s teacher was very reassuring.  In a nutshell she said he’s almost hit all the second grade benchmarks already, so don’t worry too much.  So that’s all good.

Then we went to see Princess O’s teacher.  She was also very helpful and said she would be glad to sit down with me and go over materials and everything, and to just let her know when I wanted to meet.  Materials?  I need materials?  I don’t have ROOM for materials! 

I have a second grade math workbook and a fourth grade math workbook, purchased from a local educational supply store.  I also have a kitchen table science book.  It’s called 365 Simple Science Experiments with Everyday Materials.  I thought that would keep us going for a while.  Plus I will have them keep journals and email their classes.  And then we will bring some books, plus I found an English-language library in Rome.  I’m not sure how far it is from our apartment, but we can always make an adventure out of getting there.  I was thinking that would do for reading.  Now I’m not so sure.  Panic sets in yet again. 

The thing is, I am only home schooling them for this one semester.  In the fall I will re-enroll them in their school here.  So I don’t want to spend a fortune on a big home school curriculum that I only need for a few months. 

I guess I should get my act together about this and meet with the teachers soon.  Then I’ll have time to acquire any materials I need.  Put that on the List of Things to Do.  Plus I have to fill out the paperwork to pull them out of school.  I know I have that around here somewhere…

Alonso and McLaren Split

Well, it’s official.  Fernando Alonso and McLaren have parted ways.  Here is the official announcement.  I’m sure this is for the best.  This season was an absolute train wreck.  Now we just have to wait and see where he ends up. 

I would say Renault seems the most likely place.  Flavio sure seems eager to have him back.  He seemed happy there before and nothing would make me happier than to see him go back to Renault and bring that five tenths with him.  Then we’ll see how good Hamilton is at car development and set up. 

Of course, one of the latest rumors kicking around is that Ron Dennis would only release Alonso if he goes to a privateer team.  So that leaves Williams and Red Bull as the two likely suspects.  Perhaps a one year deal at Williams and then off to Ferrari or BMW in 2009. 

I’m actually kind of upset about this, and I don’t know why.  I certainly didn’t want him to stay at McLaren.  It was horrible for him there.  I don’t think he ever got what he bargained for.  And yes, he failed to take Hamilton seriously in the beginning, and he had some anger management issues this year, so he’s not just some innocent victim here.  But I think when they told him equal treatment he expected equal treatment, not just equal equipment. 

From a purely economic point of view I hope he goes back to Renault.  I already have a Fernando Alonso/Renault t-shirt and cap.  I really don’t want to shell out another $200 bucks on Williams or Red Bull kit that I will only need for one year.  Which brings me to my next question:  what do I do with my McLaren stuff?  I have a team shirt and another t-shirt they were selling at the US Grand Prix.  I guess those are now the most expensive pajama shirts I’ve ever purchased.  I obviously can’t wear them anymore.  I have the red ball cap too.  I might give that to Tom.  He’s still a McLaren fan.  I’m most upset about the cap.  It fits me really well, and most ball caps just look stupid on me.  Oh, well. 

Of course, the good new is I won’t have to walk around Italy in full McLaren kit.  I’m sure that would not have gone well deep in Ferrari country.