Thanksgiving Point - Tulip Festival, by Lamiaa Hadi

Okay, I know the suspense was a killer but here it is - the Tulip Festival, by Lamiaa Hadi

Hi everybody!!! This is my first time writing for this amazing blog, and I am writing about the Festival of Tulips.

Mama Laurel planned it for us with Ms. Laurie, it was so much fun being with the other exchange students, so we started our tour as everyone else, looking around, discovering the beauty of Seema’s favorite flower, taking pictures, and enjoying the nice weather.

So as a part of an AMERICAN EXPERIENCE, we decided to roll down the hill, It was so much fun, we felt dizzy in the first time, but even though we couldn’t stop, it was so way fun.

We took pictures by the waterfall, we watched a little show of tap dancing, we went to the shops and we got a bag of 15-22 donuts, it was YUMMY!!!!

At the end, Mama Laurel and Ms Laurie let us to do whatever we want for an hour and half, so Seema, Cammy, Darby, Amrin and I decided to just hang out and chit chat!!

Photos from the day (captions by Mama Laurel)

Cammy stealing the show from the 3 tulips - Seema, Darby & Lamiaa

Darby trying a Hijab

Here you have Lehi (Utah), Germany, Malaysia, Japan, China, Morocco, Sugarhouse (Utah), and Pakistan.  Ever so Multi-Cultural in front of the waterfalls.

Seema with a coke.

Girls chilaxing.

End of the day - ready for some nap time in the car!!!

Cammy being either nice or mean to Lamiaa???

Sisters rolling down the hill.

Monkeys rolling down the hill.

 Okay - Laurel here, I just want to point out that Lamiaa sent NO photos of any tulips!!!!

For those that wanted tulips in this post - here you go, from me!!!!

I know the pictures of the kids having a blast are so much better.  At least you got a little of both. 

Gabriel says S*&% in church!!!

So I have been telling this story a lot lately and I thought the 3 followers of this blog would like to hear it BEFORE the big Thanksgiving Point day re-cap that Lamiaa Hadi said she was writing by Saturday - she didn't of course say WHAT Saturday, so stay tuned...

Anyway... my Gina Larson - who I could say SO much about here and I never really know what to call her so I am settling today on MY Gina Larson - sounds good.  She invited the silly monkeys Seema, Lamiaa and Gabriel to do a presentation at her LDS Young Women's/Men's group at their Wednesday activity.   Now I don't worry one tiny bit about these presentations as they have done MANY. I did get some traditional treats to share and that is about it.  Of course being a slacker mom, I have never stayed for a presentation and this time I did. 

Gabriel started off the presentation talking about Palestine and how close he lives to Bethlehem and showing pictures of his city etc.  He talked about his experience in Utah and what all he has done and did a very nice job of showing who he is and his values and culture.

Then he started talking about American teens / students perception of all of them as exchange students as they are from the Middle East or for Miaa a covered Muslim woman - well he explained that many people think they are ALL terriorists and they are NOT.  He said what do we look like we are carring  bombs and going to blow up S*&%.   I secretely hoped that the audience of young adults thought with his accent he said ships.  I think they got it though.

In the car I hit him - ever so gently on the shoulder - and said, Gabriel, you don't say S*&% in church.  What the heck (or close to that) were you thinking.  He says, I don't know it just came out.

We all giggled and said the only thing Gabriel has in his backpack is chocolate, not bombs!!

The moral of the story is - you decide.

Photos from the night.

Greek Easter w/ Christopher

To read about the kiddos experience with Greek Easter click here to link http://christopher-whosyourdaddy.blogspot.com/2012/04/extra-special-easter.html to the FABULOUS, Christopher Katis's blog "Who's Your Daddy".

Love him.

Easter Sunday, April 8, 2012

Easter Sunday holds a few traditions in the Ingham household.  Even without a lot of religion, we make it fun and I am the first to admit I have no clue how a bunny, jellybeans, eggs and candy are mixed in with any kind of Christianity - so in my usual fashion, I take the fun part.

We have for the past several years gone to the Sunday Brunch at the Oasis Cafe.  They have lots of delicious items and several are vegetarian and so it works for our crowd.  This year the party consisted of Meg DeAngelis, Mike Feehan and his lovely daughter, Olivia also Merline Leaming, Claudia Luttrell and Marian (Grandma) & Heather Ingham, Seema and me.  A wonderful party of 9.

Now for the past several years since Bella was this little...

or 5 years old we have had an annual "drinking" contest that began with the above chocolate bunny!!!!  Here is how the tradition got started.  Marian had received the above bunny as a gift and brought it to brunch and said who wants it... well we all kind of looked around and in no time flat, Bella said lets have a drinking contest to see who WINS this bonus item.  We did and guess who won...

Well if you guessed, Bella you would be correct.  This is how the tradition started and continues to this day.  This year Bella had plans with her immediate family BUT traditions are traditions and the contest continues.

 Olivia and Seema getting their water ready for the contest

Seema taking this very serious per usual..

I think Mike isn't even trying and Heather has an eye on Meg & Claudia.

Marian hugging the winner!

Seema took first and Olivia came in third.

And Merline with her champagne took second place!!!  Is she the cutest lady EVER!!!

THEN... the EASTER EGG HUNT!!!

John and Sonya hosted a marvelous egg hunt.  Darby & Lamiaa joined us for the roll... Thanks John Uncle &  Sonya for the fun.  I am going with a photo is worth a thousand words.

That was Easter 2012!!!

 

A few fun things we have done this Spring!!

First, for my followers, we are still waiting on the mistaken absence to be excused - thanks for reading my rant, I get that it is a small thing, but still gets me fired up if I think about it.  According to the Principal he is quote "working on this".  So far 2 weeks...again, you can't fix stupid...

MOVING ON..
We have done a few fun things and some firsts - so in random order... the first jump on a trampoline..

The wonderful, Christopher Katis took the kids to an Orthodox Greek event that happens the Friday night before Orthodox Greek Easter.  They had a wonderful time seeing traditions and ceremonies of another religion.  BUT - everyone likes a good jump on the trampoline prior to heading to church.  All of these monkeys had never been on a trampoline.  I think Seema & Lamiaa spent as much time on their bottoms as they did on their feet.  You can see from the faces that they were having fun and from the hand position of Lamiaa, I think see is trying to stay standing vs. pulling the other down...I think!

Another fun event... Beauty & The Beast.  For those of you have have seen the Disney movie, you would love the live musical.  The costumes, lighting, music and special effects are truly AMAZING!  Alex & Joe invited Seema to use Grandma Elaine's :( seat.  And the cute Brent Jensen was trapped in Vegas..so both girls were able to go!!!  Thanks Alex, Joe & Brent for making this happen.

ANOTHER FUN NIGHT...

Laurie, the PAX coordinator in Utah County invited all the kids to come and participate in the Renaissance Festival at her children's school.  It is a wonderful charter school that has a huge focus on diversity and international affairs.  They teach Chinese, Arabic & Spanish at all school levels.   The monkeys were asked to have a table and then do a short presentation.  Look how cute they are.

See... we have FUN!!!

Coming Soon Easter & Spring Break.... Gotta hop...

You can't fix stupid!

I say this all the time to Seema on a variety of things relating to life.  I really believe this and sometimes the stupid isn't a person being stupid, but rather policies etc...

So here is the rant of the day.  Seema was mistakenly marked absent in her Algebra class.  No big deal, mistakes happen.  Let me say right here, right up front - I have the fullest respect for anyone that teaches, my BFF Mr. Warren is a teacher.  It is a HARD job and one that I would run so fast from teaching that your head would spin.

Moving on - so I said to her let your teacher know she made a mistake and have her correct it.  Seems super easy and straight forward - a SIMPLE mistake.  Well, no... actually the teacher can't correct the mistake - I am assuming here due to some backwards policy at the admin level.  And Seema ALSO can't correct it by talking to the school registrar.  ME - the PARENT has to fix it... REALLY!!!  WHAT THE HELL... I am the only one responsible enough to correct a mistake - I don't think so.  I am the LEAST responsible and I don't want the responsibility. I want my kid to be able to learn that advocating for herself is a good thing, not the school tossing out barriers to her learning that lesson.  I want the teacher to be empowered to make mistakes and fix them.  BUT - NO neither can occur with whatever cockeyed policy or thought went in to saying 3 people at the school can't fix a simple absence but rather the parent has to tackle the issue.

I am not saying I don't want to parent or be responsible but more often than not it is the policy to pass the torch to the parent rather than hold the kids accountable.  What are we teaching them?  I can't tell you the number of releases and forms I have signed - to the point that Seema really needs to learn to forge my signature.  Releases and forms that say I understand and my kid has my permission or I will be responsible.  I honestly can say I don't recall having my parents sign a bunch of stuff for school and truthfully I don't recall forging it either.  We as a society have gotten so far in to pass the buck that we forget that you can fix stupid if you actually take time to teach accountability, responsibility, constructive criticism, healthy debate and the like.

In the end though that may seem far to Pollyanna for most and for me as well.  So I fall back to that you can't fix stupid, just learn to go around or for me send a simple (and nice) e-mail to the registrar and ask that she correct the mistake. 

All is well...Mistakes happen and if you really really want you CAN fix stupid, but why try?

Parent Teacher Conference

I went to my first PTC as I was unable to attend in the first term due to work obligations. I will say though, I took the advice of my good friend Chuck and sent ALL of Ms. Seema's teachers an e-mail saying I was unable to attend and if they had concerns or if I could meet another time, I would make that happen.  I heard back from 2 teachers!  I met with one and the other said all was good.

With that as my preview here is what happens when you actually show up.  I was smart and made all my appointments 10 minutes apart as each conference is 5 minutes.  The first teacher was awesome, she teaches Medical Terminology.  She loves Seema and of course she is doing well...no problems.  Great, I move on.  Next Language Arts - again, no worries they (the teacher and student teacher) love her and love that she stands when asking a question.  She wants to do a presentation on Pakistan and they are excited to hear that. 

Moving on all is going well until I hit Chemistry... I wait in the hall for my time - which in reality is past my time because the teacher is running late.  No big deal, I can hang.  She comes out and says, oh, Seema is in the student teachers class and he is doing conferences in the room next door.  OK - I walk on over and NO teacher.  Then this conversation took place: 
I ask the actual teacher and she says, OH - he is also teaching Spanish, so he could be down in that classroom. 
Me: HHMMMM...okay, should I wait???
Actual teachers states that I can go down to Ms. Eberts room and he MAY be there. 
Me: uummmm...
Actual teacher: Do you know where Ms. Eberts classroom is? 
Me: Well no (now let me say, I was trying SUPER hard not to let my face give away what I was thinking which was - REALLY, HOW THE HELL WOULD I KNOW WHERE MS. EBERTS CLASSROOM IS???) 
Actual teacher: It is by the Library.
Me: Oh okay (AGAIN, ME THINKING, LADY THAT DOESN'T HELP ME AT ALL BECAUSE - I DON'T GO TO SCHOOL HERE!!!!!)
Actual teacher:  I can show you on the map. 
She shows me and can't be SURE which classroom it really is.
Me: Thanks....and walk away thinking (WELL UNLESS THIS GUY CAN APPARATE BACK UPSTAIRS TO HIS CLASSROOM WHERE HE HAS AN APPOINTMENT IN THE 2 SECONDS LEFT IN OUR 5 MINUTE CONFERENCE WE ARE DONE WITH CHEMISTRY...)
I walk to the next conference...muttering in my head how ridiculous that interchange was.
Next conference... great, a couple of missing assignments that if she turns in will bring up her grade... NOW - fast forward to a week later... I remind Seema that her biology grade is a C+ and to get it up she needs to turn in the 2 assignments.  She has NO clue what she has missed.  She goes in at lunch to talk to teacher ONLY to find out that she turned them in first and he didn't RECORD her marks.... Now she has an A-.  REALLY, REALLY, REALLY - COME ON PEOPLE!!!  I GET THAT TEACHING IS A ROUGH JOB AND I ADMIRE ANYONE THAT IS WILLING TO TAKE THIS CHALLENGE.  HOWEVER, I THINK THE MOST SIMPLE THING OF RECORDING A GRADE SHOULD BE THE EASIEST PART OF THE HARD HARD HARD JOB.
My next appointment is with her Internship advisor. I get to the room I am told only to find again an empty office.  I ask the person in the adjacent office, she says, oh, I don't know where she is. She picks up the phone to call and then tells me she has no idea where she is and can't answer if or when she will come back or really anything... instead of having another RIDICULOUS conversation I take this time to capture Seema's counselor to ask him to remove her from Debate B5/6.  She actually isn't taking this class this semster and basically is getting marked absent every day... because during that time she is marked present in another class...GGRRHHH.
And my last conference is with her Ceramics teacher.  He is a nice guy that tells me he spends his classtime answering questions.  I know Seema struggles in this class due to what she says is her small hands.  I tell him this is her hardest class.  He tells me she needs to follow the instructions and not jump ahead when she gets frustrated.  OKAY OKAY.. I will let her know and say thanks and leave thinking, if my kids HARDEST class is ceramics ~ all is well.  If she makes a pot it may not hold water - who cares!!!

Go Highland Rams!!!!