Margit's profilethe MizesPhotosBlogListsMore  |  Tools Help |
the Mizes |
||||||||||||
|
July 04 Summer 2009Unbelievable, but I haven't written anything in 7 months!!!
Today is July 4 and it is now 05:55 EST. I decided not to go to bed after my shift because we want to go to the yearly Festival of the Eno here in Durham. We decided to go early so we can be back home before it will be too hot outside. The Eno Festival brings many artists to Durham as well as many people who are selling their arts and crafts. Ofcourse there is also a lot of food, evironmental stands and stuff for the kids.
Tonight we're invited to a BBQ (a whole pig) at a colleague's house who will have an open house today.
In February of this year we got a phone call from the AFS representative in North Carolina if we could host a 16year old Chinese boy. After Yerik left us last May we had decided not to host, but only do "crisis hosting". Yifan was supposed to be sent back to China, but Pat and I decided to give him a chance and he stayed with us till June 28. It was quite a challenge and sometimes very exasperating, but both sides made it through till the end!
Again this year we wont host, but I will be a liaison for Varpu, a Finnish girl, that will be hosted by a very nice family here in Durham.
Pat has been very busy with his job and I am still working for Durham 911. I can't believe I've been working there for 3.5years now and I still like it!!
Our center has recently been awarded the Project33 Certification by the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials International, Inc. Only eight other 911 centers in the world have this distinction! We were also re-accredited as an Emergency Medical Dispatch Center of Excellence, the highest distinction awarded by the National Academy of Emergency Dispatch and are in the process of being accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA).
Having all three accreditations is rare, but we hope that we'll get that last one as well.
In April I finally had the chance to meet our youngest grandson and the rest of the family in Holland. I spent two fabulous weeks with Nono,Brigitte,Noah, Isabel and little Lucas! The trip both going as coming back was a desaster. Air Canada lost my luggage both ways and for the way back they forgot to email me that my flights had been changed. Thanks to the people from Lufthansa I was able to fly back via DC and my luggage was brought home the following day.
Chica, our 16.5year old Wirehaired Dachshund started having eye problems but she's doing a lot better now after several trips to the vet and medications. I know she's old, but I've had her for such a long time, she's like one of my kids!! Actually she was Nono's dog, but stayed on with me when he and Brigitte started a life together.
In June I went to Brampton, Ontario, to visit my aunt, my father's younger sister, and celebrate her 81 birthday together with my cousin's family.
My aunt lives in a Dutch Christian Retirement Home which is a great setting for all Dutch immigrants to Canada. My aunt left Holland in 1957 and like her many others.
This retirement home is bi-lingual, so older people who revert back to their original language have no problem there, unlike my mother who, after more than 40 years in Spain couldn't speak Spanish anymore and therefore wasn't able to communicate with the people in the nursing home there.
Pat and I are wondering if I will have that same problem and whether I will then only speak Dutch or Spanish!
Pat and I are planning a trip to Montana and Wyoming and Yellowstone in August. This trip is our wedding gift (5years) and our birthday gitf to each other. Pat will be 57 and I have reached the big 60!
I'm sure I will have a lot to tell you when we come back, but for now this is all folks!!
There are some new picturesof my trip to Holland and Canada. December 27 End of the year's letterFour months have gone by again and it has been a quiet four months, except from my total knee replacement and Pat's FDA submission.
At the end of July my left knee started hurting again . This was very disappointing as I had had surgery on that same knee in May.
By the third week of August I was in so much pain that I had to walk with a cane and going up the stairs to our bedroom was a very painful experience.
Luckily the doctor who had operated me in May could see me on short notice and after looking at some new xrays and the result of a MRI we decided that the only way to get my mobility back was for me to have a total knee replacement. By that time, the last days of August I was not able to go into work any more and was living on painkillers.
Fortunately there was a cancelation and my operation was planned for September 3. I knew that after the operation the real work would start with physical therapy, but the pain would be different. I was operated on Wednesday September 3 and left the hosptial on Saturday September 6. The days in hosptial went by in a blur due to the painkillers I had to take. Strarting in hospital and the following 10days at home I had to inject myself with Lovonox so my blood wouldn't clot.
Pat was with me in hospital as much as possible, but had to go to work as well. Thanks to my lovely brother in law Vinnie, who came over to take care of me, he could concentrate on his job without worrying about how I was doing. Vinnie was the angel in my life during the nearly two weeks he stayed in Durham. He supplied me with food and drinks, took me to physical therapy and even refinished our coffee table while he was here! Great job Vinnie!!
Physical therapy was painful, but I was determined to get as much mobility back as possible. I started the Monday after I left the hospital and that day was very bad, but gradually over the next two months it got better and less painful. In the beginning I had to use a walker, from there I went to using a cane and then nothing!
Also Pat had organized for a machine to be delivered at home. This machine did wonders for bending/stretching my leg. It was put on my bed and set to my height, my leg was put in it and with a remote I could set the pace and angle of the bending. I spent six hours per day in this machine for three weeks. That machine, physical therapy plus the excercises I was given to do at home was my life for two months.
I went back to work on a 50% basis on November 10 and full time on December 1. My knee still hurts when there is a change of weather (don't need to watch the weather channel anymore!) and when it rains, other than that I'm fine. Sometimes a bit of trouble getting out of my car if I'm not able to open the door all the way, but that will improve over time as well.
November 6 was a special day for me, because I had my interview and test to become a US citizen. I passed everything and they told me I would get a letter form the USCIS (old INS) in about two weeks. I received the letter ten days later and was invited to the swearing in ceremony on November 21. Pat was there and about two hundred other people who would be sworn in at the same time. Many had friends and/or relatives with them. It was a nice ceremony and I walked out with a certificate stating that I now was a US citizen! We had a beer and went straight to the office of voters registration and I registered to vote, YES!! After that done we made our way to the central post office in Durham to get the paperwork done (and pay) for a US passport.
Not even two weeks after I applied for the passport, I received an envelope from New Orleans with my brand new US passport! I now am the proud owner of a US and a Dutch passport because I have the right to dual citizenship on the basis that I'm married to a US citizen.
Those months that I was at home,Pat was very busy with a FDA submission and worked at all hours of the day, evening and night (no kidding, once he didn't get to bed until 05:30). He received the answer a couple of weeks ago and, ofcourse, the FDA requested more explanations. He has been working on that like crazy but everything was sent in by the December 23 deadline.
The holidays are very different from the ones last year when we had Yerik living with us. Now there are just the two of us and we decided that we wouldn't give each other any presents, but instead buy presents for a needy family here in Durham. Durham Social Services helped us with that. I felt a lot better doing something for other people more so in this year of recession. Unfortunately, in this country people who have to live off their Social Security or unemployment don't have as much money as those in the same position in European countries.
Yerik is now studying at a university in Almaty, Kazachstan, where classes are in English. He passed all his exams with A's and B's and is now at home for the holidays with his parents in Semey. He's enjoying his classes and thinks about staying at this university to get his Bachelors degree and then try to get a scholarship for the US or UK for his Masters. I hope he'll choose the US, but I'd understand if he goes to the UK. It will be another foreign experience for him and the more the better.
I had to work Christmas Eve and Chrismas day, but I'm off from Friday December 26 and won't have to go back to work until New Years day. It's really nice to be at home for New Years Eve and not to receive bad phonecalls at 911 this year!! We'll get enough on New Years day anyway, but I'll be rested by then and up for it.
The real nice thing is that Pat is off during the same period, so after all the hassle of FDA submissions and my operation, we finally get some quality time together!
For all of you who read this, Pat and I wish you all the best for the new year and above all a healthy 2009.
August 12 Mid-summer letterWhen I opened our blog I realized that 5 months have past and in that time a lot has happened.
When Joost and Laura left, Yerik slowly started to prepare himself to go back to Kazakhstan. He'd decided to go to William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA. instead of AU (American University) in Washington,DC.
Pat and I coped with Yerik's imminent departure each in our own way, but we both knew we'd miss him a lot. However before his departure he had the "joy" of having his Mom being operated (May 6) and being her caregiver, because Dad had to go on a business trip shortly after the operation. As always with whatever he undertakes Yerik did a great job of taking care of me!
My knee surgery went well, but the doctor did say that my knee was like a Swiss cheese (full of holes).
Ofcourse I wouldn't be Margit if something didn't happen to me during the course of my rehabilitation at home. Exactly one week after the operation I fell down the back stairs! I layed there for a while and when I had enough energy to get up I did so. I felt like throwing up as I was in so much pain. Yerik was at the other side of the house and yelling wouldn't have helped at all. He realized that something was wrong when he heard my crutches. Ofcourse he wanted to call Dad, but I kept him from doing that. I asked him what Dad could do at that point. After giving that some thought he agreed that Dad couldn't do anything anyway, so I asked him to help me upstairs to my bed!
Although Anneke and the kids knew, no one told Pat of what had happened until I did some days after he'd come home. Pat took advantage of his business trip to Germany to stop at Oenkerk (Friesland) to see our latest grandson, Lucas. I'm sooo jealous of him, because I haven't seen him yet.
He also visited our dear friend Anneke in Heemskerk and they had some fun time together. Anneke, thanks for the drop!!!
Yerik and his team made State Champions Ultimate Frisbee and we were very proud of him and his team-mates. All of them were invited to our house for a big farewell BBQ later that month.
May 27 was D-day. It was the day Yerik would leave Durham and our home, but not our hearts and lives! He'd been packing, sort of(!) don't look in his closet and in the library. Any one wants shoes, slippers, shirts or school supplies?!!? But that morning he was as ready as he would ever be. It was difficult to say goodbye to someone who came to our home as a complete stranger and had become so much a part of our lives that we now see him as our 3rd son.
He had a long trip ahead of him and although he left on a Tuesday he didn't get home until Thursday. He called us to say he had arrived ok and we were very happy to hear his voice again.
One week later, the night of Monday to Tuesday June 3/4 when watching TV at 03.00AM (I had to work Tuesday night so I stayed up as I usually do) I received a phonecall from Laura. My mother had passed. For me she'd gone a long time ago when her Alzheimer's became worse and she didn't recognize me anymore, but all the same it came as a shock. She was never physically ill, but she passed in a very peaceful way. She was joking with the girls in the nursing home and went they came to give her breakfast she had passed sitting in her chair. Ofcourse I called my work to explain that I had to travel to Spain and was told to take the time I needed.
Many of our friends and old patrons of the Sandwichshop attended her funeral. The following week Joost's cousins Pere and Jaume, who own two fishing boats, took us on the smallest of the two out in to the Mediterranean to throw out the ashes of both my parents. Laura had been so thoughtful to bring my father's ashes with her from
Ibiza.
By the time I got back to Durham it was time to get ready for our summer guest, Leire, from Durango, Spain. She arrived on June 27 as part of a group organized by Terra Lingua/Terre Langue. French and Spanish highschool students who will spend a month with a host family in the US.
She tought us a lot about the Spanish Basque Country and it was great to hear her speak Euskera on the phone with her mother and brother. Euskera is one of the four official languages in Spain being Spanish (Castillano), Catalan, Gallego and Euskera. Euskera is a very old language of unkown origins. The language doesn't resemble any language I know.
Life in the US was all very strange to Leire. There is no towncenter as she is used to in Europe. Kids her age can't go out to discotheques till three or four in the morning. Are not allowed to drink alcoholic beverages and is pretty boring compared to her normal life in Durango.
Still, she had some fun with kids her own age, went to the Mall and the pool with Lucinda, a future AFS student to France where she will live for a year with a French family, and had dinner with some of Yerik's friends Matt, Thomas and Emily.
On July 4 we had a very bad storm over Durham and when we came back (early) from a 4th of Jly party we realized that lightning had struck one of the trees in the side yard and a branch was hanging on an electricity cable. We did have power in the house, but not in the garage and the apartment. The power company acted effectively and came on Sunday july 5 to cut down the branch. Later that week power was restored to the garage and the appartment.
During Leire's stay we had another death in the family, that of our wire haired Dachshund Zidane. Pat discovered a growth near her ear and it was not only bothering her, but also hurt her. I could get a vet appointment the following day and Dr. Heagren did a puncture. What came out was not pus, not blood but a brownish fat-like substance.
We decided to have him operated the next day. At 09:45 I received a phonecall and before even answering I knew the call came from the vet's office with bad news. Gut feeling, 6th sense call it what you want, but the verdict was that there was a cancer in her inner ear to which the growth was connected. The prognoses was bad and after talking to Pat we decided to have him put down while he was under on the operating table.
Pat and I had always talked about what to do after Chica, our nearly 16year old wire haired Dachshund would die. We had decided to look for a suitable German Shepherd, so Rocky, our 4 1/2 year old GSD would have a playmate his own size. I had already looked for breeders on the web and found some near us. Also had a list of phone numbers. When Zidane passed I took the list and called some of them for information and possible litters. One woman in Caswell County, near Durham, had a litter with parents on site and after some talking we realized we both knew someone who had worked for Durham 911 but had passed last year.
I had a "good feeling" and went out there to take a look at the 2 females she had left. One of them was a quiet pup. She played , ate and then dropped down on my feet! I was sold!!! And although I had not discussed this with Pat I took her home with me. When Pat came home he was sold at the first sight of her and now she's the joy of our life and goes by the name of Skye. When I asked Pat: "Do you like her?" He only said "what is there not to like!"
Next week Pat and Skye will start puppy class. That will be an experience for both of them. Pat had never had dogs before knowing me, let alone a pup!!!
He picks up consistent training quite well, but needs to be more firm and consistent, ofcourse he's never has had kids either so that makes it double hard for him. Training dogs is like educating kids, but easier (they don't talk back!!)
Summer is here, but it started late this year. June brought us a lot of rain. We needed rain badly because of the drought and it brought some relief to the lakes we use for our water supply. In July our AC decided to quit when it was in the high nineties (35C and up!!!) and with a humidity of 85% it was unbearable in the house and outside. The old unit was 12years old and we needed a whole new unit. After a few days we realized that, although we have a 2zone system the upstairs was still 86F (30C). They finally found a solution and it appears to be working, but we had to wait til Monday of this week!!
We also got some unsettling news from Yerik. William and Mary had been taken of the list of their State Scholarship Program (AU was still on there, but he had not paid the dues to that University) He was not able to get a scholarship for William and Mary and since he was not registered at AU he could not get in there either!!
This is all very disapointing and he now has to look into going to college in Kazakhstan. There may be a possibility of getting in to AU next year, but I don't know whether he will do that, although both Pat and I wish he would.
Life is good, Pat and I still love each other very much and spend a lot of times with the dogs and our work.
Through the web I reaquainted with a cousin 3rd removed who lives in France. I immediately sent her website to our other cousin in Canada, because they are both very talented artists! Comes from my father's side of the family. It's amazing the similarities they have in their drawings. Marijcke has written children books and done her own illustrations, while Jelly has done murals, paintings and drawings. They are both amazing, but that gene definitely did not get to me, because I'm not artisitc at all.
I wish all of you who read this a very good summer and hope to hear from you. As always drop in at the Summit Place when you near North Carolina.
Margit
April 15 Colleges and more
January 13 New Year 2008 I was waiting for Pat to write about his trip to Washington DC with Yerik but I can probably wait till next year.
Oh well, I will start by giving you a much needed update on our lives and hope that Pat will write something in the near future as well.
Pat and Yerik have been very busy with SAT's, TOEFL and College Applications, while I don't do anything that excited, just keep working for Durhamn911.
We are very proud of Yerik; he's done very well on his SAT's and more than well on his TOEFL. This is a test required by US Colleges/Universities for foreign students and
are hopeful that he will be accepted to one of the colleges for which he put in an application.
You won't believe it but we're nearly ready to move back into our house!!! This coming week we'll know when the final inspection will be done. Our new bedroom is painted, tomorrow Theron, our "personal housepainter" will start on our walk-in closet. After that he'll move on to the guest suite. Part of which is already done (bathroom and toilet), so he still will have to paint the room proper and the walk-in closet. I'll go shopping for some nice shower curtains for that bathroom since we have had our old original clawfoot bathtub refinished and installed, but that one needs curtains at least if you want to use it as a shower!
Light fixtures are all in place in the bathrooms and fans installed in the both of the upstairs rooms and landing.
The new floors upstairs and in the kitchen are now really finished and it all looks great!
I was very lucky that my 5days off started the Friday befor X-mas and we decided to take a roadtrip to New Bern, the first capital of North Carolina. We visited Tryon Palace and had lunch in a quaint tearoom and had a wonderful day which we ended by having dinner at Tylers. The weather was warm, aproxemately 68, for the Europeans not used to Farenheit, that means 20 degrees Celsius!!
We gladly had accepted an invitation to spend X-mas day with our friens Luis and Shari and X-mas morning we set out for Winston-Salem where we met up with other old friends Bert and Fran Gordan and their son Michael. The latter is a senior at Davidson and had invited Yerik to come over to see it's campus and spend the night. That happened somewhere at the beginning of December, so those two knew each other as well. Yerik was very impressed by Davidson and it is one of the colleges to which he applied. Btw fans of Kay Scarpetta novels, its writer went to Davidson as well.
We were served a superb dinner, did some games and talked ....a lot! We were sad to say goodbye later that evening, but Pat had to work the following day and we didn't want to get home too late. Yerik, the lucky one, didn't have to go to school until Thursday. He went over to friend's house Wednesday evening and came home at I don't know what time. Pat and I were already in bed when he called us not to worry, they were about to start watching a movie and he would catch a ride home!
As you can see, he's really "at home" here.
Unfortunately I had to work New Year's Eve and it was what we had all expected...mayhem!!! Pat and Yerik went to play pool and had dinner at a Mexican restaurant. January 1st I was off and could relax at home with a nice fire, good food and drinks.
And yes that was the way we rolled into 2008. The beginning of this year would be very special for us, because we were expecting our 3rd grandchild and ofcourse the house! We would be moving in and make the new upstairs nice and cozy, or as the Dutch say "gezellig".
On Thursday January 10 I called my son Nono and it was if I had "smelled" it, because our second grandson had been born 40minutes earlier!! A healthy boy who will by the name of Lucas. Now we have Lucas, born on the 10th, Isabel born on the 15 and Noah, our big boy, born on the 25th. Nono and Brigitte have some thing with the number "5" I think!
Well one big evet for 2008 down, one more to go: the house.
We will keep you updated about that one too, so stay alert for an email from Durham for the rest of the Mizes' house saga.
November 11 It´s getting there....Xmas?!Yeah,yeah, what did Pat say? End of September? I always said St. Nicolaas, the day that the Dutch kids get their presents from this nice Bishop who lives in Spain and has black helpers (like St Nick´s elves). I thought that he would give me my present i.e. a finished house. Well, it looks like we have to invite our (indoor) painter and his father to our Xmas dinner!!
I really hope that the rest will be finished and all in working condition by then, but just Friday we saw that the diningroom ceiling was sagging. It´s old and all the work being done upstairs didn´t help, so we´re debating to have that replaced as well. Just as we did with the whole front porch! You can see the porch pictures on this blog. The painters are painting it now and ewveryone has done, is doing a great job.
Jeff, our electrician, has put in recessed lights and arranged two places for ceiling fans so we can have two sitting areas, one on the front porch and one on the side.
It´s Sunday and our Mexican (ouside) painters are back and painting the rims around the windows and front door. They work on weekends from 1PM till sunset and during the week from 07.30AM till sunset! And NO siesta!!
The upstairs has now all new flooring and it looks great, although it still has to be sanded and finished, but that´s the last thing that will be done up there. First the carpenter has to finish up as well as the painter. When they are ready upstairs a crew will come in to finish the flooring.
Yerik is doing great. His first report card had all A´s and 2 high B´s. This weekend he and Pat went to visit George Mason and another school in DC. A great opportunity for Yerik to see the nation´s capital. Duke, BC and UNC are also on his list, but we´ll see where he ends up going. It also depends on an exam he has to do in Kazakhstan and the kind of State scholarship he can get. He´s really settled in here. Made friends and is becoming a very good ultimate frisbee player!
Last weekend we did volunteer work at the International Fair in Raleigh and I ate oliebollen!!! This is a typical Dutch sweet that is served in every Dutch household on New Year´s Eve. I might find a recipe on-line and try to make them myself, my father used to make them when I still lived at home and my kids were small.
Pat has been moving from the office/lab they had at BD to a new place in Raleigh and was very, very busy/frustrated during the last couple of weeks. I hope they can now settle in to their new place and things will be better for him. He also spends a lot of time at NC State in the lab there, but as far as I know he´s still enjoying his work.
As far as my job concerned, I sometimes get fed up with the ignorance, rudeness and hysterics me and collegues are exposed to day after day. On the other hand, not one day is the same and it´s an interesting job I´m glad I got into when I arrived here in Durham. I take as many Spanish calls as possible and believe me there are many of them!
On top of all this we had the worry about my son Joost´s back surgery. A year and a half ago he had a hip replacement due to avascular necrosis and this time a hernia (2nd one in the same place in 6years) and pinched nerves between his discs which made it nearly impossible for him to function without pain. They flew him from Ibiza to Palma de Mallorca where he was operated on Thursday. The doctor had told Laura, our daughter in law, that it would be a 3hour operation, but in the end it took nearly 5hours!! The doctor got a surprise when he opened up Joost´s back. He later said it was far worse than what the several CAT scans and MRI´s had shown.
I just talked to him and he is doing better, The first 40days it´s rest and some walking, after that he can start with physiotherapy to strengthen his back muscles.
Things like this makes me hate the distance there is between the US and Europe and the fact that I have a job. I used to just get on a plane and be with him, like I did with his previous back operation in Barcelona. From Amsterdam that´s a 2hour flight and I was always hopping back and forth because of my parents as well.
You see what love does!!! If it were not for Pat I would be in Europe. I admit I sometimes have a hard time not being with my kids, but I guess all parents have that, spècially when they go through a rough time.
Pat always jokes that if anything happens to him I can sell the house and move back (I had alsways said that), but now I say: ¨forget it, all the work we put into this house, all the agony of not even being able to get to my winter clothes (stacked in the barn or the shed) I will stay here and at least enjoy the house and know that all we went through wasn´t in vain!!!
Well this is it for me this time. Pat will write his part, he promised me to do that after coming back from DC!
October 11 We're still alive and not divorced!Some of the people working for us on the house have asked me how Pat and I manage all this and still be together and very much in love. One said that with half of the time we now spent with people working his wife would have left him.
Well I don't know about that couple, but we're still hanging in there and the work is finally in a new stage. The kitchen now has a new wooden ceiling which will be white-washed shortly.
There were some problems with the airducts upstairs, but fortunately we have people working who really think with us and "out of the box" so that problem was solved to everyones satisfaction. The hard pine-wood flooring looks great in the masterbedroom and bathrooms. It looked so nice that Pat ordered more for the guestbedroom and the upstairs landing. The same flooring will go in the kitchen and utility room. And yes, ofcourse, sometime next year the whole downstairs will be done as well!! After that we will really stop!!! Otherwise Pat might be living in the house on his own!!
Yerik is doing great and. as we all thought, Pat is doing great as Dad. They really bonded. I spent a lot less time with Yerik than I would like to, but when I'm off, he's at school and I work 4nights out of the 7. Dinner time is real Dad-Son time and apparently they have some great conversations and try to better the world together.
Ever heard of Ultimate Frisbee? Well I hadn't, but I sure do now!! Yerik is in Jordan High's team. They practice 3x a week and have games/tournaments on weekends. They even won from Chapel Hill High, a school from which they had never won before.Yerik also plays "pickup games" at Forest Hill Park, just down the road, and there he meets all sort of people amongst them quite some Duke students and even faculty. He enjoys interacting with different people and these games provide a great opportunity for that.
His first reportcards were great! He had all A's and 2B's! This taking into account that he had to process the whole American way of doing things, new classes, new school system, new kids etc, but he did it and Pat and I are very proud of him.
Pat wanted to do a small roadtrip as soon as the weather cooled of a bit and the date was set for Oct. 6 with a temperature of mid 80's it was a lot better than the mid 90's we had had for most of the previous three months. Destination...Wilmington!!
Yerik had never seen a sea/ocean in his life! Pat and I were both raised near the sea (North Sea and Mediterranean for me) and ocean (Atlantic Ocean for Pat). The two of them had put a whole program together, so when I cam home that Saturday morning at 05.15 I woke them up after having made coffee. We left before 7 o'clock with me crashing in the back, I didn't wake up until we arrived at Wilmington in a Hardee's parking lot!
After a typical American breakfast we went to the Aquarium, another thing Yerik had never seen. He loved it, but I think the Ocean was even better. He didn't swim, but did get his feet wet! From there we went to see the USS North Carolina, a battleship, now museum, anchored in Wilmington. Having lived in Amsterdam and Barcelona I had seen and been on too many battleships in my life for another one, so I bailed out. Guess what I did?
The ones who answer "shopping" don't know me and the life I currently have, the answer is... I crashed once again on the backseat and slept for another two hours!! I woke up when I heard the car door open. It was great, I was happy and the men were happy! Yerik, ofcourse, had never been on a battleship either and, I think, was very impressed by it and enjoyed every minute of the two hours he spent there.
From there we went to see UNCW ( University of North Carolina in Wilmington). Unfortunately it appeared to be Fall Break and even the student center was deserted, but Yerik got an idea of what the campus was like. To get there it took us an hour, but for all who know Pat that will not surprise them! And guys you know what? I kept my mouth shut and just took in the scenery of the streets we passed and passed again. Just by the time I felt I really started to get a bond with a huge metal framed mermaid that we had passed for the 3rd time Pat found his way and we finally ended up on campus.
At four pm we decided it was time to go back to Durham and set the dogs free! Yerik slept most of the way and by the time we got near our exit on the Durham Freeway Pat and I had decided to top the day off with dinner at Tyler's at the American Tobacco Campus.
We were all tired when we came home and one after another trodded off to bed after a wonderful day.
Pat will start planning his next road trip for the beginning of November when he and Yerik will go to Washington DC for Veterans Day weekend. Unfortunately I have to work all of those days, but it's a good opporunity for Yerik to go to the nation's capital. Knowing Pat, he will be stuffed with history and art!
This weekend they will go to the State Capital, Raleigh, for the State Fair. They will leave early Sunday morning, so they'll be back for an Ultimate Frisbee Tournament Yerik has at 3pm. He will have to play three games! Wonder where I'll be? Right, in bed asleep in the morning and working at night! Someone has to keep watch over Durham!!
So, I think with this everyone is up to date again with what is going on in the Mizes household. Also check out the new photos of the house and roadtrip.
Margit August 24 High School and steamshower/yacuzziHere in North Carolina school starts on August 27 and Pat, Yerik and I have talked a lot about schools, clubs etc. Pat and I went to school, Jordan High School in Durham, even before Yerik came to live with us to register him. Yerik and I went to visit with the councelor and see if he could get in the senior, grade 12, year and take the SAT, National tests necessary for US College applications.
Last week we heard that he was accepted for the senior class and we were all very happy, because Yerik, when he goes back the Kazakhstan can then apply for one of the State scholarships to come over to the US again and study at a College/University here, before going back and set out to be one of the leaders of his country. This is what the FLEX program(Future Leader Exchange set up by the US State Department) is all about.
He and Pat went over the classes Mr. Turner, his counselor, and Yerik had choosen. They made some minor changes and yesterday we attended the "new student orientation" at Jordan. I think it finally sunk in with Yerik that this would be a whole different ballgame of what he was used to! There are nearly 2000 students at Jordan and classes are from 07:30 till 2:30PM (14:30). Yerik was used to boarding school (Monday-Saturday 5PM(17:00)) and was used to go to bed between 11PM(23:00) and midnight. Here he'll have to go to bed/lights out at 10PM(22:00)
There was some discussion as to when he would start his SAT prep-classes and the guys thought "the sooner the better". Mom ofcourse vetoed that! I just could see problems at the horizon if he'd do that. I reasoned with both of them that Yerik had first to adjust to a completely different schedule. Classes here are 90minutes long, he has to get up at 05:30, because he has to be at the bus stop at 06:35. He will have to make an effort in his classes the first weeks to understand everything, although his English is real good. He has to get his "feel" around school, if possible get some friends, join a club, as is common here in the US. So I want to give him at least a month before getting him involved in extra curriculum classes like prep SAT classes, because the first few weeks he'll be exhausetd. Luckily they both realized that my reasoning wasn't that stupid although I'm just a mere woman!!
I know Yerik is apprehensive about school, but also very anxious to get started. He often retreats to his room and studies from the SAT book he has as he was doing last night when I came in to say goodnight. He's a young man with a vision and like the Nike slogan says "he goes for it!"
Monday when I come home from work I start my new life as a Mom of an American high school kid.Make breakfast for Pat and Yerik, prepare bag-lunches for the two of them, see Yerik off and then go to bed and sleep!! Once I was in Yerik's shoes, 40years ago, and now I'm on the other side. I think it helps me to understand the worries and problems that an exchange student may have/erncounter and that's why I'm glad to also be a Liaison for AFS. My liaison student is Sebastian from Argentina and is living with the Staples family not far from where we live here in Durham. He goes with host brother Jay to Riverside High School and I've had my first meeting with him.
I already had a meeting with the family and after seeing Sebastian yesterday and another meeting with the family I feel that he's settling in quite nicely. A liaison has a monthly meeting with the student separate from his host family, one everyone together, a separate one with the sibling(s) and one with the parents. This way everyone can talk freely and if there are any problems they can be straightened out right at the root before it becomes a BIG problem. A liaison is there for all of them 24/7 in case opf emergencies.
Yerik has a liaison as well, but unfortunately we haven't seen or spoken to her yet.
About the house, well I already said to Pat that it will be my St. Nicolaas present, being the day (Dec.5) when kids in Holland get their presents opposed to Dec.25, X-mas, when the ones in the UK and US get theirs. It seems like a never ending story. Half of the kitchen ceiling is gone in order to put plumbing work in for the upstairs. Check out the latest pictures under House Renovations.
The windows on the second floor are in now, so little by little things are getting done, although the second floor is still one big open space!
I hope they will start putting the floors in next week, then put up the walls and get going!!!
The only extravagance Pat and I allowed us in this whole renovation thing is a steamshower/yacuzzi unit and guess what....? This is bringing us problems, at least the plumber makes problems. Not up to North Carolina standards, and it's differetn from what he's seen in these units etc. The electrician doesn't see any problems form his side, but we need to get the plumber on our side to put the unit in and convince the inspection people that all is OK! Pat will be on the phone with the west coast where the unit is from and get some more info to convince our hesitant plumber. Y'all keep your fingers crossed, you hear!!!
This afternoon Pat and Yerik will be playing frisbee in the sideyard where the barn is to get Yerik ready for an Ultimate Frisbee Game here at the park. Pat is doing great, The guys are going to the gym 3x a week (thanks Yerik for making Dad go!!) and as today play frisbee, run Pat run, in the yard.
Today I explicitly told them to do it in the side yard, because Saturday I found them playing right next to the front fence?!?! When I got outside to tell them not to play there I didn't see Pat and ofcourse that what I was afraid of had happened. Well not exactly, but could have.
Pat was out in the street to get the frisbee! I told them that by playing there there was a good possibility that the frisbee would hit a car's windshield and we would have a car drive up onto our front porch and worse into our livingroom. Ofcourse since we're renovating and the carpenters are here anyway that would have a quick fix, but I don't want to be liable for the driver of the car!
So yes the guys also saw my logic in that one as well and promised me to do it in the side yard from now on. I'm just waiting for their next bright idea. Oh yes I nearly forgot, talking about bright ideas! Pat and Yerik were hanging up a towel ring in Yerik's bathroom, well I don't care that Yerik is over 6feet, but when he's gone other people have to be able to put that towel back on the ring so please lower it!!! They looked at me if they saw water burning, but yes they did put the towel ring in a more conventional/convenient place.
This is all for now, I still have to write my report on Sebastian and the Staples for the AFS, go grocery shopping, to the bank and get i8n touch of a counselor at the Durham School of Art in my function as AFS volunteer! Hey, I on my day off today!!
Margit
August 19 Pat's addition to this blogAugust 19, 2007. We are in the middle of a heat wave and drought in Durham . Work on the house reached a peak before August 10th when Yerik Tlekin, our 12-grade Kazakhstan exchange student arrived. Margit and I agreed with the contractors that the downstairs of the house would be habitable and that Yerik would not feel like he had no where to be.
Although we don’t have some door knobs, like to the new powder room, and two ceilings (back hall and kitchen) need to drop a foot to accommodate the new plumbing upstairs, Yerik’s room is really nice. Theron has done a super job with the painting and Jonathan Garrett Builders have really done an excellent job on all of the remodeling and upgrades. All the windows (19) have been replaced with new, aluminum clad wood, double pane windows and the outside / inside molding has been rebuilt by BJ the master carpenter. A major delay upstairs was trying to deal with a 3 – 4” dip in the floor / joist system and putting the plumbing of the two new bathrooms somewhere in the ceiling. We did not want a step up to happen going into the new bathrooms. Finally after all of us went upstairs and stared at the space for several days we redesigned the bathrooms, moved a couple of theoretical walls, put the toilets in the two bathrooms closer together and swapped the master room vanity with the Jacuzzi / steam shower. This results in two 9’ ceilings downstairs and all the floors upstairs level and with only a 3/4” inch difference in between rooms. So as Theron continues painting downstairs the work upstairs is progressing. This week we should get the rest of the windows installed upstairs and a sub-floor so the plumbing can be put in. We are planning some vaulted ceilings so it should give a new open feeling. The Jacuzzi / steam shower arrived (finally) and is now stored in the garage which has turned into our building supply storage.
Yerik is getting accustomed to the US, living with this strange American / Dutch family and being woken by BJ and Juan setting up to do the work that day. He has been helping me to put up curtain rods, mirrors, and bathroom towel racks. Yerik’s spoken English is good and he starting to figure out all the idioms I use and my sarcastic remarks about everything. He is reading a book that was required reading in the Durham schools last year and finding out more about International Studies on the internet. Margit has been able to spend the whole week with him so they are bonding well.
The excitement of our Spanish vacation, the marriage of our son Joost to our wonderful daughter-in-law Laura, house destruction and finally the reconstruction, and the arrival of our new son Yerik for 10 months has been juxtaposed with my sister’s struggle and death from lung cancer which ended August 5th. She was diagnosed in April and unfortunately ended spending the last months of her life in the hospital due to complications of her chemotherapy. So my life has been filled with painful phone calls and several trips to Florida to try and help with her decline and the memorial arrangements. I am saddened by her passing and the absence of a life long friend and my closest relative. I am blessed to have such a caring and loving wife who is my life partner. We are very excited about the adventure we will have with Yerik here this school year and our new house being completed. Excelsior Patrick and Margit
August 10 Crazy, hazy days of summerIt's 10:00PM and I'm dead, but I wanted to update this site for y'all to see how we're doing.
We've just had a crazy week! Pat left for Florida on Sunday due to Marty's passing and I decided to drive down on Monday evening, so I arrived, to both Vinnie and Pat's surprise, Tuesday morning claiming, toilet, shower and coffee in exactly that order.
Yesterday evening we got in the car and drove back to Durham. Pat had decided to forfeit his plane ticket back to Durham and instead drive home with me. He'll go back to Florida on Sunday for the Memorial held on Monday at the school where Marty has tought, well for ever! Tuesday he'll come back home and I hope that he'll be able to start enjoying our new life as parents.
Those of you who know Pat will agree with me that he will be a great Dad to Yerik and we both think it will be a great experience for him. When we arrived we immediately went into the house and check up on Yerik's room, where we realized that the walls had been painted exactly the opposite to what we wanted; 3 lighter colered ones and one somewhat darker it was done one light and three darker! Ofcourse Margit was fuming, but later Pat told me that he had made the mistake. It's not bad, but not what I had envisioned. The new bathroom/toilet and walk-in closet look great, but we realized that we still needed toiletseats for this one and the powder-room!
Pat hung the new lamp in Yerik's room and when he thought he could go to Greensboro and enjoy his volunteer work with the newly arrived AFS students I was telling him he still had to affix the rod for the curtains, just picked up from the dry-cleaners, in the livingroom. It was not exactly what he wanted to do, but he saw my point. Thanks Dear!!
I nearly lost it when I saw that the floor in Yerik's room was still a mess and Theron was painting the closet! Theron was still working at 09:30PM. Tomorrow it's D-Day. Juan, his wife and daughter will come to help me to make the downstairs presentable, Pat and Yerik will pick up toiletseats, towel-and toiletroll holders for his bathroom on their way home from Greensboro. The kitchen counters have to be tidied up and cleaned. We'll do it, and hey Yerik is 17 so I hope he sees it as an adventure?! Ofcourse there is the off chance that he calls AFS and says "I'm not staying here in this building ssite!" I just hope that Pat, in his calm way,can prepare him and tell him that there will really be an end to all of this. One good thing though the AC is working!!!!
Tonight I had my over-due interview whith AFS host parents of Sebastian from Argentina in my role as AFS liaison. A liaison has to make a monthly report on the family and AFS student. The student will have a chance to talk freely with me about concerns, small/big problems as have the parents and sibling(s). Jay is only child to Ben and Brenda; Sebastian is only child living with his mother after loosing his father at a young age. The AFS student will have time alone with his/her liaison, I remember that mine always to me out for lunch which I intend to do with Sebastian. The kids really open up to you then. We had a nice and fruitful conversation in preparation to Sebastian's arrival tomorrow.
I'm anxious now that I'm on the other side of the fence. Now I'm the parent (can I still do it? will I automatically go in "Mom mode" as with my own kids?) and not the exchange student. Mind you anyone can be a host as you see even people our age and also people who never had had children before. The experience enriches not only the students life, but certainly also that of the host-parents. I really like what AFS stands for and I firmly belief in it. Yerik and I have a liaison too, but unfortunately we haven't met her yet. I still remember my liaison from way bak when, Mrs. Mikonis, in Sarasota, Florida. My big sis Marian can be of help as well, she was a host sibling to me, but later in life she hosted Eric, from Sweden, when Jeffrey, her son, was a teenager.
You see that's exactly what happens, once you're involved with AFS it doesn't let you go!! I've the feeling that Pat likes the volunteering we do. At the end of this month we will both do an intake for a very bright young lady from Durham who applied with AFS to go to France school year 2008-2009. These intakes are always done by 2 people and since both of us are official AFS volunteers we'll do it together.
At the moment he is in Greensboro where he will do some training on "Making Friends" with the new arrivals. I just talked to him and he sounded very up-beat and enjoying it. He met Yerik, ofcourse, who was quiet and probably still very tired from the 2days trip from Kazakhstan to the US. He left KZ at 02:00 Thursday morning for Frankfurt, Germany, where they had a long stop-over, from there the KZ students took a flight to Washington DC where they arrived yesterday afternoon US time. Early this morning he had to take a flight to RDU where he was met by an AFS representative; he had to wait for another flight of AFS students to arrive and then they were taken to Greensboro (aproximately a 90min. drive). I thinhk anyone would be tired after that. Imagine you doing it the other way around! According Pat his English is pretty good. It takes a while to get acclimated and be on US time. It's normal and we'll go easy on him the first week.
Well I gues I turn in so I can get ready for tomorrow.
|
Bedankt voor je bezoek! Gracias por tu visita Thank your for visiting our website
|
||||||||||
Send a private message
Subscribe to RSS feed
Tell a friend
Add to My MSN
Add to your network
Sign up for alerts
|
|
