It's a Girl !!!!

We have decided to take in an exchange student for next year. She is from Austria, is 15, and her name is Anna. She writes in English very well and we have been communicating on facebook. We are all really excited to get her here in the US. She will be here from August until June so many of you will meet her since she will be a part of our family. We are working on getting her here before our Myrtle Beach vacation so we can take her with us. I am already making a list of things I want to do with her while she is here. I'd love to do a New York trip with her for Spring Break, maybe a DC trip over a long weekend, Mackinac Island, Cedar Point, Amish country in Indiana, as well as a million other things she wouldn't see in Austria. She had an exchange student from the US at her house and that girl lives in Kansas. I would like to work something out so they can see one another while Anna is here. Anna seems like a sweetheart. She comes from a really good family, her mom is a teacher and her dad owns an art gallery. She also has several sisters. It must be difficult to give her to us for a year but we are grateful they are.

Romeo is up to 54 pound now and he is only 4 1/2 months old. Paul cut me a path around our property and I take the dogs for a walk almost every day. I call it El Rastro de Ramirez (Ramirez Trail). Romeo has the sweetest disposition. He loves to cuddle and is always happy. He is starting to lose the fuzzy puppy fur and get some silky fur. I don't like him growing up but that's what I signed up for. I just want him to stay that fluffy puppy forever.

Last Wednesday night I went to the Sex and the City 2 midnight showing with Paul, Cheri, and Alex. She wanted to see it with me before she left for Alabama with Alex's family. Friday I went to Kalamazoo and saw it again with Clint and Amanda. We did dinner, movie, and cocktails afterwards at Burdicks (where Amanda works). Saturday we waited for Clint to get off work at 1 PM and then we took off to South Haven to shop, walk on the pier, and walk on the beach. It was a wonderful day. The kids' apartment is beautiful. They live on the ground floor and out their sliding glass door is an incredible yard. I have a picture below. On Sunday I went to see SATC 2 again with the girls from Zumba after a nice dinner at the Elephant Bar. Good thing it was a good movie! BTW - I wore my Jimmy Choos every time I went!!!

School is winding down to the last 2 weeks. We are done with the final newspaper and the yearbook. I have a picture of the kids sorting the yearbooks for distribution. I don't think anyone knows what goes into the creating and distribution of this book. It is a HUGE undertaking. The book was beautiful and won an Award of Excellence. This means our book will be used for sale promotions and educational examples. The kids were really proud of this achievement. Our newspaper has taking a lot of heat this year because my kids write about some subjects that others aren't thrilled about. They wrote one about band, robotics, and choir not being a sport and should not get varsity letters and jackets. That prompted some angry letters. They also wrote about this contest we are in with Pepsi trying to get enough votes to win $250,000 to build a new weight room for our athletes. My students thought some of the other groups running had more right to win (homeless shelter, cancer research, etc). The people that started this contest said that it would help fight obesity, but the kids said that unless you play football or wrestle you can't use the weight room. They all had legitimate concerns so I let them run with the story. Now I have the Booster moms slamming my editor and me as an advisor on facebook. I guess they have never heard of Freedom of Speech. I have always told the students they can write anything as long as it is school appropriate and they don't target any one person. Sometimes my job isn't very easy. People like to blame me for everything, but I can take it. I wish they would come to me because I would explain the students' rights to them.

Summer starts in 8 1/2 days!!!! I have a list of over 20 projects I want to finish and I am itching to get going on them. I am going to be teaching Zumba a few days a week, but they won't take up my entire day so I will have plenty of time to work in my projects. I also want to put time aside every evening and write. I have 2 or 3 books started( and several more still in my head) and it is time to make them a priority. I may never get them published but I won't know until I try!

Love Ya,
Cindy