More Terrible News

Yesterday, in Midland City Alabama, a man stormed a school bus that had stopped to drop some children off, ordered the driver to give him two kids, and when the driver refused to do so, the gunman shot the driver and kidnapped a 6-year old boy. All the other children were able to get out.

All School buses have this emergency door in the very back, I guess that's where all the other kids were able to get out, only the little boy didn't make it out. It's terrible to think that this could happen anywhere. My first thought was that it might be a divorce drama and some custody battle, but no, it's apparently a total random child that just weren't able to get out and the gunman seem to be a very unstable person. As of the news this afternoon, there is still a standoff and the man is still holding the boy hostage in an underground bunker by the gunman's home. I can't imagine what the poor parents are going through right now. Since yesterday afternoon, not knowing if their son will be able to make it back safe and sound.

I'm not very religious, but one can only hope and pray for his safe return to his family!

Read the story here: Boy held hostage

Update: Boy still held hostage on 1/31/2013

Awards

Yesterday, it was time again. Time for awards in school. As I've mentioned earlier, after every Grading period/Quarter, there are awards to be given out. Awards for: Meeting Standard in Galileo testing in Math and Reading, Exceeding Standard in Galileo testing in Math and Reading, Honor Roll, and Principal's Award, which is:

"..the most difficult award to receive, the most wanted one, the one for the very top students, the one that doesn't come without hard work". 

Words from the secretary in School that was helping the substitute teacher to give out the awards, as the class teacher was absent yesterday.

I took the little ones to be there to share Cassie's proud moment, and Benjamin and Isabella had dressed up in Sweden jerseys to be true supporters for Cassie.

1. Award - Exceeding Galileo testing in Math

Waiting for the next one, with her supporters close by!

And here we were waiting and waiting for Cassie to get her award for the Galileo testing in Reading, but they didn't have one for her. So disappointing, she rates one after the grades that she has, so this is clearly a mistake, but as the teacher wasn't there, there was nothing that could be done at that time. Still, pretty bad not having everything prepared right!

And after all the Honor roll students had gotten their awards, the perfect attendance had been given out and the award for the biggest effort and even an award to a boy that competed in a local Spelling bee, the most wanted one was given out. The question is always, how many students achieve this goal, to become "top students".  AND tam tam tam...of course I knew, but it's such a great feeling to see her be able to walk up there to receive another one of these high awards. Principal's Award. Every Award ceremony, she has achieved one. Every time so far, every Quarter since she started this school (not all school's do it this way, they might have other recognitions, but it's up to every school to do awards and in what way.)

We couldn't be prouder of her. It's truly a high recognition, and she deserves them!! What was really nice this time, is that her best friend Allison got to join Cassie up on stage to receive her first Principal's Award! Only two students in the class got this award, two best friends!

 My Principal's Award Student and her best friend!

There is no close up picture of this Award, as the teacher still needed to sign it, so they had to give it back to be put on her desk. Still I got these cute pictures of the two of them.

Sunny Sunday!

Sunday, what a beautiful day that was! Don't know if we are allowed to call it a beautiful "winter day", because it is summer temperatures, but according to the calender, it was a beautiful winter day. After having our days here and there, with cooler temperatures, we now seem to be over the cold spell that we had, and the normal is back! 

We enjoy these days so much, as when it gets so hot here in summer, we are hardly able to be outside, so to enjoy temperatures with about 75F/25C is just perfect! Cassie came home from a sleepover at her best friend Allie's around 10pm, and after finishing up inside with some laundry, I joined the kids outside. It's so great to be able open up the door and they can now, with Cassie's supervision play outside without me watching them every second! I hope that they also will learn to play more and more together, than to fight about all the stuff all the time, then they will have much more fun together too! I took a lot of pictures, here are a few that I thought I'd share with you, sending over some sunshine and summer feelings, especially to you who still have cold and snow on the ground!

These plastic balls are used for everything, in the bathtub, in the pool outside, to organize after color, to use in pretend play as strawberries, blueberries etc to pick up from the ground in their play. There is no end to their imagination!

 Some felt the need to soak in the sun! I wonder whom they might have that from..?

 Ben was more interested in trying to persuade his older sister to be the reindeer when he was flying the Santa Sleigh...(like I said, there is nothing wrong with these kid's imagination..)

 Happiness is to have an older sister playing silly games with you!

Cassie- even if that meant that you had to sit on a slide, with a rope around your chest that he pulled up and down on all the time, having him scream "Ho ho ho" "Dash Away" in your ears - you did it with a smile and that truly made his day! You are the best sister ever!!

Isabella got a little bit upset with me that I didn't want to put water into the water table for her to play. But even if it was warm outside, the wind was getting stronger and that made it chilly later on in the afternoon, so I really didn't want them to get all wet and cold. Water table time will come - for sure!!

As an afternoon snack, the kids had Belgian Waffles and Strawberries with cream. The second time around for the little ones. When I started making them in the morning I didn't think about that Cassie wasn't sleeping at home, and that it only would be me, Benjamin and Isabella for breakfast, so we had plenty leftover. Cassie loves it too, and the little ones didn't mind either. The strawberries were wonderful. So sweet - and they really smelled like strawberries!! Lovely!

 

 

Rusty, also got to enjoy the afternoon outside with us. We haven't gotten him an out door playpen yet, as he shouldn't have fresh grass until he's about 6 months, so he got to enjoy the outdoors from the sidelines in his cage. After about 10 minutes of curiosity, he enjoyed a long nap! What a great day we had, it was also wonderful to be able to really enjoy the day, and not having to stress with the homework as Cassie had finished that already on Saturday, so it was great.

Funny enough, after dinner and when I had the little kids in the bathtub, Chris texted to hear how we were doing in the storm?!? What storm? Haha, being inside the bathroom, I hadn't noticed anything, but the base is also 30 minutes away from us, and any crazy weather normally hits there first. Needless to say, it didn't take very long until we had the storm right over us. Heavy rain, lots of thunder and lightening. I was happy that the power didn't go off, and the kids thought that it was very exciting, as it doesn't rain here very often. After about an hour, the storm was over, with only a light rain left.

Toddler Rules

Waiting...And The Wait Is Over!

Written about 4pm our time:

We are waiting in such anticipation to hear further news from one of the sweetest couples I know and our really good friends. In labor....News reached us about 3 hours ago, 1pm our time - and no updates so far. I'm so excited, can't wait to find out if we're waiting for a baby boy or a baby girl and what they've decided to name their little one. They've kept it a secret.

Update:

Well, I didn't have time to post anything before, but when I wrote above, I didn't know - now I do!!

All afternoon, I've been checking my phone for some more information, but nothing. Not until we got the news at around 6pm our time: Baby is born! And we know what it is and what name the baby has received, but I'm not telling you! As I know that some people read this blog that also know our sweet friends - I don't want to spoil their surprise as I don't want to have anyone post anything our Congratulations to their Facebook pages before they announce it themselves. So everyone that know/think they know who they are - please don't comment with their names. I'm just so happy that I had to let it out somewhere....I'll let them announce it first, but as it's in the middle of the night there - it probably won't be until the morning or so. Until then, my lips are sealed, well not really - they are forming the biggest smile on my face! Words can't describe how happy we are for them!!

You're Awesome

The other day, my sweet baby girl told me something out of the blue. "You're awesome mommy"! I was just helping her getting dressed, and she giggled and we were playing around a little bit, and then all of a sudden after a long giggle, she said it. So sweet, and I got so surprised, as I haven't heard her say that word before. She saw how surprised I got, and kept saying it, I grabbed my phone and actually got it recorded, which isn't always the case, as the kids always stop with what they are doing when you pull out the phone..

Ben also joined in the fun and as  you can hear, he said "My name's Ben!"My sweet baby boy. I'm truly blessed to have such awesome kids!!

American Shoppingbags

American Shopping bags, are a little bit different from the typical European one. The brown paper bags, without handles, carried in your arms, instead in your hands.

They rip very easy, so we always ask for double ones, to be able to carry the groceries in the house before the bag rips and everything ends up on the ground. After packing them away here at home the other day, Rusty got hold of one and he really liked playing in one. He was nibbling on the edges, pulling on it, jumping in and out, so we saved some just for him to play with. He got to get his exercise every day!

School Safety Meeting

  

This afternoon, I had a meeting with the principal in Cassandra's school. To discuss School Safety. As I was the only parent apparently, that had requested further information about this, the principal met privately with me to clarify and to go through this school's procedures. Chris woke up a little earlier than normal and had to go in a little later to be able to stay at home with the little one while I left.

I do sometimes feel like I'm a little bit "difficult", as I want to be informed and know all the details, but Mr. Principal was great and very welcoming. He thought it was great to see a parent show so much support and concern and he also knew our daughter very well, through the meetings we had last year when Cassie was going through a hard time with bullying in the school, and my husband and I turned every little stone we could to make those issues be taken care of. They were - much thanks to the Principal and the follow up meeting that I had with Cassandra's class teacher over the first couple of months. But Cassandra was well known to him, as she has been Student of the month and through the many Principals Awards that he has signed for her plus that he knew that she is the secretary for the Student Council.

Anyway, back to this meeting. I had many questions and wanted to know exactly what will be done in this school and what in what length the school will go to make something happen and what is already being done. Since I raised my concern and wrote him the email on January 10th and since my meeting with him in person the day after that - a lot has happened and he has put a lot of things in motion:

* A staff meeting has already been held, to discuss and review the procedures and to go through the below mentioned booklet.

* Each class room now has an Emergency Booklet easy to use and to flip hard pages in different files to direct see what kind of action needs to be taken in case of a shooting, an earthquake, a gas leak, a bomb threat etc etc.

* The school district has a planner that is like an umbrella for all schools in the district, but has each schools contact information to the people in charge.

* The phone systems has been reviewed. Mr. Principal can call one number that is hooked up to ALL the students/parents 1.st contact number to give out information fast -BUT when we had the big storm in September last year, where we were out of power for over 30 hours, a lot of phone lines also went down, meaning that a lot of the parents that had given their home phone as the 1.st contact number weren't being reached.

Therefore, Mr. Principal can also dial an Emergency number on the phone system, that calls ALL numbers that a parent has given as contact numbers. So if you would have given your home phone, your husbands cell phone and your cell phone number - all three would be ringing at the same time. I have always always given my cellphone number as the number 1. contact number. To be able to be reached at all times.

* The side doors will be kept looked at all times, with no chance to get inside, but to be able to be pushed out for safety reasons. They have a big gate to the courtyard, this is not allowed to be looked down for the fire department, but they can only be opened anyway from the inside pushed out. 

* There will also be changes in the entry way. Like I mentioned earlier, up until now, one have been able to walk straight in, and wouldn't be able to be stopped if needed. Now, there will be a new door/wall put in, between the entry way and the hallway. This was what I had told him about that we were familiar from the D.O.D school in NC but also from the public school in KS, where this was a big thing. Press the buzzer, through the monitor get eyecontact with the staff, be let in, but still not let in further than this front room. This I'm very happy about, as it's something that I talked to him about, and he's taking action on it and this will be installed. I don't know how fast, but it's happening!

* Last week, an updated Lockdown was practiced in the school - the kids were informed that this would happen the day before so nobody would be too scared. 

When I asked him about how they go about it with volunteers and other parents at the school visiting, he told me that there would be changes there too. 

* Up until now, one could volunteer, and move around freely inside the school, you'd get a sticker with your name, sign in at the front desk, but he even said himself, he hasn't raised too much concern when there has been people walking around the school, taking for granted that they are parents, volunteers etc. NOW, all volunteers (that always need a BIG background check to be able to volunteer at all in the school - I think they even need to be finger printed) need to be assigned to one teacher and only stay with him. Therefore, no walking around the building but to stay within that classroom for the time given at the volunteer schedule. All volunteers would get a name tag so that staff and students would see right away, that this person has been granted permission to be in the school. I think this is great, as it's been a lot of people/parents/PTO  members that has just been around, "I'm just going to bring him his lunch", I'm just going to bring her a jacket", I just need to talk to my son's teacher really quick" no more of this - only with pre registration and signing in.

So a lot of changes, and I felt that he has taken my thoughts to heart and that he had prepared himself not just for the meeting, which isn't always the case with these kind of people, but he had put out the big planner from the district and the Emergency Booklet from the classrooms for me to see.

* I also asked about another concern that I had, if the Sheriff department would be able to assign civilians with rifles to stand guard by the schools like the Sheriff in another county not far away from us, but with the meeting that was held, Mr. Principal had not been informed about anything like that. He was told that the Police department was working on some changes, but what they were, wasn't clear at this point.

We also talked about the Junior High. Especially about the Middle School located next door, and he had only good to say about that school. it was one of the top ones in the district and as the Elementary that Cassie is in now, it THE best school in the district, and most students transfer over there, the academic level stays high. There is only about 450 students in that school, which makes it the smallest MS in the district, but still with all the staff that a double as big school would have. As we are looking into new houses, we might move, but I'll go and visit this school and talk to the principal and also get a plan of how far in the community the address span covers that are assigned to this school. That would be great to narrow down the house search within that district. 

I was very pleased and the 45 minutes that he had for me, before the school was out for the day, went by quick, but we also covered a lot. I'm very happy that I got to meet him, I do feel better knowing theses things and that some of the things that I discussed with him, actually will be happening here, and he's taken that to heart. 

Before I left the office, he wished me a great weekend, and he ended with- I'm sure that I'll see you at the award ceremony on Monday right? I'm pretty sure that he's signed some awards for Cassie, like he usually does.