Family Update - March 7, 2009

So, according to my new blogging "schedule", I'm supposed to blog an update about my family today. So here goes...

RICK - This week was one of Rick's "short" weeks at work. He has every other Friday off. So, after working for 4 days, he stayed home yesterday and we got lots of stuff done. He got his car inspected while we did grocery shopping and stopped at Home Depot for some supplies. He is helping me paint a piece of furniture that Michael made for me (a two-drawer file cabinet) about 5 years ago in woodshop in Jr. High. Yep, Michael is now is college! He never finished it, but I really need it now to keep my office clean. So, that is Rick's project for this weekend. The other project this weekend is setting up Grant's room so that he has someplace to sleep and hang out when he comes home. Since Alex moved into his room when he left, and I took over Alex's room as an office (which I refuse to give up!), the only room left is Michael's. BUT, Michael will be home from college in a couple of months and will need someplace to stay, and since he didn't clean out and pack up his room when he left for college, there is no room for Grant in there. So, we are putting Grant in the basement.

GRANT - There are now 15 days before Grant arrives home from Japan, where he's been serving a mission. We don't hear from him until Sunday night, so I'm not sure what he's been doing this week. But, we did receive a few things from him in the mail. He sent ahead some of his clothes that he didn't want to pack. This included his nice leather bomber jacket, which luckily did not fall out of the gaping hole in the bottom of the box. Yesterday, we got another package from him - inside were two Samurai swords. Cool! He has been accumulating souveniers and sent these ahead.

SIDE NOTE: When Grant left for 2 years (back in Feb of 2007), it was a very bittersweet time for me. On one hand, I wouldn't see him for a long time, on the other hand, this experience of serving a mission is something that I didn't want him to miss. Now, I'm at that bittersweet place again. I'm so excited to see him and have him present in our lives again, but my heart aches for him because he has to leave the land and people of Japan - something that is going to be very hard for him. He loves them so much. Bitter. Sweet.

MICHAEL: Don't think I'm a crazy mom for allowing this, but Michael left on Thursday with his girlfriend, Ashley, and his best friend, Garrett, to drive across the country to New York to visit Ashley's family. I know - he's only 18. But, what was I supposed to do? Don't answer that. Anyway, they left after classes Thursday night and drove until they got to a rest stop at 4:00 am in Nebraska. They locked the doors of the car and all fell asleep. Yesterday they drove from there to Bloomington, Illinois, where they stayed with a family that Ashley knows. Today, they'll play around in Illinois for awhile and then get back on the road. Ashley wants them to experience eating a Chicago-style hot dog before they leave. It's roughly 12 hours from there to upstate NY, so they might have to sleep at another rest stop, depending on how late they leave today. They sent some movies home. I'll include one here. They are having a blast. I'm worrying my head off.

11 Things They Did Not Teach In School

I've been cleaning my office today - a HUGE job! I'm trying to uncover the desk so that I can put my laptop there instead of my kitchen table. :-) So, as I was going through all of the papers, I found this cool thing I got at some PTA leadership conference, or something, when I was PTA president. I thought I'd share it with you:

11 Things They Did Not Teach In School

To anyone with kids of any age here's some advice Bill Gates dished out in a high school speech about 11 things they did not teach in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a full generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

RULE 1 - Life is not fair. Get used to it.

RULE 2 - The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

RULE 3 - You will NOT make 40 thousand dollars a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice president, with a car phone, until you earn both.

RULE 4 - If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss. She/he doesn't have tenure.

RULE 5 - Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping, they called it opportunity.

RULE 6 - If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes. Learn from them.

RULE 7 - Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parents' generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

RULE 8 - Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not. In some schools they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

RULE 9 - Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on your own time.

RULE 10 - Television is NOT real life! In real life, people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

RULE 11 - Be nice to nerds. Chances are, you'll end up working for one.

I really love this. I agree with every one of these rules and have hopefully taught my children most of them!