Category: Grandma Ruddell

Fun Times With Sister Cities ILA

Sister Cities recently had their annual International Leadership Academy for High Schoolers.  It lasts for two weeks, and has students and their leaders from Hungary, Italy, China, Japan, Germany, Indonesia, Mexico and Swaziland.  They have an intensive program at TCU and stay in the dorms.  On the weekend between, they stay with Host Families and get further acquainted with life in an American family.  This year, Italy and Swaziland elected to stay an additional week.

The last two years, we have kept the leaders from Hungary and Italy.  We love them!!  This year, we only had Anna Maria from Italy.  Timi, from Hungary, was staying with another family.  Anna Maria was in charge of 16 kids, and they did well, for the most part.  A few cultural differences arose.  We taught Anna Maria some new words and acronyms, such as PDA, potty, potty-training, boobs, etc.. (OK…I had a Grandma day while she was there.)  It was so fun to spend time with Anna Maria and Timi, together.  I know them well by now.  Add in Marsha and we have a party!!!

One of the activities that Marsha sets up, each year, is having the teacher/leaders make up a menu, go to a grocery store and have a scavenger hunt to pick out ingredients, and then they go to a house and the leaders fix the lunch.  The last two years, the lunch has been at my house.  This year it was primarily a Mexican feast, with a Japanese dish also being featured.  I made three kinds of cookies to go with the meal.  It’s so fun having all of these people at my house.  It was their relaxation day.  Some of the Host Mothers also joined us.  They cooked, served and cleaned up….all I had to do was have the house ready and enjoy!!!   There was a lot of laughter and talking.

On the weekend, we took Anna Maria to Salado.  It was a good day to shop, and different kinds of shops than we have around here.  On the way, we stopped at Schlotzky’s for lunch, in Hillsboro.  That was a new experience for her.

One of the days, the Italian and Swaziland students took the train to Dallas to spend the day.  They ate at Spaghetti Warehouse.  It did not get a good review from the Italian students…..they thought all of the pasta was way over cooked.  Funny!!!   I did make my lasagne for Anna Maria, and she liked that.  So glad to know I can cook better than Spaghetti Warehouse!!!  LOL

Another day, the kids had a swimming party at one of the Host Mom’s house.  It was so relaxing and so fun.  They swam, played tennis, ate lots of food, and hung out for awhile.  After two weeks  of learning situations, it was just what those kids needed.  Thank you, Becky Haskins!

Looking forward to next year’s events.  By now, I know a lot of the teachers.   We’ve all enlarged our vision of the world and the students have learned to work together as a team.  Thanks, Sister Cities!

Did you know that Fort Worth Sister Cities, International just won the award for Best Overall Program in the Nation???? Wow!!  They deserve it.  And…it’s the ninth time they have won this award.  Congratulations, Sister Cities!

Grandma Sherry

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The Weekend….Weird, Wonderful, and Woeful

This past weekend we went to Kansas City, to my nephew, Alex Treaster’s, wedding.  It turned out to be a weird, wonderful and woeful weekend.  I’m going to tell you what happened!

From Ft. Worth to KC is a long trip.  Dick and I were going, and my daughter and hubby, and 23 month old were also going.  My son and two kids were going to go from Guthrie, OK.   We were all trying to save money.  My sister had recently moved from her apartment to a new house, and we could stay at her apartment and sleep on air mattress.  Very basic, but fun to stay together.

My daughter drove, on Thursday night, to Moore, OK, and they stayed with my son-in-law’s parents.  No charge there!    I called and had a free night at Winstar.  Only when we got there, they told me it was $150 for the room.  Noooooooo…I don’t THINK so!   There was a lot of conferring with the manager, and finally they gave us our free room.  It turned out to be a good night….I left the casino floor with $700.  WOW!  I usually leave with barely anything, because I tend to put any winnings back in.

 

We all arrived in KC within 15 minutes of each other.  My sister had left the key under the dog, on the front porch.  We blew up the air mattresses.  Then we went out to lunch at Fritz’ Railroad Restaurant, in Crown Center.  It was pretty cool, with trains delivering our meal.  The kids loved it.

Then we went back to the apartment and changed clothes.  We went to the Rehearsal dinner.  It was fun.  It was good to see everybody.  Everyone was in a jubilant mood.  Only later did we find out that my brother, the pianist, had forgotten all of his music.  He was almost to KC, from 3 hours away, when he realized it.  He had to do some major buying , running off, and practicing before the wedding, the next day.

 

The next day, we did this and that, and then went to the wedding.  It was totally beautiful and fun.  It was so fun to see my youngest grandson dancing with a little girl.  (His Grandma and I have already planned that wedding. )  We left the reception about 11:00.  Everyone was pretty tired and wanted to go to bed.  My son and kids had already gone back to the apartment.  When we got back, the door was locked.  We banged and banged on the door, but couldn’t rouse anyone.  Tried to call, to no avail.  My daughter’s and us decided we’d need to get a hotel.  We both got one, online.  When we got to ours, they said “No, we’re booked up tonight.  That reservation is for tomorrow night.”  The kicker…there was no refund because it was online.

My daughter’s had reserved a hotel, online.When they got there, they said they had been ready to call them, because they were all booked up for the night.  No..it wasn’t refundable.  So they went to another hotel, and somehow talked to the reservation people and  got a refund on the first hotel.    The second hotel was another hundred dollars than the first.

We finally called my sister, and she had a spare key.  She brought it over, and Dick and I were able to get in.  My poor son was appalled, the next morning, that the door had somehow been locked and he had had his phone off for the night.   But it was OK.  My daughter’s came back, the next morning, and we all got packed and cleaned up the apartment.  My sister had a nice brunch for the families, and then we headed out to the farm, where my brother and wife live.  That was our landing place for the night.

We had left Bill, the dog, with one of Jessi’s friends…actually, her boss…who thought everything would be fine.  She had a dog, they had met, and she came home at noon, and after work to let the dogs out, and walk them.  She sent texts, saying they were having a good time.  The morning we were leaving my brother’s house, her text message changed.  She mentioned that things weren’t going too well the last few days.  There was pee and poop all over her house, and her couch was a mess.   I  practically hyperventilated all the way home.  When we got there, she was very gracious.  I offered to pay for cleaning her rugs, and buy a new couch.  She declined, but her rugs were rolled up, on the patio, waiting to be cleaned.  We apologized, felt really bad, and left quickly.

Look at that dog!  Doesn’t he look sweet and wonderful.  He’s back home, enjoying the peace and quiet of his home.  We are too…except for the 106 degrees.  This will be a wedding weekend to remember!!!!   And now, I realize I don’t have a picture of the bride and groom!   Glory.

 

 

Enjoying A Fun Week With Grandchildren!

Last week, we kept our two grandkids from Oklahoma, and on two days, our grandson from here.  They all played together nicely…for the most part.  The two youngest are almost two and almost three.  The oldest boy just turned six.  Basically, we could say that we have two that are in the terrible two stage.  They are getting better at sharing, but still struggle a bit with that.  The word NO seems to come up a lot.  But they’re all a joy.   Here are some of the things we did last week.

Liam loves to play with his legos, so that was his big activity.   Libby wasn’t sure about Bill, the dog, but she shared her snack with him.  Libby was big into Paw Patrol.    We watched a lot of that.  Isaac wanted to watch anything with buses or trains.  His favorite is “Blippi and the bus”.  Have any of you discovered Blippi yet?  He’s silly and does a ton of educational , fun videos for kids.

The kids played with play doh, made some pictures with Bingo daubers, and played in the sand pile.  After that, they needed popsicles.  I tried making my own for the first time.  They turned out pretty neat!

Boppa took the older two kids fishing.  They each caught a fish, and Boppa caught a big turtle.

One night, we went over to Isaac’s house and played with his toys.  That was pretty exciting.  They also danced as we were getting ready for dinner.  Alexa is just a wonderful thing for kids…they can choose their dance tunes.  This video is not really good quality, but it shows the spirit of the dance.  (I’m sorry…can’t figure out how to make the video photo smaller.)

We made Fairy Gardens for them to play with, and take home.  That was fun.  Grandma finally got a robot vacuum cleaner, and it was a great “toy” to watch.

At the end of the week, I asked Liam what was the best thing he did all week.  I listed all of the things for him that we did.  He thought about it for awhile, and said “I think it was the fire truck I made with the Legos.”   LOL  That boy is a Lego whiz!!

Boppa and Grandma had a good time too.  But…we were exhausted by the end of the week.  We’ve had a week of rest.  Now we’ll see them again this weekend.  Yes!

What do you do to entertain your grandkids?   If you liked this, press the “like” button.

Grandma Ruddell

Celebrating My Freedom!

 FREEDOM!  FREEDOM!  FREEDOM!

   It’s the  4th of  July.  Dick has put the flag out to celebrate.  We’re proud to live in the USA!  Though the country seems to be in some turmoil at the moment, we’re still celebrating lots of freedoms.  So here are some thoughts of what freedoms we take for granted at times.

  • We have the freedom to travel in our country, without being attacked or shot down.
  • We aren’t trying to get to another country, because our jobs are so bad or such poor living conditions.  On the whole, we’re a pretty humane country.
  • We have the freedom to vote.  The results may not be what we wanted, but we CAN vote.
  • As a female, I have the freedom to dress how I want and have the freedom to drive.
  • As a female, I don’t have to look down or bow down to a man.  I can be strong on my own.
  • We have the freedom to watch any show on TV, and read newspapers.  We can state our own opinion.
  • We have the freedom to not condone and to report the abuse of any other person.
  • And MOST OF ALL, right now……I am enjoying the freedom from vacuuming because of my new ROBOT VACUUM!!!   I love it!    

I don’t know if we will be able to get out and take the grandkids to see fireworks tonight.  We thought about going somewhere last night, but we’d had a big day, and it was way too hot.  We chose to stay in.  I think it’s going to be “hotter than the 4th of July” today.  We’re going to make Fairy Gardens today or tomorrow.

What freedoms are you enjoying today?  How are you celebrating the 4th of July? Let me know, in the comments.

Grandma Ruddell

Things I Love Right Now!

Things are going well!  Here are a few things I’m loving right now:

  • Just spent last week celebrating my grandson’s sixth birthday.  Wow!
  • Friday, my grandson and granddaughter are coming, from Oklahoma, to spend a week with us.
  • Our backyard is starting to look a lot better.
  • I’ve applied to start getting Social Security in September.
  • I had a mammogram yesterday, and glad that’s off my plate.
  • Looking forward to the Sister Cities’ International Leadership Academy which is next month.  We will be keeping two ladies…one from Italy, and one from Indonesia.
  • Though Bill, the dog, went to a kennel for last weekend, he came home happy and still loves us.
  • Hearing my youngest grandchild start to put words together to make simple sentences.
  • Spending several hours at Winstar Casino.  I contributed to the Indian Nation’s education fund.
  • Just read a good book.  I love to read!

Have a good week.

Grandma Ruddell