I Miss Snail Mail

In this digital age, we don't receive much snail mail anymore.

I miss it!

Texts and emails are wonderful and speedy, but they are not

as enduring and lovely as a handwritten letter on pretty stationary

that you can hold and keep forever.  

I think I will order some stationary with my initials on it and

start sending notes to everyone.  

Big Texas Hugs,

Susan and Bentley

The Tale of Nina and Nita

That's me looking through the archway of the remains of

the Bahrain Fort dating back to 2300 BC.  Don't ask me who

the fellow is next to me.  I just remember that he was a 

British friend visiting from Saudi Arabia, which is just 

twelve miles away across the Arabian Gulf.  But I do 

remember that moment and I was thinking to myself ~

Wow what an adventure!

This journey of three years of my life holds many 

happy, exciting and adventurous memories for me.  

I could keep you entertained with many stories about

those days, and I will one day.  But, today I am going to tell

you about my days there as a First Primary teacher at

the Sacred Heart School in Isa Town.

Here are some of my students.  I had 45 of them!  I started out with 43, but 

Sister Giacinto convinced me in her sweet and very persuasive manner, to

take just a couple more.  

The two boys in the front of this picture are Savio on the left and Ismael on

the right.  They were my best students.  Ismael was a handful!  As bright

as a young boy can be and would easily get into trouble if he wasn't kept

busy every single moment.  I learned quickly that I needed to keep these two

challenged and occupied.  When I did, all was well.

Do you see the little blonde haired girl a couple of rows back on the right?

That is Nina.  She was from Finland.  Her dad worked for a construction

company that finished their assignment early and they were waiting

for their visas to come through for their next job.  Nina was one of 

the last minute students that Sister Giacinto persuaded me to accept.

Oh and by the way Sister Giacinto said as she winked at me ~

Nina does not speak English.

How on earth was I expected to teach her without an interpreter?

Sister Giacinto was convinced I could figure it out.  She had faith ;-)

After finding an interpreter to help me communicate with Nina's parents,

we decided that I would take Nina home with me each afternoon.  That way

I could teach Nina to speak English through an immersion method.  She

would follow me around the house and I would teach her the English name

of the rooms, the furniture, etc.  She would have her lunch with me and we

would work for an hour or so.  Then she would nap in my guest room and 

later in the afternoon I would take her to the beach or shopping at the 

grocery store and then drive her home.

She loved it!  And she also loved ….

Charlie my Golden Retriever.  Sorry about the pic, it's blurry.  

I brought Charlie over from NYC.  Here he is in the Arabian Gulf.

He loved to go there to swim and run after sticks I would toss in the

water.  I will write a whole blog post about this wonderful dog.

Nina loved Charlie and he loved her.  I really think that he helped

Nina to learn the language faster.  I would have her repeat phrases to

Charlie and she was always so anxious to say the words and phrases

correctly because she wanted Charlie to understand.  

As our tutoring sessions were progressing nicely, I was suddenly

aware of another little problem in class.  Nina's best friend Nita was

feeling very left out and jealous that Nina was spending so much time 

her teacher.  

Let's go back to the picture of the kids and I will point out Nita to

you ….

Nita is that adorable little girl just to the left of Nina.  Not the one with the

white collar, but the one grinning next to her.  I wish I had a better picture

to show you, but this is all I have.  

Anyway, Nina and Nita were about as different as two little girls could

be.  Nina was blonde, blue eyed and from Finland.  Nita had an olive

complexion and beautiful long black hair.  Nita's parents were from India.

Both girls were as cute as cute can be and they were best friends!

So what is a teacher to do?  Talk to Nita's parents about their daughter

coming home with me every day too.  They said yes.

So each day we would come to my house for the afternoon.  Now that

Nita was learning to speak and understand English, I had to help her

with her reading too.  Nina, Nita and I would sit around the dining room

table and I would help them with their lessons.  Nita decided she was 

a junior teacher and began acting quite professional.  Actually, the

competition between the two stimulated Nina to learn even faster.

The girls would take a nap in the afternoon.  In reality they were

not napping at all, because I could hear their giggles coming from the 

guest room and Charlie was always in on the fun.

I was really sad at the end of the school year when I had to say goodbye

to these darling ones for the summer.  They were all being promoted and

I would have to pass them on to a new teacher the next year.

Nita and her parents got another assignment.  At the far right corner of 

the picture is little Nita wearing the white hat.  She was sad that day

because her best friend had already moved away.  Yet I knew that

Nita was a strong and happy little girl and a new best friend would

come into her life any day.  

When all the kids were loaded onto the bus that day, I did what I 

always did.  I would wait back in my BMW and let the bus get ahead

of me.  Then I would catch up alongside the bus and wave and the

kids in my class would wave too.  Then I would step on the gas

pedal and zip away.  And I knew all my kids would be 

saying ….

There goes our teacher!  She's from California and she is bionic!!!

The kids saw the Bionic Woman reruns on TV and they told 

everyone I was bionic and I was from California.

Of course I am not a Californian ~ but who knows,

maybe I am bionic ;-)

Big Texas Hugs,

Susan and Bentley

How I Remove Wallpaper

I am ready to start stripping the wallpaper from the guest bathroom.

I have done this several times before and while it seems a bit daunting,

it's really not so hard.

You don't need any expensive wallpaper strippers.  All you need it some

inexpensive house brand of fabric softener, a spray bottle and some hot water.

You will want to mix in small batches because it helps if the water remains

warm.  The ratio I am using is 1/3 fabric softener to 2/3 hot water.  Shake 

it up to make sure the softener dissolves.  

Start in one small section at a time.  Spray the wall with the mixture and give

it a couple of minutes to begin to soak the paper.   I use a sponge just

to keep the water from running onto anything else.  I find it easiest to grab

a seam and start pulling from there.  

My nails usually look better than this, but I will wait until I have finished

the job before I have them done :-)

Once you get a good piece to start pulling off it's actually fun.  Now this is

gross, but it reminds me of when I was a kid and my friends and I would get

sunburn from playing at the beach all day.  After a couple of days we 

would start peeling and we always had contests to see how big a piece

of skin we could pull off.  I know, gross, but we were kids and we were

all dorks sometimes.

So that's how easy it is to remove wallpaper.  After it's pulled off I

will get a sanding block to sand off any tiny remnants left behind.

I turn on the radio and listen to music or talk shows and I loose

myself in the task.  I actually have fun.

More later!

Big Texas Hugs,

Susan and Bentley

Susan and Bentley's Excellent Vacation

David, Bentley and I all went to Austin for the July 4th weekend.

We were at the Barton Creek Resort.  We were there last year

for the 4th too and had so much fun that we decided to go back

again this year.  

This is the "Red White and Blue Cocktail" that David created

at the poolside bar.  It's a strawberry daiquiri, pina colada and

blue slushy mix.  Yummy!  After people saw what we were

drinking, they ordered it too.  

We left for Austin after David got off work last Wednesday

giving us a nice long holiday weekend.  

Barton Creek is so dog friendly and Bentley had a wonderful

vacation too.  Here is is on the bed eyeing half of the club

sandwich I ordered from room service.  Although I gave him

some of the turkey from it, he still wanted more.  I am sure

that he is thinking ~

I could just leap from the bed onto the cart and finish

up that sandwich for mama!

Look mama .... see how good I am being.  Don't you think

I could have another bite?

I'll pretend to not be interested.  Maybe that will work :-)

Trust me, Bentley had plenty of treats all weekend and lots of long walks

to work off the calories too.   Here is the view from our balcony.  What a

great resort.  David played golf with some attorneys from New Orleans.

I hung out by the pool.  Bentley made lots of friends with the other

dogs staying at the hotel.  He was smiling all the time!

Just look at how green everything is.  Austin is particularly beautiful

this summer after all the rain.   The houses that surround the resort are

huge and gorgeous.  

The resort put on their annual fireworks display.  We had a ring side

seat from our balcony.  The fireworks were on Friday the 3rd so 

everyone could enjoy the fireworks downtown in Austin on the 4th.

We were there for four days and the time just flew by.  Vacations

are always that way, don't you think?  I can hardly wait to plan our

next one.  We are thinking about taking a trip up to Dallas.  We 

were talking to some people we met on Saturday and they suggested

we stay at the Mansion at Turtle Creek.  I checked it out and they are
dog friendly too.  Bentley has already agreed to go ;-)

Hope y'all had a great 4th of July weekend.  Now it's back to
reality and stripping off the wallpaper in the guest bathroom.

Big Texas Hugs,
Susan and Bentley

America ~ Not Perfect But I Still Love You

I was globally aware long before it became popular to think globally.

Because my Daddy was president of the international division of a major

US corporation, I was introduced to people of all nations from a very

early age.  I knew that one of the things I wanted to do as soon as I

was old enough to make my way in this world was to travel everywhere

and see everything through my own eyes as my Daddy did through

his.  So I did.  

I was a teacher at two different schools in the middle east.   My first

teaching experience was at an Irish School in Bahrain.  It was

established to give Irish contractors a school for their

 children to continue their studies while their daddys were under

contract to build an electric substation on the island.  It was a

wonderful experience teaching a small class of 6, 7, and 8  year olds 

in a makeshift classroom on the second floor of a building that housed 

a full fledged Irish pub on the first floor.  

After that, I was hired by the Sacred Heart School to teach first

primary in their newly constructed primary school out in the 

desert in a village named Isa Town.  This time, instead of all the

students coming from one country, my students came from many

countries and many faiths.  Somehow, it all worked.  We all

coexisted and everyone studied hard and grew together as

a community.

I learned first hand how life is quite different in other nations.

The opportunities and freedoms we enjoy in our own country

are often not experienced on the global stage.

Here is what I learned ~

Not all children go to school.  Many are subject to a life

of hard labor with little or no chance for advancement.

Many fathers work in other countries as servants or

gardeners or hotel and restaurant workers to earn enough

money to send back home to support their families.

Citizens are often not permitted to speak their minds

regarding the decisions their government makes.

News and media can and is suppressed by governments

giving citizens limited knowledge of the world

around them.

Not everyone has running water or potable drinking water.

Electric power is often intermittent if available at all.

Sewers don't always exist.  

Medical care is often not available to the average 

citizen in many countries.

Many citizens live in constant fear because of 

tyrannical governments controlled by corrupt

leaders.

After my experience living and traveling abroad for several years,

I returned home to the United States.  While I always had a great

love for this country, I had an even greater appreciation for it after

what I had witnessed through my own eyes in other nations.  The

many opportunities and freedoms that are offered to us became all

the more precious to me.  I was then and am now, very thankful

to be a citizen of the United States.

I am prompted to write this because of the disturbing news I have 

heard recently.  Many Americans have lost pride for our country.

Why I wonder?

Are we perfect?   No of course we are not.  As humans we all make

mistakes and must learn from those mistakes and move on to

create a better future.  Yet we Americans were given through our

constitution, the opportunity to have that freedom to live our

lives in peace and to grow in our maturity and to help those

less fortunate than ourselves.  

This nation is a melting pot of people and cultures.  It is much

like the classroom of my 45 first primary students composed of 

children of many lands and cultures.  It was my job as their 

teacher to help them to work together to learn and grow.  We

made mistakes along the way and learned from them.  At the

end of the school term I was proud of each and every one of

them.  

So as I celebrate this July 4th, the symbol of our freedom

and independence as a nation, I  am proud of my country.

No, we are not perfect.  Yes, we have problems that need

to be addressed.  We are a large family of people of many

varied backgrounds who live and work together sometimes

well, and sometimes not.  Yet we have the opportunity and

the freedom to live together and learn from each other.  

Not all peoples of this planet have the luxuries and rights

that our constitution has afforded.

That being said.  I love this nation and will continue

to be proud to be an American.

Have a safe and happy 4th of July!

Oh and I am thinking that I have lots of stories

about many of my adorable students.  Can't wait

to tell you the story about Patrick and Nigel ~ two

little red haired, freckled face Irish lads who

were full of mischief and how I coped with their

shenanigans as their fresh faced brand new teacher.

Big Texas Hugs,

Susan and Bentley