Today is the Day

Well it is finally time for Katrine to get here! We are so excited to meet her! We have been working really hard to get everything ready for her. CJ worked in the attic the other day getting our wireless set up so she can have wireless in her room. I have been working on alot of different projects for her room. And I have to say I absolutly love it!! My friend Leslie came over last weekend and helped me get everything on the wall and put up.

I have made her a cute little sign welcoming her to Texas for us to have at the airport and i am going to have some balloons and a small bouquet of flowers. ( i will post some pictures of this tomorrow). She shouldn't have any trouble finding us at the airport.

It has been a really long day of travel for her and when i spoke to her dad he said she hadn't slept in over 24 hours. She is goiong to be so so tired when she gets here.

I am posting some pics of the new room!

Today is the Day!!

20 days until Katrine comes to live with us for the year! I am so excited and can't wait to meet her. She is coming in on August 19th at 7:45. This isn't the date that I wanted for her to come in on because school starts on the 23rd so that doesn't give us very much time. I was trying to get her registered for school before she got here but when I went to the school I found out that she has to be there in person to register so we will have to do it on the first day of school. I just hope that she will be able to still get into some of the classes that she wants to get into. I did learn that high school is a lot different now from when I was in school. At Lewisville High they are on a schedule that is more like college they have 4 classes a day. It will be fun to see what else has changed about high school since I have been out for 21 years...oh that makes me feel really really old.

I still have alot to do to get ready for her. I have to finish cleaning out everything from her room so she will have room for her stuff. I also need to finish decorating also! We did buy her a new dresser for her room. I have the curtains up now i just need to get other things put up on the wall.

well I think that is all I have to add for now.

Patrice & CJ

Hello!

Well today is Katrine's 17th Birthday!! We sent her a birthday package and I was afraid that it wasn't going to make it to her in time but just a few minutes ago I got an email from her thanking us for her gifts! I was so happy that she got it on her actual birthday! We sent her 2 t-shirts from old navy, a Texas trivia book, a bag that has alot of the different cities in Texas on it and I made her a necklace. She got a really nice digital camera from her family that will be perfect for when she comes here she will be able to send alot of pictures to her family of all of the fun stuff that we are going to do while she is here in Texas.

Speaking of that we have a list of things that we are planning to take her to do and see. We would love to hear some things that you think we should do.

Hello everyone!

Well not alot is going on right now with our student we are still just emailing back and forth getting to know her. She went to a meeting this past week with the EF organization and they talked to them about their departure, expectations, rules and practical information. The main rules that she told me about was that if they are caught drinking, smoking or doing any drugs they will be sent back home. She really seems like a great kid so I don't think that we will have any problems with any of those rules. She did find out that they like to have the kids come to the American homes about a week before school starts so she should be here the week of August 16-20. She said that they like for them to only have to travel for one day so she will be leaving her home around 4 in the morning so i have no clue what time she will be getting here. We are supposed to be having a meeting sometime this summer also with the local EF people and they will be going over all of the rules with us too. And then I think that we were told that once the student gets here we will have another meeting with the parents (us) and the students to go over the rules again that way we all know that we were told the same information.

When I talked to her last week we were talking about school clothes and I was asking her if she was going to shop before she came or if she was going to wait until she gets here and she said she was probably going to wait until she got here to do her shopping. I was so so happy I LOVE to shop for school clothes and school supplies....i am so excited. I am probably going to take off of work that week she comes in so we can spend some time together getting her ready to start school.

CJ has been playing a little game with her. He has been sending her US trivia questions and then she sends him a Norwegian trivia question. So if anyone has any trivia questions they would like to share with him please comment. I think it is his turn now.

Well I guess that is all for today talk again soon!

Patrice & CJ

Norway Independence Day

I learned from Katrine this week that Norway will be celebrating their Independence Day on May 17th. It looks like everyone walks together she explained it that they celebrate by going in a train (the picture above). And then the community gather together on their soccerpath (she didn't know what it was in english). After this she will go to her friends house with her family and they will have a barbecue. She really likes this day. It sounds a lot like how we celebrate our Independence day also.

The picture of her in a dress is the Norway national dress called "bunad". She says that Norway has many different national dresses depending on where you live. Her dress is the one from Vestfold which is the county she lives in.

It is so cool to learn about how other countries celebrate. I can't wait to learn even more from her as the year goes on. I am sure once she gets here we will learn a lot more.

CJ is looking forward to learning Norwegian. We will see how that goes.

Our Student Katrine

Hello everyone!

These are some pictures that I got from Katrine.