First Day(s) of School 2024

First Day of school! But this time in America! 

H had a delayed start to school (more on that later), but the girls were both able to go ahead. No one was excited to start over at a new school this year, but I asked the girls what they were looking forward to about school. Their answers included:

• A/C in all the classrooms (their Indian school was open-air except for a few rooms)
• no uniforms (personally, I was ok with the uniforms)
• no school lunch (it was included in their school tuition in India so I made them eat school lunch most of the time and, yeah, it wasn't the best)
• huge library (I never understood why the library at their Indian school was so tiny)
• seeing what an American school is actually like (vs what they had seen on TV and movies)

I walked CJ to the elementary school (the same one that H went to when we lived here before!) and she was pretty nervous going into the classroom. At the open house the week before, we had met a girl in her class named Chloe. Her mom knew someone in our ward and told them to look out for us. And sweet Chloe moved her seat so that she would be next to CJ. So on the first day, there was Chloe, waiting for CJ and it made it easier for her to go into class. And I was so thankful for Chloe and her mom that helped CJ have an easier first day of school!

After taking CJ, I had time to come back home and walk E to the bus stop around the corner from our house. She had a couple of friends at the bus stop right before ours, so they said they'd save her a seat. 

I'm happy to report that both girls seemed to have a great day! When the girls each got home, we had first day of school cookies together while they each told me about their day. 

E also got her new bed while they were at school and after dinner CJ helped Brandon put it together. That meant that two out of the three kids were no longer sleeping on the floor! (CJ was using H's old bed from before we moved.)

And since there was no homework on the first day of school, we finished the day by watching the last episode of Dragon Prince. 

But that was the girls. H starting school was a whole different story. 

Let me just back up and say that as soon as we learned we were moving back to the US, we had a good idea what area we would move back to and so I knew what schools the kids would probably attend. I contacted the high school right away to explain the situation: we were moving back from India, the grades were different here, I wouldn't have his final grades until August when they released his IB test scores, this is what an IB exam is, this is why it's important, yada yada yada. They assured me that they had students transfer from international schools all the time and as soon as they got his complete transcripts, they would register him for classes. We even called them from India to double check if there was anything else we could do in the meantime. They seemed completely unphased. 

So when we moved back and finally got his IB exam results in early August (he passed!) I immediately sent them to the school to tell them his transcripts were now complete. But then I didn't hear back. I called, multiple people, multiple times, H ad I showed up at freshman orientation (even though he wasn't registered yet) so I could talk to someone. The first day of school got closer and it was clear that the school didn't have a clue what to do with H.

School starred on a Wedesday; on the following Friday, I got an email that he could come register and start on Monday. Huzzah! We met with his school counselor, but it was clear from the get-go that they still didn't have a clue. Apparently they found someone who worked at the school that had also once worked at a school that had an IB program. And so they gave her H's grades and told her to make sense of them. But as far as I could tell, she just kinda made it up. I asked them how she came to the grades that she did, and the answer didn't really make sense to me, and definitely wasn't what they actually meant. And what's worse is that with this new interpretation, they thought that H had failed the majority of his classes! They even suggested registering H as a sophomore instead of a junior. H was close to tears. 

The head counselor came in and she also tried to explain how they came up the grades they did, but I kept insisting that they weren't right. H was a good student. They suggested that he could test out of the classes that he 'failed' so he wouldn't have to repeat anything and he could register as a junior. This is the compromise we took, in order to get him into school, but I knew they were wrong. But as we tried to register him, we ran into another hiccup. Because they thought he was a struggling student, they wouldn't let him take the AP classes he wanted (except for History, because even with their messed up system, they acknowledged he had passed that one). I tried to explain how difficult his classes were overseas, the equivalent of everything being honors, and the IB exams at the end (which he passed!) being like an AP exam. No dice. 

So we registered him as best we could in the classes we thought could work. They weren't what H wanted per se, but it was as good as we could get under the circumstances. I will say, his counselor was very nice about it, and very sympathetic, but she had to do what she was told. At the very least, H had started school! Four days late, but at least he was going!

As soon as I got home from our meeting, I went to work trying to fix things. I emailed his school in India so they could explain his grades. I looked up the district guidelines to see if anything there would help and--ta da!--there was an entire section about international students and what to do with grades that don't correlate. I emailed someone in the district to try to get their help. I emailed the head counselor and tried to explain what the grades meant, sent a link to a website about the IB program, and another to page 19 of their handbook. 

But weeks went by and, despite what I'm sure were annoying emails to the school, nothing changed. And the school didn't seem in any hurry to get H to test out of his classes either. Finally, I crowd-sourced my local church's groupme (should've done that earlier) to see if anyone knew anyone who worked for the school district. Someone messaged someone else who got me the name of a person at the district that they thought could help. I called and left a message and, surprisingly fast, she called me back. She was flabbergasted: why had the school handled it that way? She told me not to worry, she would call the school and get back to me soon. And she did! And then his school called me, too! Amazing!

Since they didn't have a system for how to calculate his grades, the handbook said they would give all his previous classes either Pass or Fail. And just like that--boom! He passed all his classes, and his GPA started over. I was even able to get them to recognize all his previous classes as being at the honors level. There was just one sticky point: his school felt that certain math and science classes corresponded. And, in their opinion, H hadn't taken the requisite math class before taking physics. So they would count his old physics class as just a general science class 🙄, and he would have to take physics over again. 

So we got it sorted, but it took way more time and effort than it should have. And, side note, on my call with the head counselor, she thanked me for the opportunity we had given them to learn the correct procedure for the future. 🙄

Kid Day 2024

 As you know, Kid Day is the made-up holiday that takes place exactly one week before school starts. The kids collectively make a schedule and decide everything we do for the day. This year, we had an official banner for the first time! I'm so proud of myself for getting it made in India before we moved AND remembering to pack it in a suitcase.

 

Compared to previous years, this Kid Day was pretty jam-packed (thank you America with all your things to do). Even though the schedule dictated otherwise, we didn't have any downtime except for the half hour before dinner at our favorite family restaurant, where Brandon joined us. 

(Oh yeah, Brandon moved back to the US a couple of days before and immediately started working full-time. Fun story from his move back: during the drive to the airport, our driver--who we had the entire time we lived there, but was never our favorite--told Brandon that our 'goodbye bonus' wasn't big enough. 🙄 Brandon had him pull over at an ATM so he could pull out more cash. Classic.)

Anyway, I somehow didn't take any pics until after we got back from the pool and I made the kids take a pic with the banner.

Our lunch was the first Indian food we've had since we left BLR and we were all going in with high expectations. Probably too high. It was fine, but it sure made me miss being able to get our favorite biryani on demand.

Tropical Smoothie Cafe

We ended the night watching our family show in our new movie room! It was a great day!

Utah visit

We decided to go see our family Utah for a week before school started and things would get really real. We hung out with the KimBrad fam, the kids and I went on a hike (we were supposed to go to a waterfall, but ended up at the G), and there were lots of Dyal family dinners and getting ice cream at Macey's.

 

It was a quick trip, but it was fun!

Howdy Texas! Moving pains and hurricanes

Our friend, Greg DeHart, picked us up from the airport and took us straight to our new house, the first time the kids and I had seen it in person. The DeHarts were there and our friends the Kearnes. And the kids were thrilled to see their friends. But we couldn't get the garage to open when we got there. And then once we got inside, it was really hot. And huh. The AC doesn't seem to be on and, look the lights aren't working. And eventually, longer than it should have taken, but I was pretty jet lagged, I realized the electricity wasn't working. Even though Brandon arranged for it to be turned on before he left Texas. So the Kearnses left with the kids to give them some food and a place to relax and the minute they left the house I let it all out, that tight ball of grief and stress that had been sitting in my chest and getting progressively larger since we landed. 

After a good cry, I looked up the info I had for the electric company and called them up. They didn't have any record of the electricity being transferred to our name, so it had apparently been disconnected and it would take a couple days before it would be connected again. But it was in the middle of a heatwave in Houston so the house really wasn't livable. So Heika helped me figure out what I wanted to do next and i decided to get an AirBnb for a couple days until the electricity was back on. 

E stayed with the DeHarts overnight, but when we got the electricity sorted, we all moved to the house. Friends gave us some air mattresses to sleep on, but we had brought bedding and kitchen things with us in our suitcases. Another person in the ward lent us a folding table and benches and we were set. The first few days were just getting sorted, buying necessities, watching the presidential debate, and then going to Old Town Spring to be touristy.

E lost interest and the other two feel asleep

CJ discovered the joys of BBQ baked potatoes!

A week after landing, H went to FSY with other members of our new ward, the entire reason we left India when we did even though Brandon wasn't finished handing his job over yet. The next day we got all of the things we had put in storage 7 1/2 years before. Boxes and boxes of junk, 90% of which I would have happily not seen again. But it meant that we had a couple of couches, a couple of real beds, more kitchen stuff, and boxes and boxes of ...stuff. Erin Malwitz was in town and nicely came over to help put things away for a couple hours. Seriously, I just needed someone to come over and just take charge and do it. And that's Erin in a nutshell.

On the Fourth of July, we went to a ward breakfast and then in the evening some people in the ward asked if we wanted to come over for bbq and join them for neighborhood fireworks. It felt so weirdly normal. 

The next day, Brandon came to town. He wasn't planning on visiting us before he also moved back to the US, but let me just sum up and say that I had had a hard time coping with ... well, all of it. Google tells me it's called reverse culture shock. Eight years away from the US, even with visits home, made me feel like TX was some Twilight Zone that was familiar and at the same time confusing and unwelcome. And so Brandon came to help. We went car shopping and bought a van. We unpacked things. We got the house a little more settled. We learned that a hurricane was coming directly to us. 

So two weeks after moving to TX, Monday July 8th, we were in the middle of a hurricane, which was a first for us. The power went out about mid-day, but the storm had brought the temperature down, so it didn't get too bad for a couple of days. As per usual when we have a long wait, we took bets on when the power would come back and when cell service would come back on. We were all wrong. It took 5 1/2 long, hot days for electricity to be restored in our neighborhood.

Hurricane bets

Power

CJ: Wednesday 1:00pm

E: Tuesday 3:00pm

H: Tuesday 12pm

F: Wednesday 4am

B: Monday 7pm

J: Weds 6am

Cell signal

CJ: Tuesday 5:15am

E: Tuesday 12pm

H: Tuesday 1pm

F: Tuesday 4am

B: Monday 3pm

J: Tuesday 12:30pm

Rules:

closest without going over

Power - family movie

Cell - snack

(We had an impromptu visit from our nephew, so that's who the J is.)

Our area wasn't flooded, but the wind blew a lot of trees down (we watched a tree fall over in our back neighbor's yard) and those ruined the power lines. Things like grocery stores got power back the fastest, so we were able to shop and charge our phones in the car and enjoy the AC and take a break. The kids moved all their mattresses downstairs where it was a smidge cooler at night, but the blinds and curtains stayed closed at all hours in a futile effort to keep the heat out. Two days after the hurricane it was up to the high 90s and it was hot. The DeHarts had a portable generator so they had enough electricity to have fans blowing. We spent a lot of time at the DeHarts just hanging out and playing cards and charging our phones and avoiding our own hot home. A neighbor was able to get us a bag of ice so we could put some of our frozen stuff in a cooler. We were able to get some propane and Brandon figured out how to use the grill that came with the house. And with a lighter, we were able to use the gas stove. So we ate grilled lasagna and frozen pizzas, and generally became sick of our choices as we ate through our frozen foods. Brandon washed our clothes in the tub and hung them to dry. Sadly, we didn't take many pictures of this time. I think because we were trying to preserve our batteries? But I definitely couldn't have survived the hurricane without Brandon there.

This was on the south side of town, but yeah

Can you see the wash line?

Got a little bit of roof damage, but otherwise unscathed

Trying to stay cool

Celebrated 7/11 day with a morning slurpee

Yard clean up

Finally! Let there be light!

Brandon stayed a couple more days after the power came back on, and then we said goodbye for another few weeks. I'm not sure how I would have coped without him here during the hurricane on top of everything else. Thank you for giving up the trip you had booked in India so you could come be with me when I needed you. Love you!