Happy Cinco de Mayo!!

[Ramblinrose]

Blessed... I don't have a problem with anyone waving their homeland flag, but here many make very unkind signs at the same time towards a country that supports many with food stamps, free health care and the such. One would think they would be grateful for that.

And it particularly bugs me when student who are here illegal through no fault of their own say such nasty thing about the country who is providing them with a free education that is much better than they would receive had they not been brought here.

Being a teacher I am privy to the many horror story of living poor in other countries. None of them want to return to their home lands, yet seem to forget this country treats them better than where they came from. I just want them to show some respect towards the US.

I have a wonderful friend who is Japaness by birth and lived much of her life in Austria. She came to the US because her brother is legally here. She went through the process and was so excited when she had to study for her exam. She said the day she became an American... I was with her that day after the ceremony... Was a dream come true. And I was so excited for her.

She went to NYC to celebrate and was so excited to tell me she had been to see "the lady in the sea" that it made her ball. Took me a while to figure out she was talking about the Statue of Liberty

[Nancy]

Watched my knitting show. I am back from a store run. TotN left early today. I will mow soon as the grass dries off. I have processed. Mail. I asked h to grill burgers weather permitting for dinner bc that is what I wanted and not getting that on Sun.

I mowed the grass was still wet in the shade & really muggy 51% here, 48% not far from us! I am taking a break befre doing the front it is not as bad.

[Lilac]

I'm recovering from a hissy fit and a meltdown. Today I needed to get the fertilizer spread. It needed to be wet first, so dh sat in the garage and cycled the sprinkler system thru 4 minutes per zone. Got him settled back in the house and went back out to mess with the fertilizer. Despite using the proper setting for my brand, I had to do it 3 times to use all the fertilizer. Then dh wanted me to rinse the spreader. Fine, but I could not get the hose hooked up. On a good day, it is a pain and today I spent a long time and a lot tears trying to get it hooked up. Finally I brought it around back and hooked up several hoses to the back faucet and got it rinsed. Afterwards, I told dh that I am having the plumbing co. come next week and put a new one on and I don't care what it cost, because I can't wait for him to be able to do it in 2+ months. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[Harmony]

(Lilac) you sure have a lot on your plate these days. I'm sorry you got hurt falling yesterday. Are you feeling better?

I'm not a fan of this holiday either. Some use this as an excuse to drink and party too much. RRose, I agree with your assessment of things. We have Miami here where a lot of people do NOT want to assimilate and at one time tried to make Spanish the language over there. Signs, everything are in Spanish and English. Course, we have Hatians, Jamaicans, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, they all gravitate here because of the similar weather. Over here, the more inland we go the more there are.

Course, nearby, we have a town with big percentage of Chech, Russian, Serbian, and they have their own orthodox churches. We were invited to a Saint's dinner one time and nobody spoke English to us.

The thing that annoys me the most, and it's not a big thing either, is the spanish on the phone. Push 1 for Spanish...

Well, now that I feel like a completely unloving person..

Been working hard. Got desk cleaned up and all those chores done, phone calls, emails; dining room cleaned up, kitchen, all the laundry folded. It looks pretty good here. Chicken out thawed for dinner.
Need to reconcile bank account that came today.

[blessedw2]

You are a very loving person d harmony

yes I agree that those who are here should appreciate what is given and be able to speak up to make things right if there is a wrong. You'll never find anyone more proud of their citizenship than those who have worked hard to make a home for their family

I think we should appreciate all different cultures - my family's work w a school showed me how much these parents want a bright future for their children that they didn't have - most from Mexico- we all have the same dreams for our families

I read an article recently where - in Chicago- a politician hated the catholic Irish and how the Irish were viewed in a negative light - but now Chicago has a huge at pats day - Germans were told not to come to certain neighborhoods but now October fest is celebrated- etc etc - every new immigrant group takes time to acclimate as well as for the current citizens - We are all immigrants.

I agree that it's too easy re: language etc - it bugs my mom -I was at a kohls not far from my house where there is a large Hispanic population- all the speaker announcements were in Spanish - not once in English- i think it is limiting- we have a program where children are taught math in Spanish until middle school - unfortunately when they go to high school their math grades drop bc it's all taught in English- they count think etc in Spanish- i think it's important to keep ur mother tongue but also learn the language of the country u live in - but it's also important to keep part of where we come from - just as I am proud of my heritage as others have of theirs - that's what's so cool about the states

being from a French dialect speaking family - we appreciated our heritage but grew up knowing how lucky my family felt being here- my grandparents never gave up their French citizenship but had all their children become citizens- my family would never have spoken their given language if w others who spoke English were w them - it's just common curtesy. Sometimes people forget their manners.

Still working- I missed all my weeklies Monday to today
So far I have washed the kitchen floor and the upper cabinets

[lucylee]

Amen to all you said, Rose. I would encourage people to have pride in their native land... heck, I'm proud of my Scottish-Irish heritage and my family has been in America since the 1700's I think!
Immigrants should feel free to wave their flag and celebrate their culture, etc... (IMHO) -- but don't start burning OUR flag. * sheesh *

Lilac -- I am sooo sorry I have not been able to follow what's going on with you, but I'm going to cuop shortly. Wanted to send you a (BIG HUG) bc it sounds like you could use one.

So glad Elizabeth didn't think I ran out of the hospital while dmom was in the midst of an active seizure. I didn't think y'all would think that -- but I wanted you to know she WAS alert and instructed me to go home before I left.
I made sure dbro was well aware of all this, too, even though it was 1:00 his time and he had to work the next day.

[helia]

I'm not getting much done here beyond the essentials. I went to moms group this a.m., got home close to 11:45, had lunch, headed to work on the bus, prepped for class (I got there 45 minutes before class started), taught, chatted with my supervisor after work today, and ended up having to catch a later bus home, so I got home around 4:40 pm instead of 4:10 pm. I think a jog is out of the question; dinner will take some time to get together tonight. . .

Interesting discussion here. I don't think anyone here is unloving. Some of you have had really bad experiences with people from other countries. That makes me feel sad and disappointed because I generally like people from other countries, but I know there are some here who are abusing the system and criticizing rather than contributing and trying to help this country. And some are here illegally.

However, not all are like that -- and I know everyone here knows that too. People from other countries are such a foundational part of my life, I don't even know what to say. To start with, I work with foreigners at my job. Obviously, my students are all foreigners. And they are all thrilled to be here!! Of course they're here legally; they couldn't be at the school otherwise. And, oh yeah -- I'm married to a foreigner. Though he was born in the US, dh grew up (ages 1 - 18) in the Netherlands with Dutch parents. I'm glad he spoke only Dutch to our children as they grew up; being bilingual, which they're not completely, is really good for one's brain, besides being good for communicating with their cousins and grandmother, when she was alive. (That said, I think it was rude for those people not to speak to you in English, Harmony.) Their English has never been a problem. In fact, they've all been early readers and strong English students. Dh wouldn't say the USA is perfect - he wouldn't say NL or Europe is perfect either - but he obviously prefers this country over Europe for many reasons. And he is actually an asset to this country; he brings in a lot of $$ to the University (he wouldn't like for me to share, but it is a lot. . ), which eventually seeps into the economy (this $$ is not for our private use, btw); his patents are American; his successes are American; he would say there are very very few people in the world who do what he does at his level so he's not taking a job from anyone. And this is true of many successful foreigners who work at the University here, and other top universities in the country. Also, many of our friends are foreign or have close ties to other countries. R and S are Korean Americans; 4 families in our small group are Taiwanese, Korean, or Vietnamese. Dd17's guy's parents are from India. Our ski friends were born here but have parents from Taiwan. We just rub shoulders so much with so many people from around the world here that we're comfortable with them. But these are generally very successful, highly educated people who are paying plenty of taxes to our government. They probably don't say the USA is perfect, but they love being here. Some were born here.

OK, I HAVE to get dinner going.

[DeeClutter]

Wanted to get back in here (after I left this morning). Want to wish Ken and Kathryn a very Happy Anniversary. Hope it's been a good day for you both. If I remember correctly you don't 'celebrate' per se, but know it's a special day.

I was so tired today and it seemed the bulletin went completely awry. Went from there to see Dsisil but I was so sleepy I cut the visit short and came home for a nap. Trying to decide right now if I'm going to Trivia with dd tonight. If I don't, I'll be home alone. Just not sure what I want to do. I'll probably go -I can sleep in tomorrow. But I have things I absolutely need to do. (Like do the church council minutes for up home and get them sent off -our meeting is Tuesday evening.) Maybe I can get a decent night's sleep and get up early to do this project. It's just gotten pushed to the back burner obviously for the last 3 weeks.

Good evening to you all.

[Lilac]

After my last post, i went upstairs and asked dh if he needed anything before I went back to bed until further notice. And then I went back to bed. Dgd6 did not have school today because it was kindergarten roundup (enrollment). Dgd6 went to the farm with her daddy for the day. Dd2 had taken dgd5 to enrollment this am on her plan time. They needed to talk to one of the teachers about the results of dgd5s tests they had given her, but dd2 needed to get back to school. So I took dgd5 to daycare. Her daddy will pick her up and when dd2 gets out of track practice, she will take dgd5 back to the school.

Since dh has been laid up there has been little housework done around here, but a lot of laundry, dishes and meals.

[lucylee]

Happy anniversary, Kathryn and Ken!

I've never had a bad experience with anyone from another country -- I'm just going by what I've seen on the news. In our area, there aren't a lot of serious problems, and all the immigrant students I ever had were well-mannered and I enjoyed having them in class.