Endings bring new Beginnings

So today is the last day of Summer. Many of you are watching the leaves change and feeling the cooler winds and rains move in. We usually are too but, this year, we are marking the end of Summer with 96 degrees and sunshine. Yep, LA is going to be different and full of lots of new beginnings.

One of our first new beginnings was starting Kieran in an online school program.  I am happy to report that he is adjusting well to it and I am impressed with his dedication to completing his work and doing well on the assignments.  I was a bit worried that he would think it was a prolonged vacation but that reality hasn't surfaced!

Ellysa's new school didn't start until yesterday.  Boy oh Boy did I get an introduction into why CA is in such a mess! First of all, by all accounts, Ellysa should only need World History to graduate.  She is far ahead of most other Seniors having taken two english courses last year on top of doing independent study for the AP Language course which she received a 4! But, she has to take yet another year of English because her tenth grade course was based upon American Literature and they base theirs on WORLD literature! Also, they didn't want to do the analysis of her classes from Interlochen so they pretty much discounted her ENTIRE year there! So she gets to take an additional PE course and Elective course in order to graduate...when they even said she has WAY MORE credits than "fit into" their check boxes.  So, why then does she need an ELECTIVE? So, that will be something that Ellysa will try to fix...mom is going to take a step back (Yes...I really am...otherwise I don't know if I could handle the illogical nature of this whole thing!) Or, she will just have to "buck up" and take the extra classes! (It's not that it would be difficult for her...just sets her back a month from graduation.  She is eager to enroll at the community college for winter semester and get a head start on her Bachelor's degree!

We aren't the only ones with new beginnings...Keith and Zac are on their way to new adventures as well! Zac started at UofM Dearborn this fall and seems to really be enjoying it. (Not sure he is loving the commute from Sterling Heights twice a week but that will end eventually when he gets a place closer to school this winter.) He will start practicing with the soccer team in the winter as well, which will require him to be on campus five days a week, but for that reason, he won't mind! He also intends to apply for a co-op position so that will be another new thing for him to tackle but all of these things are great new beginnings!

Keith is still in limbo as the company sale hasn't finalized yet so his schedule is a bit up in the air.  He has to do a lot of travelling this fall but some of it is local and some of it includes China and Australia. In October, he will be attending the Darden School for Emerging Leaders as he was selected as the one person from his division to attend...quite an honor! We are hoping that some of his travels will allow him to stop over in LA so we can spend a day or two with him.

I am finally feeling like things are getting settled...the kids' bunk bed arrived yesterday so I will be assembling that later today and getting their room organized. Once that is done, I plan to start my new website...EXSTATETRIATES.com   This is a website geared to the growing nomadic lifestyle of those of us in the USA.  The current economic climate has us moving all around the US to find jobs and while there are lots of resources for Expatriates, there aren't many for the local American who may be very unfamiliar with their new location as well.  The only advantage they may have over an Expat is that they speak the language! So, with chapters formed in Indiana, Michigan and California, we will be well on our way to helping struggling newcomers find things a bit easier.  We hope to set up monthly coffee mornings, outings and a local help section on the website where people can go to to get their questions answered.  All this moving around will finally pay off!

So, while we say good-bye to Summer, we are saying hello to all these new experiences! It's going to be a fun journey and we hope you enjoy coming along on it with us!

One week in...

Well, we are one week into our big move to LA and in some ways it feels like we have been here forever! But what, in reality, does it mean to have been here for a week?

First of all, a week has been long enough for us to start to get on each other's nerves in a small apartment...coping mechanisms will have to be put in place and routines worked out but we can do that.

Routine has settled in that includes early morning wake ups which the youngest among us aren't too excited about but Mom insists is necessary to make this whole home school thing work out. There is still a lot we need to add into our routine but we should be in a pretty good rhythm by the end of the first month.

In the past 7 days, the car, which has never really acted up, has had one dead battery, two jumpstarts, a new battery, ongoing low coolant sensor problems and our most recent issue, a rear window that is off the track and no longer operates. We solved it with our own Jay Leno worthy "White Trash Repair" by pulling it up and inserting three pink rubber erasers in the frame to wedge it closed. (Of course this is after a disasterous try to fix it with blue tack...I'm going to be cleaning that one up for a while :( )

A week has been long enough to have to drive to one teen church session (which ran an hour and a half late...) 3 acting classes and 3 improv sessions. 3 Improv sessions? yep, three. Apparently a week was also long enough for Kieran to decide that he wanted try his hand at comedy so he has signed up for improv too. Today marks his first class and show. The first time he decided to follow in Ellysa's footsteps was a few years back when he was a mouse and she was Cinderella. I don't know how far he will take this new interest but with a great big sister to teach him the ropes, who knows where this may lead?...

I don't know what next week or the week after that will bring us but we survived the pitfalls and excitement of the first week so I think we can handle anything that comes our way!

And So it Begins...

Well, we arrived in Burbank yesterday afternoon...after having my misplaced cashier's check replaced at Chase Bank (which I of course found this morning) we got the keys to our new apartment. Before we unloaded the car though, Kieran and I headed to downtown burbank to have dinner with Ellysa's friend Grace and her mom, Vicki. They have just made the big move as well and Ellysa has been staying with them for the past week until we could get here. It is nice for the two girls, both former Interlochen students and best friends, to be able to start this journey together and for us moms to have someone to lean on as well. And lean on them, we did!

They helped us unpack the car which held more stuff than I realized. I am including a picture that illustrates this point. If the first big hurdle was getting here, then the second was unpacking the car! The third big hurdle was dealing with a dead battery this afternoon, right before Improv! With the battery replace and the leads cleared of corrosion, Kieran and I made it just in time to see the show.

So, all the big hurdles out of the way, we can begin to settle in and start our new adventure here in Burbank. With the support of all the wonderful people in our lives, both here in CA and around the world, we can conquer all the other hurdles that will come along the way...Now if we can just figure out where to put all of this stuff?!!!

It Takes A Village

Well, today should be Kieran's first day of school but instead, his friends will all board the bus and greet each other in the halls while he stays at home with me. Today begins our adventure as he becomes the home schooled brother that is happily supporting his sister's dreams by moving across the country and taking on the unknown. As I sit here this morning thinking about his unselfish support, I am reminded that so many others have supported Ellysa to help make her dreams a reality as well.

The concept "It takes a village" has been shown so often lately in our lives that I don't know how any of this would be possible without our village. The support has been wide and varied. Some of you donated to her fundraising efforts, many of you sent or spoke encouraging words to her and others helped with dog sitting etc. when we needed to do something for or with Ellysa. My longtime friend, Darlene of Czech Photographic, took more photos of her than I can count and, if it weren't for our friends the Soens lending us their condo, we certainly wouldn't have been able to visit Ellysa as often at Interlochen. I am humbled by the love and support that our friends and family have shown to us and our children. I thank God that each and every one of you is in our lives and want to say Thank You for being part of our village.

Our move to LA is the biggest undertaking yet. The money we set aside to pay for Interlochen tuition this year will provide the financial support for the move. We will be living in a 600 square foot, one bedroom apartment and pinching pennies...LA isn't cheap! We will drive our 2001 Pontiac out there because flying is expensive and rental cars aren't in the budget. There will be ups and downs and, at times, we may wonder what we got ourselves into but I know, with the emotional support of our Village, everything will turn out great. And with the grace of God, we will grow in ways we can currently only imagine.

Thank you for being our very own VILLAGE PEOPLE.

Drama Mama

Ten years ago, Ellysa begged me to get her an agent in London.  I let it slide and hoped she would soon find something else to focus on.  She didn't.  All during the time we lived in the UK, she would come back to the topic time and time again.  I always said I would look into it but I never really did.  I was a RELUCTANT STAGE MOM!

I had friends whose children had been in films or stage productions in the UK.  I even had allowed Zac and Ellysa to each do one "gig" when we lived in Japan. (Zac was in a printer commercial and Ellysa did a print spread for the Shirley Temple clothing line.) But, that was as far as I was willing to go.  I was afraid of the entertainment world and really didn't want to get caught up in it.  I hoped that, eventually, Ellysa would grow out of her obsession with acting.

Right! We all know how that turned out.  Somewhere along the way, I changed my position.  I decided to stop holding her back and do what I could to help her.  I think it all started with her first attempt to attend Interlochen Arts Academy for her sophomore year.  Thinking she wouldn't even get in, she was thrilled when she received her acceptance letter but dismayed at the tuition left to pay after the 50% aid and scholarship money...$25,000!

When we told her that we just couldn't afford to send her, she was disappointed but not disheartened. She decided that she was going to raise the funds herself. We never dreamt that she could come anywhere near her goal but didn't discourage her.  That's the American way, right?! I have never seen a teenager work so hard!

Summer was just about to start and she jumped right in.  She wrote an eloquent letter to family and friends. (It was so good that at least one family member accused me of writing it for her...I assure you I did not!) Then she organized a fundraiser at our church which required special permission as they don't usually allow that type of thing.  Then she organized bottle and can drives, babysat 44 hours a week and spent her entire weekends at various festivals busking and performing. She didn't have time to spend with her friends like the other teenagers but she didn't care.  She was determined to raise the money for Interlochen. Unfortunately, she didn't reach her goal.  Let's face it...8 weeks to raise $25K is a tough task for a professional adult fundraiser, let alone a 14 year old girl.

You might say she failed.  I say she was the biggest success I had ever seen.  That 14 year old girl raised almost $8,000 during that 8 week period! It may not have been enough to send her to Interlochen that year but it taught her so much.  And God rewarded her efforts in so many ways.  One of them being that she was selected to be in the Justin Beiber movie that summer and got to invite up to three of her friends to be with her. He was one of her idols as she actually followed his career before most people knew who he was.  Ellysa is a singer songwriter as well as an actress so this was a dream come true.  She was able to go to NYC and meet friends that, up to this point, she had only communicated with over Skype and the internet...(new fangled pen pals LOL)

The next year was tough.  Returning to her public high school was hard.  She felt deflated but didn't let it change her.  She toughed it out and stood tall.  She earned the lead of JoJo in the school musical of Dr. Seuss' Seussical that year.  She applied again to Interlochen and they increased her scholarship and aid...we matched her raised funds and she was able to attend for her Junior year. She did it.  She didn't give up and she realized one of her lifelong dreams.

This is when I knew she would succeed in anything she chose to do in life.  You can't teach drive and determination.  You have it or you don't.  There are a lot of talented people out there and she will have a lot of competition along the way but I know she will succeed.

Now we are on another path...Senior Year in LA.  Kieran, Ellysa and I have rented an apartment and we leave for LA in September.  It will be hard to be so far away from home...especially as I won't get to see many of Zac's soccer games this year.  Also, I don't know where the year will lead us but I do know it will be an exciting ride.  So here begins my blog documenting our journey and my turning from reluctant stage mom to Drama Mama. Hope you enjoy reading about our adventures!