St Patrick's Day factoids

Here are 10 little 'facts' about St Patrick's Day

1. In Chicago the city dyes the Chicago River green using 40 tons of veggie oil.
2. There are 10,000 three leaf clovers for every one four leaf clover.
3. The original Guinness Brewery in Dublin has a 9,000 year lease.
4. 40 million Americans claim to have Irish ancestry- population in Ireland is around 5 million.
5. St Patrick's Day is celebrated all over the world.
6. The first St Patrick's Day parade celebrated in America was in 1737.
7. St Patrick was kidnapped and taken to Ireland when he was a teenager.
8. The Irish started pinching those not wearing green because it was seen as a lack of pride.
9. A large Shamrock Shake from McDonald's contains 25 grams of fat.
10. Traditional Irish cure for a hangover is to be buried up to the neck in moist river sand.

Related Posts:

• Join me on St Patrick's Day
• Great toasts for St Patrick's Day 

join me on St Patrick's Day!

In case you missed them yesterday you can click HERE to read my favorite St Patrick's Day toasts.

I wanted to remind you and encourage you to join me this Sunday (St Patrick's Day) to buy coffee for stranger- my experience was so fulfilling on Valentine's Day that I decided to do it on every holiday and I think it would awesome if you guys joined me in this! If you do PLEASE tell me about it!

The Ultimate Life List is now on facebook.....please stroll on over and LIKE it!

Michigander Must Do List

I was thinking about how I made a little Chilean Bucket List for my friend who recently moved to Chile and it dawned on me that I really ought to do the same thing for 'my foreigners'. I do not know how long the Brazilians or the Russian plan to live in Michigan so I came up with some things that I think they should do here before they leave!

 Here is their Michigan Summer Bucket List....let's get started as soon as it warms up!

                                                          1. Go to Tiger's Game

2.Mackinac Island

3. Swim in one of the Great Lakes

4.Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes

5. Mystery Spot 

6. Hell, Michigan

7. Detroit Zoo

8. Renaissance Festival 

9. Ann Arbor Art Fair

10. Holland Tulip Festival

11. Greenfield Village

12. Frankenmouth

13. 4-h Fair

14. Go to a concert at Pine Knob (or DTE)

15. See Niagra Falls-it's not in Michigan but it's a very Michigan thing to do

The Russian

I've mentioned 'my Russian' a few times now- I know, I know... it's starting to appear like I am collecting foreigners, but I wanted to tell you how this friendship came to pass. Our crossing paths did not happen organically as it did with the Brazilians but the connection is as genuine.

Back in early November I took my daughter to church one day while Joel stayed home. That day they talked about an international program that linked my church and the college that I graduated from. They said that there were many students who were new to this country and did not have a place to go for Thanksgiving and asked if anyone would be willing to 'host' one or two students for Thanksgiving dinner. Without hesitation I signed us up. This was perfectly tailored for me- I speak French and have formally studied Russian and Arabic and dabble with a little German, Hebrew, and Portuguese and LOVE learning about all (every) cultures and their languages, so this was kind of a dream scenario for me to be in. I've got a big fact student loan I'll be paying on forever to learn other languages and cultures-from Americans- This was a win, win, win.

Though we had ABSOLUTELY NO PLANS WHAT SO EVER to cook Thanksgiving dinner at our house, we actually had specifically talked about it and decided against because we had just returned from Pennsylvania, and then had a big party for our daughters' second birthday and Christmas was around the corner, also we have never taken on the bold task of cooking an entire dinner for our whole family. No matter...I signed us up anyways! I also wanted to be able to spend Thanksgiving with my Brazilians so I knew we'd figure everything out.

I called my husband and delicately informed him that not only would we be cooking Thanksgiving dinner (for the first time in our lives) but that I wanted to invite the Brazilians too...and then on top of that we would also have 2 other people whom we've never met and perhaps spoke limited English. What a Thanksgiving it would be! I was SO EXCITED to find out what country our students were from so I could start learning some key phrases in the target language.

Then a few days before Thanksgiving, I got an email that said all the students had been matched. I was bummed but I still had my 4 Portuguese speaking friends that would be joining us, one way or another I was having some non native English speakers at my Thanksgiving!

In the middle of January I received another email saying that they had more students to be matched, I responded right away, filled out all the paper work and by the end of the week I had plans to meet with the Russian girl they paired me with.

I was a little nervous. Not about conversation- there are only two things in this world that I'm really good at...talking and breastfeeding. I can have a conversation with anyone about anything, one of my favorite things to do is to meet new people and just get to know them. I like to hear others' stories, learn about their passions, hear what motivates them and just enjoy the time.

So why was I nervous? I was worried she wouldn't like me. Sometimes I feel like I'm a dorky stay at home mom with 6 pairs of black stretchy pants and a fleece in every color-the coolest thing about my appearance is my pumas that I bought 2 years ago...and lest we forget that I'm a 29 year old with braces. I really don't think too much about my more than casual wardrobe...until I'm in public.

Our initial meeting went much better than I could have hoped for! Valeryia and I have so much in common- a passion for learning languages, a desire to travel, and we're both certified translators! She is incredibly impressive, she's 25 and already has earned her Masters' Degree she also speaks English better than I probably ever will. Signing up to be her 'hosts' or really her American family has already been very rewarding, we had dinner with her on Valentine's Day and had lots of laughs and got to know each other better.

I am really enjoying my little gaggle of foreigners I have taken under my wing. I get to learn about their countries, languages and traditions. We laugh hysterically about over our misunderstandings in vocabulary and discover our commonalities. I hope both the Brazilian family and Valeryia feel comfortable with my family and know that they have a friends and a family here in the U.S. to celebrate the Holidays with, to ask for help, and to count on for anything.

If you find yourself crossing paths with someone who is new to your country I strongly encourage you to take advantage of the opportunity to reach out and make a new friend. You will undoubtedly serve as comfort to them but I promise it will enrich your life in countless ways as well. I have had the pleasure of making friends from Brazil, Lebanon, Poland, Albania, Mauritius Island, Syria, France, England, New Zealand and now Russia. I think I have discovered one chapter of my life's destiny.

LIFE LIST: BOUNCE HOUSES

Yesterday I decided to take my daughter to this place I found online, we woke up late, my dad called and by the time we started getting ready we only had 10 minutes to do so, I almost said forget it, we'll go another time...I am so glad we husseled and went. We had a magnificent time, it was a great new experience for both me and my 2 year old little girl.

Place of fun: Pump It Up 

Location: Nationwide- visit the website and type in your zip code to find a bounce site near you.

Hours: Only open at certain times-check the website and click on the 'event calendar'. The jump sessions last one hour and thirty minutes, which is plenty of time.

Cost: $7 per child- adults FREE

Description: An indoor play facility consisting of multiple, large inflatable units. The one we visited had 6 big bounce inflatables that were each provided a different setting/things to do.

Food available: I saw some vending machines- that's about it unless they have food available for purchase  for scheduled parties.

Pros:

• There were VERY few people there, for the first 45 minutes we only had to share the place with 4 other kids-it was WONDERFUL, a few more trickled in but there wasn't more than 10 kids.
• Parents get to bounce too!
• $7 for an hour and a half...couldn't beat the price!
• They have specific times for preschoolers (which is obviously what we attended) there are also 'open jump' slots available for older kids.
• It is a safe place where kids and play, be loud, mingle with other children and get some exercise!
• Because of the set up and amount of people I did not worry even once about our belongings turning up missing.

Dislikes:

• NONE!

My advice:

• great place to host a party!
• I brought water and a little snack, it's a lot of activity so it was definitely beneficial to have water for the both of us. 

* I also started talking with another mother there, our daughters were playing and hitting it off, we hit it off too and ended up exchanging numbers! I invited them to join us for our outing next week!

* Heart warming moment...while I was putting on my daughter's coat she said "I had fun mama" to hear my little 2 year old volunteer that made the entire day priceless.

The Ultimate Life List is now on facebook...please bounce on over and LIKE it!

Jungle Java- a great place for kids to play!

I am trying to put together a concise list of fun places to take your tyke in the freezing cold winter months. I'm going to write a short review of the destination, include some details and wrap it up with a beautiful bullet point list in a week or so. Don't worry even though spring is around the corner it's going to be just as cold as it is today by the time I finish my list! And it will be available for next year too!

Place of fun: Jungle Java

Location: Multiple locations: Clinton Township, Farmington Hills & Canton Michigan

All my pics were blurry-she wouldn't slow down!

Hours: Open Monday through Sunday- hours vary slightly but they are open every day during the hours of
10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Cost: 2 and up $7.50, 1 years old $3, under 12 months FREE, Adults FREE

Description: A large indoor facility that holds a massive jungle gym, slides, a basketball court, a laser tag zone, food court, comfy leather chairs and WiFi.

Food available: There is a wide variety of snacks and meal options and they are very reasonably priced.

We had a blast!

Pros:

• it is a GREAT place for kids to run around and be as loud as they want.
• the food was very inexpensive with lots of options!
• I paid $7.50 for 3 hours of fun- it is money WELL spent.
• We only stayed 3 hours, but you could essentially stay the entire day if you wanted!
• Even though I brought my own, they did have several hand sanitizer stations. 

Dislikes:

• There are no attendants, obviously parents are responsible for their own children....but there are many kids who are essentially unsupervised-these are the children who needed it the most! Also, there were a lot of older, bigger kids running around with all these little kids-it made me very nervous. 
• I thought the 'sign out' process could have been improved. It's a big place, with hundreds of people, and with your children running around it is very easy to lose track of them...even if you are following them around the entire time...
• I unfortunately and accidentally went during mid Winter break and it was hectic and chaotic to say the least-I would go again but only during the week, early in the day and while school is in session!
• the area for the toddlers could use some sprucing up!

My advice:

• go as early in the day as possible.
• do not bring a lot of belongings with you/ or expensive things- I actually lost my iPhone but some gracious human being ACTUALLY turned it in to the lost and found! But I would NOT take it again!
• wear comfy clothes-moms and dads if you're climbing through these jungle gyms with your kids you don't want to worry about your crack showing...I saw enough crack that day to fill my quota for the year.

My book

"If there’s a book you really want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet…
                   ...then you must write it”
I've mentioned here and there that I came up with an idea for a book and I've spent a lot of time first of all, figuring out what to do about that....and then doing it!

In January I mailed out several letters to literary agents.

In May, one of those lit agents emailed me asking for my book proposal. (The same day we found out we got the house, it was a very hectic week-but very exciting!) She told me to give her some time...

In December I emailed her-she responded quickly including this statement "I am interested." I couldn't believe it! Over the course of that week we communicated via email and she ultimately told me that I am not yet ready for a literary agent.

At first I took that to mean that our 'relationship' was over, but I am hanging onto her saying that she is interested in my idea....so tonight I am going to email her again, and begin taking the advice she gave me. It doesn't seem like I've gotten very far but I feel like I have-this time last year all I had was a couple rejection letters.