OOH LA LA...part one

On the Mysti Scale of Bad Days....yesterday was a 2!  Meaning that there certainly things that qualify as bad day fodder, but compared to typical bad days....yesterday was gravy!  My car has to go back to the shop though.....

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So, I have had a little secret for a few months....5 months to be exact.

No....I am not pregnant.  That ship sailed a LONG time ago.

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We found out during the last week in August that we were moving.  And the first week in September, Sassy came home and said "Can I go to Quebec with my French class?"

Say what???

This is the 6th time the teacher has done this trip.  She had been doing it yearly, but has decided to do it every other year after this trip.  After seeing the amount of work this woman has put in...I am surprised she hadn't come to this decision sooner.  She obviously LOVES these kids...there is no other reason she would torture herself take on all of the work.


I went to the informational session, and wow...what an amazing opportunity. The trip is for 4 days, 3 nights.  It is through an educational tour group, so all the activities are planned out.  Their itinerary is FULL. They are staying in a lovely hotel (4 kids to a room).  They will be visiting an ice hotel, going snow tubing and dog sledding.  They are going to a copper mine and a maple sugar shack (with a dance party after!).  They are going to the mall (where it is predominately French speaking).  And more.

We told Sassy we didn't know what would happen with the move, so we couldn't guarantee she could go.  She was ok with this.  The travel insurance that was offered (optional) would allow us to get a full refund if we moved before the trip. So....we said ok.

We are letting our child go to a foreign country without us.  *sigh*  Neither of US have been out of the country, but our 12 year old daughter is going.

Was this in the budget.....nope.  We pulled money from lots of little spots to pull it off.  Would we do it again?  ABSOLUTELY.

There will always be school trips that come up, but once we move 800 miles south....a trip to Quebec is less likely to be on the table.  And Sassy rarely asks for anything....this is a kid who is excited to get new underwear.  She has also spent her entire life being dragged to appointments for her brother (including 8 years of weekly occupational therapy.....)  We have funneled alot of our funds into medical and educational care for our son (and would do it all again....).  But that hasn't left alot for other things.  This is our way of supporting her educational care....while the trip is largely social (which she certainly can benefit from, as this isn't her strong suit)....experiencing another country, language, food....these are all things that we believe will enhance her education.

So this coming weekend....I will be putting my precious daughter on a bus with 95 other middle schoolers (yes...there are 96 kids slated to go, but if some of the recent e-mails are any indication...some of these kids may not be allowed to go because their parents haven't turned in their documentation).  Ten chaperones....96 kids.....on buses to drive to Quebec.

Back in September, we started to call her French class her "Ooh La La" class....so this is her Ooh La La trip.  I will give you the numbers and planning in another post!

****And as a side rant....as of this past Friday, 20% of the families hadn't turned in the documents needed to cross the border. The teacher has been clear about this, and has been asking for these documents since November and was due in December.  And technically, she went over all of this in September, and it was outlined on the packet we all got.  The trip is this weekend.   The message we received yesterday was all documentation was due by 3pm today...the piece that was NOT implicitly said was that if it the paperwork isn't in, then your child isn't going.  I REALLY hope they enforce this.  We all signed a contract to comply with the payment, documentation, etc.  Yeah, a parent will be rip roaring mad if their kid doesn't go....well, you had 5 months to do the paperwork.....with several reminders that were e-mailed....and calls.  Too bad...you can explain to your child that Mom and Dad didn't hold up their end of the bargain.