Guess That's What Happens

In Our Same Boat (with State)

Beyond the Cornfields
Brand-new State Department family in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Love their two little girls (she just recently had a baby while being posted in Dhaka), horticulture, traveling and adventure!
Email From The Embassy
State Department family formerly in Beijing, China, and recently posted to Amman, Jordan. A trailing spouse, she's also a writer, and frequently publishes articles with major news sources. A very experienced State family, this new post is something like overseas post number six or seven for them.
Just US
A beautiful family of seven - they have arrived at their new post: Jerusalem! They just finished off an unaccompanied tour to Iraq and are very much looking forward to sightseeing around the middle east.
Our Life
State Department family on their second post...Tijuana, Mexico. It's their first overseas assignment and they have two little boys. They love Tijuana so far and post pictures frequently! They also get to enjoy the best of both worlds for they can sneak over the border into San Diego when they want to!
The Dinoia Family
State Department family formerly in California, now in DC for a DC tour. Next, the husband will do a one year unaccompanied tour. A very experienced State family (formerly in Iceland and Caracas) with a blog that has been around quite a while and has great archives. Jen has a sweet heart and a lot to give!
The Perlman Update
State Department family formerly in Chennai, India, who then did a year-long unaccompanied tour in Iraq. They are now on a DC tour and after that will do another unaccompanied tour (Afghanistan). She totally tells it like it is and doesn't sugar-coat what life is really like. Witty, snarky, funny and down-to-earth. Look elsewhere if you want fake. Read if you want REAL.
Where in the World Am I?
State Department family formerly in Bujumbura, Burundi and now in Hyderabad, India. They just had their first baby this summer - a beautiful little girl- (there's a separate blog about this) and she also eats gluten-free (with a separate blog, also).

Can't Live Without (non-State)

Crass-Pollination: An ER blog
The best ER nurse blog EVER!
Doctor Grumpy in the House
The best doctor blog EVER!
In Which...
My IRL friend, a stay-at-home, homeschooling Mama of seven. Her darling daughters are, goshdarnit, probably too young to be hoped for as my future daughters-in-law.
The Crib Chick
My IRL friend, a stay-at-home, homeschooling Mama of five. Hopefully two (Any two! I'm not picky!) of which are my future daughters-in-law.
the underwear drawer
An anesthesiologist who is possibly the most talented & entertaining writer ever. I've read her blog ever since she started medical school. No, don't know her in real life. Wish I did.
The Bloggess
This blog is both hysterically funny and hilariously irreverent. I actually let my 17 year old son read it (who loves it as much as I do!), but wouldn't even CONSIDER letting my 12 year old son read it. Which is about all the description it needs!

04/27/2012

Guess That's What Happens

I mean, when a child of yours is so sick that the amount of school they have missed in the last month is counted in WEEKS and not days, you know that the (school-wide, pre-scheduled) Parent-Teacher Conferences you're going to attend at the tail end of that sickness are going to SUCK.

And well they did. Suck, that is.

Yes, after a marathon sick session resulting in one of my sons being out of school for WEEKS, James and I then had Parent-Teacher Conferences yesterday.

Joyous.

We basically sat with each teacher individually, and listened while they talked to us about all the end-of-the-year (translation: HARD) work that was missed, and how there was SO MUCH missed work (translation: MOUNTAINS) and how it's a shame so much school time was missed (translation: HOPE THE KID WAS ON DEATH'S DOOR, LADY, CUZ THE FALLOUT IS GONNA SUCK SUPER MEGA ROYAL).

After a while, externally I was listening to what the teachers were saying to James and to me, but internally I was pretty much

and I'm totally not even kidding.

Now, it's not like said son is going to - you know - FAIL ANYTHING or whatever, so I guess I should be glad that none of the teachers pulled any kind of Gandalf

(translation: YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!!)

But since I'm pretty much as close to an Asian parent as one can be when one is, you know, WHITE, and since my point on view on things closely tracks theirs

(translation: THE FOLLOWING NON-ANIMATED PICTURE, WHICH IS SELF-EXPLANATORY:)

I thus came home from said Parent-Teacher Conferences and pretty much was all

And was wholly unable to function the rest of the evening.

FAB.

So, anyway, all that to say... sometimes, when you're overseas, your kids get REALLY SICK.

For a REALLY LONG TIME.

And then, when they're done being really sick, they have eleventy gazillion piles of backlogged schoolwork.

And that's life, sometimes, when you're overseas, folks.

Just FYI.