JAK CHAT

Océane Returns Last year, I wrote about my becoming a surrogate mother to a teen foreign exchange student in "The Accidental Hostess". Well, our young friend from France has returned and we are experiencing the French Invasion...family-style! [caption id="attachment_803" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Océane Returns[/caption] Read more... Crazy, but it was much easier to pick up a traveler from the international flight terminal than from the domestic flight terminals.  The only setback was the stupid $60 ticket I had plastered (by the rain, yay!) on my car window for not have a license registration sticker on my plates.  Oh I had it alright, just in my purse.  Better than the boot, two of my neighboring parkers had on their wheels.  Seriously, I can't believe Chicago has officers cruise through the airports parking lots writing tickets.  What evs, I can/will contest it. Okay, back to our visitor...we whisked her up to Bastille Days in Cat...

Hosting the Ocean Loved July!  It was jam-packed from the get-go and is wrapping up just the same.  Most of what was planned was, well, planned.  Whether that was our huge annual 4th of July celebration and family reunion, an extended stay of my niece from Arizona, or one of the several rehearsals and/or productions my kids were in...all on the schedule. One thing that wasn't, our families cultural immersion with a young lady from Lyon, France named Océane.  Read More... Late last month, a fairly new acquaintance had shot me an email asking whether I knew of any girl teenagers that she could hook up with a foreign exchange student that she was hosting for 3 weeks in July.  Of course, I do...I told her I'd just check with them (my 14 and 16 year old daughters).  Being as though it was our crazy fun-filled month, I thought I should give them a heads up, we'd/they'd be doing a bit of entertaining for a stranger from a faraway land. Océane is a beautiful, dark long-haired ...