Ex First Lady Promotes Exchange Student Program

Many of you know I had an exchange student, Philipp Pretz, living with me this last school year. It was a great experience for both of us and I encourage anyone to try it out.

I am still a volunteer for Youth For Understanding even though I am not hosting this school year. Two students from Germany just arrived and have been placed with nearby families. My job is to check in on them once a month. Maybe I will provide more details about them in an upcoming blog post. I haven't met either of them yet.

If you ever have questions about the exchange student program and how we go about matching students to families, please contact me.

DJ Had Some Free Time

DJ and his friend Taylor had some free time last night after playing poker and trying to stay up all night.

Brea Tiny Mites Channel

The Tiny Mites channel for Brea Bengals is up on Youtube here:

Holden is #14 in the white practice jerseys and #09 in the green game jerseys.

Enjoy!

Opening Day for Brea Bengals

This is great! Six or seven different sizes of Brea Bengals, football players and cheerleaders take the field for OPENING DAY, along with motivating rock music. Later, Holden's team will scrimmage Anaheim. Holden says they will CRUSH them!

DJ Completes Junior Sailing Program

After more than 24 hours of instruction spread across 6 weekend days, DJ completed the Junior Sailing program at the Shoreline Yacht Club in Long Beach, California. His team also won the final race, with DJ as the Skipper.

I don't have any pictures of DJ sailing, but if you look closely at the sailboat on the certificate, you can see DJ.

This first course qualifies DJ to be a crewmember. The next step is an intermediate course which would qualify DJ to do more and I believe the class after that qualifies him to be the captain of a sailboat. Let's hope he sticks with it! I wouldn't mind sailing somewhere with DJ in charge!

Wee Man!

My friend Kurt and I were having dinner at this Italian restaurant hidden in the industrial center of Gardena called Eatalian when I recognized Wee Man from the Jackass movies. His real name is Jason, I think.
I used to see celebrities all the time when I worked in West LA but I rarely approached them. This time Wee Man said hi to me when he saw that I recognized him, plus I knew DJ would love a picture, so I went over after we ate and introduced myself.
He said "Nice to see you again!" and we chatted about the food and the housemade gelato for a while.  I got this picture for DJ and sent it to him immediately. Like many 12 year old boys, DJ is a big fan of the Jackass movies. I am too.
Dustin

Holden's First Football Practice

Holden didn't know what to expect for his first practice in the Tiny Mites division of the Brea Bengals. The entire field was covered with football players of various ages, all with the same helmets of the Brea Bengals.

Holden brought his helmet as instructed but didn't get to wear it because a teammember didn't bring his and the Bengals do everything as a team. The coaches are great. They introduced competition immediately as players tried to outdo each other during the conditioning exercises. Even at 6 and 7 years old, this is real tackle football.

Practices are every weeknight from 6 to 8:30 and they are pretty much nonstop with a few 2 minute water breaks. Holden did very well following instructions and he never got tired. He will.

The first few practices are conditioning and then they can start contact with helmets, pads and a cup. I can't tell yet if Holden is going to enjoy the contact or not. He is strong but he might tend to get out of someone's way rather than hold the line. We'll see....

Dustin