Today through 1/25/11 - any new families that apply will receive the following discount. Contact Louise on 435 647 6956 or louise.edington@lcc.culturalcare.com for promotion code.
* $650 off the program fee
* New HFs must apply 1/20-25
* HF must welcome an AP by 7/31/2011
* Total program discount cannot exceed $650
Are you Ready for the winter driving conditions ??
As the weather gets colder and Snow is here , It is important we are aware of how to drive in hazardous conditions . As an Au pair many of you will have the responsibility of driving your host children . This is a big responsibility so I challenge you to read these tips, watch the video and check out some of the sites, games and tests . Most importantly STAY SAFE THIS WINTER DRIVING SEASON
TIPS FOR DRIVING IN HAZARDOUS CONDITIONS
1. Get a grip. To have adequate snow traction, a tire requires at least 6/32-inch deep tread, according to The Tire Rack. (New passenger-car tires usually have 10/32-inch of tread.) Ultrahigh-performance “summer” tires have little or no grip in snow. Even “all-season” tires don’t necessarily have great snow traction: Some do, some don’t. If you live where the roads are regularly covered with snow, use snow tires (sometimes called “winter tires” by tiremakers). They have a “snowflake on the mountain” symbol on the sidewall, meaning they meet a tire-industry standard for snow traction.
2. Make sure you can see. Replace windshield wiper blades. Clean the inside of your windows thoroughly. Apply a water-shedding material (such as Rain-X) to the outside of all windows, including the mirrors. Make sure your windshield washer system works and is full of an anti-icing fluid. Drain older fluid by running the washers until new fluid appears: Switching fluid colors makes this easy.
3. Run the air-conditioner. In order to remove condensation and frost from the interior of windows, engage your air-conditioner and select the fresh air option: It’s fine to set the temperature on “hot.” Many cars automatically do this when you choose the defrost setting.
4. Check your lights. Use your headlights so that others will see you and, we hope, not pull out in front of you. Make sure your headlights and taillights are clear of snow. If you have an older car with sand-pitted headlights, get a new set of lenses. To prevent future pitting, cover the new lens with a clear tape like that used to protect the leading edge of helicopter rotor blades and racecar wings. It’s available from auto-racing supply sites.
5. Give yourself a brake. Learn how to get maximum efficiency from your brakes before an emergency. It’s easy to properly use antilock brakes: Stomp, stay and steer. Stomp on the pedal as if you were trying to snap it off. Stay hard on the pedal. Steer around the obstacle. (A warning: A little bit of steering goes a very long way in an emergency. See Tip 8.) If you drive on icy roads or roads that are covered with snow, modify your ABS technique: After you “Stomp” and the ABS begins cycling — you will feel pulses in the pedal or hear the system working — ease up slightly on the pedal until the pulsing happens only once a second.For vehicles without ABS, you’ll have to rely on the old-fashioned system: You. For non-ABS on a mixed-surface road, push the brake pedal hard until the wheels stop rolling, then immediately release the brake enough to allow the wheels to begin turning again. Repeat this sequence rapidly. This is not the same as “pumping the brake.” Your goal is to have the tires producing maximum grip regardless of whether the surface is snow, ice or damp pavement. Use the tips in “How To Survive the Top 10 Driving Emergencies” to practice before the emergency.
6. Watch carefully for “black ice.” If the road looks slick, it probably is. This is especially true with one of winter’s worst hazards: “black ice.” Also called “glare ice,” this is nearly transparent ice that often looks like a harmless puddle or is overlooked entirely. Test the traction with a smooth brake application or slight turn of the wheel.
7. Remember the tough spots. Race drivers must memorize the nuances of every track, so they can alter their path for changing track conditions. You must remember where icy roads tend to occur. Bridges and intersections are common places. Also: wherever water runs across the road. I know people who lost control on ice caused by homeowners draining above-ground pools and by an automatic lawn sprinkler that sprayed water onto a street in freezing temperatures.
8. Too much steering is bad. If a slick section in a turn causes your front tires to lose grip, the common — but incorrect — reaction is to continue turning the steering wheel. That’s like writing checks on an overdrawn account: It won’t improve the situation and may make things worse. If the icy conditions end and the front tires regain grip, your car will dart whichever way the wheels are pointed. That may be into oncoming traffic or a telephone pole. Something very similar happens if you steer too much while braking with ABS. Sadly, there are situations where nothing will prevent a crash, but turning the steering too much never helps.
9. Avoid rear-tire slides. First, choose a car with electronic stability control. Fortunately, ESC will be mandatory on all 2012 models. Next, make sure your rear tires have at least as much tread as your front tires. Finally, if you buy winter tires, get four.
10. Technology offers no miracles. All-wheel drive and electronic stability control can get you into trouble by offering a false sense of security. AWD can only help a vehicle accelerate or keep moving: It can’t help you go around a snow-covered turn, much less stop at an icy intersection. ESC can prevent a spinout, but it can’t clear ice from the roads or give your tires more traction. Don’t let these lull you into overestimating the available traction.
Related links
online practice driving game
http://www.learn4good.com/games/simulation/driverseducation.htm
free practice tests
http://www.testquestionsandanswers.com
http://www.defensivedriving.com/
http://kidshealth.org/teen/school_jobs/driving/driving_safety.html
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Date: Sunday, December 5, 2010
Time: 5-7 p.m.
Place: Louise Edington’s Home – 255 Countryside Circle, Park City, 84098 – Cedar Shingling Home with wrap around deck and lots of Christmas Lights outside!
Each family: Please bring an appetizer or dessert to share.
White Elephant Gift Exchange Between Host Families: Bring a gift that you were given but would never use that’s estimated cost is between $8 - $10. This gift should be a gift for the family (it can be a gag gift, strange gift or other gift you received at some point). The gift should be wrapped or placed in a bag so that no one knows what the gift is until it is opened.
Au Pairs : Please bring a wrapped (in a magazine page so no one can recognize the paper) Christmas Ornament with a value not more than $5.
RSVPs to or if you have any questions please
Contact Louise Edington on 435 647 6956
or louise.edington@lcc.culturalcare.com
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Wishing all my host families and au pairs a very Happy Thanksgiving!
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American Thanksgiving is celebrated on the 4th Thursday of November. This year Thanksgiving will fall on Thursday November 25, 2010.
The custom of celebrating Thanksgiving, an annual celebration held after the harvest began around 1621 when the Pilgrims fulfilled a successful and bountiful harvest in the New World.
The first Thanksgiving Proclamation was made in 1675.
In the late 1700’s a day of national Thanksgiving was proposed by the Continental Congress.
In 1817 New York State adopted Thanksgiving Day as an annual custom. By the middle of the 19th century many other states also celebrated a Thanksgiving Day. In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln appointed a national day of thanksgiving. Since then each president has issued a Thanksgiving Day proclamation, usually designating the fourth Thursday of each November as the holiday.
For a more detailed history of Thanksgiving around the world visit The History of Thanksgiving and the Celebrations. You can also learn about Thanksgiving celebrated in Canada in October.
American Traditions….
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!
(Source: www.kidsturncentral.com)
I am a player on Blogger Monday with Ann Evanston on Facebook and one of the blogs this week Feltermom had the most fantastic and fun craft idea for Thanksgiving. I hope some of you AuPairs might like to do this with your host kids 
I make these every Thanksgiving. They are a hit for kids and adults. It’s a nice alternative to pie!
I get emails everyday asking how to make these cute little cookies. I put this together so have fun!
You can also go here www.flickr.com/photos/mamakimi/3058728821/ to see the 2008 version with wings!
You can also go here to see the 2009 version with the new gobbler: www.flickr.com/photos/mamakimi/4123754660/
What you need:
7 Candy Corn
2 Double Stuffed Oreo Cookies
1 Whopper
1 Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup
1 Tube of black piping gel
1 tube of white icing
1 Yellow and red food coloring
1 Yellow and red food coloring
1 plastic Ziplock bag
1 sharp knife
1 pair of scissors
1 bowl
Prep:
Put your Peanut Butter Cups in the fridge to cool. If you have cold hard chocolate to work with it makes it a lot easier.
Squeeze some of the white icing into a bowl. This will be your orange. Mix red and yellow food coloring with the icing to create your desired orange. Then put that into a plastic bag and set it aside for later.
Creating:
First you will be creating the tail using 1 Oreo cookie and 6 Candy Corns. Gently, with one candy corn pull apart just one side of the Oreo. Don’t don’t break about the entire thing. Put a good amount of icing in between the two sides. This will help the Candy Corn stay. Place 6 Candy Corn (white side down) in between the cookie. See picture.
Take your white icing and squeeze a generous amount onto the top back of an Oreo cookie. Take the other Oreo and put the bottom into the icing to have it stand up. If it doesn’t stand, add more icing! Once you have it stand put it up against something so it doesn’t fall until the icing is dry. I use a thick book.
Remove your Peanut Butter Cup from the fridge. Take your knife and cut off the very bottem so you have a flat surface. Put icing on the bottom of it the bigger flat. Bump it up against the bottom and back of your Oreo cookies. See picture.
Next take your Whopper and squeeze more icing on it on one side. Place the whopper on top of the Peanut Butter Cup to make your head.
Find a piece of Candy Corn that has a nice big white end. Using your sharp knife cut the color off leaving you with the white end. Place some icing on it and stick it on your whopper as the beak to your Oreo Turkey. Hold for a moment.
Take your icing and place two white dots as eyes. Get your tube of black piping gel and place a black dot on each eye to make them come alive.
Grab your bag of already created orange. Cut a very small hold in the corner of the bag. Now, pipe feet.
Now you are done! It is that simple!!
Sunday November 21st - CPR training at Park City Fire District, 736 Bitner Road, Park City. Cost of this training is $30. Please bring the cash with you. If you struggle to pay this alone please ask if your host parents would split the cost with you as it benefits their children for you to have this training.
Salt Lake AuPairs - I would suggest that you all get together and come in one car.
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Almost every culture in the world has held celebrations of thanks for a plentiful harvest. The American Thanksgiving holiday began as a feast of thanksgiving in the early days of the American colonies almost four hundred years ago.
In 1620, a boat filled with more than one hundred people sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to settle in the New World. This religious group had begun to question the beliefs of the Church of England and they wanted to separate from it. The Pilgrims settled in what is now the state of Massachusetts. Their first winter in the New World was difficult. They had arrived too late to grow many crops, and without fresh food, half the colony died from disease. The following spring the Iroquois Indians taught them how to grow corn (maize), a new food for the colonists. They showed them other crops to grow in the unfamiliar soil and how to hunt and fish.
In the autumn of 1621, bountiful crops of corn, barley, beans and pumpkins were harvested. The colonists had much to be thankful for, so a feast was planned. They invited the local Indian chief and 90 Indians. The Indians brought deer to roast with the turkeys and other wild game offered by the colonists. The colonists had learned how to cook cranberries and different kinds of corn and squash dishes from the Indians. To this first Thanksgiving, the Indians had even brought popcorn.
In following years, many of the original colonists celebrated the autumn harvest with a feast of thanks. After the United States became an independent country, Congress recommended one yearly day of thanksgiving for the whole nation to celebrate. George Washington suggested the date November 26 as Thanksgiving Day. Then in 1863, at the end of a long and bloody civil war, Abraham Lincoln asked all Americans to set aside the last Thursday in November as a day of thanksgiving*.
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Cultural Care Au Pair is offering an enormous savings opportunity to new families who apply between November 8, 2010 and December 6, 2010. This is a chance for them to secure childcare for 2011 before the busy holiday begins and save hundreds of dollars at the same time!
Host families who contact me for the promo code will receive: (and the opportunity to start matching for FREE)
*To qualify for this promotion, families must be new to Cultural Care Au Pair and welcome an au pair by March 31, 2011. A selection fee of $275 must be paid upon final selection of au pair candidate. Total program discounts cannot exceed $650.
For more information please contact Louise at 435 647 6956 or louise.edington@lcc.culturalcare.com
So, your coordinator, me, is now at the gate about to board my flight to JFK, Copenhagen and then Stockholm. I hope you’ll share my journey with me as I take you to the home of many of our AuPairs. I shall be visiting the Swedish office to see how local recruitment works and having a lot of fun along the way. Keep checking back!!!
