Category Archives: Blog

Flu Shot Reminder

With the weather turning cold and winter fast approaching,  many host parents will ask you to get a Flu Shot to protect you from becoming ill with influenza. The news is reporting that this winter is expected to be a very bad flu season.
While I agree that taking more medicine than is necessary is not a good idea, I am also a strong believer in Flu shots.  My family and I got our Flu shots for the year in September, as we have every year for the past 10 years.
Having the shot will help keep you healthy, but mainly it’s about not exposing the children you care for.  Unfortunately thousands of people in the U.S. still die from the flu every year – usually small children and the elderly. So lets make sure we don’t accidentally infect our little ones!
Unfortunately, your medical insurance doesn’t cover the cost of a flu shot, but most Host Parents are willing to pay the $40 or so that it costs at the local drug store ($20 at Costco if your host family has a membership).  The LA County Public Library offers free flu shots at different locations each week from now through the fall.  And the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health website has lots of information about Flu Shots, including low-cost Flu Clinics.

Thrift Shopping

I love thrift shopping!  It’s cheap, green, and far more interesting than shopping in regular stores.  The phrase “one man’s junk is another man’s treasure” is magnified when thrift shopping in a foreign country.  Indeed, I still acutely recall the amazing feeling of shopping at London’s open air Camden Market on a free afternoon alone at the age of 18.  What interesting things I found and what I wished I had the space to bring home!

Not long ago I complimented a friend on her thick wool sweater; it contained a pattern Ive never seen before in a combination of colors I never would have thought of.  I assumed it was a vintage designer find and that she’d paid hundreds for it.  She told me that she had gotten it years ago in Iceland for less than $5.  Apparently, in Iceland these sweaters are so ubiquitus that their value is minimal.  But here in California, it’s a unique and special gem.

Below are some thrift shops in the Pasadena area.  I hope that you are able to find some interesting and special items with a history of great karma!

 

Online Thrift Shops:

Thred Up:  https://www.thredup.com/

GoodWill:  https://www.shopgoodwill.com/

ReStitch (a GoodWill Company):  https://www.restitch.com

Posh Mark: https://poshmark.com

 

Local Thrift Shops

Crossroads Trading Company (a favorite)

104 E Colorado Blvd, Pasadena

Store Size: large (privately owned for-profit), “award winning” small chain

Kate says: The place to go if you are young and want designer selections!  There is a ton to dig through, but it’s super easy to find cool stuff.  The more vintage and unique is downstairs, with seasonal on the main floor.  If you can only go to one shop, spend the afternoon here!

Ritz Resale (a favorite)

900 Valley View, Pasadena (go north on Michellinda, on the corner of a tiny side street)

Store Size: small (privately owned for-profit)

Kate says: A wonderful little shop for vintage clothing finds!  Sells only women’s fashion (shoes and accessories).  They are heavy on the smaller sizes, but I have found probably half-a-dozen special items that fit.  This is more of an up-scale reused fashions or vintage shop – not like GoodWill.  

Savers (a favorite)

16 East Live Oak Ave, Arcadia, cross street: Santa Anita

Store Size: very large (privately owned for-profit)

Kate says: Savers is a large generic thrift shop with very large selection of clothes.  They also have well sorted bric-a-brac / “stuff,” furniture, sporting goods and a small fabric / sewing /craft supplies section.  If looking for clothes, expect to dig through a lot to find what you want.

Out of the Closet

1726 East Colorado Blvd, Pasadena (near Pasadena City College)

Store Size: medium (supports free AIDS testing)

Kate says: This used to be the place to find cool, unique items, but selections have gotten more generic now; you can still find good clothes there as well as furniture and bric-a-brac / “stuff”

Does not sell kids’ items

Wistaria Thrift Shop

550 W Sierra Madre Blvd, Sierra Madre

Store Size: tiny (supports the Women’s Club of Sierra Madre)

Store Size: tiny

Kate esays:  Though small, has some interesting items, including craft supplies .  Not open on Wednesdays.

Treasure Fair Thrift Shop

3239 E Foothill Blvd, Pasadena (cross street: Sierra Madre Villa)

Store Size: small (supports Assistance League of Pasadena -programs for the underserved)

Kate says:  A great general-purpose thrift shop with a little bit of everything.  Sometimes I make wonderfully surprising finds there and sometimes they have nothing for me. 

ACTS Thrift Store

1311 N Altadena Dr, Pasadena (cross street: Washington)

Store Size: medium (Supports Lake Avenue Community Foundation- programs for the underserved)

Kate says: recently down-sized, they no longer have much in the way of furniture, but bric-a-brac / “stuff” and clothes a-plenty.  If looking for clothes, expect to dig through a lot to find what you want.

Good Will

340 S Fair Oaks Ave Pasadena

Store Size: large (supports Alcoholics Recovery Services & the underserved)

Kate says: This is what I think of as a generic thrift shop.  You won’t find antiques in here.  If looking for clothes, expect to dig through a lot to find what you want.

Good Will

183 Altadena Dr, Pasadena

Store Size: large (supports Alcoholics Recovery Services & the underserved)

Kate says: This is what I think of as a generic thrift shop.  You won’t find antiques in here.  If looking for clothes, expect to dig through a lot to find what you want.

Bargain Box

64 East Live Oak, Arcadia, cross street: Santa Anita

Store Size: medium (supports Assistance League of Pasadena -programs for the underserved)

Kate says: a good place for “stuff,” though the few clothes seem to be conservative and dated.  Try this place if you don’t find what you are looking for at Savers (around the corner).

The Huntington Collection

100 W. California Blvd., Pasadena (cross street: Fair Oaks)

Store Size: large (supports Huntington Hospital)

Kate says: The place to go for furniture or a lovely tea set.  You might also find dressy shoes, a formal gown or designer coat.  This shop is supported by ladies who lunch, and things are not cheap, though you could make a spectacular vintage find. 

Vintage Treasures & Antiques  340 E Foothill Blvd, Arcadia (between Santa Anita and Fifth)

Store Size: tiny

Kate says: More of an antique shop than thrift store, there isn’t much in the way of clothes, but definitely has many unique accessories. I don’t go here very often, but stop if you are driving by anyway.

Valley Thrift

777 W Foothill Blvd, Azusa (take the 210 freeway east, on Route 66)

Store Size: large (supports Vietnam Veterans of America)

Kate says: a large selection of every-day clothes and shoes, some furniture

If looking for clothes, expect to dig through a lot to find what you want.

 Specialty Thrift Shops

Remainders (for fabric and sewing / crafting supplies)

1713 East Walnut Street, Pasadena

626.533.5129

Habitat for Humanity RE-Store (for home repair or building supplies and furniture)

410 S. Irwindale Ave, Azusa

626.387.6900

Pasadena Arcitectural Salvage (for vintage home items)

2600 E. Foothill Blvd, Pasadena

626.535.9655

I’ve not yet tried, but would like to:

The Big Yard Sale Thrift Store 2110 N Fairoaks Ave, Altadena

Full Circle Thrift

2245 Lake Ave, Altadena

High Low Vintage

1031 East Green Street, Pasadena

LA Road

Eagle Rock

Meowmeowz ?

2423 East Colorado Blvd, Pasadena

Uncharted Antiques

27 N. Altadena Dr., Pasadena (cross street: Colorado)

De-Cor Antiques

30 So San Gabriel Blvd., Pasadena (cross street: Colorado)

The Bearded Beagle

5926 N Figueroa Street, Los Angeles

Hotbox Vintage

1127 Mission Street, South Pasadena

Owl Talk

5060B Eagle Rock Blvd., Eagle Rock

More Thrift Shops to the East (of Pasadena):

Vintage Odyssey

201 W Bonita Ave., Claremont, CA 91711

A Lot of Good Thrift

1980 W Foothill Blvd., Upland, CA 91786

ACTS Thrift Store

232 E Foothill Blvd., Pomona, CA 91767

Goodwill

210 East Foothill Blvd., Pomona, CA 91767

2nd Chance Thrift Shop

1028 W 9th St., Upland, CA 91786

 

Happy Lunar New Year!

Lunar New Year begins tomorrow, February 5, and sparks the Year of the Pig.

Lunar New Year is celebrated widely throughout Asia.  It begins on the second new moon after the Winter Solstice and is celebrated until the first full moon of the lunar year, 15 days after the celebrations begin.

Sometimes known as the Spring Festival, traditions include:  visiting family and gathering for meals, especially the New Year’s Eve Feast; gifting children and young adults with special red envelopes containing money; fireworks or lantern displays, accompanied by a Dragon Dance, especially on the last night of celebration.

Individuals born in the Year of the Pig are known for the following traits:

  • Successful, hard-working, responsible, diligent, energetic and enthusiastic
  • Friendly, generous, and compassionate
  • Realistic, calm, sometimes thrifty, though materialistic, and prefer to handle things properly and carefully.

Sharing Cultures: If you’d like  to celebrate Chinese New Year with your host children (or with your Au Pair friends), check out these websites for more information:

  • Chinatown

One of the largest Chinese New Year celebrations in the United States!

951 N. Broadway, Los Angeles

Saturday, February 9, 12noon to 8pm, Free!

lagoldendragonparade.com

 

 

  • Pacific Asian Museum

46 N. Robles Ave., Pasadena, In various areas of the museum

Sunday, Feb. 3, 10 a.m., Free!

https://pacificasiamuseum.usc.edu/calendar/details/?event-id=1525835

 

 

  • The Original Farmer’s Market & the Gove LA

click here for flyer

6333 W 3rd St., Los Angeles

Sunday, Feb. 17, 12noon to 5 p.m., Free!

https://www.farmersmarketla.com/

 

Things to do

Do your kids have a long holiday break from school coming up soon?  Looking to get out of the house and do something interesting?  Check out my newly-updated THINGS TO DO List!

Each item listed is a resource to discover up-to-date information regarding goings-on in the area.  You can even select a few of your favorite resources to “sign up” with and you’ll receive their newsletter in your email on a regular basis.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bZWm_N_o-kIY-I__GoIzOHWRwoS0kgRW/view?usp=sharing

If you are one of my Au Pairs, and you are reading this, text me the quote below before January 1st and I’ll send you a USA-themed prize!                 ” Growing and Learning with APIA”

things to do locally v1218

Au Pairs using Global Awareness

Top Ten – 10 Best ways Au Pairs have used Global Awareness in their Communities        (not in any particular order)

  1. Classroom presentations: While it may be daunting to speak in front of a group, not a single au pair has ever come back telling us she did not enjoy it. All of them have had such a positive experience and tell us they wish they had done it sooner. Classroom presentations are the most popular choice for au pairs to share their culture in their community.
  2. Volunteering: Au pairs get exposure and are able to share their experience by helping out at a school, library or any other place in their community. Help them find such opportunities and encourage them to share some of the free materials we have at Global Awareness.
  3. International Days: You or your au pair can ask host parents if their child’s school hosts such an event and can offer to participate by setting up a table with other au pairs. Have them use the Global Awareness provided materials, like the passports and country flag stickers to hand out.
  4. Girl Scout World Thinking Day: If you know a family whose child is participating in WTD, reach out to them and offer to represent some of the countries they have a need for. You can set it up as a marketing event and get reimbursed for some of the expenses you may have to purchase craft materials or food. This could also be your cluster meeting for the month.
  5. Parades or Country Fairs: Community events are another way to represent Global Awareness and expose your au pairs to the American culture.
  6. Host Family Days: Counselors have been offering mini cultural fairs with tables from the many countries represented in their cluster. This is a good way to advertise Global Awareness and encourage your families and au pairs to consider doing the same for their child’s school or classroom.
  7. Birthday Celebrations: We’ve had host families dress up in their au pair’s country folkloric costume to celebrate her birthday but why not have the au pair offer to organize an international themed birthday party for her host children.
  8. Contests: Check out the list in our calendar of contests posted in the Community Counselor Global Awareness handbook www.globalawareness.com/global-awarenesshandbook/ and encourage your au pairs to participate. Besides giving them a chance to win, many of those contests will also help them share their views of the world. It will make them think not just about themselves but about others and it also brings out their sense of creativity. A good balance for an au pair whose main job is to focus on childcare and chores.
  9. Cluster Meetings: So many of our activities revolve around Global Awareness. By doing some “culture sharing” activities au pairs get a taste of what it is like to experience another culture. You can find a list of those activities in the Community Counselor Global Awareness handbook: globalawareness.com/global-awarenesshandbook/
  10. Host Family Webinars: A year ago Global Awareness started offering an intercultural webinar for our host families, “Practical strategies to Rev up Your Cultural Competency: Viewing the World through your Au Pair’s Cultural Lens.” We’ve received positive feedback from the host families and the CCs. The webinar is offered twice a month for our host families and quarterly for the CCs. Au Pair in America is the only agency offering a free webinar like this and it truly makes us stand apart.

ways to use Global Awareness

Pattie Fitzgerald on Children’s Safety

As a part of the Gooden School’s Parent Education Live Speaker Series, children’s advocate, author, and founder of Safely Ever After, Inc., Pattie Fitzgerald will speak on on Thursday, November 15 at 6:30 p.m. Pattie is recognized as a leading expert in the field of childhood sexual abuse prevention education, child abduction prevention, and internet safety education. You can read more about Pattie Fitzgerald here. 

Thursday, November 15 at 6:30 p.m.

The Gooden School , 192 N. Baldwin Avenue, Sierra Madre, CA 91024

Admission is free, but space is limited; RSVP by Nov. 12  to GFA@goodenschool.org.

Flyer – Pattie Fitzgerald EXTERNAL

Flu Shot Time!

Now is the time to discuss getting the flu shot with your host parents.  The “Flu” is generally thought of as a routine illness that makes you feel lousy for a week or two.  But the reality is that “Influenza” is an historically deadly illness in America.  Each year, different strains of the flu are passed from person to person.  Some years and in some people, the flu is not much worse than the common cold.  Some years, thousands of people accorss the US end up in hospitals with dangerous respiratory viruses that began as the flu and ended up as pneumonia or other dangerous complications.

According to WebMD, the Flu is “an extremely contagious respuratory illness…[that] appears most frequently in winter and early spring.  The flu virus attacks the body by spreading through the upper and/or lower respiratory tract.”  Symptoms of the flu include high fever, body aches, fatigue, weakness, and an increased likeliness of contracting pneumonia.  Flu symptoms can come on abruptly, and are extremely contagious.

New strains (or types) of the flu evolve every few years.  Scientists at the CDC (or Centers for Disease Control, a well-respected agency that is an off-shoot of the Federal Department of Health and Human Services) study and re-work the flu vaccine every year to tweak its components and make it effective against the up-and-coming version of the flu.  It is the reccommendation of the CDC that every healthy person in the US over the age of 6 months receive the flu shot.  

The influenza vaccine was invented in 1938 and has had varying degrees of effectiveness over the years.  In 1976, however, amid a very-well-reported bad outbreak of the flu, the US goverment injected a large amount of additional $$ funding into developing a more effective version of the vaccine.  The vaccine has developed steadily into an essential way of staying healthy.  It has been reccommended for virtually all children and adults since 2010.

There are many  anecdotal reports of people “getting sick from the flu shot.”  I’m sure we have all heard stories attesting to incidents of this happening.  Concerned, I began asking every doctor I knew about this.  To a person, they all told me that people cannot possibly get the flu from the flu vaccine.  But if they offered a reason for this social debate, I still couldn’t understand it. Until I asked my son’s pediatrican.  Dr. Peggy Legault is a very well respected doctor in Passadena who seems to believe in cautious action and logical analysis.  It all finally made sense to me when she told my wife and I that people don’t get sick from the flu shot, they get sick from going to the doctor’s office.  It makes sense: you go to a place where sick people go; you touch the door handle; you use their pen to sign in; you wipe a tear from your eyes after the shot; a week later you feel sick.

I strongly urge every Au Pair to do three things this month:  

  1. Read about the flu shot from a respected independant source such as the CDC website.  Walgreens and Rite Aid also offer very good information, but their goal is to sell you the vaccine.  Thte Washington Post newspaper also offers a good independent article about flu shots.
  2. Think about the children in your care and know that if you get the flu you will upset their routine dramatically for one to two weeks while you are stuck in bed not able to care for them.  Discuss vaccination with your host parents and ask them if they will pay for it.  There are many places you can get a flu shot for free, but even if you end up paying for it, it usually costs around $30.  Most host parents will be happy to pay for the vaccine to protect you, and those who don’t want to pay for it are usually able to help you find a free one.
  3. Get the flu shot in an open public place, but don’t touch anything.  When you go into the clinic or pharmacy, only touch a door handle, pen or desk when you need to.  Be extremely concious of what your hands are doing, and don’t touch your face, especially your mouth or eyes.  Bring antibacterial gel or use their’s, and thoroughly wash your hands with soap and water after you leave.  For extra credit, wash change and wash your clothes and shoes when you get home.  By using a few minutes of extreme caution, You will prevent yourself from getting sick!

And just so you know that I “practice what I preach,” my whole family got our flu shots last week.  My son went to his pediatrician, where our insurance covered the cost.  My wife and I went to CVS where getting the shot was much quicker and easier than going to our doctor’s office, it was $38.

Women’s Self Defense Class

Learn to defend yourself against a potential attacker, and feel more confident while traveling in unfamiliar cities.  Only $25 for a two-hour workshop that may have life-long impact.   

Saturday, August 25 @ 3pm  and

Saturday, September 29 @ 3pm

So Cal Kenpo Karate, Sierra Madre

Master Katie Williams Robinette will take everyone through basic striking techniques that will help you defend yourself from many bad situations. In the course of two hours you will be equipped enough to be aware of your own body and how to use it!

Volunteer for the Santa Monica Classic

Copyright © 2018 Conqur Endurance Group, All rights reserved.

The Santa Monica Classic 5K, 10K, and Kids Run are just around the corner, coming to the beautiful Santa Monica Pier on Sunday, September 9th! Be a part of this unique, sellout race that kicks off the Conqur LA Challenge.

Volunteers are needed for the following days:
– Saturday, September 8, 2018 – Pre-Race Packet Pickup (Reed Park)
– Sunday, September 9, 2018 – RACE DAY @ the Start Line, Finish Line, and Water Stations

Au Pair In America Volunteers will be handing out water at one of the mile markers.  Typically, volunteers are given a hat and/or a shirt or some other sort of nice “swag.” The LA Marathon was reported by APIA Volunteers to be an Amazing event.

Get more info

Sign up to Volunteer with the APIA group! (select water station stop at the top of the page)