El Zoologico

I went to the zoo this past Wednesday. Three of my classes were going on a field trip! I was a chaperone assigned to three hilarious kiddos who have been learning English with me all year. Well, the girls have been learning it all year, and Mario* has been learning it since November when he moved here from Mexico.

We had a really fun time! It was so exciting to see the animals, and the kids got to practice their English. Mario spent almost the whole day saying, "Elephants? Ok, let's go! Elephants!" He'd get distracted by whatever animal we were actually looking at, but then 30 seconds later he would say, "Ok, let's go! Elephants!" At one point he took the map from my hands, pointed at the elephant, and repeated his line...

In the end we finally did see the elephants!

Of course, 30 seconds later, Mario shouted, "Ok, Let's go! Giraffes!"

*Name has been changed

Strange

I was trying to clear out some bad pictures from our "pictures" folder on the computer. I don't want to slow this shiny thing down with 15 shots of everything...most of them turn out blurry! So I was deleting and deleting and I came across this picture.

Can someone please explain to me why he is like this? Aside from our wedding portraits (a time when he behaved uncharacteristically well!) we do not have any normal pictures together. Someday we'll be celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary and our children won't have any normal pictures to use. Nope. They'll all be like this.

(Alright...I guess Crazy Hair Day is never a good day for a normal picture. But still....)

Anyway...I know his response already. He'll smile, pat my hand and say, "You wouldn't have it any other way."

Which, now that I think about it again, is true.

So much!

So much has been going on in the last few days! For a Memorial Day weekend with no plans, we've kept busy! Yesterday we traveled...um, south?...for a free showing of a play in the middle of the woods with my brother-in-law and his family. No pictures of the play, or the amphitheater, or the nieces and nephews...but you can see what prompted me to pull out the camera:

There's Big Brother grillin' the steaks and the "chalehpeno" peppers. Mmmmm! We spent a completely relaxing evening with the bro, his lovely wife, and their four charming children!

Mamapua inspired me with her cheerful lawn furniture...and look where I will be enjoying my morning coffee from now on:

The morning sun warms this little patio, and my flowers (which are finally in bloom!) smell 0h-so-sweet!

Come join me sometime for a morning cup'o joe!

Make Way!

I'm so excited because my mother-in-law, Beanball, has recently purchased several adorable ducklings! I got to go visit them last night, and they are hilarious! Growing up in town, I was never able to have ducks or chickens (although 4H helped me raise a few pigs...which is a different story) and I'm so excited to watch these little ducklings grow.

Beanball is trying to hand raise the ducklings so that they'll grow up to be social and people-liking ducks! However we also want them to be fast and have good instincts--there are lots of predators in their neck of the woods! So, while the ducklings are safe and sound in their box in the kitchen, my father in law is building a new and improved duck house.

Below is a video (which was meant to be just a picture) of my favorite duckling, Junior, and me. The video would be totally boring if it wasn't so cute to hear him chirping. Chirping? I don't know what to call the sound a duckling makes. He's definitely not quacking yet! Help me out here...what does a baby duckling say?

He's Back...

Over the weekend we spent some wonderful time with family and friends. Look who I got to visit! You might recognize him from this post, this post, or from my sidebar...the child I love!

This little guy is so funny! He loves getting his picture taken...

Little O has so much personality! He has a rapidly expanding vocabulary...and when I sneezed he said, "Bless you!" Ok...I fake sneezed because his mother had told me he'd say that. It took two tries to get a sneeze that was convincing. What a fun kid.

Luckily, he still loves me. Even if it took him awhile to wake up from his nap and warm up to me. Before we left, he was calling ME mama. Seriously.

Want a glimpse? Here's a video of him playing a drum. I think he's got his parents' musical talent.

Seeing this little guy and his parents was a perfect birthday present!

Blind Study

El Maestro was hungry for cookies yesterday. We didn't really feel like baking any, and since we were out, we stopped at the store for some cookie dough. When we got to the correct aisle in Fred Meyer, we each reached out for the dough of our choice. Can you guess who chose which?

Kroger brand: $1.99 Nestle brand: $3.29

Normally I would go for the store brand. My husband, however, is always positive that if it's more expensive, it will taste better. So...I bought them both and let my husband know that we would be conducting a blind taste test. When we got home, I sliced up the cookie dough and filled a cookie sheet with half of each brand.

If you look closely, you can see that the cookies on the left are more smooth and uniform. The cookies on the right are a little more...crumbly. And the chocolate chips are bigger. I threw them in the oven.

This held true as they were baking. On the left, the cookies are less fluffy. On the right, they look more like the real, home baked kind.

Here they are right out of the oven. I think I should have left them in a few more seconds. But that's alright.

I presented my husband with two plates of cookies. He was none too happy to have his picture taken...especially considering I'd just baked him a tray of deliciousness!

He looked at them carefully...noting that the cookies on the right had bigger chocolate chips and were more pleasing to the eye. Then he tried half of a cookie from each plate, dipping each one carefully in the milk.

He sat and thought. "There's a marked difference," he said. "This one on the right is sweeter, and tastes like there's more vanilla."

"Interesting. But which do you like better?" I wanted to know.

In the end, he chose the slightly flatter, less pretty cookies as being more delicious (the cookies on the left). The Kroger brand! And I agree. Although they do not look homemade, they taste more like it. The Nestle cookies are too sweet. I don't know who will finish all of them that are sitting in my kitchen.

Oh wait, yes I do. El Maestro will eat any cookie that has been, well, cooked. But at least I know that next time I won't feel any uneasiness buying the store brand!

Mother

I didn't write a post on Mother's Day. Let me tell you--it was NOT because I had nothing to say about my mother. Rather, I didn't have a picture of her on this new computer. And I thought that a proper Mother's Day post should have a picture of the wonderful woman that carried me in her womb and endured 20-something hours of labor to bring me into this world.

I still have no picture on this computer. But I think that is alright. Even without a photo of her sparkling green eyes...I'm sure you can still appreciate the fact that I love her.

In junior high I had two great friends that stuck with me through thick and thin. We were so close that we adopted each others' parents as our own. And we came up with names for them all. Our dads were Fathersan, Daddysan, and Papasan, and each variation fit the particular man perfectly! But our wonderful mothers all had the same name..."Mother of the Ages."

I'm not sure how this name was created, but it really fits the way a girl should feel about her mom. In all of the ages, no one has been a mother better than mine.

Thanks, Mommy, for everything. Thanks for throwing me birthday parties where we got to frost and decorate our own cupcakes. Thanks for giving me my great little sisters. Thanks for driving me to all those gymnastic practices and meets. Thanks for teaching me how to pluck my eyebrows. Thanks for leaving me alone when I plucked them to a pencil thin line in high school. Thanks for taking that picture of me with the pencil thin eyebrows down from the living room wall. Thanks for a beautiful wedding. Thanks for letting me see you mature and grow and become the woman God created you to be.

I love you. And I miss you. And I'll be seeing you in just a few days.

Beauty...

I think I need a tripod. I couldn't get any of these pictures to be very clear...but isn't the sunset amazing?

It's a beautiful finish to a rainy day.

Life

At home sick, second day in a row.

It's been kind of nice just to lay down low...

With cough drops and tea and TV my dear friends

But I still have to say I can't wait 'till this ends.

I almost felt guilty calling a sub for today

Then I started coughing and hacking away.

I'm not sure if green phlegm is a really good sign...

To much information to share here online?

I'll now go to sleep and not wake until lunch.

When soup is most likely the thing I will munch.

I hope that tomorrow I can help some kids learn

Without fearing that I will pass on this germ.

Amen.