Weekly Winners

I am doing Weekly Winners here.

Behold He comes, riding on a cloud..............

Tree Tunnel Road


Scissortail sitting pretty

Barn Swallows calling for mom

Barn swallows giving up on mom

Excuse me sir, do you know where your kids are?

On our way to El Paso to see my beautiful nieces.........................

We stopped to eat. When we travel through Texas, we usually look for a Whataburger because that seems to be the only place we can all agree on.

We found one and were sitting there eating when a man with two little ones walks in. The little boy must have been about three and the little girl about one and a half. They sat down in a table/booth acroos from us. The kids each had a ketchup container and were eating that as if they were really hungry. None of the kids had any shoes and the little girl had clothes on that were way too big for her.

We all watched them while we ate. The dad got the paper and proceeded to read it while the kids ate the ketchup. Hubster and I thought that the man would eventually get up and order the kids something, but we were wrong.

The kids finished their ketchup and while the dad was still reading the paper, they ran around the restaurant. They were crawling on top of the tables, all the way to the top of those fake flower holder containers. The dad wouldn't take his eyes off the paper, he would just quietly call out their names and tell them to get off the tables. Neither kid listened.

At one point, the little girl was nowhere to be seen and the little boy was outside. Outside all alone and the dad was still reading the paper and had no clue where his kids were. Astonishment is one word to describe how we felt. Even the boys were sitting there in amazement while watching the events unfold.

When the dad, without looking up from his paper, started calling out their names and the kids wouldn't answer, he finally put the paper down and went to go look for the kids. He brought them back in and he sat down again.

They both started to push around the high chairs through the restaurant and even the big yellow wet floor signs. After a while, the dad put his paper back down, got the kids, sat the little girl in a high chair, sat the little boy in the booth and gave them each another pack of ketchup. He then told them that they were giving him a headache.

We left and didn't finish watching the show.

Parenting from a chair. I've seen that several times before. I've also seen that it never works.

Wordless Wednesday

Habla Espanol?

When I was growing up, we mostly spoke Spanish in our house. We spoke English at school, but at home, we broke out the Spanish baby. That's all that my grandparents knew, so if we wanted to converse, we'd better learn how.

It was Tex-Mex Spanish, but still, we all understood each other.

While in High School, I took at easy elective. Spanish. My good friend wanted to take it together and we sat with me in front of her. This worked out well, since she wasn't fluent in Spanish, she would copy off of my test. I'm not sure what she ended up with, but I ended up with an A. I learned how to read and write and speak Spanish correctly.

While in College, I still spoke Spanish because the University I went to had lots of International students. Some of my good friends were from Venezuela and Puerto Rico. Yes, the dialect is different, but we still understood each other. I learned some of their words, and they learned some of mine. Some not so good ones.

Then I started working for Wal-Mart and traveling. I used Spanish to my advantage. I'd speak English and then if someone said something about me in Spanish, I'd start speaking it as well. Pretty sneaky huh? Hey, whatever works.

Then I got married to a Gringo (white boy). I worked at a Wal-Mart that had some Spanish speaking associates, so I still spoke it. Hubster even started learning some words. He understands a lot more that what he lets on.

But lately, I haven't been speaking Spanish. I have no friends who know how to speak it. But this past weekend, I was able to refresh my Spanish. I was a little rusty, but I jumped right in.

My sister-in-law's family speaks only Spanish, so that is the dominant language in that household. I learned some new words and it did feel good to speak it again.

My sil had lots of family there this past weekend. UB and AB made friends with some little boys that were there. When Hubster asked UB what the little boy's name was, UB replied "I don't know. He doesn't speak any English, only Spanish." The language barrier didn't stop them from playing together.

Then Saturday and Sunday night, AB told me that he wants me to teach him Spanish, so that next time he sees his cousins, he can speak Spanish to them.

I guess this summer, we'll be doing lots of Spanish lessons.

But first, I need to continue brushing up on my Spanish because in July, I am going on a mission trip to Ecuador.