This and That

There is something that I have not been sharing with all of you. I think I just wanted to get my head around it before I said too much. But, now, here it is!

I'm going to Weight Watchers! I am happy to announce that I have now lost 25.4 pounds!! What a wonderful thing.

Weight Watchers, in case you don't know, is a program that works! (if you do, of course.) I had been trying to at least keep my weight from increasing but it was a constant up and down, with 10 pounds coming and going. I got tired of that routine so I discussed the matter with my Sweetie and asked if he wanted to change his eating habits as I changed mine. He admitted he had gained a good bit of weight, also, and thought it would be a good idea. So, I signed up and have been going for about 18 weeks. Basically, I don't think of it as a temporary diet, but as a change of habits. I had developed some bad habits and just couldn't let go of them on my own.
Somehow, having to be accountable every week, and having the encouragement of my team leader and fellow dieters, the program is working! Sweetie has lost even more than I have, but men seem to have that advantage. Doesn't seem fair! Anyway, I decided that I would share this news with all of you -- I'm shrinking!

Class day again -- didn't realize it had been a week since I last posted. It has been a really busy week -- my car is in the shop so I have stayed home and cleaned --especially my desk. I am a paper saver. I hate to throw something away because I feel I might need it sometimes. Now understand that I am not a hoarder, but I do like to save certain things.
for instance I save greeting cards, especially those with personal notes and/or messages inside. This week I gritted my teeth and threw away 3 years worth of cards. I feel righteous! (of course, I saved some of them...they were special.)

But, back to class day. Today I had a full class -- we were sandwiched in like sardines! The lesson was mainly on the rodeo. No one in the class has ever attended an American rodeo so it was all new material for them. Around here, rodeo is a big thing and the preparations begin at least a week before the actual starting date. That is when the trail rides begin. There are 13 trail rides that start from different places in this area. The longest ride is the "Los Vaqueros Rio Grande Trail Ride," which starts in Hidalgo, TX, and travels 386 miles. This year that group started their ride on Feb. 6. It will take them 3 weeks to make it to Houston.
There are 8 rides that start locally and travel via back roads, ending up in Houston. All the trail rides end on Friday, and everyone camps in Memorial Park. Saturday morning all the trail riders participate in the rodeo parade. I don't know of any other rodeo that has trail rides -- do you?

Sweetie and I have friends who ride with the Salt Grass and Valley Lodge rides. One of our librarians rode with the Salt Grass Trail Ride on Monday. She stopped by the class and showed off her red boots. Even though the ride is only 90 miles long, it still takes 6 days to travel that 90 miles. The riders either ride on horseback or in vintage wagons. They ride for most of the day and then they stop and make camp for the night. The evening activities consist of meals cooked over camp fires, caring for the animals, visiting with friends, and sometimes music. (There may be as many as 100 people on a particular ride.) Our librarian only gave one day to the ride but many people take a full week (or more) of vacation in order to complete the ride. Entire families ride together -- what an exciting memory those children will have!

( A note added after this posting -- there was a story about the Salt Grass Ride on TV today -- there are 1300 people along with their assorted animals in this ride. The large group consists of 30 different smaller groups, each of which is responsible for their own food, camp, etc. That makes sense -- 1300 people makes for a lot of logistics!)


Along with the actual rodeo events, there is also a Livestock Show, and various events including competitions in art and quilting, a horse show, a championship bar-b-que cook-off, and a carnival.
The cost for this is quite reasonable -- each night the rodeo performance includes a major star in concert. We went to see Neil Diamond a few years ago -- our tickets cost $16.00. Can you imagine seeing Neil Diamond for $16.00? Plus, you get the rodeo performance and can tour the livestock show, also. We could have paid more but our seats gave us a good view and were as comfortable as the higher priced seats. Why pay more?

After the lesson on the rodeo, we talked about superstitions. That was fun. It was a good class!

Class day -- only had 5 students today -- We started out looking at the lead stories in the newspaper. I find that my students are isolated from current events due to their lack of English.

We practiced asking and answering questions in English. Have you ever seen a ..... horse? an elephant? etc. Have you ever been to.....Paris? China? Chicago? Answers had to be in complete sentences. Seems so simple but they found it hard, especially at first. Eventually they got more comfortable and wanted to change the questions around. M was more animated during this time than I usually see her. Lots of interaction between the students. Some of the words became a vocabulary study. Locations became a geography lesson.

I asked the students to tell about their favorite holiday so that generated some conversation.
We ended up talking about coming to America from other countries. One of the places/things from the questions was the Statue of Liberty. I told about visiting there and how moved I was by the museum telling about the immigrants. I spoke about our family members who had come here from other countries -- Denmark, Sweden, Korea... and friends from Finland, China, Guatemala, etc. We spoke about the difficulty of bringing children here where they go to school, American style, and the difficulty of then trying to return those children to their native countries. These children are not ready to go to school elsewhere. I asked each student if they ever planned to return to their native countries. M will never go back to Iran and M will not go back to Venezuela. A probably will not go back to France but probably will go back to Mexico, where she lived for over 20 years. F said he will probably go back to Colombia someday.

PBS had a show tonight -- Faces of America -- that deals with the genealogy of some prominent Americans. We could all have similar stories if we did the research. I know some of my lineage. I know a many times great grandfather was here with Washington at Valley Forge.
Early days -- he wasn't born here so I'm sure he came on a ship like thousands of others. It is interesting when we can trace our ancestors back -- to study the fabric that became our family.
Where did your family come from?

This and That

Remember the song Rainy Night in Georgia? I believe one line says..."I think it is raining all over the world." That is the way we felt Thursday and Friday. Rain, rain, rain. It was cold and wet and the yards were so soaked that they squished when you walked on them. Gracie does not like the rain and had to be carried outside and dumped in the grass when it is outside time. She was really happy on Friday, however, when the rain stopped. It is still cold (36 deg F) and windy but no rain!

Where it isn't raining I believe it is snowing. 49 out of 50 US states have had snow this winter -- record-breaking snowfalls in some places. I can't imagine 40 inches of snow but that is what some places have had. WOW Of course, along with the snow comes power outages and collapsing buildings, etc. A hard thing to live with!

Hope all of you are keeping warm and safe!

Prayer request

We have received word that a former son in law not only has cancerous brain tumors (a recurrence) but also has a very, very rare melanoma in his lung. There is no known cure for the melanoma. He will be coming to M. D. Anderson and we pray that something can be done. He is in his early 40's and has a 16 year old son (my grandson) at home.

If you believe, please pray for this young man and for his family.

Thank you so much!

Superbowl Sunday! "WHO DAT?"

What a great day! We had a wonderful service at church this morning -- attendance was high -- so much so that we almost ran out of parking. We need to do something about that -- Our church is growing!!

After church we had a Chili Cook-Off. It was billed as a "Tail-gate Party" but it was too cold to eat outside. We did, however, put the crock pots of food on the tailgates of several pick-ups and after getting their food the people went inside to eat. It was all delicious! Then the special part -- I won Most Unusual Ingredient Award with my Chili Blanco! Yep, I won a prize! (Prize was a small football with Colts and Saints ribbons attached.)

This was the first time I've ever made Chili Blanco. My Aunt Cozy gave me a recipe for it but, of course, when I decided to make it, I couldn't find the recipe! However, I found one in a book and after reading it a couple of times I got the gist of what was happening so I just made my own recipe. It turned out quite tasty and there wasn't a bit of it left. Guess I'm tooting my own horn but I wanted to share this with all of you!

In the picture you can see long beads. These are Mardi Gras beads -- if you follow American football you know that the New Orleans Saints are playing in the Super Bowl this year. This is a really big thing here because we have so many people from Louisiana living in this area. (Many of the Katrina evacuees have never left.) The traditional Mardi Gras beads are being worn in honor of the "Saints" so one of our members insisted on sharing hers with me. I had some at home but didn't think to wear them to church. I'm not a big sports fan but if there has to be a winner at today's game, I'd just as soon it be the Saints!

Greetings!

My, it has been a busy week. I quilted on Monday -- we had a large group with several new people. Then Tuesday I did my volunteer work and Wednesday was the English class. Sweetie was home yesterday, (Thursday) after some medical tests, so we used the time to do some re-arranging in our house. We tried out an idea that will help my sewing room. I sew in the front bedroom, known as the upstairs master, and it has always been our primary guest room -- it had a queen size bed. The smaller middle bedroom had two twin beds. When we would have company I would put away all of my sewing items and then I would have to get it all back out again. We decided to move the queen size bed into the smaller middle bedroom so that I don't have to move all my sewing stuff every time someone spends the night. The small bedroom looks really nice but the larger room is still a bit jumbled. Still, I'll sort it all out. I like sewing there because it has a large window that gives good light and looks out onto the front. Also, there is a TV on cable. Most of my guests don't care about those things. They are only in the room for sleeping.
We may only put up one of the twin beds -- we really don't want to get rid of the second bed but we do need to consider downsizing -- we have so much STUFF! It is hard for me to get rid of some of the excess. I always think we will need it someday. But, if we do get rid of that second bed still we have two blow-up beds that can be used in a pinch. We really don't need it. Hummmm, wonder if youngest son would like to have it? Probably -- he needs some more furniture for his bedrooms.

This morning I took my car to the repair shop -- she (yes, my car is a girl named Sassy) needs an oil change, filter, etc. Also, they are going to check my computer to see why the check engine light comes on from time to time. I'm sure this will cost us some money but it has to be done. Better now, while Sweetie is working, than later when our income has decreased!

My house smells so good -- I have a chicken stewing -- Sunday we are having a chili cook-off at church. After the second service we will have the judging and then we will eat the chili. I'm going to make chili blanco, and I'm cooking my chicken today. It smells wonderful!!!

Anyway, that is what we have been doing this week. What have you been doing? Would love to hear from you!

Class day -- rainy -- Gracie did not like going outside.

Y joined our class today -- he comes from Cameroon and Belgium. Speaks French, I believe. He is friends with my French/Spanish speaker and I think he will fit in well.

First we looked at some computer pictures a friend sent -- they are from Iran and are entitled "Iran as you have never pictured it." My student M is from Iran. She was delighted to see the pictures. The title is correct -- I had never pictured Iran in just that way -- didn't realize they had snow.

Next, we made sentences. I have printed brightly colored index cards -- 3 colors, and it usually takes 3 cards to make a sentence. Occasionally, a sentence could be made with only two cards -- something like....I will cook. I will being on one card and cook on another. I put them into teams and made them confer with each other. They did really well, discussing the possibilities, and sometimes borrowing from another team when they did not have the card they wanted.

Then we talked about fire safety. There was a short story and then questions to answer. We talked about how to be safe in our homes.

Our Librarian came in to bring us the invitations to the ESL party that will be held on the 15th. We discussed food to bring, and what they might hear and see while there. I am sure my class will not do a presentation this year. These students are still not as bonded as I'd like them to be. There have been many absences and I finally dropped two students for non-attendance.
Still, I see people learning -- a little about America, if nothing else!