Sunday, April 12, 2009

Weather Forecast/Easter Fun and Too Much Chocolate

HURRICANES AND WEATHER
Some storms this evening moving into the southeast (Louisiana/Mississippi/Alabama) and on Monday, focal point for severe weather will be in the southeast and in Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky. There will also be some rain over the northern Rockies and some rain/snow over northern Maine. Most of the country will be mild and in the south, there will be many locations in the 80s.

Severe storms brought penny sized hail to FM 529 and Greenhouse Rd (west side of Houston) and damaging winds to Dayton late morning and early afternoon respectively. My stepdad, Gerry says that Bandera had heavy rain and some rumbles of thunder around daybreak. He also said that if I just start talking about Bandera weather more, I will see more hits coming from Bandera. So, here you go Gerry--I had better see those hits!!!

Houston will be mild on Monday with humidity dropping as a weak cold front arrives. There is a pleasantly cool morning on the way for Tuesday with a mild afternoon--high around 80. Look for sunshine both days. Some storms later in the week and over the weekend.

SPANISH WORD FOR THE DAY
Let's do home or hogar, pronounced ho-GAR. Roll that r a bit at the end. After traveling to Austin, it is good to be at my hogar.

Words associated with home are very important to youngsters. That's why our team of teachers included that in the content of the very first volume of our award winning DVD, Let's Learn Spanish with Frank & Paco. You can order Volume 1 from www.frankandpaco.com/. You can also order from http://www.venturaes.com/, http://www.dololanguages.com/, http://www.carlexonline.com,www.thecuriousmindstore.com/, http://www.amazon.com/,http://www.bestbuy.com/, and http://www.barnesandnoble.com/. Volume 2 is almost ready for release and Volume 3 will follow soon thereafter!!! For our English as a Second Language (ESL) version, got to http://www.frankypaco.com/.

AND MORE
We went to Memaw's house in Austin for a huge Easter egg hunt this weekend. Children of all ages (including up to 28 years old) enjoyed hunting for eggs. As I took pictures, I was bombarded, no slammed, by confetti eggs. I am still shaking it out of my hair. All, except one, of my five siblings and their children were there. It was just a really good time.

We arrived Saturday and stayed at the Embassy Suites hotel at 290/I35. I was very impressed by the suite...very clean with the nice living area up front, microwave, refrigerator, 2 widescreen TVs, 3 sinks (1 in living area, 1 in bathroom, 1 in bedroom). And perhaps the most surprising part was the free breakfast buffet. We're talking eggs made to order, pancakes and everything your heart could desire for breakfast. With a pullout couch, the place could sleep 6--price $109 per night.

We went to mass at a small church at 8 am. There just weren't that many people there...it was more relaxing than our home parish of St. Laurence--which I'm sure was overflowing today. But, when we left, there were so many people waiting to get in for the Spanish mass. I spoke to one of the parishioners who was a founding member in the 60s of Sacred Heart Parish. She said the parish has evolved over these four decades. It did not start this way, but now the majority of the parishioners are spanish speaking.

I gave up chocolate for Lent...I felt it was something my 1st graders in CCE could comprehend. To be honest, I usually don't give up anything. Well, it proved very, very difficult. Sarah kept reminding me that I could not have chocolate. As we helped the Easter Bunny hide goodies this morning, I had those first few bites---sooooooooooooooooooooooooo good and sooooooooooooooooooooo missed!!! I guess my tummy wasn't used to it, because I didn't feel too good after 20 pieces--just kidding--I think I had 19. I just can't put down the chocolate like I used to. You know, I had perfected my chocolate eating physique. Guess I'd better work on that one. It's going to be a challenge, but I am determined to do it.

Don't eat too much candy everyone! Tomorrow I'll have the results of our Easter candy preference poll.

Have a great week!
Cecilia Sinclair
Wonder Weather Woman