Cooler Weather/Latest on Marco/Boat Considered Scrap

HURRICANES AND WEATHER
What a neat little squall line we had this morning. We drove Sarah to school this am as we didn't want to get caught. Also, warned my neighbor who usually walks. She was very grateful. My husband teased me because although it was raining when we got back to the house, it wasn't Armageddon (yet).

Most areas picked up about 3/4 inch but Bush Airport had 1.1 and Conroe to Huntsville had even more! The cold front itself moves through overnight. Temps in the morning will be in the 50s....brrrrrr!! Look for 50s again on Thursday morning. The weather will be pleasant with low humidity and highs in the 80s through Friday. Humidity and morning lows increase over the weekend through Tuesday. Next weak cold front will move through on Tuesday with another round of rain likely.

Tropical Storm Marco (with some creative estimating from The National Hurricane Center) increased to 65 mph winds. It made landfall at 10 am this morning along the southern Mexico coast and is now weakening inland.

Elsewhere in the tropics...nice and quiet.

SPANISH WORD OF THE DAY
I began teaching 1st grade catechism at my church this afternoon. I have never taught 1st graders before, only middle-schoolers. Well, 1st graders are much harder because their attention span is about 5 minutes max. So, you had better keep it moving. There is a lot more advance planning needed. Fortunately, my co-teacher Kim Castillo, loves arts and crafts and works at a scrapbooking store. Thank goodness!!! We had a really good time, and I had fun trying to be creative.

So, I thought we should do the word for children -- los niños, pronounced lohs nee-nyos. This is generic for a room full of kids, but if you had all girls, you would say las niñas, pronounced lahs nee-nyahs. By the way, ñ, (called n-yah) is a distinct letter of the Spanish alphabet. If you look in a Spanish dictionary, you will find a section (albeit small) of words which begin with ñ.

One research study investigated how bilingualism affects cognitive development.
French-Italian bilingual children (aged 7-11)...[and]...a control group of monolingual Italian children... [were given]...a series of cognitive tests...It is concluded that bilingualism in early childhood exerts a positive effect on the formation of cognitive processes in children.

This is from Fardeau, O. (1993). Franco-Italian bilingualism in early childhood and cognitive development...Il Forneri, 7(2), 83-99. from Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts database.

So, stimulate cognitive development in the little ones you love. Purchase our DVD, Let's Learn Spanish with Frank & Paco, Volume 1, a Dr. Toy as a Top 10 Educational Product of 2008. You can buy it at http://www.frankandpaco.com/, Ventura's Educational Supply, Dolo Publications, Carlex Inc., The Curious Mind Store, amazon.com, bestbuy.com, and barnesandnoble.com.

AND MORE
At the party we attended the other night, I had a chance to visit with the area's new Meteorologist In Charge, Gene Hafele. He is not "new" to the National Weather Service as he worked at the local office for many years, serving as Bill Read's right hand man. As you know, Bill Read was promoted to Director of The National Hurricane Center. I commended Gene on his hard work before, during and after the storm. He was very modest, saying that his job eased up and that he really feels sorry for the emergency managers and responders who are still working extremely hard...with still much work yet to be done. A friend of mine told me today that while Gene was working so hard, Gene's church sent a group to clean up his debris strewn yard, including a large tree which had fallen into the pool. Now you know how much Gene is loved and appreciated.

If you look to the right, you will see a picture of my brother-in-law's boat. I had captioned it...don't worry it's okay. Well, come to find out, it is not. My brother-in-law was informed that it had been towed to a shipyard and supposedly in the process, it was wrecked and made unsalvageable. He was told this by the insurance adjustor. And although my brother-in-law has insurance to pay off the rest of the note, he did not know it would cost about $6000 to have the boat moved to a shipyard. I am putting a poll to the right--Do you think that $6000 is what it should cost to move a 40 ft boat to a shipyard?

This weekend, I am heading to the National Weather Association meeting in Louisville, Kentucky. My friend, Meresa Fincher, who is from Louisville, helped me learn how to say Louisville. It is NOT Leweyville, it is Louil-ville. Now you know! Thanks Meresa!!! I plan to keep blogging while I'm there, although I'll have to be briefer. Lots of meeting to attend and fun to have you know!

The John C. Freeman Weather Museum is selling tickets to it's Feb. 2, 2009 Weather Heroes gala to be held at the Houston Zoo. This is Groundhog Day. The museum wants to expand so it can handle a larger volume of children (and larger tour groups). The museum does so much for educating the young folks of our community. You can find out more by going to http://wxresearch.org/. Remember to give me credit if you buy tickets...I'm on the board.

Be safe and be back soon.
Cecilia Sinclair
Wonder Weather Woman

Marco/Cold Front/Ike Victims/Advice on Market Plummet

HURRICANES AND MORE
I am adding the following link to my list of links...thanks John (Book Hathorn) for this animation of Hurricane Ike!
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/hgx/projects/ike08/radar/IkeLong.gif

Tropical Storm Marco formed today in the southern Gulf...not a threat to us...will drift westward into Mexico. Thanks Frank Brody for the heads up!

Cold front will arrive in the morning along with some scattered showers and thunderstorms--40% chance. By the way, that 40% means that if you were to stand in one spot for that time period (say tomorrow morning), you have a 40% chance of being affected by that type of weather.

Sunshine returns Tuesday afternoon and it will be very pleasant (for a few days) and even in the 50s Thursday morning. Another Pacific cold front approaches over the weekend. Look for some showers and thunderstorms especially Sunday into Monday.

SPANISH WORD FOR THE DAY
Since I filed my sales tax report today, I will do--the taxes, los impuestos, pronounced lows eem-pweh-stows. It's a pain, but when you have a business, you have to do it. Hey, it least I had some los impuestos to report--always a sign of life!

Won't do the research part today as I have a pot of water about to boil on the stove. You know what they saw, a pot you don't watch boils way too fast!

But I just want to remind you that we are now less than 3 months from Christmas and you can beat the rush and buy a great gift for every youngster on your list by purchasing our DVD, Let's Learn Spanish with Frank & Paco, Volume 1, a Dr. Toy as a Top 10 Educational Product of 2008.--it is less expensive right now at Best Buy and Barnes & Noble. Order through http://www.frankandpaco.com/, Ventura's Educational Supply, Dolo Publications, Carlex Inc., The Curious Mind Store, amazon.com, bestbuy.com, and barnesandnoble.com.

AND MORE
Here are some great articles from my field reporter, Peyton Cascarelli. She got these from the Galveston Daily News. There is even discussion about missing folks...thanks Peyton.

http://galvestondailynews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=186c0000610bb3a3
http://galvestondailynews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=d1dac7f5b4b842a5
http://www.galvestondailynews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=8a2b2996d5a8581c

The market dropped below 10,000 today...1st time in 4 years. Before you go selling off everything, remember to buy low, sell high. My advice would be to buy right now. Wish I had some extra cash to do so. The last time the market dropped drastically (I believe 1999), we lost 1/3 of our wealth (on paper). But we recovered that and then some. Remember that you are in this for the long haul (at least most of you). So hang on!!! Now, if you need to sell at a loss, then now is the time to do it. You can get some benefit from that on your taxes. Of course, consult your tax professional before buying or selling.

I have a Masters in Business Adminstration (in addition to my degree in Meteorology). One of the things I learned was that over the long haul with only one exception of a 29 year run (several decades), history shows you are always going to make money on your retirement investments. So take heart everyone and don't sell!!! It is only on paper until you sell and make it real!!!

Be safe everyone!
Cecilia Sinclair
Wonder Weather Woman

A Great Fence Guy/Ike Report/Meteorologist Who's Who

HURRICANES AND WEATHER



The Houston National Weather Service has posted an extensive report on Hurricane Ike. Here is the link:



http://www.srh.noaa.gov/hgx/projects/ike08/wind_analysis.htm



To the right, I am putting up one of their graphics. But, it is so tiny, you can't read the fine detail. The blue circular areas in the middle are the center of the storm. Looking at the wind statistics, Hobby Airport had sustained hurricane force winds with a gust up to 92 mph. The west side of the storm did not experience hurricane force winds--at least not according to estimates. Actual instrumentation (as often is the case) failed before the peak was reached.



One thing you can take away from all of this -- you don't have to have hurricane force winds to get a lot of damage.



I recently read in the Chronicle that 400 people are missing from Galveston Island. Does anyone else think this is strange that we are not hearing about more deaths? Or are these people okay and we just don't know. This is a startlingly high number not to be hearing more about it in the media. What is going on?



Speaking of the tropics, area of disturbed weather is over the Yucatan. It is sliding west but will probably drift very close to the southern Gulf and into Mexico.



Big changes on the way for our weather. We shut off our sprinklers this week because of the fence work. Now our grass is looking rather crispy. Well, a cold front will bring some showers and thunderstorms on Tuesday. It will be very muggy early in the week. Then, it will be pleasant mid-week with humidity returning end of the week and some rain possible Saturday/Sunday as the next front arrives.



SPANISH WORD OF THE DAY

First--a correction! My good friend and mentor Raul Feliciano Sanchez gently corrected me about yesterday's word of the day frustration and as I put it frustrado. Frustrado would be correct were I of the male gender. But since this was an adjective and I was talking about myself, I should have said frustrada. Well, Gordy, my husband was very frustrated too--so in this household we had both frustrado and frustrada -- a dangerous combination to be sure. Thanks Raul!!! You're the best.



Well, today we are tranquil...having had time to calm ourselves. We are tranquilo and tranquila (Gordy and I respectively). These are pronounced trahn-cu-ee-low and trahn-cu-ee-lah. Thank goodness I can now say that. Ha! Ha!



Research indicates that bilingualism increases cognitive development and abilities.

[The hypothesis was] ...that mutual interference between a bilingual child's 2 languages forces the child to develop particular coping strategies which in some ways accelerate cognitive development. The sample consisted of 96 5-8 year olds...bilinguals showed more advanced processing of verbal material, more discriminating perceptual distinctions, more propenstiy to search for structure in perceptual situations, and more capacity to reorganize their perceptions in response to feedback.



This is from: Ben-Zeev, S., (1977). The influence of bilingualism on cognitive strategy and cognitive development. Child Development, 48(3), 1009-1018. from PsycINFO database.



So what are you waiting for?! You can help all the young ones you know by purchasing our DVD, Let's Learn Spanish with Frank & Paco, Volume 1, a Dr. Toy as a Top 10 Educational Product of 2008. Order through http://www.frankandpaco.com/, Ventura's Educational Supply, Dolo Publications, Carlex Inc., The Curious Mind Store, amazon.com, bestbuy.com, and barnesandnoble.com.



AND MORE

Do you need a new fence? I can not recommend highly enough, Alfredo Gomez, 823-423-0166. First of all, the work he did was excellent--even my husband says so and that means a lot, believe me!!! But he had a very good price and was infinitely patient about coordinating between the demands of many neighbors. Call him and get on his work list. He brings in the materials and cleans everything away. He also fixed 2 of our broken sprinkler system parts.



Did you know that there is only one charitable organization which gives away baby formula?! It is NOT The Houston Food Bank (which by the way does a wonderful job and I can't speak highly enough about them). But this group needs to be publicized too, because not too many people, who need their help, know about them. It is Life/Houston. Their number is 713-528-6044 foodforbabies@lifehouston.org. Please pass this information on to your friends and family and churches. My friend Gloria Cotton will be the new board chairman this year and I know she is going to do a great job!!!



Gordy and I enjoyed an evening of celebrating Doris Rotzoll Hood's 50th birthday at her and her husband Roy's home in the Seabrook area. There were many of my favorite folks there including Gene Hafele, the newly appointed Meteorologist in Charge of our local National Weather Service, Wayne Baggett, formerly of the Space Flight Meteorology Group (SMG) at NASA, Frank Brody also of SMG and member of the National Weather Association Strategic Planning Committee (along with me), Bryan Batson of SMG (also a former Aggie classmate of mine), and rocking and rolling Dayna Steele. And no, Dayna is not a closet meteorologist. But she is Doris and Roy's neighbor. She is still a riot! She said their neighborhood had a block party every night of the 10 days the power was out. The neighborhood sewage equipment was out of commission and they had a port-a-potty decorating contest. Dayna decorated her's in an Oprah Winfrey theme. Hmmmm! What's that all about Dayna? Dayna also gave me a copy of her book Rock To The Top which is available through Amazon.com. I can't wait to read it!!!



What a resilient bunch of people!!!



Have a great week everyone!

Be safe!

Cecilia Sinclair

Wonder Weather Woman

Comcast is Sooooo Frustrating/Weather Channel Program Not to Be Missed

HURRICANES AND MORE
Look for thunderstorms on Tuesday as the next cold front approaches! Again, the humidity and morning lows are on the rise.

Western Caribbean system is a little better organized but it will move over the Yucatan and shouldn't last past that. Will keep a close eye.

SPANISH WORD OF THE DAY
I won't bore you with all of our frustration with Comcast. We were one of those families that got the triple play and let me tell you, I should have known better. So, yes, I am very frustrated right now after a 45 minute (and I am not exaggerating) wait only to be told they don't know why we don't have service. So today's word is frustrated or frustado pronounced froo-trah-dough. I am so frustrado, I feel like I could explode!!!

On a happier note, we are close to receiving our English teaching version of our Frank and Paco DVD series, Volume 1. Will let you all know when that is available. In the meantime, you can purchase our award winning Spanish teaching DVD, recognized by Dr. Toy as a Top 10 Educational Product of 2008. Order through http://www.frankandpaco.com/, Ventura's Educational Supply, Dolo Publications, Carlex Inc., The Curious Mind Store, amazon.com, bestbuy.com, and barnesandnoble.com.

AND MORE
So, Comcast just gave me the great news that no one will even be out to look at the problem until October 14th...no home phone, no Internet, no digital cable. Just so you know, this is our 5th service call. The other 4 were before the hurricane. So, they can't blame the hurricane. I am only able to do this blog post as I pay for Verizon Internet wireless. Well, enough whining.

Here's something to watch: On the Weather Channel Sunday night at 8 pm, 10/5 there will be a special program about the Great Galveston Hurricane and the rebuilding effort afterward. Don't miss it. We are once again repeating history. Thanks for that tip from my good buddy Lew Fincher.

Happy 50th birthday Doris Rotzoll Hood. Her celebration was rescheduled because of Hurricane Ike. Doris is a dear friend and long time employee of the Space Flight Meteorology Group at NASA. They forecast for the emergency landing locations for the shuttle. And, they do important research all year long! Keep up the good work Doris and have a blast!!!

Have a great weekend and be safe!
Cecilia Sinclair
Wonder Weather Woman

How to Help Christa McAuliffe School/Weather Changes Coming

HURRICANES AND WEATHER

Last spring, I had the good fortune of meeting an amazingly energetic lady named Leslie Williams-Dennis. She is a reporter for the Chronicle and wrote a story about our DVD. Well, she also wrote an excellent article about the damage Ike did to Christa McAuliffe Middle School.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nb/fortbend/news/6032433.html

Well, even more help is needed and there will be an event next Saturday where you can help!

Recycle for Reuse

October 11, 2008
FBISD Administration
16431 Lexington Blvd., Sugar Land
11:00 am – 2:00 pm
Rain or Shine

Keep Sugar Land Beautiful (KSLB) will partner with the Fort Bend Education Foundation, the Sugar Land Lions Club and the Fort Bend County Women’s Center on Saturday, October 11th to collect items for reuse. The Recycle for Reuse event will provide an opportunity for residents to recycle unwanted items that may be used by others.

Materials to be collected_____________________________________________________________________

•Books •Children’s Pants (Sizes 6 – 16)
•Games •Furniture
•Puzzles •Clothing
•Flash Cards •Eyeglasses
•School Supplies •Household Items
•Girls Dresses

Donations will benefit Fort Bend ISD teachers, Fort Bend ISD students in need, the Lions Recycle for Sight program, and the Fort Bend County Women’s Center PennyWise Resale Shops. Donors are asked to bring clean, gently used items to Fort Bend ISD Administration at 16431 Lexington Blvd. in Sugar Land on Saturday, October 11th between 11:00 am and 2:00 pm. Visit www.kslb.org or contact Vicki Gist at vickigist@kslb.org or 281.313.5752 for more information.



School Supply Drive for
Christa McAuliffe Middle School

McAuliffe Middle School received water damage from Hurricane Ike and many of the teachers’ wall displays were destroyed. We will be accepting donations of new school supplies for the teachers at McAuliffe during Recycle for Reuse. We are also accepting monetary donations at the Fort Bend Education Foundation’s website at www.fortbendisd.com/foundation through PayPal. These donations will be distributed to teachers in gift certificate form to a local teachers supply store to help them re-outfit their rooms. Donations can also be mailed to: Fort Bend Education Foundation, 16431 Lexington Blvd., Sugar Land, Texas 77479

Please feel free to forward this e-mail onto your e-mail distribution lists.
Thanks for your support.

Brenna Smelley
Fort Bend Education Foundation
Executive Director
281-634-1113
281-634-1703 (fax)

Humidity and mild overnight temperatures return this weekend. Look for thunderstorms Tuesday and Tuesday night ahead of a very weak cold front. There will be a slight dip in humidity on Wednesday.

In the tropics...western Caribbean disturbed area is not organizing but it is drifting westward. Will watch it for you. Disturbed weather over eastern Caribbean islands should not develop in the near future.

SPANISH WORD OF THE DAY
There is still so much need. But there are also a lot of charity efforts (like the one for the Fort Bend schools). So our word for the day is charity--caridad, pronounced kah-ree-dahd. The people of the Houston area are very generous when it comes to caridad.

Speaking of charity, coming up in February, I will participate in the Fort Bend Junior Service League's Pancakes and Pajamas charity event. Half of the proceeds from the sale of our Frank & Paco series DVDs at the event will go to their charity. I will have more on this as the event approaches.

But of course, you will want lots of copies of the DVD in time for Hanukkah and Christmas. Let's Learn Spanish with Frank & Paco, Volume 1 has been recognized by Dr. Toy as a Top 10 Educational Product of 2008? You can help all the youngsters in your world have fun while reaping the benefits of language learning!!! Order through http://www.frankandpaco.com/, Ventura's Educational Supply, Dolo Publications, Carlex Inc., The Curious Mind Store, amazon.com, bestbuy.com, and barnesandnoble.com.

AND MORE
Well, our fence is not quite done. But it should be finished on Saturday. To the right you will see a before and after photo. Alfredo Gomez and his team are doing a phenomenal job!!! The workers told me they are working 7 days a week. But it is only temporary. Yes indeed, there is a lot of that "temporary" Ike related work right now.

You know the problem with the fence cost--the homeowner's deductible is too high for the insurance to pay for the fence. We are just biting the bullet and sharing the cost with our neighbors.

It could be worse. One manager at our neighborhood HEB related to me how the store is finally back to 100% stocked. He has been at work all along, even though all but 2 rooms in his home were damaged by water. He said the repairs will be $67,000. He was grateful however that the insurance folks have already visited.

I don't know about you...but that puts it all in perspective for me.

Have a safe weekend everyone!
Cecilia Sinclair
Wonder Weather Woman

Caribbean Disturbance, Cecilia Speaks Spanish, TOAD HUNTERS return!

HURRICANES AND WEATHER
First of all, Centerpoint has completed the main pass at restoring power. Here is an excerpt from the web site:
As of 9 p.m. last night, 18 days after Hurricane Ike passed through the area, CenterPoint Energy concluded its emergency operations plan, having restored power throughout its system, meeting the company’s initial projection to have service restored to its customers within two to three weeks. Restoration work continues for about 4,600 isolated cases including customers needing customer-owned equipment repairs. Many of the remaining outages involve customers unable to receive electric service due to damaged electrical equipment or flooding.

“I’d like to thank our customers for their patience and understanding during one of the most challenging restoration efforts in the history of our company,” said Tom Standish, group president of Regulated Operations. “Hurricane Ike mowed down 50-foot-tall trees and caused massive damage to the company’s 27,000-plus miles of distribution electric wires. With the help of more than 11,000 mutual assistance workers from all over the country and our own dedicated workforce, we reinstalled tens of thousands of feet of power lines that took us decades to build.”
Crews are continuing to respond to individual customer outage calls. Some of these outage cases are not expected to be resolved soon because the structure was severely damaged or destroyed. Over 93 percent or 2.15 million of the company’s 2.26 million customers lost power as a result of Hurricane Ike’s 110 mile-per-hour hurricane force winds.

Standish said that over the next few weeks the company will continue to maintain a mutual assistance workforce of about 3,000 to help the company’s own employees make long-term repairs on lines that received temporary fixes during the restoration process.

Those are the main points. From now on, if you have trouble with your power, call 713-207-2222.

Pressures have fallen in the western Caribbean and there is an area of disturbed weather. Will keep an eye on it. The latest a hurricane ever hit Texas was October 15, 1989. That was a storm named Jerry.

Our high pressure will begin sliding eastward on Friday...western trough will send a couple cold fronts toward us, but they probably won't make it as they glance off to the northeast. I do think our temperatures and humidity levels will increase and look for some thunderstorms starting the middle of next week. It was nice and cool this morning. I caught a chill walking Sarah to school. Conroe had a low of 49!

SPANISH WORD OF THE DAY
Yesterday, I told you I would give you a link so you could hear me speak Spanish. Well here it is:
http://www.radiobilingue.org/audio/ednl/mp3/ednl_081002_02.mp3

You will have to open the file and play it. Thanks to my friend Raul Feliciano Sanchez for doing the story about benefits of bilingualism. From that interview I am taking the word for knowledge or cognition -- conocimiento, pronounced coh-no-see-me-ein-tow. With conocimiento, any problem can be solved.

There is still widespread belief that bilingualism can cause more harm than good.
Here is some research that refutes that:
The idea that bilingualism causes cognitive damage to children is no longer held by researchers, but it lingers in popular belief. More recent reserach has compared the performance of "real" bilingual children, those with roughly equal language skills, with that of monolingual children and found the former group to have superior performance, especially in metalinguistic ability. There is now data suggesting that even language minority students in bilingual education programs who are in the process of learning English can benefit from some of the advantages of bilingualism. These studies contradict the argument that bilingualism in itself might cause cognitive confusion in the child, and support the idea that bilingualism can lead to higher levels of metalinguistic awareness and cognitive ability.

This came from: Hakuta, K. (1986). Cognitive development of bilingual children No. ER3). U.S.; Connecticut.

So, now that you know all of this, you should be highly motivated to purchase our award winning DVD, recognized by Dr. Toy as a Top 10 Educational Product of 2008? You can help all the youngsters in your world have fun while reaping the benefits of language learning!!! Order through http://www.frankandpaco.com/, Ventura's Educational Supply, Dolo Publications, Carlex Inc., The Curious Mind Store, amazon.com, bestbuy.com, and barnesandnoble.com.

AND MORE
We have a new episode of TOAD HUNTERS! Check it out!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLCeJhwLGeQ. There are now 14 episodes on youtube.com. You can see them, by going to youtube.com and doing a search for TOAD HUNTERS. Share this link with all the toad lovers you know.

Our new fence is almost in place!!! I'll have photos in tomorrow's blog!

Be safe!
Cecilia Sinclair
Wonder Weather Woman

Power Work Crews --- Pats on Backs All Around!!!

HURRICANES AND MORE
Tropics are very quiet (at least in Atlantic, Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico). So much for the western Caribbean weather we mentioned yesterday.

It is October 1st...the mornings are crisp. The afternoons are warm and dry. But, the humidity will return over the weekend and increase next week. There will also be a few showers and thunderstorms mid-week. It doesn't look like the front will make it mid-week. So, we may have to wait a while for the next shot of dry air.

As of 9 pm this evening, Centerpoint is reporting 99.8% have power (only .2% or 4605 without). So, by the time you read this, they may be all done. It's been 2 and a half weeks and I think all the workers are to be commended. It could have taken much longer. Of course, Galveston and many of our coastal communities have a long way to go. But the progress in every facet of daily life has been amazing!!!

SPANISH WORD OF THE DAY
You will notice on the right, a gadget to learn (and hear) a Spanish word of the day. I will continue to put in my own, because I like to teach myself new words. And, I like to pick words which pertain to the news of the day.

Speaking of the news of the day, I was interviewed in Spanish by the Frank and Paco team's Raul Feliciano Sanchez. He is the voice of Paco the Rooster. I will be broadcast on Thursday morning and Raul sent me the clip so I could hear how I sounded. I will try to get a link to that for you on Thursday. The story is about the importance of bilingual learning and my quote is "Es muy importante para el desarollo del conocimiento y es muy importante para el desarollo mental de los niños." This basically means: It is very important for the cognitive and mental development of children. I know--I can't believe I said all of that in Spanish. But Raul helped me.

Anyway, with the power return almost 100%, Cecilia's Spanish word of the day is elation or euforia pronounced ay-oo-for-ee-ah. They ran from lighted room to lighted room in an overwhelming state of euforia.

Don't forget that your kids will love seeing, hearing, and singing Spanish words by watching our DVD which has been recognized by Dr. Toy as a Top 10 Educational Product of 2008. You'll help them and make them happy at the same time!!! Order through http://www.frankandpaco.com/, Ventura's Educational Supply, Dolo Publications, Carlex Inc., The Curious Mind Store, amazon.com, bestbuy.com, and barnesandnoble.com.

AND MORE
Toad Hunting resumed tonight (well almost). We found a toad on the back porch. Sarah's friends Gabriella and Nathan were over. So, we will have the last Toad Hunters episode (until next spring) up and running on youtube.com very soon. We already have thirteen 6 to 9 minute TOAD HUNTERS on youtube. I have a link to the right or you can just go to youtube.com and search for TOAD HUNTERS. Be sure to watch the most recent ones...lots more information and our silly TOAD HUNTERS song.

Be safe everyone!
Cecilia Sinclair
Wonder Weather Woman