Our family loves to travel and see new places and experience different cultures.  While speaking english makes that travel fairly easy, I always thought it would be fun to have everyone in the family speak a different language and get an inside track everywhere we went.  Stephanie has always been an over achiever (to my great delight!) and this area is no exception.  She makes learning languages look easy which is why all the kids (except Christopher) started calling dibs.  Michael wants german and Danielle has chosen chinese.  Lucky for her, they started teaching it this year at her junior high.

In case you can’t see, this is what she is reading/studying for homework tonight.

I was completely amazed as she read these characters like they were in english and wrote them just as quickly.  It reminded me of when I was a little girl and we would beg my dad to sing “You Are My Sunshine” to us in chinese as he had the opportunity to learn that language (and several others) many years ago during the Vietnam War.  It is a very happy sounding language and it always made us laugh to hear my dad making those strange noises.  It’s fun to see that same talent coming out in my kids.  It totally skipped me which is perfectly okay as it gives me the opportunity to admire this amazing talent and bond my kids share with their grandpa.  Plus, there’s a pretty good chance they’ll take me along on their travels and that’s really the most important thing!

It is mid November and the golf course by our house was packed with people golfing and not children sledding.  Danielle and her friend Savana tried to make the most of their disappointment by putting on their swimsuits and heading to the rec center for a few hours of summer time fun.  Ty and I decided that the nice weather must be a sign that we really should at least try to get our yard in shape.  We have lately realized that we could use a new edger/weed wacker as ours is completely broken (in half) but there weren’t really any to be found.  After stocking up on snow shovels that I hope never to use, Ty went to the local rental place.  After moving all the snowblowers out of the way, he finally found the one remaining ultra deluxe edger/weed devastor on wheels with a very loud engine.  While he man handled the machinery, I pulled as many weeds as I felt like, which fell far short of what was actually available for removal.  That is how we spent a really nice Indian summer fall Saturday.  Ironic that a little bit of snow could have saved us all of that strenuous labor.  I guess I am still learning to be careful what I wish for.

Gas in my neighborhood reached $2.09 which meant that $38 filled my tank.  I had no idea I could get so excited over the price of fuel!  The gas station by Stephanie’s new place is $1.99 and she feels like it’s a reward for moving out and paying her own rent.  I will have to politely disagree with her and beg her to move home so she can see it will stay the same low price no matter where she lives. 

But what I really want to know is this:  Will all the many places that raised their prices “due to the cost of gas” now lower them or does this sympathy only go one way?  I am watching just in case, on the off chance, one of them decides to surprise me and then they will be my place of choice for life.  That’s pretty much how I got Ty and that’s working out just fine.

Today’s lunch adventure took place at Esther’s Cafe.  I read a review about it in the paper and since it lavished praise on every aspect of this eatery, we gave it a try.

This is the entire place.  Stephanie and I are sitting at the last table in the tiny hallway on your way to the bathroom which apparently doubles as a rear exit as several people went in and never came back out.  Ever. By the time Ty joined us, it was standing room only and people were literally smashed up against us as we ate.  For a burger place, it was fairly good.  I gave it a 7 as the homemade fries were a definate bonus.  Ty really liked it and is already planning on going again but only “to go” as things were uncomfortably tight.  Stephanie ordered a chicken sandwich and it was less than exciting so she rated it a 6 and probably won’t go back.  After reading the reviews, we were somewhat disappointed.

Since we felt really hurried to eat and pass along our table, we had extra time on our hands.  What happens next probably shouldn’t be shared with Ty since he would feel left out.  We stopped by an incredible bakery (that doubles as a cafe that we will be visiting very soon) and walked away with the most amazing treat.

I had to cut off the bite marks so you wouldn’t see how greedy I was in my eating.  This yummy brownie came with this very clever plastic holder that feels like the stuff that sticks to windows and it makes sure that all the various parts of the brownie end up on your insides and not anywhere else.  A definate 10 and a new Brown family hotspot.  I’m beginning to really love Wednesdays.

Today was apparently the day for doctor visits.  Stephanie had waited for months to see a hematologist about her protein s deficency and now that she’s moved out, I pretty much show up for all these kind of things for a little bonding time.  Waiting for the doctor gave us plenty of opportunity to catch up on all the exciting things that happened in her life since the night before.  Stephanie is always very entertaining and today was no exception.  When the doctor asked her to say “Ahh”, she actually sang a note and held it like she was in choir without even realising what she was doing.  It’s still making me smile.  But the good news is that her test results were a false positive and she can be done with coumedin in a couple of months.  She’s still smiling about that

Danielle was my afternoon appointment but I had to keep it underwraps.  Immunizations are required for 7th grade and we had completely forgotten about them.  Danielle made the mistake of opening some mail sent “to the parents of Danielle” and has been freaking out about needing a shot.  So, I showed up at school and whisked her away without prior warning.  Thanks to the requisite lengthy wait to see any doctor, she had ample time to shed more than a few tears of fear and wish she was in her worst class - pre-algebra - instead.  When we finally got in a room, the doctor took pity on us and did the shot first.  Danielle was terrified and sat there with her eyes glued shut and when the doctor said, “all done!” they flew open in surprise.  “That’s it ?!?  Oh, my gosh!”  It turned out to be no big deal and she was instantly happy to be checked out of school.  When asked to say “ahh” she did it without singing but I started laughing, again, and had to explain why which meant we were all laughing about Stephanie singing her ahh.  So I guess you can make lasting memories even at the doctor’s office.  Who would have thought.