family in town

My cousin Joni was kind enough to invite my mom and grandma to a cheerleading/dance competition in Fort Worth. Of course, that gives my mom a chance to come see us here in the area. This time I didn't take pictures of the competition. These pictures are right before they left back west.

The 3-D's
Daniel, Delia, and Dolores

JJ's
Jasmine, Jaiden, and Joni on the phone.
When Joni was little my mom use to call her JJ because of her name and middle name. Well, now Joni named her three children with the letter "J" and her husband's name is Jamie.

Jaiden

Mami Albina not sure what I was doing...I just called her name.

It is hard to get a picture of Aunt Chris. I don't think she knew I snapped this one! ; )

Sunset

I loved watching the sunset in Puerto Vallarta.

Edgar

Edgar

This kid thought i was funny!

Pancho, Marisol, Ernesto, Edgar, and Alejandra

I had dinner the other night with my cousins. I was anxious to see Edgar since the last time I saw him was four months ago. He is now 14 months and a running little one! My cousin said he loves those old black shoes he has on. He mention and the takes the other shoes off and hands them those little black shoes. I think it quite cute... but i must say he is a Zermeño all right! (A little set in their ways!) My parents also have a similar story about me. I always wanted to wear my boots and they were old and ugly! (i saw a picture) I can't believe I was so stubborn!

Grandma is back

Mami Albina

Julian, Mami, Uncle D., Chris, and Angie

Our grandma is back from Villa Guerrero, Jal. She flew in Friday afternoon, and she was ready to eat American food! We went to one of her favorite places.

On February 7th, Mami and Papi would have celebrated their 61st wedding anniversary. Even though Papi has been gone for 14 years we still remember their special day.

FWSSR

Ready to pet the animals!

What the heck is that...?

Maybe not...

Ahhhh.....bahh!!!!

B's thinking this is a piece of cake!

Three weeks ago we hoping to catch a rodeo event at the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo but unfortunately after standing in line for a good 30 plus minutes they were sold out for that night. So we decided just go to the petting zoo and check out some of the animals at the stock show. It was a little late so we just saw a few animals before they turned the light out for the night. This is our second time to take B to the FWSSR and hopefully we can make it a yearly tradition. Who knows, she might want to show sheep, pigs, or maybe a steer when she gets older! Hey, this year's grand champion steer sold for $140,000! That was even much lower than the last two years.

Cherry vanilla soda NOT a coke float

On Saturday after lunch, Carmen and I went out for some quick shopping and looking around. Since we were near a Braums, I thought it would be a great idea to get dessert. Well she ordered her single scoop ice cream and I ordered a cherry vanilla coke float thinking i was getting what my friend Isabel had ordered me a couple of months ago. Uhhh, not exactly what I was expecting to get. I knew it didn't look the same... or taste the same from the last time. You can say I was disillusioned at the coke float as I watched the ice cream drift around in the coke. That didn't look to appealing to me. It wasn't what I wanted but it WAS what I ordered! I was hoping for a thicker drink. So I called Isabel to ask her what that ice cream drink was she had ordered for me and she said "NO ...NOT a coke float it's a CHERRY VANILLA SODA"! She sounded so disappointed in me! Haha! So guess what i did?..(I guess this comes from my only child syndrome!) Yep, i threw it in the trash can, we went to a couple of stores and then we went back through the drive-thru for a cherry vanilla soda! That was more like it! It was DELICIOUS...but Carmen made me walk it off...walking from store to store!

Walking out

My cousin Nena invited me to eat some mariscos at La Reyna in Dallas. We watched part of the novela that i am currently hooked on. Then we chatted away for another hour. I didn't notice that time went by so I went to the restroom to wash up and stop my annoying runny nose that the spicy salsa had caused. I walked back to the table to get one last drink of horchata. Leading the way out, I pretty much opened the door out of the restaurant when Nena says wait... "we haven't paid"! I didn't realize that we had not paid for the food. I guess we were sitting there a little too long and thought we had paid for our meal. I don't know, I just went blank!! Come to think of it, the waitress never gave us the bill. I kept excusing myself to the waitress and cashier. The cashier I'm sure, thought i was crazy and probably thinking I really was trying to walk out.
Boy was i embarrassed!

Nombres comunes

Otra ocurrencia del salón 205.

Estaba revisando la tarea y un niño puso su nombre y sus DOS apellidos. Fuera de lo normal para el. El siempre pone su nombre y su apellido de su padre nomás.

Yo: ¿Oye "L" tu otro apellido es Verastegui?

El niño: Si, mi mamá se apellida Verastegui.

Yo: (pensando que no me había oído) Me encanta el apellido. Así se apellida el hombre de mi sueños, Eduardo Verastegui.

El niño: (sorprendio con sus ojos muy abiertos) ¿MI ABUELO?!!?!?

Yo: Así se llama tu Abuelo?

El niño: Si, Ms. Zermeño, así se llama mi abuelo!

Yo: Oh, NO…yo hablaba de un actor que tambien se llama Eduardo V. !

El niño: Ahi...es que yo pensé que usted decía de mi abuelo!


Y con eso me dio muchisima vergüenza. Talvez tengo que guardar mis pensamientos en silencio!

¡Que suerte...la mia!

My "one-eyed" Jeep

But look, I fixed it! It looks pretty good!

Albóndigas

Today was the coolest day of fall here in our neck of the woods! Well, if it wasn't it sure felt cold! Brrrrr....(as Jessica would say). This cool weather makes me want something nice and warm....like sopa de albóndigas (meatball soup). On my recent trip to Mexico, my aunt made some delicious sopa de albóndigas. I so wished I could have had that today! I guess I need to learn how to make it! ; )

Parece que va llover...

Disculpen... se que casi no escribo de mis estudiantes...tengo un infinito de cosas que contar pero se me pasa el tiempo y no escribo nada. Este año mis niños son tan cómicos que debería escribir un diario. Aquí va episodio del salón 205…


Un día, cercándose el horario de recreo, veo hacia la ventana de mi salón para afuera y digo "parece que va llover" De repente empieza cantar un niño...

"parece que va llover,
el cielo se esta nublando,
parece que va llover,
ahí mama me estoy mojando!!"


Ya no aguanta la risa!! No solamente canto un niño pero varios siguieron su corriente y cantaron juntos! No se si conozcan esa canción pero es viejísima. Los niños de seguro la conoces por Los Cumbia Kings pero me gusta mas esta versión. Espero que les gusten!

Operación Sonrisa

I know I have mention to many of you that Satcha was named an ambassador of Operation Smile a few months ago. She is part of this organization that helps children with facial deformities. Many doctors and nurses provide free surgeries for children in different countries. She is one of many volunteers that help by raising money for medication and equipment for the organization.

She recently had the awesome opportunity to fly to an OS mission in Guadalajara, Jalisco and partake in the good deed. She loves the work they (doctors/nurses) do and was deeply touched by visiting with the kids and their parents. She emailed me this picture that just melted my heart. I'm sure many others. The baby has a cleft lip and cleft palate, she will undergo several surgeries before she will be able to eat without difficulty.

State Fair

What does a Fletcher Corn dog mean? The State Fair of Texas!
This is the reason I went to the State Fair!! Tevis and I used our fair tickets today. We met up with Uncle Daniel, Chris, Kelly, Aubrey, and Meredith for a few hours of great food and fun!

State Fair of Texas

Howdy Big Tex!
Did you know Big Tex speaks Spanish?

Uncle Daniel enjoying this ride!

Meredith and Tevis trying to hang in there!

Another goat story...

This time it is one of the kids! This baby goat was born in late August I believe. What so special about her is that she is blind but so full of energy! She was born blind and the vet said she will be like that for the rest of her life. She is sooo cute, she hears everything and her ears slightly perk up when she hears our voices!

Baby, which I call her in the video, is not so skinny. My parents started bottle feeding her thinking that she wasn't getting enough milk from her mother. My mom says she is heavier than the other little goats. You might see from the video that she is limping. She has a hurt left front leg. We are assuming that one of the adult goats must have stepped on her. Fortunately, she is doing better, the huge drawback is that she runs into everything!

Nagging Nanny-Goat

One of my not so fond childhood memories was tending to the goats when they would get stuck in the fence.

At a recent visit to my parent's house, I heard an awful noise, a constant bleating balando...something I use to hate hearing when I lived at home. That usually meant something was wrong, a nanny lost her kid or a goat was stuck! Yes, that bleating was an awful sound of a goat asking for help. Yep, stupid goat...always thinking that the grass is greener on the other side, got her head stuck in between the field fence...again! No telling how long that goat was out there just waiting to be released.

I go over to lend a helping hand and have a heck of a time trying to get her to twist that neck and move her curve horns in the direction of freedom. In the task, my fingers get stuck in between that tight wire and her horns. The nanny was trying to help but only made things worse when her horns would just go through the wrong part of the fence. I said every bad word I hadn't used when I was a child. (Good thing she didn't understand!)

At this point I was sweating, lost a couple of pounds in the process of trying to maneuver her head/neck out of the square fence. I tried from both sides of the fence--goat side and the opposite side. The opposite side just made her resist even more so. I went back to her side of the fence and once again I tried to knock her off her front feet to get her to kneel but she quickly got up. Oh yeah, did I mention she stepped on me a few times! Nothing was working!

Finally, fed up with wrestling with her...I just walked away trying to think of an alternative plan of possibly cutting the fence. During the time I was catching my breath, she slowly and calmly sets herself free!! Awwwwww "pinche chiva" as my father would say!! I was ready to chase her bleating butt around so she would get tired!!

Reuniting with friends

Recently, Luis and Mary invited us to our home for an ice cream party. It was an nice opportunity to visit them in their newly built home. We had a wonderful treat, Marble Slab ice cream. I hadn't seen Luis and Mary in over a year ago and wow, I hadn't seen Ana in about 4 years! She recently moved back to the great state of Texas. It was really nice for us to reunite at least for an evening and quickly catch up where we left off.

6.28.08 Wedding

Kaitlyn & Enrique

The beautiful St. Joseph's Church is where my cousin and his wife were married.

Dia de los Padres

Look who is eight months!

Mis primos

Edgar

Edgar y Panchito

De vez en cuando, mis primos y yo nos reunimos para cenar y platicar. Ellos viven en Mesquite, que no es tan lejos pero tenemos distintos horarios de trabajo. Mas bien, ellos trabajan mucho. Pero gracias a Dios, no nos dejamos de hablar. Siempre es un placer pasar el tiempo con ellos. Lamentablemente no tenia mi cámara para tomar fotos pero use la cámara de mi computadora. Este chiquitín es Edgar, hijo de mi primo Ernesto. Edgar es el primer hijo de mis primos que llevara el apellido Zermeño. De mis 20 primos Zermeño, este niño es el único por ahorita que llevara el apellido...que lentos somos nosotros para producir hijos!!