Thanksgiving 2008

We spent Thanksgiving as we have many times before, with Rene's sister Mary Ann and her family. They live in Plymouth, Minnesota. A good time was had by all. And for all those inquiring minds who want to know, we had four pies.

The table

The food

Jim and Rene

Margaret and Mary Ann

The day after Thanksgiving, we went to Interstate Park, which is north of the Twin Cities on the St. Croix River. It's called Interstate because it crosses the river and part of it is in Wisconsin. There are some pretty amazing potholes here that were carved out by whirlpools thousands of years ago. Apparently, it's also a spot where rock climbers practice. We saw a guy rapelling down from a climb.

On a bluff overlooking the river

Down by the river

Because the nights have been below freezing, the lakes are freezing over. Here is the group standing out on a frozen lake. It's kind of an eerie feeling to walk out there and hear the ice groan and creak and to see cracks. At one point, the whole group jumped up and down at the same time, but the ice is thick enough now (probably about 4 inches) that it didn't break.

Our house has been pretty quiet since Janet went off to college. It's kind of weird to devote so many years to being a mom (29 in my case), and then suddenly have your job kind of come to an end. I know I'll always be a mom and that my kids still need me, but it's just not the same as having kids at home. That's why this weekend was so fun. Ben and Shannon flew in on Thursday morning for a job interview. They were busy most of Thursday and Friday, but on Saturday and Sunday, it was almost like old times. Emily and Preston were here and it was fun to fix dinner for all of us, to sing around the piano, to play games and to visit. The only bad thing is that eventually everyone has to go home!

Espanol

Last night, Sarah's pensionista in Peru emailed me to tell me that the missionaries' p-day had been changed and she would not be emailing me until Wednesday, so not to worry when I didn't get the customary email on Monday. The email was in English, so I assume Sarah told her what to write. She also sent me some photos of Sarah. I wanted to write a little note back to her in Spanish, thanking her for the pictures. I thought I knew what to say, but I wasn't sure, so I had to call Preston and Emily and ask them. Even they had a brief discussion on the right word for "cute" and whether it should be "son" or "estan".

All that got me thinking about my Spanish skills. Were all those years of high school and college Spanish wasted? What about the 12 years I helped my kids with high school Spanish? I've never traveled to a Spanish speaking country. I don't know if I ever will. All of our kids took a lot of Spanish in high school and college. 4 out of 5 of our kids who have gone on missions have served Spanish speaking missions and Preston served in Madrid, Spain. Rene has traveled a lot in South America; in fact, he just got back a few days ago from Ecuador. He has a "Learn to speak Spanish" file on his MP3 player that he listens to to try to learn something. It just seems like my chance to really learn to communicate in Spanish has never come.

I have realized, though, that there is quite a bit of Spanish I remember. I remember this tongue twister from high school Spanish:

Erre con erre cigarro; Erre con erre barril. Rapido corren los carros, Cargados de azucar al ferrocarril.

I can at least roll my r's, which some people cannot do.

I remember a joke that at least one of our kids found funny:

Que hace un pez? Nada!

There was also a joke that I think Joseph used to tell about "el Papa".

My reading comprehension in Spanish is way higher than my ability to speak. I recently heard Elder Scott say that if you have learned a foreign language, you ought to read the Book of Mormon in that language occasionally, just for the added interesting nuances.

When I am at the store and hear Spanish being spoken, I am able to understand bits of it. We don't have a huge Spanish speaking population here, but there are some.

Well, whether or not I ever actually find my Spanish useful, I think that learning a language is always a good thing. For starters, it helps you understand your own language better. And it's like music, training for the brain. I guess I'll just enjoy the opportunities I do have to learn and use a little Spanish here and there.

While I was preparing this week's Institute lesson and studying about the rich young ruler in Matthew 19:16-22, I came across this picture book:

It's The Quiltmaker's Gift, by Jeff Brumbeau and Gail de Marcken. It is a pretty darn good illustration of this parable, although the parable, of course, has a lot of deeper meaning. Now I'm trying to figure out a way to use the book for Institute.

Also, during the past week, I saw this cartoon and it remind me of Ben and Shannon:

You can see more stick figure humor here: http://humorpix.com/images/2632-Stick-figure-humor.html . Some of them are pretty funny.