Long Time no see!

Armed with some birthday gift cards, Robbie and I and the kids made our first foray in quite some time into the dreaded MALL (I just hate malls!)but we actually really had a fun time! First we took the kids, who were already starving from having been to the library and another couple errands just before, to get pretzel sticks at Auntie Ann's - yum! I'm sure deep-fried pretzels are not the healthiest thing, but hey...it's not very often! Then we headed to the family bathroom area for some bathroom breaks and to change Lilo's diaper explosion. Well WHO should we see, but the ENTIRE Hernandez family!!!

My first year teaching, I had a student who entered late, in October, called Angelita (Maria). SMART little girl who came into my class knowing NO English and left both speaking and reading in Ingles. Well her mom and I hit it off on our first meeting and I told her Mom to call me any time if she ever needed anything. Well, a couple days later, in the evening, i received a phone call - they were in need- and not the kind I thought. It turns out they had just come over from Mexico and had basically nothing. No stove, no beds- just one mattress. And they really needed some help. Robbie and I scrounged together some used furniture (beds) from my parents and some things like a convection oven I had from college, and we brought it down to them that weekend. I was amazed how my bright cheery student and her little sisters were living with not much at all. She really thrived in my class, and we became friends with the family and were invited to share meals, and I was asked to be Angelita's "madrina"- a Godmother, but in Mexico it is for First Communion as well.

After I left teaching, we continued to stay in touch and they had visited us both in our old apartments and in our present house. We helped them out when we were able with some Christmases, with the help from some other moms and families. I had been feeling sad just recently that I no longer had their contact info (many of the hispanic families on the South side move quite often, and there are a million Maria Hernandez's out there, it's like Jane Smith!) especially since I had that special bond as Madrina for Angelita and I had no idea how she was doing!

So it was pretty awesome to see them- now there are 6 and she is expecting her 7th in a month! My Angelita is SOOO grown up- she is a JUNIOR in HIGH SCHOOL!!! I couldn't believe it. My first class of K5 kids are juniors in high school!! Yes, I started teaching straight out of college, but still, that makes me so old!!

It was great to speak Spanish again, and we got their info. The mom is going to call me and come visit sometime this month and bring Mexican food so we can all get together.

After we finally said our goodbyes (and poor pregnant maria finally got to use the bathroom where she was originally headed!) we went by Barnes & Noble and Barbara got to use a gift card to get the first book in a new series (for her) "The Guardians of Ga'Hoole" - hope it's good - She had found books 2-5 at the library already but almost every library in the city had book one out and on hold until the end of the month. I need to do some quick research, but when we went to the Beezus & Ramona movie, we'd seen the trailer for the Guardians of Ga'Hoole movie and it looked really cool... It seems similar to Redwall to me, but with a world of owls. I'll let you know once I scan through her book. (Yes, I should have done that before letting her buy it!)

Finally we got Robbie a couple new dress shirts with his Boston Store gift card, and I got a pumpkin spice latte (yum!) with my Starbucks gift card! Yay for August/Sept birthdays and gift cards! Robbie and I also have one for Cheesecake factory!

I'm a little sad we're not going to "Zeidlerfest" - it looked so fun but Robbie doesn't want to go, plus I don't have a sitter, plus Leo is VERY attached to Mom right now and doesn't do well being babysat. :) The crossbow competition had really piqued my interest though!!

I didn't even mention yet going back out during naptime to take Barbara and Jimmy to use their Learning Shop $2 vouchers they earned through the library summer reading program, where I ran into Mary and her family! I got Sammy some really cool colored sorting bowls and colored vehicle manipulatives to sort! We are going to be working on colors. Should be kinda fun- my older two never needed any "working on" to just soak it up by this time, but that's O.K. I have a feeling that even though Sammy boy is going to be a late bloomer, he will catch up just fine.

What a day!