First posting

This is my first posting in the new Benn's blog. I suppose I'll tell about what's going on with us lately.












Mom visited us over the weekend and left today. It was nice for her and Suzi to get to spend some "grand"bonding time. Suzi is trying very hard to learn English. Her attempt over the last year to teach us her language has hit a wall and she's finally coming over to our side. But more importantly she's becoming quite the artist. She's got a great eye for color, use of space, and really loves crayolas. I think they must taste good too because she had blue teeth this afternoon.

Jayson's online classes have kept him busy when he's not at work. I've been carrying more of a load because of that, and it's not been easy. Thankfully Jack and Gail offered to take Suzi all day on Sundays so Jayson can get a lot of homework done and I can have band rehearsal and do whatever else needs doing. Starting this Sunday it will be really great!

Outside there are a few types of trees that have begun to bud. Spring is my favorite time of year with its bright colors and new green leaves. Suzi is really blossoming outdoors as well. She's a runner, climber, twirler, squatting rock-picker-upper. Every rock she collects I try to save for her. I think it would be sweet to fill a jar with her collected objects as a special memento of her toddler years, so that's what we're doing. Outside is her favorite place to be, and even at the park she'd rather scavenge for interesting rocks and twigs, rather than slide or swing. At night she's very interested in the moon and stars. She signs star, even if she's looking at a planet. No one's perfect. We don't know the sign for moon, I mistakenly was using the sign for sun until I realized I was incorrect. But she says "moon" so she doesn't really need the sign. Baa Baa Black Sheep is her number one song right now, she sings it when she's playing alone in the living room, I can hear her from the kitchen, and it is so cute. Her version goes: "Baa Baa Baa beeplipbaa beeeeepbaaaaa..."

We've discovered a real culinary treat in town. There's a little hole-in-the-wall Mexican food restaurant called The Taqueria. And as you may have guessed, they have excellent tacos. There's one cook, one waitress, one room, one stove. There are no frills but the food is amazing. Anyone who comes to visit who is interested in going there, we'd gladly take you. It's more authentic than anything I've ever had before, except Galvan's in Big Spring.

We're all reading a lot, I like giving and recieving recommendations, so here's some from our family: I just finished "Road from Coorain" which is a memoir of a woman who grew up in the desert of Austrailia during WWII and eventually became a great historian, Harvard graduate and university president. A very inspiring book, and also very peculiar how many similarities one can find between a childhood in west Texas and the Austrailian outback.
Jayson is reading "Musicophilia" which was written by Oliver Sacks (who I think is a neurologist) It's a book about strange musical/brain phenomena and hallucinations.
Suzi is pretty excited by "Animal Babies In Rainforests". Needs no description.