Lost in Translation & Bad Parenting

Yesterday after playing outside with the kids in the morning, I loaded the kids up in the wounded mini-van and headed the Fender Mender to get an estimate on the damage done by my husband....more on this later.

When we got back to the house, our lawn crew (who we LOVE) was there working. These guys are the nicest, most hard working guys and do an incredible job. They are the only reason that the plants in our yard are still not only living, but beautiful.

Rufijio & Christian (father & son) do not speak much English. And I do not speak much spanish. The only thing I remember clearly from my days of spanish in high school was, "Pon tu chicle en la basura." For those of you that also do not excel in spanish, that translates to "put your gum in the trash."

We communicate each week by laughing at each other as we try to do our best gestures. I have learned that talking louder and slower in English does not help my communication whatsoever.

Well, I am on a new app roll lately. Next to my new camera app, my other favorite is a FREE app called my language. It translates whatever you want to say from English to whatever other language you need. Brilliant.

So back to my story. I pull into the driveway and Christian waves hello and says quite concerned..."mucho agua !" while pointing to the backyard.

I am thinking, that's silly Christian, we just played with the water table on the patio today.....it's really not that much water. But he seems pretty convinced that it's a lot. I headed to the backyard.

Our entire backyard was covered in about 1 1/2 inches of standing water. It hasn't rained here in weeks. That's a lot of water. I grabbed my phone and ran out front to talk to Christian.

what would you like translated?

What the hell happened to the backyard?

Translated text

Qué diablos pasó con el patio trasero?

He starts laughing and says something in spanish meaning more or less....."yes, crazy lady....that's what I was trying to tell you!"

Rufijio goes to our pond and that's when I realize that it's the koi pond that has overflowed into our entire backyard. Thankfully, he figured out how to shut off the water because I would have had no clue. When I saw where the water knob was, I realized that one of my little cuties must have turned the water on about 4 hours earlier when they were playing outside and I was watching them carefully making lunch in the kitchen.

I asked Addison...."Honey, did you turn this knob on?"

"Yes". (love her honesty)

Ok then, mystery solved. Rufijio & Christian had a good laugh over that.

Andy gets home and thankfully, I had already warned him about our highly irrigated lawn.

He runs inside and yells, "The fish are dying!!"

***Apparently when your three year old floods your backyard with koi pond water, it's important to add de-chlorinator to the new water that's filled the pond. Just FYI.

Rufijio joins us at the pond and points to the poor little fish and says, "muerto".

Didn't need my handy app for that one.

Yes, Rufijio.....because of my bad parenting, Addison killed a fish.

Thankfully for Andy's quick action, the rest of the fish were saved and a serious crisis was averted.

So, I will see our friends, Christian & Rufijio again today when they kindly come back to mow our now drier backyard, and I'm sure they'll say something like....

what would you like translated?

Por el amor, por favor, tenga un mejor control sobre sus hijos.

Translated text

For the love, please keep a closer eye on your kids.