I wouldn't even know where to begin

Well, the last time I tried to upload pictures here, my computer crashed. Two repairs, one new computer, and two birthdays later, I'm ready to try this blog thing again.

First, pictures of Number One's eleventh birthday:

new Penguin shirt!

Her party was at Pizza Fusion, our favorite pizza place, so I made the cake to look like a pizza. You do not want to know how much red food coloring I had to use.

Most of her presents were from Justice, her favorite store. After she opened presents, the girls got to decorate their own "pizzas"--big sugar cookies in small pizza boxes.

Then Special turned eight:

GrandBob offered to buy her dinner anywhere she wanted. She chose Jason's Deli. As you can see here, she was wild about her new Barbie head! We had another family dinner on her actual birthday at her other choice, Chick-Fil-A, and she had a sleepover party that weekend with two friends.

Halloween: zombie cheerleader and "Pajama Girl"
(her superpower: making a lame costume awesome)

And to round it out, here's a shot of Sweet Tea and her best playmate:

You gotta have faith

Last night Special was getting herself some ice cream for dessert. The carton was nearly empty, and as she scraped out the last bits she asked me, "You remember Jesus giving out the fish and bread?" (That, by the way, is her all-time favorite Bible story).

I said yes, I remembered. She said, "I hope God will do the same thing now and make some more ice cream in here." And then she commenced to praying. "Please, PLEASE, give me some more ice cream!"

Sadly, the ice cream did not multiply. "But wouldn't that have been funny?" she asked. I guess it never hurts to ask.

School's Out/Back to School

I think I've said the word "school" about a thousand times in the past week. I finally finished my MBA last Wednesday (perhaps you heard the shouting?), and Batman and the girls started back to school today, so between final projects and exams and supply-shopping and backpack-packing, it's been a school-focused week.

Six years ago Batman and I took Number One to her first day of kindergarten and then had to pull over to the side of the road because we were both sobbing too hard to drive. Today she started middle school, and although it wasn't quite as damp a morning, I still felt quivery inside.

Both girls had a great day, were thrilled to see their friends again, and came home so excited about the new year. I'm happy that I'll be able to focus on them a little more now that I have some "free" time.

But you just want to see pictures, don't you? Here you go, the first day of sixth and second grade:

Vacation, all I ever wanted

I really should be working, but it is Friday after all, and I've had two doughnuts (so far) plus an oatmeal breakfast cookie and two cups of tea, and my eyes no longer focus in the same direction. So it occured to me that I never posted vacation pictures here, and since this is supposed to be my family scrapbook because I'm so awful at making actual scrapbooks I needed to fix that immediately.

We spent a week in Flagstaff, Arizona, which was a nice little town and ended up being a great spot for day trips. The first full day we went to the Grand Canyon, which was huge and amazing and more than we could take in. On other days we went to Sedona (beautiful), we saw Indian ruins, and we hung out at the hotel pool, but the best day by far was the day we rented a boat and went out on Lake Powell. It was indescribably beautiful, and we would love more than anything to rent a houseboat and go back for a week. All together, it was the best vacation we've ever taken.

These pictures are from Batman's phone, and here is the link to my web album:

We almost named her Soda

Last week, the girls spent eight days at "Camp Pop & Baba." On the weekend Batman, GrandBob and I picked up a small little bit of fluff in Fort Worth and then drove to Texarkana to get the girls and introduce them to Sweet Tea (named thusly because who doesn't love sweet tea?!). She is good at napping, is learning to go outside very well, and gets so excited to see each of us that we all feel we're her favorite. (But I know that she really likes me best.)

I think I've made a huge mistake

Well, it wasn't that huge, but it was funny. Last night I made "Western Chicken", one of our favorite dishes. I pan-fried some chicken tenders, then took them out and made a sauce with sauteed onions, chicken broth, red wine vinegar and black pepper. I thought the broth looked a little cloudy but it had been in the fridge for a couple of weeks and I thought maybe I'd not shaken the carton very well. While we were eating, Batman said the sauce tasted awfully sweet, and I agreed but said maybe I'd not added enough vinegar.

When I was putting everything away after dinner, I decided to throw out the chicken broth, thinking maybe it was past it's prime. That's when I realized that it wasn't chicken broth. It was rice milk--VANILLA rice milk. No wonder it tasted sweet!

I'm making hot dogs, fries and frozen corn tonight--here's hoping I don't cook up that bag of Halloween candy from the freezer instead.

Mother's Day was super-fantastic!

Mother's Day was a lovely day this year, sunny and warm, with few responsibilities. Well, okay, I had the same responsibilities as always, but I ignored most of them, because it was myyyyyy daaaaaay. My sweet little family gave me a new Bible--an archeological study Bible that I'd hinted at--a nice cover for it, a chocolate bar, and some mints from Chick-Fil-A. (Why the mints? I don't know, but I ate them anyway.)

We picked up lunch at Jason's Deli and took it over to my in-laws house, and had a nice, unhurried visit with them. The girls napped for most of the afternoon, and Batman and I planned our vacation (the Grand Canyon!). I spent the rest of the day reading ("Closing Time" by Joe Queenan, very dark but well-written). Of course I have no pictures of the day, but trust me when I say we all looked happy and beautiful.

Mother's Day and Valentine's Day are the two holidays that I think have the most pressure attached to them: store ads and the media are constantly offering "the perfect gift" and urging men to plan the "perfect" day, and the next day everyone wants to know what you got and how you celebrated and it's just not possible for reality to match expectation. That's why I LOVED this post by Manolo the Shoeblogger. He captures the typical Mother's Day in all it's reality--loving, precious, and the total opposite of a Kay Jewelry ad. Jayne Seymour may not have this type of Mother's Day, but the rest of us do. And it's perfect.