Link for Prayer

We were recently introduced to a young couple in the southeast part of town who are really struggling right now, and need many prayers. The husband, Brad, has cancer and is under hospice care. They are praying desperately that God will heal him. Please add them to your prayer list:

http://www.thewims.blogspot.com/

We're all germophobes now

Today's post is again written by Special. She was out sick almost all last week with the creeping crud that's been making its way around town, and it apparently affected her deeply:

"I was sick for 4 days. I was very sad. I had to do lots of work. I mist my frands. I saw them on Friday. When I came back it was Donuts with Dad [a special breakfast at school]. I din't eat it all. I was very happy to see my frands. And my teacher. I felt better. Lots of people were sick. My sister was being very nice to me. My mommy and my daddy were being very very very nice to me. I love them and they love me! I am so happy that I am at school!

"The End."

We're so glad that the little critter is back to normal! Fingers crossed that no one else catches it . . .

Punk'd

When our doorbell rang at 2:00 this morning, it took me a minute to decide if I'd dreamed it or not. After I convinced myself that I'd really heard it, it took another minute for me to figure out that a burgler wouldn't have rung the doorbell. I realized it could be a neighbor needing help, and got up to check.

When I peeked out the front window, it took yet another minute for me to realize what had happened. It all looked so ghostly in the streetlights, and my brain couldn't figure out what I was seeing. By that time, the perps (or twerps?) were long gone.

My brain had woken up enough at that point to remember the sprinkler system, and I went to the garage to turn off the timer. I had no intention of cleaning it all up right away, and knew that the sprinklers would turn our TP wonderland into a soggy nightmare. I went back to bed chuckling, and dreamed of Charmin.

As we cleaned it up this morning I told Batman that really, it's cosmic payback. Who knows how many yards I rolled as a teenager--I lost count long ago--and cleaning up dry toilet paper on a sunny Saturday morning is a small price to pay in return.

But I don't want them to do it again.

Well, it's about time

What have we been doing around here? Let me share, with a little help from Special. She's been keeping notes on my phone, and they're too good to keep to myself.

On December 18 Special was in a Christmas program at school:

"I had a program in December 18 2008. It was called A place in the Chrismas Choir. I was an elf. And There was 5 dogs. I hade Fun." (Yes, she spelled "choir" correctly.) (Genius!)

The next day, we got a sprinkling of the winter white stuff, and here's what she wrote: "It snowed at Texas, it was so cool." (It was cool indeed, unless you were driving in it.)

A few days later we left to go see Pop and Baba for Christmas. It was a long, long drive, but completely worth it. Special had this to say: "We want to Tenasse in 21.2008. At 11 O Clock we were thar. The next day we got to deckrate the Chrismas tree it was cool and are casins were thar we had fun." (Okay, the spelling there was not so great, but she got the Tennessee accent right anyway--we definitely had fun "thar.")

Christmas dinner with the casins, I mean cousins.

Number One had a big accomplishment last weekend: she ran a 3K! She finished in 25 minutes, and was quite proud of herself.

For my birthday last weekend we tried a new pizza place near our house called Pizza Fusion. They have soy cheese, so it's our new favorite--plus their breadsticks are little bites of heaven.

With bellies full of pizza and root beer

More pictures are posted here: http://picasaweb.google.com/larfamily/Christmas2008#

And since I've started a new semester of school and work is still busy, expect Special to be taking over this blog completely any day now. In fact, let me see if she has anything else to add here:

"Jumpy is weird. He licks his but. He is only 4 years old. I am 7."

"What I lick is nobody's business but my own."

All she wants for Christmas

She lotht her tooth in her thandwicth yethderday. Eating bagelth ith hard now.

It's the place to be

(overheard at the downtown Greek festival last Saturday):

I don't like Greek festivals. I don't want to go.

You ordered them each a whole gyro?! They'll never be able to eat all that!

I don't like gyros. I want a hot dog.

Wow, I was wrong. They can eat a whole gyro. I was hoping for leftovers.


I had super fun! When can we go again?

That's a shame

On Saturday we went to the school's Fun Fest, their yearly fundraiser for the junior and senior classes. Batman was scheduled for a turn in the dunking booth, and the girls and I along with their friend NeighborGirl visited as many booths as we could, smashing pumpkins and fishing for candy and taking a run through the maze. Batman not only got dunked but also "pied," which means "covered with shaving cream."

The girls all spent a lot of time (and tickets) at one booth in particular, trying to win a goldfish. They were all eventually successful, and after dropping NeighborGirl off at her house we went home and put both fish into a nice big vase. We then went out to dinner, and then on to Target where we bought goldfish food (among many other things--it was Target, after all).

Sadly, the little fishies didn't live long enough to be fed. When we returned, they were belly-up in the vase, staring blankly with their cold, dead eyes. We ceremoniously took them into the bathroom and sent them on their journey into the afterlife. RIP, George and Tiny Tim.