Face Time!

I didn't have enough to do, so I joined Facebook. Will you be my friend? If you do, you can get fascinating updates into what I'm doing at any given time, like this:

Lar is: pretending that Hurricane Ike does not exist.

Lar is: going to get extra water and batteries anyway.

Lar is: about to watch Project Runway.

Lar is: going to fold laundry while I watch it.

Lar is: still pretending there's no hurricane.

Lar is: going to eat the rest of the ice cream (tonight) in case the power goes out (Saturday).

Lar is: getting off work at noon tomorrow and all day Friday, because of this theoretical non-existent hurricane.

Lar is: still pretending.

Lar is: deep in denial.

Playing catch-up

So much has happened in the last two weeks! School started for all of us, Number One had a birthday . . . well, it was just those two things really, but it's been very hectic.

School is going well for the girls. Special has the same teacher as last year (and they adore each other), and Number One has the nicest, kindest teacher ever--I want to pick him up and squeeze him, but he's about a foot taller than me. Both girls enjoy school, although Special is a little bored with first grade. I think she really hoped they'd get into calculus or algebra this year--all this counting business is beneath her.

On her birthday (she's TEN!), Number One took brownies to share with her class, and that weekend GrandBob took us to Logan's ("it's a roadhouse", she said) to celebrate. GrandMom & GrandBob gave her a gift card, and I think it was the most exciting of all her gifts. She kept saying, "I got a debit card!"

I took her shopping yesterday to spend it, and it was so fun to watch her choose what she wanted. When I was ten, my dad described me as being at that age where I'd tear my pantyhose going down the slide at McDonald's, and that's exactly where Number One is. She bought herself a new purse, wallet and shirt at Justice, then got some new toys for her Build-A-Bear collection at the mall, and was equally excited about all of it. She's so precious, and I can't believe she's TEN.

Last Saturday we had a party for her at Laser Quest, and I think I might have had more fun than anyone. It had been far too long since I'd played laser tag! We invited our next door neighbor, a little girl from church, and two of Number One's friends from school, and it was one of our best parties ever. I think I want to have MY birthday at Laser Quest next year!

Number One had requested a Camp Rock cake, and it turned out . . . not bad. The lake was a little runny, and I should have done the "Camp Rock" sign in white gel icing instead of red, but the girls thought it was great so that's all that mattered. I thought later I should have built a little cabin out of pretzel sticks and put it in the far corner, but at least it won't end up on Cake Wrecks.

Today is Labor Day, and so I'm laboring--trying to get to all those things I've not had time to do lately, like filing and bill-paying and cleaning the kitchen and laundry. I'm not sure how this can be considered a day off, but at least I didn't have to drive to the office!

What's the deal with fart jokes?

Special came up with a new joke yesterday:

Q. Why did the elephant run away from the rabbit?
A. Because the rabbit farted!

That was the funniest thing I've heard all week.

These pinenuts are making me thirsty

Yesterday Batman and I celebrated 17 years of marital bliss. And the fact that he didn't die the night before.

We had planned to go out to dinner Saturday night at this restaurant, then go out for dessert here. When we arrived at the restaurant, we told the waiter that Batman is "deathly allergic to pinenuts," and asked him to make sure our food didn't contain them. He forgot. Long story short, Batman ended up in the emergency room, the waiter lost his job, and the manager has to foot the hospital bill.

It's rare in life that we get a do-over, but Sunday night we went out for a do-over! We skipped the meal--had our traditional Sunday-night family pizza night instead--but after dinner we dropped the kids off at GrandMom & GrandBob's and headed for Chocolata. We each ordered a crepe; mine had Nutella and strawberries and Batman's had bananas, strawberries and a dessert wine sauce.

Here's what his looked like:
And here's mine:

Happy anniversary, Batman! Let's have a less eventful celebration next time, okay?

In other news, Special lost her first tooth at day camp last week. The days before the loss had been filled with much drama and weeping and moaning over the looseness! And the wiggling! And the sheer awfulness of teeth in general! So we were all greatly relieved when she pulled the thing out.

And speaking of toothlessness, I have to show this picture of Batman and I at a redneck-themed birthday party last weekend:

I found that top at Wal-Mart--it says "True Love" and has a heart with a knife through it. I thought it was the perfect redneck top, and I'm not sure what it says about me that I plan on wearing it again with a denim jacket. I will not, however, layer it over a red bra like I did here, nor pair it with a denim mini-skirt and 4" heels. In true redneck fashion, Batman left the tags on his Miller High Life hat and returned it to the store the next day. We had lots of fun at the party, and I even got Batman to dance a little. Very little. (rim shot)

I think we've had all the excitement we need for a while now. Here's hoping that my next post will be about how boring life is!

A rare serious moment

I haven't posted an update on Number One's tummy troubles in a while, and thought I would let everyone know how she's doing. She had been symptom-free for several months, and then in June she suddenly started having problems again. Last month they put her on a steroid, and yesterday they added a second steroid. She sees her doctor in two weeks, and hopefully by then she'll be all cleared up, but I've been hoping that for weeks now.

Please pray that we can find ALL her trigger foods. We know that dairy hurts her, and we avoid things like broccoli and cabbage and nuts, but obviously something started this in June and we just don't know what. And please pray that we can get her off the steroid soon--we just don't want her to get all puffed up like she did last summer, and long-term steroid use isn't good for anyone.

I started thinking yesterday, spurred by a post on another blog, about how it's easy to get angry with God when your child or another loved one is suffering. But God didn't do this to Number One; it's just part of life, and bad things happen in life to EVERYONE. It would be so easy to say, well, God isn't answering our prayers to heal her, He must not care. But that would be ignoring how He has given me a job with fantastic health insurance--something we didn't have until very recently. He has also provided the money to pay for her care beyond what the insurance covers. He has provided a school for Number One where they care about her, where the teachers and students look out for her. We live in a place with one of the best pediatric GI specialists in the country, and he knows Number One by name and responds to each and every one of my phone calls. We are blessed, is what I'm saying, even in this.

Shortly after Batman and I lost our jobs in Florida, I read a quote by Dana Reeve, wife of Christopher Reeve, who at that time had just been diagnosed with lung cancer. She said (and I've lost the quote, so I'm paraphrasing): "You can't stop bad things from happening. But what matters in life is how you respond to those things." I found that immensely encouraging; that is how Batman and I tried to live after being so shattered by our own situation, and that is how we try to live now. We want people to see how we respond to our circumstances--good and bad--and be encouraged. We're not perfect, and we never will be, but God's grace will fill in all our gaps, and hopefully others will see Him reflected, however imperfectly, in us.

And now we return to our regularly scheduled programming: Anyone watch Project Runway last night? Did you hate the winning dress as much as I did?

Hello, and welcome to Moviefone

Batman and I have been watching a lot of movies lately, both at the theater and through Netflix. Just in the last month we've seen:

Juno (quirky, we both liked it)
27 Dresses (a good rental)
August Rush (I liked the last five minutes)
Batman Begins (AWESOME.)
The Dark Knight (I LOVED it, Batman ironically enough was unimpressed)
The Holiday (a "romantic" "comedy;" I hated it, Batman loved it, and I'm not sure what that says about us as a couple)

But the best of them all was the one we watched last night, called "Lars and the Real Girl." It's about a lonely man who buys a (*ahem*) "love doll" over the internet, just for companionship. He treats her like a real girl, and the whole town does the same. It was such a sweet, touching, funny movie, and quite clean despite its PG-13 rating. I highly recommend it; Batman and I both loved it.

The next thing on our Netflix queue is a DVD of episodes of "The Muppet Show," which I think the girls will love. Batman is excited to see the new X Files movie, and so on our anniversary next weekend we'll go for a nice dinner, and then on to a theater so he can see Mulder and Scully and I can watch "The Dark Knight" again. Compromise: the foundation of a healthy relationship!

Spring, Baseball, Football, and Winter

This July 4th weekend was kid-filled, with cousins popping up all over the place. The 2 Busy B's came in from Austin on Friday and got to spend a little time with Special and Number One.

On Saturday, Batman and I drove the girls up to Texarkana where Pop and Baba met us to take them on to Tennessee for the week. They had the Arkansas cousins with them, and the kids were so anxious to get going they quickly abandoned the playground where we met, hopped in the van and put on their seatbeats!

I think Pop and Baba are going to have their hands full.

Sunday brought more time with Big B and little b; we went to lunch together and then I got to babysit while their dad and Batman played Ultimate Frisbee. Big B gave me a golf lesson (his advice: "Hit it hard!"). Here he is showing me how to putt into the "hole" we fashioned:

Then we set up blocks and knocked them down again:

And Big B was delighted to sit on Uncle Batman's motorcycle:

The rest of this weekend's photos (including some lovely portraits of the cat) are here.

B and I had a great conversation at lunch. After we ordered, we were discussing what vegetables he liked (that list was very small). I told him that I make spinach cakes that the girls really like, and he said, "My mommy makes brown cake." I do love those spinach cakes, but I think I'd like the brown cake more, too.

Later I asked him (referring to the sporting events on the restaurant's TV screens) if he liked tennis or baseball better. He answered, "I like all the seasons." I suspect the boy might have watched ESPN a time or two with his dad, what do you think?

I so enjoyed seeing all my nephews and my niece; they're such sweet little ones and I wish I could hug on them more often, but then it probably wouldn't be as special.

Speaking of Special, I miss her and Number One already. Is it Friday yet?