Lisa n Tom (n James n Joseph)

Lisa writes: Christi reports that Christian, age 5, came home from gymnastics one day and said, "Hey Mom, watch this!" and proceeded to do a backflip. I asked her if he ever lands on his head. She said yes, but it doesn't seem to bother him. Five . It's a fun age.

Tom writes: Today Lisa celebrated her 21st birthday. At least that is what she told me. To celebrate, her parents came into town and toured downtown Washington, DC on these odd vehicles. There is a quality not unlike the Jetsons to the whole thing. Or perhaps Robocop. Congratulations, Lisa, on turning legal. Again.

Lisa writes: It's my birthday! Again! Didn't I just have one of these? "Dancing Lisa, a musical celebration of all things rick-rack!" "Baby Lisa. Yes , they did have color film by this time. It's just that black and white photos last longer. Really. And my hair still does this when I wake up in the morning." "Lisa and Lori. I think I definitely scored with the better toy here. And the cooler, Bali Hai dress."

Lisa writes: Christi and Co. went on one last camping trip to the Grand Tetons. Here are the kids with their "boat." Please note that the water in this lake is glacier runoff. These kids are tough as cavemen. Ice Age cavemen. And below is Breanna helping the Park Ranger explain the anatomy and importance of ants. Breanna is the ant.

Lisa writes: Tom's company sponsored a day at Six Flags for all employees and their families. We missed it last year, possibly to Tom's great relief. Not a big fan of spinning and weaving and bobbing, Tom isn't. I, on the other hand, span and wove and bobbed. Mostly just to prove that somebody in this family can hold down their lunch (of pulled pork and cotton candy) against terrible odds. Here's me, upside-down. I know you can't tell -- just trust me. It's not that scary if you, um, keep your eyes very tightly shut the entire time. And here's us and Tweety. This is our "American tourists" disguise. We affect this look pretty much everytime we leave the house on Saturdays. Can't you just tell that we smell like sunscreen lotion? I like that standing next to Tweety makes my own gigantic melon of a head look small. Are those Tweety's brains sticking out of the top of his head?

Lisa writes: Last night's Potty Training topic was " Demolition ." What do you want to know about demolishing a bathroom? Ask us! I dare you! We also talked about estimating the cost of a bathroom renovation project, and setting reasonable timelines. We discovered the Habitat ReStore chain -- a brilliant idea that is sort of like Goodwill for old cabinets and tubs. And we discovered that the minimum reasonable timeline for two regular-ol'-homeowners to pull out and put in everything in a bathroom is approximately 18 eight-hour days. Tom and I have about four hours a night to work on this project. By my calculations, that means we'll finish this bathroom by maybe 2012 A.D. And that's not including the six months of marriage therapy we'll probably need as a result of all this togetherness. This is gonna be fun!

Lisa writes: I remember reading a young adult book, years and years ago, about this girl who lived in an old, old house and she lamented the fact that all of her stuff was old, old and out of style. Specifically, I remember her describing her old, old hairbrush with bristles "as soft as kitten fur" and totally useless for brushing her hair. The book had a happy ending. She convinced her family to hold a yard sale and it turned out that a lot of their old, old stuff was actually valuable antiques and she sold her old useless brush and got a new one that worked. I'm thinking of this because I just searched for a picture of our old, old seafoam green toilet and sink. Tom and I are starting a "Bathroom Renovation" class tomorrow night (which we've affectionately started referring to as the "Potty Training" class) and our main objective for the class is to remodel our old, old master bathroom with the old, old seafoam green sink and toilet. Searching fo...

Lisa writes: After looking at our collectively weird dietary restrictions (oat-laden, ketchup- and refined sugar-free) you may be thinking, "What do these people eat?" Silly question! We eat what all non-television-watching-Commie-pinkos eat: Granola! And we make it ourselves! You can too: 6 cups Quaker oats (not quick-cook) 1 cup maple syrup (the real stuff, not Mrs. Butterworth ) 4-6 cups nuts/seeds (almonds, walnuts, peanuts, sesame, sunflower, etc) 1 heaping teaspoon of cinnamon You could add a cup of shredded coconut at this point, but you wouldn't do that. It gets all stuck in your teeth and stuff. (And my dad insists it causes cancer.*) That's the basics. We also add: 5 more teaspoons of cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon nutmet, cloves, allspice, pumpkin pie spice, and anything else that sounds good 2 teaspoons vanilla or almond flavor Mix it all up in a big bowl and spread it out into the biggest cake pan or turkey roasting pan you've got. Bake for 10 minutes at 350....

Lisa writes: Maybe we should have waited a little longer to tip our hand. We could have given people more time to get to know us before revealing our Commie-pinko-alternative lifestyle. But the topic came up and I couldn't stop myself from blurting it out in front of everybody -- "We don't have a TV!" It's true. We don't know who's surviving on "Survivor." We've never watched an episode of "Lost" or "24." We get the news from the internet or the car radio, and we watch Netflix movies on the laptop using an LCD projector. But this barely scraps the surface of our weirdnesses. For instance, Tom: - Will not eat anything with refined sugar or high-fructose corn syrup. - Eats raw oats. Dry. Right out of the box. Daily. - Spends at least 30 minutes a day doing the world's slowest Tai Chi routine. - Is not afraid of crying women. Lisa: - Will curl up and die if ketchup touches her skin. - Is more afraid of mosquitoes than ter...

Lisa writes: The Colorado Springs Balloon Classic is held every Labor Day in the early, early morning. More than 50 hot air balloons take off from a park in C.S. and float around randomly over town. Here's the thing with hot air balloons: they don't steer. You can go up and you can go down. Other than that, you're just blowing in the wind. Mom sent these pictures of the balloon that just about followed them home, eventually landing in the parking lot of a hotel a few blocks from their house. Check out the "chase vehicle" in the first picture. That's mom in black helping to deflate the balloon in the second picture. Thought to ponder: How do you suppose these balloonists feel about cats?

Lisa writes: Here's to one wonderful year, and many more! Tom adds: Amen to that! Now that the earth has circled around the sun one full rotation since we have been married, we can speak with, um, full authority on what it takes for a marriage to work out. So far, we can identify some activities, attitudes, and tricks. 1) Marry the right person. (If you are dating someone right now and are not sure, this probably indicates that it is the wrong person or the wrong time.) 2) Find what works and keep doing it. Good things build on other good things, just as bad things build on other bad things. 3) Pretty much all arguments are just the same argument, just with different details. They stem from differences in your basic personalities. When they spring up, you can choose between growing together and striving to reconcile or you can choose to allow the separation to grow. Also, animosity does not withstand sincere prayer for very long. 4) When something is bothering you, especially...