You know your family needs a pet rat when...

*You talk about your former pet rat, dead for 11 years now, as if he were part of the family, and have a framed photo of him in your home
*Your daughter asks if she'll finally be able to meet the aforementioned rat after she dies
*You BEG your rat-owner friends to allow you to rat-sit whenever they leave town
*When you finally DO get to rat-sit, your children spend hours talking to and discussing the borrowed rat

And finally...

*You throw a birthday party for the rat that you have borrowed from your friends, because it IS his birthday, and that's just common decency.

Happy Birthday, Scratchy!

And thanks, Audrey, for lending us your little friend for a week!

As we left Costco the other day, Ava turned to me with a serious, deep-thinking look on her face and asked, "Mom, will we live forever?"

I briefly reviewed our basic theology of death, Jesus, resurrection, and eternal life. In about three sentences.

"So after we get our bodies back, then we will live forever?" she asked.

"Yep," I said.

[More thoughtful pondering]

"But sometimes it’s just hard for me to understand it," she continued. "Sometimes it’s just weird to think about. You know? It’s weird that we are PEOPLE. Sometimes I just feel like we’re little dolls. Do you ever feel like that, Mom? Like we don’t really live on earth, but we’re just little dolls and not even people?"

Whoa. That was deep.

We saw the president in real life. It was very, very exciting. Our dear friend Farrah scored a few tickets to a speech he gave at the University of Texas on Monday, and invited us along.

See, there I am with Farrah and the prez! (Look just to the left of Farrah's forehead)

Bye, Mr. President! Next time you'll have to leave a few extra hours to come by our place for lunch and a chit-chat. And bring Michelle, too.


And who's that debonair young man? Must be one of the president's men...

This weekend Derek and I celebrated a thousand years of being married. See, here we are back in 1970-something. I love that man more every year, which is saying a lot considering I was pretty in love back when we first got hitched. He is my best friend, and the person I want to be with more than any other in the world. I'll stop before I get all mushy.

To celebrate another year of matrimony, we dropped off the little people with some friends and drove to San Antonio, where we visited the temple, waltzed along the Riverwalk, dined at our new favorite San Antonio eating establishment (Boudro's), and took in a movie (Inception)-- which we really enjoyed but which gave me a serious brainache for the rest of the night.

But back to the food. Our dinner was one of those meals that you keep reliving for the next 24 hours, and I don't mean in a food-poisoning kind of way. Do you ever eat something so delicious, that you don't want to forget the taste of it on your tongue, and you imagine the flavors over and over, so that you can attempt to remember how fabulously tasty it was? That's the kind of meal it was.

First, they make some serious guacamole at the table for you. Fresh lime and orange juice, avocado, red onion, salsa with blackened tomatoes and chilies, cilantro, and sea salt, oh my. We'd cleaned the bowl out before I could bear to put down a chip and pick up my camera:

Derek had the Gulf Yellowfin Tuna [Marinated in achiote, roasted poblano butter, served with
smashed potato cakes and citrus tomato fennel chutney]. Yum.

I had the Grilled Portabello Tostado [On house made corn tortillas with black bean puree and queso fresco, served with jicama slaw, avocado and pico de gallo]. Double yum.