The Zip Line Personality Test.

I have two lovely children.

 Larry is my firstborn -- isn't he gorgeous?

and here's Jess -- isn't she a stunner?

(That's Manny, who's been Jess's best buddy since 3rd grade, on the right.  He was not her date that night...hmm why not, Manny?)

So aren't my children lovely?  Do you think if I described them you could figure out which one I was talking about by their pictures alone?

 We'll give it a try.  I'm going to give the following clues regarding Child "A" and Child "B".  Both of my kids were perfect babies, but ----

"A" was never able to entertain his/herself (unfortunately), and usually found some way of getting into trouble if left alone.

"B" was able to spend hours playing with toys and puzzles quietly.

"A" never cared what he/she looked like before going out to school.

"B" was meticulous in his/her grooming, and spent time each morning from 3rd grade on doing his/her hair.

"A" struggled through school, never turning in assignments or studying for tests.

"B" was an honor student. 

"A" once drove to school barefoot, only to find there were no shoes in the car and had to drive home.

"B" doesn't go outside without shoes.

"A" can't find his/her toothbrush.

"B" has never had a cavity and actually likes the floss Santa put in the Xmas stocking.

"A" is a bit of a dare devil who does wildly impetuous things.

"B" would go skydiving, but only after consideration and planning.

Okay, so look at those pictures again.  Who is child A and who is Child B?  What if I were to tell you that I have devised a personality test that is guaranteed to show a child's real personality.  It's the new ZIPLINE TEST.  Look at the following photos and see by the way my two kids tackle the Becker's zipline you can determine their personalities.....

4th of July means dinner and a zip line!

Tere's kids were at Seaworld with the G-parents yesterday and Jonathon is out of town. Much to our surprise, Tere showed up at our house around 7 just as I was contemplating dinner.  She'd made soup and invited us down.  As we all know, I'm the first to try to get out of cooking, so I was all for it!

The soup was an Italian sausage soup, and chock full of tons of veggies.  Tere just came back from a trip to a spa in Tecate was feeling very virtuous and healthy.  The soup was very, very good and even better once I'd dumped some cheese on it. Yum!

And even better, the Beckers have a zip line!!! How awesome is that?  And how did I not know about it? It's 20 feet up onto a tree platform and then you can zip probably 50 feet down to the yard.  Very cool.  I'm going back tonight to do it again, while Tere snaps pics for the blog... check back!

Real Men Love Goats

Tere and Jonathon hosted a neighborhood party Sunday night.  It was sort of a block party, except there aren't any blocks where we live; all the houses sit on an acre or more.  Tere invited everyone she could think of and this party really brought the whole neighborhood together.  It was tons of fun to see old neighbors and meet the new ones.

Tere does an awesome job with her parties -- she's very detail-oriented -- which gives every event a certain panache.  But I don't think six months ago it would have occurred to Tere that she'd ever have party guests like the two below.

Meet Betty and Boop.

They're two Nubian/Boer goats that the Beckers adopted and are bottle raising.

Goats really are good party guests.  Sure they like to hit the bottle pretty hard, yet they never get drunk and embarrass you or themselves.

A man and his goats -- it's a beautiful thing.