Jenna vs. Garage Door, Part II

Remember Jenna's first run-in with our garage door? Well, they met up for a rematch yesterday. Julia, Jenna and I walked into the garage, I hit the button to raise the door, and Jenna took off running towards the driveway. Unfortunately, she didn't wait for the door to get high enough before attempting to run underneath it. I heard a "WHAM!" and then the thunder-like rattle of the garage door, and then saw Jenna sprawled in the driveway. I ran to her, certain there would be blood and possibly insides of her skull exposed, but no. After a moment of crying, she was fine and up running around again.

This is our first house with a garage (yep, we were married 13.5 years before moving into a house with a garage) and the remote-controlled door was a novelty at first. I'm not so impressed anymore.

And now for the book I devoured last week. Imagine learning, at the age of 35, that you have an identical twin. Sounds like a Lifetime movie, but this really happened to Elyse Schein and Paula Bernstein. In their book, "Identical Strangers," they take turns telling the story of how they came to find out about each other, and describing the wide range of emotions that comes along with such a discovery. The sisters are very honest about the joy, grief, anger and resentment that entered their lives upon learning of each others' existence. The twins' story is intriguing as they take the reader on their journey of uncovering the mystery of the circumstances of their birth and the search for their birth mother. I got this book from the library Thursday evening and finished it the next night. I didn't skim, either -- the twins' story is pretty complex, so you'll find yourself reading every word trying process it all. The story of Elyse and Paula is amazing and one that could make you grateful for your family members in a new way.

We are recovering from Julia's birthday (a pop star party for a bunch of hyper third-grade girls). She got a Target gift card from Lois, my best Baytown girlfriend and Julia's adopted grandma, and Julia bought the new Nancy Drew PC game, "Legend of the Crystal Skull," with it. We're both working on solving the mystery now. Julia and I started playing these games when she was in first grade, and we're still hooked.