November is a costly month for our family. In 2012, on the fifth day of the ill-fated eleventh month, Ali had a slight bathroom flood. That created 184 days of construction, renovations, and water damage mitigation. In 2013, on the seventeenth day of the eleventh month, a mutantly giant bat invaded my son’s room, alerting […]
Kiosk Warfare: A Guide for Survival.
Originally Published October 27, 2010. If you decide to go shopping this weekend, may the odds be ever in your favor. The mall is a glorious place for Moms of young children. Akin to an indoor playground for both Mother AND Child, it is full of glee-filled places such as Toy Stores, hot dog trucks, […]
Birmingham Bucket List: Autumn Walks.
Despite the fact that I would prefer for it to stay out of my house, I do love nature – especially in the fall. And although it seemed to start later than usual, Autumn has been lovely here. The weather has been mild and sunny, and the extraordinarily bright leaf colors seem to have come […]
The Home Invasion.
Sunday afternoon. Noah was lazily waking up from his nap, I was finishing a couple of blog posts, Ali was having quiet time, and Chris was out running. It was a calm, lovely day. Noah started moaning, so I went to retrieve him. He was crying by the time I arrived, which led to cuddling. […]
I’m not Crazy. My Mother Had Me Tested.
Spoiler: I won’t find out the results until Wednesday. Sometime after that point I’ll give y’all a full update. I got my head examined last week. It was a lovely procedure, really, shoving me into a capsule only slightly bigger than an extra-strength Tylenol and using experimentally psychosis-inducing cacophony to peek into the depths of […]
On The Appreciation of Autumn.
I had a doctor’s appointment first thing Monday morning, so the kids spent the prior night with my parents. On the way to pick them up, I stopped by the outlet mall to buy some shoes. And the trees in the parking lot were marvelous. They inspired me. I decided that a Fall Foliage Field […]
The Year We Were Vaguely Arabian.
We’ve found ourselves in a bit of a Halloween Tradition: decorating our trunk and handing out candy for our Church’s Trunk and Treat. But the problem is, when you spend your first year dressed as a Pregnant Mary, Donkey, and Angel, it’s seriously hard to ever top that. (Nor will Noah ever live up to […]
The Overnight Stay.
Upon putting Noah to bed on the last night of our weekend away together, he casually asked me, “But what about the monsters?” He’d never mentioned monsters in this or any other room before, so I assured him that there were no monsters and not to worry. He did not, however, take my assurances to […]
First Date With a Toddler.
It was the perfect opportunity to accomplish several goals at once. The race series that my Dad works for (American Le Mans) was in Atlanta, and Noah has been needing to go to “Pop’s Races.” I’ve been craving some nature while the leaves are changing, and have also been desperately wanting to meet up with […]
50 Restaurants in Crappy Photos: Round Five.
Okay. So I’ve taken a bit of a hiatus from my mission to blog about fifty new restaurants in Birmingham – not because I haven’t been keeping up with my habit of eating out too often, but because I’ve visited a lot of mediocre restaurants. And mediocre restaurants do not an interesting blog post make […]