The Diary of a Backyard Naturalist.

Many people have asked for “less kids and more bunnies!!” in the posts around here.  Okay, maybe they haven’t said it quite like that, but it’s been pretty close.  At any rate, the following is a fully Yard Bunny Family update. I sat out in the backyard, being eaten alive by bugs. I watched the […]

Cousfusion.

Meet Eli. Eli happens to be Ali and Noah’s dashingly handsome cousin. He’s the perfect age of old enough to verbalize his opinions, yet young enough for them to be awesomely flawed. So, it totally makes sense that, when he met Noah for the very first time, and that very first time happened to be […]

Yard Bunny

We have, despite our suburb-dwelling ways, what Ali calls “A Friendly Outdoor Pet” named Yard Bunny. YB can be seen in our backyard, side yard, and occasionally even front yard nearly every single day. We have a beautiful symbiotic relationship with her – we love watching her, she loves eating our weeds-that-are-pretending-to-be-grass, and she acts […]

Discovering The Magic City in America’s Oldest City

When I was very young, there was a brick-paved street a couple of blocks from my house.  It was really just a brick intersection – a tiny slice of leftover history that somehow got missed by the modernization of Birmingham.  I loved when we drove over it and I had the opportunity to pretend that […]

The Fruit of the Sea.

A guest post, as written by my husband Chris. All that I ever learned about shrimping, I learned by watching Forrest Gump. That all changed on Saturday. My uncle Leo invited me to go along with him and his neighbor Doug on a beautiful mild Saturday morning. Since I have a 6 month old son, […]

A Look Back: 6 Months Later.

Noah is six months old today. Half a year.. goes by so much more quickly the second time around. Despite my fears of having another baby, Noah has been a complete delight and pleasure. He’s the happiest, most joyful, smiliest baby I’ve ever encountered. His charm and constant laughter keep me falling in love with […]

Wedding Vows, a Decade Later.

Chris, being the more creative and eloquent half of our marriage, personally wrote our wedding vows.  We said those vows ten years ago today, and they were beautiful and meaningful and everything you would want them to be. But to be honest, I don’t remember a single line from them. And yes, I asked – […]

The Kind of Suckers You Wait Decades For.

It all started sometime in very early elementary school when I had gone over to my cousin’s house after he got out of school.  He had just had his Valentine’s party that day, and was loaded down with delicious looking Valentine’s loot attached to Valentine’s cards from all of his classmates. (I wish I’d learned […]

Circus in the Dark Ages.

I bought tickets for the Circus on Monday – in anticipation of taking Ali for the first time ever. I bought them online – of course.  I asked around on twitter until I found the best discount code (which, by the way, if you haven’t gotten tickets and plan to, use the discount code “JUGGLE” […]

Noah’s Arrival

Spoiler: This post is a Long Birth Story interspersed and ending with Unbelievably Cute Baby Pictures to help detract from the traumasticity of the contents herein – at least for my sake. As I’m finally on a low enough dose of pain meds that I can type without the screen doing funky swirly things (and […]