Tom’s parents have a lake house on the same street as the lake house my parents have owned since the 70s. Tom and I were actually dating when his parents bought the property, and when they did we just decided to get married because otherwise it’d be too awkward. When I was a kid, my dad would throw
During the week we spent at Smith Mountain Lake, David hardly asked to watch TV at all. Because who could stare at a screen when we have non-stop access to Caleb!? These two boys have been friends from the very beginning, and I marvel about how well they played together from the start, even way back when David
In the 18 days since David’s birthday he has taken exactly three naps. The nap strike started on the day of his birthday. It’s as if he read somewhere on the Internet that some kids drop their nap at age three and thought, “No more napping? Yeah. I think I can make that happen,” and then
We’re celebrating this weekend. The sort of celebrating that calls for standing in the front yard wearing a pajama shirt waving a flag. All before 8 a.m. Today is my 32nd birthday and tomorrow the Hokies kickoff their football season. Here’s to the start of a great year. A year in which maybe we’ll get around to
I thought long and hard about a theme for David’s third birthday. For his first and second birthdays I chose based on the decoration potential. This year I thought long and hard about David’s interests and finally, reluctantly, chose to throw him a Lightning McQueen party. He likes Lightning McQueen a heck of a lot
We were honored when my brother and his fiancee asked David to be their ring bearer. He did a great job. He did such a good job that the first line of his resume now reads “proficient and bearing rings and wearing bow ties.” If anyone else out there is looking for a ring bearer, I know
I could turn thirty all day long and not think twice about it, but nothing made me feel old like realizing I graduated from college ten years ago. I’ve been out of college for a DECADE, for two and a half times longer than I was in college. Ew, gross. Forget I ever said that.
It rained on the day of my brother’s wedding rehearsal. It was wet and gloomy, and we all scorned the clouds and passed around umbrellas. We looked at the sky and made optimistic comments about how we didn’t mind the rain today, as long as it was gone tomorrow. Rain on your wedding day is
See those two tomatoes? You’re looking at our entire tomato harvest. I planted five tomato plants in the spring. Most of them died after squirrels climbed up the stalks and the branches broke under their weight. Vine borers demolished my squash, my basil is dry, and I have no idea what happened to my jalapeno
Every now and then, especially when there’s a dog-, um, cat-pile on my couch, I like to remind myself why Brigham is in our family. When Tom and I first got married, our first home was near a lot of restaurants, so we had a few unwelcome cockroaches. We heard that cats could help with cockroaches,