It’s Saturday morning. 5:41 a.m. I have about an hour until my alarm goes off suggesting a morning run and about an hour and three seconds until I toss it out the window. Clayton and I (and Bryson) are awoken by the sound of the entire house shaking, like someone with an otherworldly wing span grabbed the four corners and went to town for a few seconds.
In the same breath, Clayton darts up, says, “sounded like thunder,” and falls right back to …

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Ok, maybe he is, maybe he isn’t. But, just like his career and marriage, Nick Lachey did freeze my computer. And after all these years of being Team Nick, envisioning myself as the Doritos girl in that video and not mocking the full on winter white ribbed turtleneck. The nerve.

Per usual, cleaning out the office became 7 hours of sitting Indian style on the floor looking through photo albums, reading through diaries from the most dramatic four years of high …

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I only agreed because I didn’t think we’d be allowed to proceed. But oh, did that desk clerk at Sandy Bottom Nature Park throw me for a loop with her “sure you can take pets on the boats!” I faked a pleasant reaction and paid the woman.
My husband likes to think that we can read each other’s minds. I mean, I’m pretty dead-on when I do it, but him? Lacking. So, while I was in charge of compiling research and …

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Clayton warned me. He made sure that I understood taking on the Noa name was basically painting a giant bulls-eye on your forehead. That ends up being crooked and totally not the colors you requested. I thought the Noas were exaggerating about their trouble with companies and customer service departments. Two years in, I completely get it.
Yes, everyone has issues with installing this, setting that up, having this delivered. But with the Noa surname, it is EVERY installation, EVERY set-up, and …

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I have a lifestyle twin. For realsies. Clayton, Bryson, and I took a spontaneous trip to the Shenandoah Valley a few weekends ago. We spent most of the day Saturday driving along the Skyline Drive and stopping to take pictures. We decided to hike one of the trails while on the drive. When we were packing up what we wanted to take on the hike, I realized I couldn’t find my camera case. We’d been driving, jumping out, taking pictures, and jumping back …

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I should not be allowed in the kitchen if I am not making or serving coffee. It has to be some sort of civil code that once you fail miserably at something after a certain number of attempts, you are legally required to abandon the activity. It’s true with things like weapon carrying or child rearing — if you suck at it, they don’t let you do it anymore. Why is this not the case with cooking? I. Suck. At. …

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About two weeks ago, on a Friday night, Clayton and I were spending the evening lazying it up on the couch. Apparently, Friday evenings can put some little creatures hard at work, and one of those happened to catch my eye as it scurried from under the bathroom door, around the corner of the wall to the kitchen, and right up under the stove. Yes. I saw it with my very own eyes — the fuzzy grey fur, the long, …

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It’s been an adventurous weekend. There have been two never-tried-before experiences, and it’s only Sunday morning.
Yesterday marked the first day of the rest of Bryson’s life. It was our first dog training class, and I think there is a glimmer of hope that we won’t have to scrounge up the receipt from over a year ago and plop him on the counter at the Humane Society and ask for our money back. This particular trainer was recommended by several different people, …

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I lost three pounds sitting in church this morning. This is the second time we have attended this particular church, and both times it’s been outrageously packed. It’s definitely time for an expansion, but for now they are sticking with four services every Sunday. Anyway, all that to help paint the picture of it being very cramped in the building. Sardine style. We walk in with our uber cute coats on because, hello, we are still living in Virginia in the …

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My husband is breathing again. I’m pretty sure it had decreased significantly over the past month, and then for two days last week, stopped entirely.
Last Wednesday Clayton took the Physician Assistant Certification Exam, codename: PANCE. I have so many “party in Clayton’s PANCE” jokes handy, but I’ll spare you those. For now. So, last Tuesday was full of chest pains and heart palpitations and sweaty palms for both of us. Here is what Clayton’s schedule has looked like since we …

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