Sorry for disappearing. There are some changes a-brewin’ in my little corner of the blogosphere, so stay tuned for that.
Plus, Camp Noa was a little busy hosting my brother and his adorable girlfriend for a few days. Some of the best days since we’ve been in Virginia, actually. We made quite a fabulous foursome.
We figured the best way to celebrate the freedoms and independence of these United States of America was to gorge ourselves on frozen yogurt, pear cider (ahem, …

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I don’t know if there is a better place to people watch than the outdoor deck of Hooters during the night hours of Norfolk’s Harborfest. From the blinding white scrunched tube socks/high top sneaker combo bopping through the restaurant (which is what Clayton swore he was looking at when he was swivel-heading it between chicken wings) to the boatmen and women who’d docked for the night and were seriously jamming out to The Macarena–because Norfolk is nothing if not cutting …

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Clayton and I spent Memorial Day weekend acting brilliantly normal and pretending like we had friends after we got invited to/stood close enough to people talking about a barbecue.
I was so excited to actually spend time with people other than my husband and dog (love you boys!) I laid my clothes out 16 hours in advance and planned Sunday down to the second in schoolgirlish anticipation. It was sweetly frightening, even to me, and had anyone remotely connected to this …

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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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I fear that you have misunderstood. Or that I’ve been misleading.
My life, here in Newport News, Virginia, is incredible. I speak of sadness and missing and what-am-I-doing-here moments,
but
I am healthy.
Whether nature or nurture, it is not in my composition to adjust to being far away from
Brenda or Ken or Tony
or Grace
or aunt-uncle-cousins families.
So, constant undercurrents of emotion
surge and wane
at unpredictable and strange times.
While every day is not spotless from tears,
my everyday is filled with
laughing with my husband
and playing with my …

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While I fine tune my resoluting, please enjoy some pictures of our journey through twenty-ten. (Click on the post title to see the pictures. WordPress is being funny.)

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Heading down the road in a U-Haul towards the craziest thing we’ve done. Besides skydiving.

It snowed in February. Again and again and again. It was an undeniable statement that we were not in the Sunshine State any …

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November was my favorite month of this year.
I rocked Thanksgiving dinner. Like, to the point all those “mmms” were worrying me that my culinary bar was being raised before my eyes. As if I was going to start doing this more than once every 26 years. HA! Joke’s on you, family. I’m not Brett Favring my career in the kitchen.

I’d decided that, no matter what was happening or not happening with a potential writing career, it was time to quit …

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I was worried to write a list of “thankful fors” because it would be too expected. But if one day I woke up in a world where too many people were saying what they were thankful for too many times, I think I’d be okay with that. So…
for a God that loves me when I fail every day,
for a husband that can roll his eyes or kiss my forehead or follow up my movie quote with the next line or …

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It’s Fall. And I don’t know that just because it happens to be November or because I texted my way into a giant acorn wreath in Target. You know, the way I knew it was “Fall” when I lived in Florida, which has 1 1/2 seasons each year: So Hot I Want to Die and So Hot if I Go Outside I Literally Might Die. No, no. Here in the almost northeast, there is a colorful, vibrant Fall. And it’s been a-blooming.
Now, …

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I want an honorary Ph.D. in Retail Argumentation. The unfounded but so meticulously organized reasoning that I present to my husband when I want a new pair of whatever is, basically, brilliant. Can I tell you how I talked my way into a new pea coat last weekend? Here’s the argument, more or less:
“Well, I know I bought that coat last year, but it’s teal, and that doesn’t go with everything. Also, it’s short, so I wear it when it’s …

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