Choo Choo

This picture was taken on the morning of a day that changed my life. I knew it would. I mean, how could it not? Look how well my hair was behaving. But, seriously. I felt a great charge on this morning to perform well. Decision makers would be watching me. I felt nervous, sooo nurrrrrrvous, and frankly, I was paranoid the whole day that I would milkbomb myself. But I also had faith. Prior to this morning, the hand of God was already in motion...leading...guiding...placing a burden on my heart.... I cannot wait to tell you all about it.

Cousin Jazz!

Cousin Jasmine came to visit. She ended her American tour d' force of all major East Coast cities by crashing on our commodious air mattress where at least one mouse scampered around her bedside and where our children awoke intermittently to make sure she didn't forget about night terrors. They're fun. Then Baby Girl aired a matinee of "Wonderpets" while nustled up next to Cousin Jasmine who was jetlagged and dog-tired and we made her inferior coffee to try to compensate. And bought her a chocolate kreme doughnut from Dunkies. She bought us a whole sushi dinner and made us laugh like backyard banshees and kept telling us how cute our kids were, even though they took turns waking up from pleasant dreams by raging uncontrollably. I am sure she just assures herself this tendency came from my side of the family. She is probably right.

I absolutely adore Cousin Jasmine.

Here is what she likes: Menus inspired by the Periodic Table, faux cross-stitched horse deco sweatshirts, Belle & Sebastien, loud and animated interjections, maparriums, sushi buffets, left-leaning politics, words, working for The Canadian Man, old lady woven leather shoes, Mark Wahlberg, and embracing the geek.

And now she likes Walden Pond! Hurrah!

You guys, look! I won the fluffy animal from the booth at the carnival!

Big enough for a

I had to travel to the South again. This time I flew solo.

Got ma'amed a lot.

Drove slow.

Beheld a great big sky.

I guest lectured in a couple journalism classes.

I was nervous, but the adrenaline kicked in.

I loved seeing the students taken by surprise.

Loved seeing their eyes widen, their proverbial seatbelts clicking, wondering if it was safe to hop on this ride.

Being far from the babes pretty much gutted me, though.

I looked enviously at other families in the airport.

Nearly asked some if I could borrow their babies for a quick sniff of the neck rolls.

Call it a sour milk contact high.

But I tried to make the most of my little junket.

Squinted my eyes, tried to imagine what our lives would be like...

We'd have a trampoline, I decided.

That would be the first thing we would do with all that land, under that great big cascading sky.

Then, because I wouldn't see my babies for another 24 hours, I practiced living in the South.

I practiced living how we would live, if we had a big old plot of Southern land.

Big enough for a trampoline.