Everywhere in the news is the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. New Orleans dominates the coverage; probably because it is such a destination city. But Buloxi, Mississippi is just gone. Wow. That’s about all I can say. Wow.
In a way this feels like 9/11. I’m in shock as I look at the pictures, hear the tales [...]

My husband and I went to a friend’s 40th birthday party Saturday night. The theme was luau, and you were expected to dress. Well, being pretty modest, and in no shape to wear a bikini to the shindig, I purchased a t-shirt with a bikini printed on it and wore a sarong over [...]

State29 should be one of your regular reads. Today they’ve reported on Iowa boy Armand McCormick. He was awarded a Silver Star for his heroism in Iraq. State29 does a search for his name in Iowa based newspapers and finds <drum roll> absolutely no mention of his service</drum roll>. It seems that the Iowa papers [...]

Not in this house. Well, maybe for Doug. I don’t begrudge him this as he works all week & I stay home with Brenna, eat bon-bons and watch soap operas. LOL
We have a lunch date with Doug’s grandmother. She is a member of The Loyal Order of the Moose and comes to Des Moines [...]

As I compose this Brenna is ignoring Baby Einstein on the 100″ TV and has bypassed all her toys in favor of emptying shelves and boxes in my office. Yep, no pricy toys needed in this house. (Which is why I buy most stuff at a steep discount *Thank you Target!* or at garage sales.)
We [...]

Jody and I like mass transit. If we lived in a place; oh, let’s take London as an example; that had a decent system, we would sell the car and ride the tube. I am constantly amazed that the US is dismantling our system to be replaced with more interstate roads. Coyote makes a lot [...]

I just got off the phone with our travel agent. When I initially booked our trip to Ireland I followed her recommendation and did not book a seat for Brenna- against my gut feeling. Since she is under 2 we can hold her on our laps.
I wasn’t worried about her being fussy. I didn’t worry [...]

Michael Yon reports from the front
If you aren’t reading Michael’s stuff, you should be.

Today was one of those perfect days that makes you not want to be anywhere else: temperatures in the mid-70s, skies the blue of a Caribbean sea, white, fluffy clouds floating lazily by.
Perhaps inspired by the day I phoned all my siblings and had everyone over for burgers and brats. I set up Brenna’s castle [...]

Last night my sister, sister-in-law, girlfriend-in-law and I left the guys to fend for themselves and went to Archivers for Scrap Mania.
Yep, it’s an exciting life we lead. But, seriously, you can make some great pages with an entire store to pick & choose from. And with no children to disrtact you pages actually get [...]

I’ve missed all the games this week… My mind has been elsewhere.
The house we wanted sold this week. Cash down, no contingencies. I am happy for the sellers, they were coming up to closing on their townhouse and we had no offers on our home. That means more looking…
Doug is going to try to [...]

I am about to book a trip to celebrateA) Doug’s BirthdayB) Our 2nd AnniversaryC) Brenna’s 1st BirthdayD) My Birthday
All these events fall within a one month window: October 6-November 7. And, just in case you didn’t get the hint in the title, we’re going to Ireland. Arriving in Shannon, departing from Dublin.
I am so excited! [...]

So much fun to be had… so many things to see… too many photos for this page. So I have congregated them HERE. It may take a while to fully load if you are on a dial-up connection.
What’s there? Large farm animals. Tiger Woods in butter. Things on sticks. [...]

This just seemed like a really good idea considering all the “helping” she wants to do on our laptops. Yesterday, as Doug was looking at job possibilities in Ireland, she crawled over -leaving me with her toys- and, in two keystrokes, shut down his computer.

Yes, folks, that is the B-Bright Barbie Laptop which, I might [...]

Ahhh, now that Brenna is nursing only early in the day and drinking whole milk the rest of the time I can kick back with a Woodchuck. Glorious.
We took a quick bike ride to my sister’s house to see my BIL’s parents, put Brenna down to nap when we got home and are now [...]