autumn is in the south

i know it is fall because my baby is sleeping more than last week, even though it is not grey and moody outside, as any self-respecting fall should be. i mean, i know i talked about how gorgeous the weather is just the other day, and it is, and i will go outside and enjoy it, but come on. we all know what fall is supposed to be like, right?

i remember when loverboy first got excited about moving to Georgia, where "the leaves actually change." i was so confused. don't leaves always change in the fall? i mean, it's fall—leaves turn brown and then they fall off the trees. duh. then i witnessed the "changing of the leaves" here in Georgia, and i have to admit, sure, it's pretty. all that orange and yellow and red. i get it. it's colorful. it's autumnal. so now i know. autumn is what you have in the south.

in texas, we just have fall.

and for me, fall will always be mostly brown. brown and bleak, grey and drizzly, crunchy and full of lightning. full of sudden freezes and brief flashes of heat. full of electric blankets you turn on when you need them — on the weekends, when the cold fronts come. they always somehow come on the weekends. or, if you're lucky, on a friday. then you go to school bundled up and daydream during math class about the stack of library books and hot cocoa at home. and that's another thing. here, it's hot cider. and don't get me wrong, i love hot cider. especially when loverboy makes it with apple butter (another foreign concoction from the south) and orange slices and lots of nutmeg and whole cloves. but, it's just different. you know. it's more like autumn. and not like fall.

and as much as i'm coming to love autumn in the south—apple picking and flaming leaves and pork for barbecue—a little small part of me misses fall.

fall, where you can tell it's not summer anymore and it's not winter yet only because you're in school and not on vacation. fall, when the trees turn brown. fall, when the rain is plentiful (usually). fall, when bugs die. fall, when it's time to pull out all your calvin & hobbes, make yourself some peanut butter crackers, and call in sick. fall, a good time to go to soccer practice. fall, when pumpkins turn into pies.

but since we're in the south, i guess i should start calling it autumn...and go outside and enjoy those leaves. ;)

another family trip to stone mountain

well hello there! how was your weekend? ours was pretty great, actually. i had my doubts because we were supposed to wake up real early to make breakfast for church (not the whole church, just the extra special ones who come to clean on saturday morning) and we didn't have any plans. i hate not having plans, because this can sometimes mean not doing anything. but! i sneakily got to sleep in on saturday morning (only fair since the baby kept me up like half the night). and then loverboy and i decided to get coffee and put our stone mountain pass to use. it's like we like it there or something.

see, i like being outside, loverboy said to me (not at all disparagingly, oh no), when i remarked how nice it was. you wanted to see people and 'things besides trees,' he reminded me. well! i like being outside too, just so you know. plus, there were actually a lot of people there. ;) the trees were just okay. but the weather! the weather! so dreamy. i plan to go outside at least once this week. ;)

because wilder does nothing by halves, he very much liked the whole thing until he didn't, and then he really didn't. loverboy finally took him out of the stroller when he began causing a ruckus, but i really didn't mind it. babies yell sometimes. what?

it's everyone's favorite season!

can you believe yesterday was the first day of fall? in college i liked to send out emails on the equinox, wishing everyone i knew a happy season. there is just something delicious about the start of a season. especially the fall season. i mean, isn't fall everyone's favorite? i guess some people like spring (only people in london and new york city i think). and of course, summer is every kid's—and teacher's—favorite. but fall! fall is everyone's favorite.

hot cocoa and toasty knitted scarves and roaring fires and biscuits with stew and pumpkin pie? yes. yes, please.

fall is also my favorite because it's my birthday, and while i've lost interest in getting older, i just can't seem to lose interest in celebrating myself. ;)







it was at this time four years ago that we moved to atlanta (see photos above). i can't believe we are going on our fifth year here, already. it sometimes still feels like we're recent transplants.

last year when we got pregnant, i got a job and we started looking for a house, i realized that we would probably be here for at least a little while longer (okay, maybe i am still not completely convinced of that). then, i read this article and got more excited to get to know this city we now call home better.

at the start of every fall i kind of like to put together a list of things to accomplish—i set an intention, if you will (i'm very yoga right now;). last year's sort of list. a trip to montreal is still on loverboy and i's perennial trips-to-take list.

this fall, i'm dreaming of:

pumpkin festivals and the Georgia state fair,
daily walks in the park and weekend jogs around stone mountain
for sloshing in leaves and letting the lars-dog run free,
seeing my baby crawl, and hoping he doesn't start to walk yet,
cupcakes at the new sprinkles store (coming soon!),
many more donuts from donut king,
and this bourbon-caramel pumpkin tart,
chicken tortilla soup and maybe some beef stew,
finally decorating the nursery and some other projects,
introducing yoga to my favorite loverboy of all,
reading this and this and maybe this,
cooking our very first thanksgiving dinner,
going to the zoo, the atlanta botanical garden and the yellow river game ranch,
maybe catching a baseball game and another ballet,
and, most importantly, spending my days with the cutest baby (and sweetest papa) there ever was.

here's to a happy fall! 

p.s. look at those 2009 chickens! can you believe we were both in our 20s then? and can you believe loverboy is still wearing that grey shirt? just kidding, it's a different grey shirt. ;) and also, you can tell we had just moved from austin because a.) i was still wearing flipflops everywhere and b.) the in-laws took us to little five points to make us feel at home. so sweet:)

yellow daisy festival

on sunday, we checked out the yellow daisy festival at stone mountain, which i may have mentioned is only a stone's throw away (also, sad but true: every time i say stone mountain i think of this).

there were a million arts and crafts (soap and prepackaged foods were in great attendance) and it took all the wind out of us, but we walked through the whole dern thing because that's what you do when you're declaring your freedom from the house. even despite the nice old lady who told us our baby was too young to be out. we just smiled real nice. and then we saw a teeny tiny baby who looked to be only a few weeks old and we passed the judgment on. ;)

also, as you can maybe tell, my iphone camera had to take over after my real camera died about 10 minutes in. so sad and blurry, but anyways:


hmm, did loverboy wear that outfit two days in a row or does he only have grey shirts and many pairs of the same levis? we'll never tell...

haven't you ever wondered what these dried pussy willows are for? i still think i should have bought one. for to make our home an authentic, southern home, i guess? next time, next time.

my southern grown baby! 

this italian ice was not a good substitute for funnel cake. i'm still regretting that. 

tex's tacos! i'd been wanting to try these. my chicken fresca taco was good, but nowhere near what a texas taco should be, says the inner taco snob in me. 

over it. and frowning his disapproval even in sleep, what a goob. i love him.

so, okay. stone mountain isn't bad. and now that we have our yearly pass, we'll be back! every saturday, says husband! at the crack of dawn! we shall climb the stone mountain! as a family! he has a great interest in making over-reaching proclamations that are easily forgotten though, so i'm not too worried about it. ;)

labor day and photos of florida

as you know, we spent the weekend in jacksonville, florida for a church conference. and for the first time since moving to the south (and kind of going on and on about how much i miss texas), i finally decided to take some pictures capturing the beauty of the south in all its quaint soul. well, okay, only part of its soul. really, only a teeny tiny part. it's a start though, right? it's my new mission in life. what i love about photographs is their ability to tell a story that is completely different from what it was in real life. i know that sounds backwards. but for me, the beauty of a photograph is that it can only capture part of something. i think it allows us to see the beauty in things -- when we can only see a part (the beautiful part maybe??). the whole picture is sometimes too complex, too overwhelming. it muddies the view, so to speak. but a sliver of it? that is where a story begins.

and so, just a few photos of our time on the road and in jacksonville:




















while i wasn't particularly looking forward to the car trip, i was surprised by how fast it went by on the way down (the way back was a different story, as it always is). the company weren't too bad neither (southern speak for i am full throttle to the land of the dixies). i do believe we had ourselves a wonderful weekend.

homeowning/in the south/suburbia is here

so, this is from a few weeks ago. mother's day to be exact. i'm not sure how we ever got grown up enough to be homeowners, but it's happening. i'm not completely sold on the location of our house (hello, suburbia!), but loverboy says that it all depends on our perspective and it will be what we make it. he's right, of course. but then i also think that it's easier to make lemonade when the lemons you are handed are nice, big, pretty lemons (à la california or some other non-bug eaten, humid times a thousand, where the heck am i address;). no, but seriously, we are living in the sticks! okay, okay, i'll stop complaining, because yes, it really is what you make it and i am determined (as of this moment) to bring the party to this dirty little corner of the South. Keep Lilburn Cool and all that.

i have to say, loverboy has been quite the studly stud lately, mowing the lawn, fixing doorknobs and washing cars and stuff. we are serious about this little house in the burbs life...apparently.

you may have seen my instagram of a garage full of boxes. well, believe it or not, i have actually unpacked most of them. oh, what's that? loud applause? yes, well, okay, it was a huge feat of heroic effort, so thanks (pats self on back) (don't mind if i do). it was not easy to coordinate unpacking (and packing for austin) and naptimes with a fussy newborn. let's just say there might have been an inordinate amount of Chik-fil-A involved.

so, we've been going nonstop lately (except during our 3 daily naps of course;), moving and then my brother's wedding and then last weekend the Memorial Day Conference was here in Atlanta. i didn't make it to any meetings, but i did get to drive the hour-long (!) drive to the hotel where the conference was held downtown to visit some friends, so that was fun. we also had our first visitors over! no pictures because our place is still half-empty. or really, mostly empty. 

i'm thankful that our refrigerator finally made it into the kitchen after two weeks in the garage and our kitchen is finally fully unpacked so we can begin to eat real food. i'm really thankful for friends who bring over muffins and fresh flowers. and i'm thankful that my baby is finally learning to nap during the day.

...and for my next trick, i will make all these Georgia bugs disappear :/

southern writing

Garden & Gun magazine.

reading a new (to me) magazine today, 

for a class presentation. 

i think the name is hilarious, but

it's a beautiful magazine, full of

so many inspiring photos and articles: