Happy birthday and a bowl full of gumbo...

Today marks a memorable day in our family's history. My brother hits the 30 mark. I can't believe it. Us kids grew up cramming into the same twin bed like sardines on Christmas Eve for years, even after my brother and I went away to college (call it not wanting to give up on tradition). Now he's married and officially into his 30s. What's next? Ugh. Me. But thankfully not for many years. I didn't handle 25 very well. I mean, I like to think that I've accomplished quite a bit in my earlier 20's. Met a boy. Traveled to Germany. Graduated college. Overall, postponed adulthood as much as possible. :)

I also had my first shift in what seems like ages at my hippy library. Unfortunately more books caught me eye. Again. But this time fiction. Shocking. Usually I like the informative and insightful. But I feel like escaping now so fiction it is. We'll see how long that keeps up.


I realize I should/could have associated the books so the spines were more easily read. But I didn't. Oops. Tough. You can just tilt your head. One note. The Death and the Priory book is about murder in Victorian England. Just up my alley.

And I thought I'd revisit the awesome travels I had in March of 2008. This little Navy wife took a hiatus from East Coast living for a few weeks and stayed in the booming metropolis of LaPine, Oregon. Okay, maybe not booming, but it had a stop light. Progress, people. So I hopped in my car and drove the 2.5 hours from Medford to spend a long weekend with the munchkins.

Here's an awesome now-three-year old who kills me. Too cute. Too much fun. Too tempted to steal and run away with. But I think people would miss him. Okay, okay. I'll just need to visit more.

And the then-latest-addition to the buddah baby clan. He weighed a lot. And slept some more. But I never heard him cry in the middle of the night when Sarah got up to take care of him. I'm totally the perfect husband. Civil union anyone?

And I had gumbo for dinner. That's where that comes from. Just thought you'd like to know.