yes.

via nestegg

Sorry, Birmingham.

I'm pretty sure the rain followed us from London. I think y'all need it, but nonetheless, it rained about 3 days straight over there right before we came over here, and I'm kinda really ready to have some warm sun on my face. Or hot sun.

Not to mention, our English friend we brought home with us is not going to believe us that the weather here is better than London's if this mess keeps up. So, rain: cut it out.

Uh-mer-i-cuh

Let's do a quick re-cap of our "holiday" back in the States. In no particular order and only because this is just about all of the pictures I took for an entire almost 4 weeks, may I present "Uh-mer-i-cuh 2k10"

While celebrating Sam and Amanda's wedding in Virginia, we had a tour of the Slemp's dairy farm. Below you will find a group (herd?) of preggo cows. I think some of us can relate to how they feel.

We went to the zoo with Helen. When a Larakeet landed on Wiley's hat and he flipped out, it might have been the funniest thing I've seen in awhile, but also possibly traumatic to Wiley. Oops, there goes "mother of the year" award. It sort of attached itself to his hat while Wiley tried to beat at it, screaming "Get it off. Get it off!" Meanwhile, the zookeeper frantically saved the bird from 4 year old fists. I wished I could have pulled my camera out faster.

We lounged by the pool before Wil had to return to London. So wonderful.

We went to the lake with "just grownups" and the dogs (not ours). Don't you pose your (friends') dogs in chairs when you go to the lake by yourselves (read: without kids)? Digger and Harvey looked regal, of course.

We watched Sam and Amanda (And Tommy and Chelsea) get married (not together). We also witnessed the world's largest bonfire that is not in Texas (A&M?).

Wiley took a picture of us feasting at Zoes. Heavenly.

We watched Aunt B learn to drive stick shift on the snazzy MGB.

Wiley rode his new-to-him bicycle with training wheels including his name on the back on an Alabama license plate in the CBS parking lot...only a few yards from where I learned to ride a bike without training wheels and nearly ran straight into a soccer goal (the metal part). Thanks Baba and Big Dean (for the bike; oh and I suppose not letting me bust into the metal pole?)

Mmm...watermelon at the lake. This boy could eat an entire one if we let him. Oh, wait, we did. And he is so possessive of his watermelon that when I tried to do a cool science experiment called "does the watermelon float or sink?" he flipped out, and my mom deemed it less scientific and more traumatic.

And on another un-related note, and only because I don't think this can be a post in itself, or maybe it can? We have a paddling pool in our back "garden." Yesterday, Wiley discovered it is full of tadpoles. I'm pretty sure they are tadpoles. So when we have a pool full of frogs, you know where you can come get a pet. I'm slightly grossed out but have decided for the sake of science and because I have a boy who likes gross things, we will keep the tadpoles for a bit and see what happens. The boy also found a snail, loved watching him crawl slowly, fed him a leaf, marveled at him, named him "Georgia Bulldawg," noted the slime left behind, and then stepped on him while watering a plant. RIP Georgia Bulldawg.

Find Your Spot

So, in looking for blogs about London I found this website: FindYourSpot.com which gives you a quiz about what you like/don't like and gives you 24 places it thinks you can live. SO, I took it for kicks. Here is where it thinks I should live.

1. Clearwater, Florida
2. Kissimmee-St. Cloud, Florida
3. Corpus Christi, Texas
4. Galveston, Texas
5. Savannah, Georgia


WHAT?

other notables include:
Dothan is my #6, Daytona Beach, Bradenton, Brownsville, TX, and Biloxi-Gulfport. Athens, GA is one of my top 24 too, along with Montgomery and Mobile (closer to the target).

I think that I over-emphasized warm weather and being near water (lake and beach) a little too much and maybe small towns where culture is not essential. That may or may not have been because I was thinking about London and thus about how it actually is cold there and rains there a lot and was inundated with museum names .

Hopefully it is not in the plan to end up in any of my top 5 (except Savannah, I think I could do Savannah, but I've never been there, either). However, I have heard bad news about Galveston, and I don't want to live near Disney (I think #2 is since I've seen commercials before, and I don't know where #1 or 3 is) Who knows, though, right?

News to come, soon I hope, about where we are going. In case you don't actually know me and only blog-stalk (I'm guilty too). Or in case the last time I talked to you I was wishy-washy. Either is a-ok.

Now you take the quiz and tell me where it thinks YOU should live!

birmingham

I don't need this article to tell me how great the city is that I love! But in case you need some encouragement, or some affirmation like myself, or perhaps even some enlightenment, check out this article from Garden and Gun Magazine.

The Big Heart of Birmingham by Charles Gaines

Sweet Home Alabama.

Amen?

Amen.

Home

Wiley has started "preschool"/daycare at Canterbury. He has done well given that it is his first time in childcare that is not at his house. But that is not the point of this post...

We are coming back to the apartment here in B'ham to go for a walk. Wiley keeps asking for apple juice (repeatedly, of course) and I keep saying (repeatedly, of course) that we don't have apple juice in the car and he will have to wait till we get home.

And then, the thought struck me that in a couple/few years, Wiley will understand the word home. And then I pictured him saying,"Mommy, this is not home. Home is at Wake Forest." It made me think about our somewhat transient lifestyle and where my home really is.

The other week when I took Wiley to the dentist to check on a tooth he had bumped and had been bothering him I had to fill out the usual paperwork. When the line for address came, I paused. "What is my home address...should I put my parent's house, or our apartment in Winston?" This happens a lot. I often put my parent's address for important documents since we claim Alabama residency still, but that is not where I live. Wil puts his parent's address when he fills out the address line in forms. My husband and I don't even put down the same address sometimes! How bizarre!

So, I'm still thinking about this. The fact that I'm not sure where I should hang my hat, so to speak. The fact that I hang it in W-S mid August- mid December and again from mid January to the beginning of May. In December I hang it at 2 houses. In the summer I hang it at another apartment.

I always tell Wil, I just can't wait to have my own front porch. I can't wait to not have to walk down 3 flights of stairs to go play outside. I don't care if I actually have a front porch, but it would be nice. I think I just would really like to not have to hesitate when I am filling out forms that have the dreaded line of "address." And you know they all have those!

So as I am thinking this, I realize how ungrateful I am being. Here I am, driving a really nice car down a beautiful road, with a healthy boy in a really safe carseat in the back who has just come from a wonderful childcare center at the church I grew up in. I'm coming "home" to an amazing apartment that a gracious family is letting us stay in for the summer (saving my sanity, at the same time!) that is in a safe neighborhood. Moreover, I have listed in my head and here FOUR places that I could call "home." Four. Four places to hang my hat. What about those families, those mothers who don't know where they will hang their hat tonight? What about those who call a homeless shelter "home?"

I am so lucky, so blessed, to have these four places to call "home." I know that my feelings about having a permanent address are real, that they are okay to feel, and that anyone with a family, particularly the mom, has those feelings--the need to settle, to nest. But at the same time, I want to remember to thank the Lord that I have a home, no matter how temporary it may be. I know that I need to remind myself to be at peace in the place I am in right now, to be thankful for what has been given--because I certainly did or do anything to deserve any of it.

So, until the day that I have my own front porch, I will hesitate at the address line, but from now on, I hope that when I hesitate I will thank the gracious Lord that I have four places, four shelters, four safe places, that I can call "home."