You can take it with you

This is our home, 6 Barry Avenue. Our kids have lived in many houses, and they have appropriately named this house The Yellow House. I LOVE The Yellow House. I love it like I loved our house on Octavia Street in New Orleans, and on Washington Street in Bath, Maine, and on North Cabana East in Corpus Christi, TX...yes, you Navy people...I liked Corpus a lot! (Anyone else out there that liked Corpus?)

The Yellow House is our substitute for the Navy. Until last year, for as long as I had known Mike, the Navy had dictated where we lived. It was fun and comforting to bounce around from town to town, meeting new people and experiencing new places, all under the wonderful security blanket that is the Navy! Even when Mike took his job with UPS, we had to live in Louisville, because of his job in the Naval Reserves. (We did not want to do the "Double Commute" - in which pilots commute to both their civilian and military jobs.)

After Mike left the Navy, we realized that we could live wherever we wanted. We liked Louisville very much, but we both knew that we lived there for one reason: Mike's job. It took us ten minutes to determine that we could a) not go back to New Orleans, as the city was recovering from one storm...no need to bring down another, and b) that it would be a difficult commute for Mike to get to Louisville from Maine, especially in the winter (Oh, I hear all of you Mainers groaning at that one...especially the Smiths!) So, that left one place to come back to...Maryland, my home state...where Southwest offers 4 non-stop flights a day to Louisville, and where my parents, and my brother Matt are. Within a week, we had a home and a school here. We live 40 minutes from my parents, and 5 minutes from my brother and his family. I feel that we are home again.

We met some lifelong friends in Louisville...like Nikki the Nanny (who now has a daughter of her own)...
...and Laura, our first friend in Louisville, and the original Nanny (and Charlie's dream girl)

...and the Graffs! VP Navy friends who also went to Big Brown...they have three babies who were also born on the base hospital in Jacksonville, like Maggie and Caroline...
...and the Shifletts...still grieving about that goodbye...if you don't know My Friend Jill, you will...
...and the Bischoffs...also UPS (and Air Force). Not Pictured, because their parents are at the bar (surprise, surprise)...son Brady and our Goddaughter, Hannah!

The Kentucky Derby, one of my MOST FAVORITE THINGS EVER, will have to wait for another post...as will the cast of characters from our other "stops." The memory of friends, places, and times together are the hardest things to pack, the easiest things to carry, and the most important things to have in a new home. That, and a coffeepot. And a corkscrew.

Good Night!

Everyone needs "more Dowd"

I am so happy to have a few subscribers out there! It's fun to hear from you. Generally, the response I've had to my blog has been really positive - however, there was one Squeaky Wheel (GREG DOWD) who reported, "i like it! it needs more Dowd." So here is some Dowd. Greg is Mike's best friend. He is a graduate of the Fairfield Prepartory High School in Fairfield, CT. Although he is an enormous Irish dude, he has a zest, yes, a ZEST for Latin culture. He lived in Guatemala and San Francisco before moving to Philly with his wife, Kelly (who is a babe), and his daughters Nola and Aubry. He also has a baby son, Declan. If you need any more Dowd, please contact me directly, and I'll put you in direct contact with him.

I was fortunate enough to dig up a photo of him on a recent trip to DC. He actually had an audience with the president. They discussed the recent and terrifying surge in "lucky-rabbit's-foot" sales, and the alarming population boom. Apparently the president LOVED Greg. Who doesn't?!



Okay, okay...here he really is.
Okay. That was him in 1985. Here he is now.

Apparently he has received some kind of medal in a stadium full of a screaming fan. And no, Mike is not sipping a brew...unless you call a delicious cuppa D and D "brew"...oh, and I do.

Cheers to Greg Dowd, everyone!!!

Hi!

HEY YALL!!! Here's my blog! I've been fooling around with this thing for a month, and I am finally ready to share. I have decided to keep a blog for a few reasons. Many of you know that I am difficult to reach at times. I am forbidden to talk on the phone while driving (and for good reason) and I am really not good at talking on the phone with kids around...even emails are becoming a luxury for me (actually, the real luxury is hanging out with MJ and the kids...), so, I thought this would be a good way to "keep in touch." Life is fun and funny around here, and I do want you to be a part of it! Also, we are so lucky to have wonderful friends all over the world...from McD to Prep, BC, the NAVY, Maine and New Orleans, UPS and Louisville, and now Annapolis...this seems like a good way to keep all of you near me.

This is going to be a very dull blog, and you'll be hard-pressed to find any sort of theme here - but if you'd like, just subscribe to my blog on the bottom of this page.

We've seen A LOT of friends and family since Mardi Gras, so I hope to post some photos of friends and family in the coming days. Love to you!