Snow falls on Alabama

It snowed.

In Tuscaloosa.

Alabama.

It even stuck to the roads and the driveways.

Ask Dylan.

He licked it up.

There was enough to make a decent sized snowman.

That lasted until about 6:00 that evening.

 

Plenty enough to throw snowballs.

The boys threw snowballs at each other until we couldn't scoop any more up out of our yard.  There is a definite heirarchy to this thing.  The biggest brother attacks the big brother.

The big brother attacks the little brother.

I've tried to warn Joe that there may come a day when he's not the biggest anymore. 

But who listens to their mother when they're eight?

But then who asks to get buried in the snow?

An eight year old boy.

It was a fun afternoon.

 A nice surprise for the kids.

They have been asking when it would snow here.  We tried to warn them that it probably wouldn't snow here at all but that we could take a trip to the snow one day.  "Like to Georgia" Trek said.  Hmm.  Well, what do you know.  We got 6 whole hours of snow fun right in our backyard!

 

Happy winter, yall!

 

A Day in the Life

 One weekend this fall, we had the privilege of sharing the experience of an SEC football game with some friends from Cali. We wanted them to get a true feel of the seriousness of SEC (or more specifically, Alabama) football.

 

From Dreamland barbecue to Bryant-Denny Stadium.

From Eli Gold to Alabama fashion choices.

From cheerleaders to the Million Dollar Band.

From hocking tickets to over-sized bronze statues.

You know, the basics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think they got it.

 

 

Travelin'

Saturday, we saw the sun rise in California on the way to the airport.  This time it's a one-way trip.  The emotions are all over the place.  We've lived in California for the last five years.  We've had a lot of life in those five years.  Good life, good memories.  As I was packing up, I came across this photo from our very first day at Woodleaf.

Abby was five and Joe was three.

We've had two more babies and grown lots of hair since then.

Woodleaf is different, too.

This is a picture Abby drew of all the Woodleaf kids in 2007.

Betsy, Max, Abby, Tamara, Hannah, Augie (O), Canaan (K), Sam and Joe.

Now she's almost big enough to babysit the Woodleaf kids.

 

I am so overwhelmed right now with love and gratitude.

We have been so blessed with friendships in California.  Our friends rallied around us and helped get us get packed with such short notice.  They came together and celebrated with us the things that have made these last five years so wonderful--our friendships.  It hurts to put distance between those relationships but we are so so grateful to have had all those people who love us and have shared life with us in Cali.

Now the sun has set on our first day in Alabama.

 The first day of a new adventure, a new season.

We were welcomed to this side of the country with such abundant love.

Our families have opened their homes and made sure that we had rooms ready complete with special touches for each one's individual tastes.  They had barbecue waiting for dinner (and chow chow even!).  A friend loaned an entire toy box (with toys in it) for the little boys until the rest of our stuff arrives.  My heart just swelled with gratitude.

 

With all this love coming at us from both sides of the country, it's no wonder we have emotions leaking out all over the place!

 

 

 

In-House Rivalry

Were you aware that I graduated from LSU and Jono from "the unavuhsity" (of Alabama)?

And that the two schools played each other Monday for the National Championship?

It was quite the event...

a rematch with everything at stake.

two schools from the same conference.

in the Super Dome.

in New Orleans.

That's my game face.  I don't why Jono wasn't with me on this.  I think he was a bit nervous before the game.  Rightly so, considering what the first game had been like.

Our kids are a little confused as to who they should side with.

We gathered some friends to celebrate the game with us.

Living in California, it is hard to find others with the same allegiances.  And even harder to explain the culture of college (specifically SEC) football to people who weren't raised in it.  We brought some extra gear and I made gumbo and we tried to rally them around the seriousness of the game at hand.

They're learning!

 This guy already knows "touchdown"!

Reauxll Tigers, yall!

Tuscaloosa After the Storm

We visited Tuscaloosa while we were back in Alabama.

We have so many memories there.

I grew up on Alabama football (even though I eventually defected to LSU).  Jonathan's mother's side of the family is from Tuscaloosa so he has memories of holidays with his grandmother and aunt and cousins there.  He also spent four educational(?) years there at "the U-nuh-vuh-suh-tee" during which three of those years we were dating so I spent a fair amount of time there as well.

While we were in town to spend some good turkey-eating time with Jono's family, we also wanted to see what was still there and what wasn't from the April tornado.

Remember the April tornado?

The one a mile wide and stayed on the ground for over 100 miles?

This is a bit of what we saw.

This block had been cleaned up but it is a whole block of just driveways.

Other sections looked as if clean-up hadn't even been attempted.

This is the church in Alberta City that my mother-in-law grew up in.

Got married in.

 There are whole neighborhoods of houses that still have these markings on the windows.

After the storm they were going from house to house searching for people.
It a disturbing reminder of the storm's warpath.

I was struck by how much rebuilding there is still left to do.
The city just has holes in it.

It has been months since Tuscaloosa was struck by the tornado and you most likely won't be hearing about it on the news anymore.  But these people still need help.

Project Blessings is a local Tuscaloosa organization helping low-income and underprivileged homeowners repair their homes--those that desperately need home repair, but do not currently have the means to make them happen.  You can help them with a donation by clicking here or if you are more local find out about volunteering here.

(metal still wrapped around a tree branch)

Alabama the Beautiful

We just got back from our annual trip to Alabama.

We saw so many people. 

Family.

Friends.

And we laughed and laughed.

Just look at all these beautiful faces!

Cousins taught us new things.

There are so many reasons we love Alabama.

But California has captured our heart as well.

New friends have become our west coast family.

It is hard having your heart in two places,

but I am grateful that we have been blessed so abundantly!

It was great to see you, Alabama.

Thanks for welcoming us back, California.

We have tickets!

 We had some really sweet visits with our family this summer.

Here is just a real quick peek...

We love California, but, we sure do miss Alabama.  And that is the #1 reason. 

While our parents were out here,

they played ball with the kids and watched them perform all their talents. 

We had cooked and ate meals together. 

And laughed.  

Nothing too spectacular, just sharing life together.

It was wonderful.

So, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised when after the last visit Trek starts talking non-stop about going on an airplane to Alabama.  I told him we have to have plane tickets to go.  The first thing he did when he got home from school that day was to make us all tickets. 

Completely by himself, he cut and colored each one of us a ticket.

"Now, can we go to Alabama?" he asked me.

What do you say to that?!

You say "yes" and get some real tickets to go back (thanks moms and dads for helping out :)

But now the problem is explaining to a 2 and 3 year old the concept of time.

Trek told his teacher that he wouldn't be at school next week because he was going to Alabama.

And Dylan is fussing because he can't go on the airplane right NOW.

We had to tell Dylan that the plane just isn't ready yet and Trek has to wait until after Halloween.

And we have this conversation daily.

Suffice it to say, we are all looking forward to our trip back to the heart of Dixie!