The good stuff in life

Making raised beds, this one for herbs, with more soon to come

wildlife under the planter box...an unidentified snake, a gulfcoast toad, a little black salamander, and various insects


Friday pizza and movie night...our new TV only once a week rule
The New Orleans tradition of Red Beans and Rice every Monday

Andrew and I celebrating our birthdays together again


Helping with natural births at my new job at Touro Infirmary L&D

Our weather forecast today: Hi 74, Lo 55 and the arrival of Autumn

Free outdoor spots around town: Lake Pontchartrain, Audobon Park and City Park







Mumsey and Grandpa coming to visit

...and I said to myself, what a wonderful world.

We now live one hour from white sandy Gulf coast beaches. I've been waiting for this for years! The kids grabbed their beach toys and suits and we drove to the Mississippi coast. The beaches were pretty with sea gulls and pelicans all around. We had the whole expanse to ourselves...except for the large groups of workers cleaning up from the oil spill. The kids ran up and down the beach and threw sand and chased the waters edge...just barely missing it. They wanted to know why they couldn't get in the water.


We walked to a gas station to get something cold to munch on and asked the lady at the cash register about getting in the water. She said, "They say it will be at least a year before it's safe to get in here again, if the oil leak stops today. I love this place. I grew up here, but I'm moving now. It'll never be the same and I'm scared what's going to happen when the next hurricane comes. It's sad." Ironically, it turned out she was moving to the same area of Tennessee that we just left.

What a reality check! We've stayed current with the news of closed beaches and long term effects of toxic oil, but until you bring your kids to the beach and see it just as big and amazing as ever, but you're scared to touch it...I guess it never seemed real until now. We're hoping that life on the coast is more resilient than we realize. We're hoping to bring our kids back to the beach next year for a swim.

Until then we're exploring and touching the fragile beauty that we can.

Baby Reuben Arrives!

Reuben James Laughlin was born at home in New Orleans on May 31.



He is healthy and weighed 7lbs 11oz.



The labor and birth seems like a dream, as Reuben arrived 2 hours after active labor began. Our midwife got to the house just 10 minutes before the birth! Mumsey took Astrid to the grocery store when labor became painful and Ramona decided to stay for the birth. Ramona saw Reuben "crowning" and helped to cut the cord after the birth. We called Mumsey and Astrid after the birth and they were still at the grocery store and couldn't believe Reuben had already arrived...we couldn't believe it either. Wow!



Ramona and Astrid are in love.



Reuben seems to be a mellow and easy-going little man. We're actually getting sleep at night!



We were lucky to have Mumsey and Grandpa to help.



We moved out of our house in Johnson City and drove down to New Orleans to settle in a few weeks before Reuben's birth. The girls and Andrew and I will miss our friends in Johnson City and Asheville, and we'll miss those mountains and forests and rivers. (One day we may just have to move back to the Appalachians.)



Andrew has accepted a 5 year PhD position at Tulane University studying tree swallows in the wintering roosts along the Gulf Coast. Ramona will be starting Kindergarten in mid-August at Morris Jeff Charter School. She's been so brave with making new friends here in New Orleans. We're lucky to have many families with young children on our street. Today Ramona and her new friend from our neighborhood had a lemonade stand and made $2.50! We've all been loving the pools at Tulane. Ramona has learned to swim underwater, flip, and dive and Astrid likes bobbing around on her floats and jumping off the side of the pool.



There is so much to see and do here: City Park and Audobon Park, festivals every week, all sorts of museums, the bayous and swamps, the music, the food, and, of course, all of the friendly folks who live here.



We are renting a house a few blocks from buses and street cars and we have an extra bedroom, so please come to visit!