Once upon a time I was going to be a journalist/international correspondent to France and spend my time traveling the world parler-ing Français.

Now I spend my days rolling around on the ground, clapping and singing The Farmer in the Dell.

How did I get here?

After growing up near Portland, Oregon and doing my best to avoid being indoctrinated by the left coast, I moved to the Midwest for college only to discover that the hippies had gotten to me after all (thus the Teva sandals and strange fascination with reusable grocery bags).

DanO and I met the first week of our freshman year at Wheaton College outside Chicago (you can read about that here and here) and were hitched by the last week of our junior year (which you can read about here and here). At 20 and 21, <sarcasm> we were far too young and foolish to be making such mature decisions, of course </sarcasm>. Fortunately, God is so good and we are blessed to learn more everyday about how He designed us for each other.

I finished my degree in Elementary Education and then landed myself a nice comfortable office job because, holy guacamole, have you ever tried to be responsible for the growth and development of 22 6-year-olds AND have some semblance of a life? I am just not that talented.

We moved to Minnesota and I now work as a full-time mom to OBaby where I do my best to invest in the important things while keeping the spit up stains to a minimum. Also, I some how got our family involved in a twisted web of cloth diapering, immunization delaying, canning, natural childbirth (you can read about that here and here), and pretending to be hippies (I am Oregon hear me roar).

Hippies can still eat Kraft Mac’n'Cheese, right?

Good.

I do not do those things that I listed because a book tells me to, because it fits me nicely into a little box, because everyone else is, or because I think it is the more holy road to take. I do what works. These things work for us.

And so does Mac’n'Cheese.

I started this blog in January of 2008 as a hodge-podge way to update friends and family on our newlywed life. Now I use it to spend my mornings connecting with the outside world while not actually having to get dressed. The internet is a beautiful thing.

The writing and most of the photos in this blog are brought to you by AllisonO, while the design and IT departments consist of DanO.

OBaby’s cuteness, however, was a joint effort.

{Photo credit for this page}