George and Jack

George Kells and Rylan Jack

When my brother was little, he had two stuffed monkeys: Jack and George. He loved the name Jack and always said that someday he'd use that name for his son. Unfortunately for him, I had three sons before he had one, so I got Jack and he was stuck with George.
Besides being the names of Josh's monkeys, both Jack and George are family names. Jack was the name of my Grandpa Alley, who died the year Rylan was born. George is my dad's name, my great-grandfather's name, and my great-great-great-grandfather's name. In other words:
George Alley (2012)
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Josh Alley (1981)
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George Alley (1955)
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John Alley - aka Jack (1920)
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George Alley (1878)
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Stephen Alley (1832)
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George Alley (1792)

Have I mentioned the potatoes?

nother harvest from our garden. These are all new potatoes, meaning small. If you leave the potatoes in the ground until fall, they will supposedly get big like store potatoes. Red potatoes are generally small anyway though, and I needed the garden space. Besides, who has the patience for a crop that takes multiple seasons?
Digging up the potatoes was awesome. It was so fun that after the boys and I had done half the bed, I went across the street to see if the neighbor boy wanted to come dig some up too. What you see here is about 25 pounds, and I've already started daydreaming about potato condos to maximize our garden potential next year.

In Real Life

One of the things I loved about being a green blogger was the amazing network of women I came in contact with, many of whom I now consider friends. While in Atlanta visiting my brother, I hooked up with my blogger friend Jaime, known at the Green Phone Booth as Sustainamom. It was so fun to meet her in real life! She's super sweet, and her son was a doll.





We ate at Jaime's family's restaurant Pizzeria Venti. If you're in Atlanta, check it out. Eli gives two thumbs up to the chocolate gelato!

Sunny in Philadelphia

A trip to Philly is not complete...

...without a run to Rita's. Or two.

I don't always have it all together

Little Ceasar's after swim lessons

Like We're Not Even Here

We returned home from vacationing with a couple of sick kids. Plans and playdates have been cancelled as we spend the week resting and recuping in preparation for more upcoming travel plans. The boys have watched the entire collection of Veggie Tales in the Netflix library, and yesterday we got in a 2 1/2 hour nap. I haven't opened the blinds in two days. We've barely left the house. Our neighbors might not even realize that we're home.

I have some plans to get a few things done while the boys are recovering, but those plans do not include blogging. I have a bunch of things I want to write about, loosely outlined in the drafts folder, but until I get to them, please to enjoy a few photo dump posts from the past few weeks.

On the way home from the science museum