People travel for different reasons. For rest, relaxation, education and exploration. For me, the best trips are the ones when we feel like a character in another world. We surprise ourselves when we live in a different environment, and it stretches who we are as a person. It’s the same reason why I love theatre so…
Author: Natalie
Euro Trip Part I: PARIS
I do realize I haven’t yet written about our current home: Bangkok. I will. Eventually. 🙂 It took the better part of a year, but we do love our life in Bangkok. Still, we needed an escape. I hate to complain at all- we do have a good quality of life here. But the never-ending heat,…
Love Anyway
Last night I dreamt that an adolescent boy broke into my apartment through my back door. At first I was afraid. What does he want? He ran to my bedroom and grabbed my guitar. Then sat on my floor, face aglow at this magical thing. My fears relaxed and his face morphed into that of…
She Came in Like a Wrecking Ball: The Birth Story of Magnolia Patton
How’s that for a title? I can’t believe my baby girl is over 6 months old and I’m just now writing this. As I mentioned before with Henry’s birth story, there’s something biologically altering in a woman’s memory that happens after she has a baby. Over time, the negative things are mostly forgotten and what’s…
Henry is TWO!
Henry is TWO today!! Where has the time gone? It seems like yesterday I was nervously awaiting his arrival at the base hospital in Japan. And now he’s a wild little fire-loving caveman; a walking, talking, soon-to-be big brother! I absolutely love this age (challenging as it is)- in my opinion, it doesn’t get much cuter…
TOP 10 THINGS I MISS ABOUT JAPAN
Holy Moses it’s been a long time since I’ve blogged! Things got a little crazy after I got pregnant. Twenty weeks of severe morning sickness (and a husband that was gone through most of it), followed by a big move back to the states has knocked me out of the blogosphere and everything else. I’m…
A Very Unorthodox Easter
This Easter you won’t see any cutesy family photos from the Patton family. You know the sort- everybody dressed in their Sunday best Springtime attire, beautifully posed near a patch of flowers or under a tree. I love these kinds of pictures, and of course it was the plan. Had it all laid out- Henry was supposed…
Bali with a Baby
Like most hot-blooded, wanderlusty girls who have been influenced by Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love in their 20s, I had Bali at the top of my Asia to-do list for years. For the uninitiated into this cult classic chick lit, Bali was the Love portion of the three part memoir set in Italy, India and…
Happy NY Japan
It’s that time of year again where we join the crowds in Ome (a country village on the far end of Tokyo with a disproportionate amount of vintage American Western movie billboards) to let go of our Daruma dolls of yesteryear and buy new ones. For an explanation on this fun and superstitious Japanese tradition,…
DIY Boogie Wipes
Let me start by saying this is not a regular blog post for me. I am not crafty (creative maybe but there’s a difference). I don’t cloth diaper. Yes, “Cloth” is a verb here- and something I don’t do because I suck at laundry already. (My husband and I secretly laugh at the fact that…
NATALIE TOON PATTON 