Hi!
I'm a little late on this (since I've been a fairly active member for a few months now), but I figured it would be nice to introduce myself to everyone else on Tuscmoms.
My family and I moved from Dothan to Tuscaloosa a little more than a year ago, and we love it so far (although I miss my teenaged son, who stayed behind with his dad - & my parents - so he could finish his senior year there with his friends).
I'm a SAHM and a freelance writer (I was a reporter in my former life...), and my husband is a sportswriter/ copy editor at the paper here.
We want to "unschool" our toddler and are very interested in making some playdate connections and taking advantage of any educational opportunities in the area.
I'm also addicted to books and read pretty much everything in sight (just read & loved "Born Standing Up," "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" and "An Arsonists Guide to Writers' Homes in New England" and am now reading "Then We Came To The End"), so I'd love to talk to other Moms who read a lot of books.
I also seem to be the resident Disney Know-it-all and have some very strong opinions on a lot of the things we've discussed in this forum - so I'm taking this opportunity to apologize for any past and future rants,lectures and off-the-wall comments I might make.

We have a lot in common!
I am also a former reporter and SAHM and freelancer now. My husband is also in the biz. And I LOVE to read. I just read "A Thousand Splendid Suns" and it was fantastic.
Maybe if we get enough interest we can start a mom book club on here.

Yeah, I read "The Kite Runner" and "A Thousand Splendid Suns" just a few months ago ("A Thousand Splendid Suns" was the better of the two, in my opinion), and I'd love to start a book club with some other moms!

I would LOVE to start a book club. I was in a great one in Tallahassee before we moved here. I read "The Kite Runner" but haven't read the new one yet....I have been too busy with "Goodnight Moon" and statistics books (I'm writing my disseration). But your recommendations inspried me to pick it up. Poor Ben, when he's really tired, I sometimes switch from baby books to research articles. As long as I use the same inflection, he doesn't seem to mind!

A friend just sent me "Water for Elephants" but I haven't started it yet. Anyone heard of it?

My husband is also into sports--not a writer, but is a coach. Maybe the guys can go do sports things with the little ones while we have book club!

Angie -
I read and liked "Water For Elephants."
It's set in the 30s (If I'm remembering it right), and that was great for me because I love history.
I think it was set up as the memories of some old guy in a nursing home, and that struck me as kinda goofy, but I'd give it a pretty good grade overall.
And I'd love to meet both of you (and get our husbands together, too) one day soon!

Hey, while we're talking about books - has anyone else here read and loved Knufflebunny? It's a kids' book that we bought for our toddler about two years ago, and it is so cute and funny!
Its author also wrote the "pigeon" books ("Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus" and "Don't Let the Pigeon Stay up Late"), and our tot loves them, as well.
But the sequel (to Knufflebunny) just came out, and we bought it for Christmas. It's not as great as the original, but it's pretty cute.

I love the Pigeon books, but I've never seen Knufflebunny--I'll have to look for it on our next visit to Barnes and Noble.

I am reading "Al Capone Does my Shirts" right now--a great kids book that is a very quick read....though it is managing to take me a week!

Would love to get together some time! We haven't found many social opportunities here yet. I went out to dinner and a movie with some of my husband's female coworkers last night. We saw P.S. I Love You...which we thought was supposed to be a comedy, but was so sad!

I go out so rarely, when I do, I want to laugh, not cry!