About Us

Hi, we're married 30-somethings with 2 kids. I'm an attorney and my husband is a published writer and as of August 2018, an assistant professor at a university.  His short story collection, We Were Flying to Chicago came out in May 2014.

On the blog, I write updates on what's going on in our lives for our friends and family, and he writes humor posts called "Things My Wife Complains About." The latter is everyone's favorite, but I'm going to keep assuming that some of you are a little interested in our actual lives (which is all about you). The name of the blog, "clou de la soirée," is a play on our last name, and means "life of the party" in French.

We met in Charlottesville near the end of the summer of 2006. We got engaged in 2007, moved to New York in 2008, and got married (and started this blog) in the summer of 2009. I've also written some retroactive posts about the time before 2009 using pictures and old emails.

Seventh date, Jefferson Vineyards, Charlottesville, VA, August 2006

Kevin proposes, NY Public Library steps, NYC, November 2007

Ericka's Graduation from Law School, Charlottesville, VA, May 2008

Our Wedding, Cape Cod, June 2009

One-year Wedding Anniversary, Brooklyn, June 2010

Though I imagined that the less pleasant details of life would be left off the blog, when things took a sad turn it seemed insincere to leave off what we were going through. At the same time that I got pregnant in July of 2010, my dad was diagnosed with stage 4 renal cell cancer. We lost him in just four months, in the middle of my pregnancy.

In April 2011, we had our beautiful baby boy, who I named after my father, James, and my maternal grandparents who took care of me from about the ages of  3-6, and my mother, the Riverons.

Our son James is born!, Long Island, April 2011

James's First Birthday, Floral Park, April 2012

Ta-da! NY, June 2013

In August of 2013, my mother got diagnosed with the same renal cell cancer. She had surgery and for a short while she was "cured."

We had our second child Miranda in April of 2014. And Kevin's debut story collection came out only a few weeks later in May! Between the baby and the book tour, it's was a crazy summer.

Our daughter Miranda is born!, Long Island, April 2014

In February of 2015, my mother's renal cell cancer came back. She is a fighter.

In July of 2015, we bought our first house in Suffolk County in Long Island. My mother moved in with us in September of 2017 and passed away that October.

August after our move, Port Jefferson NY, August 2015

In front of our house, Miller Place, NY, January 2016


Last Mother's Day with Mom, Clifton, NJ, 2017