Hi there. Beth here.

Welcome to my little corner of the interwebs. I’ve been blogging since high school so I’m an old hand at it. It’s become a sort of coping mechanism- a way for me to process life and figure out my thoughts. I love telling stories and I love having things to tell stories about.  My husband, Alex, and I announced in May of 2012 that we are adopting from Thailand. We slogged through that process for a while, but things went south and we decided to pull our app. We then started the process of adopting out of the foster care system. We met our 9-year-old son in May of 2014. It’s been a wild ride!

I blog about my  life. Sometimes, it’s faith. Sometimes, it’s funny stories. Sometimes, it’s social justice. Sometimes, I share a vegetarian recipe.

Where did the name ‘welderbeth’ come from? Well, that’s a good question. In my first defiant act of rebellion, I shunned my previous role of band nerd and quit band halfway through the year. Because my band class was double-blocked (met every day), I had to find two semester long classes to fill the gaping holes in my schedule. I was down to a make-up class or something from the agriculture department. Guess which one I chose?

Yep, landscaping and welding it was. I had the same teacher for both classes. Every morning, Mr. Berry would read an inspirational  Dr. Phil quote and we would record it in our quote  journals. It was part of our grade. These were  some of my most fun classes because they took me completely out of my honors-class, nerdy-nerd comfort zone.  Here are just of a few of the things that happened:

1) There was a quite large boy in the landscaping class who would push me around the room with his stomach asking if I had any cookies.

2) Our teacher took a yellow school bus off-roading on a field trip to a nursery.

3) One kid put another kid’s hand in a vice while they talked about it (and I watched).

4) My AP European History teacher came in to talk about his class and one of my classmates said, “AP You’re a Penis? What?” (I secretly face-palmed and slunk further down in my seat.)

5) One guy with a pony tail fell in love with me and would creepily escort me to the bathroom every morning, even though I told him that I didn’t need a bodyguard.

6) Someone brought in baby chickens and they got loose in the teacher’s office so we had to scramble around picking them up.

7) Long story, short. I joined the milk judging team because I was scared to weld  (think: Napolean Dynamite “This cow got into an onion patch” kind of milk judging team). Patsy, the team captain, was also in the welding class and we would make trips during class to Albertson’s to pick up different kinds of cheeses. I went to one practice, discovered what really happened on the milk judging team, and then developed “mild lactose intolerance” and quit the team. It was one of my most terrifying moments because Patsy literally could have snapped my body in two like a twig. I guess it was all that milk…

Anyway, that’s the beginning of welderbeth. Welcome!

JC Penney never knew what hit ’em