When we first moved to Dallas, we made some colorful friends who were actors at Scarborough Renaissance Festival- King Henry and a Contessa, to be exact. During October, the Scarborough Fair grounds become a spooky maze of haunted houses, Scary-oke, expensive food vendors, and a throng of tweens looking to snuggle up to their crush …
Tuesday, 7/11/2023, Nashville Airport 2:08 pm I wasn’t anxious about this until we popped open the back of my sister’s van. It’s not the actual flying that concerns me. The Baby is almost chronically un-anxious, as in, he is not anxious even when he probably should be, like when he tries to drown himself by …
January 23, 2023 Dear Mr. Sedaris, My son, {The Baby}, came screeching into the world via an emergency c-section at 26 weeks- a two-pound potato whose vital organs needed lots of assistance to keep him alive. I met him for the first time four months later, when his birthmother invited me to visit the Neonatal …
I remember talking about atheism and agnosticism in my world religions class in high school. In my little conservative corner of West Texas, we didn’t spend much time talking about the godless heathens, but I remember the description of Clockmaker god, who designed the world, perfectly calibrated all of it’s gears and dials, and then …
Let me preface the beginning of this series with a few things: I’m gonna take weekends off for my “writing every day” goal in November. I can do this because I’m a grown ass woman and I want to. I want to explicitly acknowledge that I have AMAZING parents who did the best with what …
Last August, my little family met my parents in Estes Park. We have done this trip every couple of years since I was a kid. We stay in cabins and hike and explore and breathe in the fresh mountain air. COVID made things a little different, but we were just happy to escape Dallas for …
Well, today the Wise family said hello to a new bed and goodbye to two of The Baby’s teeth. A few months ago, we started the laborious process of getting a SleepSafe bed approved through The Baby’s insurance because his crib had become unsafe. He was able to stand up in it and when he …
The Baby turned five this week. It’s crazy. All of those five years tend to blur together. After all, time flies when you’re drowning in medical chaos (just kidding…kind of). On the night of his birthday, our dinner conversation centered around remembering all of his firsts- the first time he sat up, the first solid …
(You can listen to an audio version of this post here.) I went to David’s Bridal today to purchase a bridesmaid’s dress for a friend’s wedding next summer. She had a dress already picked out in the system so they pulled her profile up and I followed the very nice saleslady to the racks laden …
(I realize this is very lengthy so I have strategically placed pictures of smiling animals throughout the piece so that you can mark your place if you need to take a break and come back to it. At my sister’s suggestion, I’ve also made an audio version of this blog. You can download/stream it by …
I grew up in West Texas- land of wide-open spaces, sky high teen pregnancy rates, and a colorblind racial ideology that masks racism instead of confronting it. In colorblind ideology, it is impolite to talk about someone’s race. I remember hearing a story about a friend who was trying to tell her son which store …
I just got back from San Francisco. I went to (hides face) a Christian conference. I found myself hesitant to tell people that it was a Christian conference because of the connotations of that. My sense is that many Christian conferences are lame attempts at pep rallies for God, the adult version of church camp, …
“What was I thinking?” I thought as I stared forlornly into the mirror. I should have known better than to impulsively stop at the hair salon directly adjacent to the Tom Thumb, still clutching my bag of avocados. I was hoping for a cute haircut before I left on my 10th anniversary weekend trip. Instead, …
I was a mere 21 years old when I got married. My uncle officiated our wedding. Before the wedding, my then-fiancee, now-husband, Alex, and I drove down to Corpus to do some premarital counseling sessions and stay with my aunt and uncle. After one of these sessions, Alex and I got ready to leave and …
I went to a vigil in Balch Springs for Jordan Edwards last week. It was everything you would want a vigil to be- beautiful and sad and moving and comforting. Like most, I was horrified by Trayvon Martin and Tamir Rice’s deaths. I have been deeply affected before by deaths caused by police brutality, but …
Alex and I got the opportunity to go to a fancy restaurant on Saturday evening. We’ve been watching entirely too much Food Network and I felt a hankering to eat somewhere other than, say, B.J.’s Pizza. We went down to Fearings Restaurant, which happens to be inside the Ritz Carlton. Don’t worry, we weren’t pretentious … Continue reading
Do you know what I realized last night? During elementary, middle, and high school, I only had ONE teacher of color. Yep, Señora Batts, middle school Spanish teacher, was a Latina woman. Other than her, I cannot think of a single instructor, band director, principal, coach looked like me. Even at Texas A&M, I can only … Continue reading
I went to a community meeting a few months ago where we went around in a circle to introduce ourselves and, as part of the introductions, we had to identify our preferred gender pronouns. Now, as an evangelical white girl from West Texas, I was obviously an outlier here, but thankfully, I have enough progressive … Continue reading
Two years ago, today, Alex and I drove down to San Antonio to meet our son for the very first time. We ate lunch at a Panera, brushed our teeth in the parking lot of a convenient store, and then sat nervously in a crowd of parents in the cafeteria of The Kid’s 2nd grade … Continue reading
I went to a baby shower this weekend and I took the baby with me. For the record, when I have to go out with the baby, I usually carry him because it’s less annoying that getting the stroller out of the car. That means I carry the baby on the front and the portable … Continue reading
I struggle with fashion. Over the course of my life, I have worn some truly unfortunate articles of clothing. And I’m not just talking about the quasi-cute things that I wore when my 5-year-old self chose her own clothing (saddle shoes, Mickey Mouse sweatshirt, and a vest). I’m not even talking about stirrup pants or … Continue reading
(Sidenote: Not attempting this DIY project will not actually result in death. You will still live, even if you don’t do it) So, I have a Pinterest account, but I mostly just use it to store links. I almost never just peruse it to see what’s out there. Generally, DIY projects tend to stress me … Continue reading
Hey cutie- I think upside down is a good way to describe how you came into our life. What a whirlwind! I have a feeling that you are going to make the rest of our lives very interesting. You are just perfect. You have the sweetest fingers, the cutest ears, the funniest facial expressions. Your … Continue reading
The Kid has these recurring doctor’s visits that require a parent to come up every three weeks and sit with the doctor to discuss treatment plans. I hate them. The doctor is so old that he must have been a contemporary of Moses. He shuffles in, limply shakes your hand, talks to a wall … Continue reading
Pro-Tip: This picture of a happy family, royal or not, cannot be real. Somebody photoshopped that picture. I’ll bet you a million dollars. Our Baby is home. Alleluia. When you have a baby in the NICU who is coming home on oxygen and a monitor and an entire pharmacy of medications, before you leave, you do … Continue reading
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