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 …
1. This little bag of bones. I routinely throw the ball for her and initiate games of “Haunted House”, where I turn all the lights off and then jump out at her (she loves it, I promise). I even continued to love her when she decided to add a little something extra to my I-have-the-house-to-myself … Continue reading
I was a bit of a goody two shoes in high school. I really wanted my teachers to like me and, for the most part, they did (except for that one band instructor who didn’t like the fact that I was a loud participant in the mass exodus from his despotic rule). BUT, sometimes, I … Continue reading
I’ve been trying to document our gradual descent into hippiedom, what with the knitting and the gardening and the natural dyes and the giant beard (Alex’s of course). We took another plunge a few weeks ago when I invited friends over for a vegan dinner and then we made laundry soap together. That’s right. Vegetarians don’t need … Continue reading
It’s been almost one year since we announced our adoption publicly on this blog. That’s been a year full of home studies and letters from doctors and letters from accountants and pictures of our home and letters from psychologists and employment verifications and fundraising and crying and laughing and dreaming and decision-making and waiting and … Continue reading
Whenever I go to get my hair cut, people come from miles to look at the perfect condition of my hair. “Where are all the split ends?”, they cry! “How can it be so impossibly soft?” I just shrug my shoulders and say, “Aw, shucks, guys! Knock it off!” If you would like to know … Continue reading
Dear daughter- I got a package in the mail today from Nanny (my maternal grandmother). I never know if she’ll send me underwear after I blog that mine mysteriously went missing from the dryer at my shady apartment complex or if it’ll be a newspaper clip of some Irish dancing that reminds her of our … Continue reading
Can I be honest? Whenever someone tries to talk to me about Revelation and their interpretation of the seven headed beast, I want to fall asleep or at the very least start scoffing (I’m a very good scoffer). I’m the same way with any conversation about dispensationalism. In fact, I don’t even know what that … Continue reading
Hey sweet girl- Did you know it’s been almost a year since we’ve started this adoption process? A YEAR! That is so long and we have so far to go, but this has been the most important, emotional year of my life- a year filled with inexplicable joy and heartaches. If we’re to believe the … Continue reading
Did you know that Sonic had fundraisers? I guess in the dark recesses of my mind, I’d tucked that fact away somewhere but when a church friend (SHOUT OUT, RITA!) told me she wanted to organize one for us, I was surprised. Tomorrow, we’ll be at a Sonic in Carrollton from 9-6, stuffing food bags … Continue reading
Let me start with this picture: This basically sums up my experiences at the motorcycle bar. This man was wearing a helmet with horns and a mowhawk. He was carrying around something wrapped in a blanket. At one point, between songs, he unwrapped his shofar, which is an animal horn that was used by the Jewish people … Continue reading
welderbeth 