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 …
I’ve only been to a bar once. It was in College Station and some friends were in town and everyone wanted to visit Northgate, the local bar scene. I presented a weak protest that I had nothing to wear- all of my brightly colored shirts and cardigans neatly fit into my “dress like a Skittle” … Continue reading
When I bought my scooter, I had visions of me sidling up at a motorcycle bar, taking my helmet off, shaking my hair out, and being immediately accepted into the world of Harleys and Hondas. Guys named Hambone and Doctor Dare would slap my back and order me a…strawberry lemonade (I don’t drink). Okay, I … Continue reading
My dad came into town yesterday. We went to lunch, took him to the new park downtown, and of course, we had to do the traditional Feemster afternoon nap. When we asked if he wanted to see a movie, he immediately said that he wanted to see “Les Miserables”. When I cringed, he did something … Continue reading
Decide you want a garden in your backyard. Wait approximately 47 weeks, until your dad sends you a text message telling you that you need to do it now or not at all. Wait two more weeks. Choose a Saturday when you and your husband aren’t cooking dinner for 2 million people. On that Saturday, … Continue reading
I worked at a homeless shelter my freshman year in college. Every week, I would make the trek from my dorm room to my car, which was like traveling from Dallas to Russia on foot, drive 20 minutes to downtown Bryan, and spend a few hours with some of the clients of Twin City Mission. … Continue reading
You guys, if you knew me before I became a vegetarian last year, you probably would have never believed that I would eat something that contained both red lentils and cauliflower. In fact, I probably would have thrown up ON YOUR FACE if you had even suggested it. But I eat this stuff like it’s … Continue reading
You might not know it (based on the fact that my current playlists have a very high Justin Bieber to non-Bieber ratio) but I was pretty involved in the local music scene in Abilene when I was in high school. Yep, that’s right. I was lead roadie for the ska band “SkaSkank Redemption”, with my … Continue reading
Hi sweetheart- Happy Valentine’s Day! Dad and I are thinking about you. I’m collecting links of cute valentine’s ideas for when it’s time to make some for your classmates. No boxed cartoon character Valentine’s for us! Someone gave us a bed for you this weekend. We haven’t had time to move furniture around, so it’s … Continue reading
As is the case with most weird things, when I first heard about Neti-Pots, I freaked out and laugh-cried and then went out and bought one. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Neti Pots, it’s a plastic tea kettle that you fill with a warm saline solution that you pour into your sinuses. … Continue reading
Okay. Maybe not bi-weekly but, you get the drift. Was there some sort of fancy football game yesterday? Is it wrong that I know the Ravens won but I don’t know the name of the other team? Anyway, I’m a bad Aggie, bad West-Texan, and probably bad American because I’m totally not in to football. … Continue reading
welderbeth 