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 …
Dear International Students- A few of you have admitted to me in the past few weeks that you’re feeling homesick, a little sad, worried about your grades and missing your families. I hope to encourage you today. I’m impressed by you. You’ve come to a country that’s half-a-world away to a culture that is completely … Continue reading
I may have mentioned before that field trips at my job are a little, how do you say, insane. Generally, we’ve got a group of about 70 adults (sometimes with kids) that we need to get on a train, off a train, and to the right location. It’s a bit like herding cats, except that … Continue reading
Does this picture make you want one of our adoption fundraiser t-shirts? Good news! You can buy one! (More info here) Continue reading
Because I am a a psycho who likes to stress herself out, we hosted a conspiracy dinner a mere week after we moved into our new house. Before the move, I was clipping letters out of magazines to glue onto the invitations whilst I sat among boxes begging to be packed. (Also, the invitations stated … Continue reading
I run my car into something at least once every two years. I’ve already succeeded this year by running into the garage at work. Alex, on the other hand, has never been in a wreck, which I find amazing and annoying at the same time. Around the time we got married, Alex’s dad traded with … Continue reading
I really wanted to wear a costume to work today but no one else was dressing up, so I compromised by wearing this cool African dress (that came from NOWHERE that I can remember). I planned on having one of our sweet little African ladies help me with the head dress. When I walked into … Continue reading
Hi there. Beth here. I’m currently sitting in my kitchen. My eyes are bloodshot, my knees are locking up when I walk, and the bottom of my feet are on fire. I ran a half-marathon today. I moved my body 13.1 miles, and lived to tell the tale. Here it is. The day before the … Continue reading
Hi little one, Whew. This week has been rough, emotionally. The afterglow of the adoption announcement has worn off and now reality has set in (more like reality came and sucker-punched me in the kidney). The reality is that we’ve been at this for six months and we still don’t have a timeline. It could be years. … Continue reading
We just returned from a trip to Nashville where we visited my sister Leah, AKA the Leggy, Bronze Goddess, and her husband Tyler, the Abercrombie model. I’ve always been the more Quasimodo-esque sibling and this time was no different. In case you think I’m joking, please compare these two pictures from this weekend: One looks … Continue reading
Last, year, around my birthday, I picked up one of these: It’s a “One Line a Day” journal. You write one line a day everyday for five years so you can see how you’ve changed or what you were doing specifically. (Also, last year, I wrote this blog.)I usually write in it at night so … Continue reading
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