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 …
Hey kiddo- It’s been a while- not because we don’t think about you every day but because it’s only been four months and I’ve already pulled all my hair out from waiting. You see, adoption is kind of weird. I don’t have the morning sickness or the baby kicks to remind me that you’re coming. … Continue reading
Just to refresh your memory, I’m training for this half-marathon using an mp3 training program that is based on time. It’s made for you to run 3 days a week- the first day you run six minutes and then walk 3 minutes (and you do that multiple times), the second day you do a __ … Continue reading
On my run this morning, I was thinking that I wouldn’t have much to write about because this week’s runs were boring, uneventful, as runs should be. Well, ask and the sidewalks shall be uneven for thee. I prefer a Slow-Mo Superman fall, where my limbs are all splayed out like a cat who is … Continue reading
Before you go all nuts and think that we decided to adopt from Korea instead of Thailand and our son has already come over, just know that you’re crazy. If you think that international adoption would move that quickly, then you’re crazy. No, no, we volunteered to temporarily house a Korean student who is attending UTD. … Continue reading
I went running on Saturday with my friend, Ashley, who is the friend who said that she ran so slow that she was running 12-minute miles and I laughed outloud. She’s been running with another half-marathoner friend who was out of town this weekend so I got to play substitute. We went to the Katy trail, which … Continue reading
If I ever become a movie director, you’ll know it because of two things: 1) I will begin work on a red carpet dress that is made out of bath towels. To my knowledge, it hasn’t been done before and my years of Project Runway watching and curtain-sewing experience have proven that it is a … Continue reading
Imma be honest with you. I don’t know what week number we’re on. We haven’t been running en schedule like we should be because we’re worried that our tennis shoes will melt to the asphalt AND our schedule has been so busy that, at this point, I would welcome the end of the world because I … Continue reading
Today marks my fifth wedding anniversary. Five years! Aren’t we supposed to receive porcelain or beanie babies or something weird for our fifth? You guys have until the end of the day to celebrate us properly. I had to describe how we met to the home study worker and I had trouble doing it without sounding … Continue reading
I might have mentioned once or twice that I have an ESL voice (see the 7:30-8:15 time slot here). When I am speaking in my ESL voice, I over-enunciate, speak loudly, don’t use contractions, repeat things, ask questions to things that I just said, and my eyes get huge. I might have also mentioned that … Continue reading
Alex and I took a week off from running to train for the Tour de Gap. Haven’t heard of it? Haven’t heard of the bike race in Buffalo Gap, Texas which is a city that has approximately 432 people? Okay, weirdo. It’s a bike race benefitting a local food bank and you can choose from … Continue reading
welderbeth 