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 …
So, planning a wedding is all about flowers and dresses and cake and invitations and…birth control. Yikes. I was a sensitive person before bc entered my life (read: crying during The Notebook or An Adoption Story) but after I began those horrid little pills, I became a hyper-emotional person (read: crying because I don’t have milk). They took … Continue reading
For my voracious reader friends… The Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld- Probably one of my favorite series about a futuristic world where everyone gets a surgery to make them “pretty” when they turn 16. The books follows a pair of friends that resist the surgery. The Help by Kathryn Stockett- Excellent book written from … Continue reading
I finally found the perfect picture of our marriage from our wedding. Isn’t it beautiful? The marriage passage in Ephesians 5 has always been a problem for me. I grew up hating it because it really makes the wife out to sound like an emotionless slave who does her husband’s bidding at all costs and basically … Continue reading
I don’t speak about it often because it was so traumatic, but registering for classes as a freshman at A&M was a horrendous experience for me. I expected some happy, bright eyed woman to come and hold me by the shoulders and say, “Welcome, Beth. Let me tell you everything you need to know about … Continue reading
Alex’s six year old cousin and I had a funny conversation tonight. She’s quite the character. Hannah: Jordi (Hannah’s sister) is a fudgehead. Me: Hmmm. Hannah, I don’t know if Jesus would call people fudgeheads. What do you think? Hannah: (pause) Well, I don’t know. Have you read all the chapters yet? Continue reading
I never thought I would be a coupon clipper. There’s something about someone who will argue with a cashier about a mere 25 cents that just rubbed me the wrong way. BUT, I was knocking it (coupon clipping, not cashier arguing) before I tried it and you can feel free to brand me a penny pincher (when … Continue reading
Just in case you missed the reference, please listen to this annoying, but undeniably adorable, song from my favorite childhood movie….. I was kind of a Debbie Downer today. Why, you ask? Well, I didn’t feel like I was getting the recognition I deserve at work. I mean, I do all this stuff that they … Continue reading
(Or “Why the church needs some social skills”) Mid-way through my junior year in high school, I quit band because the directors were no fun. Because good ole’ Cooper High had double blocked scheduling, that means I had to find two semester long classes to fill in the gaps in my schedule. So, I looked … Continue reading
Is it a little much if I share with you that I am reteaching myself Calculus from a textbook? Let’s face it. Limits and derivitives are the cognitive equivalents of running a marathon (which I can’t physically do). Perhaps I will never escape the legacy of my nerdy maiden name… Perhaps I am okay with … Continue reading
Yes, good question. How would Jesus drive? If He wouldn’t mutter names under his breath or slap his steering wheel or yell “Buttface” at people, then it’s not like me. Since Jesus didn’t really have a car, the only example we have of Him riding anything was a donkey with everyone admiring Him from the … Continue reading
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