"Mama, there's puppies next door! Daddy, come see!" Maggie and Serrah, heralded their news in stereo. Great. OK, let's go have a look." We were in Bismarck celebrating my younger sister, Carmen, graduating high school, with my family. The neighbor handed puppies over the fence to Maggie, Serrah, Lyle, and I, "They're eight weeks, yellow... Continue Reading →
How You Yike It? Huh!
I turned around, completely taken by surprise. How in the heck? My nine-month-old baby boy was standing directly behind me, a hesitant smile on his lips, and eyes that were pleading with me. I groaned, "How did you get out of your crib?" He had practically beat me out to the kitchen. "That was really... Continue Reading →
Ode to Bubble Gum Medicine and Good Night Juice
Five-year old, Maggie, woke from her nap glossy eyed and red in the cheeks. “Oh, baby, you’re burning up,” I kissed her forehead (the mom thermometer). The alarm went off in my mind. She had come home with a note from preschool letting parents know that there were a few cases of chicken pox among... Continue Reading →
Re-Adjusting the Viewfinder
“Beeeeeep…beep..be..beep,” At first, the sound of the infant heart monitor had woken us with a sense of heightened alarm, but soon it became a sort of reminder, and we woke with a heightened awareness. We went to check on our infant son, knowing that it would probably be a lead that came loose. Thankfully, for... Continue Reading →
Did You Ever Have a Time, When You Couldn’t Make a Rhyme?
“Down by the bay Where the watermelons grow Back to my home I dare not go For if I do My mother will say ‘Did you ever see a moose Kissing a goose?’ Down by the bay” We were reveling in days of Raffi and grilled cheese. Who doesn’t love a good grilled cheese and... Continue Reading →
Keep the Change? NO THANK YOU!
I stared at the contents of a toddler's diaper in disbelief. He had passed a quarter. What on Earth? Throughout the two years that I had an in-home daycare, I both figuratively and literally saw some "weird shit.” The kids that I cared for ranged in age from six months old to four years old.... Continue Reading →
Our child was missing, and the world has never been a bigger place than it was that Sunday morning as we stood in our doorway looking out into it with terror in our hearts. "GO to the neighbors'. Maybe they saw something, or she's there. You know how friendly she is." It was true. At... Continue Reading →
With an E and Two R’s
I can't say, for certain, what I read in the wide hazel eyes of our first-born, Maggie Ann, as she stood just inside the doorway of the hospital room -- curiosity, excitement, fear, a hint of betrayal. It was as if she knew, on some level, that her world had changed. It had. She, alone,... Continue Reading →
I stared at the fluorescent lights on the ceiling in the courtyard of the small strip mall across the street from where we lived. I lay flat on my back, trying to piece together what had just happened and what the slimy stuff all around me could possibly be. I looked around to see if... Continue Reading →
Juggling and Struggling
With our second baby on the way, the mister and I decided that this would be a grrrreat time for me to pursue higher education. There was an abundance of aid available, I was told. I wanted, more than anything to go to the University of Mary and major in English. I knew I wanted... Continue Reading →
Love My Messy Life 