I sat five-year old Emily on the hood of the car to tie her shoe, certain that my other three blonde heads and one brunette had exited the vehicle. As the car began to move, my eyes flew to the steering wheel to see the giant round blue eyes of my four year old, Ben... Continue Reading →
Madeline Louise
"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 →
The Cop With the Cookies
During the two years since my husband Lyle and I had moved our family to Fargo from Bismarck, we had found the most curious guardian angel in a female police officer. I had known Officer Cora Duin since I was a little girl. She is a remarkable woman, a dynamo, the very first uniformed female police officer... Continue Reading →
Tis’ the Season…
“Abracadabra! Make Grandma and Grandpa disappear!” was the final desperate attempt of two persistent little girls in the back seat to get their way. At ages four and three, Maggie and Serrah had given it their all. They had come up with reason after reason why Grandpa should turn the car toward our home in... Continue Reading →
No, I Can Not Be A Halloween Cat!
“O.K., now, arch that back like a Halloween cat,” he repeated as if I hadn’t heard him the first time. “I AM,” this seemed hopeless. I tucked my chin to my chest, and willed my spine to pop out for the anesthesiologist attempting to insert a spinal block. “My belly is huge. There really isn’t... Continue Reading →
It Was a Really Scrawny Tree!
What could possibly be so hideously wrong with the image on the screen as to make the ultrasound tech purposely turn the screen away from our view? He looked so serious. What the heck could be wrong with our baby? Oh, jeez. Our baby is hideously deformed! Why is he so nervous? “Why did you... Continue Reading →
Snapshot
There truly are moments in time that stand still and stay preserved as snapshots in our minds. I sat in the recliner nursing my infant twins simultaneously in "football hold", just as I had learned it from the books I had read in preparation for mothering these babies. A playpen full of clean clothes sat... Continue Reading →
Love My Messy Life 