Category: Remember when…

  • As a baby, my daughter was all eyes … huge sapphires that filled her face. They acted as magnets, drawing perfect strangers to her… especially men, it seemed. It made me uncomfortable, as you can imagine. She must have sensed my unease, because she's been on guard around strangers ever since. Especially men. And as…

  • It started with a 7th grade slumber party and a crush on an older brother. It led to hours and hours on the phone, a few letters, a shy face-to-face encounter and "Mitch" scratched into the top of a beautiful wooden box decorated with ornate inlaid wood given to me by my grandmother. I don't…

  • My dad's cousin left for China this morning. This is her 17th visit, most of them mission trips. On this one, she'll be part of a team teaching English. The Big Trip of my summer will be up north to Wisconsin to visit some of Tom's family. Our last visit was for his cousin's wedding…

  • Ever since we traveled down to Huatabampo, Mexico for his little brother's wedding in 1998, Tom has been raving about the Mexican Hot Dogs sold by street vendors there. He described them to me, but I wasn't impressed or tempted to try one myself – avocado, tomato and lettuce on a hot dog? Oh, heck…

  • I almost went to the Fourth of July parade this morning. If all the kids weren't home, or if at least one of them had been interested in going with me, I would have been sitting there on my usual curb when the heavens opened up and poured (not just rained) at 10am. For once,…

  • I've been snapping pictures like crazy since about the time I learned to write in cursive, with any camera I could get my hands on, from instamatics and a hand-me-down black and white Scout camera, courtesy of one of my siblings, to an Olympus 35mm Tom bought me – and that was subsequently stolen from…

  • I started a gratitude journal this week… an idea I stole from my friend Nancy. I've kept one before, making lists of the things I'm grateful for each day, but I get too busy or too distracted and the next thing you know it's been months since I've taken the time to write them down.…

  •           …All of my life, you've been right here, holding my hand… loose when I needed loose, tight when I needed  tight… but never letting go. I disappointed you at times over the years (Oh, yes I did and you know it!) but you never stopped believing in me, never stopped wanting…

  • I rolled into Galveston after dark. It was the final section of the I-45 Time Tunnel I'd been traveling for almost an hour, seeing each of the sites clearly despite nightfall. Perhaps better, because the darkness blocked reality, allowing me to see each place as I remembered it… …there was Almeda Mall and its movie…