Welcome to the family, Shelby. With the massive task of attempting to frame such a meaningful engagement weekend, I'm simply sharing Corbin's letter to Hud's new fiance'. This seems to capture it. And the letter's ending, my favorite part of gifting the perfume ~ all...
"Good morning from Denver, fam" - me "Y’all really are taking advantage of this whole empty nester thing" - Basden Um, yes. It's been a special couple of weeks. A few months ago, our friends Todd and Jessica asked if I wanted to join them on a week-long trip to...
If you have some time walking or driving, or doing laundry like my friend Kathryn, take a listen to this Episode 1, Season 4 of Nowhere Close to Famous. The evening spent recording with Josh Storie and Brooke Seale was a real treat for me. They are genuinely funny -...
Months ago when our SCS Homecoming date was released, we cleared all the kids' calendars and bought plane tickets to get them home. After 17 years in the stands cheering on her older siblings, the big kids showed up to support Essie in her senior Hoco pep rally and...
For all the mommas sending their kiddos to college (or any grown-up adventure), give a listen to Episode #3 Ready to Fly - The Emotional Rollercoaster as you have a few minutes between dorm room shopping and college orientations. Thank you, Stephanie, for having me...
Feeling extra proud to live in this city. Extra proud and extra grateful. Corbin and I got to spend ALL of Saturday at the zoo. And with this fabulous weather, there was no better place to be. Never mind that all of DFW also decided to spend the gorgeous April day...
“She’s going to come home more beautiful.” Corbin and I agreed on this, and that her friends would as well. Essie is home from South Africa. The twelve days to me felt like a month. I was not scared for her safety, wasn’t even nervous about her being so far. I was...
A whole week in Costa Rica with Corbin and the girls. Took us a few days to truly relax and get our bearings. Loved getting to eat nearly every meal together Driver pulled off the road to show us howler monkeys so many meals together ~ just wonderful A day in Las...
June 2017 Last summer God presented me with the most amazing, unexpected surprise of getting to go as a LEADER to Young Life\'s Frontier Ranch. It was a marker experience, and I don\'t want to miss getting some of the details down. Just last night I was touched...
Franklin.Waco. San Antonio.Houston.San Antonio.Waco. Springfield. Atlanta. Franklin. ... and this week, Lubbock!I haven\'t actually counted, but pretty sure I\'ve spent more nights in hotels this summer than in my own bed. Fortunately, it\'s hard to find places I...
- On the road again... Georgia or bust - This made me a little nervous. Games all over the metroplex (I don\'t think they call it that), including one in PeachTree City that didn\'t even fit on the map. But - we did it!! Mom\'s trusty pen and paper map - very...
WE MADE IT!!!This post... indulgent?Yes.Too many pics?Probably.Worth it??Absolutely. At least for me and these friends of mine.Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I\'m saving the words... a special thank you to anyone who takes the time to scroll through this...
In an effort to finish what I started, here\'s part II of our BU 20th reunion ~ from last year. Much more current stuff going on, and I recognize that about four people are going to be interesting in this specific account of our reunion last year, but it\'s worth it...
We do this every year. Every spring our group of Baylor friends gathers at someone\'s home or ranch or even a hotel just to enjoy the goodness of being together. I had high expectations of Baylor as a freshman in the fall of 1991, but I had absolutely no idea that I...
After celebrating with James side of the family, we loaded up the car and happily headed north for Angel Fire to see the Wilson crew. Who doesn\'t love Christmas in the mountains? The snow, the scenery, the slower pace and the crisp air ~ Papa\'s \"happy place\" is a...
Oh my WORD - what an amazing Christmas!And never mind that I\'m more than two months late on posting this... still something I want memorialized in the blog archives. I always feel like it\'s Christmas when my brothers bring their families home to Texas, and this...
I was a little worried Bran might have talked KIVU up too much for Hudson over the past year. But even with the week at camp flying by for them, and even with several favorite activities rained out, I’m realizing that it’s just not possible to over-build...
Essie looked up at me, her big brown eyes bloodshot and face pale, "Mommy, you know I\'m not faking feeling bad, right? " "Oh Essie, I can tell, sweetie. You look miserable. Let's get some food and water in you." This took place last Thursday afternoon in our hotel...
The road to Sectionals, that is, including both our boys' teams. If you're looking for a place for your boy to play baseball, it doesn't get better than Fort Worth's University Little League. And I would say that even if we didn't win District in ALL FIVE age groups...
Mama and Daboo took Basden and Nettie May on a "10-year-old Adventure" to New York, and I got to tag along. It was a fantastic handful of days ~ a few highlights we want to remember: - Flying in felt like we were traveling to a foreign country - Daboo's extensive...
We took a rebellious family vacation last weekend. Rebellious in that we struggled against the tyranny of school, baseball, field trips, Stanford testing, etc. to take a couple of days at the beach for our family. In the aftermath of a full April and May, and then...
"Because when Clyde died, there wasn't much of me left." Written by Dar, my sweet friend Jessica's grandmother, in the letter I received just two weeks ago. I thought of Dar's love and appreciation for her late husband, her connection to him, and how lonely she must...
I spent a few hours (yes - hours) last week trying to put our Spring Break trip into words, but Corbin summed it up nicely in this email to my brother - Trey - Don’t know if you had talked to your mom/dad about our trip, but we planned a Spring Break cruise out of New...
"You will never believe my afternoon," I told Corbin one evening a couple of weeks ago. He raised an eyebrow and continued making lunches as I cleaned the dinner dishes and ushered kids upstairs for bed. It had been a looonnnng day, and even with the bizarre proposal...
Our friends Steve and Lisa asked us last Spring if we’d consider attending a Focus on the Family Couples Retreat in Colorado Springs. Knowing that it would 1) take place in the fall, during both boys’ football seasons, and 2) be fairly expensive for just a...
I was practically giddy on the drive to Durango last month.I’d been telling Branson all summer that he had no idea what an incredible week lay ahead of him at KIVU.Mom, Corbin and I drove the gorgeous route from Angel Fire to Durango, and the four hours each way kept...
Snowy white powder under our skis, none of us could keep up with Esther today on the slopes. Seriously. Now, that's not counting the boys, as they were on their own snowboarding. But Basden, Nettie May and I could barely keep up with little Essie, who plowed straight...
"Well, I've never seen those boys pray like that before a game." Huh? I was rounding the outfield fence, headed back to my folding chair under the trees, when a fellow team parent uttered those words through a sideways grin. I glanced over towards our dugout...
I’ve just returned from one of my favorite times of the year - our annual reunion with my college girlfriends. It’s debatable which year this marks, 18th or 19th, as our first trips to Cammi’s parents’ lake house started even before graduating from Baylor. Regardless,...
I knew it would be a special weekend. I’d been looking forward to our time in a part of the country I’d never been, one that is important to me because of a few really great people who live there. But even so, our time in Montana and Idaho has been even sweeter than I...
Today after church Corbin asked me how I was feeling about our YOUNGEST starting kindergarten tomorrow. For eleven+ years now we've had babies at home, so tomorrow is the start of a whole new season. I responded that I was a little sad that we'd been so busy lately, I...
If we stood out traipsing through DFW pulling primary colored suitcases, you shoulda seen us making our way through the San Juan airport. It was after dark when we landed, and walking out of the rotating doors onto the busting sidewalk, a blanket of wet air lightly...
You just never know what to expect with her. She loves my kids, and she loves surprises. And she continues to surprise me. Last night after dinner, Aunt Julie kidnapped Hudson and headed to the store, "to get dessert." They returned home twenty minutes later with tubs...
"Mom, I had a moment." "Huh?" "Tonight. A moment. You should have seen it. I was called on stage to do the rap, and it was AWESOME..." Bran continued another five or so minutes, recounting in detail the thrill of performing in front of several hundred 6th-9th graders...
How can I not post pictures from Essie's first game? I tried to put her hair in french braids with two enormous ribbons, she wouldn't have any of it. "Just a ponytail, Mom. And NO ribbon." Basden carrying her little sister's bag Coach Wolfe says "RUN!!!" Daboo looking...
We met them at Spinks airport as they flew in last Sunday, at least we tried to. We saw Steve's plane fly right over us on 1187, but somehow by the time the kids and I turned into the small airport, the guys were already in the car and headed to Sonic. So instead of...
I'm so excited right now I can hardly stand it. Just giddy. I surprised Corbin with a 40th birthday trip, and he really, truly has no idea what he's in for. A long weekend at his parents' lodge with a few good men. Hudson and Corbin laughing at Steve's kidnapping...
I wish I would have just laughed. Given the chance to rewind the minutes and return to that moment in my car last Monday evening, I would have garnered all my self control and simply laughed when the black snake slithered out of the folded paper bag and onto...
A gift. Amazing. Still can't believe it all came together. The details weaved in and out through three months of summer "reply all" emails, and several weekends ago my college roommates and our families spent Labor day weekend at a hill country ranch in west Austin....
Bran's texts beeped me awake last Tuesday morning at about 6:30 am, shorthand phrases to let me know Cappy was watching the weather, and that they were excited to head out to OshKosh in Cappy's two-seater VariEZE. His last text, "I lv u mom, c u ltr" was read and...
Happy summer, now that we're into July! Our school year pace was fairly relaxed, but we're enjoying this summer pace even more. Last week we traded the Texas heat for New Mexico breezes and are enjoying some time in the mountains. But before we turn yet another...
There's nothing like being with your friends who knew you when... - knew you when you never could make that 8 am class on time - knew you in your first home away from home - sharing in the reality that no parents lived in this apartment - knew you when you struggled...
The headlights from behind flashed in a bright, frenzied pattern. Checking the rear-view mirror, I saw Courtney’s car pull to the side of the road, her brights still flashing off and on. I pulled onto the shoulder of the desolate two-lane highway, darkness cloaking...
The snow flurries grew larger and larger until the flakes covered our yard. The drizzling rain-turned-snow made me want to pull the curtains closed, light a roaring fire, and settle in for a quiet evening. Instead, I glanced at my watch and calculated what needed to...
Greetings from Walt Disney World! We've finished day four of this whirlwind, wondrous vacation and are excited to have several more days ahead. True to my expectations, Disney World has proved to be a magical experience. Other than a brief trip to Disney Land as a...
We\'re in week six of school, and I\'m thankful to be here and not at week one. I feel like we're past the nervous anticipation of unfamiliar schedules and routines, and are slowly jelling with this new pattern of what learning looks like in our home. Without...
That's how I feel about this year and teaching our kids at home - "a new adventure." A one-day-at-a-time, stay-in-the-moment kind of adventure. The past couple of weeks have felt both natural and alien, easy and difficult, and comfortable and exhausting. The good news...
Well, first of all, we're at Rosemary beach this week. Near Destin, just down 30A along the Emerald Coast, past Watercolor and Seaside, Rosemary Beach is just captivating. I've never been to this little gem of a community before, but I'm totally enchanted and already...
I spent last weekend near Colorado Springs with eight of my favorite people - our 14th annual girls reunion since graduating from Baylor. Oh, how the years go by! Like every other year, we ate, talked, laughed and cried through the few precious days. With glorious...
"If you get out on these roads today, know that you're taking your life in your own hands." This morning's warning from Alan, that snow plowing brother-in-law of ours. Turns out I was somewhat prophetical in returning my ski gear yesterday. While Alan was up early to...