In case I haven’t mentioned it in the last hour, my dog is a medical mystery. About a year into his awkward life, he broke out in full body hives. He has since seen three vets and one animal dermatologist (yes, they exist, and just like human medical specialists, they ask the same questions and charge twice as much). And we still don’t have a concrete answer as to what exactly he is allergic to. But boy do we know …

Read on »

Long story short: we had a May trip to Florida planned months ago. At the last minute, I got creative, turned the whole trip on its head, gave it a good shove and still managed to avoid stepping on an airplane.  
I don’t want to bore/nauseate/confuse you to tears with the details of my itinerary. Mainly because I’m still not exactly sure what they were myself; I just sort of got in my car every five days and hoped it knew …

Read on »

I only agreed because I didn’t think we’d be allowed to proceed. But oh, did that desk clerk at Sandy Bottom Nature Park throw me for a loop with her “sure you can take pets on the boats!” I faked a pleasant reaction and paid the woman.
My husband likes to think that we can read each other’s minds. I mean, I’m pretty dead-on when I do it, but him? Lacking. So, while I was in charge of compiling research and …

Read on »

I can remember wondering throughout most of my life what actually constitutes being “lazy.” For example, is it acceptable to lounge around for two days and watch an entire season of Friday Night Lights in 20 hours while neglecting exercise (my own and my canine’s—why does that sound sexual? OMG I need to run.), anything that could be mistaken as real food and all phone calls IF those two days are Saturday and Sunday? What about, thoroughly hypothetical, on a …

Read on »

Oh, my big, gangly dog. He’s turned into a playful, excitable load of people and dog-friendly fun (unless you ask that one Verizon installation tech who was looking at him in all kinds of the wrong way and whose story we’ll save for a different day). But he’s awfully scary looking. I would certainly keep my distance if I hadn’t seen the way he darts into the house when the wind blows a leaf out of place. He’s tall and …

Read on »

I’m thinking that a couple’s massage has the potential to be either the most awesome or the most awkward experience ever. My knee-jerk reaction is that watching some perky, fresh-faced University of Phoenix massage program grad rub all up on my husband doesn’t exactly facilitate relaxation. Rage, maybe. Then again, if I could spend 60 minutes staring at my pretty husband while a hunky, exotic import rubs all up on me, um…yes, please. None of this matters, of course. We …

Read on »

I fear that you have misunderstood. Or that I’ve been misleading.
My life, here in Newport News, Virginia, is incredible. I speak of sadness and missing and what-am-I-doing-here moments,
but
I am healthy.
Whether nature or nurture, it is not in my composition to adjust to being far away from
Brenda or Ken or Tony
or Grace
or aunt-uncle-cousins families.
So, constant undercurrents of emotion
surge and wane
at unpredictable and strange times.
While every day is not spotless from tears,
my everyday is filled with
laughing with my husband
and playing with my …

Read on »

While I fine tune my resoluting, please enjoy some pictures of our journey through twenty-ten. (Click on the post title to see the pictures. WordPress is being funny.)

#gallery-2 {
margin: auto;
}
#gallery-2 .gallery-item {
float: left;
margin-top: 10px;
text-align: center;
width: 50%;
}
#gallery-2 img {
border: 2px solid #cfcfcf;
}
#gallery-2 .gallery-caption {
margin-left: 0;
}

Heading down the road in a U-Haul towards the craziest thing we’ve done. Besides skydiving.

It snowed in February. Again and again and again. It was an undeniable statement that we were not in the Sunshine State any …

Read on »

I was worried to write a list of “thankful fors” because it would be too expected. But if one day I woke up in a world where too many people were saying what they were thankful for too many times, I think I’d be okay with that. So…
for a God that loves me when I fail every day,
for a husband that can roll his eyes or kiss my forehead or follow up my movie quote with the next line or …

Read on »

I want an honorary Ph.D. in Retail Argumentation. The unfounded but so meticulously organized reasoning that I present to my husband when I want a new pair of whatever is, basically, brilliant. Can I tell you how I talked my way into a new pea coat last weekend? Here’s the argument, more or less:
“Well, I know I bought that coat last year, but it’s teal, and that doesn’t go with everything. Also, it’s short, so I wear it when it’s …

Read on »