My sister got married the weekend before last and, while reading his vows, her husband began sobbing. I, along with the majority of the crowd, found this incredibly endearing. It reminded me that, several years ago, at my friend Amanda's wedding, her husband, Wayne, also got very choked up during the ceremony. At my wedding, nine years ago, ( Read more... )

1. Try to control sex education at the state level. Insist on abstinence-only curricula. Ban any discussion of birth control pills or condoms. Stress to children that ANY marriage sexual activity outside of heterosexual marriage is an abomination before God. End up with a population of teenagers too ashamed and afraid to go to the adults in ( Read more... )

I was just re-reading my journal entries from the last year, and I think I should note that Samantha is finally hitting her bedtime groove. She is old enough to communicate her desires now. I can hold out my arms and say: "Ready to take your bath and go night-night?" and she will either respond, "Yeah," and run to me or completely ignore me and ( Read more... )

It is a bad idea to compare tragedies; I know this. What is a catastrophe for one person may have no resonance at all for someone else. There is nothing to be gained from an attempt to grade and measure our sorrows in this manner. But when the veterinarian sighed and said: "It's a mast cell tumor," I started weighing woes. My best friend Jenn's ( Read more... )

Samantha will be one year old in less than a week. Her party is this Sunday, and I can hardly believe we have come this far. As I contemplate what an amazing year it has been, I'll throw out some highs and lows for the day ( Read more... )

SMILES ( Read more... )

A flurry of text messages were scurrying back and forth yesterday surrounding the questions of whether or not today was a casual day at work. While those involved debated whether our casual days were the 14th and the 21st or whether those were NEXT month's casual days, I was wondering: "When the hell were we even TOLD about casual days?" My guess ( Read more... )

10. Laundry - I notice the basket is overflowing when I run out of nursing bras. Many of our clothes have mildew spots because they sit in the washer for days before I realize I never threw them in the dryer ( Read more... )

I think I may be suffering from post-partum depression. A little late in the game, maybe, but breastfeeding is protective. Now that I am back to work and Sam is nursing less, I am starting to feel slightly crazy. Yesterday while cleaning the house I began to think: "I could just burn the house down. Then, people would feel really sorry for me ( Read more... )

Jason and I have been talking for weeks about who we want to have custody of Samantha in the unlikely event that neither of us is around to take care of her. The deliberation is agonizing. While some people can be easily eliminated, there is a small pool of contenders that is extremely difficult to wade through. You realize very quickly that NO ( Read more... )