I can't remember when I first started writing on OS, I think it was about 2009 or so and one of my first blogs got thousands of hits. It was written out of frustration in dealing with ultra-conservative, judgemental family and was, if I remember correctly, something… Read full post »

I picked my 7th grader up from school today and she said, "Here's a letter about a two week abstinence class that all 7th graders will take unless you don't want me to. By the looks of the 8th graders on Valentine's Day, I don't think it is working."

As… Read full post »

“Hey, my friend Steve has tickets to Flogging Molly next weekend! Did you know that Matt Hensley plays in the band? He’s a skater for Black Label”. My forty-five year old skater husband told me.

“That would be fun!” I told him as I had countless other times since we&rsq… Read full post »

A few days ago, my daughter said, “Mom, a kid in my class stood up and yelled, ‘I hate liberals!’ My teacher told him to stop being so disruptive. Are we considered liberal?”

Born and raised in Texas and having lived here most of my life, I am never surprised… Read full post »

The city of my birth has made the news once again, not for a Pulitzer Prize winner, but for comments made by a county judge that sounded more like an SNL parody than that of a local official. In fact, his comments were selected by Alex Halperin as the "Quote of the Day" over… Read full post »

Dear Target,

My daughter has been begging me for a Ouija board for a couple of weeks now. I remember being kind of fascinated by them when I was around her age too. However, shortly after I attended a friend's slumber party where we played "Light as a Feather" with a girl… Read full post »

Yesterday, the kids and I walked down to the river after a strong mountain rain. The sweet scent of pine was hanging in the air.

“What are you doing with that stick?” I asked my six-year-old.

“I’m gonna spear a fish!”

My twelve-year-old picked wildflowers nearby.… Read full post »

I visited a house recently that my husband is working on. It's more of a mansion than a "mcmansion", a style I became all too familiar with having previously been in real estate. I'm impressed by the sheer size of the place, but wonder about the cost of utilities and upkeep.

 … Read full post »

 My husband and I are in our forties now. How did that happen? I wondered as I rode my new, pastel pink bike through our suburban Texas neighborhood. It was a recent anniversary gift and one I can't get enough of.

Some people smiled and waved as I ped… Read full post »

"Tie my shoe!" my older sister would yell pointing down to her high-top sneakers. Like clockwork, my friends would kneel down and tie her shoe like it was what they were born to do.

Other times, my sister would push things a little further. She would insist a friend try some "great… Read full post »

It has occurred to me, now that I'm forty, give or take a year or two, that I may be able to give some advice to the younger generation on how not to live their life. Looking back, I've had some good experience on things not to do when:

1.… Read full post »

I haven't paid much attention to Rush Limbaugh in the past, because I chose not to listen to his daily rants. I had heard on the news that he had an addiction to prescription pills and I've occasionally heard references to his comments regarding politics.

To me, his attempts at being… Read full post »

After resigning from my corporate job in 1999, most people understood my need to explore the world outside my cubicle. I was thirty years old and had been working since the age of twelve. I had babysat and cleaned houses. I worked at a video store and a church … Read full post »

"Hi Donna! Jack, here! I got a call from that lineage organization....They told me I was approved, but some of their paperwork got lost. You wouldn't happen to have all those documents would you?"

"Of course!" I told my current client whom I absolutely adore. He is down-… Read full post »

We were all sitting at my grandmother's dining room table. My big brother and two older sisters, my dad, his mom, my uncle and his children, and a few of my grandmother's closest friends all dressed a bit formally. It sounds cliche', but my grandmother was the Martha Stewart of her… Read full post »

As a forty-something wife and mother, I have tried many careers over the years searching for that perfect job that would work well with my family. I was on an endless hunt for something that would allow me to have a good balance in my life and make me happy. During that time,… Read full post »

"Even as a child she had lived her own small life all within herself. At a very early period she had apprehended instinctively the dual life—that outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions." Description of Edna Pontellier in Kate Chopin's The Awakening.

Kate Cho… Read full post »

Dad came back into my life about a year after my daughter was born. He had been through more than any person should ever have to endure by the time he was in his thirties, so when I got a letter from my step-mom announcing their retirement, I didn't hold a… Read full post »