Tag Archive for family

Life with Momma

by Michele Peterson-Rufener • March 17, 2013 • 0 Comments

Gut-wrenching fear struck me as I looked at the name that popped up on my phone, Deanna Deanna. The name was supposed to only say Deanna, but apparently I had a brain fart the day I entered my Aunt Deanna’s…

by Michele Peterson-Rufener • September 15, 2012 • 0 Comments

Traveling with my children when they were younger was never an enjoyable experience. Amber is two and one half years older than Ryan, so they never really got along until just a few years ago. Needless to say, there have…

by Michele Peterson-Rufener • July 25, 2012 • 2 Comments

Family, what really makes a family? If you look at the traditional definition, it would consist of parents and children, otherwise known as a nuclear family. Parents and children, is that what really all that makes kin? The reason I…

by Michele Peterson-Rufener • July 8, 2012 • 2 Comments

I did something the other day that completely pissed off my husband, I bought a rat. An adorable rat that I named Henri, who was doomed to become snake food. I can blame this on my addiction to garage saling…

by Patti Lynn Henry • July 2, 2012 • 2 Comments

The Internet is abuzz today with headlines proclaiming that “Spanking Boosts Odds of Mental Illness.” I tried to poke around and find the source of all the new research, but all I’ve gathered from the multiple news sources I’ve checked…

by Michele Peterson-Rufener • June 20, 2012 • 0 Comments

As I sat in the waiting room waiting for my husband to have a cat scan done for his Crohn’s disease, I watched a middle-aged couple walk into the room. The man walked ahead of the woman who was at…

by Michele Peterson-Rufener • June 5, 2012 • 0 Comments

Grandbaby Harper spent the evening with us today and I watched happily as she took those amazing first tries at crawling. One hand after another while moving her little legs she gave me an evil, little grin that said “Get…

by Patti Lynn Henry • June 1, 2012 • 2 Comments

My childhood was dotted with animals, both domestic and exotic. Sure, we had the typical lap dogs and farm cats, and the random chicken, horse, and goat. We bred and sold dozens of species of waterfowl from around the world;…

by Mark A. Garcia • May 20, 2012 • 0 Comments

This was written back in 2008 when CEO Mr. Bush and his criminal cohorts were still in but soon to be leaving (not empty handed but still without hearts) their corporate offices. We (my wife, teenage daughter Riva, two dogs…

by Michele Peterson-Rufener • May 13, 2012 • 0 Comments

Standing in the bathroom of a local Mexican joint, I watched my daughter pee on a pregnancy stick. This wasn’t the first time she has had a scare, so I wasn’t too worried. Besides, we were having margaritas with friends,…

by Michele Peterson-Rufener • May 3, 2012 • 0 Comments

Saying goodbye to my Dad while he was lying on a cold, hard slab was one of the most difficult things that I have ever done. He had only been gone for a couple of hours, but the coldness had…

by Michele Peterson-Rufener • March 1, 2012 • 0 Comments

The past few months have been a whirlwind of change for our family with the death of my Father-in-Law and the birth our our first Grandbaby, Harper Ann. Life and death can have such emotion that it is exasperating. So…

by Michele Peterson-Rufener • January 9, 2012 • 0 Comments

A recent short paper for my sociology class concerned whether or not we, the students, considered ourselves to be feminists. This was a question that caused me to think, possibly just a little too hard. What exactly is a feminist? …

by John T. Schmitz • September 18, 2011 • 2 Comments

It’s 4:30 on Saturday afternoon and I’ve just now sat down at this machine to crank out some wisdom. I was awake until five o’clock in the morning, back up at ten, spent four hours cleaning the house, took a…

by John T. Schmitz • September 5, 2011 • 2 Comments

I don’t normally bother to write my column on the weekends—I don’t get much writing done at all—but I have a few spare minutes this evening while my wife and daughter shop for school supplies and a hot chicken dinner.…

by John T. Schmitz • August 16, 2011 • 0 Comments

What a weekend; it may have been the first really good weekend that I’ve had this whole miserable summer, which mercifully is drawing to a close. It’s raining outside, my Internet connection is spotty at best, but I have my…

by John T. Schmitz • July 10, 2011 • 8 Comments

I’ve been on vacation since yesterday (Jesus, that sounds weird) afternoon at two o’clock … and it’s shaping up just fine, so far. It’s 1:30 a.m. on Sunday morning (Saturday night) and I’m just as drunk as a monkey, working…