My life after the 15 minutes…

Like pretty much any girl born in the greater Southern United States since the mid-1960s, I was born to be a Dolly Parton fan. I've never really considered myself a "super fan," but when she passed away earlier this week, it hit me that she's had a much bigger impact on my pop culture life than I ever really recognized. I don't typically follow major celebrity culture, and I don't often cry when a celebrity passes away. But when I heard on Tuesday that Dolly had died, I found myself crying for a few minutes. She certainly was an icon, but I loved so much about her. I've seen people on social media from both sides trying to claim that their side was the only side that could appreciate Dolly when she was alive. One side points to her charitable work and her support for things like COVID vaccine research; the other points to the fact that she was a devout Christian until the day she died. Then there are people saying that she didn't support this cause or ...

So life continues as a very boring but very content stay-at-home mom in the desert suburb of Tucson known as Vail. Truly, the most exciting thing that happens around here is that we have a rattlesnake (Bubs says snakes ) that loves to come visit us by hiding out behind a planter and our retaining wall. I'm sure it's the same happy girl, because I recognize her patterns, but Bubs says it's just a cool place for snakes to hang out. I've also learned something: I never thought I was afraid of snakes, but hearing that rattle is a whole other story. Though I am getting better. Bubs grabs them with these "snake tongs," moves them into a bucket, and takes them far away from our house into the middle of the nearby state trust land. He says snakes wouldn't travel that far just to come visit us. I still think it's the same one. So that was the most exciting thing that had happened to me until just now.  Today was one of those days where I just needed a kid break...

We're getting ready to wrap up our summer in Texas. We fly back home to Arizona on Saturday, and the kids start school the following week. Bubs has essentially been working from home while we've been here, but he needs to get back to the office and his lab. Abby and TJ absolutely love their lives in Arizona, so they're ready to go home. Ashley and I? No. We are most certainly not ready to leave the paradise where almost all of our family lives on the same block mere steps from each other.  Of course, Ashley is a wonderfully happy 15-month-old, so I may be projecting just a little. Fortunately for me, before I had time to become homesick, my mom presented all four siblings with perhaps the greatest gift she's ever given us. A studio-quality, wall-sized family portrait from our Florida trip. One tiny problem. My younger sister's underwear is clearly visible for the entire world to admire. And there are now five copies of this masterpiece. Now, as I've mentioned be...

 To open this blog up, I am going to let Bubs give his insight into the events of the past few days and then I'll give the reality of what happened to stop the fight between me and Jess.  Thank you Ms. Dani, it's an honor to step in and be able to open your blog. I suppose we are just preserving this for history since I saw your view count on the last blog (5? really? Don't you have some in the past that had 10k views? I mean not for me to say, but 5?) For Dani's readers, let me clarify something that I think may have come across in her past few blogs is that this vacation to Florida has been miserable. It hasn't at all. Everyone here is so used to a sisterly meltdown that we stay out of the way, we know it will come to an inevitable conclusion. I think whoever the husbands are that are involved feel a need to try and help make peace but we know its a fruitless endeavor. Now there have been moments of course and Dani's mom and older sister Jenn were about at the...

Obviously, I'm on a blogging tear over the last couple of days. I wrote the first post in this little trilogy the day after we arrived in Florida, and I've discovered that if I'm sitting in front of my MacBook saying I'm "busy," I get at least a short break from the 19 people packed into two mid-sized beach condos. (We started with 17 and later gained one husband and one 16-year-old best friend from Texas.) Since I'm getting a people break, this one may be longer and meander more than my typical entry. Sorry! As I mentioned in Monday's blog, my younger sister Jess and I got into a fight on the drive here. It started because I apparently did a "bad job" filming a video of her dancing in front of a gas station sign. She was so mean about it, saying things like, "I can NEVER count on you to do anything cute for me," and "I should have just asked Maddie, but how was I supposed to know you'd be this bad?" (Maddie being our ...

I guess, like all of my blog posts, this one needs a bit of a prelude. Like most married couples, Bubs and I sleep together. I guess that shouldn't come as a shock, but explaining how we sleep together will make the rest of this blog make a lot more sense. Our first night where we quite literally slept next to each other was in 8th grade. We went to a party with my older sister where some high school boys thought it would be hilarious to get me very drunk. Bubs got creeped out by them, so he quite literally carried me to a little park near his house, deposited me there, ran home, grabbed quilts and comforters, and built us a little bed so I could sleep it off. Waking up next to him was magical. It's one of those memories that, even now, feels almost frozen in time. I remember thinking that morning that this was something I wanted to do forever. Now we sleep very differently. If I had my way, we would sleep like a pair of intertwined and motionless spiders. I love cuddling with...