Having grown up in Minnesota, I dreamt of a warmer life, so upon high-school graduation set off for college in balmy Wisconsin. Carthage College, uniquely positioned with its dorms and classrooms lining the shores of Lake Michigan, was an idyllic setting for us to learn how to resist sleep but not shenanigans. The everchanging lake was the constant backdrop to our student life.

Our school was aptly nicknamed Camp Carthage, as all students resided on campus. Walking to class with wet hair on winter mornings left me with curls frozen so stiff they could have been cracked straight off my head, but even so, those were happy days. Plus, winter only lasted November through May. Desiring a wealthy lifestyle, I majored in Social Work.

Visiting Carthage 20 years later.

Spring of my senior year, I was accepted into AmeriCorps and given my dream placement in North Carolina. After spending many childhood summers visiting the Outer Banks, my heart pulled me towards anything within miles of those shores. Because I am stubborn, independent, and unlikely to make decisions based around a boy, I met one at that very time. He was tall and had eyes that squished when he smiled. He was brilliant, and that combined with his kindness and old soul could change everything. And sitting in an Applebees one day he asked me to stay, I agreed there was no other choice, and everything did change. This is what happens when you are a senior and fall in love with a sophomore. It was not weird though, because he was 19 going on 40. I was 21 going on 19. So, really, he made it weird.

We married in a Lutheran church that looked like a spaceship, and then we worked hard, played hard, watched Friends on our Tivo, and followed that pattern on repeat until we had our daughter, Nora. Our girl shot into this world as an adult, and by the time Nora was three years old, we knew she could be living her best life if only we would let her get her own apartment.

There is an old saying: Marriages that begin in a spaceship are destined for greatness.

Then came along another daughter, Evelyn. When an ultrasound revealed that we would have a second daughter, I poetically marked the life-changing moment by saying, “Wow, we are going to go through so much toilet paper.” I describe Evie to people by saying, “She is the person everyone wants for a college roommate.” Evie is a party in a body, feels everything big and sees no sense in camping out anywhere between HAPPY and MAD.

In 2011 we finally gave up on Wisconsin ever becoming warm and transferred our small clan to north Texas. We moved after one of the worst Wisconsin winters (think snow, and then more snow, followed by a lot of snowy snow) and entered Texas in time for one of the hottest summers on record. We do weather well.

My Texan daughter making a snow angel. She does things differently.

G.R. and I have been married for 17 years, and Nora and Evie are now 13 and 9. We are homebodies who love adventure. We love our friends, service, kind people, authenticity, fun dysfunction, and 3 out of 4 of us are obsessed with our dogs, Mosby and Phoebe.

My writing tends to mix sarcasm with uncomfortable honesty and humor.