My late father-in-law was a Texas Ranger. My nephew works for the Texas Department of Public Safety. My son is a special agent in federal law enforcement and also worked as a deputy in East Austin back in 2001. I appreciate their willingness to serve in these difficult and often dangerous fields, and our communities are the safer for it. I know many other honorable folks in other law enforcement

A non-cowgirl dating a cowboy could well be described as the first line in Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." Things are so wonderful and nerve-wracking; we're at our best behavior and our worst insecurities. During my last year at college, Jack was working as a pickup man for a rodeo company. One of their rodeos took place in a nearby town

What a night!                      Photo courtesy of Alison Eden Photography The Listen to Your Mother Show took place at the AT&T Conference Amphitheater in Austin, Texas, last Thursday, May 9th, and it was an amazing experience-- both as a participant and as an audience member. The cast of thirteen readers had previously met together twice to practice, but the night of the show was the

I was raised in a one-pet family. When I married Jack, it was like going to work for a zoo. He didn't have one dog-- he had many dogs. And horses. And cattle. And chickens. And baby calves from the feedlot for us to raise. I remember the first one he brought home. The baby calf was so small, it only came up to Jack's knees. Calves this size usually didn't survive, but for some reason this

Misunderstanding is a common ailment among married couples, but when it came to a non-cowgirl trying to understand her cowboy husband, it was a given. We both expended a lot of effort and noise trying to connect, but rarely did we see eye-to-eye about most anything. So when we couldn't reach a consensus about something, we lovingly resorted to manipulation. One weekend Jack and I traveled

I stared at the new boots Jack was wearing. They were bright orange, maybe even tangerine-colored. "What color did you say those were?" I asked him again, shading my eyes. "Benedictine Tan," he replied confidently. "They're orange, Jack." "No, they're not," he said defensively, the pitch of his voice rising. "The label said Benedictine Tan!" "Jack, your kids go to Texas A&M. They live

Did I mention that being a non-cowgirl married to a cowboy wasn't easy? Cowboys speak a whole other language-- even when it comes to colors. I was an artist. I knew colors. But I didn't know cowboy colors. "Isn't that a beautiful beige horse?" I commented to my husband in the early years of our marriage. "Dun," Jack said. "Done what?" I asked, thinking we were really conversing here

I am not a cowgirl, but I married a cowboy. They say opposites attract, and I guess it was true in our case. I have no idea what attracted this cowboy to me. I was about as knowledgeable about cows and cowboying as I was about nuclear physics. For years, I thought the word cow represented every type of bovine animals in the pasture, just like the word people represented every gender of

I wasn't a cowgirl, but I married a cowboy years ago. I'm not sure who learned more from whom through the years, but it wasn't easy. I tried to help him work cattle on occasion, if you call 'sitting precariously on a fence and clueless about what to do' help. Okay, I did take him water every once in a while, and I did eventually learn to poke the cattle down a chute, although my prodding

The sky is ablaze with red and orange streaks of fire as the sun begins to set. Fingers of violet and deep blue reach out to touch the last remaining light of the day. The skyline silhouettes two figures on horseback against the beautiful panorama as the man in the perfectly shaped Stetson turns in his saddle and peers down at his wife. With a sign and a shrug of his shoulders, he says, "

Isn't it great fun to just open up and laugh? I'm not talking about the little snicker or giggle now and then. I'm talking about the letting it all out belly laugh where one is exhausted at the end of it. Some of my favorite memories involve laughter. One year in the mid-1980s when my dad and my husband went hunting in Utah, the kids and I loaded up with my mother and grandmother and met my

There's nothing like a deadline to get me in gear to start or finish something. The Writers' League of Texas resurrected its contests this year after a two year absence, so I submitted the last book I finished, The Last Key, in the Violet Crown Award Contest for Fiction. I met a couple of authors at a library meeting several years ago, and I stumbled over my words when I told them that my first

I cried watching Simeon Wright recall the nightmare of losing his cousin Emmett Till to kidnapping, beating and hanging for jokingly whistling at a white woman. The year was 1955, and Emmett was visiting from Chicago. He had no idea what a dangerous thing that was to do in the segregated south. Two men, one of them the husband of the woman involved, walked into Wright's home in the middle of the

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I don't know why I thought I needed four blogs, but the intention was to separate their purposes. Some of those purposes were clearer than others, but they're now starting to settle down and show some consistency pertaining to subject matter. Shelf Mouse was created for library, information literacy, and education purposes. I trademarked the name, and I'm also using the mouse in educational

Six years ago I began to ask my parents to move up to the Austin area with me. They were in good health, although Mom had a pacemaker. But my parents were getting up in years, and I wanted them to be closer to doctors and hospitals. My parents kept telling me no, that it would be hard to dig up forty-year-old roots, so I gave it to God and quit asking them. Five years ago my brother mentioned

www.pbs.org Seems like I'm way behind the times, since Downton Abbey has garnered millions of fans over the past three years (the US is a season behind the UK), and I'm a little red-faced to say I had never heard of Downton Abbey before 24 days ago. That's when my son texted me that he had just finished watching season 1 and thought I would enjoy it since I visited England for the first time

The young man was in the Navy, and he looked so handsome in his dress blues as he held the hand of his lovely bride dressed in a dark houndstooth- checked blazer and skirt. She had just turned eighteen on December 5th. He celebrated his twenty-first birthday three weeks before. The young couple stood in front of a Justice of the Peace in George West, Texas. The groom's brother stood

That is totally illogical. Are you telling me that the Creator of the Universe chose to manifest himself to the human race by having his son be born in a low-class family? And the birth that should have had the entire world celebrating happened to occur in a crude, unsanitary shelter for keeping animals? The birth of the most important figure in human history should have had a greater

Okay, her birthday was five days ago. But I did bake her a cake and give her a pair of silver earrings and cooked a package of chicken breasts for her since her time is so limited with baby boy and home-schooling my older two grandkids. Nice and practical. Vanessa and baby boy Vanessa married into a wonderful family, and on the first birthday she had after she and Jonathan were married, she

On the Bravo channel, they had/have a show called The Actors Studio where James Lipton interviews well-known actors. At one point in the show they always ask the guest the same set of ten questions, so the following is something of the sort. I changed some questions and added a few more for a small writers group of friends and family we had going some years ago. These were my responses. 1. What

I saw a profile of several college-educated homeless families last night, and I understand how losing one's job combined with outrageous medical bills could sink one's finances. But the homeless family that concerned me the most was the divorced single mother trying to maintain a since of normalcy for her 15, 16, and 17 year old sons. In her attempt to keep the whole family's heads in the sand

Thanksgiving is such a wonderful time for families and friends to gather 'round a bountiful table, thanking God for all the many blessings He has bestowed upon us... The year was 1990. And Thanksgiving was so traumatic for me. For years I'd gotten away with only fixing side dishes since my mother and mother-in-law did such a wonderful job cooking the traditional turkey and dressing. Being in my

I prided myself in the fact that I didn't follow the latest fashionable trends in clothes, hair-cuts, and home decor. I was an art major, which meant that my diploma had an unwritten rule that I had to be different, creative, and Christmas decorations and Halloween costumes handmade. Let's see how some of my creative choices turned out. I chose pewter for my wedding dishes. Pewter. Not

My sister Joy said she'd never been a morning person until they started going to their lake house. They love to get up before sunrise and drink their coffee as they waited to greet the sun. So when we stayed overnight with them recently, several of us got up early to sit on the back porch to do just that.  My camera is first generation digital, so most memory cards won't work in it