Blog Archive

December 1, 2020

The Holly-Jolly Year of Me That Wasn’t

What a chaotically complicated, fascinating time to be alive. I keep hearing people say they are glad 2020 will finally be over soon. Are they convinced […]
November 2, 2020

White Pumpkins and Memorable Thanksgivings

November is here. Time to rake up autumn in a cone-shaped mound in the backyard and accept the blah of winter, zone out and barely acknowledge […]
September 29, 2020

Lifetime Impact Part III: Rene’s Homecoming

By year’s end, more airplanes and personnel continued to arrive at King Khalid Air Base, preparing for what was assumed would be an eventual invasion. “Everyone […]
September 8, 2020

Lifetime Impact Part II: Rene’s Pen Pals from Desert Shield/Desert Storm

In early October 1990, almost two months after Rene deployed to King Khalid Air Base near Khamis Mushait, a city in southwest Saudi Arabia, U.S. mailbags […]
July 27, 2020

30 Years After Desert Shield/Desert Storm, Part 1: Rene Deploys to the Middle East

It has been 30 years since my mother stopped frying my hair with home permanents, I quit wearing stone-washed jeans, and I began to say goodbye […]
June 29, 2020

What Exactly Are You Saying?

What a confusing, frustrating, challenging crossroads we find ourselves at this summer. I am exhausted and short-fused, yet I remain optimistic. I believe we are once […]
June 2, 2020

Inspiring Thoughts from the Nebraska National Guard’s First Female General Officer

Although it feels appropriate to launch this post with a whiney pandemic intro, I won’t. You have heard all those rhetorically clever and incredibly annoying color […]
April 28, 2020

Moments of Reset

Living and working from home through Covid-19 feels like the movie, Groundhog Day, except Rene and I don’t wake up every day to Sonny and Cher […]
March 30, 2020

My Favorite Spring (is NOT 2020)

Spring. What a lovely word. When used as a noun or a verb, spring represents feelings of change, hope, rebirth, optimism, and growth. This year, I […]