“Wake the neighbors! Get the word out! Come on, crank up the music, climb a mountain and shout! This is life we’ve been given, made to be lived out … so live out loud.” +++ more

When I met my husband in 1992, one of our earliest conversations was about the things we hoped to do in our future. We talked about college degrees and careers, about marriage and children, about where we’d like to live and what we hoped to do in our retirement years. Even before we were a couple, we loved to talk about what our individual hopes were. Once we began dating, we were pretty serious, always talking, always daydreaming about what would come our way in the future. more

Writing about both legs of a plane trip being among life’s most memorable experiences is unlikely. A medical emergency flying out and a fire engine on the return to Dallas/Fort Worth International … more

“Wake the neighbors! Get the word out! Come on, crank up the music, climb a mountain and shout! This is life we’ve been given, made to be lived out … so live out loud.” +++ more

If you have read this column for any length of time, you know I am a big reader. While I have a huge bookshelf next to my bed, there are stacks of books on my night stand, on the floor at the foot of my bed, and in various other locations around my house. The funny part is my husband is exactly the same, always in the middle of two or three books. To say that our bedroom is home to hundreds of books would be an understatement. We need a personal library! more

Commencement exercises, like holiday movies watched countless times, usually are fairly predictable. After all, printed programs get us back on track in case of the wandering of minds. more

“Wake the neighbors! Get the word out! Come on, crank up the music, climb a mountain and shout! This is life we’ve been given, made to be lived out … so live out loud.” +++ more

For me, it is the smell of motor oil and greasy shop rags. Or the sound of a fire truck’s siren as it speeds by. Or maybe it is picking out fresh produce from a farmer’s market. All of these things remind me of my dad. You see, throughout all the years I was a kid growing up in his home, he was a fireman for Tyler Fire Department. On his days off, he worked in our giant garden and fixed cars. So when I see or smell or hear those things, they make me think of my dad. I’m curious what things remind you of your own father? more

Back in the 20th century, kids--as well as adults who sometimes acted like them--seemed destined to “make their own fun.” Not too much in the way of “time-passing” was in play if it cost anything, thus fertile minds were often in “creative more

Cats and birds don’t always work well together but McKenzie Baskin, 2017 graduate of Whitehouse High School, is ready to step out of her Wildcat environment and soar with the Cardinals of Trinity Valley Community College. more