Chris attended a neighborhood protest. After I took this picture he added the "[forward]" at the bottom. Being anti-racist isn't something to check off a list. It's a lifelong practice of learning, examining my own privilege and bias, doing better, showing up, and modeling and teaching anti-racism to my kids. Repeat, repeat, repeat. In thinking about how to continue practicing anti-racism I thought about what I can do at different effort levels. Because even at this time while I have little bandwidth and am at home I can still be actively anti-racist. What I've come up with for now is... Read more →

One afternoon last October I was at work and needed a break from the project I was working on. So I checked my blog feed and a post from one of my favorite blogs made my heart skip a beat. The post, A Secret to a Happy Marriage, describes a long-married couple's weekly tradition of dining together al fresco at a pretty overlook in Brooklyn– which they have been doing for 24 years! The couple said that having a way to connect everyday, without distractions, is key to a happy marriage. How simple and true is that? Instantly I loved... Read more →

When Chris and I have a date night planned I find the time leading up to the date night a tiny bit stressful. We're trying to get the house tidy, prep the boys' dinner, get pajamas out, and get ready ourselves. On top of that the boys started getting clingy and emotional when we would leave them with a babysitter. A crying child is not the ideal way to start a fun and relaxing date night. Enter: the snack pack. Based on the logic that a little treat can go a long way with toddlers and preschoolers, we started putting... Read more →

When I moved to Arizona eight years ago this month (!) I was just out of graduate school and eager to read novels instead of textbooks. I had always loved the idea of belonging to a book club and as I put together my post-school adult life I set out to find one. The first book club I came across on Meet Up was the East Valley Casual Women's Book Club which described exactly what I was looking for and it turned out to be a perfect fit. Just as I suspected I love having a book club in my... Read more →

Yesterday I was too nervous and distracted by the election to post anything. But now we're breathing a big sigh of relief; I feel excited and hopeful for the next four years. There's lots of work to be done but I think we're heading in the right direction. I'm especially encouraged by the turning tide of gay marriage. My hope is that by the time our baby is old enough to vote marriage equality won't need to be on the ballots any more because it's accepted and recognized across our country. Four years ago Chris and I woke up early... Read more →

I said that in going through all my old posts I could not believe that some were from a year ago, they felt much older. One of those was definitely this one where I talked about our thoughts on having a baby. Obviously, so much has changed since then! Our tentative plan was to have a baby sometime after Chris’s tenure in the spring of 2014. Here's what changed our timeline and made us feel ready to have a baby a little sooner: Chris got baby fever. He said that when he was out to lunch with colleagues in the... Read more →

It seems that everyone can agree - phone interviews are no fun. Interviews are nerve-wracking already but it’s even harder when you can’t see the person interviewing you. But if you're applying for a job phone interviews are nearly unavoidable. I've had several over the years, starting when I applied to internships and graduate programs in college and as I've applied for jobs since graduate school. Despite having gone through the process several times I still don't look forward to phone interviews. BUT I do know how to prepare for them. I'd love to share my process and tips in... Read more →

We got married - no foolin'! I love thinking back on our wedding, it was so fun and turned out even better than we'd hoped. Even though we kept our wedding casual and relatively inexpensive it was still stressful to plan a wedding, especially since we weren't living in Austin, where our wedding was. But it seemed like as soon as we got in the car to go to the rehearsal dinner the weight of planning a wedding lifted off both Chris and me - there was no time left to plan anything. The only thing left to do was... Read more →

Happy birthday to my little sister, Elizabeth! E - I can't believe you're 25. I still think you're 16. I'm so proud of you and love you so much. Come visit me! Hope you like your pink TOMS! Love, Big C P.S. When you're at my parents' house my mom WILL make you hold one of her hens...even if you just got married the day before. Read more →