in which I let you know who we are because I never have

A couple of new readers have reminded me that not only family reads this now, so they suggested I start from the beginning of our family life.

Here's a little background that I started and shockingly didn't finish:

How we met, part one.

How we met, part two.

I'm nothing if not a blogging quitter-quitter, chicken dinner.

(During this time, Joseph worked for the Dallas DA's Office and I went underground [and by that, I mean I dug just deep enough to use initials instead of real names? Like that's going to stop a criminal going after the guy pushing the paperwork and his family?]. Sorry for the confusion - not going back to change names to protect the ridiculous!)

Aside from that those, I guess I haven't given much background. 

My name is Melanie and I like warm hugs.  Not really. I'm pretty touched out by the end of the day by little hands who love warm hugs. To be clear, I love those little warm hugs, but you need to not give me a warm hug after 8pm because I will curl up in a corner and ask you to please please please just leave me alone for five minutes or my life might come to an abrupt and painful end.

But I digress.

I was born and raised in El Paso, Texas, which I lay little to absolutely no claim to. Just before I turned sixteen, we packed our bags and moved to Arlington, Tejas where I lived until I graduated from being an annoying punk teenager, at which point I moved to Lubbock to attend Texas Tech (hence the love here on ye old blog)...where I continued the trend until I was probably a junior in college.  Memories of all pre-kid days have fled my memory, so this part of my life is short. 

Let me sum it up for you:

From EP to Arlington to Lubbock to DFW to Lubbock to DFW to Austin with a few side trips to Houston.

Nowadays I'm a homeschooling, stay-at-home mama of two beautiful, perfect, huggy little girls, ages six and almost five. 

I also fail at selfies. It's a short arm thing.

So instead I send my sister photos like this to make sure I don't have Texas hair. I did, for the record.

I read like books are going out of style (which, thanks, Kindle, they kind of are) and reward myself for doing a mundane chore or breathing by reading another chapter or seven in whatever book I'm currently devouring. 

I sew poorly but I mean well and I'm slowly improving if you don't look closely at my stitching.

I hate Pinterest and just found out that Instagram is a not a photo-editing website, so you could say that I'm pretty good with technology. As long as you are lying when you say it. 

I'm in love with the beauty and elegance and reverence at the Traditional Latin Mass and our spiritual lives hinge upon our understanding of the Faith through this rite. It's beautiful.


Joseph, the patriarch of our family, is six-foot-two giant of a German man with a wit and sense of humor to match his height. His speciality is turning the mundane into the pun. He uses his wordsmith skills by day as an attorney with the Attorney General's Office and by night, to discuss subjects far over my head with those wandering about searching for Truth. While we watch White Collar and I laugh out loud over blog posts and Catholic memes. 

It's a yin and yang kind of relationship we have.

My better half with the two-mini better quarters

Joseph has received the fictional annual award for the past seven years for being the absolute most easy-going and loving husband every created, minus maybe his namesake. 

The original saint.

The future saint.

Especially because he does things like this for me. It's called family unity, y'all.

He likes books that are smarter than I can understand, arguing to bring about souls to the Church, playing video games, Euro games, and good conversation. Most of all, he loves Our Lord and His Holy Church and is a faithful, strong leader of our family. I'm blown away by this guy.


We had our first-born eleven months after our wedding day. She came into the world stubbornly and continues her streak today. Molly Rose is our old soul in a six-year old body. She's thoughtful, kind, quirky, silly, stubborn, brilliant, and naturally drawn toward beauty and good.

She's a little shy and a lot perfectionist and working hard to overcome these so she can live it up in Elmore City footloose and fancy-free (I kid - she just doesn't want to be the flower on the wall and is working so heart-warmingly hard to overcome her shyness). She's in first grade and still doesn't comprehend what a grade is. She loves learning and flies through the material faster than my laziness wants to teach it.

Footloose and fancy-free

Her favorite color is pink and her favorite toy is Snood, her stuffed bear that has a Russian accent. Her favorite saint is Therese and her favorite prayer is the Prayer to Saint Michael. She hated sleep as a baby and hates it more now that she has piles of books waiting to be read from the hours of 7:30 - 10pm. The bags under my eyes tell the story pretty well.

Awake and reading.

Awake and adorned.

Awake and starting first grade. (Also, this was our first day of school but pretend it wasn't because this was the best picture I got so I'm going to redo them and fake it til I make it.)

Awake with a sleeping friend.

Seventeen and a half months after Molly Rose made her grand debut, Elisabeth Grace made her own grand entrance. She was a quiet babe and has remained mostly so, but only because her older sister does all the talking for her. She's such a joy - full of laughter and goofiness and quirkiness. I often overhear Molly say, "Ellie, make me laugh." 

And you shall laugh.

She plays it cool most of the time, but underneath her sunshiny blond hair hides a steel-trap that remembers every single thing. She's a brilliant little girl who is starting kindergarten a little early because of her November birthday and because she keeps up with her older sister in her lessons pretty darn well. 

On top of the world

She has a free little spirit and a sensitive little soul, feeling others' pain as acutely as if it were her own. She's quick to make a friend by going up to whomever is in the vicinity and saying, "Hi, I'm Ewwie and this is my sister Moe-wwy. Want to play with us?" as her shy older sister hangs back and admires the handiwork. 

The goof, the cute.

Her favorite color is purple because pink was taken and they refuse to share even ideological things; her favorite toy is her stuffed kitty Jaggie who is a girl because her cousin Aidan tried to play with it once, claiming he could because Jaggie was a boy - Ellie has been adamant every since in mentioning that Jaggie is a girl. She loves Saint Joan of Arc and the Morning Offering. She's our good sleeper and as such, I have dubbed her Golden Child. 

Exhibit A of Golden Child

With new gremlin buys

And that's all, folks.