My first experience with the death of someone close to me came shortly after my 16th birthday. A good friend since elementary school, Candy had moved to another state with her parents and younger sister during high school. They returned to Fort Worth, Texas, in early June for…
Life has settled down in the Casten household. We are still mourning the loss of Potter, one of our dogs. Needless to say, we are showering our other dog, Ginny, with affection. Ginny misses her big brother and tends to mope around the house a bit.
On Super Bowl Sunday in 2013, I attended my first meeting at NC State’s student newspaper, Technician. I went on a whim with zero journalism experience. My only hope was to maybe write a few movie reviews for the publication. Little did I…
A few months ago, I shared a story about a family trip to a pumpkin patch and some of the challenges that I face during the colder times of the year. At the time, I was trying to soak up the last of the warm days…
Our family loves animals. Ella has two baskets full of stuffed animals and she continues to get more. Three and a half years ago, our vizsla, Sasa, died of old age. A month before she died, we bought a new puppy we named Potter. Sasa…
Ever since I was a kid, some of my favorite actors have been those who weren’t always in front of the screen. Given my love of animation and motion capture technology, the way that people like Andy Serkis, James Earl Jones, and the late Robin Williams created so…
All my life I’ve been freakishly in tune with my body. It sounds like a great quality to have, right? I’ve always been hyperaware of my symptoms and can spot when something in my body feels off. This bodes well when it comes to viruses and other types of illnesses…
Anyone who knows me knows that sports are my favorite thing in the world. Although football is my most beloved sport, basketball has a more personal element to it. For starters, you can see the players more clearly, as they’re not covered with armor like in football. It’s also…
After the delivery of our baby Jeffrey, I failed to notice his abdominal breathing. My husband, Randy, possessed both an eagle eye and the presence of mind to ask the doctor and nurses about it. No one on duty seemed concerned, perhaps because Jeffrey had arrived two weeks early.
Ella spends a lot of time in the breakfast room just off the kitchen. She does her homework at the table, where there are pencils, pens, rulers, scissors, and paper. She plays with her iPad, talks with her friends on FaceTime, and eats her snacks.
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