This picture from Oct 2022 came up on our TV slideshow this morning (late Sep 2025). Those are prayer flags from Everest base camp that our daughter Kes brought home. Below that is our ofrenda, a Mexican Catholic thing from Jenn’s history. The framed pic is a witch house. Mom & Jenny got a hard start thanks to me.
I gave Jenny a rough start with mom. In 1991 I had just come home from a couple of semesters at her college she helped with – ACU. ‘C’ being Christian, me not practicing it (meaning church wasn’t happening for me).
We goofed and got pregnant before marriage. Told mom & Perry at a Golden Corral abruptly at the end of the meal. Jenn thought it went well. (it didn’t the next day and life).
Jenn’y’ & Mom
Mom always called her Jenny. Jenn prefers Jenn.
It started with Perry’s kid, Lee. Greg working at Lee’s shop when Jenn shows up. So, Perry’s fault.
Mitty’s “sweet precious baby boy” (me in mom’s phone, literally), when Jenn comes in hot in July 1991. Literally. She’s just really cute, and pretty, and hot. I’m Mom’s baby boy fresh off two semesters at ACU.
Things were going okay with Jenny and Mom, better with Ditty (Grandma) … until we got pregnant.
Jenny & I invited Perry and Mom to Golden Corral to tell them we were pregnant. I blurted it out at the end of the meal, we do our uhm-hmm’s and goodbyes. Jenn says ‘that went well’.
It did not.
Mitty setup some boundaries. It hurt us, and her. Jenny and I had a God wedding by ourselves outside of Vegas soon realizing that legal helped in medical stuff – so we made it legal with a JOP at a feed store in Cibolo, TX alone, and it turned out she knew Mr Schlather, but that didn’t help. It was not a fairy tale start for mom.
Jenny & I moved to Austin and did that through the ’90s. Mom always tried. She showed up for Austin’s 1st birthday with a trailer full of ponies and farm animals. She also showed up one year, saw a pewter dragon with a crystal on our shelf and saw the devil himself. That visit was short. Another time she sent us to the Focus on the Family conference in San Antonio and babysat Austin for a week! It went great, then didn’t.
A job put us in Seattle in the late ’90s and we had some amazing visits when her and Perry came up to visit. We drove a ’92 Toyota Itasca Spirit Motorhome near 80mph trying to not miss the Anacortes to Victoria ferry.
We didn’t miss the ferry (by much) because “Perry’s Nervous” when it came to scheduling (interpret: Mitty needs a plan).
And then – Mom, Mitty, the one we all know – dropped around $1k on clothes for Jenny in Victoria, Canada in 1999 (that translates to like $100k these days). That was a really great trip for all of us. Things seemed well and healed. We did church stuff in Maple Valley and had friends from ACU – she really loved this.
In mid-2001 my family of five started traveling a lot, pulling back from our traditions. We all got offended and defended and it did not go well for our families. We would reconnect over the years, but strained, with love, and estrangements. It was a bummer.
We’d get together most years, missed a few, and came back together in a big way in 2020 something. There were heartfelt tears and apologies and forgiveness and much more of this.
