jen austin

We carry around a secret inner desire to be Flo from Progressive all year long, and finally at Halloween we let her out!  Is that it? The kids might have questions about Halloween, so I did some research to prep us.

Ladies, we're getting larger.  The average clothing size for women in America is higher than it's ever been, and our waist size has expanded by 2.6 inches over the past twenty years. And you love us just the same, right guys?  Good answer.

Dogs are so cool for tolerating our holidays.  The 4th of July is noisy and hurts their ears, and when Halloween rolls around they have to wear uncomfortable outfits and take humiliating pictures for our social media pages. It's the worst day of the year for my dogs.

If the 4th of July is the biggest grilling weekend of the year, Labor Day Weekend is not far behind.  If your family and friends can handle an alternative from the typical greasy burger, this is a tasty and impressive idea!

If you're on the dating apps, you know things can get a little dicey to say the least. If only they would write "I'm nuts" on their profile pics, it would save so much time!  Has this happened to you?

If you are on social media at all this week, you will quickly understand that school has started. As parents, there is some sort of reflex that makes us mark these back-to-school moments on Facebook, and as you might be able to see in this picture, the kids would rather just hurry up and get to class

The price of cigarettes has increased. Smoking has been banned from quite a few bars and restaurants. There's a lawsuit that's trying to get smoking removed completely from movies that target kids.  Is smoking so marginalized that we've almost seen the end of it in Lufkin?

Summers were so much fun as a kid, with camps, swimming, and sprinklers, and lots and lots of ice cream. As an adult, there's no break from work and there can be more to do juggling the kids' schedule, and we lose the magic!  But here's a way to get it back.

My dad is getting up there in years, but no teenager is going to out-emoji this guy!  He's determined to fully express himself through pics of beer mugs, corn in the husk, and Christmas trees. By the way, did you hear what emoji might be coming next?  You and my dad will wonder how you survived without it for this long.

Happy Mother's Day!  Got a quirky mom?  This weekend we're celebrating the quirks, the playfulness, the discipline, the organization, and thoughtfulness, and the love. And the most important things our moms have ever done for us.  Here's mine.

It's the time of year in Texas when a bluebonnet patch can draw dozens of freshly bathed kids in their cutest clothes, along with those amazing parents-of-the-year armed with high tech zoom lenses ready to upload the photos to online scrapbooks right away to share with Grandma and Grandpa in Poughkeepsie.  And then there are the rest of us.  This was kind of a disaster.

These are my amazing parents, and I am so proud of them.  Not only do they make great cows, but today is also their 43rd wedding anniversary.  Not many couples make it that far!