North Dakota Nice

What I was doing when the Vikings had the largest comeback in NFL history | December 21, 2022

If you live in North Dakota or Minnesota, you are legally required to be a fan of the Minnesota Vikings (or the Green Bay Packers, but only if every other football team in the world quits). …
Eight Short Stories | December 14, 2022

My sister and I recently surprised our dad with “the gift of our presence” by crashing our family chaos into his Austin birthday weekend getaway with my mom. I love me a good Hallmark/-adjacent movie for…
Goalie Mom, or a brief lesson in unclenching | December 7, 2022

When my eleven-year-old was around seven, he came home from hockey practice and announced he wanted to be a goalie. “Great!” My husband said. “Erm,” I said.
The Turkey King | November 30, 2022

Holy buckets, tomorrow is December. Please say a prayer for Kyle, whose wife wouldn’t let him put up Christmas decorations until after Thanksgiving. I know that “Christmas tree timing” is a hot topic and I really…
A Thanksgiving story | November 23, 2022

By the time you read this it will be Thanksgiving Eve and I will be pretending like I’m so overwhelmed with preparations while my mother “gives me a hand” by doing it all. I am very…
An apology | November 16, 2022

I’m very sorry, but I’m going to have to skip my usual story this week. My grandpa passed away and I’m just too sad. However, my grandfather absolutely loved telling jokes, and so I wanted to…
Kyle and The Shed | November 9, 2022

Kyle got a shed. I think I’m supposed to say “WE” got a shed; except that “we” wrongly assumed our garage would serve as a place for storing garage-related items and not dance parties (or whatever…
Halloween, costumes, and hugs | November 2, 2022

I’ve written about Halloween costumes every single year I’ve had North Dakota Nice because I love costumes. Lerve them. Looove them. One of my favorite costumes was a Rainbow Brite get-up that I wore for Halloween…
Seven and the Grasshopper Egg | October 26, 2022

This past Saturday, Kyle took our eleven-year-old deer hunting (or, rather, he took him stand-sitting because the only thing they bagged was some magical father-son bonding time). Kyle also wanted to bring along our seven-year-old, which…
The Haunted House | October 19, 2022

As you’ll see in the news, you’ll see the Williston Herald is running a kid’s ghost story contest. When I read it, I thought, “I want to write a ghost story.” The last time I wrote…