with Lorelle and Brent VanFossen

Tag Archives: stories

I Hate It When He’s Right

Twenty years ago, I told Brent that I didn’t think I could ever be happier or more in love. I was terrified that the love wouldn’t last, that no one should have the right to be so happy for very long. It’s a rule in my family. There are no equal parts love and joy […]

My Father Helps Me Fill in the Blanks of Our Story

In going through stacks of papers from my father’s home more than a year after his death, I found a manila envelope with my name on it. Inside were printed copies of emails I’d sent out in 1996 onward before we had an easily-updated website. When we left my father’s driveway in Marysville, Washington, I […]

The Mystery of the Stargate Coasters and the Pears

This is a story about the mystery of the Stargate Coasters and the pears. The story begins with Stargate episodes on Amazon.com. It probably begins further back, but that is where I will start. I’ve been having trouble sleeping for the first time in my life. My mother, once a chronic insomniac, continues to be […]

Creating Snow Sculptures Again

Here’s an interesting tidbit few people know about Lorelle. She creates great snow sculptures. Indeed, I do. I have a long history of creating fun snow sculptures. When I was young, my mother would travel every November around her birthday to a warmer climate. She’d head for Hawaii, Mexico, Arizona, anywhere but the cold Pacific […]

Coming Home to Find War

My apologizes to all of my friends in the Middle East for not getting through to you sooner. I’ve been traveling extensively these past few weeks, crisscrossing the United States again, and this week found me in tons of airports and long car rides without much Internet connection nor news information. To all of my […]

More Crazies and I’ve Been Shot

I’ve actually found ten minutes to add something to let you know how we are doing and what we are doing. First, we’re doing fine. If you believe that, I’m sure there is some property somewhere along the Gulf Coast of the US that we can convince you to buy – it’s a clear-it-and-build-it-yourself kinda […]

Journal: Falling Trees and Friends Part Three

Journal: Falling Trees and Friends Part Three Greensboro, NC July 6, 1998 The next morning, I awoke to a kitten in the truck and an angry old cat in the trailer. I put the kitten back in the trailer and let the old cat get angrier, and caught up with Linda, the healed Southern Baptist, […]

Journal: Falling Trees and Friends – Part Two

Journal: Falling Trees and Friends Part Two Greensboro, NC July 5, 1998 We learned later that the storm that hit us brought with it something I’d never heard of. A “white wind”. The news described it as “not a tornado but a very unusual wind blast created when two extreme weather conditions came together with […]

Journal: Falling Trees and Friends – Part One

Journal: Falling Trees and Friends Part One Greensboro, NC July 1, 1998 We have survived our arrival in North Carolina and are slowly beginning to get entrenched here. Tomorrow my mother arrives for our first “from home” visitor to our new “temp” home. I’ve gotten to know some of the people around the campground, especially […]

Telling Stories from 1996 to 1999

As I start work again on my book, Home is Where Lorelle is, I will be posting some chapters here on our site in the Telling Zone under 1996-1999 when we hit the road full-time, crossing North America from Seattle to Florida to Arizona to Alaska to Florida and a lot of places in between […]

Three Weeks After the Terror of September 11, 2001

It has been interesting to watch how people are handling the tragedy of September 11, 2001. I’m not in the United States, so I can only assume what it is like for those there. Here in Israel, it has been rather fascinating. From amid the horror and agony of watching the events of unnecessary terror […]

Running Out of Rubbers – Greensboro, North Carolina to Tulsa, Oklahoma

Oh, my, well, we made it to Oklahoma. I don’t know how, and maybe I shouldn’t question it. We made it and that is all that matters. By the skin of our teeth, or should I say by the skin of our rubbers. Not that kind of rubber! Just wait. I’ll explain it all, if […]

The Sparrow, An Exercise in Rewriting (fiction by Lorelle VanFossen)

During the summer of 1999, while we were still living and working temporarily in Greensboro, North Carolina, clueless of the whirlwinds that were about to strike us down and lift us up and deposit us in Israel, we took a writing course. Of course, not your average writing course. This one was for writing and […]

Almost Worst Day of My Life – Day from Hell – Greensboro, North Carolina

If I thought the stress level for traveling was high, well, to quote our Carolina friends, "Whoo doggies!" Setting up a temporary home can be just as stressful. We finally have a phone! Yahoo! We probably won’t put an answering machine on here, since I’m here almost every day, so if there’s no answer, call […]

Meeting a Moose: Head On – Jasper, Alberta, Canada

Alongside the Ice Fields Parkway between Banff and Jasper National Parks lies unique natural depository of pink boulders. Sounds strange, doesn’t it? Out in the middle of nowhere: Pink boulders. Seems a passing glacier carrying these huge boulders from one place to another, and decided to drop its load. They sit out in the middle […]