Our Big Little Adventures: About Us

Some of the most exciting moments of my life began after meeting my husband Richard. So let's begin there.

2004-2007
Richard and I met our first week of college at the University of Texas at Dallas (It was not love at first sight. Or second!). UT-Dallas has a mascot named Temoc. Meet Temoc. Yes, I'm serious. We loved our quirky college and fell in love. We purchased a plant and named him Fredrick and painted our first apartment lime green...and then I caught the kitchen on fire upon painting the apartment white again.

2007
College graduation. We were so excited to graduate that we got engaged and decided to go right back to school. I know, confusing. Then Fredrick (the 8th) died. And then Pickle joined our family. This is a Pickle. We soon learned that Pickle had many talents including eating a light bulb, chewing holes in the couch to create the ultimate bundle spot and throwing up neon orange candy corn which stained the carpet....it coupled well with the lime green walls, so we kept her.

2008
Richard is from a very small East Texas town and I grew up in a suburb of Dallas. I thought it would be fun to have a "country boy, city girl" wedding. Richard disagreed. We were married in Justin, TX. But Richard got to jump in a tux, so it worked.

2009-2010
We both graduated from Grad School and were excited about the newly acquired college loans that entered our lives. Memories. Just like every new college graduate, we wanted to do something big and change the world. So we began apartment ministry through Apartment Life, Inc. and the CARES Program. We were shocked they let us in after we had killed so many Fredricks. Sundae then came bouncing into our lives from Oklahoma. The shelter dog that was afraid of grass is now our guard dog, lap dog and anti-anything that has wheels. She's special.

Somewhere in-between all the excitement we developed our bassinet list....because we both like lists.

Richard + Jessa's Bassinet List
- Travel ALL 50 States (together)
- Get our Master's Degree
- Pay off college loans
- Move to New York City
- Visit Europe

2012
We lost our minds, packed everything we owned into a rented mini-van...sold the rest, and traveled 1,500 miles across the United States to live in 450 Square Feet in New York City.

2015
Elle Madison Thomas arrived on November 1st, 2015 in New York City. I went into labor Halloween night and took an Uber to the hospital among the late night costume bar hoppers. Elle took her sweet time and we went through Daylight Savings Time, through the entire New York City Marathon (that passed my window facing 5th Ave and Central Park)...and then joined this world fully using her lungs, which she is still the master of to this day!