Kandice Bridges is a former tax attorney and self-described word nerd. She started Smarty Pants Puzzles, LLC in 2021 and launched her Tooney & Bug series of puzzle and activity books in 2022.
Pictured: Kandice Bridges and her daughter
The Whole Kit and Caboodle:
Before graduating from high school in Burlington, Ontario two months after she turned 17, Kandice lived in 5 states (Kansas, Missouri, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Texas), Saudi Arabia, and Canada. During her four years as an undergraduate at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, she added Oklahoma and Arkansas to the list. Yes, her parents moved a lot. No, her parents were not in the military.
At SMU, Kandice was very involved in the campus community. A few highlights included representing SMU as an Advanced Academic Registration and Orientation (AARO) Leader, serving as the Vice President of Alpha Delta Pi sorority, working as a research assistant to the incomparable Dr. Robin Pinkley at the Cox School of Business, and being one of only three non-fine arts majors in a cast of about 50 to be selected to perform for the legendary Bob Hope in a variety show at the dedication of the Bob Hope Theatre at the SMU Meadows School of the Arts.
In 1994, two months after her 21st birthday, Kandice became the first woman on either side of her family to graduate from college. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Political Science, a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, and completed a minor in Theatre Arts.
Pictured: Kandice & Stephen
In the fall of 1994, she began law school at the University of Arkansas School of Law, but she missed Dallas. So, after marrying her college sweetheart, Stephen, in June of 1995, she transferred to the Dedman School of Law at SMU.
In 1997, she earned her Juris Doctor and was licensed to practice law. In 1999, she earned a Master of Law in Taxation from the SMU Dedman School of Law.
Pictured: Kandice & her father
In the fall of 1996 her father, Dan, began law school at SMU. Kandice and Dan shared a locker for several years. When Kandice earned her LLM, she had the honor of hooding her dad for his J.D. Both of Kandice’s grandmothers attended the graduation ceremony. It was epic.
Kandice worked for an AmLaw 100 law firm as an ERISA associate, as a manager at a Big 4 accounting firm, was Assistant General Counsel to a global software technology company, and was a Senior Director at a premier tax consulting firm.
In 2012, when Kandice was picking up her young daughter, her spine fractured seemingly out of nowhere. It was apparently a congenital defect in her spine. For nearly six years she was essentially bedridden and endured upwards of 10 spine surgeries. During that time, she found escape from the excruciating pain and boredom with music, books, movies, and puzzles.
Kandice was physically unable to return to her work as a tax attorney (she is unable to sit for prolonged periods of time), so she began freelance writing. Her work has appeared in Forbes Magazine, Kitchens & Baths Magazine, Texas Meetings + Events Magazine, and on CNN.com, Bankrate.com, Fidelity.com, Yahoo!Finance.com, and others. She also worked for Thomson Reuters as a Senior Editor and was the editor for the ERISA Compliance for Health and Welfare Plans Manual.
She started Smarty Pants Puzzles, LLC in 2021 and launched the Tooney & Bug line of puzzle and activity books in 2022.
Kandice and Stephen have been together for 30 years and are soon to be empty nesters. They have two children whose childhood nicknames were Tooney and Bug. Their very private son and not-so-private daughter are kind, smart, and funny. Sarcasm runs in the family. So does ADHD. We are batting 50:50 on introverts and extroverts. It’s not hard to determine who is what. We are super fun at parties.
Kandice and Stephen have three rescue chihuahua mixes who collectively weigh less than 35 pounds. Eddie, Charlie, and JuJu keep Kandice company while she works.
Kandice is a diehard SMU football fan (Go Mustangs!), is a masochist when it comes to the Dallas Cowboys, and loves hot yoga. She snorts and cries when she laughs hard enough. She legit cries at commercials and is guilty of overusing gifs. Just ask her kids.
Kandice adores musical theatre: her favorites include Les Miserables and Hamilton. For nearly 15 years, she wrote material and performed in the Dallas Bar Foundation’s Bar None Show, a variety show produced, directed, written, and performed by Dallas attorneys, with proceeds funding the Sarah T. Hughes diversity scholarship at the SMU law school.
Kandice’s favorite dessert is the German chocolate cake that only her mom, Bonnie, and her grandmother, Naomi, know how to make right. She loves spending time with her parents-in-law, Alec and Carol, on their ranch in East Texas (it has cows!). She is the proud aunt to 5 nieces and nephews.
Her life has been pretty crazy. She has so many stories. SO. MANY.
