the twelve dyer days of christmas

technically speaking i think our christmas festivities stretched over ten days instead of twelve, but i'm rounding up.  we had a house full of friends and family staying with us and stopping by all week leading up to christmas and that's just how we like it.  our sleep schedules took a bit of a hit, but it was definitely worth it.  [plus we're pretty spoiled in the sleep department to begin with, so we can't really complain]   this was also the first year for me to not...

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the first year

my dear friend joy got married last weekend. i somewhat randomly joined a bible study she was in over ten years ago and we are still studying together today. since she was the first friend to get married after me, i started thinking about what i wanted to share with her as she begins her marriage.   i thought back to the cards and advice that were given to us and remembered that the ones that stuck out in my mind the most were the handful that warned us not to be surprised if our...

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the year donald started to travel

prior to our marriage donald hadn't traveled much. a senior trip to colorado, a few vegas trips to visit his brothers and that was it. he had otherwise not been more than five hours from kansas city at any given time in his life.  i, on the other hand, start to feel kind of anxious and unsettled if more than six months have passed since i've been on a plane.   we honeymooned in california, but after that travel took a backseat while we worked on our budget and settled into...

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the dyers take manhattan

our fist official post-honeymoon vacation was to one of my dream destinations...new york city. as a traveler i usually try not to be uber-touristy, but for our first time in nyc i was willing to tourist it up a bit. we made a 'must see' list and attempted to get at least a little off the beaten path. day one: the first morning we stepped out of our hotel onto a quaint new york neighborhood street and took a stroll through greenwich village, where we paid a visit to the homes of two of...

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east 78th street

we had a moment...my house and me. last weekend my mom came to town and we had garage sale number three, which i expect to be our last for a good long while. and though the first two sales were definitely helpful and worthwhile, this last one seemed to do the trick. we've gone through, cleared out, sold and organized for the past year and a half [almost exactly] and i finally feel like i've got a handle on things. sure our house isn't perfect, i expect it never will be. i've loved it all along...

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once upon a time

once upon a time there was a girl who loved summer, swimming and sunshine.   she also loved a boy who didn't particularly love those same three things.   but the boy saw how much the girl loved to be in the water, so the boy... took the girl... to one of her favorite places... and they had the  best day eve...

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hanging from the rafters

our most recent family reunion was a special one for me because it was the first time donald came too.  though he had already met almost everyone it was fun to officially have him there as part of the family. as usual we had fun talking, laughing and just being together.  typically the same stories get told year after year, but this time we put a new spin on one of those old classics. back in the good old days, when the six original cousins were considerably younger,...

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d.w.d.w.w.

donald has been working hard on his prerequisites for nursing school so the end of the semester seemed like the perfect excuse to bring back the d.w.d.w.d., but this time he got a whole "do whatever donald wants week"! now an ideal week to my husband looks a lot different than an ideal week for me. mine would be full of activities, he likes to take it slow. he loves his recliner and one of his requests was for lots of time to spend there. i lost track of the number of movies he watched,...

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eggs and horses

we stayed in kansas city this easter, which marked the first time i haven't been in st. louis for at least part of a major holiday. there were things i missed about easter in st. louis, but i was glad to be able to celebrate the best holiday with our church family in kc. plus my mom came to town and i still got to hunt for eggs, so i really can't complain. since our siblings had other family events to attend i figured it was time to host my first holiday meal. it wasn't fancy, but...

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stl day

ah spring. the time of year missouri can't decide if it should be sunny or snowing. since donald had time off from school for spring break we decided to head out of town for a week of relaxation at casa de marilyn. usually when we make a trip to st. louis we end up spending the majority of our time making the rounds to see family and friends [which we love to do!], but this time we took a different approach. we wanted our week to be pretty low key and relaxed, so donald and i each picked just...

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sealed with a kiss

i love getting the mail. it's one of life's little pleasures. and we've just had a very exciting week in mail getting. the first to arrive was a big blue box with our wedding album in it and i must say...it was worth the wait. i love it. it was exactly want i wanted. then a brown box came. and this one has a back story.   we've already had two garage sales since i've moved to 78th street, resulting in a number of unneeded items leaving the premises. this makes me exceedingly...

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goals and progress

at some point soon after our honeymoon i made a list of goals for our first year. it wasn't so much a goal list as a to do list, but i called them goals just the same. there were things for us as a couple, home improvement projects to tackle and budgets to be made. i revisited this list recently and it turns out i was a little over zealous in my assumptions of what we'd accomplish in the house department during our first year. and by 'a little' i actually mean 'a lot'. but i must say we redeemed...

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anniversary number one

it's funny how time can move so fast and so slow all at the same time. i've had lots of friends say they can't believe it's been a year since our wedding. and i hear that. but then at the exact same time my life before marriage seems like a long, long time ago. life is strange like that. but either way you look at it, we're celebrating the big number one! so far we give marriage a hearty thumbs up. and in observation of this year of wedded bliss we cashed in a wedding gift for a weekend at...

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ten years

my dad passed away ten years ago today. i got the news with a middle of the night phone call from the funeral home, not the hospital where he had been for the previous few days, nor the skilled care facility he was living in. i wasn't supposed to find out that way. the poor woman on the phone naturally assumed i already knew, she had no idea she was the one breaking the news. it wasn't the way it was supposed to be, but most of the previous year had felt like things weren't the way they were supposed...

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