rubix cubes and library books

donald is a very good gift giver. like, really good. i like to think i'm pretty decent myself, but honestly, he's a lot better. it is very rare for him to strike out. but even when he does, he does it well. which brings us to the tale of two christmases. one summer, before we were married, i went on a mission trip to mexico. on this trip i learned how to solve a rubix cube. what can i say? i'm gifted. when i returned home i wanted to keep up with my new skill, but alas, i did not own a...

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the day baseball shut down the city

let me first say that we are cardinals fans. first and foremost and forever. but as donald would say, the royals are our american league team. and that team has made life a little extra fun the past two seasons. last year the royals ended a very lengthy stretch of being terrible by surprising everyone with a run all the way to game seven of the world series, and they did it with flair. so many games were won in extra innings and dramatic fashion. it was exciting, it was thrilling and it...

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our ordinary time

a long, long time ago i was telling a friend what i liked about donald and i distinctly remember that one of the things i mentioned was that he did his very favorite things almost every day. if i were to dream up the perfect day or the perfect week it would involve a lot of activities that you just can't realistically insert into everyday life. taking a trip. going to the beach. having a big party with all my far flung friends. dancing. camping. some of my ideas are more accessible than others,...

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the ardyer olympics

because the ardens have been coming to the midwest with such frequency the past few years, i was long overdue for a trip to see them. this was my first visit to their very own house, and i am now able to again say that i have visited them in every place they've ever lived. right after landing in sunny california we went straight from the airport to in-n-out. because of course we did. it's what we do. and spoiler alert: we stopped on our way back to the airport too. after getting...

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storms, star wars and summer

friday morning i rolled over in bed and noticed donald looking at me intently as if he wanted me to wake up. i mumbled some incoherent jargon questioning why in the world he would be waking me up at the crack of 9:30 in the morning. and then we had this conversation: d: i think the power is still out. s: okay.  did it storm? d: yes, it was very bad. it looked like a monsoon outside. i considered waking you up so we could go to the basement. s: [rolls eyes] i'm...

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the struggle is real

ah...nursing school.  such an elusive little thing. donald has worked on the psych unit at ku med ever since he graduated from sbu. he likes it and he's good at it. [like, really good at it] the trick is that there is really only one position you can hold in a hospital with a psychology degree and he already has it. so in order for it to make sense for him to stay there forever, which he would love, the most logical option is for him to become a nurse. nursing school was already...

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eat like you mean it

our spring break adventure was a seven day caribbean cruise with my mom, donald and i. while the ports are great and all, i honestly have to say we were mostly there for the 24/7 food [and i was also in it for the sunshine, though not everyone shared that sentiment]. some friends of ours recently went on a 'love like you mean it' marriage cruise, so it obviously made sense for us to name our voyage the 'eat like you mean it' cruise.  our days at sea looked a little something like...

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the eateries of raytona beach

while driving down 350 the other day donald decided that as a lifelong resident of his beloved raytona, he should make it his personal mission to visit every dining establishment this fine town has to offer. we figured he must have a pretty good head start from his first thirty eight years, specifically in the pizza and fast food categories. when we got home we set up shop on the couch and got our google on. first we mapped out the boundaries based on the raytown city limits, and then proceeded...

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anniversary number two

for the second birthday of our marriage we kept with tradition and opted for one of the fancier establishments on our 'fried chicken of kansas city' list. i wanted to figure out a way to make it feel like date night as opposed to just a dinner out so i pulled up a list of fun date questions i had recently come across and we started in. we predicted each others answers to some of the questions, but we both learned some new things too. we were only two thirds of the way through the list when we...

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the dark sides

we all have our quirks and idiosyncrasies. sometimes these peculiar behaviors of ours even start to rub off on the people around us. specifically the people we live with. this happened to us. donald has this one particular trait that seems to rub off on his roommates without fail. that would be his sleeping pattern. the one similar to that of a bat. to be fair, he has worked the evening shift faithfully for over ten years, so i can't say that i blame him for his tendency to go to bed just...

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