canada, crepes & central park

since the three of us enjoyed our first cruise together so much we decided to set sail on another adventure, which looked very similar to the first. there was a lot of eating. there was a lot of relaxing. there were a lot of evening crepes. there was a lot of trivia. and there was a lot of eating. there was also a lot of football via satellite which delighted donald to no end. the main difference was that instead of going south, we headed north and donald got to use his passport in canada....

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the one where donald becomes a nurse

it's honestly all very surreal. donald becoming a nurse has basically been the goal we've been working toward since we got married, and now that it's here we're just kind of staring at each other in disbelief.  nursing school is a trip. you start the process strong, ready for what lies ahead.  you take your prerequisites [even the stupid ones]. this takes much longer than you initially anticipate.  you apply to a program.  you get accepted!  you...

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our oldest friend

i've been honored to have quite a few friends over the years who were eligible for the senior discount, but so far i've only known one to hit the century mark. our friend edith lived to be 106...and a half. i may have only known her for the part of her life, but even as she neared and then passed one hundred years, the best words to describe her were funny and feisty. you wouldn't typically expect a centenarian to surprise you with an off hand comment that makes everyone belly laugh, but edith...

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anniversary number four

i have to admit...this one kind of snuck up on me. with all the birthday hoopla immediately following christmas i've been at bit lost in the calendar. a whole week seemed to disappear without my realizing it and when missy asked about our anniversary plans on tuesday i muttered something about figuring it out next week. to which she replied, "it's in two days". whoopsie!thankfully our fried chicken tradition takes some of the pressure out of the planning process. we started the night at gus's world...

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the thirty forty

the morning of the big day dawned bright and clear, and a balmy 5 degrees. we had plans to meet at the leslie's in the afternoon to head out on our little 'road trip'. when we arrived the first surprise was that we weren't just leaving as us, we were leaving in character. erica and i had written a screenplay titled 'threat level gold' and donald and grant were the stars. we sat down for a table read but soon decided that in order to really get into the roles we needed to take it out on location....

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big smooth's big 40

a few years ago while hanging out with grant and erica we discovered that donald and grant not only have birthdays three days apart, but they are specifically ten years and three days apart, meaning they will always be celebrating milestone birthdays together. erica and i decided that such a memorable occasion required an equally memorable trip, so about seven month ago we got down to business. i was happily planning this one and only birthday surprise when it occurred to me that in order to keep...

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