Bach To Reality

Am I the only one that misses Christmas "Newsletters"? I LOVE Christmas Cards.  Don't get me wrong. But I love reading about what is going on with your family!  Ooohhh, you should start a blog! Anyway, Didn't I just do this ? How does a year pass by so quickly?  Maybe when a year is filled with love, laughter, learning (vacations, wedding planning and 1/2 marathon training) it just flies by! So besides some fairly obvious events - what have we been up to? Eleanor I can not believe Eleanor is going to be 5 this Christmas.  She is spending a second year at her preschool/daycare and is just loving it.  She's busy learning to recognize and write her upper and lower case letters - and just brought home two "sight" word books. She can now read "My" and "At".  I know...I know...It's just amazing! ;-)  But seriously, when did my kid get old enough to learn to read? She's busy with swim lessons and continues to have no f...

 Look what I did!! I really wanted to roast my own turkey. And I did. Sorry, Friend... Removing the neck was the GROSSEST thing I have every done!  I screamed Andy's name - He asked what he should do...I said, Grab the camera! :)  I couldn't find the liver...until I finally understood "second body cavity".  Ew. Rubbing with olive oil for that nice golden brown look. My bird - dressed and ready to go!  Yup.  We bungee corded our oven.  We needed to head to the NB Christmas parade and didn't want to take any chances with dog wonder! All done!  And not a minute too soon - look at how stuffed that oven got! Happy Thanksgiving - From our family to yours!  And - the bird was DELICIOUS!  Moist and juicy!  I was pretty excited to do something with the bones and carcass, but realized time was not my friend, and gave it to my dad to who has been simmering it all day to make all natural turkey broth for us...

It seems a little too obvious, doesn't it?  To write a post on Thanksgiving?  A post about the things I'm thankful for? About how lucky I am?  But I am lucky.  And I am blessed.  And I do have SO much to be thankful for.  It's been a crazy little adventure - this journey called life. But I have an amazing family - health - and everything else a girl could ask for.  And I have a guardian angel. A bittersweet blessing.  And on this, our second Thanksgiving as a family, I started to see little things pop up...little things that, on year two, can be considered traditions.  I think the best way to start Thanksgiving is with a nice run. And since Thanksgiving is such a family holiday, it's even better to run as a family, with family.  And we certainly would consider these two family.  Andy and I both love them both as brothers. Brothers neither one of us had.  And Eleanor loves them as Uncles.  And I certai...

Fr. Don shared this poem with us today.  It's honestly the first time I had heard it. And it struck an inner chord with me. I want to remember it. And mostly, I want it to resonate with Eleanor. I want Eleanor to remember it. To live by it. And, I want you to remember it.  And to live by it.  And...at least...in this moment - enjoy it. Mother Teresa's Anyway Poem People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centered; Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; Succeed anyway. If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; Be honest and frank anyway. What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; Build anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; Be happy anyway. The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; Do good anyway. Give the world ...

I'm slow to posting here...sorry! So most of you have probably already seen this on Facebook.  However, out of my 5 or so blog readers, I'm sure ONE of you don't have Facebook!  And if that's the case, then you haven't seen it! THE WEDDING HIGHLIGHT !  4 minutes and 4 seconds....so even if you have seen it...watch it again!  Did you hear how this all happened?  I didn't plan on having a videographer.  However, our friends Candi and Scott were married in May and their wedding highlight video was posted just weeks after the wedding. I sat in my office and teared up at the video. It was so amazing - the perfect length - and received so quickly after their big day.  The video was through Best Man Media .  I picked up the phone, called Zach and said, "I need a wedding video!"  Lucky for me, Zach didn't hang up on me, and 4 short months later, he was filming our wedding.  I didn't tell Andy.  I gave it to him as a wedding prese...

  Another fabulous weekend.  And you know what made it even better?  It was Halloween! I have always loved Halloween and have long since said, if Halloween meant family, the way Thanksgiving and Christmas mean family, Halloween would be the superior holiday!   Lucky for me...this Halloween DID mean family!  (As, actually, most of them have turned out to mean!)   Friday night we went to my sister's and celebrated Halloween with her family and my parents.   My sister and I celebrated by eating a caramel apple a piece.  The kids ran around.  It was fabulous.    Saturday morning I got up and ran my last "long race" of the "season".  A few short hours later, I committed to running a marathon relay with a friend.  I'm a sick, sick person!  Oh well.  Maybe, at least, I can still take a small hiatus from running in December!   Then Saturday afternoon my nephew came over and the 4 of us heade...

Say what you want about Christmas - which, is wonderful, don't get me wrong...but I love to argue that October and Halloween is the most wonderful time of the year!  And, I mean, in the very least, it's the beginning of the most wonderful time of the year - the beauty of the fall color, which gives way to the intricate, soft, quiet snowflakes.  Frost etched on windows.  Halloween candy, which gives way to turkey and stuffing, which gives way to Christmas deliciousness!  2 weekends ago we made our "annual" trip to the pumpkin patch and last weekend we carved them. And by "we" I mean Andy and I.  Eleanor didn't want to touch the "yucky insides"...crap....I really am raising a priss - aren't I?  Anywho - we made her keep us company while we gutted and then she painted while we carved. We are ready for Halloween weekend!    She did NOT appreciate me taking her picture.  It's OK - I told her she'd appreciate the picture w...

Blogger started acting up the other night when I was blogging - so I did what I do well - admitted defeat and quit :) But I'm back at it again to show you the wonderful world of wedding rehabbing.  So, I was trying to tell you that Andy's boutonniere was sitting on our dresser for several days.  That's the thing about not having flowers - I couldn't just throw away the bout! So - Wedding rehab 101 began! I happened to have a green foam "wreath" sitting around the house too - and as I've mentioned I have a few pieces of burlap waiting to be repurposed as well.  And so a new door wreath began...                                         And I was so happy that our cake topper was saved as well! (Did you see our cake?  I can't WAIT to share pictures of that!!  A-mazing!  And so lucky that my talented moth...

Do you have a bunch of stuff left over from your wedding?  I do!  I have mason jars coming out of my...ears! I have enough burlap to wallpaper the house! But...fear not!  My little crafting mind has been on overdrive and I'm sure, in good time, everything will have a new purpose in life!   Wedding crafts will make way for...well...NEW wedding crafts! My first adventure wasn't so much of an adventure.  It was very premeditated. Our guest book.  I knew what I didn't want: And I knew what I've done: I thought about the wine bottle idea: But really?  A giant wine bottle? I really liked the bench idea: ...but we really weren't having THAT big of a wedding, despite how it often felt that way - so would a bench really be cool with only a few signatures?   And then I found this on...wait for it...Pinterest. Which really turned out to be something I could BUY on Etsy . But why buy that which you can make?! So the fi...

So...this feels weird.  I haven't blogged just to get something off my chest in a long time! You know. The blog for no reason post.  The type it all out and send it off into cyberspace post. But the truth is...I'm not really sure what to say. Because I don't really know what's wrong. I'm just in a mood. Running didn't really help. The slutty brownie didn't help (yes we are STILL eating them!) And I'm too lazy and too sugared out to open a bottle of wine. And I'm cold. And I refuse to turn on the heat. And Andy is at Monday night football, so I can't even whine to him. So...I got to thinking.  What the heck is wrong with me? I know part of it is that deep rooted depression that happens after something wonderful happens.  I don't mean real depression.  But just that sadness of it all being over. Don't get me wrong...I'm not sad for one minute that I'm done planning my wedding.  But I'm sad it's over! We...

Tuesday was Andy's 36th Birthday.  Bwahahaha - what is funnier? That Andy is 36 or that I just blogged that for "all the world to see"? (which is also funny because I think I'm back to like 1 follower of my little old blog!) Anywho....I LOVE birthdays. They are a huge deal to me. To Andy - not so much. But that doesn't mean that Eleanor and I aren't going to make huge deal of Andy's birthday!  He's our Andy and he deserves it. Friday we went out to dinner and celebrated.  But Tuesday night we decided to stay in and have a low-key family night.  BUT...it was our first birthday together since the wedding.  And well...being newlyweds and all....I wanted to spice things up.  I wanted to get something a little naughty for Andy. Maybe even a little "slutty".  Don't be offended.  Let me introduce to you...The Slutty Brownie.  So easy...and ooooohhhhh, so naughty!  And this little recipe is aaaalllll over Pinterest....

Remember this ? Remember this ? Remember this ? You better have clicked on those! Well now remember this:   1/2 Marathon = complete!    It's funny because as I was looking up those old links, I actually was reading the previous posts.  My feelings the day before the 1/2 were exactly the same.  In fact I used those exact words - I feel like I'm about to ride a rollercoaster!   So how did it go down this time?  Mile 1 - Easy, but I realized I was running WAY to fast and wouldn't be able to maintain that pace for 12 more. Mile 2 - SLOW DOWN, Dana Mile 3 - Still more than 30 seconds ahead of pace.  I had a mentally stated goal and a verbally stated goal.  I kept my eyes on the 2:10 pace runners, trying to reach my mentally stated goal. Mile 4 (I'm at the Harley Museum now), still too fast, and time for music.  Eh, the music didn't do much for me and I was messin' around with my phone for t...