happy 6 months of marriage.

dear husband aka charles aka dude,

happy 6 months. they've been fabulous, awesome, amazing, etc. but seriously, being married has been way better than being engaged. perhaps because we're not planning a wedding?! or maybe just because i love you so much. even when you don't take the trash out. maybe because you love me even though i hate cooking. here's to the next 6 months! and the ones after that, and the ones after that, and the ones after that ... and lots of takeout.

love, d

This week I ...

... decorated for Christmas.

... finished my Xmas presents for my parents (and one for us via Blurb). VERY excited to see the end result and hope I didn't make any spelling errors.

... spent all Thanksgiving morning cooking with C. We made riceballs, deviled eggs, apple pie, and spinach salad.

... ate too much artichoke and jalapeno dip.

... made a wreath. sort of.

... stalked everyone else's holiday decorations in our neighborhood.

... went skiing.

... did not venture out of the house on black friday.

... celebrated Thanksgiving with some friends and played lots of catchphrase. (Note to self: find game partner that is not competitive.)

... assembled a bookshelf and a bench.

... hung curtains. crookedly.

... discovered that our drill really doesn't work no matter how long you charge the battery.

... hung pictures on the wall.

... played ball at night with the dogs (thanks to all the trees with lights).

... watched Twilight. Hated it.

... made about 4 trips to Target. and 3 to safeway.

... cleaned the apartment. got it dirty again.

Now for the next two weeks, which will involve nothing but studying. If only I can get started ...

It's beginning to look ...

... a tiny bit like Christmas.

Don't judge me. It's the day after Thanksgiving which is officially the beginning of the holiday season.

The Thankful List

It is Thanksgiving after all .... so here are all the things I'm thankful for.

1. This dude.

2. This state that I can't believe I get to call home.

3. This place. (Aside from our neighbors that have just started a war with us, but we'll get to that later.)

4. These guys.

5. This family.

6. And the one I joined, too.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Psycho Thanksgiving

I got this as an email from one of my good friends & thought it was pretty funny. Imagine getting this letter from a family member before Thanksgiving. I'm assuming that names have been changed but if this happens to be your family, well then I'm sorry.

Awkward Family Story: The Thanksgiving Letter

From: Marney

As you all know a fabulous Thanksgiving Dinner does not make itself. I need to ask each of you to help by bringing something to complete the meal. I truly appreciate your offers to assist with the meal preparation.

Now, while I do have quite a sense of humor and joke around all the time, I COULD NOT BE MORE SERIOUS when I am providing you with your Thanksgiving instructions and orders. I am very particular, so please perform your task EXACTLY as I have requested and read your portion very carefully. If I ask you to bring your offering in a container that has a lid, bring your offering in a container WITH A LID, NOT ALUMINUM FOIL! If I ask you to bring a serving spoon for your dish, BRING A SERVING SPOON, NOT A SOUP SPOON! And please do not forget anything.

All food that is to be cooked should already be prepared, bring it hot and ready to serve, warm or room temp. These are your ONLY THREE options. Anything meant to be served cold should, of course, already be cold.

HJB—Dinner wine

The Mike Byron Family
1. Turnips in a casserole with a lid and a serving spoon. Please do not fill the casserole all the way up to the top, it gets too messy. I know this may come as a bit of a surprise to you, but most of us hate turnips so don’t feel like you a have to feed an army.
2. Two half gallons of ice cream, one must be VANILLA, I don’t care what the other one is. No store brands please. I did see an ad this morning for Hagan Daz Peppermint Bark Ice Cream, yum!! (no pressure here, though).
3. Toppings for the ice cream.
4. A case of bottled water, NOT gallons, any brand is ok.

The Bob Byron Family
1. Green beans or asparagus (not both) in a casserole with a lid and a serving spoon. If you are making the green beans, please prepare FOUR pounds, if you are making asparagus please prepare FIVE pounds. It is up to you how you wish to prepare them, no soupy sauces, no cheese (you know how Mike is), a light sprinkling of toasted nuts, or pancetta, or some EVOO would be a nice way to jazz them up.
2. A case of beer of your choice (I have Coors Light and Corona) or a bottle of clos du bois chardonnay (you will have to let me know which you will bring prior to 11/22).

The Lisa Byron Chesterford Family
1. Lisa as a married woman you are now required to contribute at the adult level. You can bring an hors d’ouvres. A few helpful hints/suggestions. Keep it very light, and non-filling, NO COCKTAIL SAUCE, no beans of any kind. I think your best bet would be a platter of fresh veggies and dip. Not a huge platter mind you (i.e., not the plastic platter from the supermarket).

The Michelle Bobble Family
1. Stuffing in a casserole with a serving spoon. Please make the stuffing sans meat.
2. 2.5-3 qts. of mashed squash in a casserole with a lid and serving spoon
3. Proscuitto pin wheel – please stick to the recipe, no need to bring a plate.
4. A pie knife

The June Davis Family
1. 15 LBS of mashed potatoes in a casserole with a serving spoon. Please do not use the over-size blue serving dish you used last year. Because you are making such a large batch you can do one of two things: put half the mash in a regulation size casserole with lid and put the other half in a plastic container and we can just replenish with that or use two regulation size casserole dishes with lids. Only one serving spoon is needed.
2. A bottle of clos du bois chardonnay

The Amy Misto Family (why do I even bother she will never read this)
1. A pumpkin pie in a pie dish (please use my silver palate recipe) no knife needed.
2. An apple pie in a pie dish, you can use your own recipe, no knife needed.

Looking forward to the 28th!!

Marney

Thanksgiving Traditions

Really, I'm not a huge fan of Thanksgiving. It's always been one of those holidays where family gets together, lots of awkward and uncomfortable comments are made, everybody drinks to forget the awkward comments, dinner isn't served for 5 hours because the host forgot that turkeys have to cook like all day, the family dog jumps on the table and starts to eat the food before everyone else does, everyone pretends they're not grossed out that the dog was licking the food, someone lets the bird out of its cage and no one can catch it until it starts pecking at my aunt's earrings, we finally sit down to a cold dinner, everyone pretends to like my aunt's "famous" sweet potatoes that taste like straight sugar, finally everyone leaves at 10 pm more exhausted than if they had just gone to work that day.

I love MY family, but I have to say that the most relaxing and fun thanksgivings were spent with Charlie's family. Less drama. Less uncomfortable undertones. More games.

Then we moved to Colorado and I was perfectly content to boycott the holiday. Kind of like Chandler on Friends. I hate turkey, and sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie, and green been casseroles. I'd be happy making turnips and an apple pie and drinking a bottle of wine. Unfortunately my husband wants to be like the Pilgrims and Indians every year. Spend all day cooking, watch lots of football (I'm sure the first Thanksgiving was filled with football), and end up with week's worth of leftovers. So celebrate Thanksgiving we are.

We're headed to some friends (which is a welcome change from the uncomfortable family holidays). They're providing the turkey, brats, and mashed potatoes. We're bringing the rice balls, and APPLE PIE (no pumpkin!). Yes, you read that right . Charlie's family has rice balls, chicken soup, and lasagna at every Thanksgiving. So far we're only carrying out the rice ball tradition but their menu sounds a lot better than the one I'm used to.

Happy Thanksgiving, ya'll. Enjoy whatever traditions you keep. And I'm suggesting a bottle of wine (or two) if you have to choke down turkey licked by a dog.

It's the little things ...

oh and, this mug. :)

... a Saturday afternoon filled with movies, tea, and pizza.

... skiing with my man.

... watching people decorate for the holidays.

... thinking about decorating our place for the holidays.

... Caribou Coffee. (Waaaay better than Starbucks.)

... Denver on a Sunday morning. So quiet.

... hanging out with friends on a friday night.

... a week of no school.

... hanging more curtains. finally.

... vanilla candles.

... red.

... having a clean house and a full fridge.

... watching Love Actually. My favorite holiday movie.

... mason jars.

... watching the sunset while walking the dogs.

... thanksgiving. mmm.... pies and turnips

... mint chocolate chip ice cream.

... thinking about hawaii in january. seriously cannot wait.

... knowing that I don't have to go to the mall for christmas shopping this year. i hate the mall.

Skiing

I knew when we moved to Colorado we'd be doing a lot more "outdoorsy" stuff. It was one of the reasons that I wanted to move there. Well, mainly for the hiking.

What I found out is that, people in Colorado are like outdoor extremists. They do everything. And they do everything well. It's not just good enough to hike. They hike, and bike, and run the hikes. They downhill ski, and nordic ski, and snowshoe. They climb rocks, and mountains, and glaciers. You name it. They do it. Me, I just like to hike. Now my husband ... he wants to do all of that other stuff as well. On the same day. Better than anyone else.

Last year we skied once. It was nice (and freezing) and I was perfectly satisfied with that. But Charlie wanted to get season passes this year and be one of those people that wakes up at 5 am on a Saturday to beat everyone else to the mountain. I like my sleep. So the great debate about passes began. Charlie was definitely getting a pass, but I was leaning towards a 4-pass. Sounded nice. 4 times. no pressure to ski more. And then I found out that there are blackout dates on the 4-pass and that as a student I get an awesome deal on a season pass. So I became a season pass holder.

Now I have to be honest. Skiing scares me. And when people are already dying on some blue trails in November I get even more scared.

Last weekend we went to Winter Park for our first skiing of the '09-'10 season. It was fine at first (remember we were the first freaking people on the mountain.) But after a few hours it got really icy. Probably because there were so many people. There were only 2 runs open. And all of their snow was blown snow. Anyway, around 2 I told Charlie that I wanted to head out. Because of the ice and me being a wuss. He wanted one more run. So we went up for the last time. And on our way down I fell. Which is really not surprising because I do that a lot. But this time I was going pretty fast and I hit a huge patch of ice. And I'm not kidding when I say that I slid down half the run on my back, did a backwards summersault, slid down some more on my face, and then finally rolled to a stop. When I finally recovered from my epic fall and crawled down the rest of the run, I found Charlie who asked me if I was crying, because my face was covered in snow. No dammit, I'm not crying I'm pissed.

I told Charlie that our Christmas presents to each other were going to be helmets this year. Because I'm only 26. And maybe wearing a helmet will make me less of a wuss. Maybe.

This was before I was covered in snow and ice.

Christmas Inspiration

How awesome is this?!

Makes me wish we set our apartment up a little differently.

Or had a Christmas tree that wasn't the size of a redwood.

photo credit.

I believe ...

... that what really matters is not where you are but who you're with.

... in starting every day with a hot cup of coffee. ... in saying "I love you" every chance you get.
... in doing everything outside.
... that everyone should have a dog at some point in their life. Hello, unconditional love.
... that it really is the little things that make life so amazing.
... in spending time alone.
... that relationships are hard and you have to work hard to keep them special.
... in dessert.
... that everyone has more than one soul-mate and that sometimes that soul-mate is a friend.
... that kisses from my dogs and hugs from my dude can make anything better.
... that sometimes you have to "leap before you look".
... that dinners in are much better than dinners out.
... in taking pictures, all the time, of everything.
... in reading fiction.
... in happy hours with my husband. Sometimes 5 o'clock is just too long to wait.
... that sunsets over the Rocky Mountains are the best.
... in beach days that start with a cup of coffee and end with a bonfire.
... in driving with the windows down.
... in tan lines.
... that you're never too old to play in the snow, or read a picture book, or eat cookie batter.
... in weekday hikes.
... that sometimes it's good to be scared shitless.
... in drinking champagne for no reason.
... that you have to believe in yourself.
... in living in the moment.
... that my dogs have taught be more about how to live life than most people I know.
... that Valentine's Day should be celebrated. Without flowers.
... that a part of me will always be 8 years old.
... in colored Christmas lights.
... in being happy with where you are right now.

Snow love.

i love snow.

i love snowflakes and

snow on trees.

i love snow at night and tire tracks in the snow.

i love dogs in the snow.

i love throwing snowballs at charlie (not so much when he throws them back).

i love hats with pom-poms and warm mittens.

lovely snowy weekend.

Lovely little Saturday

I enjoyed lots of this today ...

and lots of movies ...

and pot roast.

I love Saturdays.

Especially when there is snow.

Fuzzy Slippers and Bully Sticks

A few years ago my sister gave me these pink, fuzzy slippers for Christmas. They looked like something Reese Witherspoon would have worn in Legally Blond but they were so comfortable. I wore them all winter long. Then last year Henry ate them.

You see he went through a phase last year where, when we left the house he would go into our closet, take out all of our shoes, and rearrange them throughout the house. I thought it was cute. And then one day I came home and my shoes were rearranged and my pink fuzzy slippers were shredded. He was quite proud of himself. After that we started closing our closet door.

Anyway, a few days ago I went out and bought myself some new fuzzy slippers ... I mean winter's basically here and I hate socks. I made sure when I brought them home that I showed them to Henry ... we had a long discussion about the fact that these were not toys. He seemed to understand. Then today I got home from running errands. Charlie and I were eating lunch and I looked around and noticed that my fuzzy slippers were in the living room, when I had left them in the closet upstairs. Basically, Henry didn't listen to a word I said during our "fuzzy slipper" conversation. I'm wondering how long these slippers will last.

Henry, if you're reading this .... these are NOT toys.

I decided to buy him a toy that he could chew on. I got a rawhide for him and a bully stick for Dunkin. He ignored the rawhide and stole the bully stick from Dunkin.

It's the little things ...

this picture makes me laugh.

... booking our hotel in Hawaii. I seriously can't wait!

... chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream.

... Woodchuck. My favorite cold weather beer.

... taking Henry for 2 hour walks.

... pizza on a Sunday.

... going to Best Buy and not buying anything.

... a bubble bath.

... cold weather this weekend. Perfect excuse to eat a lot & watch a lot of movies.

... organizing stuff.

... the way my cat can always find a spot in the sun.

... down comforters.

... watching my dog play.

... laundry on a wednesday.

... netflix on a friday.

Holiday Decorations.

I started a little early this year. Henry was my first victim.

I'm pretty sure if he could talk he'd be saying, "you cannot be freaking serious". But I am.

The Chunk.

... no I'm not talking about the result of eating an entire bag of Halloween candy by myself. I'm talking about the greatest redneck event since the invention of NASCAR. Only this is better than NASCAR. This, is Punkin Chunkin.

Now before we discuss the greatest event in the history of events, there's something you should know about me. I'm a dirty girl. Not in the way that I don't shower every day ... I do, don't worry. But there's nothing I love more than spending a few days in the woods, swapping showers for a bandana, eating dirty trail mix, sleeping outside, and returning more dirty & tired than you thought possible. Case in point, camping in Dolly Sods. Probably the dirtiest I've ever been. Or at least top 5. You see ... we camped in the middle of a wilderness area, took off for a hike (in an area with no marked trails) without a compass or map, got lost in a thunderstorm, and then had a mud fight on our way back to our tents.

Filthy.

Now back to Punkin Chunkin. The reason for the event is for "engineers" to build ridiculous contraptions that fling pumpkins. The pumpkin that goes the farthest is the winner. They had a whole show on the Science channel about it. But really, the point of P.C. is to be the greatest tailgating event known to man. One time we didn't even make it to the event and just pulled over in a random field. It was fabulous. People drive for hours through the middle of nowhere, to arrive at the middle of nowhere a.k.a. the middle of a used-to-be corn field, to tailgate their asses off. We don't watch the pumpkins, although one time I did ride a mechanical bull and eat a funnel cake. Does that count as participating? But in order to enjoy this event you either have to be, A: a total redneck. (I mean people bring their huntin' dogs and wear their camouflage overalls to this thing) or B. Someone who doesn't mind getting dirty. Because you get dirty. Very dirty.

See ... cornfield.

This awesome event happens to be this weekend. Sadly we will not be attending because it's one of those things that takes place back east. Along with leaves changing colors, and the Preakness, and people popping their collars. To all the people tailgating: have fun, we'll miss you. I speak for myself, Charlie, and the dogs.

It's the little things ...

Henry watching the snow fall.

... 2 feet of snow in October.

... watching my dog go completely nuts in the snow.

... shoveling. Such good exercise & so much more fun than anything else.

... sitting inside drinking coffee & watching the snowflakes fall.

... hot toddies.

... cut flowers that last forever.

... drinking tea & reading a magazine while Charlie naps on the couch.

... dogs that snuggle with me when C is gone.

... holiday traditions.

... coming home to warm soup in a crock pot.

... a husband who cleans & cooks!

... a cozy quilt.

... a long walk with my dogs on a cold fall day when no one else is outside.

Randomness...

Saw this somewhere ... can't remember where & decided to do it.

FIVE things you wish you could say to FIVE different people right now

• I love you.
• I never want to move back east.
• Money doesn't grow on trees ...
• Can you cook the turkey?
• Do it yourself, dammit.

TEN things about yourself:

• I love magazines and coffee.
• Every time it snows I still get as excited as I did when I was five.
• I love long walks in the afternoon.
• I re-read books all the time.
• Every Christmas I watch Love Actually.
• I love nights in with my husband.
• I'm secretly jealous of photographers or anyone with talent behind a camera.
• Sometimes I can't believe that I'm married. It still feels like we're playing house.
• I hate scary movies.
• Valentine's Day is my favorite holiday.

SEVEN ways to win your heart:

• Make me breakfast, or lunch, or dinner.
• Clean the house.
• Buy me a book.
• Be there.
• Drag me up a mountain.
• Surprise me.

SEVEN things that cross your mind a lot:

• My husband.
• My dog's bad manners.
• School.
• What I'm going to do when I finish school.
• My family.
• Mountain adventures.

FOUR things you do before you fall asleep:

• Take the dogs out.
• Brush my teeth.
• Kiss the husband.
• Snuggle.

FOUR things you see right now:

• 2 dogs.
• A cat.
• A yellow tea kettle.
• TONS of candy.

THREE songs that you listen to often:

• Chicken Fried
• Long Day is Over
• Gettin' you Home

TWO things you want to do before you die:

• Climb Mt. Elbert.
• Adopt a dog.

ONE confession:

• I start listening to Christmas music in October. Early October.

Cozy...

Couldn't you just hibernate here all winter long?

I know I could. Curled up by one of the fireplaces with some dogs at my feet & and an endless supply of hot toddies ...

Happy Halloween!

Charlie and I continued our annual Halloween tradition this year of not dressing up, cooking riceballs, handing out candy, carving pumpkins, & roasting pumpkin seeds.

We borrowed a pumpkin carving set from some friends so we were able to carve some tricked out pumpkins this year instead of our usual ones, carved with a kitchen knife.

I think my inspiration was obvious.

And our pumpkins together .

We got candy ready for the 3 trick-or-treaters that we had.

Now we're stuck with finding something to do with all this candy.

I roasted the pumpkin seeds from our pumpkins ...

... while Charlie started making rice balls aka fried goodness.

getting them ready ...

... now for the healthy part.

and this is what they look like when cut in half. Charlie loves these so much he's eating two for breakfast right now.

Hope everyone had a good Halloween! Happy Daylight Savings Time!