Let the blogging begin, again, soon, soonish, maybe.

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Liz writing:

Hello faithful followers. If you are getting this email notice, then bravo for keeping your preferences for over two years!

A lot has happened since arriving in Missouri, and Mark and I are going to start chronicling the more mundane aspects of our now domestic life. In May we married with many of our family and friends to help celebrate. In June, on our way back from our fabulous Hawaii honeymoon, I convinced Mark that it was FINALLY time to get a dog. Mark relented with the stipulation that we needed to have a back yard. That may have been a stall tactic, but much to his surprise, I used that against him. Our lease was up in August and thought, well maybe we should begin looking for a house. Within a month with the super powers of our wonderful Realtor Lucy Weir, we made an offer and 30 days later (really, 29), we had the keys.

Then we realized what we had done and starting drinking, a lot. Not really, but there was a ton of packing, unpacking and retrieving our things from the various basements, closets and attics of our very gracious family and friends. Between travel to see friends marry, work obligations, school schedules and one girls weekend, we're just beginning to hang pictures!

Labor day weekend we reached out to a Great Dane rescue group to do some reconnaissance after meeting one extremely charming mega-pupster in our neighborhood who had been rescued. Though we promised to stay in touch while looking at other extra large breeds, we were impressed. We expected to take on a new member to our family sometime in November or December. Surprise- Janet the super Great Dane rescue lady called two days later. She had the perfect dog for us and we were to meet her very soon otherwise other potential owners were to be contacted. A little surprised, we figured it couldn't hurt and low and behold we brought Duchess home a week later. House: Check. Dog: Check.

So are you keeping up? Shall I recap? Liz beg for a dog for years. Mark is drunk on relaxation and agrees with a seemingly impossible stipulation. Liz gets a real estate agent, finds house, buys house, Mark signs some papers and soon after a dog shows up hurtling moving boxes in the process. And Liz then leaves nearly every weekend for travel.

We are finally hanging pictures and going through the non-essential boxes. We had the great privilege to host our family for Thanksgiving and now are trying to find our Christmas decorations. Basically we just got married, except now we have more storage, a new vacuum and a dog to clean up after.

This blog has been a great way to stay in touch with family and friends as well as to keep a record for ourselves. We have lots of travel (mostly weddings) and fun things planned this year and want to keep a record of it all. Get ready...

Meet Duchess and 3 year-old Daniel:

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