Baby, it's cold outside.

Things are snowy and stormy outside but here, inside on the couch, things are quite cozy. The Kansas City weather this week has been especially variable. People around here are fond of saying, "If you don't like the weather just wait 10 minutes and it will change." That axiom has proved to be quite true in the past few days. On Tuesday it was sunny and unseasonably warm. I didn't even wear a coat to work. The high was in the low 60s. Yesterday we were hit with a nasty ice storm. The freezing rain stopped falling last night and early this afternoon a winter snow storm rolled in. As I sit here in Olathe, at the southernmost part of the metro area, six inches of snow have already fallen with more to come. A foot of snow over a half inch of ice- now that's a recipe for disaster.

The awards dinner I was supposed to attend tonight was cancelled so instead I get to be at home out of the weather. This is just fine with me. I wish Lucas could be here, too, but he has a long night of work still ahead of him at the airport. UPS is in it's peak season and to call things there 'busy' is a giant understatement. Unfortunately, the bad weather will make his night more complicated. Even so, he stays upbeat. What a trooper.

ready for Santa

The stockings were hung by the chimney (with care)...

Avery Leaves a Message

We're so thankful

This is Avery our second cousin. He came to visit today along with his grandma and grandpa- Luke's Aunt Liz and Uncle Bill. Avery kept things from getting boring here and it was very fun to have him around today. He is really starting to get good at his letters and reading. The only downside to this is that we can no longer spell to each other something we might not want him to know about.

Hopefully as you read this you are feeling stuffed, relaxed, and thankful. I know I am. Lucas and I are so blessed and are very rich in relationships. Truly we treasure our friends and family. I suppose I'd better wrap this post up before it gets too terribly sappy...

For each new morning with its light,

For rest and shelter of the night,

For health and food, for love and friends,

For everything Thy goodness sends.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Changes Afoot

As some of you might know (since we've been talking about it incessantly for 6 months) the Dickson kitchen is undergoing a bit of a remodel.

The original plan was to paint the cabinets and put down some new linoleum. We were afflicted with 'scope creep', however and before you could say 'amateur remodeler' we were, among other things, stripping and refinishing cabinets, laying ceramic tile, and taking down a wall.

The picture to the left shows an early stage in the project. The open space on the wall was where the fridge used to spend it's time. Here, Lucas is taking down a portion of the yellow tile backsplash.

Next was the task of removing the upper cabinets from the wall. This took a lot of work. They were very sturdily mounted. Our best guess is that the buiders wanted to ensure that the future homeowner could store his bowling ball collection there. Despite this, Lucas, armed with his crowbar, got them down.

Since we kept to a pretty tight budget, these cabinets were re-used as lower cabinets. Lucas built a platform for them which allowed us to elongate our countertop workspace.

Then the wall came down. Every step along the way has had some combination of improvisation, learning a new skill, buying a new tool, or doing it wrong the first time. Some steps had all of these elements.

Here is a picture of the current state of affairs. As you can see, there is still quite a bit of trim work to do but the kitchen is functional now. The sink and counter tops are installed making food preparation a lot easier than it was for the majority of the summer. Drop by sometime, we'll give you a tour.

Fall is Here

A Happy Anniversary

Our marriage turned one year old today. We got the top of our wedding cake out of it's storage in our freezer and it still tastes pretty good.

It's hard to believe that 365 days have passed since we gathered with all our family and friends to say our vows and be pronounced 'husband and wife'. It's hard to believe 365 days have passed since the centerpiece caught on fire in the reception hall and the chocolate fountain went berserk and flung chocolate in a 5 foot radius.

We are eagerly anticipating what awaits us in our second year of marriage. There will be lots more adventures to enjoy.

Get Fuzzy

This made us laugh on Sunday.

Little Niece Ruby Comes to Visit

It was a very fun weekend at the Dickson house. Joel, Kelly, and Ruby flew in from Chicago for a visit. It was great to see them and Ruby entertained us all with her adorable smile and adorable cooing and adorable slobbering.

She is the sweetest, cutest, smartest little girl- you can trust me on this because I am completely biased, whoops, I mean unbiased.

We also celebrated with our friends Kim and John at their wedding on Saturday. It was a beautiful ceremony. Lucas and I couldn't help but reminisce about our wedding which was almost exactly one year ago.