July 29, 2011
Last week, while my son, Christopher, was taking our puppy, Chloe, out for a late-night walk, I decided to step out onto our porch and take a short walk down our driveway. Chloe ran to me, dragging Christopher behind her as he tried to hold on to her lea...
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July 22, 2011
A few weeks ago, my husband and I were in the middle of getting some paperwork done when we were asked for our driver’s licenses.
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June 17, 2011
Parenthood seems daunting at first. We are overwhelmed by the day-to-day, minute-by-minute existence of our little ones as we wonder how we went from two to three or four. Tasks we now say are simple caused us to marvel at the baby who had come into our...
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May 6, 2011
When I got sick to my stomach right after my husband and I returned home from celebrating our third wedding anniversary, he suggested I might be pregnant. I waved him off, dismissing his speculation as a far-flung idea. It had not happened in the year an...
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April 29, 2011
As my daughter, Hannah, does her college course work, I sometimes look over her shoulder to see what she is working on. Often it looks like she is writing in a foreign language, which she is. One of her classes this term is the second semester of Spa...
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April 15, 2011
If my hair could talk, it would tell you story after story about how its life was cut short time and time again by a hairdresser wielding a pair of sharp scissors.
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April 1, 2011
Last summer, when my family and I were on a trip, my husband’s glasses broke. The lens popped out of the frame, leaving him with a handful of pieces that we could not readily put back together.
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March 18, 2011
Once upon a time, in a land far away, a happy family of birds celebrated its new eggs. The birds gathered around the nest hoping to protect them until the day they hatched into tiny new baby birds.
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March 11, 2011
Beyond the simplicity of a ball or a bone, pet toys today are a far cry from just a few short years ago. As we’ve discovered recently, they are more creative, stronger and last longer than the toys offered in years past. Chloe’s first toy was...
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March 4, 2011
A few days before Christmas, I was walking down the sidewalk from the car to the house. It was one of those dark, cold December nights where you can see your breath in the air.
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February 18, 2011
As we made our way through the dark woods in late January, the cold air surrounded us. We followed a man to his barn as he guided us down a pathway dimly lit by his lantern. Arriving at the large metal building, the man opened the door revealing an organi...
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February 11, 2011
A dark cloud had settled over our family in the 14-month period between fall 1993 and the end of 1994. Those long months had been hard emotionally as we dealt with the loss of our three unborn babies.
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February 6, 2011
Here on Super Bowl Sunday, I want to disclose something: I am not, nor have I ever been, a fan of football.
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January 28, 2011
Like most couples, the top tier of our wedding cake was placed in the freezer after our reception. Unlike most, my husband and I decided that we wanted to pull our little cake back out for our one-month anniversary rather than wait until we celebrated our...
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January 16, 2011
As I write this Jan. 5, my son Christopher is outside meticulously unwrapping the strands of lights from around our porch that just a few short weeks ago we hung so carefully. It’s just another step in the process of packing Christmas in a box now t...
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January 9, 2011
Last weekend, I began to upload pictures from my camera’s memory card to my computer from our white Christmas. My computer decided that just uploading the current photos was not good enough — it was going to upload everything on the card, incl...
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December 27, 2010
We have struggled through car repairs at many inopportune times. One such time was two days before Christmas 1987. We had been married only one year and were short on car expertise and money, so we did what young married couples often do: We called my mom...
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December 17, 2010
Our family has a tradition of decorating for Christmas during Thanksgiving weekend. We’ve been doing this for many years, finding the four-day weekend a perfect time to work on the extra chores of hanging lights and setting up the Christmas tree.
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December 3, 2010
Another blank-slate vacation week for my husband led to the latest episode of home improvement at the Vestals’. I realize we are closer to mimicking our parents with each passing year; vacations spent doing time-consuming chores rather than taking...
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November 24, 2010
I could be wearing a T-shirt that says “ I survived the Tanger Outlets in Mebane,” but since we didn’t go until the week after the grand opening, there was not much reason to boast about surviving. After hearing news reports about how bu...
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November 21, 2010
As my husband, son, daughter and I walked out into the parking lot, they were a couple of steps ahead of me. I watched as each of them laughed and talked about nothing much in particular. It was a moment of being content — of being thankful for thes...
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November 7, 2010
There is a sign above the doors that lead to our washer and dryer that reads, “Self-Serve Laundromat, Open 24 Hours.” For the most part, the sentiment rings true as my family has been known to do laundry most any time of day or night.
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October 31, 2010
Tomorrow, Nov. 1, I will turn 4 again. It’s a silly thing we say whenever someone in our family has a birthday. Everyone in our household is 4 going on 4. The joke started a few years ago after watching a “Gilmore Girls” episode in which...
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October 17, 2010
Dear Autumn, You came back! I knew you would not be able to stay away forever. Even as summer overstayed it’s welcome, I was confident you could make summer leave. For months I have been anticipating your return; a return that would mean I could ste...
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October 10, 2010
Last week, a search for a new land-line telephone turned into a search for my son, who disappeared in a store. It all started when I needed a new battery for my land-line phone. We’ve dropped the cordless handset a few too many times, so I thought I...
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