My poor husband. Even before we were married, Steve knew he had a lot to live up to as a husband and a father.
You see, I have the greatest dad in the world. I have been blessed with this kind, loving, encouraging, gentle, fun, generous father who has showed me, from day one, just what […]

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Me, Bismarck and Steve on Bismarck’s 5th birthday
One year ago today, my world came crashing down.
My beloved dog, Bismarck, my son, had been just a little “off” for the past few weeks. I had a motherly instinct that something was wrong… but I just had no idea how wrong.
I can’t even really say that that […]

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Roll your eyes if you must, but (as you know) I consider my dogs my kids.
But lately, I feel more like I’m raising teenagers. Yes, 4-legged teenagers.
Case in point:

That’s Ryder, riding shotgun in my car.
Remember those teenage years of riding in silence with your parents because you were too cool to talk?
Doesn’t it look like […]

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I have a bone to pick with this guy:

You know him, he’s the Dyson Vacuum inventor. Sir James Dyson, to be exact.
But I like to call him Sir D, because it makes him sound like a rapper, and that’s cool.
Not so cool? Sir D has led me astray in my domestic duties.
I first started to […]

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In two days I’m heading down to New Jersey for Johnson & Johnson’s Camp Baby.
Kind of wishing J&J had decided to plop down their headquarters somewhere with weather more akin to, oh I don’t know, Bermuda… but I suppose New Brunswick, NJ will do.
I’m most excited about meeting some of the Mommy bloggers I’ve had […]

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Yesterday was my little baby girl’s birthday!
Ryder turned 6 years old!
So today’s Throwback picture is of Ryder on the first day we met her - March 23, 2002. She was 7 weeks old!

I brought her home from Pennsylvania, where she was born, and put her on my Mom and Dad’s front porch for them to […]

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A few pictures from our vacation in breathtakingly beautiful Rangeley, Maine…
The view from our condo’s deck:

The view of frozen Rangeley Lake, covered in snow:

The snowy mountains, seen from a trail on Saddleback Mountain:

A view of Saddleback Lake from Saddleback Mountain:

Yes, my doggies came on vacation… and they played…

… and slept:

They weren’t the only animals there, […]

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I don’t know what I was thinking yesterday, but I decided to join my brother and sister-in-law yesterday in a 10K race.
That’s 6.2 miles.
Last year I ran a half marathon, but that was after a lot of training. And I was in good shape.
Right now, I’m just not.
But the three of us have signed up […]

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Three years ago today, on December 4, 2004, I became the wife of a wonderful, handsome, funny, brilliant, loving, incredible man.
We had planned our wedding in less than 5 months, knowing we wanted to get married in the winter, but that we didn’t want to wait a year and a half from the day we […]

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One of our holiday traditions used to be the family trek to the tree farm to pick out the Couto Family Christmas Tree.
We would usually go the Friday or Saturday after Thanksgiving, pick out the perfect tree, take turns cutting it down with our saw, and spend that evening decorating our fragrant, freshly cut evergreen.
The […]

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