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Dear Taz + Belly, I promise I’m back. I have no idea why I haven’t wanted to blog (or come out of hibernation for anything other than a good book) for the last month, but I worked on a content calendar this week and I’m spending my Saturday taking photos and getting posts ready for October and November.
Dear Small Group, I love you so much more than I expected. Making new friends as an adult is hard, but so rewarding.
Dear Beartown, You were so good. SO. GOOD. Who would have thought I would love a book about hockey and rape culture?! Five stars all the way.
Dear The Office, Why did it take us so long to jump on board? Josh and I are almost finished with season two and we started less than a week ago. I’ll admit to being horribly uncomfortable with 90% of the words that come out of Michael Scott’s mouth, but you are still hilarious. This is a clear cut case of “everyone was right.”
Dear New Old House, Is it weird that we’ve been living in you for almost an entire year, but suddenly it feels brand new again? Is it even weirder that I’ve lived in you for far more years than I haven’t? Thank you for creaks in all the same places, for the perfect backyard view, for little girl giggles and bicycles propped up against trees and plenty of puppy dog hiding places.
Dear Gran, We miss you and Poppy in this house. We’re glad you are only a few steps away and even though we are going to love living here as a family of four, it’s really weird not to see you in the kitchen every morning. Josh is already scheming about how to get his live-in nanny back!
Dear Kitchen, I know that the glasses have always been near the sink, the silverware in the island, and the spices above the stove — but we’re going to try something new. I spent one of the best Sundays ever, emptying all of your cabinets, throwing so much stuff away, and making everything work a little better for our family. One day soon you’ll have dark cabinets and white walls and beautiful concrete countertops, but we are pretty much in love with our colorful dishes on your shelves. I can’t wait to see how different this view is in six months.
Dear Garden Shed, Why are you so cute? You were cute before — I loved your screened door and perfect wisteria vines — but we needed you to function a little better. Now that we have tons of storage inside and plenty of fun orange accents, I just want to look at you all the time.
Dear Broken Orange Door, Remember when you used to hang on the front of the Rock House? Whoever had the idea to replace you and take you with us (me!), was brilliant. I love your purple glass knob and cast iron door knocker almost as much as I love the missing panes of glass.
Dear Sophie, Can you remember breaking the bottom pane of glass? As sad as I was, it will forever be one of my favorite Rock House memories. That face sad face you made was priceless.
Dear Jigsaw Puzzles, We love you so hard. It doesn’t matter how frustrated we all get or how many days you take over our kitchen counter, we will never quit you. Josh told me to stop buying more because he’s distracted every time he walks by the table. It’s too bad I promised the girls a few more for the weekend.
Dear Fellow Puzzle Lovers, Can I share with you a valuable strategy? After you piece together the border and make all of the most obvious pairings, try organizing your pieces by shape instead of color. It seems counterintuitive, but it’s actually a much easier way to work the puzzle. When you see what shape you’re looking for, you can easily spot the right color within that group, as opposed to doing it the other way around.
Dear Half Marathon, I’m actually going to run you this year. For real. I registered this week and I created a training plan that incorporates Orangetheory and I’m starting my training tomorrow morning. I’m aiming for a sub 2 hour half, but I have no idea if that’s doable for me. I’ll report back soon.
Dear Rental Car, I’m thrilled that I only had to drive you for a day and a half, even though you were much nicer than I expected.
Dear Altima, I am so glad to have you back. The missing emblem and crunched up bumper were making me feel terrible about driving you around town. Unfortunately, we’ll have to part ways again in another week, but once we get that deer dent out of your side, you’ll look as good as new! Three cheers for almost paid for cars.
Dear Virtual Friends, I’m so excited that you’re back here again this month. I hope that we can grow this little linkup together and learn all sorts of fun things about each other as we go.
Dear New Visitors, This is our favorite new linkup. The second Friday of every month, we’ll be sharing Little Letters together on our blogs. Write a series of letters to anyone or anything you’d like and come back here to link up. Don’t forget to share with your friends. This is one of those times where “the more, the merrier” definitely applies!
To link up, share the banner below, link back to this post, and invite your friends to play along. Don’t have a blog? Leave your letter in the comments of this post, or on my Instagram or Facebook posts for today instead. We’ll share again on Friday, November 10th. See you then!