Countdown To Our Anniversary

Two days and counting....December, 28th 2007 I married my amazing husband!
Thank you for a wonderful year! I love you and can't wait to see what you have up your sleeve for our special day! I am so very thankful for you!

Merry Christmas.....

....from the Christmas Elephants. Some people are not making it home because of the storm. We are not making it home YET for this reason and the fact that we really don't fit in the car right now. We will be working on this, however.

Yearly Review 2009

Well.....2009 has turned out to be what we'd probably describe as nothing, but fast!

January-It was brutally cold in Paynesville and we spend most of this time huddled up trying to stay warm in between shoveling duties. My cousin Jill came for a visit too!

February-I realized that by eliminating wheat and dairy from my diet that I felt much better without even realizing that I didn't feel very good. Dan joined me a few months later and we both ended up losing quite a bit of weight on top of feeling better.

March-Dan had the opportunity to visit Honduras with some people from our church. He spent his days doing manual labor, hanging out and playing with little children, and worshiping with the local people. We also were able to spend a really great weekend in the cities with Matt and Lacee and a few other couples from Bismarck.

April-In April I visited my Dad and Lynn down in Mazatlan Mexico right before Easter. The weather was perfect and the fishing was awesome. Dan and I celebrated Easter with the Andersons in the cities.

May-Mom and I did some of the races for the Fargo Marathon and we celebrated Mother's Day together with my Grandparents.

June-Finally a break! We started off the summer with a trip to Wisconsin over Dan's birthday.

July-Dan and I were able to make a quick getaway to Bismarck for a few days right before the 4th and see family and friends.

August-This was a fun month......After nine and a half years together my Mom and Ron got married in our backyard with Dan officiating. I couldn't be happier for the two of them. Dannielle, my now official step-sister and her boyfriend came as well. Then we headed to Lake Lida for the annual get together with my family. then one more trip to Wisconsin. It was a full month.

September-I started school and Dan started his fall schedule of confirmation/Sunday school duties. There really isn't much else to say except we worked our tails off this month.

October-Work....that's all I've got! Besides the work, my Grandma, Marion Carter died. She's now with my Grandpa in heaven. I am so happy that she is finally happy and warm. My Grandma was forever cold....heating blankets on high in the middle of summer, no lie:)

November-We had some of our family out for Thanksgiving. Wished the holiday would have been a week long though! I'm starting to live for the weekends for when I can sleep in....I'm such a baby!

December-Not too much going on this month...we are anticipating our 2nd anniversary on the 28th. Our second verse was much better than the first. We didn't move across states...enough said:)

So don't get too excited about our exciting year:) There wasn't a ton of action, but we love our life together.....

Virtual Dan and Leigh

Our avatars from our yahoo email accounts. Can you tell it's winter and I'm bored. If it were summer right now we'd probably be out on a bike ride, but instead here we sit waiting for the big Christmas snowstorm to hit. How many more months until June? Thank goodness that snow blower started working again.

RIP Snowblower....possibly!

Remember how we talked about loving our new snow blower? Well guess who got out their shovels today and hand shoveled the driveway......there's a picture of them at the top of this blog...ya, our poor snow blower has died. Well, I guess you could say it's very ill. Dan thinks that maybe it can be salvaged...some choke, leaking gas, flooding, don't exactly know what. Stay tuned for details.

As far as shoveling goes, Dan is praying for a complete recovery of the snow blower. We'll call him Lenny. If Lenny doesn't make it then that means Dan has to suffer through yet another winter with his OCD shoveling wife. Getting the blanket of snow removed from the driveway is not enough. No, I try, but I can't stop from going back over spots he's already done to get the compacted stuff scraped off. It's a complete obsession and when I get started I can't stop. Unfortunately for him, you can see cement on our driveway. MUST.....shovel.......to.....the....cement. It's seriously a sickness. I can't stop. How sweet is my husband, when he continues to enable this addiction and help me:)

***********UPDATE******************************************************************
Lenny has been revived!!!!!!!!! Our neighbor who sold him to us came over and showed us a trick in making Lenny cooperate:) Snow is forecasted for four days this week so just in time. We just hope it doesn't snow Christmas Eve or Christmas Day as we need to get to Wisconsin!!!

Wonderful Reminder About Christmas

Random Thoughts From the Dornfelds

-One of our good friends, (ok, our ONLY good friends within a 45 miles radius) welcomed their second son on Wednesday. I had class that night up in Sauk Rapids and was able to swing through and visit. His name is Tyson and he opened his eyes for me when I got to hold him! I'd show a picture, but he's not mine. If we ever have our own I'll show lots of pictures then:)

-Sam, their four year old insisted on singing me Happy Birthday when I stopped by his house on Thanksgiving. His whole family was there. I had never met them. He also insisted they help him. 15 strangers singing me Hapy Birthday with Sam...very cute

-Dan sold his Jetta! All the better it went to a family that is surprising their high school daughter. She wanted a green Jetta! Good stuff for both sides.

-We had our family out for Thanksgiving.....Ashlynn came as well and I must say...I stink at gingerbread house building. All is well, tell her that I bought a mini gingerbread house and WE WILL try again!

-Have you ever watched the "Mentalist"? That's one of our favorite shows lately.

-We are both freezing!!! We keep checking the thermometer like it magically switched off....it hasn't and I guess we just need to learn to bundle up.

-Did you hear I made a new friend at work....Ha! just kidding...I got a new ipod...that's my "new" friend

-There is a small group of girls that I hang out with from work. Cold Spring does NOT have a Ground Round or a Fridays, but the "Side Bar" does have popcorn so I deal.

-Dan purchased a snow blower from our neighbors....they are moving to South Carolina and refuse to take us with them! I am so in love with this snow blower right now.

-Hope everyone is having a blessed Christmas Season so far! If you are reading this Merry Christmas and we love you:)

It's Looking Like Christmas At Our House

Meeko wanted to help decorate, but only succeeded in irritating Dan.....CAT!!!!- a common phrase used in our house
They got bored....thanks for the help guys!

Nativity scene that Meeko hasn't touched......YET! Last year we'd always come home and Mary and Jesus were turned around and standing in the corner. Apparently he thought Mary needed a timeout:)

We went blue and silver this year and added our favorite sentimental ornaments. I'd say our tree has character with beautiful pieces and then the Simpsons...Yoda resides somewhere in there as well.

stuff.....that's all I've got...pretty stuff?

My Friend Brian

One of my favorite pictures of Brian in Arizona

My mom and I went to "Rent" in St. Cloud over the Thanksgiving weekend. I had never seen it, but used to listen to the music all of the time when I lived with my roommate Brian in college. He loved "Rent". I've always wanted to see it since then, but had never had the opportunity until now. It was a great play. The song, "Seasons of Love" was hard to listen to and it was hard not to completely lose it. I cried......Brian measured his life in love for sure. He had a perspective on life that only someone who understands how precious and fragile life is. In college I was naive and ignorant about Brians's illness. I knew he could get very sick at times and his mom would stay with us to help nurse him back to health. I knew he'd had two organ transplants and that he was on a lot of anti-rejection medicines. I knew he had cystic fibrosis, and I knew what that meant, but I usually ignored the reality of his diagnosis and pushed it to the back of my mind anytime the thought of the possibility of him dying creeped in.


Brian had an amazing impact on my life. I seriously can't think about him and not smile. He had that ability to make you feel like everything was right in the world at those moments that everything felt wrong. The year that we shared an apartment went by way too fast and I was exhausted since Brian was constantly living, doing, and creating fun all around us. I have so many fond and amazing memories of Brian, but I wanted to share this one and his love of this play. I'm glad I finally got to see it. Brian died in May of 2006....he will forever be in my thoughts and I will always share his stories. I am constantly striving to measure the beauty of my life in love. When I think of it in that way....... ...my cup runneth over.