The Buerglers

Here is most of my letter to best-nun-friend, Erin! Sorry I didn't include all the pictures :) Anyway, this year has been incredible.  God has truly, truly blessed us . What started out as a hectic year with both my Dad’s parents passing away, it finished with blessings. Connor turned one. Deirdre and Alex’s relationship continues to strengthen, though they still need lots of prayers. David and Paige continue to rescue puppies and kitties until they’re ready for a family (which I hope is soon!!!). Eric’s sister, Leeann married the love of her life, Dan and they continue to live in Boston (hoping for a trip there this summer). And last but not least, Eric and I tied the knot! The wedding was so beautiful - things that dreams are made of , although it went by so quickly. Everyone warned me that this would be the case, so I remembered to periodically breathe and take in the moment - now my memories are like 10 seconds of highlight-real style flashbacks. Thank goodness for ph...

My friend Natalie has an awesome blog where she catalogs cool household ideas - things like fun recipes, cute ways to decorate, or a new craft project - her own or found on the internet.  A few weeks ago I saw these snowmen cookies on her blog with a link to the original owners cookie design website, complete with step by step instructions (yes, 4 pages of them!).  Katie and I needed some creative down time so we decided tackle the fondant and homemade frosting and give them a try!  Good thing I read the directions a week early because this recipe called for very specific ingredients, chill times, baking instructions...you get the idea.  What I thought would be an hour of fun turned into 1.5 days of prep work and about 5 hours of well orchestrated decorating time. Regardless of the chaos to get these babies started, we had so much fun decorating them and giving them personalities.  Be sure to check out the photos of them below and the link to Natalie’s blog ...

There is an Irish bar near my parents house called, Olde Blind Dog.  Every 17th of the month they celebrate what they call, “Saint Practice Day” - a day to get ready for St. Patrick’s Day.  Genius! Of course, with it being walking distance from my parents, we have to go every 17th.  We also have St. Practice Day shirts which double as our coupon for the night.  Every month there is a different giveaway or discount depending on what’s listed on the tshirt.  So in October they gave away an Olde Blind Dog hat for anyone who came wearing their Practice Day shirt.  Last night we got $10 gift cards!!! On top of us each getting a $10 gift card, Katie won the half-hourly door prize of $15 gift card.  Since she doesn’t have any OBD paraphernalia she bought her self a red shirt! We’re sad Alex & Dee couldn’t make it last night - but we went pretty late and Connor was in bed. Cheers!

I hadn't even remember until I woke up to an email from my inlaws congratulating us on our "one year anniversary of being engaged".  Cute, huh? Without repeating everything, you can find the story here. What's not included in the story are all the little ways God was working in our hearts the few weeks before the actual engagement. Back in October of 2008, I had been having some serious doubts of marrying Eric. I had asked for friends to pray for us.  Eric and I had decided to give our relationship a few more months before we pulled the plug.  During that time of Oct - Dec, God worked in incredible ways. Part of my heart was questioning my vocation.  I had done a lot of discernment in college but at put it on the back burner because God was either telling me "it's not for you" or "not right now".  And during the Fall of '08 we had some Sisters visiting at Saint Brigid.  My heart panicked.  Perhaps this is why I was questioning if Eric and I...

One on the neat things about going to the University of Dayton is that every year on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (our schools patroness), campus would be closed for class but one of the greatest celebrations of the year took place:  Christmas on Campus. Christmas On Campus consisted of hundreds of thousands of Christmas lights all over campus, ice sculptures, rappelling santa, game booths put on by all the clubs, hot chocolate, and everyone’s favorite, “adopt a kid”.  Kids from poor neighborhoods would be bussed in and students could “adopt” them for the night.  The students would take their kid around campus to play games, see the lights, get their picture with Santa, and drink hot chocolate.  The night would end with just the students celebrating Immaculate Conception Mass together, our last big event together before exams and Christmas break. This event has put our campus on the map, and students from all over attend UD just because of Christmas on ...