DELILAH DIOR DOMINICA

This has been a month of big changes. I have been a wife for about a month and a week, in that time we have traveled to Fiji, Australia, Bora Bora, moved out of San Francisco, moved back into St. Louis, Canada, Detroit, St. Louis, Atlanta, and now Minnesota for the deep breath and pure joy of it all: meeting our niece.  Brooklynne Mackenzie Calhoun.  She is absolute perfection. And I know everyone says that about their newborn/granddaughter/daughter/neice but I mean it. Let me tell you why: 1. She never ever cries. Unless she is scheduled to eat, the girl is perfectly content. 2. She has these steel-blue-gray eyes that change every day. 3. She has full blown dreams and sleeps like her mommy and daddy. (Spastic, constantly twitching and making weird faces.) 4. She always, and I mean always, wants to have both hands on her cheeks, reminding me of numerous favorite movie characters. 5. She is so precious. And I can't help but think that since she doesn't have anything to dream a

After spending one night in a very interesting hotel in Tahiti, we were off to Sydney, Australia. I remind you, that this honeymoon was a complete surprise. I had no idea where we were going, and had even less than no idea that we'd be going to more than one place. I just got two pieces of information: 1. 12 days, 2. Hot. So I packed accordingly. Plenty of sundresses, mini dresses, lots of crochet, floppy beach hats, wedges and strappy heels, inappropriate bikinis, way too much white, even more black, and the other fun stuff.  Imagine my surprise when we landed in the tundra. (Dramatic, it was around 50 degrees with a little mist and light wind.) I draped my cardigan over my denim cutoffs and asked our cab driver if the weather would be like this all week. He looked in the rear view and was happy to tell us "Well, two days from now is the official first day of winter!!" We laughed. That is my responsibility of trip planning, to worry about the small details in all my l

Incase you do not know my husband, I will fill you in on a few of his favorite things. Sitting in the massage chair in the comic book room with a stack of The Age of the Apocalypse series at his side, Warm apple pie with a heaping pile of vanilla bean ice cream, learning something new in the word, and successfully surprising me. Our honeymoon was a complete surprise, which was both incredible and faith-testing all in one.            I am a bit of a control freak, just throwing that out there to be honest. Those who know me best will let you know how many lists I write in one day (In fact, last night while Oj and I were at a boxing match, I was scrounging through my purse nervously looking for a blank sheet of paper so I could make a grocery list for next week. It may be a little bit out of hand.) When I find out I am going on a trip, I begin making lists of things to pack and outfits I must wear and places I must go from that moment on. Usually it's about a month in advance, but t