I put the Rad in Radio

I was just on the radio!

The gal was asking what games we played over Christmas, so naturally, I had to call in to tout Cineplexity, created by Hudson's own Sean Weitner, JonMichael Rasmus, and John Sams. We loved the game. Mom bought it for us for Christmas and we spent hours playing it. Basically, the idea is that you get two clues, for instance "New York City" and "Romance." The first player to come up with a satisfactory film to fit both clues wins the point.

(McKinney girls, this one is right up your alley.)

Last night, Mandi and I played "speed round," where we laid on the floor and flipped two cards over at a time and shouted out movie titles as fast as we could.

I just thought the Weitners that read my blog would like to know that I've been advertising for Sean's game--even on the radio!

This game is definitely worth picking up because everybody watches movies, and it can be a lot more challenging than I anticipated. We had a blast with it.

A puzzle for Kelli

Why is it that the fire alarm always starts beeping its "low battery warning" in the middle of the night?
Have you ever heard the warning before 11pm? Ever?

Peanut Butter

In honor of the Tired Boy vs Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich, Rich, Mandi and I made our own peanut butter video.

Ice Sculptures

This was the view from our back door this morning at 1am.
I guess it's a good thing that the storm door got stuck / frozen open, otherwise Pedro would be a very sad little dog.
Saturday's project: ice removal in a vain attempt to save our roof.
Please pray for us on this--the weight of the ice and the water backup can not be a good thing, and we aren't eager to replace the roof this summer.
Here's praying for some sun to aid in the removal of these pretty ice sculptures!

Don't you just wanna put your tongue on them?
A little?

What's Next?

On Saturday morning, before my parents arrived, Richard went out to plow the driveway only to discover that the garage door opener had bit the big one. Kaput. Finit. Nada.
So...he spent the better part of Saturday shopping for a new opener and then installing it with our dads. If you'll remember, Saturday is the day that went from 25 degrees to 4 degrees in less than two hours. They were all in the garage for that.
Fun.
Anyhow, they finally got it working around 8 that night.
The next morning, we all got up to get ready to go to the farm, and when Richard went to let Pedro out, he discovered that the roof was leaking between the deck door and the storm door. We're talking inches of ice, coupled with icicles that could have been used as weapons.
Not a happy moment for the Desvousges family.
Then, the (only) toilet stopped up completely. Apparently, it had been about 12 hours in the making, but I was completely unaware.
We got the back door open, the toilet in working order and when everybody was nearly ready to leave the house, I went down to change a load of laundry before we left only to find the clothes I had left in the dryer were wet. Again. For the third time in a week.
I thought, "Great. I can't tell Richard. This would be the icing on the cake. This would be the day he leaves for cigarettes and never comes back. And he doesn't even smoke."
And then something amazing happened. I fixed the dryer all by myself.
I pushed START.

Christmas at the Farm

We went out to "the Farm" yesterday to celebrate Christmas with my paternal Grandmother (Shirley) and Great-Grandmother (Gram Helga).
We brought pea soup and dined on soup, sandwiches, cinnamon bread, and pickles. Then we opened presents, and Baby Desvousges received its first Christmas present! It's going straight to the college fund! (MIT, of course.)
As you know, "The Grandmas" are very important to me. It was a nice day, celebrating with them, and letting them rub my pregnant belly. Gram thinks it's a girl.
Here are some pics from the day.

Truffles

I don't like truffles. Never have.
Sorry.
A co-worker gave me a box of truffles this morning for Christmas.
She totally just busted me giving them away.
I. am. so. embarrassed.

Gravity

I can feel gravity

today.
I can feel the weight of my own body pressing toward the center of the Earth.

I. am. tired.
I slept better than I have in a long time last night, yet I am more tired than ever today. I am so thankful that it's the end of the week, and I don't have to come back to work until December 27th.
I am sure the way I feel has to do with my pregnancy, but I also think I'm just plain tired.
I'm not trying to be a downer (pun), really. I'm just looking forward to my break.
A co-worker brought me a bottle of wine this morning as a Christmas gift.

Cruel. And unusual.

Grazing

Today is our annual holiday pot-luck / grazing party.
Somebody brought homemade caramels.
I took all of them.



What?

Pedro

Katie R., thanks for asking about Pedro!!

Pedro is a West Highland White Terrier (a Westie).

They are very good with children, but also VERY active. Pedro has always been pretty laid back, though, and not much like some of the other Westies I have met. Even when he was a puppy and we went (to ROCHESTER) to pick him out, he was more calm and subdued than his brothers and sisters who were barking and crawling all over him.

He very rarely barks in the house, and sees the cat as his own personal plaything. The only really bad thing about Westies is how FREAKING smart they are. Pedro can get into or out of ANYTHING and is so stubborn that you can actually see him making the decision to disobey me. As you can see in the photo, we took obedience classes (this was at the costume competition), and Pedro learned quickly what I was teaching him, but often chooses not to obey.

Westies are a lot like Scottie dogs in looks, though smaller, and I think nicer. I don't think I've ever actually met a nice Scottie. Pedro topped out at about 14lbs, and really doesn't stand much taller than our cat.

My favorite thing about Pedro? Besides how sweet he is, is that he can't jump! I love that! I get to decide if he can be on the bed with us, or where he goes. His little legs just aren't made for jumping.

Let me know if you have more questions!

If you decide to get a Westie, please promise me something: Promise that you will name him something appropriate! I wish we had named him Murdoc or Gromit, or something more Celtic in nature, since they are from the Highlands of Scotland! Although, with his laid back attitude, Pedro just seemed to fit, man.

Love me! I'm so cute!

The Most Beautiful

In all the stress and running of the Christmas Season, I sometimes have trouble remembering to CELEBRATE the birth of our savior.
I love this song because it so often applies to my daily attitude (even in non-Christmas seasons).
Take a second to read it.

I Heard the Bells
I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along the unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

Till ringing, singing on its way
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And in despair I bowed my head
“There is no peace on earth,” I said,
“For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth, good will to men.”

-Henry W. Longfellow, 1864

This Christmas Hymn was written during the Civil War, though seems so pertinent to our lives today, especially the last two stanzas. No matter what: God is not dead, nor does he sleep! I find this very reassuring and encouraging.
An updated version of the song is on the MercyMe Christmas Album. "The Christmas Sessions." I highly recommend it. Click here to go listen to the song. I think the link will work.
Confession: I secretly listen to this song all year.
Merry Christmas, friends.

Thanks, Carla!

For the best cookie recipe EVER!
Really. They took longer to bake than they took to mix up.
And they're delicious.
And strangely satisfying.
Next time? I will press chocolate chips into the warm cookies as they come out of the oven.
Next project: Cinnamon Streams.







See the grease spots on the paper? Yeah, I just couldn't help myself. Please excuse the messy kitchen. : )
Note to self: the cookies hardly change shape, if at all. Eat the ugly ones barefoot in the kitchen at 3am, and send the pretty ones to McClain in Little Rock for Christmas.

When Extroverts Fall in Love

Boy Choir

Can I get something off my chest?

I have never been a huge fan of an all-boy choir. Truth be told, I find them just a little creepy. The music is beautiful, no doubt, and relaxing and transfixing. I don't intrinsically dislike a song by a boy choir...I'm just not about to pop in my Boy Choir Greatest Hits CD and rock out in the car, if you get my drift.

During the Christmas season, there are a lot of boy choir songs on the radio. I don't mind them, really. But. Do you know what ruins the peaceful, beautiful melody of any Christmas carol sung by a choir of boys? Three words:

Michael W. Smith.

Independently of one another, I don't mind either a boy choir or Michael W., but put them together and I want to cut off my ears and throw them at ol' Smitty. Sometimes I think it would be worth it to never be able to wear earrings again if MWS would stop. collaborating. with. children's. choirs.

I can't be alone in this.

You know how I feel about the Little Drummer Boy. I guess we can just add this to the list of things that make me a Scrooge.

Lesser Women

With trepidation, I set out tonight to make brownies from scratch. (I guess I felt like I hadn't worked hard enough this weekeend...) My dad pointed out that lesser women have managed.
I haven't tried them yet, but they came out looking suspiciously like a cake.

We shall see.

Christmas Meme

Feel free to share your own answers! You can answer your favorites or all of them!
1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper. Whatever I steal from my mom's house.
2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial so we don't have to dispose of it!
3. When do you put up the tree? Eh. When I have the energy. This year it was the weekend after Thanksgiving.
4.When do you take the tree down? When Richard makes me.
5.Do you like egg nog? You know, I really don't.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? I got My Little Pony pajamas one year. I really loved those.
7.Do you have a nativity scene? Not yet... (hint, hint).
8.Hardest person to buy for? My parents. They never "need" anything. It's not about needs people!
9. Easiest person to buy for? Myself. Haha. That is usually Brenda. Not so much this year, though!
10.Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail. But the rule is that if you send me one, I'll send you one. Period.
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I'm really not sure...
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? The Family Stone. Or Elf.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Probably not as often as I have recycled wedding gifts.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? I really like those red and green mint taffy things. I look forward to those every year.
16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Colored for the last two years.
17. Favorite Christmas song? I Heard the Bells, followed at a close second by Go Tell it on the Mountain.
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? We do Christmas Eve at the Plumm's and Christmas day at our house. Perfect.
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeers? No. I won't even try.
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? When I was little we used to do one on Christmas Eve and the rest the next morning, but now we open presents with Richard's fam on Christmas Eve and with my fam on Christmas day. Like I said--perfect.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Trying to go somewhere simple like the grocery store is 1000 times harder than it should be.
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? Angels, everywhere.
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Corned beef and cabbage. Oh wait...wrong holiday.
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? I had a hard time thinking of things this year!

Ruined

Last night when I got home, I was so exhausted that I crashed by 5:30.
I was sound asleep at 7:30 when Richard came in and asked if I wanted dinner. I wasn't too concerned since The Office was another rerun anyway. No reason to get up, if you asked me.
"Not really," I said.
"Are you going to sleep through?" he asked.
"I'm thinking about it," I said.
"Erin! You're ruining Grey's Anatomy night!"

Yeesh. I didn't know my girlfriend was so touchy these days.

We ate chicken pot pies in bed and watched the third season of LOST on the laptop, while the cat and dog slept at our feet. I don't think I could have asked for a better night. Grey's can wait on tevo until next week.

Dill Pickle

I'm going to substitute the words "dill pickle" for a popular phrase in my post today.

Today I get to dill pickle laminate 85 dill pickle copies of some dill pickle form that needs to go out dill pickle TODAY to our dill pickle customers.
I'm really dill pickle thrilled about the dill pickle opportunity to use my dill pickle office skills for something so dill pickle valuable and dill pickle important, especially since the dill pickle dill pickles who asked me to do it can't ever seem to make a dill pickle plan ahead of dill pickle time. This is my dill pickle time to dill pickle shine. Me and the dill pickle hand crank laminator.
I dill pickle love every-dill pickle-thing today.
Abso-dill pickle-loutely

Later that day:
Upon further thought and in reference to Mandi's comment, I think I now understand the pull that guys tend to feel toward Metallica.

Guys

What's the deal with guys turning the "heat" on full blast in the car before the engine is warm?
What's the deal with jumping right out of bed in the morning? And falling right asleep at night?
What's the deal with the "farmer blow?" (Sorry, Kristi)
What's the deal with the secret stash (i.e. entire Rubbermaid tote) of electrical cords?
What's the deal with Metallica?
What's the deal with Cap'n Crunch?
What's the deal with belly button lint? I mean, really.



On my iPod at this moment:
"Under Pressure" David Bowie & Freddie Mercury. (heart)

Back with a Bang

I've been wrestling with what to blog about for my return to bloggerville.

The VP called this morning to ask me to find three very high-ranking members of the division and ask them to call him within 5 minutes. I usually don't get too nervous about talking to these men, but for some reason today, I was just a titch nervous. I was flattered that the VP called me in his own assistant's absence and I didn't want to let him down. Five minutes isn't very long when you're looking for people.
I went into one of their offices (didn't knock), said, "The VP asked you to--"
I immediately interrupted myself by tripping on my clog and hitting the floor.
I'm not freaking kidding. It was like a bad SNL skit.
I'm fine, baby is fine. I caught myself without falling really hard.
I'm just totally mortified.

Heeeere's your blog.

Weight

I've been gaining a lot of weight lately.
Word weight.
I binge and binge and binge on words because I love them. I eat them up. I love to see how I can put them together and take them apart. I love to see how other people, authors, journalists and some bloggers do it, too.
I read a lot. I read a lot online and I read a lot of books. I read for entertainment and for edification.
I love words. It's a part of my soul. A part of my spiritual make-up. A gift.
I didn't realize, however how much words weigh. How many calories I'm taking in with the words I devour on a regular basis.
They're going straight to my hips. I'm hippy enough, ifyouknowwhatImean.
I binge and binge and now it's time to purge.
I've had enough of looking this way, feeling weighed down and responsible for the slow-motion car wreck that you just can't look away from.
It's like a girl with her thong underwear sticking out from the back of her pants. Somebody you don't like with food in their teeth. A bad toupee. A slow-motion slide onto a snowdrift.
You just can't look away.
I'm looking away now.
It's time for the fast.
I need to lose some weight--and quickly.
It's 40 days in the desert for me and Haiku Lady.
Or...however long it takes for me to figure out what God wants for me and my word-loving spirit. This is, after all, all for Him, right? Am I doing that? Am I doing this (or anything for Him?) Hence, the fast.




I will, however be updating my baby blog since that's for my baby in the end.

Office "Holiday" Party

I had my very first work party last night.

Richard was my date for the evening and was a perfect gentleman. We looked a bit like a geriatric couple outside, however, because I was wearing new shoes that were very slippery on the ice and holding on to my limping husband's arm. True love if ever there was.

We took this photo when we got home to commemorate the fact that we survived the occasion.

It really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

Best part of the night?

A mashed potato bar.

Really!

And, of course, getting to take this hottie as my date:

Merry Christmas

Dear Popular Cosmetics Store,

I love, love, LOVE spending my lunch hour browsing your aisles. I know many of your saleswomen find this amusing based on the amount of make up I wear--or I should say, don't wear. I can't help it. I love looking. I buy nail polish, typically in the same color every time, I buy make up, use it once or twice and then lose or break it. In short, I've wasted a lot of money inside your four very well lit walls, but what Richard doesn't know won't hurt him, right?!
Thank you for the coupons in the mail recently. My favorite makeup brand on sale for $9.99--what a deal for a 3-piece set! And with a $3.50 Off coupon for any purchase over $10. I couldn't believe my luck! Not to mention the free nail polish with my Level 1 rewards certificate! Score me!
So, I brought my coupons to work with me today looking forward to my trip all morning.
Imagine my disappointment when $9.99 is not the same thing as $10 (even with 8% tax!), therefore, I had to spend a little more money on something else to get the deal.
No big deal. The Holiday nail polish set was on sale for $4.50. Sweet. I sorta wanted that anyway.
Uh-oh! The $10 total purchase could not include the 3-piece make up set. Drat! I should have read the fine print. Silly me!
Well, I need hair color so Nene can do my hair this weekend. I guess I can spend $5 more.
$18 later, I am still pretty excited about the purchases I probably won't use.
Looking forward to more coupons!
Sincerely Suckered,
Erin

p.s. I feel really, REALLY bad about knocking over that Ralph Lauren cologne set on my way to the register. I'm sorry it exploded all over the floor. I'm sorry it's all over my shoes right now.

The Untold Story of the Little Red Hen: A Story of Love, Lust and Compromise

The Little Red Hen had big plans for her Sunday. She wanted to dress the children, put up the Christmas tree and bake cookies.

When she rose very early, she said to Richard the Rooster, "Who will dress the children?"

"Will you have sex with me?" said the Rooster.

"Not right now," said the Little Red Hen, "I have too much to do."

"Then, not I," said the Rooster, "I have homework to do."

The Little Red Hen was able to dress two of the children, but the third was forced to spend the day hiding her face in her nakedness.

Later that day, the Little Red Hen said,

"Who will decorate the Christmas tree?"

"Will you have sex with me?" said Richard the Rooster.

"Not now," said the Little Red Hen, "I have too much to do."

"Then, not I," said the Rooster, "I have to play Madden."

So the Little Red Hen decorated the Christmas tree all by herself.

Then it came time to make the cookies.

"Who will make the cookies?" said the Little Red Hen.

"Will you have sex with me?" said the Rooster.

"Not now, I'm almost done with my chores," said the Little Red Hen.

"Then not I," said the Rooster. "I'm tired of asking."

"Fine!" said the Little Red Hen, and spent an hour clucking to herself in the kitchen, only to turn around to discover that someone had eaten a cookie!

The Little Red Hen was beside herself in anger.

"Who ate this cookie?" she screeched.

"Not I," said Pedro."

"Not I," said Lexi.

"Not I," hacked Old Man Bailey.

"Not I," said Richard the rooster, wiping chocolate chips from his mouth.

"It was you!" said the Little Red Hen.

***

Hours later, after a long talk about cookies and sex, it was decided between the Rooster and the Hen that never the tween shall meet.

And the next time the Little Red Hen made cookies, she also made cookies ifyaknowwhatimean.