since last Friday...

Seriously, it's been almost a WEEK since I last wrote? What kind of person have I become? I'll admit-- I was almost tempted to keep not-writing until after the New Year...simply because then my number of posts for 2011 would stay a nice, even 150. 150 posts!! That's pretty good! But I guess it'll be 151 or 152 or something, because I didn't want to wait that long to write again. I might forget what I've done with my life for the last week.

So, Christmas! It's done with now, yes? It was a good one...lots of time with family (which is what I've been doing all week while I'm busy not-blogging), way too much food, excellent presents, hitting up the after-Christmas sales...good times.  

Here are some of the highlights:


1. Santa Butt pants. On Timmy, of course. Not me. Not nearly as cute on me.

2. Watching Tom go into ULTIMATE NERD MODE with his favorite Christmas present: a BOOK OF FORMULAS. I am not even kidding. I looked at the book. It is full of equations. And he was SO EXCITED about it..."I already have seen some equations I can use to do ___"...I mean, FOR REAL. It was the funniest thing ever. I guess that's why some people have PhDs in electrical engineering and some people teach 4 year olds how to rhyme. Different strokes.

 3. Timmy's reindeer suit. It's one of the cutest things ever.

4. Playing around with aperture settings. Here is an example of what not to do: make everyone and everything look blurry and ghost-like.

5. Example of what TO do. Focus on one thing and make background lights look like glowing orbs. Sweet!
 

6. Back at our own house (although we haven't spent but like 5 non-sleeping minutes there in the last week) it is like Dog Central. We are keeping my parents two dogs while they travel, so that brings our total Dog Count to 3 (if you're not a genius like my brother-in-law Tom, I thought I'd help you out with the math there). Let me just say. Three dogs (in my house) is TOO MANY. Approximately 2 too many. And the 2 visiting dogs are SMALL...way smaller than Lola...but still. That means 12 paws going CLICK CLICK CLACK CLICK all over our floors, which then echoes throughout the house, and when you multiply it with the high ceilings and take the derivative of the sound of 3 dogs barking and playing...let me consult my Nerd Book...carry the 7...um, yeah, it's about 2812048 decibels ALL THE TIME.

There are a few sweet moments like this. But not many. Take Home Message? I'm thankful we have only one dog, and this should effectively squash any "I want another puppy!!!" desires for at least a few weeks. Also, the thrice-daily potty walks times three dogs? And it's been RAINING NONSTOP? Loads of fun. Awesome.


7. We ate lunch here:

...but instead of telling you where "here" is, I'm going to make it a POP QUIZ!!! Woohoo!! If you live/have lived/have visited Athens (and had a half-decent tour guide), then this should be the easiest quiz ever (no formula books required!). Question 1: Where was I? Question 2: What did I eat? Leave your answer in the comments. People who were actually there with me at this meal are disqualified, so you can just leave your comment about something else. Winner gets a great prize, like maybe I will go eat lunch with you at this place (didn't say anything about PAYING, though).

 8.  I've been playing this game:

source

Yall, Hanging With Friends is the funnest game EVER! Technically, I've been playing this game since like October, but my Play Time has definitely increased on this Christmas Break. Hanging is superior to Words, in my opinion, because it's WAY LESS STRESSFUL and a turn doesn't take like 30 minutes. So that's why you should download it and start a game with me. My user name is ErikaB1212 if you want to play me...although you should be warned that I sorta suck at it. 

9. Matt went to Zumba with me on Monday! It was the most entertaining thing ever. After class was over, I asked him how he liked it. He had very sad eyes and said "I give myself a D." I give him an A for effort, personally. And an A for making me want to laugh my head off. He was very cute. 

10. I need to take down "Christmas." :( Obviously I am procrastinating this by blogging, but it needs to be done. It's much better to do it now, when I have the time to do it well, then to wait until I go back to work and then just throw everything in a box and hope it sorts itself out by next year. I bought some more storage tubs at Target yesterday, so I'm hoping that all my accumulated crafts will fit...this weekend, Matt is going to put up more shelves in the garage so that hopefully we will actually have a place to PUT the new tubs full of crafts. Ay yi yi. 

11. Last night I got to hang out with part of the Spectacular Seven! AKA my BFFs from high school...if you're not in the know.

L-R: me, Dustin, Elizabeth, Christopher, Michael, Jessica, Patrick

We did take a picture last night, but I don't have it yet, so a picture from 2003ish will have to do. Last night we got to enjoy hanging out with Patrick and his wife Brooke and baby Charles (they currently reside in Iowa), Christopher and his wife Katy (currently reside in Greenville, SC), and Jessica (currently resides in Augusta) (and myself and Matt, obvs). I had a blast, and it was MUCH more my idea of a good High School Reunion than the one actually hosted by my high school a few months ago (and attended by a few of the folks above, who filled us all in on it last night). We did miss our friends who weren't there, though. :( 

12. OK, the procrastinating must end. CHRISTMAS MUST GET CLEANED UP. And also I should probably like...shower. Or brush my teeth. Or something. 

Or not. I'm still on break!!! Woohoo!!!

life and pictures and stuff

 Hello, long lost friends. I suppose I should be thankful that most of my time the past few days has not been spent in front of a computer screen...instead, I've been actually interacting with real live people!!!! and that's something to be thankful for. But I do miss blog-land. (Note: just because my face has not been stuck in front of my computer screen does not imply that it hasn't been stuck in front of a lot of other screens, including but not limited to: my phone screen, camera screen, iPad screen, and a movie theater screen. I've been diversifying my screens, you see...)

My sister- and brother-in-law are in town for Christmas, which means the famous Baby Timmy is in town! This means most of my free time has been spent securing my spot as Most Favorite Aunt. Here's part of my game plan:

...But don't tell any of the other aunts (all 1 of them). I have some pretty sweet moves and can usually always get Timmy to smile. One thing he really likes?? Having his picture taken!

Therefore Amy and I have taken it upon ourselves to reenact every single Famous Photo Idea we've ever seen on Pinterest. I consider it to be a 'famous' idea if basically everyone I know has repinned it, including people who don't even have or know any children. You may recognize these pictures as the Really Cute One with the Baby Boy wearing Nothing But Daddy's Tie. They turned out REALLY well, but I will not be posting the 'full shot' unless Amy gives me express permission to, seeing as it's her child and he's naked and all. But this shows you how cute he is, anyway!

Basically I should have a career as a baby photographer, don't you think?? Timmy thinks so.


Matt and I also tried our hand at posing with random Christmas decor. It was great, except for I couldn't stop laughing.

And in other notable family news, I finally got my Christmas present from last year...long story, but I've basically been hanging onto an IOU for 363 days...but I shall wait no longer, for today I got it!

A painting of my one and only beloved daughter:

Isn't it amazing???! It looks EXACTLY like her. I am SO happy with it and it makes me almost excited to take down the Christmas decorations because I'll get to find a place to put it!

In other news...hmmm...let's just see here...

Oh yeah, maybe I'll just throw it out there that yesterday we went to another city for a very exciting meeting with two individuals (we'll call them...MD and JD...and the initials represent their degrees/professions) regarding arranging a private adoption.

Huh? What? Yeah, I know, me too. I guess when God decides He wants to do something, things can start to move fast. Like when people you've never heard of find out about you and your situation and feel so strongly that they are supposed to help you that they take 2 hours of their time to meet with you 3 days before Christmas (for no pay)...yeah, that actually just happened. To us.

So fa la la la la...our hearts are happy. We don't have a baby this Christmas, but we are so full of hope and joy that we just may explode. It's a really good feeling...to know that God hasn't forgotten you. To know that there is hope. To know that you will be parents, even if it's not by the method you'd originally imagined. To know that miracles come in many ways...and to think that maybe finally your dreams might come true.

A very merry Christmas to you...

a very biker christmas

 WHOA. Sorry for the blog absence here lately. As I've mentioned before...I'm slightly not ready for Christmas, so this week has been spent working, spending time with family, Zumba-ing, and also trying to start my Christmas shopping. Basically, I'm swamped.


But not too swamped for Way Back When-sday!

WAY BACK in 2004, I was a senior in college. My sister was a senior in high school. My mom was a senior in...life (HAHAHAHA just kidding Mom!! Not that you read this!!). We decided to take the traditional Family Pictures on Christmas Eve.

Apparently leather jackets were all the rage (in our house) that year. And bad Christmas sweaters. Yikes.

Can we all just agree to never let our fathers buy those 'progressive' tinted glasses or whatever the heck they are? Because looking like you're wearing sunglasses indoors on Christmas Eve? Not cool.
 

I would like you to refer to more recent pictures as evidence that my family has made great progress on the fashion front since Biker Christmas 2004.

And that's all we have time for today, folks, because SOME people gotta drive to work. Boo. Have a very happy last-few-days-before-Christmas, and in case you were still stumped about what to wear to your next Christmas dinner/party/church service...may this post serve as a reminder that probably your Black Leather Coat is NOT IT.

'twas the weekend before Christmas

Is it seriously the last weekend before Christmas? Seriously? Really? Because I have exactly ZERO presents underneath my tree. Wanna know how many presents I've bought Matt? Zero. Unless you count the camera, which was sorta a gift-to-each-other thing...but we're supposed to be buying other gifts for each other, too, and I've already told you how THAT'S going. Despite being not remotely ready for the gift-giving part of Christmas, I'm not stressed about it in the least. It'll get done...or it won't, and that'll be fine too. It'll be a good time to remind people that "Christmas isn't about the presents!"Haha, wouldn't that be a jerk move? Okay, also you should know that we've already DONE Christmas with my family...so it's not like I haven't done ANYTHING. All of those presents were wrapped...and are now given away. But our tree does look really sad, all present-less.

So what have I been doing this last weekend before Christmas, now that I've admitted how unprepared I am for Christmas? Well...obviously, procrastinating some more! Last night I hosted my first ever Girls Being Crafty night! Basically it was an excuse for some ladies to hang out and/or eat and/or work on some crafts. Not terribly organized (I most certainly did not plan some organized group craft for everyone to work on together...it was BYOC)...because that would probably stress me out. I just wanted people to come over to my house (it's no small drive) and be happy. 

Side note: last December, I decorated my house as per usual. And at the end of the month, when the house had been decorated for the whole month, I realized that not a SINGLE PERSON besides Matt and myself had been inside our house to see the decorations. NO ONE. Maybe the UPS guy had glimpsed the inside when he dropped something off, who knows. But not a single friend or family member ever came over. And it's not anyone's fault but my own. But don't you know I cried for like 3 days over that travesty? So this year, I was determined: SOMEONE BESIDES US WILL SEE AND ENJOY MY DECORATIONS!! That gave me extra encouragement to try and put together some sort of social get-together to ensure it would happen. 

So anyway, some girls came over and there was food and craftiness and good conversation and so I considered it a success. But the night was not without drama! And I'm not talking about the girl kind. I'm talking-- my corkscrew BROKE!!!!!! As in, we had no way to open up the wine!!!! You should have seen the faces of horror as we realized our predicament. Luckily, our friend Google had many suggestions on how to get out of this pickle. Please witness the winning idea: using a screw and hammer, and a lot of brute strength.

 Yes, I realize my nails look awful. I am currently accepting sponsors for a manicure.

VICTORY IS MINE!!!, saith Erika.

And that is the extent of my pictures from Craft Night. Apparently my craft was not working on my photography. I am not even done with my craft yet. If it doesn't suck, I might show you later when I'm done.

Today, after sleeping until like...lunch...we did some necessary chores and then got fancied up for a wedding. Yes, we have had weddings two weekends in a row. Because our Christmas budget was like, SO OVERFLOWING WITH FUNDS, we were like...anyone? Is there anyone else who we could buy gifts for?? Please?? OK not really, it was just a coincidence. This was a 3pm wedding, and even thought we had loads of crap we SHOULD have been doing before that...instead, we decided to have a photo shoot with ourselves, courtesy of our tripod and self-timer that shoots continuous pictures!! Woohoo!

 Um...who was in charge of that above picture, anyway? Could they have PICKED a brighter, squintier spot? I think not. Sheesh.

So...verdict on having a home photo shoot with self-timer and tripod? SUPER FUN. WILL DO MORE OFTEN. 

So then we wedding-ed (after a very stressful experience at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, which I do not care to re-live again) and then finally bit the bullet and did some Christmas shopping. Whilst wearing our wedding clothes (see above). One store we went to was Home Depot. I'm guessing they don't see people as fancy as us very often there. We got some stares.

So GUESS WHAT? In the time it's taken me to write this blog, A PRESENT HAS APPEARED UNDER MY TREE! I guess Santa Matt has been busy. But for some reason, one lonely present looks even more depressing than no presents, haha. 

Oh yeah!! You should go visit my friend Kristina's blog: she did a cute tutorial about making DIY silhouette ornaments, and guess who she used as her model? LOLA! I know, my sweet little baby is moonlighting as a model. And also it is one of her PUPPY PICTURES...which are about as adorable as you would imagine. So you should go check it out and die of the cuteness.