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12/20/2007Presents!

new lamp I got two presents already! One from Kerri and one from myself. I'm really excited about Kerri's present; she's heard me talk about getting into painting again and got me some watercolor paints. I've felt for a while like I don't have any hobbies and I used to draw and paint in high school and I kind of miss it...so here's a great opportunity to rekindle and old friendship. Thanks Kerri.

I also got a present from myself. Well, sort of. I bought a lamp online and it came in the mail today so it felt like a present. If you look closely at the Nativity Scene in the photo you might notice something is missing...Pastor Paul has been doing a sermon series on the scientific evidence to support the Biblical account of the birth of Christ...and last Sunday he talked about the Magi and how realistically they wouldn't have gotten to see Jesus until he was a toddler and that the Greek text doesn't refer to Jesus as a baby but a better translation would be toddler. So Eric feels it's inaccurate to place them in the manger scene and has instead put them on the other side of the living room. He'd really like to shift the entire manger over to the east side of the house, but there isn't a table over there.

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12/19/2007I Have WOO

So, firstly, I'm in a pretty good mood lately. Some Christmases I feel a little grouchy with all the holiday blitz, but this year I'm really excited about Christmas. We planned really well on the shopping side of things and we're not rushing at the last minute and I'm just really excited to spend time with family and take a break from work. So I've got that going for me, which is nice.

Speaking of work, I took a Strength Finder tool and here is the brief theme report of my strengths, I find this very interesting:

Communication
People strong in the Communication theme generally find it easy to put their thoughts into words. They are good conversationalists and presenters.

Woo
People strong in the Woo theme love the challenge of meeting new people and winning them over. They derive satisfaction from breaking the ice and making a connection with another person.

Belief
People strong in the Belief theme have certain core values that are unchanging. Out of these values emerges a defined purpose for their life.

Relator
People who are strong in the Relator theme enjoy close relationships with others. They find deep satisfaction in working hard with friends to achieve a goal.

Responsibility
People strong in the Responsibility theme take psychological ownership of what they say they will do. They are committed to stable values such as honesty and loyalty.

After some thought, I feel that these themes are accurate, although some I never really thought of as strengths...more like just a part of who I was, like my dimples or something.

In unrelated news, a HUGE congratulations to my dear friend Kyra on her engagement.

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12/10/2007Dust Mites- EW!

Richard Richard has suffered from an itching problem for quite some time. Within the last six months or so, he's added another habit - licking. He licks his feet obsessively and they are stained a pinkish color. We've taken him to the vet multiple times and have tried different foods, medicated baths and steroid shots for temporary relief. But all our methods provide only temporary relief and he continues to have really bad flare ups where he scratches so hard he cuts himself with his nails. I'm just sick over, so at our last vet visit, we decided pay for a relatively expensive allergy test.

We got the results back to find Richard is allergic to three main things:

A marsh elder weed
Cat Dander (yes, our dog is allergic to cats)
Dust mites

He doesn't come into contact with the marsh elder weed or cats too often, but after researching dust mites on the internet I've reached a new level of paranoia. I won't go into detail but basically they are everywhere and you can't really get rid of them. Obsessively cleaning and a few other tricks may reduce them somewhat but they are here to stay. The vet said we could look into giving Richard hypo-allergenic injections than will probably help with some of the symptoms, although it's no cure. I asked for a quote, which I almost don't want to see. So, short of us moving into a plastic box with no furniture, Richard may be dealing with this for a while. Poor puppy.

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12/1/2007Christmas

It's December so in my mind the Christmas season is officially here. (Even though several radio stations have been playing Christmas music 24/7 since the day before Thanksgiving --ANNOYING).
Anyway, back to the Christmas season. So it's here and the way Eric and I kick it off is to decorate our Christmas tree. In past years we've had this kind of Charlie Brown artificial tree that I just try to pack with ornaments to hide it...but this year we made the investment in an artificial tree, a pre-lit one at that. It's really nice. It's quite a bit bigger than our previous tree and has all these nooks and crannies for all our childhood ornaments plus all the bulbs we bought on clearance last year during the after-Christmas sales. (Martha Stewart has the best ornaments.) My favorites are these smaller bulbs with cute little polka dots all over them.
Also in addition to our Christmas decorations this year is the stocking Eric's grandmother made for me (second one in on the right). The other stockings are Eric's growing up (far right) which we discovered this year was made by his grandmother the year I was born...we feel it's kismet. Finishing off our stockings are mine from growing up (far left) and of course Richard's stocking shaped like a bone.
Christmas 2007

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