Congratulations to my husband!

Greetings everyone. I hope your holidays were bright and beautiful, whichever ones you celebrate. Ours were mostly calm and relaxing, once we got past "the big day" itself. I do have some exciting news, though. DH passed the Structural Professional Engineering Exam! He is now an officially licensed Professional Engineer in Structural Engineering. YAY!!! He's been working towards this for 5 years now. You may remember me blogging about him taking the test back in October. He had been studying for it since February, and he nearly drove me crazy in the process, but it was all worth it. HE PASSED, HE PASSED, HE PASSED!! Most people don't pass the first time they take it, but I never doubted that he would. He is truly one of the smartest people I have ever known, and I'm not just saying that as his wife. I'm saying that as a former classmate and grade-competitor as well. Congratulations honey, you deserve it!

My Christmas Wish for You

A few years ago, I found the best Christmas cards. They had the most awesome poem on them, and I saved one of the cards to use the poem later. I have used it over and over, and I just love the sentiment. I won't be blogging much the next several days. I'll be spending time with my family. But I wanted to leave you with best wishes for very happy holidays (whichever ones you celebrate) and a wonderful new year.

~Believe~
Believe in Christmas Magic
Believe in Ancient Lore
Believe in a hundred impossible things
The New Year may hold in store

Believe in Heavenly Angels
In Santas and Elves by the score
Believe in a hundred impossible things
In Flying Reindeer and more

Believe in a Babe in a manger
In Wise Men and gifts galore
Believe in a million impossible things
You've never believed before

Happy 30th Anniversary, Mom and Dad

I would like to take this space and opportunity to congratulate my parents, Mark and Rita Warren, on 30 years of marriage. Especially in this day and age of divorce being the norm, it is a tremendous accomplishment. Thank you so much for being such awesome parents, and for teaching me what love, marriage, and family are all about. I LOVE YOU!

A smashing success!

Okay, you may have noticed that I haven't been around my blog much lately. Life is crazy, especially around the holidays. Add in a wedding and a "meet the boyfriend" party (thrown by me for my best friend, who lives in Texas but was visiting for the wedding, along with her boyfriend who most people hadn't met before) the Saturday before Christmas, and you get Erin not being around the computer long enough to blog. Well, even if I do say so myself, the party was a smashing success! The Friday pre-baking didn't go so well. I burned $10 of pecans, I dropped a pyrex bowl on my big toe (from a height of almost 4 feet; let me tell ya, it HURT), I tried to mess up another recipe. But I'll take a bad pre-baking day over a bad party any day. Everything Saturday went off without a hitch, from the wedding to the reception to the party baking to the homemade spaghetti dinner to the party itself. In case you are curious, here is the menu for 9 people:

* Dinner - homemade spaghetti, bread, salad
* Dessert - pound cake, homemade hot fudge sauce, whipped cream
* Snacks - Hershey's Holiday Miniatures, Mint Hershey Kisses, chewy Christmas tree peppermints, chessman cookies, pirouette cookies (hazelnut and mint), pretzels, chips and salsa, cinnamon pecans (the ones I burned the first batch, but remade), homemade fantasy fudge, salted peanut marshmallow chews, sausage balls, and rice krispy treats, plus Katie brought homemade oatmeal cookies that were fabulous

People were having enough fun to stay until 1:30 am! Then we stayed up until roughly 2:30 putting up the food and loading the dishwasher. I'm still tired. I haven't thrown any kind of major party in over 4 years, and as tired as I am, I'm not likely to again for another 4 years. LOL But this one went off so well, I just had to come brag on it for a moment. After all that, Christmas will be a quiet boring affair! Thank goodness.

Saw "Return of the King"

Very good. Not as good as Fellowship, but better than Towers. Full musings here.

Is Christmas over? Did I miss it?

Apparently, since the Christmas selling season begins earlier and earlier, then the end of the season should also begin earlier. This year, there were Christmas decorations up/for sale beginning in mid-late October. Guess I shouldn't be surprised that it's all on sale for 30-50% off on December 15. That just seems so sad! I remember when the stores were full of Christmas stuff right up through Christmas Eve. Everything was always so festive! Now it all looks picked over, like it's the Day After Christmas Sale, and it's barely the middle of the month. Now the KFC can't complain! I'm a little late to the Christmas spirit this year, and finding everything on sale (if picked over) as far as decorations are concerned is great for the wallet. It's just a little depressing to the spirit.

At least my wreath looks festive (made with some of those half-off items) and my mantle is cheery with stockings and such. Like my Christmas Tree Pooh? That's as close as I'm getting to a tree this year. No point in putting one up if we won't be here to enjoy it. Too much feline temptation, me thinks. Ah well, we'll have our own tree one day, once the kids arrive. Until then, we'll be treeless.

Quote for the day

I know, not much blogging lately, and probably not much today, but I did want you to have *something* new. I can't remember now where I read this, but it is my most favorite quote in the world.

"We live in a universe, not a multiverse. Among other things, this means that science, engineering, the search for justice, the search for beauty, and the search for holiness are interrelated." ~Author unknown

Cat-mas Carols

Our friends David and Ina gave us a wonderfully small and totally hilarious book called Catmas Carols, by Laurie Loughlin. I had skimmed one or two earlier, but I actually sat down and read through all of them last night. One had DH and me in stitches, and I just have to share it with you! I swear they must have been spying on our house to write this. Cat lovers, run out right now and buy this book! You won't be sorry (but you will be laughing so hard you'll cry).

"Oh, Come All Ye Furful"
Oh, come all ye furful,
Hungry and well-rested,
Oh, come ye, oh, come ye to
The master bedroom.
come and behold them
Snoring loudly 'neath the sheets,
For now it's time to wake them,
For now it's time to wake them,
For now it's time to wake them
On this Christmas morn.

Meow, choirs of felines,
Meow in expectation.
Meow till you get your Mom
And Dad out of bed.
Glory to food
In the cat dish.
Oh, come let us enjoy it.
Oh, come let us enjoy it.
Oh, come let us enjoy it,
Breakfast at last!
~by Laurie Loughlin

No expounding, just pondering

I just finished reading Angels and Demons, by Dan Brown. This book so precisely describes my belief in how science and religion interrelate, it is frightening. A two line statement in this book sums it up beautifully, and I wanted to put it here for you to ponder.

Science and Religion are not at odds.
Science is simply too young to understand.
~ from Angels and Demons, by Dan Brown

Ho, Ho, Buzz?

This falls into the "now why didn't *I* think of that" category. You know those really long lines you have to wait in to see Santa at the mall? Well, I'm betting the people who have to live with the complaints came up with this brilliant idea: Santa Pagers. It works just like a restaurant: you walk up, you give your name, they give you an approximate wait time and a pager. You are then free to wander around the mall, waiting for your pager to go off. Once it does, just show up and see Santa. Finally someone got some sense!

Now if they could just bring the prices down to something more reasonable. I thought about my best friend and me having our picture made with Santa my last year in college, but when I checked the prices, I nearly choked! It was like $50 for not too many pictures. I just couldn't believe it. If it still costs that much, I may just have to do without Santa pictures for my future children. I was always crying in mine anyway (and we have the photos to prove it). We'll see. Somehow, I have a hunch that when my little boy or girl looks at me and asks to go see ol' Mr. Kringle, I'll just have to say yes (especially if they inherit DH's brown eyes). ::sigh:: God makes them cute for a reason, and they sure do know it! LOL

I'm here, really I am.

Sorry all. I just haven't felt very expoundful lately. (When in doubt, make up a word, like expoundful. LOL) Too much going on at the moment in life and holidays and work. (And for anyone trying to read anything into that, don't. I've already been disappointed this month.) So, Erin is alive and well, just dealing with "the real world" a little too much lately. I'll be back soon. Maybe tomorrow, but definitely by Monday. Might even have my review of Master and Commander complete by then. Shame on me for being so late!

Ahoy matey!

And we're back. Thanksgiving was busy but good, and it's always wonderful to see family. And as predicted, the DVD of Pirates of the Caribbean was waiting for me when I got home Monday night. Yes, I've already watched it. ::sigh:: Life doesn't get any better than that. Next up, the 4 (yes, four!) commentaries, which I will probably be through by the end of this coming weekend. We shall see. Just wanted you to know I'm back, and I'll be expounding again soon.