Year of the Yo-Yo, FNJ, Tying the Knot and My Sweatshop Experience

I officially declare 2012 to be the year of the yo-yo. Santa Claus left Tommy a yo-yo in his stocking, and it has been the go-to toy of the season. So much so, I had to go to Target and buy five additional yo-yos so that we can all play yo-yo at the same time. I am astounded at how good some of my friends are a yo-yoing! (Marty Mason, I'm looking at you.) In any event, most of Christmas and New Year's was spent amongst friends and family, yo-yoing long winter's nights away. Such fun.

In other news, if you have not heard about the game Settlers of Catan, please go Google it post haste and order a set for your own personal use and enjoyment. Go on, I'll wait.... Through? I won't build it up too much - except to say New Year's Eve and New Year's Day were full of epic Catan tournaments, and rarely a weekend day has passed that someone hasn't broken out the game board and issued a friendly challenge. I'm proud to say that out of the dozens of times I have played Catan, I have won one WHOLE TIME. Yesssss....

Poor Teddy Anne's holiday season started very badly with a nasty car crash. She is fine but her left ankle is not. She is on the mend, but quite immobile for the time being. Mr. Smith and I joined the whole Smith/Harper clan up in Asheville for the Christmas holidays! We had the nicest time! Thank you, Harpers!

here we have teddy's franken-foot all done up in festive holiday style. nothing says ho ho ho! better than these colorful adornments. get well soon, teddy!

Tommy took the opportunity to continue warping the childrens' minds honing the childrens' hand-eye coordination by furthering their video game skill set development.

dalton is x-cited

(Side note: Tommy is upstairs playing a video game as I write and I just heard him go "EXPLETIVE EXPLETIVE EXPLETIVE EXPLETIVE!!!" at the TV set. Seriously, if he continues to get worked up like this, I'm just going to have to take that game away.

Suzy pries the children away from the video game with the promise of Aspen "make your own snow." They make snow:

rosemary clooney and bing crosby got nuttin' on these bad boys

And then they add it to their gingerbread village:

winter wonderland

And Papa Tom wow'ed us with his yo-yoing prowess:

he makes it look easy

In other news, perhaps you heard I have a new Fancy New Job?

i work beneath the ubiquitous Q*bert squares of the hodges library

I'm enjoying the new role and job tremendously. As with any new job, there's always some anxiety about fitting in. Everyone has been super swell and friendly helping me get acquainted, but nothing says "you fit in" like this:

Last Friday wrapped up week two on the new FNJ. It was snowy, cold and windy and since I was leaving early for a trip across Tennessee, I dressed in boots, leggings and a sweater to go into work. While I was waiting for the elevator, I recognized a new colleague I had met once before and bid him hello. While we were chatting I made note to him that the sweater he was wearing was nearly identical to the sweater I was wearing, and I unbuttoned my coat to show him. That's when he said, "Do you know, my mother knit this sweater for me more than 30 years ago." To which I gasped and replied, "My mother knit this for my father more than 30 years ago but I commandeered it in high school and now it is MINE!" Please allow me to introduce you to Alan:

my sweater soul mate

Thanks, Alan! I'm happy to be working with everyone in the libraries! Yea!

Before taking off on my trek across this great state, I was asked to attend one important, albeit brief, milestone for dear friends Amanda and John. If you recall correctly, they got hitched last summer, as recorded here. One minor detail: their marriage has yet to be recognized by any local, state or federal government agency.

Until now, that is.

One courthouse special, comin' right up!

aaaannndd... the bride gets the marital affair off to a rocky start by attempting to tote a corkscrew into a government building

Still happy in spite of the confiscation experience:

ready to get their marriage license ON

paperwork is tedious and boring, but the johnson/womacs had all their ducks in a row for the impending nuptials

debbie signs the official documents

the johnson womacs raise their right hands and swear (something; i wasn't really paying attention, but look at amanda's face - she really is cracking me up)

he signs....

she signs...

justice of the peace, jeffery vincent, says a few words....

And voila... one union to go, please.

i don't think it was an official, emily post sanctioned duty for the maid of honor to serve as witness, but i did

And in less time than it takes to get a Domino's pizza delivered, we were out the door! Five individuals walked in that courthouse on Friday, and three individuals and a legally bound couple walked out. Here we have the wedding party:

so happy to be part of the details in making my friends' lives work!

 Next up, my trip across our great state!

In November, longtime childhood friend, Heather had her third (and final, she says, but six-year-old son Jack is pretty convinced he can talk her into #4) child: Juliana Jordan!

schmoopie! 

I had promised some time around October that as soon as she dropped that baby, I'd head out on the next weekend to be her handmaiden for a few days. Once Juliana was born we played about four rounds of I can come here! I can't have you then, can you come here? Yes!-no... wedding that weekend. How about the next? No, someone else is in town. So finally, we planned on MLK weekend for a handmaiden visit. I told her I would be her servant, and whatever she wanted doing, be it cleaning, cooking, chores, babysitting, baby washing, diaper changing (actually, not that one), putting clean newspaper in the bird's cage, I would do it. She chose only two activities: cook three meals and help her get some of the children's old clothes in shipshape for consignment. Check, no sweat.

Wait... did I say sweat?

I think I was a little unprepared for how many clothes she had to unload. She was limited to 150 hangers of "stuff," and we made it to 157 by combining outfits and like items of apparel. Her husband, Ben, dared to venture into their bedroom (AKA, the Lair of Doom) once and noted that it looked like a sweatshop in there. He then proceeded to tell me that I was on one tablespoon of water and cigarette an hour until I got all the crap out of his bedroom.

crack that whip

you'll be glad to know we did not resell underwear. i see london, i see france!

Two days, 157 coat hangars, too many safety pins and catchup conversation to count.... we were THROUGH. That and I had to convince both Ben and Heather that mail merging the information and printing it out on the prescribed index cards was easier than handwriting them WHO'S WITH ME. CAN I GET AN AMEN???

Frankly, day two Heather kept trying to rein in the project and take me to see the sights and sounds of downtown Memphis, but I kept saying we should get this project out of her bedroom. That, and Ben kept giving me evil eyes. We did take a quick spin around downtown, but next time we will do things like go IN the Peabody and see the ducks or WALK down Beale Street instead of just driving by.

Today at work, our receptionist told me that I had flowers delivered, to which I replied ME?!!! Sweet Heather sent me:

FLOWERS. if any man sees this, go send your beloved flowers. do it. now. every girl on the face of this earth loves, and i mean LOVES to get flowers at work. i don't care who you are.

Experiences/advice I garnered during my trip to West Tennessee:

• There are no hotels between Nashville and Jackson, TN with interior corridors.
• Do not eat the ravioli at the Spaghetti Shop in Jackson, TN
• Saturday night I went to bed with Heather, and I woke up with Heather, an infant and another child. I'm not quite sure how that happened, but hey. I can roll with it. 
• If your fingers crack in dry weather, try not to get safety pins hung in the crack whilst pinning.
• Showers once a day are good for the soul.
• Farts are always funny.
• Never let the criticism of a six-year-old regarding the food you make make you feel anything but laughter (my onion soup smells like exhaust apparently).
• A robust and heartfelt round of O Come Let Us Adore Him is music to the ears anytime of year.
• My friends have awesome husbands. I do too, but sometimes I'm bashfully flattered by the sacrifices my friends' husbands make to make their own beloveds' friends welcome and happy (love you, errand-running, ice cream and waffles). 
• And lastly, there is no substitute for two friends catching up on old times, sharing what's new in each other's lives, high-fiving our accomplishments, empathizing with each others' fears, commiserating with each others' complaints, and learning more about the goals and achievements each has set for themselves. 

Thanks, Jordans. I had a ball in your sweatshop.

Now I'm back to the grind. I MEAN. Back to my fancy new job that I love (I do).