My life as I know it

A box of chocolates with both good and awful chocolates mixed together. Pat is always saying that you can't trust the "random" shuffle on my iPod because I have such awful songs on there. I always defend myself and am insulted by his comments since I pride myself on having somewhat of good taste in music. But today, I was listening to my iPod while unpacking from our Christmas travels and organizing my new kitchen pantry (more on that later) and the most bizarre songs were coming up on the random shuffle on my iPod. I had to admit to myself that he is right. I'm only admitting this to you and me, by the way. I am not ready to tell him that he is right and that I agree with him that it's time for an iPod intervention. Instead, I will slowly but surely (and secretly) delete songs from my iPod to try and improve the quality of the random shuffle. In the meantime, I would like to share with you the 10 songs that played in a row on my iPod's random shuffle toda...

We survived our four Christmases. More than just survived them, we really, really enjoyed them! We felt like we had enough time at each Christmas celebration to actually relax and enjoy ourselves and enjoy our great company, something we haven't really felt we had time to do in the previous five Christmases we've spent together. It was so great to have my step-dad, Mark, out of the hospital. It was hard to see him feeling so ill, but we were just so thankful he could be with us! My Uncle Mark surprised us with a visit from New York which was so nice to have him home! We got spoiled rotten with gifts and truly got more than we deserve. It almost makes you feel guilty. That being said, we will enjoy each and every one of them and remember to be thankful for having so many people who care about us! Okay, I'll quit dancing around the issue. You want to know, did I accomplish all of my lofty Christmas baking goals and the answer is a difficult one for me to swallow. No. No...

T minus 3 days... And I'm still not finished with my shopping, wrapping, baking or crafting. Yikes. Let this blog at 8:00 a.m. on Thursday morning count as the blog I was supposed to write last night. Maybe I forgot to write it or maybe I purposely avoided it because I was embarrassed about how very unproductive I was yesterday. Unproductive, yet, I felt like I never relaxed for a second!  I let myself sleep in until 9, and it felt great (okay, so I guess I did do a little relaxing)! Then somehow I wasted time on the computer until 10:30 or so before I started to melt the chocolate to dip the oreo balls in (slaps hand on wrist). I don't have a double boiler and the two pots that I used last year as my own imitation of one, were two small to hold three times as much chocolate chips. So I decided to use a glass bowel inside of a pot instead.  It worked great, at first. But towards the end, the chocolate started to cook on the glass and got really chunky. I have no idea if thi...

T minus 4 days.... And I'm still not finished with my shopping, wrapping, baking or crafting. Yikes. But I'm happy to report, that I'm making progress on all fronts! I already got a head start on the baking. Grady was very intrigued with all the baking supplies I bought! On Saturday afternoon, I made the sugar cookie dough and on Sunday night Pat and I made the sugar cookies. Many of you saw my Facebook update explaining that while his contributions were very helpful, they went a little downhill - no pun intended, at the end of the night. Nonetheless, we were able to roll, cut and cook nearly 80 sugar cookies - minus the inappropriate one that Pat made and then ate. Tonight was my first time making frosting instead of buying it. Why would I buy the frosting and try to make things a little easier on myself? That wouldn't make sense! It was surprisingly easy to make and probably impossible to screw up! Pat and I got all the sugar cookies frosted and "sprinkl...

I recently joined up with 20 Something Bloggers and decided to participate in my very first Blog Swap! After the sign ups are over, 20 Something Bloggers randomly assigns the partners. I was paired up with Kelsey, a newlywed living in Grenada in the Caribbean with her husband who is in medical school. You can read her blog here (watch for my guest post on her blog later today). This is a milestone for my blog as it will be the VERY first time in all of my five years of blogging that anyone else has ever written in it! The topic of the blog swap is: “What will you do next year that you’ve been putting off for too long?” and here is what Kelsey wrote: ------ I'm a grasshopper. You know the story about the ants and the grasshopper? The ants work all summer long storing up food and preparing for winter, while the grasshoppers play and sing and enjoy the warm weather. Well when winter comes around the grasshoppers are starving and freezing to death and the ants are snug and ...

It's been a few weeks in the making, but it's officially Christmas at the Robinson household! I have (almost) all of my handmade Christmas cards completed and mailed (I'm up to 50). Handmade Christmas Cards All of our Christmas decorations are out.   No, I do not know those people in the frame. Still need to print a picture for this... Again- I do not know those people. We have a tree that is lit and decorated One of the many benefits of having a tall husband I have wrapped all the gifts that have been purchased I color-coded the wrapping papers according to which of the four Christmases we'll be attending I made handmade tags to put on the gifts! Even Grady is getting into the Christmas spirit! I purchased a new Christmas CD this year to really step up my Christmas spirit: The Glee Christmas mix. I believe it was five days after Thanksgiving, and five days after I officially declared the start of Christmas celebrating in the Robinson household, w...

I think it's very interesting that my husband is constantly telling people how often I visit the website known as Facebook. While it is true that I spend a ridiculous amount of time cyber stalking, if you will, on Facebook, I feel that Pat spends an equal amount of time on an obsession of his own; sports. But I didn't have any way of proving it. Until now... After a recent update from Mozilla Firefox (or maybe it's always been there but I never noticed), I realized that there is now a link in the toolbar titled "Most Visited" sites. I clicked on it to view the sites most visited on our computer. Do you have any guesses what was number one on the list? I will give you a hint. It wasn't Facebook and it's only four letters long: espn.com. In second place was Cleveland.com which is all my husband, too. I have to give him credit. When he's done fueling his sports addiction, he does like to read the local news and keep up with the times. I NEVER read or ...

I can't believe I don't have all of my Christmas shopping done yet. This is very unlike me. I got an early start with my Cyber Monday shopping and was half done after that day. I must have gotten cocky or something because I've done very little shopping since then and still remain with the "half done" status, nearly a month later. Normally at this time I would have all of my gifts bought and maybe half of them wrapped already! I plan on trying to wrap everything up (no pun intended) on Saturday. I think it's funny that I keep buying wrapping paper every time I go out but don't buy any gifts to wrap in it and don't use it to wrap any of the gifts I already have. But I have purchased no less than 5 new rolls of wrapping paper this year already. Maybe I think after I buy a certain amount of wrapping paper, the gifts will just start wrapping themselves. Or better yet, maybe I should just give wrapping paper as gifts. Now there's an idea... I'm ...

So I haven't blogged about Grady in a while and maybe you're thinking it's because he's growing up and growing out of his old "puppy" behaviors. I was hoping so, too. Unfortunately, it seems as though the only reason he was being good is because his owners were being extra careful about keeping things made of cotton and paper, out of his reach. Last week, we had a sock relapse. Pat was the first home from work to find a big, black Nike ankle sock in Grady's crate with him, that he had thrown up during the day (thank God he didn't re-eat it, because I'm confident he lacks the common sense to do something like that). Even though the sock clearly fit someone with size 13 feet, Pat, out of good measure, still questioned me on the phone to make sure that I didn't own any big, black, Nike ankle socks. Once I confirmed that I didn't, he stated that he was pretty confident that it was his brother Michael's (Pat's brother's, not Grady...

Today marks the fifth day of the Keep Your Kitchen Clean Challenge in the Robinson household and I am happy to report that I have not yet gone to bed this week with a dirty kitchen! We all know that I am a self-proclaimed, horrible housekeeper. Does this mean that I am a hoarder with 75 cats living in my house and so much garbage and clutter lying around that I don't know if the cats are alive or dead? No. It does mean, though, that I don't clean as often as I should and am really bad at picking up after myself. It also means that unexpected guests and visitors put me into a complete panic that could someday cause me to have an anxiety attack. For these reasons and the simple fact that I, too, would like to come home from work to a clean house where I can completely relax (yes, I am capable of relaxing). So, after speaking to many of the cleanest people I know, and asking about their habits and strategies, I learned that one of the best ways to keep your house clean and tidy ...

At first I was a little insulted when I was asked me to be an Elf for our Christmas on Campus event tomorrow at school. I felt like it was a little discriminatory and the decision was based only on my height. When I received the official uniform today, I have to admit, I got really excited and am starting to embrace the role. Elf, after all, is my favorite movie, so the chance to emulate him in even this minor roll in front of a group of first graders, is truly an honor. I am humbled by the opportunity. The gig is tomorrow from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. After I locate some green or red tights tonight to complete the ensemble, I plan on getting a good night's sleep so that I wake up feeling energized and elf-like. I've had several people tell me that I'm "perfect for this role." I am not exactly sure what this means and since they didn't choose to elaborate on this comment, I will take it to mean that I exemplify the true holiday spirit and am the perfect person t...

And that someone would be me. I don't mean a case of the Mondays like, "I'm so mad that the weekend is over and I just can't accept the fact that it's Monday" type of day. I mean that I'm having a "What else could possibly go wrong today" type of day. At first I was making great time this morning. It was looking like I was going to be leaving exactly at 7:20 a.m. as I had planned. Then, a few wardrobe and shoe changes later, it was 7:45 and I was just leaving my house. I was feeling confident about my outfit and shoe change, until I walked from my house to the garage and snow started getting in my shoe through the peep toes. Who would even think of wearing peep toe shoes in the snow? This girl. But they're so cute, I told myself. Plus, the peep toe is extremely small and I'm wearing hose underneath so it should be a non-issue. Well it wasn't and now my toes are wet. Oh well. I must move on. About 10 minutes after I leave my house,...

I've never been one for conspiracy theories - I believe that all the planes did go down on 911, I don't believe it was an inside job and I have no reason to believe that more than one person shot JFK. That being said, I do have a conspiracy theory of my own that I would like you to consider... I believe that Verizon Wireless only sells phones that are guaranteed to last less than two years. Hear me out. Verizon has always promoted this "new every two" deal that says if you sign a new contract, you can get a phone either for free or really, really cheap, but only every two years. So, in order to make some money, they only sell phones that they know won't make it to the two year mark and then when yours breaks before two years, they try to make you pay full price for another one. Have you ever been in a situation where you were waiting for your two year Verizon contract to end so that you could get a new phone? Not because you were bored of your current phone or...

Since I didn't host Thanksgiving or cook a turkey, I feel bad making the claim that I was a "Thanksgiving cooking machine," but I'm going to say it anyway. I was a Thanksgiving cooking machine! I surprisingly was off the day before Thanksgiving (didn't think I would be until Tuesday night) so I took full advantage of the day! I didn't sleep in (in my book, anyway, although it's all relative) and I didn't sit down all day long, not even to eat lunch because I forgot to eat lunch! I made several new recipes that day, hopefully you will consider it as a make-up for many weeks lost in the new recipe department. First I made... Iced Pumpkin Cookies I didn't miss lunch because I was eating these cookies as I made them. At first I thought they were delicious (because I was starving) and then, when I wasn't hungry anymore I became unsure about them. I planned to double the recipe but didn't because I...

This is where you expect me to come back and say, "Giving blood wasn't bad at all! It was easy!" And honestly, I thought I would be reporting the same thing too. But unfortunately for me, that is not what I'm about to say. The entire experience was awful. First, you have to get a finger prick that was surprisingly painful. At first I though, oh that wasn't that bad, and then it slowly started to hurt and as Elf would say, "My finger had a heartbeat." Then I had to answer all kinds of ridiculous questions basically all asking the same thing in a different way: no I do not have HIV or AIDS and haven't had sexual conduct with anyone that has. Once I made it through the finger prick (confirming that my iron was high enough) and the crazy questions, it was time for me to give blood. I was hoping that the nice man who did the finger prick and the paper work would be the same one drawing the blood but that wasn't the case. I got the very unhappy wom...

There are a lot of perks to working in a high school. I love interacting with the students and the days go by super fast! The work is challenging and I'm learning a lot. But there are some drawbacks, too. I seem to be a sucker when it comes to the kids and have a hard time saying no. They come to my office asking me for notes when they're running late to class (I always say no), they ask me to borrow money since I'm right across the hall from the bookstore and "promise" to pay me back (I usually say no), they ask me to buy their raffle tickets and support their fundraisers (I usually say yes), they ask to borrow my stapler and tape dispenser (I always say yes and rarely get them back) and then a few weeks ago, they asked me to sign up to give blood. At first I said absolutely not. Then they explained that one person giving blood can save three lives and it's the holidays and you should give the gift of life. They even said the lives that the faculty and st...

I realize this video is a little graphic. In fact, it makes me feel horrible for the turkey that I'm going to consume today. But, I also found it to be moderately entertaining and the overall message of being thankful is a good and appropriate one. Enjoy the video and more importantly, enjoy your Thanksgiving and don't forget to be thankful! :) Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Thanksgiving Eve: The most popular drinking night of the year. It's 12:25 a.m. and the only thing I've drank all day was a root beer and gatorade. At one time, I did partake in the Thanksgiving Eve drinking and partying festivities but tonight, my festivities were quite different. Today I baked 3 dozen iced pumpkin cookies with cream cheese (with orange food coloring) frosting, one pumpkin roll, 4 cheese balls and tripled the recipe of sweet potato casserole. I've been working on this stuff all day long and have a new appreciation for those of you who host Thanksgiving at your house. It became very obvious to me tonight as I turned the KitchenAid mixer on too high and sweet potatoes went flying all over my kitchen, that I am not even close to being ready to host Thanksgiving, or any large scale cooking event, at my house. I tip my hat to all of the rest of you who do. Goodnight.

I recently joined the group 20 Something Bloggers and stumbled across the blog below where Sandy is creating and releasing 1000 paper cranes with a different inspirational word on each one. She leaves them for others to find and to hopefully spread a bit of positive energy and "world peace" which is what cranes symbolize. She came up with this idea after reading "Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes" by Elanor Coerr which is a book about a girl from Hiroshima who was diagnosed with cancer and wanted to fold 1000 cranes before she died but unfortunately only made it to 644. I was inspired when reading her blog and thought you might be interested in learning about it too! Sandy and the 1000 Paper Cranes: About The Project : "So why 1000 paper cranes? What started this all? After reading the true story of Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Elanor Coerr, I was..."

For a number of reasons, I have only once in my life ventured out on Black Friday. Here are a few of the reasons why I make it a personal goal to avoid shopping on Black Friday: 1. I hate waking up early 2. I despise waiting in long lines 3. I try to avoid large crowds in small spaces whenever possible 4. I don't have a shopping buddy to venture out with me 5. My shopping list is never ready in time Here is one reason why I would, under the right circumstance, consider shopping on Black Friday: 1. I love getting a good deal I believe it was three years ago when I decided I would venture out on Black Friday for the first time because I was after a particular bargain. I wanted to get Pat a nice drill and Sears was having a really good deal on one. I talked my dad into going with me and I didn't go super early. I ended up getting a lot of shopping done that day and despite going out late, I was still able to get Pat the drill (which has been immensely beneficial to u...

One of the local radio stations has been playing Christmas music since November 1st. I have been strategically ignoring this station so that I don't hear any Christmas music until after Thanksgiving. I know it might sound weird, but I am one of those people that like to take it one holiday at a time. Maybe it's because my mental capacity is too small to handle them both at once, or maybe it's because of the way I was raised, but I cannot partake in Christmas festivities until after Thanksgiving. There. I said it. I know there are people who strongly disagree with my stance, and that is okay! But because I really do love all holidays and all seasons, I like to make sure that I get to truly enjoy each and every one. My house is decorated for Halloween starting mid/end of September and once Halloween has passed, I leave up all the general fall decorations until after Thanksgiving. Pat and I are on the same page when it comes to leaving Thanksgiving and Christmas as two sepa...

Me surrendering in one of my dance offs And wave 'em around like you just don't care. That's pretty much my dancing strategy. It's all in the arms. Most people who know me know that I LOVE to dance. And recently, I seem to love DANCE OFF's and participated in many this summer during our marathon of weddings (most of which I lost, by the way). Not only do I love to dance, but I have pretty wicked awesome dance moves, in my humble opinion. Sure, my robot isn't the standard robot you're used to seeing, but it's the scarecrow like movement of my arms that makes my robot so unique. My biggest area of strength with my dancing is most definitely my arms. There's no limit to what my arms and hands are capable of when they get moving to the "right beat" - aka, anything Black Eyed Peas and most recently Like a G6 . Because my upper body dance moves are so good, I excel at dancing in the car. When you're sitting down in the car, all you ha...

So you know I love to sing, but what you may not know is that my voice is only half as good as my husband's. We both are extremely talented electric guitarists and decided this holiday season we would start our own band to help spread the holiday cheer. We want to thank my dad and Jill for purchasing Rock Band for us a few Christmas's ago, against their better judgment. It really gave us the skills and confidence to pursue our passion. We both feel we wouldn't be where we are today without their support. Happy Holidays from the Robinsons! Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

It's been too painful to talk about, which is the only reason you haven't heard about the knock-down, drag-out fight that took place in the Robinson household exactly one month ago. Since I alluded to the incident with Pat and "the sweater" in my blog last night, I feel as though it is my civic blogging duty to fully disclose the entire story with any other newlyweds out there who might be struggling through some of the same issues. By the way, I assume it goes without saying, but just so we are clear, no one was physically knocked down or dragged out of our house during this fight. The only thing that was bruised and scarred during the argument was both of our egos. A few months ago, I went shopping (weird, I know) and found some really awesome deals at Ann Taylor Loft, a store that I can't really afford UNLESS I find things on the clearance racks, which I did. I bought this super cute mustard yellow cardigan (one of the "in" colors of the fall, so I...

If you read my blog often, you know that my husband Pat is usually my favorite topic of discussion. Whether it be his refusal to read the labels on my clothes and his insistence on washing all colors together and then throwing them in the dryer on high, or the fact that after living in our house for 2 1/2 years he still can't catch on to the routine of making sure the shower curtain is pulled closed; he provides a lot of material for me to use in this blog. But tonight, I'm reprieving Pat of his role as the victim of my blog and instead I'm going to talk about myself. When I got home from Dale Carnegie class tonight at 10:00 p.m., Pat saved me food because he knew I didn't eat dinner. He heated it up for me and served me at the table. What a husband I have! Then, in a very soft, polite voice he said, "Emily? Can I ask you favor?" I wish I could say I responded with, "Yes, dear. Anything you want." But actually, I was busy facebooking so even thoug...