Erica’s Blog

Thanks to my generous brother-in-law, Boyd I now have my own personalized domain name: https://www.readerica.com

I have switched my blog to that address so go there from now on. I will keep this blog running for anyone who wants to read my older posts.

Scott found this cool website where you can create your christmas wish list (or any wish list for that matter) I thought it was pretty cool because all of your friends and family can access it, and see what you want. You can even put links to the items you want so it makes it easier for them to buy it for you.  

Click here to view my list.

I suffer from Trichophobia: Fear of loose hairs. From Greek Thrix (hair) and phobia (fear), it’s the morbid disgust or fear caused by the sight of loose hairs on clothing or elsewhere. I know others who also have this phobia, including my dad.

I am not necessarily fearful them but I do have a morbid disgust of them. I have no problem touching my own hair as long it is still attached to my head, but the minute one comes loose I am repulsed and will not touch it again. Think about it: there is a reason that your head just rejected that particular hair….it is contaminated. You should no longer touch it. 

I hate it when people ask me to get hair off their back. If I am forced to touch a lose hair I will only touch it with a tissue (the hair and tissue must then be disposed of immediately). Ironically, I am the one who always finds hair in my food at restaurants. It makes me want to gag!

The latest fad in the cell phone industry is the mosquito ring tone. It came about after a crafty British man invented a device called The Mosquito. It  is a device that emits a very high frequency tone meant to annoy teenagers (adults are unable to hear the tone). Businesses would blast the frequency outside their store to keep loitering teens away from their storefronts. Some crafty students decided to convert the same technology into a ring tone that only they (teenagers) could hear! By utilizing this free ring tone, they could now receive phone calls and text messages while in class or school without teachers knowing it. 

Click here to test out your hearing. Even thought I am 25 I can only hear 39 and younger (15khz) frequency. 

WARNING: I now have a headache from listening to them too much; especially the super high frequency ones.

Well, hello my friends! I am happy to announce that we are back from our cruise. We had a great time this past week partying and hanging out with the extended family. We did so much that I feel like I need to take another vacation to rest from this one. 

We were able to celebrate Thanksgiving on the cruise but it was not the same as being home. On Thursday evening the dining room gave us the option of ordering turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin pie but it was not as good as my family’s home cooking. We decided that we are going to cook a belated Thanksgiving dinner on Tuesday night. We also got a watch a little bit of the Macy’s Thanksgiving day parade, which is a tradition for our family.

Our cruise took us to Nassau, St. Thomas, and St. Marteen. Our first stop was Nassau. Most of you already know how I feel about disgusting, overcrowded, and touristy Nassau so I will skip my commentary on it. Next stop was St. Thomas. When we got off the ship we immediately caught a 15 minute ferry to St. John and spent the day there. I highly recommend visiting St. John. It was one the most beautiful islands I had ever visited. It was quaint, clean, and the beaches took my breath away. We rented jeeps and drove around the island but ended up spending most of the day in Trunk Bay playing in the ocean. I could have not asked for a better day.

Our travels then took us to St. Marteen. I had never been there before and do not recommend it. You are not missing anything, trust me. The island is split in half with one side being owned by France and the other side by Holland. We stayed on the Dutch side because we were told the French side was dirty and rude. Needless to say, the island was overcrowded and the only thing it had to offer was tacky tourist stores. The beaches were packed wall-to- wall with people and chairs. We ended up parking ourselves on a bench for a few hours to people watch then ended up moseying back to the ship around lunch time. 

Overall it was good trip. A few highlights for me were celebrating my grandparents 63rd wedding anniversary, Brittany playing in a game show, and Scott singing karaoke (he was a big hit, and all the ladies loved him). I didn’t bring my camera so I have to wait to get pictures from Boyd before I can post any.

I love how the news anchors are laughing their heads off when the model falls.

Remember the post about how I was crafty and decided to make letters that spell “indulge” and put them in my kitchen? They look like this:

A few Friday nights ago I had a girls sleep-over at my house with Krista, Brittany, Cassidy, and Liz. One of the times I went to the bathroom Brittany had the idea of switching around the letters to make them say “Nude.” As I was in the bathroom all the girls are up on my counter scrambling the letters around and trying to make as little noise as possible. As soon as I walked out of the bathroom I immediately noticed the change and we had a good laugh. 

Fast forward a few weeks to a Sunday night. Our church was having a new members class which was supposed to meet at a nearby coffee shop, however, the owners forgot to show up and unlock the doors so they ended up having the meeting at our house. There were about 20 people here and most of them I had never met before. They had never been to our home so I was trying my hardest to be the best little hostess they had ever seen. At one point during the meeting Brittany catches my eye and points to my kitchen. I look over and suddenly realize that I had forgotten to switch the letters back! There they were in plain view for everyone to see: NUDE. My face got so red and I could have died. Now these people’s first impression of us must be that we are freaks who love to prance around naked.

Later on in the evening I ended up being able to explain to them what the deal was and they all started cracking up and looked extremely relieved. They were all like, “Oh good, we kept looking at them and thinking what is up with these people?”  They were very glad to know that their worship leader and his wife were not some sex freaks or something. 

The moral of this story is never let a sister with a creative imagination run around unsupervised in your home.

Scott and I had a Birthday dinner to go to tonight and left around 6 when it was already dark. We pulled out of our subdivision and onto Burnt Mill Road. As we got near the end of the road where there are woods on either side I saw a large animal dash in front of the car. At first I thought it was a stray dog but when I took a second look I realized it was a grey coyote! Scott spotted it at the same time and yelled, “Erica, that was a coyote!”

I had no idea that there were coyotes in Florida. It creeps me out knowing that there is a coyote (maybe more) roaming around in my neighborhood. When I got home I did some research and found out that there are about 100,000 of them in Florida and that they prey on cats and small dogs. I will now think twice about going for a run with William at dusk.

I have started to read Uncle Tom’s Cabin and it is very entertaining. Since it was written in 1855 the language is different and hard to navigate. Just when I thought I got used to the writing, she throws in some old language slave slang and now I am really stumped. I can figure out most of what they are saying but sentences like these: “Mother’s bar’ls is like dat ar widder’s, Mas’r George was reading ’bout in de good book,-dey never fails” are beyond me. Oh well…

Harriet, the author, describes the black culture at the time, and it is interesting to compare it to the black culture today…they are very different. She also ponders if, and how, slavery will end. Reading the book 150 years later, I know their future and all the answers to the questions she asks. I wish I could say to the charaters, “Be patient and wait because freedom is coming soon.” I guess I know what God feels when we ask Him questions about the future.  

p.s. My husband hit a home run at the softball game last night. I am so proud of him!

Scott and I saw the movie Fireproof this weekend and it was actually really good (even Scott enjoyed it). To be honest I was a little apprehensive to go because I thought it was going to be one of those SUPER cheesy christian movies where you are embarrassed for the actors, however the quality of this movie surprised me. There were a few cheesy lines and you could tell that there were some novice actors, but the whole movie was made with thousands of volunteers. I recommend that everyone see it because it is life changing. 

Also, check out their website here because there is a ton of useful marriage tools. They have everything from a 911 marriage hot line and pornography facts to creative date ideas. You could spend hours browsing all the marriage material and it is all extremely use full.