Last night and during the day we had a Christmas movie marathon.

It started off with Sherlock Holmes. I didn't think it would be easy for them to go wrong with coal dusted England + RDJ + JL, and they didn't go wrong. I was pleased as punch! We ate Christmas candy during the first 20 minutes, too, until it was gone, and that added to the movie by way of sugar rushed enthusiasm.

Then we went home and after a while dad ran out to the still-open blockbuster, and retrieved fatal attraction. We just got a clearplay and praises be! With a bunch of people with differing views on the merits of R movies, this DVD player with a filter opens up a reservoir of cinematic options heretofore untapped.

Fatal attraction. Whoah. My mom's former stake president encouraged every married man to watch that movie. Just for fun. I will never at Glenn Close the same again (although after her role as the queen in hamlet she wasn't doin so great in my opinion), and sheesh! Michael Douglas really DOES look different pre-face lift(s)!

Then we watched Julie and Julia. Jeff had flown to Utah only hours before and he was the one who had really wanted to watch it. BUT I really liked it, really did, and I'll watch it again in the name of lurve.

Now we are off to the mall. My office is just across the hands bridge at south coast plaza so we are working the parking thang. Transponder to the parking lot rescue!


-- Post From My iPhone

Merzy Christmas

It's all overrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr and my heart breaks every time. But we did have us some good times.

Sarah and Harry made a crater-ized German Pancake that was not to be ignored.

And they feel very remorseful about the fact that my cheeks got 3 sizes chubbier after eating it.

And this is what they look like opening presents! Can you believe it??

We had Christmas poppers on the Eve of the day, and the poppers come with crowns.

And we all looked CUTE.

And my dear Mumsy and Popsy looting.

We got to talk to Camer Christmas Eve and he has a Spanish accent. He sounds good though, and when we talk to him again on Mother's Day he'll only have 2 weeks left. We're all hippety hopped up on that.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Us to You

And a Happy New Year!

A few years ago I got an actual card in the mail from people who were engaged and it stressed me out. Blog card doesn't.

Bits for a Sunday Ev'n

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

I've been stuffing, addressing, counting invitations all weekend loooooong.

I have a kink in my neck and writer's cramp.

I love my invitations.

They are my favorite thing.

Christmas shopping is mostly done.

3 days of work this week.

Sarah and Harry are in town and they're a hoot.

I'm so glad I'm marrying Jeff. I believe in Jeff and Meredith.

Say this word: Lugubrious

It's in a book Sarah's reading.

I have a new phone number. Merged plans with Jeff. No turning back now. To keep his discount he got in law school, I had to switch to his "network" of 650 area code, in Palo Alto. Do we live in Palo Alto? Nope! Do we have any plans to live in Palo Alto? Nope! Oh well! When I was a wee babe my family and I lived in Palo Alto, so I sort of consider it legit. And if Sarah or Harry or Aunt Susan or Uncle Bryant ever fancied a chat, they could call me from a land line with ease.

I lost all my sidebar stuff while switching around templates for this here blog. Woops.

#1 annoyance of all time: People who chew with their mouth open or eat with such a frenzy it seems they've not been fed in 3 years. Drives me crazy.

Confession: I made a new married email address before I got engaged. I had a hunch Jeff was going to be my guy. I won't say how long ago I made it, but merzyhayes@gmail.com is taken!

And a Merry Christmas week!

Bon anniversaire to my Mumsy and Pop

Yesterday. Sorry I am quite late.




Boy oh boy I sure am glad you got married 31 years ago! You could say my life depended upon that beautiful day! And I love you both. Sorry about the picture.


-- Post From My iPhone

Location:Avenue of the Arts,Costa Mesa,United States

Christmas came early!

For more, check the snap-snap man himself, Mike Cunningham.

I love my life.

One of these days I'll blog about something else.

There are lots of good things about dating for a long time.

Last Christmas jeff and I had buckets of good times shopping for our families and while I didn't allow myself to be a complete ninny girl and plan for the entire future, I did permit myself to think, "I hope we do this again together next year!"

We are at nordstrom rack picking out his suit and just finished getting a couple presents for siblings and I can definitely say it's even more fun this time. Womp womp!




-- Post From My iPhone

Location:S Coast Dr,Costa Mesa,United States

Lurve

More on this later.

But happy girl am I.

Guess whose house is the last one on the block to be decorated.

mine.

I WILL, however, in the spirit of Christmas, gluttonous light, holly ho ho, shed some wisdom: If you're feelin hungry and cheap/poor, hop over to a take-out spot right before they close. Friday night and tonight we were able to score some extras and freebies by popping into Pat and Oscars and then Baja Fresh -- willy nilly. I would like to think my winning smile and magnetic personality earned me those things but I'm more convinced in its being the product of "Oh, uh, we're closing up and giving them this will save me an extra trip to the dumpsters in the chilled back parking lot."

The only downside: the freebie breadshticks at Pat and Oscars actually turn your innards into solids. The damage has been known to be instantaneous.

I am doing a late Thanksgiving Tangent now. Here goes....

I'm thankful for (in no particular order):

- Diet Coke (see that's why I had to put "in no particular order" so you guys will never know if I'm more grateful for this than all other things in my life.)
- Christmas and all it entails, and that I know it's all so very real
- A Mother and a Mother-in-Law-to-Be who are so efficient and clever they dare to throw together a wedding in exactly 2 months
- www.jcrew.com -- it is nice to just look sometimes.
- the fact that Cameron comes home in less than 6 months
- Razors
- My dear, silly, plucky family
- Pals and comrades that make me chuckle
- the universe isn't asking me to personally deal with Levi Johnston
- Sugar Free hot chocolate provided at my office
- the nice man who put on my spare tire when a nail shoved into my tire totally ruined its wheeling potential
- An eternal boo that charms me to death on a daily basis
- and a partriage in a pear treeeeeeee

Smurfle Duff*

I think I'm getting sick.

Tiger Woods, David Letterman, what is wrong with you???

And you know that Owl City song? Does he really sing something about getting many hugs from many lightening bugs? Does KROQ reeeeally play it??? Are you kidding me? My preschool didn't even sing about such things.

Goodnight.

* It seemed like a good time to start using nonsense words.

Thanksgibing.

Thanksgiving was pretty terrific. I snuggled small children to whom I shall be "Aunt Mer", I ate way too many carbs, I saw pictures of what my FH (Future Husband) looked like as a wee one,

watched a movie in a home theater that could beat up your in-law's home theater, got to know everyone, planned what we could, and let the engagement soak in. Odd things that made it feel more real somehow:

1. Facebook's method of confrontation:

That one had us laughing pretty hard. After Jeff hit "Confirm" it said, "You are now in a relationship with Meredith Eaton. You have no more relationship requests."

2. Receiving an assignment in the sibling present swap (and handing one out on the Eaton side as well). Erica and Robert and Sarah and Harry better be nice to us unless they've been craving chunks of coal to warm their Christmas hearts!

3. And eh, calling the Newport Beach LDS Temple to see if they had sealing availability on January 23rd at noon was sort of a trip, you know, kind of.


* I don't think it's possible to explain how much I love Nat King Cole's Christmas album. It says all things good to me. Growing up we'd prance around to Jonny Mathis, The Chieftans, Art Garfunkle, T. Bone Burnett, Jodi Collins, Harry Connick Jr., Mariah Carey, and many more, but there's almost nothing I'd rather listen to than Nat. The night we got engaged he sang to me the whole way home. He also sang to us while we drove to get his finger sized for his Man Bling in Salt Lake. Nat King Cole Christmas is to me what snow is to Lorelai Gilmore.

* By the way, I have grandmothers anew! My grandparents passed away a long time ago, and I have missed them. I now have 2 new grandmas. Woot woot! I didn't get to spend much time with one, but the other reminds me in looks and winning personality of Deborah Kerr in An Affair to Remember. Which, by the way, if you haven't seen it, after you smack yourself upside the hayd, go rent it and watch it until you know it by heart. It was really fun to call someone Grandma again; she's as sweet as can be.

Bah! Just looked at the clock!! Late late late!!!

Inheriting cute people through impending marriage

Addison is my new niece and she is blogging this from my phone.


-- Post From My iPhone

The Engagement Post

About a month ago I was leaving work for the day and the doorman said to me as I approached, "Ah, I know that look. That's the look of a girl in love!"

Tis too true!

I have been in love with Sir Jeff Hayes, Esquire for many moons now. As of last night at approximately 8 pm the long-haul nature of our relationship became most official.

This included the most delicious dinner I've ever had, hands down, at the Montage Hotel in Laguna Beach (which meant 3 YEAR OLD CHEESE from the FROMAGE PLATE OF DIVINITY,)

This also included a spell spent at the bonfire on the hotel grounds, and finally, and most importantly, down on the patio right by the shore, included those crucial words of the betrothing kind and a response in the emphatic affirmative. And the securing of this wowzer on my left ring finer (I KNOW!):

I can hardly wipe the silly grin off my face.

By the way, more pictures are coming from the camera with the missing USB cable.

It was really quite perfect, a finer adrenaline rush I've never had. And that is the truth.

Warning: The proceeding could be qualified as a Gush

I can hardly wrap my mind around my excessive good fortune in finding Jeff Hayes (thanks Erica!). He is kind, brilliant, buff, handsome, cultured, has a work ethic that shames Joan Baez, and cooks.

And, major gush, he is my best friend, cracks me up, supports me to the bitter end, and makes me want to to a hitch-kick for joy ALL THE TIME.

I can't count all the times over the last 15 months that he has shown me, in word and deed, through the big things and the small, hard times and the good, that I am one lucky girl to be his girl.

January 23, 2010 you may call me Madame Hayes. I can't wait.

Cerebral Regurgitations for a Pre-Holiday Weekend Weekend

*** I have been cleaning and reorganizing my room and bathroom. Difficulty run-down: Bathroom = cake. Bedroom = brussel sprouts. It seems the answer to my life's problems lies in the procurement of a bookshelf. I have too many books and the absence of a home for them makes them seem superfluous and/or burdensome. And then I feel guilty; they've done nothing to harm me and everything to help. And I shan't part with my Norton Anthologies, not now, not ever. Nor my 9th grade copy of To Kill a Mockingbird, because not only was that a great book read in a great class (what, what, Mrs. Bretts!), but I drew a flip book episode in the margins one day while one of my classmates, whose name I most tragically cannot remember (I used to be so good at names!), was prattling on about who knows what.

*** Yeah, I saw it. I saw it last night.

We got there 45 minutes before the show started and waited at the end of a line that was about 3 blocks long. The line consisted of 73% young, impressionable teeny boppers with 1 or 2 supervisory mothers per batch, mothers nervous that their young things weren't going to get a good seat if they didn't mow down every other potential audience member as soon as the flood gates of entry were opened. Then I'd say 15% were grown women in GNO bundles, 9% couples where both the man and the woman were intrigued and happy to be there, and 3% like me.

If I were to ever admit to being on a team, it would be Team Werewolf. Werewolves are not so moody. And was anyone else incredibly uncomfortable when she started SCREAMING her head off in her sleep? I cringed every time. Getting dumped by a vampire is NOT worth the voice destruction. Trust me -- I'd know! Bahahahahahahahah! I wish I could have seen it with Margaret and Becca; they would have thrown out some good one-liners.

And it WAS pretty funny when at the end some guy instantly yelled out, "TEASE!"

*** I have been grinding my teeth in my sleep. How does one tell itself mid-slumber, "Hey, knock it off! You've gotta keep those things for 60 more years!"

*** Jeff and I are taking off Tuesdee morning for our lovely deseret. I've not been to Utah since June 2008 and am so pumped and dazzled! Wait I take it back. I was in Utah for 5 minutes in July for Annie's wedding. But this time I shall be there long enough to truly soak it in. I always liked Utah. I'm the girl that gets cold when it's 75 degrees out, so come March as a BYU coed I was a bit distressed by the frigidity, but really, I enjoy a multitude of things about the state and my loved ones there. Does California have Maverick Gas Stations and the pleasing Frozen Yogurt, self serve??? Hmmmm??? Can you perchance run into one of the general leaders of the LDS church in a California Albertsons??? HMMMMMM?

*** I am going to go for a run now. I run again. Whenever I live in Irvine and run it takes place largely on the "Orange Grove Path" which really is an inappropriate title at this point. When Jim and Meri Eato moved to Irvine in 1984, about half a mile behind the house sat some Orange Trees. Loads of them. There was a path on the outskirts that was most lovely to stroll on. We thus called it the Orange Grove Path. Then when I was 12 the trees stopped producing marketable fruit in their old age. Chop, chop, chop. Up go the Mini McMansions. I have several friends whose parents still live in them. And they built an even prettier running/walking path with 1 side of dirt path for horse back riders (I've never seen 1 pony there). We still inappropriately and illogically call it the Orange Grove Path. And through my seasons of running, in chubby times and thin, that is the one thing that has remained true, ever true and constant. And I'm going to go say hello to it right...about....NOW!

Meredith got glasses.

Meredith has never had them before.

Meredith was told last week by her optometrist that she has astigmatism.

Astigmatism is when the invisible whatever over the color of your eye is oval, when it should be circular.

This is why things appear blurry much of the time in Meredith's world. Because of Astigmatism.

If Meredith were still in Costa Rica they would say it is an Estigmatism.

Meredith has a headache from wearing her new glasses today.

Meredith's optometrist warned her of this.

Meredith looks at her reflection and thinks, "Huh?? Who IS that??"

Meredith's supposes she will get used to it.

Yesterday I

- worked
- went to lunch with Jeff's charming aunt, uncle, and cousins at the Pei Wei with the tres impressive soda machine that offers seemingly endless soda and juice options. It's like a liquid dispensing smart phone.
- hauled the spectacularly arranged bridal bouquets and boutteniers to the Newport temple to be pinned and handed to these stunners as they greeted their first bit of fresh air as an eternally linked pair









Then I worked a bit more, sprinted to the grocery store, then Jeffrey and I sprinted to the lovely wedding reception.

Gold dipped fringe benefit of a wedding: seeing friends you might not see otherwise. This reunion with dancing fiends Brad and Lacey Arave led to an after party at the Nicklecade. So what if the words "Meredith Eaton" and "nickel nickel" have never been uttered within an hour of each other! It was really fun! K fine I'll prove it.









Jeff is a pro skater in attorney clothing.

To rap it all up with awesomeness: slept in till 11 am. I am ready to start the week anew.

-- Post From My iPhone

meh and wow!

things have been busy. you could say it's nearly the best of times and the worst of times, because while i am happy, cozy, and interested in what's going on in and around me, i'm just tired, and if you know me well you know i wear tired about as well as i wear magenta pleather.

not withstanding the aforementioned and ongoing exhaustion, i would now like to throw out just a few images that are pretty lovely.

this chub-a-lub turned 1 a few days ago. 1!!! remember when she was new and fresh and pink? this lamb hasn't lost a hair from atop her head, says some little words, and plays fetch with the doggie. she's also starting to walk, which means those rolls below will sadly diminish.

honestly! where does this girl come from?? i just want to nibble on her all day long.

i have some very fantastic memories of annie warner's wedding in late july. she finally posted some pictures and i nabbed this one, because it softens my cold and hard heart. i love weddings.

i clicked on my friend katie's blog tonight and saw she'd changed her banner to something like this. i almost fell off my chair laughing. anybody wanna get me this for christmas?? i'll take this over a snuggie. www.urbanoutfitters.com

Driver Gripes

I am not a perfect driver. Take that statement as far or near as you want to.

But just on the off-chance that some of the people who are really smokin my patience read this blog (of late: you Silver 4-Runner and Black BMW, CA plates), I will now give some tips the DMV driver could be proud of:

1. I do NOT love it when all ye who are making right hand turns in the midst of a nice, long stretch of road just stay in it and slow down to what I would like to call a near-complete stop, and then while completely in the lane, make your turn. Please, get you and your bumper over into the broken bike lane; just because YOU need to pull into the Vons shopping center, it should not mean the rest of us need to lose all our momentum.

Ooh I feel better already. Continuing on....

2. All ye who are turning and ahead of you a yielding car awaits your passing: If you're going to turn away before you get to me, USE that blinker -- you paid for its faculties! Then the yielder (ME) won't sit and wait for naught. What if the last drizzles of my diet coke buzz were quickly evaporating and I needed to get to the nearest soda fountain, STAT??

3. This last one applies to those who frequent the Main/Jamboree 405 Freeway entrance: READ the sign. 2 cars are allowed to peel out from each of the 3 lanes PER green light. 2. 2. I know -- CA does have its moments of generosity! Imagine! But really, there's a reason that entrance is so backed up. READ the sign. Please.

Can you tell it's Friday tomorrow?

Whew.

Lurkey

Do you want to know what's getting me really excited??

I shall tell you.

Less than 2 weeks until lift-off!

Real Men Eat Rocky Road

By my office there's a little eating place called "HAN'S ICE CREAM AND DELI". The sign is ailing a bit and the first time I saw it I thought it read "MAN'S ICE CREAM AND DELI". (Maybe it's not just the sign that's ailing; I need to get me some glasses soon, too.) Anyway, I thought about how cool that would be if it really were a sort of guy hang out spot, focusing shamelessly on that calcium which bulges with sugar. What would it be like? Ice cream of every extract would be lopped into giant stainless steel mugs, spoons would have dips of the appropriate generosity. Flat screens would need to line every inch of every wall, with all those shows the men folk worship like ESPN, CNN, whatever video game is in vogue, and maybe the one in the bottom corner would show the series finale of Friends on loop for the particularly downtrodden son of man. There's a big hole in the middle of the Bean Bag and/or Recliner littered floor where emptied ice cream mugs can be chucked and never seen again; there are never dishes to be done in a man's sanctuary of cream. Because of congratulatory moments or tragedy, or just the wind-down of an exhausting day, there could often be heard between friends, "Hey, meet ya for some mint chocolate chip at 6."


That's about as far as my imagination of what they'd want will take me.


Since it doesn't exist yet, all I can tell you is if you want a sandwich and a cone and tire of Subway, Quizno's, Dreyer's, etc., check out Han's on Bristol and Calleen's Commons.

**I tried to find a google image shot to put in this post, but everything I put into the search field procured results that were just too weird. "Man eating ice cream" or "Tired man" or "Stainless Steel Mug" etc....nothing fit. Anyway, I give myself credit for the attempt.

So Lazy it Invoked Fear

Last year we cared.

This year we sickies convalesced with the Eaton fam in front of the only Hitchcock ever made with Paul Newman and Julie Andrews.



We had some trick-or-treaters. Fewer than in years past, but still, children and a few of the Northwood High School junior class showed up to pillage.

I gave the 17 year olds cans of string beans.

Happy Halloween and praise the skies for pushing the clocks an hour back!

Meredith is currently

Not forming completely coherent sentences all the time because of supreme exhaustion. I know, I know, you're all sayin "so what's the big change??" ba hahahah! Smarter another day I will be when mine is sleep. No that was yoda.

Breaking out like it's 1997.

Freezing -- it looks like global warming gave up on this particular globe. I KNOW I live in southern ca. Alls I'm sayin is, it was 45 deegrees in my apartment when I woke up. Yuck!

Grumpy enough to stop blogging right...about...now!



-- Post From My iPhone

Bust of a 2 days

This weekend was chock full of activities in which I did not want to be activated.



Tonight I shall eat waffles and watch a feature film with this dapper gentleman.



Then the week shall begin anew.

-- Post From My iPhone

Planters + Brachs

I got a fevah. And the only prescription...is moah Fall Mix!

+

=

Fall Mix

Those two ingredients scooped together make up the original recipe for Fall Mix, created by Clever Aunt Kathryn.

For fun and fat I typically add some sort of chocolate.

Make it, eat it, love it. Do not delay!

What We Be Doin

Griffith Observatory. Safest place to spend an earthquake.

Would you care for some smog?

-- Post From My iPhone

Hope you have a good mood in shopping from their company!

Tonight someone hacked into the hotmail account I deleted months ago; it must have had major techie CPR and was revived. How lame: I only deleted the account because it had been my spam junk bucket, and someone had hacked into it and sent the spam email to my other account (along with everyone in my contact list), so I discovered the intrusion and made waste of it all.

It bothers me they were smart enough to hack into my account but moronic enough to send the email to the owner's (my) other (gmail) account. So I got an email from myself. Again. Nice one.

They were also cool enough to not learn English before sending out the advert email to friends and family.....If you weren't lucky enough to receive it, see the fun times below. It is so many hours past my bedtime -- goodnight goodnight!

"hello friend:

I am glad to tell you one good news!i have bought one item from one site then i got it within
3-5 working days and the quality is high too.i am very satisfaied with their service.
there are many interesting electronic items on the site!such as Phones,TVs Laptops or Video Games or
Motorbikes and so on!also the price is good enough!
If you have free time you can visite the site by yourself

the website:

The contact Email/MSN:

Hope you have a good mood in shopping from their company!"

Lists

I am a list maker. A maker of lists.

This habit really kicked into high gear on my mission. I would fill up the margins of my planners with endless tabulations of things I wanted to work on that week, my budget, groceries to buy on our day off, things to remember to appreciate when I returned home, quirky anecdotes of the week, etc. This was a time when my lists were most important because for a myriad of reasons, I was more likely to forget any and all of these things if they were not thought of AND subsequently recorded. These lists were borderline journal entries, which makes it very unfortunate that about half of my mission planners are wavy, blurred, rain-soaked pages, as nothing, and I do mean nothing finds sure protection from a Costa Rican deluge. I keep them, though, when I have the emotional intrepidity I'll take a peek at them again to remember the times, remember the days.

Ho hum.

I still do make lists for self-analysis purposes in quiet moments caught, I make grocery lists on my phone while at red lights, and in 3 months of working at my current job I've already cooked through 2 note pads with daily To-Do this and thats.

Today feels like a day for a Spankf -- oh, I mean Thankful List.

1. These Hooligans

2. This Place

3. Not I or anyone I know and love has hair like this (although I currently take ISSUE with the state of my locks!):

4. Soon this shall be erected at a local outdoor mall:

5.