Monday, October 31, 2011

Meet Al Capone and Carrie Crooner Ravioli

HN has yet again roped me into participating in her favorite holiday.  Tonight we attended a Murder Mystery Dinner, where there was murder, intrigue, cheating, bribing, excellent food, laughing, and impressive acting.  (please note it was a game).  My mob boss husband got murdered, I was dating Al Capone on the side, and as the night went on I learned I was also seeing multiple other men...clearly my alter-ego Carrie is more scandalous than the real me.  HN and NB throw a great party!  Thanks girls!

Happy Halloween


Poncho decided to dress up this year! 
(photo courtesy of Dadio)


Saturday, October 29, 2011

Hawaii Meets Poncho Villa

Poncho Villa and Senorita Erickson joined Dadio and Mama Berry in Hawaii for vacation.  (Yes again, I was not invited to join them). :)  As you can see Poncho brought a little Idaho with him.  

The Fab Four are stopping in the Bay on their home too next week!  

Friday, October 28, 2011

Totally Exhausted-Yes

I've been MIA most of October...life happens. 

Mama Berry came to the Bay to take care of me for a few days.  She's a superhero, albeit a superhero exhausted (see photo) after whipping me into shape for a few days.  For the first time in my life I was the one making the list of "chores" for her, not the other way around.  As a kid, Mama Berry was (still is) famous for making a To do list for each of her kids each day.  I blame her for my OCD need to cross things off a list to this day.  I made my list, my Mama came and then she conquered.  She tackled a list that I had been making for over a year but due to a less than stellar year physically haven't accomplished.  She took me to get injections, got me dressed, was the 24 hr nurse that I know, love, and miss, ran a laundry list of errands, cleaned cupboards, mopped the floor, cleaned the kitchen, vacuumed, commission the window washing by JLS (thanks JLS!), went shoe shopping, and the real kicker (that was NOT even on my list)...she painted my room (in about a 24 hr time period)!  
Seriously folks, the woman is a superhero.  Look up the definition and it will read: see also, Mama Berry.  For the sake of the world I wish everyone had one of her.  While I may still be totally exhausted, I appreciated the 24 hr care.             

Now as for the MIA bit, I'll do better starting in November...maybe after I make it through fiscal year end.  

Friday, October 21, 2011

Happy Birthday Brown Eyes

This little one turned TWO!  She's such a funny kid!  

So excited to see this girls soon(ish)!

Saturday, October 8, 2011

The BIG 70!

Senorita Erickson turned 70 today!  Can you believe that?  I cannot.  She still doesn't look a day over 50.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA!!! 

I was telling my hair genius Gustavo this morning as we were discussing the beauty of my hair as he was sculpting it that it is genetic.  Senorita Erickson didn't have gray hair until 69 yrs old (serious folks), Mama Berry has no gray hair.  Up until 69 Senorita Erickson had never colored her hair, nor has Mama Berry, and neither have I.  I plan to make it until I'm at least 70 before I have to alter the color of this dark strawberry hair.  Gustavo agrees!  hehe...so thanks to good genes and here's to another great year for the matriarch of the Erickson pack.

    

Friday, October 7, 2011

Guest Blogger: JP's Response To CP's Post

I received the sweetest email from JP this week and as author and editor of my blog I shall post it below.  Let me also just add: CP and JP are gracious and hilarious friends, who clearly love me and I have the utmost respect for each of them.  (I did not however pay them to say such nice things...promise). 


Dear JB,

I would like to respond to Mr. CP's blog with your permission, he missed a few of the most important points.  JB, you are allowed to edit, cut, paste, and rewrite. 

Here it begins: 

Hello dear readers.  My name is Jennifer Peterson.  I would like to challenge Mr. Chris Perry to a duel of epic proportions.  Unfortunately Mr. Chris Perry is the land of milk and honey in California and I am in the cold wintry Massachusetts so this duel of epic proportions will have to be delayed until we meet each other again.  I suspect the meeting will be at a distant mutual friend's wedding that we are both crashing. I will be talking to an acquaintance that I have forgotten her name when I will notice Chris Perry staring at me across the room.  Chris will come over and ask me to introduce me to the person I am talking to.  I will glare at Chris and ignore his comment.  Yes, this will be awkward. Yes I will eventually have to admit that I do not remember the person's name.  At that point the duel will commence. Until that awkward moment, I challenge Chris Perry to a duel of words and rhetoric.

I will mention that Chris Perry is correct in advocating that Jess Berry is Better Than You, however Chris Perry is off target on the word choice "Seriously."   I propose the following word choice with supporting quotes. 

Jess Berry is Graciously Better Than You. 

Quote One:  "Well they are in good company then."  Jess, affectionately known as JB, will use this quote when one of her friends mentions that a person of prominence holds the same opinion as JB.  JB has a well defined sense of self confidence.  Using her self confidence she inspires you to find your own.  She encourages you to be the best you can be. 

Quote Two:  "Yankees are ..."  I usually don't understand the rest of these sentences as they go off into baseball land.  This quote however emphasizes how loyal Jess is to her team.  If you are lucky enough to be on her team, she will be loyal to you.

Quote Three:  She appreciates sweet potato fries.  Jess Berry appreciates the simple pleasures and the finer things of life like no one else.  She has great taste.  (see CP's cooking comments) She will make you feel welcome.  She reaches out to those who need it most.  

Supporting arguments (I could not expand on all, after all I'm in Graduate School now and have homework and such!) 
Red Checkered Vans proves she is a better shopper than you. 
Her moves to Party in the USA proves she is a better dancer than you. 
P90X proves she is a better ab ripper than you. 

Any questions/comments/concerns/rebuttals/suggestions - please email me. 

Yours,
JP

October 7th In Tetonia

Yikes...not sure I am ready to handle a "white" (code for cold!) Christmas this year!

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Guest Blogger: CP


***Blog owner comment...because I think CP is hilarious I did not edit one word. 

Jess Berry is Seriously Better Than You



Hi everyone. My name is Chris Perry, and I'll be your blogger for this post. Please put your seatbacks in a reclined position, and laugh at the dude behind you who is currently contorting his body to avoid the largesse of his seat companion, whose life you just made a tiny bit more miserable on this 1.5 hour flight o' getting-bumped-by-sir-chub-a-lub-every-thirty-seconds.

I'm honored to have this opportunity again. Rare is the occasion in which I can write a post and not spend the entire time in a state of panic, praying that the magical humor gods don't suddenly desert me. I don't even have to write about a subject! I can just blabber on here! And I'm not even going to have to face Google Analytics and its insistence on showing me only three people read this! Ahhhh, the bliss!

No, but seriously, there is a very serious subject I'd like to discuss today, and that is why Jess Berry is Seriously Better Than You.

Reason #1: Jess Berry is an Accountant.

I used to date an accountant,* and, let me tell you, they are awesome. She eventually dumped me (coughonmultipleoccasionscough), I think because she realized that I was dating her mostly because she was super hot, but also because I would never have to deal with a tax return AGAIN. Seriously, can you imagine the world of perpetual bliss? Smooching AND no taxes? Think about the worst thing you can imagine: like getting slapped in the face repeatedly by inebriated rabid porcupines while being waterboarded with rancid yogurt (no, I am not describing what it is like to smooch me, I am making a point on the misery of taxes), then multiply that by ten, and that is what doing taxes is like.

But Accountants LOVE that stuff!** They LOVE porcupines! They even love rancid yogurt!*** But they especially love doing things like trying to convince the IRS that I don't owe them any taxes for the year in which I lost thousands of dollars on the stock market.

If you'll excuse me for a moment, I need to cry bitter tears of anguish.

Okay. We're good.

Jess Berry is better than you because she is an Accountant.

Reason #2 Jess Berry Can Cook.

Don't let her insistence on calling some mild deviant of Sloppy Joes Sloppy Dans throw you off. She can cook a mean Sunday dinner, and boy, you had better appreciate that, or you have some explaining to do. I once was running late to a dinner she invited me to,**** and I spent the entire drive sweating bullets worried that she was going to call and harass me like she is known to do. And why does she make those phone calls? Because her food is worth it people. Worth. It.

Also worth it: her Sunday dinner stories. On further reflection, I'm pretty sure those might even eclipse her dinner. I have but three words: leopard-print speedo. Curious? Well, you can either come swimming with me sometime,***** or sit down by the fire with Jess Berry and listen to her regale you with Tales from Idaho.

Jess Berry is better than you because she can cook.

Reason #3 Jess Berry Can Golf

Now, only men who are the most secure in their masculinity are capable of even mentioning her golfing ability, because they would be then forced to admit that she can destroy them on any golf course with ease. As I am known to keep a flower in my car, this obviously applies to me.****** Golfing is probably the most masculine of sports, because you drive cars, sit around, and occasionally break a sweat when the temperature in the wilderness in which you constantly hit your ball becomes unbearable, and yet, Mz. Berry rocks the golf course, and even does it without spending the majority of her time diving into lakes, re-raking sand traps while attempting to coerce the sounds of various obscenities to be unrecognizable to the ears of more righteous companions, and suffering from severe bouts of anxiety as crowds of people line up behind you and curse under their breaths for the bad luck of getting stuck behind someone whose sole successful drive occurred at some point in the nineties, and this only by the grace of God.*******

Jess Berry is better than you because she can golf.

There are more reasons Jess Berry is Seriously Better Than You, but we're going to have to cap the list here because:

A) About three people will make it this far into the post
B) I should really be "working" right now, and
C) Do you honestly need more proof than that? I'd say my point is proven.

Q.E.D.

*Okay, she technically wasn’t an accountant when we were dating, but I ascribe to the old adage that accountants aren’t made, they are born.

**Except the smooching me part. See: Getting broken up with, Chris.

***I am just kidding. Nobody likes rancid yogurt. Or that freakishly-blue concoction also known as skim milk. And if they do, you should run as fast as you can and outfit yourself with a wooden stake or something because they are CRAZY. Oh, what's that you say? You like skim milk? Excuse me while I find that stake I stashed around here somewhere...

****She, being kind and loving, occasionally invites the local hermit out to interact with humans.

*****I kiiid, I kiiid. Even if I wore a speedo, you can bet I would never admit to that in this G-rated venue. Unless you like that sort of thi...I KID!

******Great thing about driving with flowers: you can continually claim it's evidence of your heightened masculinity, when it, in fact, is clearly not.

*******Incidentally, do you see how long that sentence is? It's a freaking monster. Now THAT'S a masculine sentence ladies. You'll overlook that sissy flower bit before, right? Right? And I realize I changed subjects/tenses/everything in there at least twice. It was intentional. How else can you get through a sentence that long? Seriously, who do you think I am? Wait, don't answer that.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Opportunities to Do Good

There are amazing people everywhere willing to lift a helping hand and always opportunities to do good! We must simply be looking and be willing to act!

Sunday, October 2, 2011

The New Profile Picture Winner/Side Bar Refresher

Along with letting folks comment on the post to vote I also employed a ranking tool to gather  feedback from other friends using Peektree.  Peektree is the latest Silicon Valley start-up.  I actually am friends with the founders of the company and so it is exciting to see them launch after lots of work.  It is a very helpful, fun, and somewhat addicting (in a good way) tool.  You should check it out, try it, pass it along to others to use.  

The survey says...the green beauty by popular vote.  Mama Berry will be pleased with this pick...I still may throw in Big Mouth Beauty in a few months to mix things up, we'll see.   


Also, this is a good time to provide a refresher on what's available on the blog sidebar. 

1. The Mormon Message Video: Our Hands His Hands, Our Hearts His Heart 
2. Team Hydro!  You can already sign up for Sharkfest 2012 or donate to the Kate Finlayson research grant.  It is a worthwhile cause.  
3. The beautiful artwork and greeting cards by SEC.  She's very talented and just illustrated a children's book, for sale on Amazon.  Find it here!  It is a great Christmas gift for the kiddos. 
4. The button to lead you to Mormon.org, a great place to learn more about what I believe.  


Saturday, October 1, 2011

The SJ Professional Wedding Pics Are Here!

SJ sent us 554 photos to view and it was hard coming up with my favorite shot, as these two are a camera's dream.  Yet I believe I've selected my favorite shot that captures SJ's joy of the day!

And for your viewing pleasure, SJ and her girls...

 Acting like ladies!  
 Acting like us!  

SJ, the girls, and the wedding photographer, Chris Wood. Chris has photographed the weddings of MPR, HC, and now SJ.  (MB was already married when MPR found him).  After three weddings with the five of us, he's labeled us his California girls and says he's ready for the next wedding.  Haha, one day.  

Blessings of Conference, There is Something For Everyone!