a christmas post

my favorite christmas present: a new sister-in-law

how many presents i've just straight up thrown away: 1, that i can remember

well, merry Christmas everyone!! this holiday season was a little different than previous ones.  first of all, sam wasn't there b/c he got married (whoop whoop! that gets its own post later on). second of all, Justin was there because we got married (whoop whoop!).  third of all, the magic was gone.  yeah, i said it. i love Christmas, i always have.  i believed in Santa for so long that i'm surprised my parents didn't have a sit down talk with me.  i love Christmas music. i love the chill in the air and the lights on all the houses.  i love  Christmas mugs and hot chocolate and 'mama's hot tea' as caroline hess calls it.  i love Christmas movies and tv specials.  i love waking up early on Christmas morning and seeing my stocking bulging out with socks and candy and useless fun things. i was 24 and still wearing Christmas pajamas to bed on the 24th. i usually love the Christmas season parties and crazy shopping and lines to sit on santa's lap.  i just think that Christmas has the potential to be the most magical, romantic and wonderful time of the year.  this Christmas though, frankly, kind of sucked.

it was just busy. we had something to go to every single night. there was no romantic Christmas movie watching or drinking cocoa by the fire.  there were no late night drives to see lights. in fact, there was barely time for anything.  and then we went home and sam got married and went on a honeymoon and wasn't there when we woke up Christmas morning.  i don't know, its like the last of the magic was gone.  a couple days before santa's big day, however, i realized that yes, it wasn't like before and no, it didn't meet my expectations but the bottom line is that Christmas is really about the reality that our almighty, soveriegn God became a little baby that pooped his pants and THAT is really not very romantic at all. it actually would really suck and THAT means that He must love us a lot.  and that part of Christmas (which, lets face it, should have always been the biggest part anyway) isn't one that is all about feelings as much as its about a rather harsh reality. but a great reality.  so for the last 4 days before Christmas we salvaged in. salvaged the Christmas season by trying to sleep more, read about advent, go on trips to Charleston and just hang out and talk about things.  here's a few pics: 

Me and Justin by the Christmas village at Charleston place:

My mom and dad on the pier. it was really cold.

at the fountain before Justin tried to throw me in. . .

and back home building gingerbread houses out of chocolate. 

amf

a short post:

last week i went to a Christmas party where a dog attempted to hump a two year old.  it was awful. and we couldn't stop laughing.  

this just in . . .

my ipod is back in birmingham!!! i've been without it for 3 months (mostly due to my own laziness) after i left it at the lake (totally due to my own forgetfulness). but now its back! and able and willing to provide the perfect backdrop to all my important life moments. also, my halo speaker is getting really lonely.

thanksgiving feast

so this is my first thanksgiving as a married girl, and my first thanksgiving away from home.  today i forgot that for a little bit. i was letting my mind wander and got to remembering those cool construction paper indian feather headbands and i REALLY got an urge to make one and wear it. you know, to remember those people who helped us white people eat on the first thanksgiving.  plus, pretending to be an indian lets me escape from my exceptionally fair skin. anyway, i thought that it would be fun to make everyone in my family one, and then we could all wear them around the thanksgiving table. (i mean, we've done formal wear, we've done pajamas, this is the obvious next choice). then i remembered that i won't be home for thanksgiving. sad. and i also realized that i'm not quite that comfortable with my in laws. i might pack my craft kit just in case. . . 

the mans

why i'm posting: i finally uploaded some pics

what is going on around here tonight: BONFIRE OF THE CENTURY! EN FUEGO!

These are the pics of when we carved pumpkins: This one is Justin's. His name is big eye man. 

This one is monkey man. I carv

ed him. i was pretty proud of it.

Also this halloween i started to notice how some people take it too far. Example: a lawn so full of ghosts that you can't see the grass, a way too life like corpse hanging in the tree, and this house:  What you can't see in the picture below is the giant satan perching over the house with a strobe light going.  All those things in the windows are light up ghosts and gouls. Plus there was a haunted pumpkin carriage and that witch thing by the mailbox.  I mean, it was a lot.  

a brief update

this fall has been so full. that is how i would describe it. full of color, full of changes, full of fun outings and adventures.  I feel like i need to at least give a brief update of the last week, so here we go. . .

1.  halloween week was incredible, as always.  we carved pumpkins, made caramel apples (always an adventure with high school girls), and dressed up as Ron and Ginny Weasley (for a non-costume dinner).  

2. our smoke alarm situation: our smoke alarm's favorite thing to do is go off.  it loves to fill the house with incessant beeping when there is a hint of smoke from the kitchen, the oven is over 300 degrees and opened and apparently, when you turn the heat on.  Last week it was in the 30's here in birmingham and so, naturally, i decided to use the central heating in our apartment. the smoke alarm went off and rather than deal with it, i just turned the heat back off.  we went without it the whole week and now its warmed up outside so there's no need.  while shivering wrapped in blankets i just thought about how much money we would save. . . it helped.

3.  vulcan run: last saturday sara and i completed 6.2 miles of pure running fun.  actually, the elevation increases dramatically the middle 2 miles which made it not so fun.  I will say, however, there is little that compares to the feeling of pride and accomplishment of running so far and, for my puny little legs, so fast.  Plus, my husband came to cheer me on.  That was sweet.

4.  My new blog link.  You may have noticed that i posted a new link to a new blog. Click on it. It will change your life.  You may be wondering, "how does emily know these little new york children in the chorus of ps22?"  I don't. I have no idea who they are but i saw a video of them singing a version of "there" by the innocence mission and started checking their blog all the time.  Watch them sing, it will make you so happy

And there it is, my update.  Pictures to hopefully follow and more updates on fall.  I love this season, i'm pretty sure its my favorite.  

My Weekend: Starring Me, My Parents, Justin, Becca, Aaron. Featuring special guest: Kelley Kirker

what i wanna eat: chili, and cornbread, and pumpkin things. general fall food fare

what i'm procrastinating from: running

i really shouldn't have waited so long to write about last weekend.  a lot happened in 3 days and now i'm kind of over writing about it. BUT i thought of a solution. a picture is worth a thousand words right? so here we go . . . 

First we went to the South Carolina State Fair.

Truly one of the things i miss the most about the Palmetto state.  Where else could you find somewhere as incredible as this establishment? Fried pepsi? I don't even understand how you do that.

And yes, we got to meet my parents there, which was really fun. See in the bottom  right corner of this picture? How there's a green thing? that's blurtle man. We won him.  The ebay commercials are right, its better when you win it. I got to be that girl walking around the fair with her boyfriend (or husband, whatever) and the obnoxiously big stuffed animal.  It was like a high school dream come true.  

As if all of that weren't enough we then got to be a part of the Veazey-Scogin reunion in Edisto Island. South Carolina beaches - another thing i miss terribly.  It was truly a reunion of the '00-'04 Gamecock Gang, which is fun, because i do not even remember a time that i got to hang out with THAT many people from college. Plus, Justin got a very small taste of what 4 years of 

my life were like. Oh, and one of my BEST friends got to marry the man of her dreams. Yes, I cried. Yes, that is a new thing for me.  Here are a few pics of the wedding fun . . .

.  

Becca and Aaron dancing. . .

 

Emily and Kelley dancing . . .

the brides being forced to "shake shake shake" on stage with the Tony Howard Show

and me and the 'blushing bride' (actually we were all blushing because it was about 50 degrees outside).  

Congratulations Becca V!

some days are just stellar. . . .

  in case you couldn't tell, that title line is thickly laced with sarcasm.  And honestly, it hasn't been THAT bad.  and the bad parts have at least been comical (and who can ask for more than that?) 

  So the day started at 8:45, which was when i woke up. For a 9 o'clock meeting. Soooo, instead of my planned leisurely morning of coffee drinking and today show watching, i had the quickest shower ever and a cup of coffee in my car on the way to work. Everyone at work was really gracious that i was so late (which miraculously was only 15 min), and the meeting was actually pretty good. Until . . .

  One of my coworkers has a dog, a puggle actually, and he is REALLY cute. And he really loves me, and he loves me to pet him and he likes to jump into my lap.  Well during this meeting he jumped up on my lap and hung out for about 20 min. Then he jumped down. And left two dark stains on my jeans.  Yes, poo leakage.  Of course, the whole staff thought it was hilarious (which it is) and my jeans smelled awful. I had to go home and change.  So i drove home, put on new pants, grabbed a real cute sweater (because its a beautiful fall day outside) and went back to work. Sara and I hung out at lunch, and it was so fun and the end of my rough morning. And then . . .

  We were stopped at a light in the village and it got a little warm so i took off the cute purple sweater. And a minute later, as sara and i were chatting, she looked over and blurted out 'you took off both of your shirts' and i had. not just the sweater came off, but the white shirt came off too. LUCKILY i was wearing a tank top underneath - and although it was very thin it was much better than the alternative.  And that's it. Really.  

So, tomorrow will be better. Tonight will be better. And at least this morning was good for some laughs. . . 

  

this one has a video

what i'm watching: the triops

what i'm listening to: mark driscoll's 'the peasant princess' sermon series

Today is your lucky day: I have posted a video of the triops swimming around in their little plastic dish.  We think they might have eaten one of their brothers - one of them is missing and it looks like his remains are hanging out on the bottom of the dish.  I thought that maybe you all needed to see them in action:

And there you go. Amazing aren't they?

in my dreams

so i'm just going to get right to it. i've been having lots of strange dreams for the past, oh, 6 months, but especially over the last 3.  i remember them super vividly when i wake up. lots of them are intense, some are scary, and a few of them are just really funny (last night i woke up laughing so hard b/c sarah hidey and heather dilling and i were skiing and holding a camera and sarah fell and we got the whole thing on tape. heather and i were laughing SO hard b/c we just kept watching the television feed of the camera and sara going down and sliding all the way down the hill. sarah needs to get better at skiing. not really. i literally am laughing now thinking about it. it was just so funny. and so not real) 

anyway, here's what i want to share with you all. earlier this week i had the most real dream ever and it put me in a weird mood all day.  when the dream started i was chosen to be a project runway type show that was hosted by tyra banks.  well i was just feeling wierd all day and my outfit wasn't going well and i was in the warehouse/workroom really late working on my outfit and all of a sudden noah bennett from heroes shows up (the man with the horn rimmed glasses. if you don't know who he is, i don't have time to explain it to you. you just need to go out right now and get the first and second season and devote the next 36 hours of your life to watching them). And so he holds a gun to my head and .. . 

scene:

Noah Bennett (while hold gun to emily's head):  I need you to come with me.

Emily Huensch (with unbelievable calmness): why?

NB: don't you know?

EH: i'm a hero aren't i?

NB: so you have discovered your power . . .

EH: (thinking slowly, a look of realization slowling growing on her face) i have power over all water.

insert quick flash back to several weird events of the past few days.  water moving in cups, water splashing out of sinks, and most recently, unexplained water explosions in glasses of water on the set of the show

NB: yes. for your family's safety, come with me.

EH: you're kidnapping me?!

NB: its for your own good - and its the only way your family and your husband will be safe.  

so i convinced him to let me go say goodbye to my family and justin. my family suspected nothing, justin and i somehow made a secret plan to meet up later. and the WHOLE time noah had a gun to my head and i was making water do whatever i wanted.  oh, and noah told me that he was my real dad. then i woke up. ( and thought i might really have power over water)

how weird is that? 

huenschhold update

what i've been eating: everything. i am hungry all the time this week.

average hours of sleep/night:previous to last night: 6.  call me needy but that is NOT enough. thanks to saturday, however, that average has been kicked up to 8.  

so this morning has been one of those amazing fall mornings full of sleep, hanging out with my husband and cereal out of our game day bowls.  and since i like to multi task, i've been reading my friends blogs and realizing that i am in fact, a horrible blogger.  i don't post nearly as often as i should, i leave out all sorts of funny stories and i get so stuck on adding a picture to every post that i put off posting if i don't have said pictures loaded on my computer. so i apologize, and will continue to say that i'll get better. who knows if that's true.  

as you can tell by the blog into, this week has been, shall we say, rough.  i really have been eating, like, all the time (which i think is because i'm training for this race in november) and i'm sleeping, like, never. i've had somewhere to be before 7 almost every day this week AND i haven't been going to sleep til late. i know, lots of people live like this their whole lives.  i am not cut out to be one of those people.  so, to catch you up, here's my week in review:

1. the triops: the triops are still growing, they're about 3/4 of an inch long and i will take a picture of them tomorrow if they are still alive. they are pretty fun to watch but require a lot more care than any of us were really willing to commit to. thus, they are swimming around in some dirty, nasty water and i'm not sure if they're being fed the right amount

2.  janice and jay: yes, my parents came into town!!! hopefully i will get around to posting those pics soon.  they came and stayed in our apartment and hung out ALL WEEKEND! it was great. plus my mom and i got to do mother/daughter grown up things, like pick out fabrics for pillows.  she's the greatest.  it was reallly fun to have them in town. 

3.  we watched the 2nd season of heroes. i love that show. i feel like i'm counting down the days til the 3rd season premier on monday. 2 days. yessss.

4. we celebrated our 6 month anniversary on monday.  (insert "awww" here). justin took me to brio and we talked about how awesome being married is.  i can't believe i'm married, or that i have been for 6 whole months. so weird.

from the AGE of the DINOSAURS . . .

what i'm listening to: act of congress

my new interest: mini-dinosaurs
We're growing these in our office. They are called triops and they are prehistoric.  They hatched today and are supposed to DOUBLE IN SIZE BY TOMORROW!!! 

married life: my talents as a wife

what i love about fall: football season, especially gamecock football

what i don't love about fall: when the gamecocks lose "in front of all my friends"

yes, i actually said that to justin on thursday night "i can't believe the gamecocks lost . . . and its worse that it was in front of all my friends." I was sad, real sad.  And yes, i had friends over and i made them watch the game (although, mario kart provided a lovely distraction - and since we're in the habit of turning our living room into a mini sports bar with multiple tvs, we were able to do two things at once - watch my team lose and watch me lose personally. it was a rough night).  So we learned that i am not talented at being a graceful loser.  But you know what made up for it? The fried chicken.  That's right. Our menu: oven fried chicken, mac and cheese, conch peas cooked with a ham hock and rolls. I'm like Paula Dean or something. It was so good, in fact, that i plan on posting the recipe very soon.  I've learned that the only strength i really have as a wife is that i really like to cook. And wear cute aprons. Actually, i'm pretty sure i love to cook b/c of the cute aprons.  I'm a sucker for them, i have, like 6 and i feel like i could totally justify a few more.  

Also, lets all note how ironic it is that i cooked fried chicken, and that's about what the cocks turned in to. sad sad day. 

i love football season

Gamecocks: 34

Wolfpack: 0

I am one very happy girl. 

travelin' prayer

what i'm listening to: dolly "granny" parton singing 'he's gonna marry me'

what's new on my face: a raw red spot on my chin from sliding my face across a moonbounce obstacle course.

For all of you who don't know me very well, I'm a little obsessed with Dolly Parton.

On my old blog, there was an entire entry about how i wish she were my grandmother. (it will reappear on my greatest hits blog) and that love has continued to grow. I now have an 8x10 of Granny Dolly in my office, I listen to her music often, and now i've finally taken the pilgrimage to her home town of Sevierville, TN. Let me explain:

Justin and I needed a bit of a break from the 'ham. Luckily Jay and Janice went a little off their rockers and bought a cozy little cabin in the smokies. By 'cozy little cabin' i mean a sprawling masterpiece of wood and mountian themed prints with three bedrooms, a tiny little arcade (galaga, air hockey, pool table and jukebox) and a hot tub overlooking the smokies. Oh, and its like 2 minutes outside of Gatlinburg - which my family refers to as myrtle beach in the mountains. In my dad's words. . . .its an investment. I'm just glad that its more fun than stocks, cd's, IRAs and other things i can't actually touch.

So we got away and i did some research and found out that we would be driving RIGHT BY THE STATUE OF DOLLY!!!!!! And i made Justin stop. I told him it was a 'surprise that he would really like.' Wellll, he liked that I liked it. Here I am looking lovingly into Granny Dolly's eyes. . .

On the way we had lots of other adventures, like going to the Tennessee Aquarium

to see penguins, sea turtles, sea horses, and lots and lots of fish. . .

Plus, we got to go hiking on the Appalachian trail, play put put, and hang out in the hot tub. Let me just say this, vacations are the best.

i got a camera battery! go ahead and do a little dance.

what i'm listening to: my new favorite Birmingham station, 100.5 Birmingham's Modern Music

what i'm reading: new moon. number 2 of the twilight series (my excuse is that i work with sr. high girls . . .what's yours?)

Yay for new camera battery!!!! I can now document my life in photos, which, as we all know, are worth a thousand words.  And that means less typing for me, and less reading for all of you.  My life is also getting a little more exciting. For example, Friday night my sweet friend Traci came into town and stayed in our guest room, the 'sara room' as we call it. Having overnight company MIGHT be the Huensches favorite new pastime.  Justin had 'man night' so traci and sara and i went to a fancy dinner (or maybe just fancy for us) and then hit the town.  Very Fun. I almost totally forgot to take pictures and i did manage to not document our whole Friday night but I did manage to get this pic RIGHT before Traci jumped in her car to head back to the atl. We are so hott.

That was, by far, the highlight of the weekend. Second best was dress shopping with Sara and then a little David Seale/ Matthew Mayfield action at Rojo (who you can check out on itunes or myspace i think). And there we go, my busy weekend. 

I know that I am a little too excited about having my camera back in working or

der. but when you have a tiny little camera in your purse, you can capture moments like this: 

This was the guy that was waiting for us outside starbucks this morning and he was HUGE. And awesome.  Rebecca and Peyton weren't really that scared. I made them act like that.  The fact that their catholic school forces them to wear uniforms made this whole thing even better. 

Anyway, that's it. But Justin and I are headed to Gatliburg tomorrow so i'm sure there is more to come. It might be worth your while to check back in about a week . . . 

ho hum= the sound my life makes

oh my gosh, i know, i know. i'm the worst blogger in the world.  I never post, when i do its only further proof of how boring life can be. . . but there IS hope. i just received a new camera battery via amazon.com and now i can start taking pictures of my life. yes, i know , you are all very excited about this, AND we do have some exciting events to share coming up in the next week. so, uh, things are looking up.  As for right now, here's the rundown of the huensch life:

-taking it easy after a crazy summer

-but still doing youth ministry

-still living in birmingham

-still married

-watching lots of olympics

And honestly, i've been pretty content with the quiet way life has been rolling along. I needed a break. desperately. But that break is about to be over so i'm begging you, my loyal fans (all 4 of you) to stay tuned.

vbs: the best form of birth control

Here at covenant, we've decided to make SURE our kids don't do anything stupid - like get pregnant. How do we do this? We tell them its wrong, use cheesy analogies, call them late at night when they may be in compromising situations and . . . make them work Vacation Bible School.  Hundreds of kids between the ages of 4 and 4th grade will convince anyone not to have babies. Who wants their house to have that distinct odor of the halls during vbs? You know, cheerios mixed with play-dough and poop (maybe some citrus disinfectant mixed in there).  I hate that smell. Maybe when you have a kid you start to not mind, like, because you really love them. That's a lot of love, enough to get over weird smells. But i digress:

So i have some stories from that. One: kids say really funny things. Here are a few:

- teacher: whoever wants to get a special sticker can be my super silent cleaner upper!

   kid: I have an announcement. Whoever doesn't do that can play tag with me.

  (wow, what a choice . . .)

- recreation 'coach' : wow! the girls keep winning! that's awesome!

- first grade girl: that's because i'm a black belt.

  (so it naturally follows that all girls would be good at red light green light, oh, and 1st    graders can really be black belts. riiiight.)

- teacher: who wants to play duck duck goose?

-5 year old girl (after a second of silence): none of us do!

It is REALLY funny, and really exhausting. And I am not ready to have a little person to take care of. I mean, i can barely handle my tiny herb garden (i realized the other day that i would have to have someone take care of it while i'm gone - even that is too much responsibility). And kids need a lot of stuff - like someone to hold their hand while they go to the bathroom, or to clean them up when they didn't quite make it to the bathroom. Just not ready for that. And the great thing is: neither are my high schoolers. I don't care how cool Juno made it look. No pregnancy for these girls , they have made that clear.

My work here is done. 

This Blog brought to you courtesy of Becca V. (soon to be Becca S.)

Well, I'm back in the blogging world, fully expecting this page only to be read by 3 people: myself, becca (who has forced me to start yet another blog) and kelley (my forever faithful blog reader).  I have no idea what the contents will be b/c most of my stories can't be told to the masses BUT we shall see. I guess for starters i will remind you of 5 things:

1. I do have one of the most entertaining jobs in the world: professional high schooler wanna - be.  That does tend to provide lots of good material for blogging.

2. I am recently married. And going through trying to be simultaneously domestic and cool - a feat not easily achieved. That too, has the potential to provide lots of entertainment (especially since only about 1/8 of me is naturally domestic.

3.  Much like Becca and Kelley, if something in my life can get complicated, it will. And i've found the best way to deal with it is to turn it into a joke (only sometimes i have to embellish to make it actually funny and not so sad and depressing).

4. I like to deal with my insecurities through humor.

5. I am really funny. Especially when becca or kelley are my audience. 

That being said, here we go: blog number 3 . . . . adventures in b-ham.