Bossypants

I just finished reading Tina Fey's book, "Bossypants" and I thought it was amazing. AMAZING. I read it all in one night. So funny and even a little poignant at times, or was that just because it was 2am? oh well. Also, things I learned Tina and I have in common:

1. Stressed-induced chin acne.
2. Hideous childhood haircuts (sorry mom, it's true)
3. An early sense of acceptance through small-town community theatre.

There were also things that gave me absolute joy and hope for the world:

1. That a self-admitted shy person with little to no salesmanship could pitch a tv show and just generally have success in life.
2. That someone can write a book with a dangling modifier and get away with it these days - grammar nazis be damned. (For the recond I only found one, but I'm someone who takes joy in grammar mistakes and so obviously I'm not that great at spotting them)
3. That there is a book that compares the creepiness of putting in a contact lens with the creepiness of looking for a lost tampon string.

Tina Fey I absolutely adore you.


- Posted from my iPhone

philosophy major or pothead?

memorable journal entries from a young mary hudson in 2003

1. I don't really have as much control over my mind as I would like, when I write a paper I just kind of wait for the paper to come to me, a 5 page paper doesn't take very long to write itself."
2. What is truth? - why does a concept so important have to be so abstract and ethereal?

(and my favorite)

3. There is only one letter separating clever from cleaver (now that's deep)

Thinking deeply about thinking deeply

I just thought I'd share this great article if any of you fine readers are misunderstanding some introverts in your life. It's a good read.


I am blessed with an extrovert that enjoys time alone and he is pretty lucky to have someone that really enjoys all the time he spends playing video games...cause it gives me time to just sit and think...

Tidbit

I love finding typos in posts, books, products. It makes me feel safe and not alone my mistakes.

Call Me Mereditt Andrusdottir

wall-mounted coat hooks from Helga Sigurbjarnadottir
I think April will be Icelandic Heritage Appreciation Month. I came across this show all about Icelandic Design. View all pieces here.

A New Year

this is my goal

So 3form is having its second weight loss competition. $100 is at stake. This works out nicely since my friend Alysha has asked me to join Weight Watchers with her. Even though it makes me uncomfortable - I'm going to do it! Every saturday talk about my struggles, it sounds horrible. But something scary to be accountable to may be just what I need. Goodbye extra 30lbs. Here are the steps to achieving my goal- in writing

1. Pilates conditioning class tuesdays and thursdays evening
2. running 30 minutes monday, tuesday and wednesday
3. eat according to weight watchers and report every saturday morning.
4. cut down on sugar.- no sweets at work
5. one active family activity a week - skating, bike ride, hike etc.

Can I do it?

Townes v. ...

Townes v. Cory



Townes v. Mary




Townes v. Dot

Happy Birthday/ Father's Day?

So my doctor asked me if I wanted to sign up for an elective induction a week before my due date. She won't be in town for my due date and also, why not?
I'm still debating, here are my pros and cons.

PROS
- no surprise, no wondering "am I in labor?" and that is huge because I do that every second of every day.
- no last week of tortuous heavy baby
- Kind of fun to share a birthday weekend with Townes. (but will he like that?)
- It is right after our last tradeshow at work so I would be free and clear of any responsibilities and Cory would have finished the Tradeshow Video he will be doing due June 15th.

CONS
- induction usually means harder labor and I was banking that this one would be fast and easy without epidural (saving me the $500 or so)
- A week early means going back to work a week early when we are supposed to be in Canada - technically I could take that week as a vacation, but...
- Will Cory be done the video by June 15th?
- I still won't really know what it is like to spontaneously go into labor, and I am a little curious...

So, what are your opinions! Help me figure it out!

Happy 5 Years

Today is our fifth anniversary. I have to say, after five years Cory is still my favorite person to be around. And that's good - because we have been blessed to spend a lot of time together over the years. We always seem to end up working together.
First there was tradeshows for DieCuts With a View our first year of marriage. We travelled all over the country selling scrapbook supplies at consumer tradeshows. It was a lot of fun.

Cory and I at a tradeshow - 2005

Then we moved to California and I started work for Nordstrom, and Cory ended up getting a job there as well. We could meet eachother for breakfast break and lunch. It was a lot of fun.


Not a picture of Nordstrom, but just us in California - 2006

Now I work at 3form and Cory makes our corporate videos. We spend a lot of time planning, shooting, travelling, and editing. He comes into the office with me and so we see a lot of each other.


Cory at 3form - my view of him from my desk - 2009

We even have our callings together. In our current ward we started out as sunbeam teachers together and now we are the first couple "Home Preparedeness Specialist" team in the stake. I think Heavenly Father knows that we work best as a team. I really don't know what I would do without him.


A video recipe we made for the preparedness fair

I'm back from New York and loving it. I had a great time and the tradeshow went super smoothly (considering all the drawbacks). The last day I went out to Scarsdale to visit my lovely sister Erin. I love visiting her family- they are such real and comfortable hosts. I hope the weather is good today for "Spirit Day". See you this summer.

cory made me one in a million

Mary Hudson

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 2,322 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Meredith LeSueur

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 0 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

What about the biddy?
Dorothy LeSueur

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 4 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

I want to meet these four other dots. I bet they are sweet old ladies in Arizona.

Casey likes my music

As you know, I've never been on the up and up with the music scene
And it never bothered me much. But I have to say, when Casey asked me for some music that I had bought on my own (granted so did the rest of the world)- it felt pretty good. Here is what she got:




"No One" is SOOOOO good. Dotty loves it and has even learned how to sing the chorus. Casey and Michelle are my witnesses.


I hope she doesn't lose her touch in rehab.

And she's going to ask for this too, I just know it. So far I only have it pre-ordered because it isn't released in the US yet.



check out the awesome video for her single "mercy". I love it

duh- I knew this already...

You Are An INTP

The Thinker You are analytical and logical - and on a quest to learn everything you can. Smart and complex, you always love a new intellectual challenge. Your biggest pet peeve is people who slow you down with trivial chit chat. A quiet maverick, you tend to ignore rules and authority whenever you feel like it. In love, you are an easy person to fall for. But not an easy person to stay in love with. Although you are quite flexible, you often come off as aloof or argumentative. At work, you are both a logical and creative thinker. You are great at solving problems. You would make an excellent mathematician, programmer, or professor. How you see yourself: Creative, fair, and tough-minded When other people don't get you, they see you as: arrogant, cold, and robotic

What's Your Personality Type?

birth day

I find that I never get tired of reading others' birth stories. So I thought I'd post about mine and then hopefully get some juicy ones in the comments.
Now apparently mine was pretty easy. The hardest part about my labor was that it didn't come. My due date was jan 7th so my mom and anne flew out on the 6th with plans to stay until the 15th. After my appointment on the 11th my doctor said that I couldn't be induced until that monday (the day my mom had to leave). This was heartbreaking and horribly stressful. But the good news was that I needed to go to the hospital on friday for some monitoring since I was overdue. To check on my fluids. When I finally got admitted and they ran some tests, things looked okay but they decided to keep me anyway and just induce me right then. Hallelujia!


They start inducing me with some cervical gel around 8pm with plans to start pitocin around midnight. By midnight I was so advanced that I ended up not needing the pictocin but I did need an epidural. The nurse was reluctant since she didn't want the epidural to stall my labor. Little did she know I was already transitioning, I was just a little too quiet about things. My contraction monitor had fallen off unknowingly and so she couldn't tell that they were intense and two minutes apart. She suggested that I wait a couple of hours for the epidural but I didn't want to do that. So they gave me the epidural and in a coupld hours I fell asleep. Somewhere while sleeping they gave me some oxygen since the baby was a little distressed. Then at 5am I woke up and could feel her coming out. She was. I woke up Cory who get woozy and borrowed my oxygen mask. Then 40 minutes later the baby came. I said "I like her a lot" the nurses laughed. I asked if I tore and the doctor just said "look at your baby." meaning you delivered a heffer of course you tore. I said she looked like Cory and Cory said she looked like me and the doctor said we were crazy since we look exactly the same how can we tell? I asked if I should try and feed her and they said why not? She started eating right away.

I miss that day. It was so fun and then we just got to hang out together at the hospital for a couple of days. We hang out these days too, but it just will never be that way again. Blissful baby days. I love it.
I'd love to hear all your stories. Even if I've already heard them.

no maggie gyllenhaal

say my name and it better be bootylicious because I look like beyonce

Don Rock

When I was at church recently, singing a hymn, I decided to sing tenor for a couple of the verses as I frequently do. My father-in-law was sitting behind me and I noticed that he too was singing tenor and I kind of felt weird singing the same melody as a fifty-something year old man. But then I realized that though I married into a family of music snobs, I do have one person with who I share musical tastes. Whenever I download an album that I love and miss and realize that I need, Cory informs me that it is one of Don's favorite. These include Elton John, Mama's and the Papas and Queen. I would love to see Celine Dion in Las Vegas, Movin' Out by Billy Joel in New York and I know all the words to "You are so beautiful" by Joe Cocker. I love Joe Cocker. I don't know if Don does, but I'm pretty sure.
When every other Lesueur is out oogling over "blah blah I'm so cool and new" band, Don and I will be at home blasting "Tiny Dancer".

factory girl vs. 7-11 boy

So I got my haircut today, because I just had a baby and that's the only thing about my body that I can change. I certainly can't do anything about these downgraded planets on my chest (they are roughly the size of pluto respectively). So I cut my hair. Now the whole idea for the haircut was to leave the front long so that eventually I might grow my hair out all one length (or that is the excuse I told Cory) but it also happens to look very edie sedgwick. Just in time for "Factory Girl".

The problem is in order to get the factory girl look, I need makeup and pomade and a cute outfit. In reality I just gave birth three weeks ago and truthfully cut my hair so I wouldn't have to look at a brush let alone use one. (why did I put that part about giving birth? I never want to brush my hair, and short hair looks better if you don't shower!) Well with no makeup or brushing or pomade or cute outfit -planets or ex-planets don't fit in cute outfits- I end up looking like a rough teenage boy from the late eighties/early nineties who you see at the 7-11 on your way home from school while waiting for your bus transfer. He's wearing tight light colored jeans, maybe they have a hole in the knee, maybe not. Pair those with a white t-shirt and a flannel shirt wrapped around his waist and there you have the intimidating adolescence for the sixth grader who is just trying to buy three chocolate bars for 99 cents. On the other hand, die that hair blond and it might just look like a brilliant artist who shares a birthday with Cory.
So Andy Warhol's muse or Andy Warhol himself. That is my new haircut.

In the spirit of Andy here are some other pictures I took while drafting this post.



OH NO



I'M SHRINKING!

mama mi-xa-lot

There is a commercial that says something about the watch you wear says the most about who you are. I used to think this was crazy. Nothing as insignificant as a watch could say as much as a house, or a car. But then I got my mixer. It's orange, its big and it mixes things. I love it. I think about what I can mix in it at least twice a day. So far I've only made cookies, brownies, pizza dough and biscuits. But someday I'll be more ambitious. One day I plan to make homeade noodles when I get the noodle attachement. I will make my own sausages. I will make my own green salsa with the food processor. This isn't a mixer, this is a lifestyle. And in this life, baby's got bake.

blogdot

So after seeing a slew of my friends' blogs on their lives with their new bubbies (read babies), I figured it was time that our little family put up all our poops and burps on the internet. I don't want this to be a blog all about the beautiful wonderment that is my dot, but rather something more, something of an outlet for my many opinions and views on politics and philosophy. The only problem is, I don't really have that many opinions.

I am finding more and more that in discussions, I'd much rather take the listener's role. While on a great blog with fantastic smart women, I find myself just reading and enjoying other people's thoughts. I used to think that it was because I was scared of conflict, or that I wasn't smart enough to think of something to say. But now I know that It isn't that I'm nervous about what others will think about what I think, but I don't know what I think. It is too fun to think about everything then just pick one thing to think. I think.

So I guess I'll be doing a lot of thinking about what to think about and I probably won't get a lot of writing down. Unless its about dotty, she's easy on the thinker and the eyes.