America Weeps

All across America, and even the world, people are weeping over the evil Patriots victory, which completed a perfect regular season for Satan's team.

Beginning tomorrow, America will begin a week of morning over the tragic events which unfolded on Saturday night: the New England Patriots completed a perfect regular season - 16 wins, 0 losses. The Desch family encourages everyone to wear black for the next week, and set your hope on the fast-approaching demise of the Patriots, which will occur when the Colts beat them in the AFC championship game in Foxboro, New England's home turf. Please do not lose hope everyone, good will triumph over evil, if not in this life then in the next.

Merry Christmas from P-Town!

Josh, Betsy and Howie here, wishing you a very Merry Christmas from Peoria, IL, home of the . . . of . . . home Caterpillar Inc.! And, of course, most importantly home to Betsy's wonderful family. We had a great Christmas, filled with thoughtful meditation on the reason for the season (kudos to mr. gar pappy), good family fun and presents, to boot. Betsy got me an indy colts hat for Christmas. I am so excited, I'm the biggest NFL fan ever and I love the Colts and yet I did not own any Colts paraphenilia until this hat. The hat is just like the one below except it is grey with a blue horseshoe. I got Betsy some cookbooks. And now for some fun memories.On Christmas Eve a lot of us played the Wheel of Fortune board game, and Carrie offered to play the part of Vanna. Carrie, however, quickly became weary of how long it was taking the teams to solve the puzzles and so she started saying things like, "you're not going to solve it! just pick an "m" or something so we can move on!" Quickly she became known as "Surly Vanna." Toward the end of our game, during one particularly difficult puzzle, Surly Vanna suddenly figured out the puzzle for herself and blurted out "its (the puzzle) 'Little Joe Cartwright, I quit." We sat in stunned silence for a half a second and then started laughing really hard. Can you imagine the real Vanna solving the puzzle for the contestants because she got frustrated with the pace of the game? Moving on to Christmas day. It is a P-Town tradition for Bets' parents to make beef slips, so we ate beef slips for dinner along with the Uncle Glenn, Aunt Martha, John, Jen, Adam, Uncle Monte, Tammy, Lesley, and the Grandmas. Some memorable gifts-just to name a few-were charm braclets for Bets and Emily, necklaces numbered 1 to 5 for each of the sisters (from Marnie) and the board game version of Deal or No Deal for Josh (from Mr. and Mrs. H). We tried out the game last night and it was fun. I got a chance to be Howie and say, with my hands together, "open the case!". Also, the cousins, Howie and John, got to see each other last night.

More Christmas stories and pictures to come. We will also be posting pictures from our Christmas celebration in Augusta with my family. Currently, our Christmas tree-named Peyton naturally-is probably dead as a doornail in our apartment. I am including a picture of the "spider-pig" scene from the Simpson's movie because that song is really, really funny, and Betsy and I sing it all the time. Merry Christmas to all!

Official French Press Users

Well, I got an early morning (5:37, to be exact) wake-up call from the sweetest little alarm clock ever. As I stumbled into the kitchen to get our little rooster out of his crib a few minutes later once it was clear that he was wide awake and ready to play, I thought two things.

1. Josh is not going to be happy that Howie is getting us up this early.
2. We need coffee.

Many a morning Josh is not too excited about the time that our early riser chooses to wake up, but when he sees that sweet little face of our boy who is so happy to be awake, time (albeit an hour which is better slept-through) becomes unimportant.

This morning was no exception. If he's honest Josh would tell you that he would prefer that I get Howie out of bed and immediately feed him, since that process obviously does not involve him and he can keep sleeping. But since Howie is nearing 6 months I've learned how to involve Papa in the morning. The best way is to put Howie right on his chest and let him squawk right in Josh's face. Then he has no option but to wake up and be excited about our sweet little baby, even if it is early.

So we got out of bed at Howie's call, made sure he was fed and got a clean diaper, and headed into the kitchen for breakfast and to make that desperately-needed coffee. Our coffeemaker has been somewhat sporadic lately... the last few mornings it's spewed nothing but brown water tasting faintly like coffee. Josh's roommate Casselbuddy from Covenant gave us a French press for our wedding and we had yet to use it, although we had intended to several times. I guess it was just that the making coffee in a coffeemaker is really easy- it's coffee for dummies. The French press looked a little more challenging. But this morning seeing as we weren't really wanting that brown water, we decided to attempt the French press. Let me tell you, it was good. It was so good, in fact, that Josh even wanted some of the grounds in his cup to chew on. I'm not sure why he wanted to do this. Fatigue? Insanity setting in? Caffeine euphoria? Probably a little of each. Let that stand as proof that the French press gave us a seriously good cup of coffee. (Don't worry... Josh soon decided that the grounds are in the bottom of the press for a reason, that being that they're GROSS and not intended to be consumed.) So here's to you, Casselbuddy... you REALLY came through for us this morning!!!


Hope ya'll are having a wonderful Christmas season!

Post on the Run

Why We Hate the Patriots

In case you don't know, the New England Patriots are now 13-0, and closing in on only the second perfect season in NFL history, and the first since the regular season was extended to 16 games. The Patriots next two games are against two of the worst teams in the NFL, the Jets and the Dolphins. Interestingly enough, when the Patriots play the Dolphins in the second to last game of the season, the Patriots could be going for a perfect season and the Dolphins could be trying to win their first game of the season. As history would have it, the only undefeated team in NFL history was the '72 Dolphins. Anyone who knows us knows that we hate the Patriots and we love the Colts. I don't know what we have been cheering for more this season: the Patriots to lose a game or the Colts to win every game. I feel at this critical juncture of the NFL season we need to post our reasons for hating the Patriots (we just hate them in a football sense, they could be nice guys . . . but we doubt it).

1. They are from Boston: Boston is an arrogant city, second only in arrogance to New York in my judgment. Its the kind of arrogance that comes with being one of the first big cities in America, the kind of arrogance that says, "we had a really important tea party here before you were even a state." Its the kind of arrogance that says, "we have our own American accent, and we are known for talking faster than you." Its the kind of arrogance which says, "we are the city of the famed Red Soxs, of the legendary Celtics, and now, as if we needed anything else, we are also the city of a great NFL franchise. The city of the greatest football team of all time." Boston doesn't deserve to have a team as good as the Patriots, its not good for their pride. Why can't longsuffering Cleveland (no sports championships in many many years) or some other lesser known city have their NFL team on the way to an undefeated season? Further proof that in football, like in life, things are not always fair.

2. Bill Belickick: Its hard to decide who we dislike more, Bilickick or Tom Brady. Why do I write that you ask? First, Belickick always has a scowl on his face-I have never seen the man smile. Second, he is always wearing a hoody with the sleaves cut off. What kind of head coaching attire is that? More important, however, is the fact that he got caught blatantly cheating is did not give a real apology for it, or even acknowledge his guilt. He got caught filming the other team's coaches-clearly wrong-and he said, "my interpretation of the rules was wrong." Why can't you just say, "I messed up, I sinned, and I need the forgiveness of the whole NFL and all our fans."? I'll tell you my theory, because he is proud and thinks that he is better than everyone else. Since he got caught, how has he responded? He is clearly trying to stick it to the NFL for embarrassing him, so every chance he gets he runs up the score. He has earned a reputation as an evil football genius, the brilliant bad guy that you want someone to stop.

3. Tom Brady: The NFL's Mr. Playboy. He dates supermodels. He looks like a magazine model after every game at the press conference. He is an amazing quarterback (hey, if he wasn't any good, it wouldn't be any fun to hate him). He is the NFL's prettyboy. Even though I don't know him, I feel pretty confident in saying he is not living anything close to a Christian life whatsoever. Call me old fashioned, but I prefer my quarterbacks to be more like Brett Farve. Here is a couple other things about Brady that I don't like. A) He beat my St. Louis Rams in the Super Bowl a few years back. B) His high profile former girlfriend gave birth to his child after they had alread split up and Brady had moved onto another high profile girlfriend/model. I'm sure that goes on all the time in the sports world, but I still don't like it.

So there you have it folks. It really isn't personal. I hope the Patriots have many members of their team who are Christians. They might have more of a Christian atmosphere in their locker room than the Colts. Although with Tony Dungy in charge of the Colts, I doubt it. But on the football field, we will cheer against them with all our might. Here's hoping that someone beats the Patriots in the regular season, and that they don't win the Super Bowl either, that the proud would be humbled, and that the humbled would be lifted up.

Back From AZ With a Lot To Say

OK, let me start out by saying that this is going to be long, so please buckle your seat belts. With that said, I begin.

We just returned from our trip to Arizona this past Friday, and it was such a wonderful trip. We did so many things that I don't think I can describe them all- I'll have to settle for the highlight reel. I really enjoyed meeting Josh's grandparents for the first time. It was so fun to spend time with them and watch them all interact. One of the most memorable times we shared was getting stuck in the elevator at their apartment building. 8 people, I repeat- 8 people plus Howie's stroller- were stuck in a very small elevator for about 35 minutes!! We were on the way to the dining room for Thanksgiving dinner, stepped on the elevator unknowingly, thinking that we were in for a simple lift up 3 floors, only to remain trapped in the elevator for 35 minutes. It was quite dramatic. 911 was called, maintenance people were paged and summoned to the elevator, and eventually we were freed right when the 911 people were walking up the stairs to the 3rd floor where we were trapped. Lesson learned- when riding on an elevator, don't assume that your ride will necessarily be short. Bring food and water, and possibly a clean diaper for the baby since Howie's diaper began leaking on my arm part way through our entrapment (I realize that's gross, but it's true).

We also really enjoyed seeing the Grand Canyon!! You could definitely spend several days there and not see everything, but having Howie along afforded us only a few hours, so we took the accelerated tour. We drove along the South Rim and stopped at the scenic views. I was amazed by the sheer dropoffs and huge distances- it was just incredible. Neither Josh nor I are big heights people, so those dropoffs gave me the creeps, but they were still fascinating in a siren-call kind of way. At one of the outlooks there was a waist-high fence, which was plenty for keeping you safe. I saw a dad pick up his child for a picture and hold the toddler on his hip. So the toddler was above the railing, and would have fallen over the edge really quickly had he leaned back just a little. I was so stressed out that I had to turn around and look the other way. Judging from the fact that I didn't hear any commotion later, everything must have turned out OK. If we take Howie or future Baby Desches to the Grand Canyon at some point down the road, I will shamelessly be one of those moms who puts their children on leashes. We definitely want to go back. I was so impressed with all of the cacti in Arizona. They are such bizarre looking plants- just these random things sticking out of the ground?? Very interesting!! We had such a wonderful time in Arizona and we can't wait to return.

We are happy to report that we just bought our first Christmas tree last night, a lovely Douglas fir. Now please remember that we have a two-door Honda Civic. How does one get a 6-7 foot Christmas tree home from the store that's 20 minutes away with a pathetic little car? The first step is to go very, very slow. Josh threw some ropes over top of the tree and threaded them through the windows so he could hold on. I was in the sorry excuse for a back seat with Howie, looking at the stump to ensure that the tree wasn't coming off the car. So here we were, driving 30 mph down Washington Road where the speed limit is 45 mph, making friends behind us all the way. We pulled over at one point when it seemed like the tree was jumping ship, re-secured it, and slowly made our way home. It is so beautiful. We decided to christen our tree "Peyton," for obvious reasons. Peyton Manning is tall, Peyton Desch is tall. Peyton Desch smells good, Peyton Manning probably smells good. We love looking at Peyton Desch, we love looking at Peyton Manning. I could carry the analogy for much longer, but you get the point. We put our tree up last night after Howie was in bed, so when we got him out of his crib this morning we plugged in the lights for Howie. He and Peyton became fast friends. He kept twisting to see the tree when I was trying to feed him this morning. I can see that this is going to be a struggle throughout the Christmas season, but I can't blame him for wanting to look. I ended up going in the bathroom and turning the lights out to finish his feeding. Nothing to look at that way.

Much to our dismay, the Patriots won again last night. They are STILL undefeated, but defeat was sooooo close last night to crashing down on their arrogant little heads that their victory was even worse. I couldn't speak for a while after the game ended. The Eagles were soooo close to finally putting the Patriots in their place, and everyone knew it. Tom Brady got off the hook. Josh told me that the Patriots are owned by Robert Kraft, as in Kraft foods. Please join us in a complete boycott of anything with the label KRAFT on it. Yes, that includes macaroni & cheese, marshmallows, cheese, cream cheese... anything made by KRAFT. We're going to stick it to this man for owning such a wretched team and we're asking all of you out there in blog land to join us in bringing about his downfall. One way or another Tom Brady is going to meet defeat, either in the regular season or postseason. We're banking on it.

Well, I guess that's about all for now. We're heading out to go Christmas shopping. It's nice that Howie is so little, because at least for now we can get away with putting Desitin in his stocking while having him think we're still the coolest!!!

Happy Almost-Thanksgiving

Well, what is going on at the Desch home? Things are pretty much business as usual, in every part of our home. Let's start with the kitchen. As usual, dishes are piled up to the heavens. My sister Marnie was over at our apartment yesterday, and she walked in the kitchen and said, "Wow, you've got a mess in here." That's the truth. With dishes we take 2 steps forward... go on a cleaning binge, get all of the stuff in the sink clean and then only have to face the stuff on the counter, but then we make dinner and get a whole new round of dishes in the sink, plus what was already on the counter... it's getting ugly. Let's move to the front room. A combination bedroom/living room/TV room/playroom/office. As you can imagine, that room stays in a perpetual state of quasi-disaster. Rattles, diapers, books, random articles of clothing (some big and some small), dishes taken out of the kitchen since Howie is sometimes napping during lunchtime and you've got to eat sometime, bills and other random paperwork, etc. Try as I may, I have still not managed to find a system for keeping that room clean and tidy. Oh, well. Can't win them all.

As you can see from the pictures, Howie is starting slowly to take rice cereal a little bit better. Sure, I think he thinks it tastes like garbage, but I guess he's figured out that he can't only drink milk the rest of his life. Allow me to tell you about these photos:
1. Rice cereal from Aunt Marnie tastes just a little bit better. Yum! By the bottom of the bowl, his neck was resting in a puddle of spit out cereal sludge. No one ever said feeding a baby was a tidy affair.
2. If I had all of that food coming out of my mouth it would just be disgusting, but somehow Howie can pull off the letting-stuff-slide-out-of-my-mouth look.
3. Don't you wish you were this flexible? Howie's newest game is trying to suck on his toes. 20 years of yoga can't teach you that. His feet are still pristine, so sucking on his toe is still a nice thing to do.
4. Play time with Papa.
5. Howie's growing up fast... already reading books to himself.
6. Howie sporting his sherpa boots from his Aunt Jennie... talk about looking good. Josh says he's ready to lead an expedition up Mt. Everest in those boots.
7. "What are we supposed to do here? What are you doing, Papa? Should I smile or try to look cool?"

Well, we are heading to the great state of Arizona this weekend to spend Thanksgiving with Josh's grandparents. We're going to stop by the Grand Canyon while we're in town. I've never been, so I'm looking forward to that... it will be a great trip.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you from us!!

The Meeting of the Cousins

The Desch family had quite a weekend... complete with a visit from my sister Jennie, my grandma, my sister Marnie and brother-in-law Chris, and MUCH to my surprise, my sister Carrie and my sister Emily and her precious baby BOY John Gabriel!! John was born on Sept. 14th and I had not yet met him, and was definitely not expecting to meet him until Christmas, but he showed up at our doorstep with his mama and aunt Carrie in tow!! We knew that Jennie, Grandma, Marnie, and Chris were coming and we were already beside ourselves with excitement, but I was absolutely shocked when Emily, Carrie, and John walked in. So the cousins have now met. I think that Howie enjoyed meeting his cousin, who is only 11 weeks younger than he is. Howie was proud to show him the tricks of the trade for when you're four months old. It was so fun to see them together and know that they'll be great buddies as they get older. Howie already has a soft spot for John... at one point in the evening John was crying, and Howie, in an attempt to provide some comfort and communicate that he was empathizing along with him, placed his hand on John's hand and shoulder. When that gesture of caring didn't do the trick to get John to stop crying, Howie started crying too. He truly understands the meaning of rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn. We had a wonderful time together.

As you can see from the photo, I have officially tried to give Howie some solid food. And as you can see from the picture, he wasn't jumping for joy at the opportunity to try it. Although he did swallow some, much of it ended up on his bib. I think he is telling me, "Thanks, Mama- that was fun, but I think I'll stick with milk for now." Maybe in a couple of weeks he'll be more eager to try again.

We're doing just fine down here and enjoying the cooler weather... I'm also happy to report that the paci situation has resolved itself for the most part, and Howie is sleeping very well without it. So are we.

Have a wonderful day!