A long time ago, Marilyn tagged us to list all of our nicknames. I am pretty sure that I win this one hands down because I am married to a Nickname Master. I may have mentioned this before, but I think the number of times Chris has called me by my actual first name is in the single digits. My most common nickname is Leesta, though he comes up with a new nickname about once a month. So, take an average of 10 nicknames per year for the past 9 1/2 years... well, yeah.
We've said that we really should keep a journal of all of my funny nicknames, but I forget about it until we can't remember what Chris called me two or three weeks ago because it has changed. Maybe this will be a good start. Here are some of the ones I can recall today:
Lorna, Strenna, Stroud, Lunesta, Lunar Meadows, Roan, Spewdamenafens, Peat Swea, Rodafus Mones, Sexican, Beeleesta, Leesta Toasta (and Leesta Toast, and Leesta Toasta one-I-love-the-mosta, but these are all spinoffs of the same one), Yorba Linda, Cortalo Porchesney, Plistafuns, Moon Shad, Post Toastie, Reodesun, Spewdit... the list goes on, but that is all I can think of at the moment. As you can see, there is no rhyme or reason to these nicknames, just a funny guy who likes to make up funny words to call his wife. Oh, and some of these names actually have songs to go along with them!
A couple of funny nickname stories:
When we had been married for a couple of years, we went out to lunch with some friends. Our car was dirty, and Chris had written "LEESTA" with his finger on one of the windows. One of our friends had just learned that she was expecting, and when she and her husband saw the name on our window, they got all excited and were talking about naming their baby Leesta if it was a girl. Luckily, they had a boy, so as far as we know, "Leesta" remains a silly nickname and not some poor child's name.
Chris also has nicknames for the boys. One day in church, while walking a young Thomas to nursery, Chris said, "Come on, Tim," which is short for Timmer or Timodasee, two of Tom's common nicknames. A man behind Chris with his nursery-aged little girl said, "Come on honey, let's go with Tim." Chris didn't even try to explain why he was calling his son, Tom, Tim.
As for me, I also call Chris nicknames, but I only have a few that I use and they are far less imaginative than Chris's. Mainly, I call him "Hunsty".