Rodents' Revenge and Other Lameness

Seriously, people, I’m starting to get a complex. It seems no matter where I live, I end up with a rodent encounter of some sort. It’s not a flattering thing.

So my current rodent remains unidentified. But I know he’s there, because I’ve heard him. And so has Jeremy. So there we were, sitting on the couch and enjoying some brief moments of “this was how my day was” when we heard a scratching coming from above. And not from the outside roof… Jeremy pounded on the wall and it stopped… For about 5 minutes. Then the scratching started again. Very clearly from within the attic space (which I’ve never ventured into – as the only access is from the top of my very small closet). So Jeremy pounded more forcefully on the wall and it stopped again. But he decided he was going in after the critter. So we pulled everything off the shelf of my closet, he got on his protective gear (thank goodness it is winter, so he rides to work in a thick jacket and gloves) and he started opening up the hole to go through. Oh man… Stuff started dropping everywhere… Insulation. Other random debris. An unspent bullet (for a .22 apparently). So we draped my clothes to prevent them from getting gunk on them any further and up Jeremy went. It was a pretty tight squeeze. And he didn’t find anything (well, except what we believe is a brick chimney, but there is no fireplace…). He did, however, emerge covered in dust and insulation debris. Ick. So the next step is poison. And I’m pretty sure I’ll probably end up smelling death and decay again as a result (I put a couple of handy dandy links there so you can read about my other death and decay and/or rodent encounters). Ugh. Thankfully, it was silent for the rest of the evening… Until about 3 a.m. this morning when I was woken from a very deep sleep by my rodent “friend.” After smacking the ceiling with my fist (and later learning I’d scraped skin off my knuckle in so doing…), I was ever so grateful that I remembered where I had put my ear plugs from when I was living at the other house. They came in handy. Ironically, one of the episodes of “Wings” that I watched before bed was the one where Helen can’t sleep because of the squirrels in her attic. Arguably one of the funniest episodes ever. Classic lines include Faye (in regards to the exterminators and the squirrels) asking, “They aren’t going to kill them are they?” And Roy saying, “No Faye, they’re going to glue little felt circles to their feet so you can’t hear them.” Or Brian’s declaration that s’mores should be called s’stupids. Yep, that show cracks me up. It’s been my end-of-the-night unwind for the last several weeks. Watching it makes me think of the past when it was actually running on tv and we would watch it. My dad loved that show. So I can still hear him laughing at the funny parts :).

In other lame news… I think I may have killed my camera. It was getting to where it was taking a really long time to take a picture, but I chocked it up to low battery. So I replaced the batteries one Sunday to take pictures of the nursery kids for their bulletin board and the screen went blank and it wouldn’t snap a picture… Thought maybe I put the batteries in backward… But it does fine on playback mode. So it’s not a battery problem. It’s a picture-taking problem. Ugh… This will require more looking into, because I really haven’t focused on it too much since then. But eventually I’m going to want to take some pictures! But it’s almost 7 years old, so I guess, if it’s gone, it’s gone. It had a good life and took lots of great pictures for me to cherish the memories :).

Not that I’m wanting to take any pictures of myself this month… I don’t know why, but I have seriously experienced break-out city this month. I suspect it’s something else I can attribute to wonky hormones (didn’t you say you like that word, Elka ;)?). Hopefully they’ll even out and my face will return to not-so-broken-out :).

I spend my day at work feeling like I want to go home and bake something yummy (and take it to work so I don’t eat it all by myself). But then I get home and feel patently unmotivated in that endeavor. And in other foodie news, it seems 3M may be just over the horizon. We were supposed to have our first attempt at a return this past Monday, but something came up and it got cancelled. So we try for this coming Monday. If not, I’ll go ahead and make what I was going to make anyway, which is Navy Bean Bacon Chowder and Chive Cheese Biscuits.

So there you have it. Those are my big woes at the moment ;). So life must not be so bad ;). And it’s not. Life is good. Mostly the sameold sameold. But when the sameold is happy stuff, who needs adventure?

Snopocalypse

That’s what someone at church called our freak snow and ice storm of January 2012 :). And I think it’s a great blog post title! It was also a lovely 2 days of (non)work. And let me just say that last week’s work week was the most awesome ever! Because Monday was a holiday. Tuesday was work. Wednesday was an official snow day for which I got paid. And Thursday was a day I was not going to attempt skiing my car down my hill along with the other sledders (who were on sleds, not in cars). I got paid for that day too, but it required use of my floating holiday and a bit of annual leave. Eh, but it was worth it. Both for laziness’ sake and the sake of my safety. So yeah… They had predicted snow starting Tuesday afternoon, but by Tuesday at 10 p.m., there still wasn’t snow anywhere in sight. So I went to bed assuming it was all a lark. But by 5:00 the next morning, I learned it hadn’t been. Jeremy called and said, “Is it quiet where you are?” I replied in the affirmative, realizing that it actually was very quiet (like I mentioned before, the traffic is easily and often heard on my road) and he said it was quiet where he was, but that’s what happens when it snows… After we hung up, I decided to peek outside. Yep, it had snowed! By that point, about 4 or 5 inches. I didn’t have to worry about putting the trash out. I called the County offices to determine what my day would be looking like (though I was pretty sure I wasn’t going in anyway, because I’m not a winter-weather driver). They said they were on 2 hour delay. I was fine with that and rolled over and went back to sleep. But not for much. And actually, I might have gone back to sleep before looking outside and then called at 7 when my alarm went off. Either way… I was happy with a 2 hour delay and the knowledge I could call back at 8:30 and find out what was happening. But at that point, I didn’t go back to sleep… I laid there thinking about snow days. And how they would be so much more fun not spent alone… By 8 I had roused myself and was puttering around eating breakfast and watching an old family video (Christmas 1994) and I was watching the snow fall. I had ventured right outside my front door to sweep off my mat (I don’t have an overhang over my front door) and it was COLD! The little kids sledding said, “HI!” Ah to be young! I was happily snuggled up inside instead of sledding ;). So I went back to the couch, waiting for time to call to find out the verdict about work. Then a knock came at my door. I wasn’t expecting anyone, but figured it might be the mailman. It turns out it was Jeremy. They had closed his job down after telling them they had to be there and better find a way in. My house was closer, so he biked over in the lovely cold sleet/snow mix. And when I called in, I learned the County offices were officially closed. Yippy!! So we enjoyed some home-made hot chocolate and watched “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.” Hilarious movie. Thursday my job was open, but I didn’t go, because my hill was still a skating rink. I called my boss, and she said the roads at the County offices were horrible too, and even several people who live in the same city as the offices weren’t able to even get out of their driveways. Apparently the call was changed later in the day to opening at noon. But since I’d already decided to take the day, I never bothered to call back in and learn that. So it was another lazy day. I stayed in my pj’s for 2 straight days. By Friday at noon, the rain was falling and turning everything to slush, and I was tired of being inside and decided I would venture out and brave driving in the slush. Aside from one spinning-tires-and-going-nowhere experience, I survived. And learned something new through that spin-out joy. I only went to the grocery store and the Laundromat, but that was enough to get me out of the house for a couple hours.

By Saturday travel was no problem. Jeremy and I ate a light lunch at my house and then headed to Wal-Mart to do some shopping (had to replace my paper shredder), and then we went to the pizza place we hadn’t been to in a while (we didn’t enjoy the last pizza we had there, but this time we got the one we knew we liked! And it was delicious!). Sunday was church (and also a sleep-in morning for me…). It was kind of a chaotic day. Which I suspected would be the case based on how our 5 kiddos were acting in Sacrament meeting. Phew! We had some wiggle worms. And Primary was no different. But we survived. I had choir after church (I’m not enjoying it being after church anymore, because that puts me there until 5:15… Makes for a long day). Then I saw Jeremy for a bit after church. And then we begin another work week. And this one’s not of the super-cool variety ;). But such is life. I will say I thoroughly enjoyed my 1-day work week with a 5-day weekend. Ahhhh…

Isn't [He] Romantic

Today (I actually typed the rest of this up yesterday when I was in a much better mood) is getting on my nerves. That's just FYI. Even blogger is annoying me. So if you wonder about how the text appears on here, it's because I was done with dealing with it.

:). You know it’s going to be good
when I start off a blog post with a smile!
I realize, based solely on the title
of this post (which is a doctored-up song title), that you may already be
gagging. But I can promise you a good laugh if you read on. And that is a
promise!

First I suppose I should tell you
about life in general before I get to life in specific ;). I never really said
much about the Christmas and New Years holidays. So I will briefly cover that
(and bear in mind my idea of brief may not match yours… ;)). Christmas was
busy. On the 23rd of December, I went to lunch with Lea and Morgan at the Olive
Garden and enjoyed some gab and a lot of food (it was, after all, the unlimited
soup, salad, and breadstick lunch… and this time it was pretty good!). Of
course, why I ate so much at 2:00 in the afternoon when I knew full well that
Jeremy and I had a dinner planned (that we was cooking), I do not know… But it
ended up working out fine, because Jeremy and I ate quite a bit later than we
planned, since it takes time to cut up potatoes, clean chicken, and cut
cauliflower into florets… We ate a ton of garlic in that meal ;). Plus, between
home teachers dropping of pies and my dad calling to discuss a few things, I
think it was about 8:00 before we actually ate! Which we did by the light of
the Christmas Tree while watching UP. Such a cute movie. And so fun to watch it
with Jeremy :). Christmas Eve was busy with me trying to do last-minute things
like mail Julie’s package, make pies, and make 2 fruit salads. But Jeremy’s a
big help, and he actually made both fruit salads and the cold pumpkin pie
(something new I tried, and it was a weird conglomeration of ingredients that
made it seem questionable – and super-fatty, but neither of us actually tried a
piece, so who knows how it was…). We headed to his mom’s parents’ house for
Christmas Eve dinner. So I met a lot of his family, and all his brothers were
there, so his whole family almost was there, so that was pretty cool. It was a
late night – we didn’t get back to my house until midnight. And we were tired.
So we said our good-byes and I got my shower and went to bed!

Christmas was also kind of busy. We
attended church together in my ward, and I sung 4 songs with the choir. One of
those included me doing a descant, but apparently I didn’t sing very loud (too
afraid of making a mistake!) and I didn’t use the microphone very close to me
(again, too afraid of hitting a wrong note and broadcasting that loud and
clear!), so I shouldn’t have been so nervous… but I was! It really was nice,
though, to sit with Jeremy during church. I say that every time, but it’s
because it’s true. After church, we changed clothes and headed to his parents’
house and exchanged gifts there and saw one of his brothers and his family. Then
we headed back to do Christmas with my family that evening. That was a lot of
people in a small house! But it was good. The food was plentiful (my mom opted
for prime rib this year instead of turkey and ham). The fruit salad that Jeremy
and I took for Thanksgiving in Alabama has become our staple “potluck” dish,
and it seems to be a hit no matter how we make it or where we take it. So yay!
It’s a keeper! After opening presents, we went back to my house and relaxed for
a while, just the two of us. Oh, and I should mention (for those of you who
didn’t see it on facebook) that I did get a ring for Christmas. Hahaha… A key
ring ;). Both Jeremy and I had had plenty of people suggesting or commenting on
me getting a ring for Christmas. So Jeremy made it so. Hahaha… I do so love his
sense of humor ;).

Jeremy had the whole week between
Christmas and New Year’s off. So we had the lovely opportunity of seeing each
other every day that week (except the one where he was out of town visiting
family) and spending some wonderful time together. He finally watched The
Goonies with me, and commented that he must not have watched it at the right
time in his life for it to grow on him the way it has me and that uber-excited
Goonies fan from Applebee’s. Our New Years Eve was quiet. He fixed my side-view
mirror while I took down Christmas decorations. Then he took the Christmas tree
to be recycled. We heard and saw some fireworks from my back window, but other
than that just enjoyed each other’s company and worked on a few piddly things
around my house (like hanging a few more pictures :)). New Years Day was church
and it was a hectic day indeed! My ward switched to afternoon time while
Jeremy’s now meets at 9:00. Plus several people were out, so it made for a busy
busy Primary! (And actually, this past Sunday was even more hectic, because of
all the new changes: new classes, new teachers, etc… plus I was teaching the
lesson about choice and consequences. Phew! Try to get a bunch of 3 year olds
who are used to playing with toys at about that time to pay attention! Hahaa… I
was pretty sweaty by the end of that lesson!). Emily is a brand new Sunbeam,
and that was an adventure for sure! That was a side-note ;). I spent Sunday
evening with Jeremy, and let me just say that it is a lovely thing to begin
2012 together. Monday was a day off work for both of us, because the holiday
was on Sunday. So nice to have the extra day to spend together. We made another
fruit salad, and then headed out to his brother’s mother-in-law’s for a Rummikub
tournament! So fun! I told Julie I was playing that, and her response was that
I am not allowed to play that game with anyone but her. So I told her Jeremy
and I will have to plan a special game-playing trip to Alabama where she and
Jon and Jeremy and I can play Mexican Train and Rummikub. Personally, I think
we should do that now!

Tuesday brought a return to work for both me and Jeremy. Blah. I need a get-rich-quick scheme so we can just spendour days together ;). Haha… Okay, so I’m kidding. That’s called retirement. And apparently you have to work before you retire. Anyway… Work was work for me and
training for Jeremy. And then by Thursday, Jeremy was winging his way on a work
trip and we had to endure 5 whole days of not seeing each other! The horror, the
horror!!! Hahaha… Seriously, though. It wasn’t horrible, and actually I got a
lot of stuff accomplished (including getting 2 food storage buckets for free!).
I shredded a bazillion papers (and I think I broke my paper shredder, possibly
beyond reasonable repair). I had tax papers from 1999. It was time for those to
go! I organized some files, consolidated some stuff… Little by little
everything is getting put away in an organized fashion. So lots of good stuff
got accomplished. But, you know when you’re in love, 5 days can seem like
forever! Hahaha… But I had the most special things to help get through those 5
days of not only not seeing each other, but not even being able to talk to each
other 4 of those days (due to where he was… no cell phone reception). See,
Jeremy managed to hide a whole bunch of little tiny strips of post-it-notes
with happy loving thoughts written on them all around my house. And I would
randomly find them. And it was way way cool and so sweet and special. And I’m
smiling like the biggest dork right now. And I’m not going to tell you what
they said or where all he hid them. But I will tell you one. Because I promised
you a good hearty laugh. And this will also help you see that the places he put
these sticky notes really were random. And sometimes hilarious! So one night I
was getting ready for bed, and as part of my routine, I make sure to use the
bathroom (#1, just for clarifying…). I mean, I find it lame to get woken up in
the middle of the night in order to go tinkle… (Although I think chocolate milk
might be a diuretic for me). Anyway, so after I was done, I stood up (my
bathroom is teeny tiny, so the sink is literally right in front of me…) and
proceeded to wash my hands and brush my teeth and take out my contacts before
flushing the toilet. So when I did turn around to flush the toilet, I noticed
this bright yellow color and thought, “What is that!?!” And then I realized
what it was… A note! So at some point, Jeremy had shoved a note between the
layers of an unused roll of toilet paper. And I was completely oblivious to
said note until the TP in the potty had soaked through and revealed it (Jeremy
blames my not seeing it on my scrunching of the toilet paper). And yes, for
your information, I did reach in and fish it out. And the most hilarious part
is that it said, “Having fun? Haha… Potty humor.” Well, and it said “I love
you” too… I laughed and smiled so much! (And washed my hands again). And so the
next morning (the last one before we wouldn’t even have cell phone contact), I
told him about finding this note. He laughed so hard! Classic. The funniest
part to him was what that note said… since I had to fish it out of the toilet
and all… Having fun indeed!

Anyway, so yeah, it was really sweet and quite
romantic to find little notes in random places reminding me that he loves me.
And the coolest part was that I found a note every day except Saturday.
And so Jeremy is back now, and we
had a lovely Tuesday evening catching each other up on the days and the events
while we were apart. And life otherwise is mostly just the same old stuff. And
it’s going to be a 4-day weekend for me, so I’m looking forward to that… Even
more so if Jeremy gets a 3-day weekend :).

Goal Setting Time

Well, it’s that time of year. The beginning of a new one. Time to examine how I did as far as accomplishing last year’s goals and time to set new ones. I have given a little bit of thought to my goals for 2012. But it’s time to actually really give it some thought as I sit here and meander through my thoughts of yore (a.k.a. yesterday ;)) and look to thoughts of tomorrow.

In 2011, I had hoped to:

Attend the Temple Monthly. Though I did not get 100% on this goal, I did get close. I made it 10 out of 12. There were times this was a big sacrifice to make – like the time my mom couldn’t go at the last minute, so I took my car. My car doesn’t run so well (as you may well recall). I mean, it’s running. But it has issues. I don’t usually (read: I don’t ever) take it on treks to Seattle… But Jeremy had just replaced the radiator, so I felt a bit more confident in it. And one nice thing that came from that trip was the opportunity to go with Jeremy’s mom and get to know her better and share that time and experience together. Though I didn’t officially meet this goal 100%, it will not be on my 2012 goals. And the reason is because I have achieved what I needed to achieve, and that was a change of heart. I’ve made Temple attendance a bigger priority in my life, and that’s the purpose of goals… at least for me. Or at least, it’s one purpose. I feel confident that I will continue making it a priority in 2012 whether it’s one of my official self-improvement goals or not.

Read the scriptures 30 minutes a day. This you will also not find on my 2012 goal list. Again, not because I am perfect at it. But because I have seen a change in myself. I didn’t achieve what I would call 100% on this goal either. But again, I have seen the scriptures become a more important part of my life. I have experienced more of those beautiful moments during scripture study where I have an impression about something important or learn something I can apply to my life from what I read. These are beautiful things to me, they were things I wanted to experience. And I have. And because I have, I want to continue it. It’s funny how that works… I think that’s some of what a change of heart is: you recognize the good fruits that come from good things, and in wanting those good fruits, you start to desire to do the good things. And so it is for me. I am not perfect – and sometimes my scripture reading is far less than 30 minutes and may consist of reading through one Conference talk from the most recent Conference. And maybe it’s one I’ve read through twice before (but I return to it because I love it). But the goal is to be spiritually fed through scripture reading – whether ancient or modern-day scripture – and I have felt that happen in my life, and I am thankful.

Continue building my savings account. I have continued to do this, and I will take it off my goal list for 2012. Not because I’m going to stop doing it, but because it’s become almost automatic. I remain amazed that I have been able to save what I’ve wanted to save and yet meet all my obligations. I wish I could explain what I feel about this, but I lack words. Basically, I have learned (or reaffirmed) two things: 1 – Paying tithing really does result in blessings being poured out abundantly. The promise is in Malachi. The promise is true. Money didn’t fall from the sky. But I had what I needed – and then some. 2 – Following the counsel of the Prophet and apostles, after receiving your own witness it is good, also brings forth blessings. We have been counseled to get out of debt and stay out of debt. To not be a prisoner to anyone through financial obligations. Sure, there are certain big-ticket items that require debt. A home mortgage is what most readily comes to mind. But so few material things are really debt-worthy, and I am thankful I have been able to maintain a desire to be debt-free more than I have had a desire for a new car or a big TV or whatever. The other counsel has been to save money away for the rainy days. I have continued to do so. Initially it was hard to put that little bit aside, because I wasn’t making very much. I’m still not. But I have seen the miracle of being able to do it, because I want to do what’s right. I want to be self-reliant as much as I possibly can. And I know Heavenly Father wants that for me also, so He will help me, as long as I do my part. I have seen it. So I know it’s true.

See somewhere new. Okay, so I didn’t do this. But does it count if I took someone else to see some place new ;)? Haha… And actually, while I’m sitting here thinking about it, I did see somewhere new this year. I went to Whidby Island (I think that’s how it’s spelled). I think I don’t always think of things like that because it’s not as exotic as Paris or Egypt or the Oregon Coast (haha ;)). But it was someplace I’d never been, so I think it counts :). Which means I can say I did this after all! And with these thoughts in mind, I think I will remove this from my goals also, because it seems a little too vague. I could go to upper-Shelton and say I’ve seen somewhere new. But that’s not really what I intend, so I think this goal is kinda dorky, now that I think of it :).

Complete one item on my bucket list. I didn’t do this, but that’s okay. I will add it on for next year. And by golly! It’s going to happen one of these years ;). I have a variety of things on there, you know. And there’s a good chance I could make up for the lean years by having a fat year and doing 3 of them in one year! You never can tell with life. It’s always an exciting adventure :).

72-Hour Kit. Um… Still no. Arg. But I think I had to get some other things prioritized ahead of this so that I could get to this point. See the remainder of my commentary in my goals for 2012.

3-month supply food storage. Well, officially I didn’t do so well on this. But it’s still important to me, which is why you will see it listed under the 2012 goals with a few tweaks.

Become organized and stay that way. Well, I am working on this. I’m not there. Not even close. But I’m working on it. I think I shredded an entire trash bag full of personal documents that just needed to go! I did that this past week. As I have gotten more and more settled into my new home (yeah, you’d think I’d be completely settled, but I’m not quite there…), I have improved in how organized I can be. I have been de-cluttering by getting rid of things I really don’t need (like novels I’ll never read again – or may never read in the first place). I’m not saying I don’t want to have stuff, but I am realizing that the more you have the more you have to organize. So I don’t need to have the cross-stitch books that I’ll never use – and I know I’ll never use, because I don’t see myself cross-stitching a bunch of bass or catfish. (I will add a disclaimer: I still am not ready to part with any kitchen stuff :)).

Lose 8 more pounds. I did this and then some. When I went for my very exciting female appointment in November, I discovered I’d lost 25 pounds from the year before. And when I’d weighed in 2010, I was already about 6 pounds down from where I’d started. Which means I lost a total of 31 pounds from 2010 to 2012. I’m not sure where I am today, since I don’t have a scale here. I know I’m under my goal weight, but I also know I’ve eaten a lot of pumpkin pie and cookies, and a few spoonfuls of ruined fudge and probably a handful of other not-so-waistline-friendly foods ;). But I’m not too worried about it.

Expand my garden. I did this. I grew a lot more stuff. I didn’t tend to it as much this year. There were several reasons for this. One large reason was time. My time was focused elsewhere, and that’s okay. I enjoyed my garden; I enjoyed the vegetables from it. I love to garden, but I don’t know if I will this year, simply because I don’t know if it’s realistic. If I do, it will be a few pots outside with maybe a tomato plant and I don’t know what else you can grow well in a pot. I don’t have much of a yard at my house, and I simply don’t see me going to my grandmother’s house every day or even every weekend to tend it. But I do know I will garden again one day, and I know I will enjoy it :).

Write in my journal weekly. I mostly did this. It got a little less frequent around October and November and December. But I still wrote a lot more than last year or the year before that. And I’m thankful. I know that it will be a treasure down the road. I have often spoken of how I appreciate now my high school journals (even though they are full of silly crushes and mundane details like that more than anything of real depth). But after I moved in to my own house, I unpacked my journal from Tuscaloosa. And I was so grateful for it. And wish I’d have written more. I had forgotten some very important things that happened in Tuscaloosa. Some huge blessings; some moments when I really saw the hand of the Lord in my day-to-day. I am – and will forever be – so grateful that I wrote what I wrote, even if it wasn’t more. Going back and reading that journal was so strengthening to me. And a further witness of the importance of writing in a journal. And so I’m grateful for what I’ve written this year. I can definitely say it’s run the gamut of emotions. It is a good representation of my life this year. And there’s even a smattering of impressions and thoughts that I know will be a blessing for me to read about in the future and remember.

Write 30 minutes a day. Yeah, I sort of quit doing this sometime around April. I never got back to it. Maybe one day. For now it’s not that big a deal. Although it would help me with one of those bucket list items ;).

Spend more time reading and less time online. Well, I can say I have been online less in the last few months. Because I didn’t have the option, what with not being willing to have that bill at this point ;). But I haven’t done a whole heap of reading, that’s for sure! I had planned to read 30 books this year, but I only got halfway to my goal. But that’s okay. I was enjoying the company of a certain special someone… and it was worth it ;).

In 2012 I hope to:

Memorize about 52 Scripture Masteries. That’s a rough estimate, and I hesitate to put a numerical value there, because that makes it harder to be accountable to when some of those are entire pages long (and therefore it will not get memorized in only one week). Anyway, scripture masteries are select scriptures from each of the books of scripture we have (Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price). The 10 Commandments are a scripture mastery in the Old Testament. And they are multiple verses, so you can see what I mean about the length of some of them. Anyway, Jeremy and I talked about wanting to memorize them, and actually we are setting this as a couple goal for the year also. But I know I want to add it to my personal goals to help me be more accountable to it :).

Simplify. I definitely realized, when shopping at 6:30 in the morning on December 23^rd, and feeling quite Grinch-like, that I need to simplify life a bit. Last year I had shopped throughout the year for Christmas, and it wasn’t so hectic. This year I didn’t do so well, and my attitude was a lot more yuck when I was down to the wire. So not the Christmas spirit. And I love to give gifts. It’s a way I show love. But I think, as the number of people I want to give gifts to continues to grow in size, my choice of gifts needs to change as well. Gifts can be expensive, and I need to be a wise steward over my money. I think this year I will be turning to making gifts more than buying them. Does this sound less simple to some? Perhaps. But it gives me an opportunity to work on it through the year and actually put even more love and thought into the gift. I miss making cross-stitch ornaments. And one of the things I have enjoyed doing every year since I moved here is making goodies and giving them away. And another gift I really enjoyed giving this year was the pepper jelly I made. There was just something extra-enjoyable in the home-made gifts, and I think I want to do that in 2012 instead of going to the store at the crack of dawn (or before…) and being sour about it. Blah. And this is only one example of my need to simply my life. It’s the main one I have thought of so far, but I am sure there are other ways. And so the goal is to determine them and do them :).

Visiting Teaching. So at church, ideally, each sister in the Ward is assigned another sister in the Ward as her “companion” and then they get a list of other sisters in the Ward to visit each month. The goal is to fellowship, teach, lift, help, etc. And let me go ahead and admit here that I’m pretty lousy at it. Like. Really. Lousy. I haven’t always been lousy, but that’s because I’ve had really awesome Visiting Teaching companions in the past (read: Jeni) who would make the appointments and all I had to do was tag along. So I guess I was, in fact, sort of lousy. But I didn’t feel quite as lousy, because I was actually doing something. I’m not so great at being the one to initiate things and coordinate schedules and call the sisters and see if we can come by and visit. Lame of me, I know. And so I need to do better. My official goal is to do face-to-face visits 4 times this year, if possible. I say “if possible” because the truth is there are others involved. If someone says, “Yeah, this isn’t a good time for me, could you send a letter instead?” then I can’t really twist their arm, ya know? But I need to put forth my efforts better than I have. And l will admit I am hesitant to put this up here as a goal, because I know it means I will have to be accountable to it. But I also know I have been richly blessed, and this is something I believe Heavenly Father wants me to do. It is His way of helping others feel loved and supported. And I need to be more willing to do those things. And as I do, I think I will gain a testimony of Visiting Teaching the way Jeni has (which is probably why she was undaunted in her scheduling appointments and doing the work… she’d seen it bless the life of at least one person, and she knew). Thank you Jeni, for being an example to me :).

Eat more vegetables. Okay, I’m mostly a terrible vegetable-eater. Which is part of why Monday Meals was so awesome… we tried new recipes with vegetables that are ordinarily thought of as detestable (like Brussels sprouts and asparagus). Granted, those vegetables were doctored up with everything unhealthy under the sun (like cheese, creamy soups, and sour cream…). But I liked my vegetables during Monday Meals ;). But all kidding aside, I do know I need to make vegetables a bigger part of my diet. When I’m cooking an actual meal, for dinner, it’s easy for me to make sure it’s well-rounded and includes veggies. And there are even some vegetarian dishes I love (like the garlic vegetable soup). But on a daily basis, I do not make eating vegetables a priority. I have gotten better about having more fruit in my house (usually bananas because they are easy, and lately I’ve developed a love for those little cutie organs – or mandarins, apparently ;)). I like easy, which is probably why these two fruits are playing a large part in my fruit diet lately. But veggies… I just don’t think to snack on veggies. And I should. Even if I require some ranch dressing to help dress them up a bit and make them more appealing :). I’m really good at eating pickles… does that count? Anyway, I am not sure how I am going to implement this, exactly, but that’s sort of what setting a goal is for me… I decide on something I feel I need to do better, and then I work to find a way to do it. Even if it takes me all year ;). So I’ll let you know what I come up with.

Humility. So I had this as a goal in 2010. I felt I didn’t achieve it. I didn’t put it on the list for 2011. Mostly because I was probably pretty moody about my absolute failure (or seeming failure) and didn’t really want to go there again. But I’ve gained perspective. And, honestly, I am not sure how one measures humility in oneself anyway. But I want to at least work on it, whether or not I can say I achieved it by the end of the year. (Well, I don’t think I will achieve it in this life anyway, so just nix that ridiculous statement…). I have come to realize some interesting things about humility and pride. I remember when I set this goal in 2010, my cousin Elka told me to be careful asking for that. Hahaha… So true Elka, so true. Because the things that happen to allow you to choose humility are generally not the most fun things in the world. But let me go ahead and say that, even though I didn’t set that as a goal in 2011, I still had ample opportunity come my way to exercise humility. Do I think I did a good job? I don’t know. But I hope I did at least some of the time. And I have seen where the opportunities have been (in retrospect, and with a little bit of pondering and probably some encouraging impressions from the Spirit). And I don’t think I’ve been an all-out failure. But I think one way I can improve is by realizing something is an opportunity to be humble during the event rather than afterward. Haha… I’m also learning that, sometimes, humility doesn’t have to be in the big things (like me saying, “Okay so I moved across an entire country and did my best to do my best – so what gives!?!” – when I don’t get a good job or meet my awesome future husband in the first 2.5 years of being in Washington). Yep, I probably was lame at humility in that scenario. Humility is trusting the Lord – and trusting His timing. And not asking “what gives!?!” But it’s also in the small, seemingly unimportant things. Like saying, “Yeah, those books made me laugh, but it’s time for me to stop excusing them as my guilty pleasure because they do have quite a bit of inappropriate stuff in them, and I don’t need them to be happy or be better.” So anyway, I don’t know how I will measure this, but I do want to be willing to at least try to be more humble. In the big things and the small things. I want to say, “Thy will be done” and mean it. Because it’s always what’s best anyway.

Bucket List item. I didn’t achieve this last year, so I would like to this year. The sad thing is that there are plenty of things I can at least work toward without it costing money. Like learning sign language. Okay, maybe that’s not plenty (I don’t have the list handy at the moment, and I don’t have internet here at home, so I’m going on memory for most of this stuff…). So this year I will try again. But like I said when I acknowledged that I didn’t complete this goal for 2011: life is life. And I may very well cross off several things in one year! So I am not too worried about it. I’d just like to have it as a goal :).

Three-month supply food storage and hygiene necessities. Well, 3 months in most things. Some things may be 2 months. Why not more? Well, because my little tiny house isn’t conducive to more. But we will store what we can and I will learn how to circulate it and replace it. It will be good practice for one day when we have the room we need and we can have a year’s supply. I will be able to rotate and get a good feel for how much I will need of things. I’m pretty excited about this, because I actually have a starting point.

72-Hour Kits. I’m feeling like this might actually be the year! Perhaps because I’m feeling warm and fuzzy as I sit here on my couch in my pj’s (church is at 1:00 this year for my Ward), and I’m feeling hopeful and excited for all I can do in 2012. And possibly because I have a pretty darn good support system in things like this (I like to call him Jeremy ;)).

Well, that’s about all I’ve come up with to this point. Not as many as in the past, but then, I am trying to simplify ;). So Happy New Year all! And to let you smile just a little bit more… Here’s a picture of me and Jeremy and my Christmas tree on the last day of 2011, right before we took it down and recycled it :). Awwww…