Progress

Hey guess what I did! 

I drew on a canvas.

 Then I painted it.

 Then I painted it a little more.

Now I'm gonna hang it up in my room and call it art.  Because that is what it is.

I've also been doing pretty well at the whole running thing.  I started on January 3rd, and since then I've ran about 33 miles.  Usually I don't get to 6 days a week, but I'm trying.  I have gotten to where I usually run about 2 miles when I go running.  One day last week I ran 3.21 miles.  I was (am still) quite proud of myself.  Maybe I'll actually be able to do the 5k race for Founder's Day in Joseph City!  Hopefully I don't lose my toenail before then (or at all).  Did you know that happens? Some people lose toenails because they run so much!  I hoped it wouldn't happen to me, but the other day my toenail got a little beat up on my run.  It is still hanging on, but I am scared for its life. 

Wow did I really just blog about toenails? Weird... Also, sorry.

Awkward & Awesome

Awesome:

• New phone! Woo hoo! We got iPhones for Christmas.  Kind of.  It was after Christmas since there was such a huge demand on them for the holidays, but they still count as Christmas presents if they come in January right? Right.  
• New case for phone! It's pretty much everything proof.  Which is good since I tend to drop expensive things and make them not so awesome anymore.
• Sam gave the lesson today in Gospel Doctrine class and I had at least 3 people tell me he did a great job! Go husband!
• Spending Saturday in Mesa.  Brigette ran the Kids Rock half mile for the Rock N Roll Marathon.  My dad ran with her in cowboy boots and Wranglers.  

Saturday was Tera's (and Tanner's!) birthday.  We went to lunch and she got this ice cream brought to her.  Look how excited and adorable she is!

Awkward:

• We were in Best Buy the other day and I overheard this - "No, I don't really go to strip clubs.  What fun is it to go somewhere to get all worked up and then have to go home and take care of things myself?" I  quickly stifled my giggle and rushed off to tell Sam what I had heard.
• My semi-high state after I poured nail polish into eye shadow cases to make a play makeup set for Tera's gift.  
• I got a text from my lab partner from my Biology lab at NAU today.  It took me a good 5 minutes to figure out who Tammie was, and I only remembered after I googled the number's area code and remembered that she told me she was from Washington.  Nice to know she still cares, although I doubt she even realized that I was still in her contact list.
• Getting out of church at 5 p.m. Sucks.

2012

Confession:  I am not very good at documentation.  This blog is the closest thing I have to a journal, and it doesn't really have that much in it - just stuff I think might entertain some people.  So one of my New Year's Resolutions is to be better at keeping track of my memories.  I'm not exactly talking about blogging more, even though that is something that I would like to do.  I'm talking about something that I've never EVER been good at.  I want to scrapbook.  That's right.  I found the Project Life scrapbook kit and inspiration struck.  It looks like something for people like me... You know, people who got the short end of the crafty stick.  I'll have to take lots more pictures, but I don't really see how that could be a bad thing.  Hopefully the husband likes the idea as much as I do!

Other things I want to accomplish this year:

• Make my house more homey.  Paint, art, nick-knacks, the works.
• Run 6 days a week. I don't care for running much.  I'm slow and I feel really insecure when people see me work out in any way.  But our housing development has these awesome paths, and I guess I might as well put them to good use.  Also, I have some really awesome running shoes (that were 50% off, I might add) and they are so light and wonderful.  Seriously amazing.   
• Landscape the back yard.  It's still just dirt. 
• Learn more recipes.  Thank goodness for my Pinterest obsession.
• Learn how to budget.
• Go to the temple monthly.  We were so close last year!  We only missed two or three months, I think.
• Be a better primary teacher.  Yes, I'm in primary again.  I was not too excited (Ok, I was pretty upset) but most of the kids in my class are pretty good and I've only wanted to strangle one or two on very few occasions.  This class is a lot different from my last primary class.  There are usually 6 to 10 kids there and they can be pretty rambunctious.  

So there it is.  Hopefully I'll be able to do these things.  And now that you've read this you are obligated to keep me in line.  Especially on the running one... Because I can see that one going down the drain fast, and it's one of the more important ones on there for me.  Oh also, Kourtney... Let me know if Stampin' Up has anything like the Project Life thing.  I wouldn't want to be disloyal or anything.

Christmas

I am going to apologize in advance for the somewhat gruesome nature of this post.  If you're squeamish you might want to back out now.  Just sayin'.

But first, here is our lovely tree in all of its crooked-starred glory.  This tree is quite large and took me several trips to the store to get it properly lit.  I was almost ready to take down the tree and pull out our tiny pre-lit tree from last year.  But I persevered and I think it was kind of worth it.

This year we went to Las Cruces for a few days before Christmas.  Sam had to work on Christmas day, so our festivities were moved to Christmas Eve.  All was fine and dandy until Christmas Eve.  Sam had been feeling kinda crummy since he decided to get a cold a few days before, and then decided to have a stomach ache.  We went to Sam's Aunt Linda's house for dinner and Sam kept getting worse.  I knew it was getting serious when he wouldn't even eat the tamales that he has been craving since last Christmas.  So everyone else ate, Sam puked, and we took that as our cue to head home.  On the 3.5 hour drive home he tossed his cookies twice more - once while driving 75 mph down the road, which resulted in a mess on the side of my car.  Needless to say, it would've been nice for him to give me some kind of warning.  After the 2nd incident (for which I was thankfully able to pull over) it was smooth sailing and we got home with no more problems.  We decided to open gifts that night instead of waiting until Sam got home Sunday night.  All was merry and bright.
Okay, gruesome part's over.
Christmas morning I headed to church bright and early, and got ready to read part of the Christmas story out of the bible for the Primary's Christmas program.  I went up when it was my turn, got almost to the podium, and stopped dead in my tracks.  The guy who was supposed to go after me took my part! So I crouched there like an idiot and figured out what his part was so I could read it instead.  After part stealing man sat got done, I got out of my crouch, walked over to where the first counselor in the primary presidency was standing and waited for the primary to sing their other song.  I headed over to the podium again and turned back around because another song had started.  Finally, I read my impromptu part at the right time, and went back to my seat quite embarrassed.
After church I went to Mesa for brunch with my mom's side of the family.  Nothing tragic happened here, but it was pretty fun to sit around and laugh about certain (crazy) family members who shall remain nameless for their protection.
Besides all the puking and part-stealing, we had a pretty swell Christmas, and hope you did too! Bring on 2012!

Proof

For those of you who doubted my unfortunate inheritance...
Behold: my grey hair.

What did I do to deserve this?