2010

2010 was a super crazy year. A lot crazier than I ever anticipated it being. But definitely a good kind of crazy.

In December of 2009 when Jenny, myself and some other random people made our new years resolution to be engaged or at least in a relationship by Christmas 2010 I never guessed I would actually be married by then. Our large goal allowed us to set a lot of small goals that we thought may help us get to the big goal, I went to the temple more often, improved my scripture study habits, made it a point to actually spend some time getting ready in the mornings, and was doing better in school.

At the end of January Chris and I started doing things together pretty much every week, in mid March it turned into every day and it's been that way ever since! The rest of the year has been full of lots of first time (or only time) experiences for me (in no particular order):

-getting engaged
-planning a wedding
-going through the temple
-getting married
-buying a car (we bought a Toyota Corolla in mid-October so I wouldn't be stuck at home all day while Chris was at work)
-SEAWORLD (turns out i love sea world)
-Six Flags
-Experiencing Texas
-Christmas without Mom & Dad
-seeing what Santa brought before anybody else
-making my first pie
-making my first cheesecake made solely on my own
-my friends all starting school while I was only taking one online class
-my first new years/new years eve without mom & dad's tasty cheesy/jalapeno/whatever they call it dip... which I was really tempted to make last night
-probably about a million other things too that I can't think of right now

My goals for this year aren't quite so crazy as last years goal, but I do want to continue to make some good progress on my 101 in 1001 list. I would love to be a little over halfway done at the end of 2011 (at least with the goals that aren't the "do this every month for the whole 1001 days").

I want to do better at doing the dishes every night before I go to bed because I HATE waking up to a sink full of dishes. Sure there are the nights that I can't get all the dishes done because the dishwasher is running, but that isn't every night.

I want to do better at taking the trash out on MWF mornings. I hate getting stuck with boxes that just take up space because I forgot to get the trash out on time. And I hate walking to the dumpster, it isn't very close to our building.

I want to do better at eating breakfast AND lunch instead of a lunch-ish food in between when those two meals should be. egg rolls for brunch probably isn't the greatest. also, that could decrease the amount of other crap i snack on.

Maybe I'll even give sushi/fish a shot in 2011. Maybe.

That's a pretty good list. Not quite as intense as last years goal, but I think it will still be a challenge.

As of 12/27/10

101 in 1001- 17 are done, and a ton more are in progress. I’m feeling pretty good about this project, if only their website was working… it’s where I’ve been tracking some of my goals.

1. Make a pie, crust and all

2. Make a cheesecake

3. Cook dinner 4 times a week for a month

4. Exercise at the gym 2 times a week for a month

5. Do yoga 2 times a week for 2 consecutive months

6. Finish SFL 110

7. Take ISYS 100

8. Take ISYS 101

9. Get a job

10. Go to the temple once a month (2/33)
nov 2010, dec 2010, jan 2011, feb 2011, mar 2011, apr 2011, may 2011, june 2011, july 2011, aug 2011, sept 2011, oct 2011, nov 2011, dec 2011, jan 2012, feb 2012, mar 2012, apr 2012, may 2012, june 2012, july 2012, aug 2012, sept 2012, oct 2012, nov 2012, dec 2012, jan 2013, feb 2013, mar 2013, apr 2013, may 2013, june 2013, july 2013

11. Have personal scripture study and prayer daily for a month

12. Drink 72 oz of water daily for a week

13. Try at least one new recipe every month
nov 2010, dec 2010, jan 2011, feb 2011, mar 2011, apr 2011, may 2011, june 2011, july 2011, aug 2011, sept 2011, oct 2011, nov 2011, dec 2011, jan 2012, feb 2012, mar 2012, apr 2012, may 2012, june 2012, july 2012, aug 2012, sept 2012, oct 2012, nov 2012, dec 2012, jan 2013, feb 2013, mar 2013, apr 2013, may 2013, june 2013, july 2013

14. Go a month without complaining to the office about maintenance problems…

15. Work out our budget

16. Find out my blood type

17. Go to the outlet malls in San Marcos

18. When we go to San Marcos, eat at a great BBQ place

19. Make a list of 101 things that make me happy

20. See 5 classic movies I’ve never seen

21. Read 5 classic books I’ve never read

22. Do 1001 names of Indexing from familysearchindexing.org

23. Go a week without getting on facebook- on the computer AND my phone

24. Make bread from scratch

25. Talk to someone in my family once a week for 2 months

26. Beat the Swordplay Showdown on Wii Sports Resort

27. Take a picture at least once a week for 3 months

28. Floss every night for a month (then it should be a habit)

29. Put pictures up on our empty walls

30. Write in my journal once a month for a year

31. Don’t complain about anything for a week

32. Finish the thank you notes from our wedding before thanksgiving 2010

33. Get my Texas driver’s license: Nov 2010

34. Finish writing “our story” about how Chris & I met, dated and got engaged

35. Scrapbook our wedding (once I actually get our wedding pictures from our photographer)

36. Make our bed by 10:00 am every day for a month

37. Combine all of my calendars into one

38. Make my own cards and send them to people (Dec 2010-to 215)

39. Have a fully funded emergency fund

40. Clean the bathroom regularly—my hair is all over the floor

41. Read Jesus the Christ

42. Watch 26 movies I've never seen starting with each letter of the Alphabet
Alice in Wonderland (Johnny Depp version) [Nov 2010]
B
Cop and a Half [Nov 2010]
Date Night [Dec 2010]
E
F
G
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One [Nov 2010]
I
J
K
L
M
National Lampoons Christmas Vacation [Nov 2010]
O
Princess and the Frog [Nov 2010]
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z

43. Do my visiting teaching every month (2/33)
nov 2010, dec 2010, jan 2011, feb 2011, mar 2011, apr 2011, may 2011, june 2011, july 2011, aug 2011, sept 2011, oct 2011, nov 2011, dec 2011, jan 2012, feb 2012, mar 2012, apr 2012, may 2012, june 2012, july 2012, aug 2012, sept 2012, oct 2012, nov 2012, dec 2012, jan 2013, feb 2013, mar 2013, apr 2013, may 2013, june 2013, july 2013

44. Organize all of our important documents, and then show Chris where they all are

45. Go to the doctor and get a regular check-up, oh and figure out why all the headaches…

46. Read the whole New Testament

47. Straighten my hair 3 times a week for a month

48. Wear makeup (at least mascara) every day for a month

49. Write my shortcomings on a piece of paper and tear it up

50. Find 50 quotes that inspire me and do something creative with them

51. Learn some basic Spanish

52. Go to a Spurs game

53. Put a note in Chris’s lunch once a month (2/33)
nov 2010, dec 2010, jan 2011, feb 2011, mar 2011, apr 2011, may 2011, june 2011, july 2011, aug 2011, sept 2011, oct 2011, nov 2011, dec 2011, jan 2012, feb 2012, mar 2012, apr 2012, may 2012, june 2012, july 2012, aug 2012, sept 2012, oct 2012, nov 2012, dec 2012, jan 2013, feb 2013, mar 2013, apr 2013, may 2013, june 2013, july 2013

54. Take a bubble bath every month (or more often ) (2/33)
nov 2010, dec 2010, jan 2011, feb 2011, mar 2011, apr 2011, may 2011, june 2011, july 2011, aug 2011, sept 2011, oct 2011, nov 2011, dec 2011, jan 2012, feb 2012, mar 2012, apr 2012, may 2012, june 2012, july 2012, aug 2012, sept 2012, oct 2012, nov 2012, dec 2012, jan 2013, feb 2013, mar 2013, apr 2013, may 2013, june 2013, july 2013

55. Put a first aid kit in each of our cars

56. Buy a plant and take care of it

57. Make treats for random people in the ward

58. Sit by a different sister in Relief Society every week for a month

59. Start our own Christmas traditions

60. Take my makeup off before I go to bed every night for a month

61. Take treats to the maintenance guys and ladies up at the office at our apartment complex

62. Write Stephanie once a month while she is still on her mission (2/7)
nov 2010, dec 2010, jan 2011, feb 2011, mar 2011, apr 2011, may 2011

63. Learn how to say “I love you” in ten different langugages

64. Complete our stake’s RS Book of Mormon challenge

65. Donate some things to goodwill

66. Take advantage of the free vacuums at the car wash down the street…

67. Answer the “50 questions that will free your mind”

68. Blog every day for a month

69. Watch every season of House

70. Explore the walking/jogging path around the medical center

71. Read library books when I get them, rather than renewing them a few times

72. Learn to tie a tie

73. Drink more milk so it doesn’t expire

74. Try a type of food I have never had

75. Brush my teeth every night for a month

76. Find a duck pond in San Antonio and go feed the ducks

77. Put together 72 hour kits

78. Do a puzzle of 500 pieces or bigger (that means getting one first)

79. Read the lessons for church before and think of comments

80. Bake a cherry pie for Chris

81. (Re)learn the location of all 50 states and their capitals

82. Find a way to make my hair hold curls for a couple hours

83. Register to vote in Texas: Nov 2010

84. Make a playlist of 101 of my favorite songs

85. Color an entire coloring book

86. Make homemade ice cream

87. Make a cheese fondue

88. Create a cleaning schedule for the apartment

89. Develop a better skin care routine

90. Don’t go back to bed after Chris leaves for work for a whole week

91. Go a week without turning the tv on while Chris is at work

92. Combine my iTunes with Chris’s so I can have my music on my phone

93. Explore the River Walk

94. Eat at a restaurant featured on Diners, Driveins and Dives or Man v. Food

95. Do 20 pushups without stopping

96. Do Satin Hands on my feet once a month for a year

97. Restart my gratitude journal and take time each week to write about things I am grateful for for a month

98. Do something nice for the mail man

99. Shave my legs more than once a week for 3 months

100. Work on making a new list of 101 things to do when these 1001 days are up

101. Read 15 books from this list: http://www.marcandangel.com/2008/08/11/30-books-everyone-should-read-before-their-30th-birthday/

Sick...

Being sick is no fun. Chris started getting sick on Monday or so and I started getting sick around Wednesday. We had super sore throats, some major congestion which lead to some killer headaches, and some nasty coughs. Our supply of Sucrets, Chloroseptic spray, Ricola, and Sudafed has been cluttering the counter but I think that it can finally all go away (except maybe the Sudafed). Chris went to work Monday-Wednesday all day, Thursday he came home after lunch and worked from home, and Friday he took off. Sleeping in a few days in a row has been excellent for. Today we've probably been more productive than we we have been all week and it is barely noon. Chris cleaned the bathroom while I attacked the kitchen, then we headed up to the gym to work out. I think we both feel way better now. I'm just glad we got sick this week not next week- next week we have our Ward Christmas Party and the USAA Christmas Party.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was a little non-traditional for us this year. We were invited to spend Thanksgiving with another couple in our ward who happens to live in our same complex. The husband is allergic to turkey, so we had some great chicken instead. We took the chicken, some stuffing and a pumpkin pie over and they had some great sweet potatoes, a broccoli salad, and a few other tasty sides. Everything tasted great, it just wasn't the food we are used to for Thanksgiving. While we let dinner settle a little before breaking out the pie we played a wild game of Cranium. We had a blast, then came home, I worked on a puzzle and we watched Chris's families traditional Thanksgiving night movie--National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. I had never seen it before but laughed for most of it. It was a great movie, one that I'm excited to turn into a tradition for us!

Progress, Round 2

101 in 1001

Started: November 9, 2010

1. Make a pie, crust and all

2. Make a cheesecake

3. Cook dinner 4 times a week for a month

4. Exercise at the gym 2 times a week for a month

5. Do yoga 2 times a week for 2 consecutive months

6. Finish SFL 110

7. Take ISYS 100

8. Take ISYS 101

9. Get a job

10. Go to the temple once a month (1/33)
nov 2010, dec 2010, jan 2011, feb 2011, mar 2011, apr 2011, may 2011, june 2011, july 2011, aug 2011, sept 2011, oct 2011, nov 2011, dec 2011, jan 2012, feb 2012, mar 2012, apr 2012, may 2012, june 2012, july 2012, aug 2012, sept 2012, oct 2012, nov 2012, dec 2012, jan 2013, feb 2013, mar 2013, apr 2013, may 2013, june 2013, july 2013

11. Have personal scripture study and prayer daily for a month

12. Drink enough water every day to not be dehydrated daily for a month

13. Try at least one new recipe every month
nov 2010, dec 2010, jan 2011, feb 2011, mar 2011, apr 2011, may 2011, june 2011, july 2011, aug 2011, sept 2011, oct 2011, nov 2011, dec 2011, jan 2012, feb 2012, mar 2012, apr 2012, may 2012, june 2012, july 2012, aug 2012, sept 2012, oct 2012, nov 2012, dec 2012, jan 2013, feb 2013, mar 2013, apr 2013, may 2013, june 2013, july 2013

14. Go a month without complaining to the office about maintenance problems…

15. Work out our budget

16. Find out my blood type

17. Go to the outlet malls in San Marcos

18. When we go to San Marcos, eat at a great BBQ place

19. Make a list of 101 things that make me happy

20. See 5 classic movies I’ve never seen

21. Read 5 classic books I’ve never read

22. Do 1001 names of Indexing from familysearchindexing.org

23. Go a week without getting on facebook- on the computer AND my phone

24. Make bread from scratch

25. Talk to someone in my family once a week for 2 months

26. Beat the Swordplay Showdown on Wii Sports Resort

27. Take a picture at least once a week for 3 months

28. Floss every night for a month (then it should be a habit)

29. Put pictures up on our empty walls

30. Write in my journal once a month(0/33)
nov 2010, dec 2010, jan 2011, feb 2011, mar 2011, apr 2011, may 2011, june 2011, july 2011, aug 2011, sept 2011, oct 2011, nov 2011, dec 2011, jan 2012, feb 2012, mar 2012, apr 2012, may 2012, june 2012, july 2012, aug 2012, sept 2012, oct 2012, nov 2012, dec 2012, jan 2013, feb 2013, mar 2013, apr 2013, may 2013, june 2013, july 2013

31. Don’t complain about anything for a week

32. Finish the thank you notes from our wedding before thanksgiving 2010

33. Get my Texas driver’s license: Nov 2010

34. Finish writing “our story” about how Chris & I met, dated and got engaged

35. Scrapbook our wedding (once I actually get our wedding pictures from our photographer)

36. Make our bed by 10:00 am every day for a month

37. Combine all of my calendars into one

38. Make my own cards and send them to people

39. Have a fully funded emergency fund

40. Clean the bathroom regularly—my hair is all over the floor

41. Read Jesus the Christ

42. Watch 26 movies I've never seen starting with each letter of the Alphabet
Alice in Wonderland (Johnny Depp version) [Nov 2010]
B
C
D
E
F
G
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One [Nov 2010]
I
J
K
L
M
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation [Nov 2010]
O
Princess and the Frog [Nov 2010]
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z

43. Do my visiting teaching every month (0/33)
nov 2010, dec 2010, jan 2011, feb 2011, mar 2011, apr 2011, may 2011, june 2011, july 2011, aug 2011, sept 2011, oct 2011, nov 2011, dec 2011, jan 2012, feb 2012, mar 2012, apr 2012, may 2012, june 2012, july 2012, aug 2012, sept 2012, oct 2012, nov 2012, dec 2012, jan 2013, feb 2013, mar 2013, apr 2013, may 2013, june 2013, july 2013

44. Organize all of our important documents, and then show Chris where they all are

45. Go to the doctor and get a regular check-up, oh and figure out why all the headaches…

46. Read the whole New Testament

47. Straighten my hair 3 times a week for a month

48. Wear makeup (at least mascara) every day

49. Write my shortcomings on a piece of paper and tear it up

50. Find 50 quotes that inspire me and do something creative with them

51. Learn some basic Spanish

52. Go to a Spurs game

53. Put a note in Chris’s lunch once a month (0/33)
nov 2010, dec 2010, jan 2011, feb 2011, mar 2011, apr 2011, may 2011, june 2011, july 2011, aug 2011, sept 2011, oct 2011, nov 2011, dec 2011, jan 2012, feb 2012, mar 2012, apr 2012, may 2012, june 2012, july 2012, aug 2012, sept 2012, oct 2012, nov 2012, dec 2012, jan 2013, feb 2013, mar 2013, apr 2013, may 2013, june 2013, july 2013

54. Take a bubble bath every month (or more often ) (1/33)
nov 2010, dec 2010, jan 2011, feb 2011, mar 2011, apr 2011, may 2011, june 2011, july 2011, aug 2011, sept 2011, oct 2011, nov 2011, dec 2011, jan 2012, feb 2012, mar 2012, apr 2012, may 2012, june 2012, july 2012, aug 2012, sept 2012, oct 2012, nov 2012, dec 2012, jan 2013, feb 2013, mar 2013, apr 2013, may 2013, june 2013, july 2013

55. Put a first aid kit in each of our cars

56. Buy a plant and take care of it

57. Make treats for random people in the ward

58. Sit by a different sister in Relief Society every week for a month

59. Start our own Christmas traditions

60. Take my makeup off before I go to bed every night for a month

61. Take treats to the maintenance guys and ladies up at the office at our apartment complex

62. Write Stephanie once a month while she is still on her mission (1/7)
nov 2010, dec 2010, jan 2011, feb 2011, mar 2011, apr 2011, may 2011

63. Learn how to say “I love you” in ten different langugages

64. Complete our stake’s RS Book of Mormon challenge

65. Donate some things to goodwill

66. Take advantage of the free vacuums at the car wash down the street…

67. Answer the “50 questions that will free your mind”

68. Blog every day for a month

69. Watch every season of House

70. Explore the walking/jogging path around the medical center

71. Read library books when I get them, rather than renewing them a few times

72. Learn to tie a tie

73. Drink more milk so it doesn’t expire

74. Try a type of food I have never had

75. Brush my teeth every night for a month

76. When a song from Chris’s iTunes collection comes up on my phone, actually listen to it

77. Find a duck pond in San Antonio and go feed the ducks

78. Put together 72 hour kits

79. Do a puzzle of 500 pieces or bigger (that means getting one first)

80. Read the lessons for church before and think of comments

81. Bake a cherry pie for Chris

82. (Re)learn the location of all 50 states and their capitals

83. Find a way to make my hair hold curls for a couple hours

84. Register to vote in Texas: Nov 2010

85. Make a playlist of 101 of my favorite songs

86. Color an entire coloring book

87. Make homemade ice cream

88. Make a cheese fondue

89. Create a cleaning schedule for the apartment

90. Develop a better skin care routine

91. Don’t go back to bed after Chris leaves for work for a whole week

92. Go a week without turning the tv on while Chris is at work

93. Combine my iTunes with Chris’s so I can have my music on my phone

94. Explore the River Walk

95. Eat at a restaurant featured on Diners, Driveins and Dives or Man v. Food

96. Do 20 pushups without stopping

97. Do Satin Hands on my feet once a month for a year

98. Restart my gratitude journal and take time each week to write about things I am grateful for

99. Do something nice for the mail man

100. Shave my legs more than once a week for 3 months

101. Work on making a new list of 101 things to do when these 1001 days are up

Progress…

101 in 1001

Started: November 9, 2010

As of 11/21/10 I have 6 all done and have started something like 7 others. I feel like some of these things just needed to be written down as goals and then it was super quick and easy to get them down (like organizing our important papers, it just needed to be done). This whole goal setting thing is great.

1. Make a pie, crust and all

2. Make a cheesecake

3. Cook dinner 4 times a week for a month

4. Exercise at the gym 2 times a week for a month

5. Do yoga 2 times a week for 2 consecutive months

6. Finish SFL 110

7. Take ISYS 100

8. Take ISYS 101

9. Get a job

10. Go to the temple once a month (1/33)
nov 2010, dec 2010, jan 2011, feb 2011, mar 2011, apr 2011, may 2011, june 2011, july 2011, aug 2011, sept 2011, oct 2011, nov 2011, dec 2011, jan 2012, feb 2012, mar 2012, apr 2012, may 2012, june 2012, july 2012, aug 2012, sept 2012, oct 2012, nov 2012, dec 2012, jan 2013, feb 2013, mar 2013, apr 2013, may 2013, june 2013, july 2013

11. Have personal scripture study and prayer daily for a month

12. Drink enough water every day to not be dehydrated daily for a month

13. Try at least one new recipe every month
nov 2010, dec 2010, jan 2011, feb 2011, mar 2011, apr 2011, may 2011, june 2011, july 2011, aug 2011, sept 2011, oct 2011, nov 2011, dec 2011, jan 2012, feb 2012, mar 2012, apr 2012, may 2012, june 2012, july 2012, aug 2012, sept 2012, oct 2012, nov 2012, dec 2012, jan 2013, feb 2013, mar 2013, apr 2013, may 2013, june 2013, july 2013

14. Go a month without complaining to the office about maintenance problems…

15. Work out our budget

16. Find out my blood type

17. Go to the outlet malls in San Marcos and find dishes that we like

18. When we go to San Marcos, eat at a great BBQ place

19. Make a list of 101 things that make me happy

20. See 5 classic movies I’ve never seen

21. Read 5 classic books I’ve never read

22. Do 1001 names of Indexing from familysearchindexing.org

23. Go a week without getting on facebook- on the computer AND my phone

24. Make bread from scratch

25. Talk to someone in my family once a week for 2 months

26. Beat the Swordplay Showdown on Wii Sports Resort

27. Take a picture at least once a week for 3 months

28. Floss every night for a month (then it should be a habit)

29. Put pictures up on our empty walls

30. Write in my journal once a month(0/33)
nov 2010, dec 2010, jan 2011, feb 2011, mar 2011, apr 2011, may 2011, june 2011, july 2011, aug 2011, sept 2011, oct 2011, nov 2011, dec 2011, jan 2012, feb 2012, mar 2012, apr 2012, may 2012, june 2012, july 2012, aug 2012, sept 2012, oct 2012, nov 2012, dec 2012, jan 2013, feb 2013, mar 2013, apr 2013, may 2013, june 2013, july 2013

31. Don’t complain about anything for a week

32. Finish the thank you notes from our wedding before thanksgiving 2010

33. Get my Texas driver’s license: Nov 2010

34. Finish writing “our story” about how Chris & I met, dated and got engaged

35. Scrapbook our wedding (once I actually get our wedding pictures from our photographer)

36. Make our bed by 10:00 am every day for a month

37. Combine all of my calendars into one

38. Make my own cards and send them to people

39. Have a fully funded emergency fund

40. Clean the bathroom regularly—my hair is all over the floor

41. Read Jesus the Christ

42. Watch 26 movies I've never seen starting with each letter of the Alphabet
Alice in Wonderland (Johnny Depp version) [Nov 2010]
B
C
D
E
F
G
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One [Nov 2010]
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
Princess and the Frog [Nov 2010]
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z

43. Do my visiting teaching every month (0/33)
nov 2010, dec 2010, jan 2011, feb 2011, mar 2011, apr 2011, may 2011, june 2011, july 2011, aug 2011, sept 2011, oct 2011, nov 2011, dec 2011, jan 2012, feb 2012, mar 2012, apr 2012, may 2012, june 2012, july 2012, aug 2012, sept 2012, oct 2012, nov 2012, dec 2012, jan 2013, feb 2013, mar 2013, apr 2013, may 2013, june 2013, july 2013

44. Organize all of our important documents, and then show Chris where they all are

45. Go to the doctor and get a regular check-up, oh and figure out why all the headaches…

46. Read the whole New Testament

47. Straighten my hair 3 times a week for a month

48. Wear makeup (at least mascara) every day

49. Write my shortcomings on a piece of paper and tear it up

50. Find 50 quotes that inspire me and do something creative with them

51. Learn some basic Spanish

52. Go to a Spurs game

53. Put a note in Chris’s lunch once a month (0/33)
nov 2010, dec 2010, jan 2011, feb 2011, mar 2011, apr 2011, may 2011, june 2011, july 2011, aug 2011, sept 2011, oct 2011, nov 2011, dec 2011, jan 2012, feb 2012, mar 2012, apr 2012, may 2012, june 2012, july 2012, aug 2012, sept 2012, oct 2012, nov 2012, dec 2012, jan 2013, feb 2013, mar 2013, apr 2013, may 2013, june 2013, july 2013

54. Take a bubble bath every month (or more often ) (1/33)
nov 2010, dec 2010, jan 2011, feb 2011, mar 2011, apr 2011, may 2011, june 2011, july 2011, aug 2011, sept 2011, oct 2011, nov 2011, dec 2011, jan 2012, feb 2012, mar 2012, apr 2012, may 2012, june 2012, july 2012, aug 2012, sept 2012, oct 2012, nov 2012, dec 2012, jan 2013, feb 2013, mar 2013, apr 2013, may 2013, june 2013, july 2013

55. Put a first aid kit in each of our cars

56. Buy a plant and take care of it

57. Make treats for random people in the ward

58. Sit by a different sister in Relief Society every week for a month

59. Start our own Christmas traditions

60. Take my makeup off before I go to bed every night for a month

61. Take treats to the maintenance guys and ladies up at the office at our apartment complex

62. Write Stephanie once a month while she is still on her mission (1/7)
nov 2010, dec 2010, jan 2011, feb 2011, mar 2011, apr 2011, may 2011

63. Learn how to say “I love you” in ten different langugages

64. Complete our stake’s RS Book of Mormon challenge

65. Donate some things to goodwill

66. Take advantage of the free vacuums at the car wash down the street…

67. Answer the “50 questions that will free your mind”

68. Blog every day for a month

69. Watch every season of House

70. Explore the walking/jogging path around the medical center

71. Read library books when I get them, rather than renewing them a few times

72. Learn to tie a tie

73. Drink more milk so it doesn’t expire

74. Try a type of food I have never had

75. Brush my teeth every night for a month

76. When a song from Chris’s iTunes collection comes up on my phone, actually listen to it

77. Find a duck pond in San Antonio and go feed the ducks

78. Put together 72 hour kits

79. Do a puzzle of 500 pieces or bigger (that means getting one first)

80. Read the lessons for church before and think of comments

81. Bake a cherry pie for Chris

82. (Re)learn the location of all 50 states and their capitals

83. Find a way to make my hair hold curls for a couple hours

84. Register to vote in Texas: Nov 2010

85. Make a playlist of 101 of my favorite songs

86. Color an entire coloring book

87. Make homemade ice cream

88. Make a cheese fondue

89. Create a cleaning schedule for the apartment

90. Develop a better skin care routine

91. Don’t go back to bed after Chris leaves for work for a whole week

92. Go a week without turning the tv on while Chris is at work

93. Combine my iTunes with Chris’s so I can have my music on my phone

94. Explore the River Walk

95. Eat at a restaurant featured on Diners, Driveins and Dives or Man v. Food

96. Do 20 pushups without stopping

97. Do Satin Hands on my feet once a month for a year
nov 2010, dec 2010, jan 2011, feb 2011, mar 2011, apr 2011, may 2011, june 2011, july 2011, aug 2011, sept 2011, oct 2011, nov 2011, dec 2011, jan 2012, feb 2012, mar 2012, apr 2012, may 2012, june 2012, july 2012, aug 2012, sept 2012, oct 2012, nov 2012, dec 2012, jan 2013, feb 2013, mar 2013, apr 2013, may 2013, june 2013, july 2013

98. Restart my gratitude journal and take time each week to write about things I am grateful for

99. Do something nice for the mail man

100. Shave my legs more than once a week for 3 months

101. Work on making a new list of 101 things to do when these 1001 days are up

101 in 1001

Sarah posted her list of 101 goals to accomplish in 1001 days. It's part of something called Day Zero Project. After reading a bunch of peoples lists, I decided to make my own. I have from 11/9/10 - 8/6/13 to do these 101 things! I plan on organizing this list a little better soon, so I can see which things are one time things, which are things to do daily, etc. (I stole that from Sarah too) This isn't one of my goals, but I want to blog about my progress once a month too.


1. Make a pie, crust and all
2. Make a cheesecake
3. Cook dinner 4 times a week for a month
4. Exercise at the gym 2 times a week for a month
5. Do yoga 2 times a week for 2 consecutive months
6. Finish SFL 110
7. Take ISYS 100
8. Take ISYS 101
9. Get a job
10. Go to the temple once a month
11. Have personal scripture study and prayer daily for a month
12. Drink enough water every day to not be dehydrated
13. Try at least one new recipe every month
14. Go a month without complaining to the office about maintenance problems…
15. Work out our budget
16. Find out my blood type
17. Go to the outlet malls in San Marcos and find dishes that we like
18. When we go to San Marcos, eat at a great BBQ place
19. Make a list of 101 things that make me happy
20. See 5 classic movies I’ve never seen
21. Read 5 classic books I’ve never read
22. Do 1001 names of Indexing from familysearchindexing.org
23. Go a week without getting on facebook- on the computer AND my phone
24. Make bread from scratch
25. Talk to someone in my family once a week
26. Beat the Swordplay Showdown on Wii Sports Resort
27. Take a picture at least once a week
28. Floss every night for a month (then it should be a habit)
29. Put pictures up on our empty walls
30. Write in my journal once a month
31. Don’t complain about anything for a week
32. Finish the thank you notes from our wedding before thanksgiving 2010
33. Get my Texas driver’s license
34. Finish writing “our story” about how Chris & I met, dated and got engaged
35. Scrapbook our wedding (once I actually get our wedding pictures from our photographer)
36. Make our bed by 10:00 am every day for a month
37. Combine all of my calendars into one
38. Make my own cards and send them to people
39. Have a fully funded emergency fund
40. Clean the bathroom regularly—my hair is all over the floor
41. Read Jesus the Christ
42. Watch 26 movies I've never seen starting with each letter of the Alphabet
43. Do my visiting teaching every month
44. Organize all of our important documents, and then show Chris where they all are
45. Go to the doctor and get a regular check-up, oh and figure out why all the headaches…
46. Read the whole New Testament
47. Straighten my hair 3 times a week
48. Wear makeup (at least mascara) every day
49. Write my shortcomings on a piece of paper and tear it up
50. Find 50 quotes that inspire me and do something creative with them
51. Learn some basic Spanish
52. Go to a Spurs game
53. Put a note in Chris’s lunch once a month
54. Take a bubble bath every month (or more often )
55. Put a first aid kid in each of our cars
56. Buy a plant and take care of it
57. Make treats for random people in the ward
58. Sit by a different sister in Relief Society every week for a month
59. Start our own Christmas traditions
60. Take my makeup off before I go to bed every night for a month
61. Take treats to the maintenance guys and ladies up at the office at our apartment complex
62. Write Stephanie once a month while she is still on her mission
63. Learn how to say “I love you” in ten different langugages
64. Complete our stake’s RS Book of Mormon challenge
65. Donate some things to goodwill
66. Take advantage of the free vacuums at the car wash down the street…
67. Answer the “50 questions that will free your mind”
68. Blog every day for a month
69. Watch every season of House
70. Explore the walking/jogging path around the medical center
71. Read library books when I get them, rather than renewing them a few times
72. Learn to tie a tie
73. Drink more milk so it doesn’t expire
74. Try a type of food I have never had
75. Brush my teeth every night for a month
76. When a song from Chris’s iTunes collection comes up on my phone, actually listen to it
77. Find a duck pond in San Antonio and go feed the ducks
78. Put together 72 hour kids
79. Do a puzzle of 500 pieces or bigger (that means getting one first)
80. Read the lessons for church before and think of comments
81. Bake a cherry pie for Chris
82. (Re)learn the location of all 50 states and their capitals
83. Find a way to make my hair hold curls for a couple hours
84. Register to vote in Texas
85. Make a playlist of 101 of my favorite songs
86. Color an entire coloring book
87. Make homemade ice cream
88. Make a cheese fondue
89. Create a cleaning schedule for the apartment
90. Develop a better skin care routine
91. Don’t go back to bed after Chris leaves for work for a whole week
92. Go a week without turning the tv on while Chris is at work
93. Combine my iTunes with Chris’s so I can have my music on my phone
94. Explore the River Walk
95. Eat at a restaurant featured on Diners, Driveins and Dives
96. Do 20 pushups without stopping
97. Do Satin Hands on my feet once a month for a year
98. Restart my gratitude journal and take time each week to write about things I am grateful for
99. Do something nice for the mail man
100. Shave my legs more than once a week for 3 months
101. Work on making a new list of 101 things to do when these 1001 days are up

Audiobooks

When we first moved here I was interested in reading The Hunger Games series now that I actually had some time to read for fun. I signed up for a library card and placed holds on all three books. I finally have books 1 & 2 and am something like 38 out of 145 for the third one. I was tempted to just get the audio book since our library has downloadable audiobooks and that series was included in that collection... but then... when I looked at them I realized that each book was about 11 hours or longer. Last night in 2 hours I read half of one book. Why on earth would I spend 11 hours listening to one book when I could read all three books in about the same time?

And that is all.

It's Cold

Right now it is about 78 degrees outside. Never before have I thought of that as "cold" but even as I sit here in my sweatpants, sweatshirt and slippers I am a little chilly.

hahaha

It's snowing in Provo right now. It's 84 degrees in San Antonio right now. There will not be snow here on my birthday! Love it!

Note to Self

When you put something on the back burner, turn the back burner on NOT the front burner. Your chocolate chips and peanut butter will melt much faster that way. Then you can have muddy buddies 5 minutes sooner.

And it Begins...

The first part of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows comes out November 19th, and Chris and I are awfully excited about it. In order to prepare ourselves to see this next installment, today we watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone. Starting today, we can watch one Harry Potter each Sunday, and will finish on November 14th, just a few days before the release. We're just a little bit excited :)

Hiccups

Anybody got any legit ways to get rid of hiccups? I've had them pretty much all day and they're driving me nuts.

Rain

Dear San Antonio,

If you actually had some drains in the streets there wouldn't be so much standing water on the roads. You could learn a thing or two from Seattle. You don't rain all the time, but when it rains it rains and people freak out. Just sayin'.

Love,
Marci

Trash

I love love love our apartment, but the one thing I HATE about it is the trash situation. Rather than having dumpsters near all the buildings and having tenants take their trash out whenever it is needed, WCV plays a different game. Every MWF between 6-9am we can take our trash out to the curb in front of our apartment and a maintenance guy comes around with a little cart and picks up all the trash.

Sometimes Chris takes the trash out when he leaves for work, but that only happens when we pull the trash out to the front door the night before. Also, part of the problem is that sometimes the guys come around at like 7:30 to pick the trash up. I hate that because once they come pick it up that's it.

And that is my thought right now. We have boxes, kitchen and bathroom trash that will just have to wait in our apartment until Monday... You can bet the trash will be goin out with Chris Monday morning

UPS

We have gotten a few packages lately from the UPS man. Both of the ones we've received this week were things that we were anticipating so we were checking the tracking information constantly. The other day, Chris was at work and he texted me and told me to check the tracking info for our package. My thought was "well, the package is already here, sitting on the table, so why should I track it?" but I did anyway. This was what I saw:



Rather than putting my name, UPS man just put "left with woman". He did that both times he's been at our place this week. That almost makes up for the crappy experience we had with UPS when we first moved in.

Betty Crocker

Dear Betty Crocker,

I love your cookbook. I love that I am taking a class right now that makes it so I have to cook things from your cookbook. I love that my textbook is your cookbook. I really enjoyed your fettuccine alfredo, your banana muffins (especially when I added chocolate chips) and your banana bread is pretty good too. The stuffed bell peppers that are baking right now smell pretty good too, they better taste good; you made me chop onions and they always make me cry. I can't wait for the rest of the recipes that I get to make in the next few weeks, don't let me down!

Love,
Marci

New Title

The quote that is now the title of my blog is some of our favorite advice we received when we got married. The wife of a member of our bishopric members shared it with us our last week in our Provo ward. We loved this couple and were sad to say goodbye to them but so excited to move on with our life.

Chris laughed as he saw me working on the new layout for the blog. He asked if the quote was supposed to say something about him since it's written on a picture that has him in it. I laughed too when he pointed that out and was going to change it, but we decided we like the quote and that picture too much to change either.

Just wanted to clear that up.

Pictures

Here are some pictures of our apartment. I tried putting them up last week but for some reason blogger wouldn't let me upload any pictures. Hopefully this works!

What's a Girl To Do?

This week Chris started his new job. So far he's survived New Employee Orientation, and today is his first day with his new team. I don't really know what he does, heck at this point I don't think he's really sure what he'll be doing.

My big question for you... is this. While he's at work I have a lot of time on my hands. I'm currently waiting for Independent Study to send me the course materials for the class I ordered last weekend, then I'll have school to work on, but even that won't take all day.

I'm planning on getting a library card, maybe even tomorrow. But with that comes the need for book recommendations. I'll place a hold on all of The Hunger Game series, as people keep saying it's a must, and I'll finally read Fablehaven 5, but what else should I read?

Also... any other suggestions for someone stuck at their apartment with no transportation and currently no local friends? We've got a Wii, Netflix, and AT&T U-verse cable, the U-Fam package. It's about 90 outside and a little more humid than I'm used to.

If I could find our camera (I swear it was in Chris's backpack, but now it isn't) I would take the pictures of our apartment that I have promised some people, but the ones from my phone just don't cut it.

Any good ideas would be appreciated :) Also, any good recipes/cooking websites would be appreciated too! I'm hoping to add some more great recipes to our favorites so we don't just have Hawaiian Haystacks, Chicken & Rice, Manicotti and Stroganoff all the time. (that's a slight exaggeration, we don't eat those four meals all the time, it just feels that way)

We Made It!

Long story short. Chris and I got married two weeks ago, and quickly began our fun adventure down to San Antonio. With stops from Redmond in Couer d'Alene, Mapleton, St. George, and Roswell we finally made it down to San Antonio on Friday, August 6th. Saturday morning we went into the office at our new complex, signed all the papers that needed to be signed, got our keys, and came to inspect our unit. We love it! After a week living here it finally feels like we're all moved in. Most of our things are unpacked and our boxes are gone.

I don't have pictures because I don't remember where we packed our camera, but when I do find it I'll throw some pictures up here. I also don't have pictures from the wedding/reception because we didn't have our camera out for that and nobody else has sent me any of their pictures... I'll work on that too. We don't have couches yet (we're waiting for them to be delivered) but we're surviving sitting on the floor to watch tv/movies.

I am absolutely LOVING not sharing a kitchen with other people. Sure, I share it with Chris, but we share food and aren't cooking three different dishes every meal. Having our own fridge is fantastic, it is so nice opening the fridge/freezer and knowing that all of the food is ours. None of the food randomly disappears because someone else thinks it is theirs. It's also nice that there aren't 3 sets of everything... not 3 sets of dishes, silverware, etc. That was definitely a pain back in Provo... so much silverware that if it was all clean it didn't fit in the only drawer we had in the kitchen.

I can't think of anything else... but we made it here safely, finally have internet again, and are enjoying life!

Contrary to Popular Belief...

...I am still alive! I may have dropped off the face of the blog world, but let me assure you that if I know of your blog I have kept up to date on your life. I may also not be answering my phone or making as many calls... but part of that is because I joined Chris's family plan that is shared with his mom, dad, sister, him, and now me. I try to limit my calls to nights (which begin at 9 my time) and weekends so as to not eat up the minutes that are shared with four other people. The good news (well, maybe for some of you) is that Chris recently got a new computer and I just inherited his "old" computer and it has a webcam so I will be getting Skype, and then not only do I not need to worry about minutes, but you can see me and know that I really am alive!

The wedding is in 26 days. I think it is safe to say that life has been consistently busy since we got engaged. School, more school, and now it isn't school... but instead it's both of us working full time, trying to sort through everything we own, donate as much as we can either to our roommates or to DI, and start packing up all of our stuff. We leave for WA in a little less than three weeks, and there is a lot of packing and cleaning to be doing between now and then. My to-do list, conveniently organized by the "to-do" app (man I love my new phone) keeps me in check... reminding me that finally reading Fablehaven 5 is at the bottom of the priorities list, not at the top where I wish it was. The top involves making phone calls and sending emails, packing, and keeping my apartment clean.

I'm quickly realizing that I'm done living with the roommates that I have... and I don't care if they read this (Lesley, you know it's not so much you as the other). The latest ridiculous story involves Hani, Chris's 8x8 glass pan, and a sharpie. We got home from church last week and noticed that Chris's glass pan was in the sink with Hani's name written on it. When I asked her about it she laughed and said that she knew it wasn't her pan but that since she had to take food to church she needed to put her name on it. Apparently it never crossed her mind that we might not like her name in permanent marker on our pan, or that she could've put a piece of tape on the pan and written her name on the tape... but it's kinda cool, because she's giving us money to buy a new one and we're going to wait til we're in Texas... so one less thing to pack!

That's life right now... I wish there was more exciting things to report, but that's life... I've realized that the way things work around here is that Chris gets something new, I get his "old" version and then we figure out something to do with what I had before... as has recently happened with our phones, laptops, and I'm sure other stuff too...

Anyway, much love to you all. I'm excited to see all you family members in just a few weeks!!!

Engagements

On Monday, Chris and I got our engagement pictures done. Abby, our photographer, was in Chris's ward a few years ago and is in the photography program here at BYU. We absolutely loved working with Abby and it was a blast to go meet her on campus today to pick up our cd of pictures. Here is the link to her photo blog where she put a few pictures up.

http://abbyalgerphotography.blogspot.com/2010/06/chris-marci.html

You can also go to her website to view all of our pictures

abbyalgerphotography.instaproofs.com

and... sorry I'm an idiot and can't figure out how to get the links to actually work... I used to be able to do that... you'll have to just copy/paste. sorry!

Mom Came to Visit... Day One

This morning we went wedding dress shopping. The third dress I tried on is the one we ended up getting, after I tried on about 9 other dresses. I have no problem posting pictures online because Chris has already seen me in the dress. Once I had decided what my two favorites were (well, really what one I liked second best... it was clear I liked the dress I picked the best) I had Chris come see so I could get his input. Here is a picture from the front and one from the back! This is also the veil that I got!

Why I Haven't Blogged Much

First, watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ljFfL-mL70

Then read Mark chapter 6, especially verse 36:

Send them away, that they may go into the country round about, and into the villages, and buy themselves bread: for they have nothing to eat.

When reading outloud, instead of saying round about like the verse says, say it the way that Darth Vader says it. If you're lucky your fiance will laugh. Then, to make matters even funnier... instead of "bread" read "beard". I would like to thank Chris for keeping me entertained while we read scriptures together... I think that was the first time that he saw me laugh so hard that I cried.

Best. Ever.


Also, school is insane-spring term is rough. I'm not really sure how Mom did 10 credits during spring, I'm nearly dead after two weeks of 6 credits. Lots and lots of reading, I've got a test almost every week for a while, and a few papers to write. I didn't realize teachers could pack so much work into only 7 weeks.

A Picture is Worth 1,000 Words, Right?

April has been kind of intense. Each of the following things that have happened in April probably deserve their own post, but because life is insane right now I don't really have the time to blog about each of them.

Chris and I got engaged. I survived finals week. I finished my last full semester actually at BYU (after Chris and I get married we're moving to Texas--I'll be finishing school through Independent Study). Chris's parents surprised us by coming up for his graduation. Chris graduated. I endured the worst day of work ever--the day that everyone moves out and we (as student custodians) go through and reclean their rooms. I was introduced to Pupusas, an incredible meal from El Salvador (which is where Chris's mom is from). I have had more offers from people to come over to dinner then I have ever had in my life, it is insane! Oh... and after we got engaged I tried so hard to focus on school still rather than plan our wedding which is July 30th in Seattle.

I have had people ask for a picture of the ring since the day they found out I was engaged but we never took pictures until after we got it sized over a week after we got engaged. Chris's camera was conveniently left in my purse after his graduation on Friday, so here are a few pictures to hold you over until I have time to actually blog about how we met, dated and got engaged (I am a little inspired by Amy and her recent series of posts).







PS, Mom... the dress I'm wearing in the last picture is the dress I wore to conference that you wanted a better picture of. This at least beats the picture from Facebook...

Overwhelmed...

Finals are incredibly close, and after having spent that week totally sick and then the next two weeks trying to recover from that I am finding that I am completely overwhelmed with school right now. The good thing is that my to-do list between now and April 21 can fit on one piece of paper, as long as there are two columns, and as long as I combine a couple things... and leave out things like grocery shopping and laundry... point is, I have lots to do in the next few weeks, so please forgive me if I don't blog. and if you call me and I don't answer that's probably why too... finals week is going to be super rough this time around and I'm not really looking forward to it.

The Curse is Broken.

We (my freshman roommates, 215, whatever you want to refer to us as) have at times questioned ourselves for various reasons. We knew we were a little weird, I mean, hello... do you see that picture of us trying to make a pyramid? That picture is about the 17th picture we took that day... Jenny just couldn't handle it.

We watched as someone from pretty much every apartment in our building got engaged, then married, and then some of them are even pregnant (or maybe it's still just that one girl who got married right after freshman year and has a kid now). All the while, none of us were really even dating anyone. I was pretty much convinced that we were cursed. I had no problem with that though, because that meant we could all be old maids together.

Well my friends, that curse is officially broken because SARAH IS ENGAGED! The news came as a bit of a shock to me this week when she called to break the news. Not that I was shocked that she and Adam are getting married, but shocked because they're getting married in just two months! I was anticipating an August wedding, but May 13th is the official day.

When I went to sleep Tuesday night after finding out, I had a dream. If you aren't familiar with the movie 27 Dresses, let me tell you a little about it so the dream makes sense. We've got Jane, the main character, who is always always always a bridesmaid. She loves weddings; planning them, being at them, everything about weddings. Then two of her friends choose to get married on the same day, slightly complicating her life. She takes a taxi back and forth between the two weddings and receptions, amazingly being at all the important things at each wedding. This is where my dream comes in. That night in my dream someone else was getting married the same day as Sarah and I was driving back and forth between the receptions trying so hard for nobody to notice that I was gone. And man, let me tell you... trying to get away without everyone else from 215 figuring it out was difficult. It was especially difficult for me to get away without Christie knowing, since I took her car every time I left. When I woke up in the morning I was freaking out, was someone else getting married that day? I had about 5 friends get engaged the same weekend that Sarah did so I was afraid that my dream was going to be a reality. I went through all of my facebook friends and made a list of everyone that was engaged, then quickly tried to figure out when everyone was getting married. I couldn't find anyone else getting married May 13th, and then I just decided that even if anyone else was getting married that day, I would be with my 215 girls celebrating Sarah and Adam, rather than driving back and forth, going crazy.

Words just can't even describe how excited I am for Sarah and Adam. When I found out I was just so happy! It was so obvious, even over the phone, that Sarah is totally in love with this man who is totally perfect for her. When I saw them a few weeks ago, they were both just so happy that it made me happy. Even though it's been like 2 days now I still am just as excited as I was those first split seconds, if not more excited.

Sarah my love, I'm so excited and can't wait to see you on May 13th when I know you will just be glowing. You're going to be one gorgeous bride, and I can't wait!

Now for the rest of 215, if you still want to be old maids together, I'm all over that... but lets give it a few more years before we decide anything for sure, k?

Being Sick...

is definitely no fun. I've been sick since Saturday and pretty much all I've done since then is sleep, watch movies, and stalk everyone I know on Facebook. I'm getting sick of this and would love to be not sick anymore. Let's hope that by the time I go to bed tonight I feel better so I can go to classes tomorrow... I'm sick of being in my bed all day.

Also...

I just went to the grocery store to buy ice cream for a meeting we are having at work tomorrow. I remembered that I had some coupons that Smith's (the grocery store down the street) had sent me recently based off of my shopping habits and figured there had to be an ice cream coupon... there was. I took four coupons with me:

1. FREE bag of Lay's Potato Chips between 8-12oz
2. FREE can of Kroger's soup
3. $1.25 off dishwasher soap
4. $0.75 off of ice cream.

The dish soap and ice cream were on sale too. I ended up saving more than I spent. While it may be creepy that Smith's knows exactly what I spend my money on, I really appreciated saving money today! Especially since I walked out of the store paying almost as much as I would've just for the ice cream.

I still have more coupons too! Cereal, OJ, Snyder's Pretzels, Ziploc Containers, scrubby things for dishes and shredded cheese will all be coming home with me next time I go to the store and I am excited.

Three Weeks...

In the next three weeks I have:

-1192 pages of reading
-six midterms
-three papers
-one project
-23 organ exercises to play for my teacher
-12 organ tutor lessons to read/take quizzes on
-the Rex Lee Run

It should be a fun three weeks...

I think...

I know where I will live next year. Last night and this morning I went and checked out a few places to live next year and today I think we found what we want. Well, I know we found what we want, we just hope it works. I filled out my online application for it on the management companies website and Monday I'll give them a call and see what needs to happen next. The great thing is that I am currently renting from them and I really like them. And I really like the condo that I want to live in next year. It has been recently remodeled so the kitchen isn't all ghetto (the dishwasher looks fabulous), it has a washer and dryer that is in the back hallway instead of in the bathroom, the shared room closet is lovely, there are two desks in the shared room (lots of places only give one per room), the furniture is all really nice, it comes with a tv, the carpet is lovely, there is a ton of storage in the unit but then there is also a storage space outside the unit. I think that pretty well sums it up, and hopefully I can get things figured out at the beginning part of next week.

Also, can I just say that I love that tax returns come around the same time that I look for housing so that I don't have to worry at all about paying a deposit & months rent for a place I'll live next year and also having the money to pay my rent for my current place? It is fabulous timing.

Now... I'm off to the Museum of Art to analyze some art for a paper.

This Weekend I...

-listened to "Hello Seattle" as I flew in
-didn't do anything for school
-watched the olympics
-watched a few movies
-cuddled with some cute little [and not so little] kids
-cleaned up some barf
-ate some pomegranate chip ice cream
-went on a bike ride [and got super sore]
-played a little kickball
-watched some birds find the new birdfeeder in the backyard
-ate roast, potatoes, gravy and rolls
-visited the Springgay's to see some pictures of Steph's mission
-played Band Hero and a little bit of Wii Sports (I think I won bowling)
-went to Safeway. Twice.
-played Duck Duck, Hide and Seek
-went to church and saw some people I knew
-was reminded of how loud family wards are
-watched the season premiere of SURVIVOR: Heroes vs. Villains
-watched the season premiere of THE AMAZING RACE
-was introduced to Undercover Boss

and I'm pretty sure a I did a lot more. It was pretty much a great weekend, even with one of the kids getting sick.

Thanks again, Paul & Jeanne for letting me come visit you!

Breakfast was Epic

Thanks for all the suggestions last week! We had our breakfast this morning, and it was pretty much fabulous.

We started out with some cinnamon rolls, then moved on to the puff pancakes that Amy suggested. For toppings we had strawberries, raspberries, whipped cream, powdered sugar, and maple syrup. There was sausage and orange juice as well. OJ with "lots of pulp" for the boys, and OJ with no pulp for me and Lesley.

They (Jordan and Adam [his roommate, one of our "children"]) appreciated that I didn't go the spoiled milk direction... but I still think that was a great suggestion and won't forget about it later.

It was pretty much just epic.

What to Make for Breakfast?

My FHE husband, Jordan, complained that I am the worst wife ever because I never make him breakfast. So, next Sunday Jordan is coming over for breakfast. He said he would take whatever breakfast food I was willing to make.

So... the question is this:

What should I make for breakfast next Sunday?

This whole productive thing...

It's Friday night. Well, technically Saturday morning, whatevs.

This whole getting things done thing is really working out well for me. I had a list of about 5,000,000 things to do this weekend and then it kept growing. Today I did everything from my Friday list so I started doing my Saturday list. Now my Saturday list looks doable.

Today I:

-actually went to my stats lecture
-went to my humanities lab where I got a 9/10 on my quiz [and the point i missed was a stupid mistake. i mixed up two characters names in my head, so half my answer was right, i just had the wrong name along with it...]
-actually participated in the discussion in my humanities lab because for the first time this semester (okay, so this was only the third lab) I actually enjoyed the material we were discussing (Tartuffe by Moliere. it is hilarious)
-went to work
-went to a stats review
-studied for a different test
-took that test
-wrote my extra credit paper for humanities
-read all three sections for stats next week
-read humanities for next monday and wednesday
-read for my church history class
-did some organ tutor lessons for my organ class [organ tutor is a computer program, not an actual tutor]
-wrote letters to three missionaries while i watched a movie (one fine day, courtesy of netflix)
-washed, dried, folded, and put away two loads of laundry
-figured out my schedule for tomorrow
-did the dishes
-took a shower
-updated my list of everything that needs to be done before i go up to redmond in two weeks


Tomorrow I get to:
-practice the organ
-visit the museum of art [for a class]
-write a 4-5 page paper on my visit to the museum
-have a meeting
-complete my genogram assignment
-do more organ tutor lessons
-and then go to my home teachers house to watch batman begins

Tomorrow looks lovely now that all of the reading assignments and laundry are done. Lets hope I can keep this productive thing up for the whole semester, because dang it feels good to know that I have everything done!

A New Motivation = Super Productive Saturday

Because I have the desire to take absolutely nothing school related with me when I go up to Redmond in a few weeks I have new motivation to get everything done. Not only do I not want to take textbooks with me, I don't want to get behind because I don't take them with me. So... that brings me to today.

My goal today was to wake up whenever I felt like it, do some yoga, watch the last episode of Conan and go up and practice the organ. However, the snow falling helped me change my mind. I woke up, the roommate and I watched Conan (like we've done all week, although neither of us were particularly fond of Conan before his whole ordeal with NBC recently), and then she was heading out to the Orem Library for one of her classes. I told her about the yoga I did last night (thank you, instant viewing from Netflix. that was one of the better beginning yoga workouts I've done) and she said she wanted to do yoga with me when she got back, so I didn't do my yoga this morning.

Instead... I:
-read three days worth of readings for Statistics
-read three days worth of readings for Humanities
-read two chapters for Family Processes
-read two chapters for LDS History
-wrote a paper for Family Processes
-installed the Organ Tutor cd-rom so I can do some Organ things at home instead of living in the HFAC
-started my stats homework that is due on Friday
-planned meals for next week so I can go to the grocery store on Monday
-kind of figured out what my FHE lesson will be on Monday
-started my laundry
-started plotting my genogram project for Family Processes. It took a while for me to compile a list of the years everyone in our family for three generations was born and to map it out so that it fits on one piece of paper. thank you, both sets of grandparents for not having a bajillion kids, you made my homework easier. :)

Yeah, I'm pretty much done doing EVERYTHING that is due next week. I just need to finish my Stats homework (Monday, during lab it will get done) and read Tartuffe.

If I keep this up, I'll be so ahead, and it will be excellent.

Today has just been excellent. So thank you, snow for coming so I didn't feel the need to go up to the HFAC. Also, thank you roommates for not being home for a few hours so I could get things done without the distractions. Turns out I work really well at home when I can just hole up in my room without your music on, without your friends over chilling in our room, and without being tempted to watch a movie with you.

Next Month...

...I will be here (roughly)



And I'm excited. Thank you, President's Day Weekend!!

I'll probably listen to "Hello Seattle" by Owl City the entire way there. That's what I did in October. Hopefully Provo won't be offended by how excited I am to be leaving.

Rex and Shelton

When 215 celebrated Allison's birthday on Saturday Christie and I decided to bring Rex and Shelton with us. You may remember that Rex and Shelton were our "Clark Family Pets" freshman year. Rex the Pineosaurus and Shelton the Banapup. Between our apartment and the boys in 205 (the FHE bros) there was a lot of love for Rex and Shelton.

These two pics (that I don't know what order they'll be in) show that we take safety very seriously in the car. As we put our seat belts on we made sure to buckle up our pets too, safety first! The other picture was a moment of inspiration. Someone (I think Christie or Jenny???) was looking at the counter and saw a banana and a pineapple and we knew we needed to take a picture.

Surprise!

Today I got a calling at church! The member of the bishopric that extended the calling was shocked when I told him that I didn't have a calling last semester (although I seem to recall talking to that same guy in October about the fact that I didn't have one). I got called to be an FHE Group Leader (aka, FHE Mom) and I'm way excited.

Also... yesterday 215 celebrated Allison's birthday by playing a little Mario Kart on the Sarah's families wii. Lets just say... Kelli, Jenny and I pretty much dominated 10th, 11th and 12th place :) We had a blast up in AF and it was a most excellent and needed break from school, even though we're only 2 weeks into the new semester.

Tomorrow there isn't school. Or work. Best day ever. I can't wait to sleep in until like 10 (instead of 6:30) and write a paper and do a ton of reading, and then go to FHE!

A Few Pictures

So far this semester I have made two great investments.

The first great investment I made was i my Spiderman Lunchbox. I’ve wanted a lunchbox since I got to college, and last weekend I finally bought one! And it’s SPIDERMAN! I will be breaking it in tomorrow. I can’t wait to take it to school :)




The second investment I made was in these fabulous moccasins/slippers. They are the most comfortable moccasins/slippers I have have ever worn, and I’m kind of in love with them. I wanted to wear them to church this week, but they clashed with my skirt, so I opted to wear them to FHE instead. Be proud of me.

Nonproductive Day

Today was one of those days with a lot of things that should be done. Unfortunately for me, very few of the things on my list were done.

I was supposed to:
-go to the organ lab this morning and practice
-read for stats
-read for humanities
-read hamlet
-read a chapter for lds history
-write stephanie
-write another friend on a mission (I have three others to respond to right now, so I decide by putting the envelopes from them in a stack, moving them all around and then randomly selecting one, it's a great process)
-make sloppy joes

Instead I...
-slept in until 11 (but I didn't go to bed until almost 3)
-went to the organ lab this afternoon and practiced
-had lunch in the cougareat
-bought slippers in the bookstore
-watched a whole disc of The Office, Season 5
-took a 3 hour nap

Maybe...
-I should have taken textbooks with me when I went babysitting at 9:30 last night. Obviously the kid was going to sleep while I was there, I could've done some reading instead of watching The Food Network as soon as the baby went to bed.
-I should learn to wake up when the alarm goes off, even if I think I'm super tired.

Luckily...
-it is only 7:20

But...
-that doesn't mean I'll do anything else from my to do list
-I'll most likely just watch another disc of The Office while I pick things up in my room

Classes...

I've finally been to each of my classes for this semester. I can't decide how I really feel about it, but I do know that it will be busy.

Stats. Humanities. LDS History 1805-1844. Family Processes. Beginning Organ. Temples.

After just two days of the first three classes, I can say without a doubt that my Stats teacher is already about 1,000,000 times better than the teacher I took Stats from last winter. Humanities is probably going to suck, a lot. LDS History is with Susan Easton Black, so that is automatically the best class ever. I'm pretty sure I need to get a recording device though, I know I miss so much of what she says because I'm writing so much.

Then there are the Tuesday/Thursday classes: Family Processes and Beginning Organ. Both will be fantastic. My Family Processes teacher is hilarious and I randomly sat by our TA on day 1, she's cool. She also gave me some great tips for the class, best ever! And organ. Oh man! My teacher is a grad student from France, and she's pretty great. I played a few lines of a hymn on the organ at the end of class on Tuesday, but mostly we just went over our syllabus. I'm excited for this class.

This leaves me with my Wednesday night class, Temples. Brother Cowan is way cool, and blind, and I'm excited to learn about the history of temples and stuff like that.

It will be a busy semester, I can tell that much. I've got a lot of reading to do and I'm already behind on that, woops. The good thing is that it looks like my exams are pretty well spread out so that should help the semester go a little smoother.

Also, with my classes mostly being in the morning, I am working afternoons. Working in the afternoons is pretty much the best thing ever. It's just me and my supervisor for the majority of the time I am there and it is so much fun! I get more work done a lot faster because I don't have the other girls to distract me (although that means I miss them, a lot), and then I get to spend time helping Sonia with other things! This week she also told me that she wants me to stay Spring/Summer and be her full time student (each building gets one full time student Spring/Summer) and to be the "Lead Student" meaning that when she isn't there I am the one in charge. Lead Students make more than the rest of the students, so that is a total bonus. After Sonia and I talked about this I talked to Debbie (Sonia's boss) about it, and she wrote me down as the full-time student for the building. It's official. I will be staying in Provo Spring/Summer now, hopefully living somewhere that is not where I live right now, and hopefully it will be with someone I love to death, Peanut Butter Butt (aka, Jenny from 215).

Dear FHE mom and dad:

Please talk to each other to figure out what is going on. I got an email from “mom” saying where and when, and the a phone call from “dad” saying where and when. These wheres and whens were not consistent. I understand that we have new groups and that dad is new at his calling… but seriously, I am so confused right now! Am I 8 minutes late to FHE or do I still have 22 minutes til it starts?

love, me (and my roommate, who is also confused)

Editors Note: I went to the FHE that my "dad" told us about and quickly realized that I must have been on the list of two different FHE groups, because nobody from the email that the "mom" sent was at that FHE... So maybe it isn't my "parents" that need to chat, it's the girl in charge of FHE needs to make sure that apartments are only listed once. Either way, FHE was great, and I'm really looking forward to my group-there are some crazy characters in it, and my FHE dad is a guy I've wanted to get to know for a while--he is hilarious!

Flying….

What are you supposed to do while flying when  you already  listened to music for 3 hours at the airport while coloring?

I decided on blogging (minus the posting part, of course).

While I sat in the St. Louis airport charging my computer and phone I met a few new friends. Don’t ask me their names because I didn’t catch one of them and don’t remember the other. We started talking after all three of us received phone calls at the same time, an automated call from Southwest letting us know that our flight was delayed. Then we all laughed and looked at each other, then talked about how we hoped we would still be able to catch our connecting flights. One of the guys teaches at a med school in California, and he was in St. Louis visiting his 7 year old son. The other guy… I don’t know what he was doing in St. Louis, he wasn’t quite as talkative as my teacher friend. He found out that I was headed to SLC and asked why I was headed there, so I told him that I go to school at BYU and he immediately mentioned the bowl game that the football team had just won against OSU and then also told me that BYU is a great school. Then he told me about the “mormon church that looks like a  castle that is by his house in San Diego” and how he thought it was really pretty. We had a great conversation about my “typical big mormon family” and what I am studying at school. He told me that I was going into a great field and that after the short conversation we had he was sure I would be successful.

On a side note… my iPod died. I’m really sad about it but at the same time I am excited to start looking into new ones :)

I hate…

when you get to the airport and then you find out that your first flight is already delayed half an hour… especially when it leaves you wondering if you will make your connection flight or not, which then causes you to wonder if you will get home that day or not. Well, right now I’m sitting in St. Louis hoping that my flight to Denver really isn’t late (or that the plane flies really extra fast) or that my flight from Denver to SLC is a little late as well. But what I really want is to just get back to my apartment sometime today. Buying a flight that lands less than 12 hours before my first class of the semester may not have been the smartest decision ever.  At least I’m taking the shuttle from SLC to Provo, so no matter when I end up in SLC I will have a ride and none of my friends will be inconvenienced.

Fry Sauce and Stats

After my flight to St. Louis this year, Dad drove me to Burger King so I could get some food. I grabbed my food (Whopper Jr., Fries and Lemonade) and went to grab some fry sauce and almost cried. I forgot that fry sauce is a Utah thing. THEN to make matters even worse, they didn’t have mayo with their ketchup and mustard, so I couldn’t even make my own fry sauce.

Can you tell I ate at the Creamery too much last year? There was something about having a meal plan that screamed “go get spicy fries for dinner tonight”. It was easy, all I had to do was take my keys, tell them my student id number, and then I had fries and fry sauce.

I am all packed and ready to go to the airport in a few hours so I can head back to the fry sauce state. I’m not ready for classes to start Monday morning. Would someone please remind me why I decided to have morning classes and work afternoons this semester? I’m really not sure why I decided it was a good idea. I mean, really… MWF I have stats at 9:00. That was probably the dumbest decision ever (well, having 9:00am stats was stupid, but picking a section that had an 8:00 am lab on Monday mornings was probably the dumbest).

Also, I’m posting this from Windows Live Writer because I learned how. It’s exciting. :)

A Letter to 2010

Dear 2010,

Please be better than 2009.

I would like my roommate situation to be better than 2009 (even though at least the first four months of 2010 will be with the same roommate i had for the last four months, she could be easier to live with).

I would like a better summer... just saying. Maybe a job that I actually kind of like? Sure, it won't compare to working with Shannon, Jake, Ross, Becca, and Natalie... but maybe I could actually like my summer job?

I could handle more dates than 2009... I went on three dates in 2009. More dates with more interesting people would be appreciated.

I would like better test scores this semester. I know that this is really my fault, not the fault of 2009.... but still.

And really, I would LOVE better health in 2010. Swine Flu, Ear Infections, Strep, Sinus Infections, Flu, Colds, Allergies and whatever I had that one time that anytime I sat up or stood up I threw up... that all sucked. I got sick of taking medicine, and laying in bed all day. I'd really to have the chance to go to school... since that is what I'm paying for right now.

2010, just be smart... you know what I want (and what I don't want).

Love,
Marci