2012 in review.

2012 was kind of crazy, and I don't really want to go relive all of 2012 to make a "Year in Review" post like I've done in the past. Instead I'll do a bullet list, sort of things we've learned/experienced, in no particular order:

• the national spelling bee is the coolest show you will ever see on tv.
• we bought bowling shoes at the beginning of this year and went bowling several times. we were improving when we went often, but then once chris got sick we kind of stopped. we've gone a few times since, but not often enough to improve my mad skills.
• activity days is amazing, and working with the 8-11 year old girls is so much fun! you just have to make sure to remember that they aren't grown ups and don't have the attention span and same skills that adults do, so it's important to simplify crafts and games.
• jury duty is quite the experience. i got summoned, but didn't get put on a jury. chris got summoned a few months later (right after he got better) and he DID get put on a jury. 
• it's scary when you are sick for 1 month without knowing what you even have
• some home teachers make really good curry
• girls absolutely can learn to mow the lawn, and sometimes they do a really good job, and even enjoy it a little bit
• medical insurance is really important, and a HUGE blessing (we'd be in a LOT of debt if it weren't for good insurance)
• it's scary when you get a call from your dr saying "your blood work came back, we want you to go get an MRI of your brain" and then the MRI place calls you about 5 minutes later and says "we got a referral from your doctor. we can squeeze you in in an hour and a half" you really get afraid when someone is willing to see you so quickly.
• it isn't fun to have conversations like "if I die, you should try to go back and finish school on campus at BYU" or "if I am permanently ill, we should probably move to Utah so you can finish school and work. I could be the stay at home dad" --these are so not conversations you want to be having when you haven't even been married for 2 years
• it's important to be pushy with Dr's offices. Get to know the office manager, they are way more helpful than the receptionist/scheduler at a lot of places, especially at the ENT's office. You can get what you want and need a lot faster that way
• it's great to have a scanner at home so you don't have to go anywhere to scan and then send documents to insurance companies, disability leave providers, and doctors offices
• it's really important for a wife to have a girls night to look forward to when she's been dealing with her husband being ill for so long. even if that girls night is doing something dumb like watching the bachelorette. the important thing was the company.
• you can only watch so much tv/movies at a time
• audiobooks are awesome, but you get sick of sitting there
• it's tricky to plan meals and cook when you get a huge list of foods to avoid
• it's really awesome to have a brother-in-law who is a PA, so you can call him and get an opinion on whether or not it's worth it to go to the ER at 10pm
• CVS and Walgreen's have a great selection of canes (if you ever need one)
• going to your pcp every other week is a great way to develop AWESOME relationships with every single person who works there. it also helps when you drop by a few times in between appointments to pick up/drop off paperwork. 
• we picked freaking awesome pcps when we moved here. honestly, i only picked them because we could walk to their office from our first apartment, and there was a male and female doctor in the office. i have referred SEVERAL friends to them since then. i love them both. and every single person there. i know them all! cynthia, ashanti, genielle, katie, valerie and the two doctors. they all ROCK. especially cynthia, because she put certain candies out the days she knew we had an appointment.
• it was smart of me to not take a pregnancy test earlier in the day the day that I found out I am pregnant. that morning i went to playgroup and someone who had recently moved out of the ward said "did i hear that you're pregnant?" and i could honestly say "woah! nope!" i was highly suspicious, and confirmed that suspicion about 20 minutes after i got home, but i didn't have to lie to her.
• morning sickness is a bad name. it should be called "whatever time of day it feels like it" sickness. 
• throwing up gets really old when you do it a couple times a day for a few weeks.
• it wasn't really all that bad when my throwing up happened on a set schedule-11:00am came and I KNEW it was time to run into the bathroom or I was going to have a mess on my hands. once it became more random it was a lot harder to plan my day. i just didn't leave the house for a few weeks in fear of being somewhere and needing a toilet.
• there are a lot of crazy pregnant ladies online that are willing to share every detail of their pregnancy and all their words of "wisdom". they also will cause you to panic if you let them. when in doubt, call the nurse don't google.
• pregnancy dreams are CRAZY. lets just hope mine don't come true, or this baby is going to be a crocodile. and it will be a hermaphrodite. also, i better avoid zoos or else monkeys are going to jump on me and rub their poopy bums all over my face. YIKES. 
• it is not smart to watch extreme makeover: home edition while pregnant. that show had me in tears for hours at a time.
• Our Best Bites and America's Test Kitchen are the best sources (besides that home teachers curry) for recipes. 
• it's ok if the world ends on December 21st because BYU football season ends on December 20th when they play in their bowl game.
• you can buy bosco sticks at sam's club. but be warned, you will want to eat the whole box really quickly. 
• it's hard to find a good office chair for a husband with back problems. he needs something really specific. the one time we thought we found a good one, it was delivered broken. can't really sit on a chair that is missing one of its five wheels. 
• getting an ultrasound of your throat (thyroid) feels really funny. but don't laugh, because it doesn't help the tech get good pictures.
• just dance is a perfectly acceptable form of exercise, especially once the temperature drops and it's only 50 degrees in the mornings. 
• it sucks when your favorite pajamas (my moose pajama pants that my mom made for me in 2005 for our family reunion at yellowstone) start wearing out because you literally live in them about 16 hours a day. but you still wear them because they are the most comfortable pants ever. and they have moosen and bears on them.
• jr bacon cheeseburgers from wendy's are the most delicious thing you can order through a drive-thru. but they don't cost 99 cents like they used to. they're like $1.49 or $1.69 now which is crazy because the patties are smaller than they used to be. the bacon is a little better though... 
• sonic's tater tots are a close second. while you are there you might as well pick up a cranberry limeade. you know you want one. 
• it's hard to shop for your husband for christmas when you share a credit card and follow the same deal sites. i was excited to surprise him with some cheap xbox live subscription cards, but a few minutes after i ordered them he said "woah! did you see this awesome deal on slickdeals for xbox live cards?" and then the next day he saw that a charge showed up on our credit card... what else would i have bought from dell? yeah. so much for a surprise. also, he may be a tiny bit surprised when he sees what box of chocolates he has from See's... because I didn't get the one I would like better (the assortment of peppermint patties) I got him a box of just dark chocolate ones. 
• it takes me approximately 2 minutes to completely empty my pantry when we notice there are ants in it. it then takes about 7 to completely reorganize and put things back after the ants are dead, wiped out, and any visible holes/cracks are filled in. how do i know this? i've had to do it at least 3 times this year, most recently on the night before thanksgiving.
• byu needs to thank their defense for their win against sdsu at the poinsettia bowl. they really need to thank kyle van noy. because he was amazing.
• water is delicious. but sometimes you need to add a little fresh lemon or lime to it, otherwise it gets kind of boring.
• at the beginning of the year i set a goal to read the complete standard works this year. based on everything that happened since may i got waaay behind. instead i am okay with only having read The Old Testament, New Testament, and Pearl of Great Price. 

I could've thought of a lot more, but I think this post is already plenty long. If you read this whole thing, you get extra points. :)