2009 in Review

I did this last year and thought it was interesting, so I wanted to compare my answers from this year to the one's from last year. Here is my review of 2009!

What did you do in 2009 that you'd never done before?

Made a pie from scratch, completely. I made cherry and banana cream. They were both delicious!

Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

Honestly, I never remember my resolutions. I've made 2 for next year though. 1) Lose more weight than I did after having Kennedy and 2) Read more non-fiction books.

Did anyone close to you give birth?

Tons of my cousins had babies this year and my friends Noelle and Rebekah did too.

Did anyone close to you die?

No, thank goodness.

What countries did you visit?

No different countries, but we went to Hawaii, California, Texas and Washington this year.

What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?

A house, which we should be getting in April.

What dates from 2009 will remain etched in your memory, and why?

June - We decided that Brett would join the Coast Guard. August 1 - My mom got married.

What was your biggest personal achievement of the year?

Actually reading more than 15 books this year. I read 35, which was pretty awesome considering how little I've read the past few years.

What was your biggest failure?

Not paying off our credit card entirely - although that will be happening very, very soon.

Did you suffer illness or injury?

Nothing out of the ordinary.

What was the best thing you bought?

I really have no idea. Maybe some plane tickets or gas to get to Seattle?

Whose behavior merited celebration?

Brett's. He was in the bishopric this past year and gave up a lot of his time to do that, but he never complains.

Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

Oh, so many politicians I can't even count or pick one.

Where did most of your money go?

Probably to food. Lame, I know, but we spend way too much money on food.

What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Getting to have a second baby and having a boy!

What song will always remind you of 2009?

Maybe Fireflies by Owl City.

Compared to this time last year are you: a) happier or sadder? b) thinner or fatter? c) richer or poorer?

Happier, fatter, richer (we have way less debt!)

What do you wish you'd done more of?

Given more undivided attention to Kennedy. I'm not neglectful, but I often get wrapped up in what I want to do or what needs to be done around the house. I've been trying to be much better about that lately, especially since we're going to have another one.

What do you wish you'd done less of?

Making messes

Did you fall in love in 2009?

With Brett and Kennedy, which I do often, but also with Noah.

What was your favorite TV program?

Lost, Fringe and 24

What was the best book you read?

The Hunger Games and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

What was your greatest musical discovery?

Owl City - so fun and clean

What did you want and get?

Pregnant :)

What did you want and not get?

Brett to get into the UVU nursing program, but the Lord works in His own way and now we have a new path to take.

What was your favorite film of this year?

Probably Up.

What did you do on your birthday and how old were you?

I turned 24 and Brett and I went to Spark for dinner and then to a movie...I don't remember which one.

What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

If I had lost all of my baby weight from Kennedy before getting pregnant again.

How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?

Well, pretty average considering that I was out of maternity clothes in January and back in them in September.

What kept you sane?

Brett and Baby Einstein/Playhouse Disney.

2008 in Review

Once again the lovely Noelle has posted something that I want to steal.  I'm pretty much the only person I know who has not done some sort of review of all of the things that happened in 2008 on my blog.  So I'm going to use Noelle's questionnaire that she has done for 2007 and 2008.

What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before?

Had surgery (C-section for Kennedy)

Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I didn't keep my resolutions, and to be honest with you I don't even remember what they were.  I have made some for this year, and I don't know that I'll do any better.

Did anyone close to you give birth?

Yes!  Lots of people.  Most notably my brother's girlfriend Lisa (Wyatt), my sister-in-law Kaisa (Asher), my sister-in-law Lori (Nicholas), my cousin Katie (Charlie), and my good friend Kim (Boston).  And me!

Did anyone close to you die?

No, and hopefully it will be that way this year too.

What countries did you visit?

Well, some might consider Texas to be a country.  That's the only place we've been this year besides Utah.  Well, we spent the first week in January in Hawaii.

What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?

A college diploma!

What dates from 2008 will remain etched on your memory, and why?

April 17 - the day that Kennedy was born, end of June

What was your biggest personal achievement of the year?

Surviving and recovering from the C-section when I wasn't expecting to have one

What was your biggest failure?

Not signing up for my jogging class in time

Did you suffer illness or injury?

Nothing other than the C-section

What was the best thing you bought?

By far our couches!  I love them.

Whose behavior merited celebration?

Christine's for rebounding so quickly

Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

Probably Firstline's, for handling business so badly.

Where did most of your money go?

To Kennedy.  Hospital bills, formula, baby stuff, clothes, diapers, you name it.

What did you get really, really, really excited about?

My food processor for Christmas.

What song will always remind you of 2008?

Probably "New Soul" because it made me think of Kennedy.

Compared to this time last year, are you: a) happier or sadder? b) thinner or fatter? c) richer or poorer?

Happier, thinner, richer

What do you wish you'd done more of?

Gone to the temple.  We definitely did not go often enough last year.

What do you wish you'd done less of?

Watch TV.

Did you fall in love in 2008?

Yes.  With Kennedy and with Brett, as usual.

What was your favorite TV program?

LOST!  Which is starting again next week!  Woohoo!

What was the best book you read?

Non-fiction: The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey

Fiction: The Host by Stephenie Meyer

What was your greatest musical discovery?

Muse

What did you want and get?

A happy baby

What did you want and not get?

A new bed and mattress

What was your favorite film of this year?

The Dark Knight - there were many that I loved, but this one takes the cake

What did you do on your birthday and how old were you?

I turned 23, and since I was extremely large and pregnant (Kennedy was born 12 days later) and it was Priesthood session of general conference I had three of my good girlfriends over (Kim, Rebekah, and Rachel) for lasagna rolls and molten chocolate cakes that I made.

What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

If the nursing program at UVU would have let Brett in and they hadn't switched the class requirements around on him.

How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?

Maternity clothes.

What kept you sane?

Brett

Thwarted Again

It seems that we will not be going to see the lights in Salt Lake tonight either since it is snowing like mad outside at the moment.  I have been waiting to be able to do a post about this, but I have been thwarted too many times, so since I got a bunch of comments about our first date story, I thought I would go into a little more detail.

Is it lame that I remember my life in food?  Memories of when we met and our first date are entwined with food.  As is everything else for me.  If you know my family, you know we live for food.  On vacation, we never ask what we are going to see or do that day, the bigger questions are where we are eating breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner.  Anyway, Brett and I met in our church choir that he was directing.  As Brett puts it, I was giving him "googley" eyes during the whole rehearsal, which is not the case.  The truth is that he reminded me of my good friend Nathan because they both had a lot of enthusiasm (Nathan when he played the drums, and Brett when he led the choir).  Afterwards, Brett served us all some Blueberry Pineapple Delight that he made himself.  I thought it was amazing and was thoroughly impressed, which I told him.  He then proceeded to invite me and my roommates to Disney night at his apartment.

Disney night had one requirement: you have to sing along.  We watched Aladdin with probably 20 people in the room singing and quoting lines.  That week was Thanksgiving, and we missed each other's calls.  When I came home the next Sunday, I asked about Disney night and Brett said to come on over.  Nobody was there at first, but we decided to watch Robin Hood anyway.  A few people showed up, which was kind of a bummer, but it worked out anyway.  Neither of us wanted me to go home, so we were really happy when one of Brett's roommates suggested that we watch Lord of the Rings.  During that movie Brett got up the nerve to hold my hand and put his arm around me.  We hadn't even been on a date yet!  Not that I minded....

Then he walked me home.  He called the next day (tip for boys, you don't have to wait 48 hours or whatever the rule is) to ask me to a Jazz game on Tuesday night.  I was ecstatic, of course, and couldn't wait.  He came to pick me up, and my roommate thought he was so cute and smelled so good that she almost told him that I wasn't there but she could go instead.  But I did go.  We didn't even really have any small talk, and we were so comfortable with each other, even all the way up to Salt Lake.  We met a friend of his there, ate churros, and watched the lowest scoring game in the history of the Delta Center.  The Jazz scored 52 points.  Ouch.  That night I learned of Brett's love of basketball and his ability to fake anybody out.

I then suggested that we walk to the lights.  I am glad we did, and it's somewhat special since we ended up getting married in that same spot 6 months later.  The lights were beautiful.  We were absolutely freezing though, which gave Brett a nice excuse for holding my hand.  When we got back in the car, the radio started wigging out, and Brett told me that the car was going to die.  So we pulled over to the side of the road and tried to fix it to no avail.  Brett called one of his roommates who was still down in Provo to come get us.  We sat in the car for 45 minutes while it rained and talked.  It was great.  Then we got Taco Bell on the way home because we were both starving.

When we got back to my apartment, we were saying goodnight and Brett took the plunge.  He kissed me, which left me in pretty much no doubt where he stood.  As you all know, it moved pretty quickly from there.  He proposed the first week in January and we were married the following June.  We've been married for 2 1/2 years now and it has been wonderful!  I am so excited for the years to come.