Christmas and New Years

New Years resolutions are a joke because I tend to break them practically a week later but I am going to try it once again for what feels like the millionth time. This year I resolve to do better. I tend to set a million goals at the beginning of every year because there is always so much I would like to do better. This year I'm setting two goals. That's it. More can come later once I have these two down.

1. Exercise more. I have really slacked in this department. I was doing really well for most of 2013 and I was pretty darn proud of myself. But with lots of personal health and emotional challenges toward the end of the year, exercising was not my priority. This year it is. I am getting a pass to the rec center and am going to all the fun classes with my friends.

2. Journal writing. I don't know why I can never stick to this because I literally think about it every day. I have even set a reminder in my phone to write in my journal every day but I ignore that reminder until the next and then the next and the awful pattern continues. I want my kids to be able to read about my early years in life. Hopefully this means that I'll blog more and take more pictures.

My New Years was quite uneventful to be honest. I've been sick with strep all week long. Lovely. My Christmas, however, was awesome. Pictures and videos says it all:

Us delivering some gifts on Christmas Eve to some less fortunate families

The boys scored big time with nerf guns. 

I caught my Mother in Law playing with the nerf guns by herself. What do you expect...she had 4 boys. It's in her blood.

And Jared did REAL good with his gift this year. He got me a wedding band! I was shocked. 10 points for him.

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13.1

I never in this life time ever thought that I would run a half marathon. I was that girl that had absolutely NO desire to do it. And somehow I got suckered into doing and I am proud to say that I am so happy I did. And as sore as I am still even three days later, I would definitely do another one. Everything was smooth sailing up until mile 10. The last 3 miles of the race were BRUTAL. A big shout out is deserved to Eminem's "Till I Collapse" because I must have replayed that song probably 15 times during the last three miles of the race. That's the only way I was able to keep going. Seriously...it kicked my butt. My legs hurt so incredibly bad. I have never felt pain like that before in my life. So the next time I were to do one, I would definitely train differently. More squats, lunges, and leg presses. My legs were just not strong enough to go as fast as I wanted. The best part of the race was seeing my husband there waiting for me at the finish line with a big smile on his face. He was the first person I saw as I finished so it was a little tender moment for me.

Now we're headed off to a nice relaxing vacation in Mexico next week and we couldn't be more excited. Then it's back to real life. Jared is going to start training for a marathon and I might start training for a triathlon!

California

I don't visit California as much as a should but when I do, man do I love it. Jared and I went down this past weekend to go to Lori's farewell talk. As much as I love being with my whole family at once, it really was nice to have some alone time with just my sissy before she left. Lots of memories I'll always hold on to.

Our trip started out with Jared and I taking the front runner up to the airport. I seriously loved it. It reminded me so much of Italy. This is how I'll probably always go to the airport now. 

 We ate lunch at the airport cafe in Camarillo. Sounds weird but it is actually so yummy. You get to watch the airplanes fly in and out as you eat.

(I asked this kid to look at me and smile and instead he decided to flash me. Awesome.)

 After eating at the airport cafe, I took Lori to the DMV so that she could renew her license before she leaves to go to Boston. She had to take the drivers test again for some reason and she definitely failed it. This picture was taken as she was waiting in line after the second time of taking it. She was allowed three tries so she was a little worried she would fail the second time. Hilarious.

 I forgot how much I missed the beach until I was finally there. It was seriously the perfect day....80 degrees and no wind.

 

And then finally back up to Utah to take this cute girl to the MTC. I am so proud of her and already can't wait till she comes home! She is going to be one stellar missionary.

 

And as a side note, just to testify that God loves us....as Lori got out of the car at the MTC she saw one of her best friends from high school walking by. I'm sure she appreciated a familiar face as she was starting out her mission journey. That's one tender mercy in my book. Go get 'em sis. You're going to be awesome out there. Watch out Boston...she's coming for you.

Skirt Extenders

I'm really not understanding this whole skirt extender thing. At first, I didn't think anything of it and I thought, "Oh that's a great idea!" But now that I've thought more about it....Why don't you just make your dresses/skirts longer in the first place? And the way they try and sell it is by using a lace trim at the bottom of the skirt extender which lace is totally in right now so it makes it seem cute. But seriously....just add lace when you made the dress/skirt. It's kind of irritating. Now I can't by the dress/skirt without the extender because it's too short. I've decided they're all a bunch of money hoarders.

To the man who shook his head

Last night I went for a run outside since the weather has been gorgeous. I was at a stop light waiting to cross when I saw a man in a car staring at me and then he just shook his head and drove off. My immediate thought was, did I just offend him with the way I scratched my forehead? No that must not be it because that would be silly. For the remainder of my run I could not stop thinking about the possible explanations for why that man might have shaken his head at me. I was only in to my first mile out of my 3.5 mile run when this happened so I had quite a long time to think about it.

-Was it the fact that I looked like I was dying since I had just run up this massive hill? Well I'm proud of that because I have never been able to run up that hill without walking until yesterday. I finally did it. I was pretty proud.

OR....

-Was it my blinding white pasty arms and legs. I mean, IT IS the first time these babies have seen the sun in about 6 months so that could definitely be a possibility.

OR....

-Was it the awkward sweat marks on my pants? Well I'm proud of that too because I worked my butt off yesterday....literally. Because that's where the sweat marks were. (TMI? Yah....probably)

And then I thought....

-Oh my goodness could he tell what music I was listening to? I WAS at that moment being serenaded by Justin Beiber which I guess is something to shake your head at. UNLESS you're listening to "boyfriend" (which I was) and that is definitely never something to shake your head at. Love that song.

I finally realized at the very end of my run what it must have been. I remembered that as I stood at the cross walk I had spit into the bushes. Which I guess isn't a very lady-like thing to do but who cares? We all do it. When you have a brother who is a MASTER at spitting, who would stand in the door way by the side of our house, would spit over the fence and hit the crazy neighbors house right next door, well of course I would ask him to teach me how. And yesterday I did what I had learned many years ago from my brother and I'm not even ashamed. Apparently this guy was.

SO....to the man who shook his head at me, whatever your reasons may...I am going to continue to wear my sweaty pants, blind the public eye with my pasty skin, allow JB to speak to my soul, and spit my little heart out for everyone to see because that is just how little I care about your little head shake.

Half

Anytime anyone has every asked me if I would ever run a marathon or half marathon, my immediate response was NO WAY. And then people would say, "Come on. It will be so rewarding to say that you completed one." And my response was always, "No it won't. I couldn't care less about completing one." Jared, on the other hand, has always wanted to run at least a half marathon so anytime our Sister in Law talks about it, he always wants to do it. Last night when we were at the jazz game, Tamara asked Jared if he wanted to run the Utah valley half marathon with her and of course he said yes if he had enough time to train. Then he turned to me and asked if I wanted to train with him to do the half. He must have caught me at a really weak moment because all I said was, sure why not. WHAT???? And then my immediate thought was....oh no....word vomit. I realized what I had committed myself to and said, "if you buy me better running shoes, I will train with you." I said that thinking we couldn't afford new running shoes so I figured it was my automatic out. And of course Jared says, "Oh no problem. I need to get new running shoes too so this will be perfect." WHAT???? So not only did I think we couldn't afford one new pair of running shoes, now we are buying two new pairs? And now I'm running a half marathon. WHAT?? I never thought I would even agree to something like this. I always figured, sure maybe I would do a 10K sometime but I had no desire to do anything more than that. Look at me know. I guess my motivation is that two weeks after the race, Jared and I are going to Mexico for a week so I'm hoping I'll have a rockin' bod by that time. The training starts now...today. Here's to 13.1 miles...barf.

Bari

Here I am finally blogging about our trip to Italy and let me tell you it was incredible. I'm so grateful that Jared and I were able to go. I'll try and keep the writing to a minimum and just give you a picture overload. We spent the first 4 days of our trip in Bari, Italy which is one of the cities where Jared served his mission. It took us forever to finally get there because we had a few mishaps on the way to Italy but once we finally made it, it was all worth it. Let me preface that Bari is not the most beautiful city. There is trash all over the ground, dog poop all over the side walks and it's definitely not a touristy area so people look at you extremely weird. Even though it was not the most beautiful or glamorous, Bari was probably my favorite city that we visited. We stayed with a family that was in Jared's old ward and we basically lived like Italians for a few days. I got to experience the real Italy, not the touristy Italy. We slept, ate, and did what they do on a daily basis. It was just so much fun to actually be in the home of an Italian. It just made me appreciate the rest of the trip so much more. Here is Bari...(All of the pictures are not edited so sorry but you get the rough version of them)

I wish I had a dollar for every time we saw someone making out. They really have no problem showing affection in public.

In America we have basketball courts...in Italy they have soccer fields. So cool. Oh..and notice that tiny blue car down at the bottom parked right next to the green car? Yah that is completely normal over there. And notice how the cars are parked facing different directions? It doesn't matter how you park because if someone doesn't like it, all they do is come outside, get in the car, and lay on the horn until you come out and move your car.

There are churches everywhere. You turn the corner and boom....church.

Now we enter into a city called Trani which is really close to Bari. Ettore, the husband of the family that we stayed with took us here and it was so cool. Lots of castles and churches right along the sea.

And now we go to Polignano. I have never seen bluer water. This is the epitome of Italy right here. This place was seriously incredible. You are just walking down this tiny street and then you walk onto this bridge and this is the view you get. This place was amazing. We actually hiked down to the water and skipped rocks for a bit.

One of the last days we were there, we got to go to Valeria's school concert. She is the daughter of the family that we stayed with. She and her little brother Marco are hilarious. This concert was so funny. They all sang Christmas songs in English which made me feel very much at home.

This is the lovely Marco. This kid cracked me up. I couldn't understand what he was talking about half the time but he made me laugh on a daily basis.

This is Bari the morning we were leaving to go to Naples. It was so sad to leave but I was definitely excited to experience the tourist side of Italy.

This is a presepe which is basically a nativity. The Italians go ALL OUT with their nativities. They are all over the cities as well...in the train stations, bus stations, malls, stores, food places... They were all gorgeous. The cool thing about the nativity is that the manger is always empty. They don't put the baby Jesus in the manger until the night before Christmas.

So that is a little bit of Bari for you. I completely forgot to take a picture of Jared and I with the Valentini's, the family that we stayed with but they were so incredibly nice. I can't wait to go back and visit them again.

Things that make me happy

 Jared and I bought our first Christmas Tree together. It was an impulse buy and we don't even care.

I won an awesome purse from a giveaway off of Leanne Barlow's blog. Worth $250 and I got that baby for free! 

Shopping at City Creek with these lovely ladies. Too bad all of us suck at shopping and we didn't buy anything. Next time guys...next time.

 It's not the french fries that make me so happy it's the fact that both Jenny and I felt that we needed our own side of fries. The picture does NOT do it justice. I ate about 1/4 of them and called it quits. So gross.

 This little guy was sleeping with one eye closed, one eye open....slightly creepy but super impressive.

This man rocks my socks and so does our awesome Christmas sweaters.

And this little man was cracking me up at family dinner. He all the sudden decided that he wanted to be a princess. #3oldersisters

Christmas came early

Last night for FHE, Jared and I decided that we needed to buy a Christmas Tree and put up decorations. When we got home there was a nice little package sitting on our door step...My Free purse that I won off of a giveaway on a blog worth 250 buckaroos was sitting there in all it's glory. We made hot chocolate and just sat and watched the Christmas tree lights twinkle. It was awesome.

The purse doesn't look like much from the picture but man oh man is it beautiful. And it was $250 bucks and I got it for FREE!...Life doesn't get much better than that.

Fail

Well this whole posting every day about what I'm thankful for was an epic fail....I guess I'm just not a thankful person. (kidding) As for an update on my life..

Jared and I are heading off today to sunny California for Thanksgiving and I couldn't be more excited to get out of this cold weather. Not really looking forward to the long drive and getting there at like 1:00 in the morning but that's alright.

Jared and I got back from Grace, Idaho on Sunday night. We wanted to visit my Grandma up there and it was an absolute blast. I've been to Grace before but it was for a family reunion so I had all my siblings there. It was nice just to spend some alone time with GMA Funk. Let me tell you...Grace is one TINY town. It's beautiful there and I would love to go back but definitely not live there. I need more hussle and bussle in my life.

Jared and I interviewed for the complex management position annnnnnnnddd we didn't get. I'm actually kind of relieved. It would have been so awesome to save over 700 dollars more a month but I don't think I would have enjoyed having girls scream at me and come into my house whenever they want. I don't really like girls as it is and we would be living back in the single living style apartments without a dishwasher or washer dryer. Now I'm looking for something else to do that can get us that extra 700 bucks a month. Seriously people...I'm obsessed with money. It's not good. Knowing what we could've had....ugh drives me crazy.

Jared and I planned more of our trip to Italy last night for FHE and I am getting SOOOO excited. Less than 4 weeks away :) We threw out the idea of taking a little ferry out to the island of capri....ahhh can't wait. So gorgeous. The water looks incredible...too bad we aren't going during the Summer or else I would be in that water in a second...fully clothed and all. Heck...I may just do it anyway with a coat on. Who cares...Vivia Italia!!!












(PS...did you notice that practically all of my paragraphs started with "Jared and I"? I know...terrible writing skills.)

Day 10

Today I'm grateful for lazy days...more like unproductive days. I have literally watched 10 episodes of Friday Night Lights today which is so pathetic. I took a two hour break to go to the women's soccer game and then started back up again. It's awful but has been kind of blissful. After a busy week at work it's nice just to lay on the couch all day long.

As a side note...Jared and I saw a mouse running right in front of our door as we walked by. I about had a heart attack. Now every time I have walked out our door (which has only been once today mind you), i have ran out and up the stairs because I'm so freaked out. It is a legit fear that I have.

Day 9

I'm grateful for a husband who studies so hard. He pulled out a 92% on his second o-chem test today and I couldn't be more proud of him! He has seriously been studying every single night for weeks just to prepare for this test and it definitely paid off. I guess I technically should have been grateful for this yesterday since that's when he took the test but my excitement for him carried through to today. He really needed a good grade on this test and a 92% is not too shabby. He definitely couldn't have done it with out the help of Heavenly Father. We've been praying hard for this (well at least I have) and I know that He deserves the biggest thanks.

On a different note...Jared and I are watching 24 together. We're on season 3 and it is SO good. Jack Bauer just kills me. "Millions of lives are at stake". HAHA I love it. So I'm also thankful today for that show :) Happy weekend everyone!

Day 8

Today I am grateful for a rockin volleyball team. I'm playing on a good ol' co-ed volleyball team with my hubs and we haven't lost yet...undefeated baby. We just had our last game tonight of regular play. It was a close call and went to three games but we pulled out a W. Now it's time for play offs. Can't wait. I'm thankful for a body that allows me to be active and do what I want.

Day 7

Today I'm grateful for Friday Night Lights. It's such a good show. I'm hooked. I watch too many tv shows as it is but this one by far beats them out. I love the premise of the whole thing and seriously live vicariously through these people. I cry when they cry, I laugh when they laugh, and my stomach fluttered when Matt Saracen asked Julie on a date. If you haven't seen it, you should probably start watching it because it's that good.

Day 6

Most of you probably think I'm going to say that I'm grateful to be an American and that I can vote. But you're wrong. That's not what I'm thankful for today. Probably because I suck at being an American and I forgot to order my absentee ballot until a few days ago and of course it never came in the mail. Trust me, I feel pretty guilty about it. So today I am grateful for sweatshirts. I am convinced that where my new desk sits at work is at least 10 degrees colder than where my old office was. It gets so cold. I have to wear at least a sweatshirt or jacket just to function. So, today I'm grateful for my BYU hoodie.

P.S. Let's all take a moment of silence because this girl didn't use any ... in this post.

...

I've realized that I use a ton of these: ...

It's a really bad habit. And to be honest, I don't even think I know how to use ... properly. It's actually really annoying. If I don't use ... in my sentences when I type, I literally can't think straight. My words don't come out right...my sentences aren't right...I can't think of what I want to say. But who am I kidding...my sentences aren't right anyway when I use ...

So, can someone PLEASE teach me the correct usage of ... so that I can type and think like a normal human being.

Day 5

Today I am grateful for my mint truffle hot chocolate. Besides the fact that it nearly burned my lips off, I'm still grateful for it. It is mmm mmm good...too bad it's not sponsered by Campbells. Anywho, I'm grateful to be drinking my hot chocolate, laying in my sweats in a warm apartment...well not so warm I guess. I'm convinced it is sometimes colder in our apartment that it is outside. But that's beside the point. Life is good.

Day 4: Tender Mercies

Today I'm grateful for my calling as the Primary President in our ward. I seriously love those kids to death. It's amazing to see the miracles that God provides. Today we made some improvement with a little boy in sunbeams. He is usually a terror and today was no different except for the fact that I was able to talk to him without him telling me to go away. That may not seem like much at all but to me it meant the world. A couple weeks ago, I was at a loss for what to do and thought there was no hope. God's tender mercy today changed my attitude and can't wait to see the progress this little boy makes. Baby steps is all it takes.

Day 3

I'm grateful today for my sissy Lori. She rocked it at her rugby game this afternoon. It was so fun to watch her play. She is one tough girl let me tell you...walking off that field with blood on her jersey. Can't wait to watch more games and hopefully the national championship. Love you girl.