Thanksgiving in Phoenix

It was our year to spend Thanksgiving in Phoenix with JP's family so we headed out on Friday before Thanksgiving after work and spent an entire week out there leaving the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

Going to Phoenix means we get to eat things that are not available in Alabama.

I love me some Sprinkles cupcakes. I had been craving them for months.

I also love me some In N Out. We ate there three times while we were out there.

Matt, my brother-in-law, gets excited because he gets Chick-fil-a, which they don't have in New York City where he lives. Conveniently there is a Chick-fil-a next to the In N Out so he brought Chick-fil-a to In N Out once, and I brought In N Out to Chick-fil-a the next time.

JP's favorite is Filibertos. There breakfast burritos are really good. We hit this place up on our way to his parent's house from the airports- at about 12:30am. We also got to enjoy  a burrito after our adventures at Ussery Mountain- where JP and Michael, his brother, ran the 6.5 miles around the mountain, and Peter, my father and law, & I walked/hiked. Peter told me all about growing up in South Africa while we walked/hiked.

Speaking of Ussery Mountain, Arizona is such a good place for outdoor activities. The weather was in the EIGHTIES while we were there. It was just wonderful for this warm weather loving girl. I spent so much time outside. Peter and  I ran/walked several times while the other guys ran. JP and I also went on a hike at South Mountain with his friend Jon. I love the fact as was able to wear a tank top and shorts.

This picture below became our Christmas card picture.

And while we are showing pictures of JP and I, lets show one of JP in his finest "I love taking pictures" moment. Taken after church. There is a Korean church that meets at JP's parent's church. They had a combined Thanksgiving feast after church the Sunday before Thanksgiving. The Koreans provided the main course and JP's family's church provided the dessert. The Korean food was really good. JP really loved it even though he doesn't seem to express it in this picture.

Thanksgiving was of course filled with yummy food thanks to the hard work of Julie, my mother in law. JP's family had invited two other families to join us. Each family had middle school and high school aged kids. After our meal, which we ate outside because it was so warm, we played a game on the trampoline for quite a long time. The goal was to keep the ball from hitting the floor while we jumped and through it to each other. If you were responsible for letting it fall, you had to get off. Last man standing won. My favorite was when it ended up being just me and the middle schoolers on the trampoline as they were more my size than JP and his brothers! Here are some pics of just the boys minus Matt. Me and the two other girls had gotten out. So yes at some points we had 8 people on the trampoline.

And one final picture from the trip.  Michael and the sweatshirt he won at Cabellas. He went there Thanksgiving night at about 9pm and stayed the night in hopes to win one of the things they had advertised. He was in quite a long line and said it really was fun as there was food and entertainment provided. So although he did not win any of the higher priced items, he was pleased he went.

Turkey Fry

JP and I started off the holiday season with the 2nd annual home group turkey fry. Our friend's with a turkey fryer hosted the event at their house and provided the turkey. Everyone else brought a side dish. We brought a salad. When I asked JP if he would rather us bring a salad or homemade mac n cheese he responded "Salad, we are going to be eating a lot of greasy food the next few weeks."

Here is our friend Brian - the guy who fried the turkey- with the finished bird.

After getting the holiday season started, we headed to Arizona the next day after work.

Note: These were the first pictures I took with my new, and first ever, smartphone. More on that several posts from now.

House To Do List 2013

Much shorter than last year's list, but still a lot to get working on! This year I suspect we will come closer to completing the list than last year.

What I Hope to Accomplish in 2013

JP: This year I am going to only eat fruits and vegetables, run every day, and memorize the entire Bible. (Obviously he was being sarcastic!)

Create/obtain coffee table books for each place JP and/or I have lived.
This includes one for Decatur, AL, Stone Mountain, GA, Gilbert/Phoenix, AZ, Birmingham, AL, and Dallas, TX. Some places already have books created, others will require me to create one.

Laundry
Of all the household chores, laundry is by far my weakest link. Seriously, it is out of control. My goal is to get it under control. To measure this goal, a success would be considered no piles of laundry waiting to be ironed or put away (a day or so ok, a week-month + not ok), JP's work shirts ironed well in advance of the day he is wearing them, and some way to organize missing socks.

Cleaning Schedule
I have no consistent cleaning schedule which I've determined is a bad thing. So my goal is to not only come up with a weekly/monthly schedule, but follow it too (of course).

Read the Bible in a Year
I know this is a very generic, everyone seems to do it goal. However, I need to get in the Word way more than I do so I figure this would help. Our church has a reading plan that allows you to skip ~5 days a month. Hopefully that will help! For bonus points, I can memorize 2 verses a month. Last year I completely failed at this.

Read 12 Books
This is another thing I failed miserably at last year. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. This year I have written down a list of 12 books to read. They all are books we either already own or are available at the library. That way I won't have to spend any money, and maybe have a library due date will help push me to get some read.

One Craft/month
As Christmas rolled around in 2012, I realized there were so many Christmas crafts I wanted to do, but waiting until the busy month of December to do them means they probably won't get done. I want to do some Christmas crafts well in advance, but also some other crafts. Like the books, I have 12 crafts picked out already. Note: If I happen to do 2 in a month, I'm totally fine with skipping the next month. I'll consider 12 done by the end of the year a success.

Go Somewhere I Haven't Been
This is pretty much on my list every year. I know for sure this will happen as I will be going to Glouster, Ohio for my brother-in-law's wedding. However, no offense to Glouster, but I'm hoping for some place a little more exciting as well. I know JP and I are going to try and take a big vacaiton this year. Hawaii is the number one on my list!

Prepare New Things in the Kitchen
I always want to find and prepare new recipes, but this is kind of a list within a list. I have determined 12 things I want to make:

• A legit cake using legit cake making tools (probably a really good strawberry cake recipe I found)
• Real queso dip (not just the kind you buy at the store) and homemade guacamole
• Salad dressing
• Scones
• Wontons and hot & sour soup
• Aji de Gallina
• Something with goat cheese, gouda or another non-cheddar or mozzarella cheese
• Homemade spice blend
• Croutons
• Homemade ketchup
• Baked Donuts
• Pizza (different from a kind I've made before)

 5K & more Exercise
This was something I did well with in 2012. I want to do at least one 5K this year and continue my workout classes. I really want to find ways to push myself more. I'm sure my sister can help with that one. I also want to do better about working out at home- mainly in the winter- setting a goal for 4x/week at home.

Stay within my Discretionary Money Budget
Each year JP and I come up with a budget. Part of our budget includes discretionary funds for both JP and I. In 2012, we overall did really well and came in under budget. However, I went significantly over on my discretionary money. This year we have redetermined what comes out of our discretionary (i.e. all clothes were coming out of it but now we have a clothes portion of the budget that absolutely necessary things- such as new work shoes when mine are so worn out they hurt my feet- will come out of). I also have created a budget for my discretionary which hopefully will help.

Blog
I will keep my goal from last year of 1 blog post per week and see if I can actually meet it. I would really like to exceed that goal.
For bonus points: Learn some custom blogging skills and learn to take better pictures- specifically learn more about ISO.

Send Notes
Again I will keep my goal of sending 3 notes/month via snail mail to people (this does not include thank you notes). I am also adding to this to comment more on blogs. I always love when people comment on mine, so why am I not commenting more on others? I'll say 2 blog comments/week.



+++Bonus Points+++
This is something I really don't have much control over, but I want to win something this year. All this blogs I read are always having give aways, and I was thinking that it would be really cool to win something. Therefore, I will try and win something this year. I'm not really expecting to. Note: Any blog comments placed in an attempt to win something do not count to the above Send Notes goal.

Review of House To Do List 2012

I stopped doing the month house updates but not because we weren't being productive. We ended up accomplishing a lot of the things on our list. We tackled some of the more costly items on the list- dining room table, bedroom furniture, television. I did not really expect to accomplish everything- mainly due to time and money- so I am quite pleased with our progress. There were also somethings not on the list that got accomplished such as cutting down a 50ft tree and adding lights in the garage.

*If you notice headboard is only half crossed out. That because it is not completed which is a whole blog post in its self. Hopefully the completed headboard will make its presence soon.

2012 Performance Appraisal

Looking back at 2012

A refresher on my 2012 bucket list

Lift weights 5 times/week

I can't say that I lifted weights 5 times/week but I definitely am in better shape than I have been in my adult life. I committed to going to a work out class 2 nights a week (for most of the year then just 1 night a week b/c one of the classes got canceled). I also felt doing these classes motivated me to be more active at home. In August I pushed myself more than I ever had before by attending 2 boot camp classes a week for 3 weeks as part of a groupon deal. Although it was just six classes I could really tell a difference, and it showed me how much I really could do. I must say that if I didn't have a very active sister and a husband who is active as well, I probably wouldn't have done as well with this.

Run a 5k

I did! Two girls from work and I ran in the Color Run in the fall.  We ran the whole thing without stopping with no training. Running a 5k with others is such much easier than running it by yourself.

Keep a list of things I'm thankful for-3/day

Absolute fail.

Send notes

I'd say I'd get a fair mark on this one. Definitely not 3/month but not 0/month either.

Read 12 books

JP says I should change this goal for 2013 to - read 12 pages. I really read one book- Hazel Creek. It was set in the tiny little town my grandmother grew up in during the time period she was a child. Other than that I read parts of a few books including a little over 30% of Atlas Shrugged- which reading that much of an approximately 1000 page book should count as reading a book. 

Expand my world view.

I did not have a way to measure this but I'd say I'd give myself a D+ on this one. There is a still a lot more I could do. I could probably read some books to help and then I'd kill two birds with one stone!

Memorize 2 scripture passages per month

Epic fail. There is not excuse for this. In the fall my co-worker started bringing in a verse to memorize each week... and I still failed.

Improve food intake.

I think I averaged trying at least one new recipe each month- not two. I did not make a recipe book, however, it is in the planning process.

Scan pictures

Epic fail. No progress at all.

Blog once a week.

I had a total of 49 blogposts with over half of them coming in the first four months of the year. I'd say I did not meet expectations on this one.

Drink 64oz of water/day

Fail.

Go somewhere I've never been.

I went to Kansas City, Missouri. Although it was not somewhere I've always wanted to go, it was a fun trip and counted as going somewhere I've never been.

The Christmas Card (That Wasn't)

This year I decided instead of using one of the predesigned Christmas cards that you just insert a picture, I wanted to design my own. And, I did... but too late. Once I started looking at getting them printed, the kind of card I wanted printed was going to take too long to get to me, and I wasn't willing to pay the large fee to get it to me in time. So, I went with a standard insert your picture card.

So here is the Christmas card that wasn't. Hopefully next year I'll remember it takes a while to get them printed and take care of it well in advance.