11 things for 2011

Like pretty much every one else in the world, I'm gonna set some goals for 2011. 2010 was a pretty good year for the both of us, but I see some room in there for improvement. It'll be a self centered to do list, but I think if I'm able to pull it all off it'll benefit everyone around me. So, here's 11 things to pull off in the year 2011:

1) Get organized. And then stay that way. The great closet clean outs have already begun.

My new command center--formerly known
as the junk closet.

2) Get dressed. Don't get me wrong--I'm not currently in the habit of walking around naked all the time. What I'm hoping to improve on is a daily effort to wear clothes that make me feel and look put together. Deliberately choosing outfits instead of wearing whatever I can find in 5 minutes every morning. It would also help to do my hair and makeup but...lets not get carried away. Gotta leave something for 2012, right?

I got dressed! New Years Eve.

3) Eat what I need. Not exactly a ground breaking goal, but one I really need to implement. Right now my relationship with food is a little bit too emotional. Let's take that out and eat things that my body needs to run well--- which I have a sneaking suspicion does not include a dozen cookies. 

My body needed one of these steaks my Dad grilled up for New Years.

4) Ummm...workout. 3 times a week. Let's track the success of this one by how many pairs of my skinny jeans I get to bring out from banishment under the bed.

5) Sleep. 8 hours really makes a difference. And I don't have children. This should be attainable for me.

6) Blog more. I like it, and it's pretty much the only journal I'm keeping right now. So let's blog it up. I might even up it to once a week! Ah! Here's to 52 posts in 2011.

7) How about: GRADUATE. I can almost taste it.

8) Take pictures. 

9) Kiss my niece and nephew. In person. This could also coincide with a sister's reunion? Yes? Or at the very least an awesome family vacation. 

These kids are CUTE.

10) Save some clams. I'm still working on a precise dollar amount to work towards.  Turns out, I AM the one that spends most of our money. He pays the bills that he's in charge of, buys gas and...then doesn't spend anything else. So saving it really comes down to me. I actually feel pretty good about where I am, but I can do better. Couponing here I come, and Marshall's--I love you, but we can't see each other any more. Wants and needs: not the same thing.

11) Read. I love reading. Daily scripture study and some fluff too. I don't think I read more than 4 books for fun last year--and I can't even remember what they were. If you've read any amazing books, let me know. I'm now officially taking suggestions.

So, there's the list. 11 things that will make me a better, happier person. None of them are especially revolutionary. Oh well. It's what I need.

Also: Happy 6 month wedding anniversary! We're on a roll :)

The Aftermath

Married Christmas is awesome. Instead of one amazing Christmas, we got three.  We spent Christmas Eve with my family, singing songs horribly, burning the traditional bonfire, and eating cheese, sausage and crackers. Delish. After the little hiccup with Cory's original present, I wanted to get him something else. But he insisted that I couldn't spend any money on another present. What's a girl to do?
On Wednesday, December 22nd, my mom suggested we make him a quilt. We only used scraps from her fabric closet, so the only thing it cost us was time! And boy, did it ever cost us. It had 9 squares total, and 8 of the squares feature a scene from our first year together. Its like, a scrap book, on a quilt! After 18 hours of hard labor, at 12:00 pm on Thursday, the 23rd we had this:

Here's a closeup of each square-- which is your favorite??

1) Painting the Town Yellow   2) Our golf date  3) Watching movies  4) Eating dinners
5)Baking cookies  6) Our first Christmas spent cross country
7) Singing in the Rain aka He proposed  8) Weddin'

We presented it with a bottle of sparkling grape juice and a ton of fruit snacks. So we can snuggle up and stuff our faces. Sounds good to me.

We went to Cory's parents house for Christmas Day, opened a ton of presents and ate a ton of food. It was awesome. They surprised us with a new camera! So, we spent most of the day taking pictures trying to learn how to use it. So, we've got a lot of this:

Zero editing, people. Its the way of the future.  See how Cory is all sharp like,
and the background is all blurry like?  Oh baby.

Around 9:00 PM we came home to our little Christmas celebration. We filled up each other's stockings with little surprises, and opened up a few little presents. It was nice.

We're still getting the hang of self timers.

Also, the other day when we got into the freezing cold car Cory exclaimed: "It's colder than a witch's teat in here!" He insists its a common phrase. Wikipedia agree's with him. Click HERE to know more about witch's teats than you ever wanted to.

Another Christmas post. You can expect at least one more after this.

Christmas is shaping up nicely. Now that the fall semester is blissfully over, we can really enjoy getting ready. And by enjoy I mean, have an awesome day out shopping until at Best Buy I decide to be sneaky when I see the Planet Earth I bought for Cory's present playing on all 46 of their huge high def. TV's and ask ever so slyly, "So you like that stuff right?" and then cry when he responds, "I already watched all of those online--I don't want to watch them again." Umm. Yea.

But other than that little, tiny hiccup it's been very nice.

I love having the house all decorated for Christmas! It's so cozy. Well at least I think so. If Cory could describe our decor in one word it would be "flammable.

Cute right?

 Apparently covering a string of lights in fabric, and then nestling heavy glass jars into isn't "safe".

 And then placing a  large amount of kindling paper (aka coffee filter wreath) above the set up makes it worse...

He also had a problem with shoving copious amounts of lights on top of a kind of very dusty fridge.

Who made him the Fire Marshall???

But, as you can see, the overall effect IS quite cozy. Especially when I light the candles...

On this one, I'm willing to admit we're both right. Cozy and flammable. Our first Christmas.

A few days ago it finally got cold here. We're talking, take a glass of water with you when you walk to your car in the morning, cause you're gonna need it to melt the ice off your windshield. So Cory made us the FIRST hot chocolate of the season.  I saw some super cute mugs at Micheal's, and got them in preparation for colder weather. They each feature a different picture and imperative statement.

This was my cup of hot chocolate:

Cute.

I look up and I see Cory with his hot chocolate:

"Lindy, this is how a man drinks hot chocolate."

 Nothing like drinking hot chocolate out of something the size of your face.

Merry Christmas :)

'Tis the season

So, I just put up a long post about our Christmas decorations on the ol' Pile o' Craft. I was going to put it up here too, but I just can't take fighting with Blogger with posting pictures anymore right now. So click here if you wanna see what I did to our house!

If you don't wanna click over, here's the general idea:

Lindy

So long and thanks for all the fish

First things first: I made my first cute cake for Tanya the other day. She posted it, and I'm super proud of it, and you can see it on her blog.

Anyway, Thanksgiving was awesome.

We spent the first two days with Cory's family on the St. Johns River. We played with Jet-skis, smoked turkeys and went fishin'.

Cory's great grandmother has spent the last 90 years perfecting her fishing skills, so I decided to let her take the lead in that department. Cory thought it was mean of me to make a blind woman wrestle a small, wriggly worm onto a small, very sharp barb. But hey, she offered.

I woke up around 5 AM on Friday to hit up some sales with my family. There wasn't really anything we had in mind to purchase, we just...wanted to spend money I guess. The first store we hit up was Michael's. My mom and I grabbed some carts and started scoping out the deals...then we saw them. 

Cricut machines! Retail value: 200.00 buckaroos. Black Friday Price: 59.00 big ones!!!!!

Our hands seemed to have a mind of their own as they placed the boxes in our carts. 

If you're not familiar with the cricut, you should know that it cuts paper/vinyl. If that doesn't sell you on it, just watch an infomercial and then tell me you don't want it.

I was a little unsure of what Cory's reaction to this purchase would be. As far as he knew, I just spent $60.00 on glorified scissors.

But as we sat down to figure out how to use the thing, he really seemed to get on board the with it. We plugged the little design cartridge in, and punched in a phrase ("Cory is amazing" was his request), and watched it go. He says, "Oooo, this is like a video game for crafts." 

Exactly.

We finished the break with some awesome steak made by my dad, enough pies and desserts to cause a 3-day sugar high, and a killer wasp attack. So, we had a wide range of positive and negative experiences. 

Anyway, we're thankful for all the memories we made this past week, and all the blessing we have. 

As I struggle to find the motivation to get school work and actual work done, it's been really nice to be reminded to be grateful for the chance to go to college, and have a job to pay the bills. Yay!