Parking in the Garage

Tonight, as I was driving the van into the garage, Reese says, "Ooh, I have never done this before." When I thought about it, she was right. I don't think that in her whole lifetime we have parked cars in the garage. It has always been a storage unit for mostly restaurant things including a 6 foot grill with a trailer hitch. Even though we have not had the grill in the garage for awhile now, the garage still never got clean enough to put a vehicle in last year. We still had kid outdoor toys and other storage items including some of my work crates and boxes that got in the way.  Through dilligent cleaning, storing, and donating in 2011, 2012 is the year we finally accomplished what was for many years impossible.

I did offer the one space that we have in the garage to my husband because he drives the older of our two vehicles (although mine has more miles on it).  He said that it was for me because he has time to warm his truck and scrape in the morning because he has to wait for the kids to get on the bus anyway.  Score for me!

My New Interest: Pinterest

My student teacher was the one who told me about StumbleUpon and Pinterest. At first I was hesitant to get started with these new "research" sites. I tried StumbleUpon first and I liked it, but once I got my Pinterest account, I loved it. The ideas that other people pin are awesome. They are mostly from blogs that I may not find in a regular Google search. I have found things that I would use in my home as well as professionally. The problem I had with StumbleUpon was the websites, where it sent you, were mostly pretty crappy and very random. You cannot see where you are going prior to getting there. With Pinterest you can see what you are going to pin before you find out where it is from.

I Love My Book Club

Tonight was the first book club of the year.  We read Night Road by Kristin Hannah.  Previously, we read Firefly Lane by the same author.  Although we could all relate to both books on many levels, across generations, most agreed that they like Night Road better.  It was a quick read, and there were many different points of view with regards to how issues were seen in the book.  We all cried through the book even though it was fiction; it could happen to anyone.  For our book club the overreaching themes are forgiveness will make your heart lighter, justice and revenge are two different things, and "Man makes plans; God laughs."

Trying to Develop New Habits

One of my New Year's Resolutions is to eat better.  I have not been that good at this resolution, but I believe that with our routines go back to normal tomorrow, and I go back to work, I am hoping that eating better will become easier.  Routine means eating breakfast in the morning and not getting up so close to lunch that skipping breakfast is easy.  All the cake is gone from the house, and most of the Christmas sweets are thrown away.  I have to start drinking more water, and that is a tough assignment to start considering that I cannot go to the restroom when I have the need.  Going to continue trying to develop these new habits, cannot go on like I am invincible of all health problems.

Tournament of Roses Parade

I ended up watching most of the Tournament of Roses parade this year.  I think that my interest was peaked by The Bee Movie.  We have watched this movie many times this year, and it was really interesting to see what can be done with flowers.  The theme was Just Imagine....  I was excited to see many travel destinations as floats such as Thailand and Indonesia as well as the organ donation float.  This parade presentation is more subdued than the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade where the big items are the character balloons.

Bowl games on Monday ended up making it seem like two New Year's Days.  Tomorrow, it is back to real life.

Beginning the Year

In our house we always start out our year with a birthday celebration!  My husband is born on the first day of the year.  We contemplate the past year and make goals for the coming year.  He feels that 2011 was not so great and so has big aspirations for 2012.  My feeling is that 2011 was a mediocre year; does not go down as the best year, but not the worst either.  I am thankful for a job, pretty good health, and healthy and happy kids.  There are things that I want to accomplish in 2012, but don't feel that 2011 was a complete waste.