Monday, January 02, 2012

2012!



Happy New Year!

My resolutions:
1) Exercise 3 times a week
2) Clean up 15 mins a day
3) Walk a dog once a week

What I'm looking forward to:
Fun home improvements (new curtains, hang pictures, etc.)
Getting more settled in our house and new jobs
Knocking out more classes toward my degree
Having a fence for our backyard (as soon as the ground thaws!)
Second season of Downton Abbey on PBS (less than a week!)

What I'd like to learn in 2012:
How to cook eggs
Good slow cooker recipes
Mad piano-playing skills

Firsts from 2011:
Buying our first house
Getting laid off (ugh!)
Learning programming (Visual Basic)
My own laptop (no more hand-me-down desktop for me!)
My own piano
Went to my first auction
Going to New Jersey and New York City

Favorite things in 2011:
Top Gear on Netflix (also American Pickers and Bones)
Yoga and Zumba classes at the Community Center
Visiting Bren in NJ and going to NYC
Second-hand shopping in Brookings
The Hairpin
Squirrel Nut Zippers Pandora Station (especially when cleaning/cooking)
David Wax Museum
John's homebrewed cider
Girls' trip to the Black Hills (which I never blogged(?), but here's a pic...)

Catching up

Here's everything I missed updating in 2011 ;)

After three job changes (one for me, two for John), I work for Rserving now as marketing coordinator, and John is a sous chef at the Brownstone in Brookings.

I got through another semester of the Information Systems Master's program at DSU even though the dogs liked to make things difficult...



We had a great trip to Ohio for Thanksgiving, visiting family, visiting friends, taking the dogs with us, and buying a snowblower (which meant the 18 hr drive home involved a dog riding on our laps - no space anywhere else!)


(Amanda, me and Krista at Tony's)

With the snowblower, we're ready for the winter weather...but this is all the snow we've gotten (and it was melted by the end of that day)



Even without the usual snow, we enjoyed decorating and getting ready for Christmas



Cooper liked to fluff the Christmas tree skirt and only chewed on the corner of one present



The Christmas tree



John made hand-lettered tags with one of his fountain pens.

We celebrated Christmas at my parents' house with lots of presents, food, and dogs causing trouble (but not lots of pictures taken)