Welcome 2013!

My resolutions:
1) Strength training twice a week (and continuing aerobic workouts 3x a week)
2) Trying a new recipe every month
3) Reading a book every month


What I'm looking forward to:
Traveling to Italy!!
Finishing (or getting very close to finishing) my Master's Degree
Getting a fence for Callie
Doing my first 5k
Third season of Downton Abbey on PBS (less than a week!)


What I'd like to try in 2013:
Cross-country skiing
Taking pictures with my Brownie camera


Firsts from 2012:
Exploring NYC alone
Going to MOMA and the Museum of Natural History
Jogging in Central Park
Camping in the Black Hills
Going to Omaha (and the zoo and the Old Market)
Rewiring a lamp
Using a snowblower
Refinancing my house
Making chocolate-covered bacon (which I don't actually recommend)
Getting divorced (which I also don't recommend ;) )


Favorite things in 2012:
White Collar and West Wing on Netflix
Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast
Black bean burritos and fried egg sandwiches
Cute pictures of baby animals
Etsy seller Siiso (have two prints on my walls)
Hearing Sherman Alexie speak at SDSU
New job at DSU (with a huge window and dual monitors)

Christmas

My house all lit up.

The vintage ornaments that my mom let me borrow.  Love these!

The tree in my living room. 

Callie's stocking, my stocking, and the tree

Chocolate-covered pretzels and bacon (not recommended)

Callie on Christmas morning 

Erin made me an incredible crocheted afghan!

Calliedog

Callie and my yellow sweater, from November

Omaha Girls' Weekend

In October, Heather and I met up in Omaha for a girls' weekend. 

Pics from the Omaha Zoo (which was AWESOME!)

  Pictures from Old Market, Downtown Omaha

Mmm, sushi!

Birthday and Black Hills

Birthday presents

Hello, beautiful! My new boots :)

Corn palace!

Badlands

Taking pictures at the Badlands

My feet (still at the Badlands)

Firehouse Brewery, Rapid City

Our awesome campsite at Stockade South Campground, Custer State Park

Bison!

Jewel Cave

Me and the pig at the Purple Pie Palace, Custer, SD

Jason at Sylvan Lake

View of Stockade Lake from above our campsite

August Garden

Well, I got tired of weeding before I actually *finished* weeding, so I stopped and took pictures instead.

First beet harvest

Overall garden

Almost ready to pick!

Pics from July

Garden update

Today, I staked out the tomatoes (cages were falling over) and picked the first of the green beans.

 Banana peppers

Tomatoes

 

Home improvements

Last weekend, Mom helped me paint the entryway.  Here are the before and after shots

I am so excited to have this project done - and to have broken my streak of picking paints that I end up disliking once they're on the walls ;)  I got the paint from Ace Hardware and it is Charles Bridge Paint/Primer from Clark + Kensington.  Next up, curtain, fixed curtain rod, new light fixture, and something (?) for the walls.

Also - the first lamp I've ever rewired - now complete with lampshade!

More Garden

These pictures are from this morning.  All of my replanted seeds have started to come up, and I thinned them today.  The tomatoes plants are getting huge and the green bean plants are going a little crazy, too.

My first harvest of the year!

Roma tomatoes

Green pepper

Cayenne peppers

Overall shot (and me!)

Garden

These garden pics are from July 15th - at that point, most of the things I'd planted from seeds had died (except for the green beans) and had to be replanted.  The cucumber/zucchini and the three sprouts I'd started inside from seeds had also died and I'd replaced that whole square with wildflower seeds.

Green beans and herbs

Close-up green beans

Cherry tomato

Sage