.::still blinking::.

It has been a good year. I am humbled by all that we have. We have worked hard this year and I feel like we have been blessed in so many ways. I am thankful to our families and friends and all that they do for us.

Here are last years resolutions.

Here is how thing went.

1. I did not run the Blacksmith Fork Freedom Run. I did run the Step Rock Run in Herriman City. I am very proud of it. Since then I have worked out about 5-6 times a week. I am very proud of that.

2. I have not yet figured out the budget, I am reading a book called The Automatic Millionaire and have made several steps toward being world travelers when we retire. Hopefully we pull it together and make it happen. It is all about paying yourself first. This year we started an IRA for jj and we are going to start contributing more to it soon. We have figured out all the debt and are working on getting a good handle on it. I have been also using coupons and cutting out all the things that we don’t need like $6.00 per gallon milk. It is the small stuff that makes the difference. I am the proud of the progress that I have made this past year.

3. I am still working on being organized. I have gotten rid of tons of stuff. We even started selling stuff on Ebay just to see if we could make some money doing that and suprise, suprise, we can. I made about $50.00 last week selling stuff that we never use or don’t like. It is quite a bit of work for that little bit of money, but if I had just given it to DI I would not have that money. Now I am going through the house with a fine tooth comb seeing what I can sell and just get out of here. I have also come up with a cleaning schedule that I try pretty hard to stick to. It has helped a ton in getting things done and knowing what to do. I also add some other cleaning activity to everyday. Some small like clean out the silver wear tray, some large like clean all the windows. It just depends on the day and my mood.

4. Get good at the piano. This one fell to the wayside. I want to do this, but I need to find a place in the day the squeeze it in. We will see.

5. Be able to tell people to go to Hell! I didn’t learn how to do this. My councelor said that this is agressive behaviour and it is not the best way to be. So I am working on just being positive and honest, it is a better way to be.

I am proud of the progress that I made this year. There are a few other things that I want to work on with the business and really getting ourselves in a good financial state.

I am going to keep working on these, I am excited for the progress that we will make this year.

Also, there is the part of my life that I am dreading that is coming up rather to quickly. POTTY TRAINING! Egads. I am so frightened. But we are going to start trying it soon. I just need to finish and start the book that a friend recommended. I hope no one dies in the process. By the way the potty training is for the kid, not me, in case you were wondering.

For the first time in our lives we did Christmas at our own house, and the verdict you ask? I loved it. I don’t know why we did not do it sooner, wait, yes I do. It is because I have never dared cook a Christmas breakfast myself. I did it this year and it was beautiful and delicious. Blessed are the quiche makers. That is what Papasan says. I made this for jj’s family last Christmas and our family this year. We also had sticky buns that were drowned in butter and brown sugar (one of my favorite foods).

jj and I exchanged a few gifts, but going to Hawaii in November was our present for every event this past year. Gentry got a fishing pole, a panda bear, and another little bear. The bears must be with him at all times and we need to change their diapers occasionally and change their clothes also. I am thinking about making them some bear clothing, but mostly just thinking since I don’t know how to do that sort of thing. He also got a little bear chair that must travel with us everywhere. It is a car seat for his bears. He has turned into quite the little mother.

On Christmas Eve we went to my mothers, she had a lasagna dinner and we just played and ran around until it was nearly bed time. We then went home and opened our new pajamas and read the Christmas story from a binder book that jj’s mom helped us make.

Gentry got some great loot, so did jj and I from our family and friends. We are very thankful to you all. I am very excited about the pan with holes in it for french bread loaves. SO EXCITED!

The day after Christmas we went up to Logan where jj’s parents live, we spent two days there. While we were there my little boy started cuddling with me. He has never been a cuddly boy and I loved it. I did not dare move in case he remembered that cuddling is not his thing and he better get the heck out of there. I wanted to close my eyes and stay this way forever.

We had a great Christmas.

Also, you may be wondering about my mom’s “boyfriend,” or not. He got my mom some nice presents, that was never something my dad could do. He always depended on me to choose stuff for him to buy. I was impressed that he had paid enough attention to her to understand who she was and what she likes. Also, I would rather hang round Mark than my dad. Mark complements my cooking, that may be all that I ever get from him but it is more than I ever got from my dad. And it is enough just to be noticed.

I have about 5 usernames and 5 passwords that I use for all my accounts. I hate when I cannot remember which combination goes where and it takes me 10 minutes to log into anything.

I got a new swim suit today, because when it is 12 degrees outside, isn’t that what you do. It is from Modbe, a “modest” clothing company. They were having a warehouse sale today, so I headed to Orem the modest capital of the world and wandered through their sales, along with every other BYU co-ed in town. It was slightly crazy, and the staff said that things had actually calmed down, egad. Anyway, the swimsuit is a reflection on cave women with a hint of floral panties. Cute you are thinking, I know it. Here is a picture of someone else in it.

I am really excited to wear it. Well, actually I am wearing it right now with my gingerbread man socks to keep me warm. But I am excited for the summer, so that I can wear it with Gentry to the splash pool.

Mere minutes before Christmas and here I am worrying about everything else I need to get done. jj has not been going to bed before one this entire week, he is taking tomorrow off to go grocery shopping with us and do some more work for clients. He likes shopping with us and I like trading off wiping small noses. We are also going to The Forgotten Carols. He designed a program for it and we got free tickets for which we are very grateful. In this program we put an add for our business Makayla Christine Designs. However, I have no business cards or even a website for this and so when I tell people what I do and try to promote myself, I am sure they think, “what the?” Like I am going to trust some girl with no taste and a snotty nosed child on her hip. I might as well be the chicken farmer down the street, which actually could have some pretty great photo opportunities. Since I don’t take pictures of people all posed and you cannot get chickens to smile, they would be the perfect subjects.

So the event is tomorrow and I am going to get something put up tonight. What you ask? I really have not the foggiest. I mean it would be great to get a real website up, but I don’t think I can pull that off in 7.46 seconds. But I am inspired to get something done and even actually print business cards, but you have no idea how daunting a task that is either because really the possibilities are endless.

Do you want to know the website when I get a place holder put in it?

I wonder, am I the only woman who’s husband is infatuated with woman of a certain profession? I am not talking about any of those professions. His is Dental Hygienist. I don’t know if it is the metal teeth cleaning implements or the amazing ability to tell you your number thirteen bicuspid is sensitive to cold and citrus. I guess it could be the quick veracity with which they use dental floss.

He can pick his dental hygienists out from miles and years away. When we lived in Logan, one time we drove by her apartment. He then knew where she lived and told me that his dental hygienist lived there. Not just his dental hygienist, he knew her name, he probably still does.

Now the new dentist has a cute wife and several cute hygienists. He has a favorite. One time while we were at Cafe Rio, he pointed her out at the table across from us. I did recognize her but could not place her, he however knew her.

I guess I beat out all the cute dental workers, and I am glad. Besides, who wants to scoop pancakes out from dental cleavage with floss anyway. And the stinky breath, I would rather die than deal with that all day. But if jj ever gets single again, I am sure that he will start scoping himself some dental honey’s.

We have all had apples dipped in caramel. Have you ever had a green apple dipped in caramel, dipped in white chocolate, rolled in cinnamon sugar? Oh my heavens, it is so good. I have a major sweet tooth for a little bit of tart and a whole lot of sweet. These delectable pieces of heaven are from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. The nearest one to me is Trolley Square or the Gateway.

One of jj’s co-workers got it for him for Christmas, bless her heart. Doesn’t eating sin make you feel a little better if there is a bit of healthy in center?

Here are a few of the baby announcements that I have been working on.

There is a small, squishy boy that lives at my house. He is always yelling for “chocolate nilk,” not a miss spelling, that is how he says it. And I give it to him maybe twice a day. It is a cocktail though. All this kid usually eats is chips and salsa, fruit, and oatmeal. So the only way I can figure to get him to eat any protein is soy milk. I mix half a bottle of soy milk and half a bottle of regular milk. He loves it and thinks that I am the queen.

His favorite movie lately is “Nacho Libre.” jj’s friend Richie came over the other day and asked him what his name was, he had just been upstair watching the movie and said, “I nacho.” Of course he is, the only thing missing is stretchy pants. He has the gut and crazy hair, I guess he also needs a side kick unless you count me. His chocolate milk wielding mama.

He loves to watch you draw and he has requests. I have learned to draw elephants, monkeys, mice, turkeys, pretty much everything from every angle imagineable. If I was a dj, I would be taking tips. Of course being the mama, I get kisses and occasionaly some cuddle time. He is so not the cuddle boy, if ever he gets in the mood, I am scared to move in case I remind him that moving, running and jumping are his favorite activities.

The other day as we were running laps around the coffee table, I hoped this will never end. I hope that for the rest of his days he thinks that I am fun to play with. I know it will last for a while still, but I will miss his unconditional, all in awe love for me when it is gone. Because it won’t change from this end. I will always be amazed at this little boy that is two parts jj and one part me.

I have been working on a wedding announcement for a cute couple that I know. They really are named Jake and Karie, but I have changed the rest of the info to protect their innocence. Yeah right. They wanted a winter wedding so these are the ideas that I came up with.

This is my favorite one. They thought seriously about it. Where there is gray it would have been printed silver, but I cannot add glitter to your screen so you will have to imagine it.

I love the feel of this one. Don’t these kind of patterns remind you of ovaries. So if I could, I would title this one Frozen Reproduction.

This is the one that they chose. It is simple but beautiful. The snowflake and gray single line of border will be printed in silver and I am excited to see what it will turn out like.

Printing is the part that worries me. It is kind of out of my hands, of course they always do a press check were I go and check what it will look like before they actually get started. But still what if they cut it all wonky? Or what if the color isn’t right or what if the stem disappears during printing. Which has happened to me and threw me into a tizzy. My counselor says tizzies are not normal.

So the disappearing stems forced me to a new printer who I absolutely love. If I cannot get out there when they are doing a press check they will bring it to me. They always have the best prices and I do check around. They will get me the paper that I want. Of course there is the part about them hating to use the press, they like to use their digital printers a lot more. But I can get them to do what I want and I love it. In fact, one time they printed an announcement for me and it looked fine while I was there. When I got home I noticed that the brown had actually printed purple. They did it over for me, at no charge. I was so worried about what they would do, and they just took care of me.

Anyway, I really like my job. We are going to be posting a new site soon that will have the announcements that I have done and also just let people know I am available to do custom wedding announcements. Get ready.

With Christmas fast approaching I have suddenly started to think that I do not have any Christmas Eve traditions, except for opening pajamas.

As a child we used to go over to my Aunt Julie’s home and celebrate with my dad’s side of the family. We would have dinner and sing songs and run around until we absolutely needed to get home so that we could make sure that Santa would not miss our house. But now there are so many of my cousins and their kids that it is just not really possible, and I don’t want to be in charge of the massive event.

When I was 10ish my cousin Megan was born on Christmas Eve and that started the tradition of a brunch. We still do that, although I cannot remember the last time that we went. We may go this year if it does not overlap church. It is lame to miss family events for church, but I am playing the flute in sacrament meeting. I like to do that and I don’t want to miss it.

Now as an adult with my own family, I don’t have any Christmas Eve traditions. We have family activities on Christmas. I am wondering what I should do. I don’t really want to start a dinner with my siblings because we do one the next day, and we have not done one before. I am thinking about starting a dinner with people that don’t have family close by, except that I don’t want to ask what people are doing on Christmas Eve. I wish I just knew of someone that also felt a little outcast to play with. Most people have family traditions, and I am jealous. I just need to get something going and then I will not need to worry about it any longer. What do you guys do on Christmas Eve? I don’t even know where to start.