Looking back on 2011 and 12 Resolutions for 2012

Looking back on 2011, it was a fantastic year... much better than 2010. People who say that the first year of marriage is hard were RIGHT. Of course we didn't help ourselves by moving halfway across the country, both going for advanced degrees, learning to commute, living far from our families, etc. in that first year. So.... I must say that as tough as the first year was, the second year was so much better. We started the year off by a trip to New York City to celebrate our first anniversary. I love taking trips and we both loved NYC and it was a great way to start off the year

Scarlett experienced her first snow! (and we survived our first winter.... barely)

We discovered the glory that is the cupcake frenzy in DC

 We survived a 24 hour drive home through flooded highways for Caleb's grandpa's birthday

 and Micah and Kelsey's graduation

 And I got to see my sister perform in her high school's Les Miserables show

 And we got to see the Mavs in a playoff game.... and they went on to win the Championship!!!!

 

And I got to celebrate my great grandma's birthday!

 And we played church softball together.... despite the fact that Caleb does not believe in co-ed softball

 And we made new church friends!

I went on a trip with our church to Turkey

 Flat Stanley came to visit

 We made a trip to Baltimore to watch the Rangers play.... and win!

 We accidentally shaved Scarlett...... never again!

 We moved and bought our first can of paint together... and discovered we are terrible painters haha

I did a week long course in Tbilisi, Georgia

We added a new addition to our family.... the adorable Rhett Butler.... also known as 1/2 dog, tiny dog, and yittle dog (thanks to my niece Annie)

 I took an internship at the Pentagon and won first place in our division's bake-off at the annual picnic

 My mom came to visit and celebrate my 25th birthday!

 We made a trip to Amish Country

 

 And I got bangs.....

 I had a great ladies Bible study where I learned awesome tricks... like carving an apple out of a bird!

 We went to our first murder-mystery party..... dressed up for the wild west

 I hosted a table at our church's ladies tea

 And we celebrated christmas!

Most importantly, Caleb and I realized on our drive home that in 2011, our concept of home changed. When we went home for Christmas last year, we were DYING to ESCAPE DC. We couldn't wait to leave this awful place and just get HOME. But this year, as much as we loved being with our families for the holidays, at the end of two weeks, we were ready to come HOME. Back to DC, to OUR HOME. Home is now where we are together, the two of us. I love that over the last year we have really grown together and discovered that home is where the two of us are.... whether that is in Arkansas, Texas, or DC.

On to 2012....It was not my original intention to have 12 different resolutions for next year, but on our long drive from Little Rock to DC I just kept thinking of more! Without further ado.... here are my resolutions for 2012 (in no particular order)

1.) Lose the remaining weight to get to my goal weight (where I was when I went to college). I was doing SO good this fall and halfway there... and then my dumb appendix got in the way. So.... now that I am allowed to exercise again, I'm back on track and hoping to be at my goal by graduation in May!

2.) Run the Marine Corps Marathon OR Half-Marathon with my sister. I am already regretting this resolution. I LOVE that I have a joint goal with my sister and think we'll have a lot of fun with it - but the thought of actually having to run lots of miles is just not fun to me. Oh well. Onward....

3.) Eat more meals at the table. When people treat us like we are just college students up here, I always joke with people that Caleb and I are going to be REAL adults one day. The more I started thinking about it, if we want to be treated like real adults, maybe we should lose some of our college-like habits.... including but not limited to... sitting on our living room floor and eating our dinner off of the coffee table in front of the television.... (don't judge us too much).

4.) Get a real job - as in, a job that pays. After 50+ rejections this fall, I'm a little down on this one but hey, there are still 360+ days in 2012. If anyone knows someone who is hiring....

5.) Grow a successful summer garden. I was about to give up my quest to have a garden on my patio until those broccoli and cauliflower plants decided to actually do their jobs. And hey! They survived while we were at home for the holidays. One of my favorite memories was when we had a summer garden in our backyard that grew okra, peppers and squashes. With a little luck, my patio will have the same success in a few months...

6.) Actually get my dogs somewhat trained. Scarlett has now gone through obedience school twice and Rhett once. Scarlett will sit and lay down on command.... sometimes.... if there is a treat involved.... Rhett will look at you when you say her name, and is STILL not completely potty-trained. So ya..... dog training is definitely high on my list. I would like them to at least sit, stay, lay down, come and walk nicely on the leash by 2013.

7.) Get more involved in our church. I got more involved last year by going on a Turkey mission trip last spring, joining a women's bible study in the fall and hosting a table for the annual ladies tea. In reality, what I really want to do is join the church choir. I've already chickened out once - I meant to go last night and then talked myself out of it. I'm not sure why I'm so intimidated, but I really need to suck it up and just go. Maybe next week..... I am planning on starting a new ladies bible study this weekend.

8.) Leave the country. I know, I know, I'm addicted to leaving the country. But I just LOVE it. This year I'm hoping to make it back to my old stomping grounds in Russia. We'll see : )

9.) Do a better job saving money. I don't want to live in an apartment forever.... haha. Seriously though, we aren't major splurgers or anything, but we haven't been doing a good enough job of putting money in savings. I am declaring 2012 the year of the save!

10.) Continue to expand my baking abilities. Lately I've been mastering the art of the cake, but I'd really like to be able to make great cookies too. Between leftover Christmas money and the last of our hoarded up wedding gift cards (and some much needed encouragement from my sisters and mother in law) I bought myself a Kitchen Aid stand mixer for Christmas. I can't wait to start using it!

11.) Learn how to use my nice new camera. I'm super excited about it, but it still really intimidates me. Caleb told me the place he bought it had classes so I spent several hours the other night researching classes to take. When I went back to the site the next day to actually register for the classes, the company had declared bankruptcy and cancelled all classes.... of course in the 12 hours I was sleeping on my decision. That figures. So if anyone out there knows where I can get good, affordable camera lessons. Let me know!

12.) Encourage Caleb more. I have to admit... encouragement is not one of my finer qualities. I am much more prone to be a tough love and problem solver type. It is hard for me to remember to actually be encouraging. Caleb is much better at this than I am. So in 2012 I would like to be more encouraging - law school is stressful.... add in working part time and commuting and the pressure that he puts on himself and he is just a total stress ball. If anyone has any tips on how to remind yourself to be encouraging... especially if this is a hard skill for you... I would love some advice!

So that is it.... 12 resolutions for 2012!

December Recap

Whew! December has FLOWN by and I just did not get a chance to sit down and blog. Okay, that's not totally true. I started a blog post 3 different times but never finished it. Oh well. Better late than never. Here is a recap of our December.

Surprisingly, December felt NOTHING like December in DC. We had weather in the 60s most days and the son was nice and shiny. One of the things I was looking forward to when we moved up north was the white Christmas I've been dreaming about my entire life. 2010 and 2011 did not fulfill that dream, so here's hoping for 2012!!!

With the less than wintery weather and how tired I was after losing my appendix, I did not end up putting out our Christmas tree this year. In fact, I didn't put up a single Christmas at all. Not one. That's sad... I know. Probably not as sad as the fact that I still had a pumpkin out on my porch as a decoration until December 17th. Oh well. We were pretty focused on our finals and then left town, so it wasn't really worth putting them out for only 2 weeks.

I DID however, do lots of Christmas baking! From salted caramel candies to divinity to truffles to cookies, I made all sorts of good stuff.

I sent in a tray of assorted goodies to both Caleb and my offices that became known as the Osborne Sampler (which I think is hilarious!).

I also made everyone in both of our offices Christmas goodies in small mason jars as their Christmas presents. There were individual apple pies and chocolate peppermint fudge cupcakes. How cute are these? They took me longer than I wanted so I didn't get to make cute tags to go on the top.... but there's always next year!

I also discovered, sadly, that Caleb and I only took 4 pictures together in the entire year of 2011. I decided to send out a Christmas card for the first time and thought it would be a fabulous idea until I discovered our lack of pictures. Here were my choices:

So, as you can imagine, I chose this one. I believe one of my New Years Resolutions will be for us to take more pictures together.

I also had a garden miracle! I posted a few months ago about planting a garden on my patio. My herbs and flowers generally did fantastic in the early fall. While my veggie plants shot up really quickly, they never actually produced vegetables. I grew lettuce, cabbages, cauliflower and broccoli. I was so mad at them that about November 1st I gave up and refused to water them anymore. If they weren't going to make me vegetables than they could just die. However, my plants are more hard-headed than me and refused to die! I went out on the balcony the day before we were going to head home for the holidays to yank them up and kill them myself once and for all and what did I find.....

I was so mad! Here I am leaving town for 3 weeks and I now have vegetables. Probably because December decided to have October-like weather. Hopefully they survived while I've been gone. We'll see here in a few days...

Caleb and I both successfully completed our final exams. I am now 3/4 of the way to my Masters and Caleb is 1/2 of a lawyer. So far I found out that I made all A's (yay!) and we are still waiting to hear back on Caleb's grades. Apparently it takes FOREVER for law school teachers to grade exams. Oh well. We are not worrying about those for now.

We celebrated Caleb's 27th birthday before we left DC! And he has officially gone Apple. I got him an Iphone for his birthday present and he is fully enjoying Siri and the ability to check your facebook no matter where you are. We went to a nice dinner on his birthday and then headed home early to pack our bags for home! When we packed up that morning, Scarlett was so afraid that we were going to leave her that she snuck in the garage, jumped in the car and burrowed between the bags. Essentially, she tried to stow herself away. It was hilarious. Too bad she didn't blend in as well as she thought....

We left DC at 5am and made it to Little Rock by 930 that night, including many stops for gas/food and an extended stop in Memphis to visit with our friends the Thompsons and their BEAUTIFUL baby girl. I can't believe how much kids grow while we are away. This was Rhett Butler's first long road trip home and she did okay... for the most part. She really hates the car and has been especially grumpy the last two weeks before we came home because she got spayed. I thought I was smart and gave her a dose (perhaps a double dose) of benadryl. It worked on Scarlett- she was out like a light. Rhett, however, felt like screaming in the back of the car for the first hour that we drove, which was awesome. She settled down eventually and only threw a few small tantrums.

We spent the night in Little Rock and then surprised our niece Ellie with donuts on her birthday the next morning. Then we loaded up and headed on to Dallas where we spent a week baking, shopping, going to stars games and eating meal after meal of Mexican food. I think my family was glad when our week there was up so they could eat something other than Mexican food.

This was our year to spend Christmas with my family, so we did our traditional Christmas Eve with my grandparents and aunt, Christmas morning with just my family, and then extended family lunch. It was so nice to be home. We got some really amazing presents this year: Caleb furthered his Apple collection and got an ipad, I got a bluray player and a new phone, and the dogs got lots of treats and bones.

After a week in Dallas, we headed up to Little Rock to spend a week with Caleb's family. We have played and played and played with the kids (my poor dogs are going to sleep for a month when they get home), we baked some more, celebrated a few birthdays and spent a lot of time laughing. Caleb and I joke that when we are in Dallas, I visit and he relaxes and when we are in Little Rock he visits and I relax. This year has been different for some reason. We have been going NON-STOP at both of our homes to see and do as much as we can do. We realize that we don't get to come home very much and once we are out of school we won't get to spend entire weeks at home, so we want to enjoy every moment that we can! Sorry for the lack of Little Rock pics... I lost my camera in one of our bags for a few days....

For New Years Eve we spent time with our friends the Harris' and FINALLY got to meet their first little boy AND their precious newborn baby boy. We have really missed them and loved getting to spend New Years Eve laughing with friends.

Now we only have 1 more day in the true South before we head north to the land of no mexican food, really cold and dark winters, and more school..... Oh well. We have really enjoyed being home. OH! I almost forgot. Caleb got me an AMAZING new camera for Christmas, so hopefully I will be able to post blogs with more/better pictures. Or... I will as soon as I figure out how to use it. It's so nice! And confusing!!!

Check back soon for my reflections on 2011 and new years resolutions!