2011 - the past half a year

Here is a very watered-down version of the past 6-7 months ....

May
Sold my 1995 Toyota Camry to Jeff's sister, Katie, and bought a 2005 Toyota Camry.

June
Drove all of my siblings, plus Melissa's husband John, to a family reunion in Idaho. It was good to see those who were there.

Ran my first 5k ever with my sister Rebecca. Ran with her and finished in 41:33.

Jeff's car was having problems so we bought another vehicle... a 2001 Lexus SUV. Good thing we had savings to put some money down on these 2 vehicles so monthly payments wouldn't be as much.

July
Ran my 2nd 5k with Rebecca and for the 2nd time, I wanted to see how fast I could finish a 5k. I finished in 38:22 (Rebecca finished in 40:20).

Camping trip in the Uintahs, which a lot of Jeff's extended family does every year.

August
My birthday! I had a really fun birthday, complete with dinner at Ruby River, followed by a Josh Groban concert that I LOVED!

The end of the month was a new semester, which was very difficult at times!

September-December
Almost nothing but school and work

November
Jeff's sister, Katie, got married! (on 11-11-11) :)

December
After hard work, Jeff and I finally finished the semester with A's in each of our 2 classes. :)

Had a fun Christmas! Jeff and I opened presents to each other, he cooked me a nice breakfast, we went over to his parents' house for a while, then went to their church meeting at 1:00, which was a little over an hour, then we went to Jeff's grandpa's for a little bit, then we spent the rest of the evening/night with my family.


I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but there's a summary of the past 6 months! It's been a hard year, but we've also been blessed so many ways! I'm looking forward to 2012! My sister Rebecca and I were chosen to go on a scanning business trip to Massachusetts and we'll go in February, I think. I also have a eating better/getting more sleep/exercising New Year's resolution for 2012. This will be THE year I will finally lose the weight I want (I'm a little sick of losing weight, then gaining some back... I want to lose it and keep it off!). I am also going to be more prepared for any 5k's I do this year.

Hope everyone has a safe and fun New Year's!

... Or not

Okay, maybe I won't update my blog. I've sort of lost interest in blogging... not sure why. Now that another semester of school has started, I'm even busier.

SO Behind!

So I am a bit behind on my blog. I've been really busy or tired or just plain lazy to update it, but I will soon... I promise!

Adoption Blog

I made a new blog about our adoption journey, so if you would like to follow it, click here.

Adoption

Last week while Jeff and I were both at our jobs, Jeff and I were talking online and the subject of adoption was brought up. I have some infertility problems where we're not sure if we'll be able to have our own or not (though if we could have 1 or 2 of our own, that would be good, but we'll see). So we are starting the adoption process and we have an appointment set up tomorrow to attend a 1-hour orientation at LDS Family Services. If we need to get our names on some waiting list, it's probably best to start now in case the wait is a long time. If it is a long time, we'll still both be going to school to get the classes we need out of the way. It'll be exciting when we can finally become parents! I have a couple cousins who have adopted and one of Jeff's cousins (and her husband) are starting their process of adoption. It'll be so neat to experience what my cousins are experiencing with their adopted kids. I'll keep updating on this blog about that whenever anything changes... but we're just starting the process, so it may be a while before anything new happens. So like I always say, "We'll see what happens ..."

Uncle David

Last Sunday, on Easter Sunday, my dear Uncle David passed away, surrounded by his wife, Louise, and all of their nine children. It has been a hard week for me, the hardest being yesterday, which was the day of the funeral. My heart was heavy. Last November, Jeff's grandma died and it was harder than I thought it would be, especially since I didn't get as much sleep as I wanted the night before. I cried a little at that funeral. I did get more sleep the night before yesterday, but yesterday was still no different. We got to the church where the viewing and the funeral were being held. I was able to see and briefly visit with many, many cousins, a lot who I haven't seen in a while. I loved briefly visiting the two of the nine children closest to me in age, Julie and Linda. Julie and I shared a couple hugs and an emotional conversation. I was surprised how emotionally strong Linda was (I know I couldn't be that strong). We had a good short conversation and hugs as well. I will never forget those moments. The funeral service was so special and so spiritual. All nine of the children spoke and shared wonderful stories and memories of their dad. They also sang "Come, Come Ye Saints" (with their spouses). At the end, they played a 1976 recording of Uncle David singing a song he wrote called "Through the Eyes of a Child". After the service, we went to the grave site where he was going to be buried... on a hill close to the mountains in north Provo. It was a beautiful place. There, we sang a few more hymns and children's songs. I haven't been in Primary since I was a Primary teacher for 2 years before my mission, so I forgot some of the words to a couple primary songs. I either hummed or listened, and I felt the spirit so strong. My uncle has been a great influence to me and many others, and his death and funeral has made me want to be a better person.

I do have one memory I would like to share about Uncle David. About 8 1/2 years ago, I was looking for a car to buy since the car my parents gave me when I moved to Utah had problems that would be more expensive to fix than the car was worth. I found these two Toyota Camrys that this older guy was selling. He also had a couple Hondas he was selling... he repossessed these cars from banks and was selling them. I was interested in the two Camrys. They were both 1995... one was beige/tan and had 92,000 miles and the other was black and had over 130,000 miles. The black one was around my price range and the beige/tan one was a little over my price range. Since my parents were still in Missouri, my dad suggested I call Uncle David to take a look at the two cars and test drive them. I called Uncle David to set a time to meet at the house where the cars were (which was on Canyon Rd. in Provo, not too far from where Uncle David was buried). Uncle David test drove both cars. We both could tell the black one was more used and the beige/tan one was taken very well care of and was in nicer condition. Even though the beige/tan one was a little over my price range, he suggested I get that one. With the help of my parents loaning me the money (which I was able to pay back very quickly), I was able to get the beige/tan car that is 16 years old now and that I still have. Uncle David had many, many great talents and his knowledge of cars was one of them and I will never forget the help he gave me with that.

Below is a picture of my Uncle David that was used on the cover of the funeral program. Below that is his obituary. I love and miss him a lot!


David Lee Higginson

1943 ~ 2011

Our Father in Heaven chose Easter Sunday to call our dear husband, father, and grandfather home. He passed away peacefully surrounded by his loving family from the effects of cancer.

David was born October 3, 1943 in Nampa, Idaho to John Detton and Merle Harris Higginson.

He was a valiant member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and served a mission to New Zealand from 1962-64. He had a deep faith in his Savior, Jesus Christ and shared his love for Christ with his family and countless others.

While attending BYU, he met and married his sweetheart, Louise Lewis. They were sealed for time and all eternity on June 2, 1967 in the Salt Lake Temple.

Music was the essence of his life. He was an amazing choir and orchestra teacher in Utah and Idaho, a musician, songwriter, and arranger. His children's treasured memory is singing around the piano on Sunday evenings. He was the creator of The Professional Chord System and touched the lives of so many people as he traveled around the country to share his gift.

He is survived by his wife, Louise and 9 children, David (Heidi), Michael (Marci), Amy (Brenden) Clements, Rebekah (Jim) Edwards, Brian (Lisa), Julie, Linda (Danny) Strauss, Robert, and Jared.

We're Still Alive!

We haven't dropped off the face of the earth... yet. This has been one crazy semester, but thankfully it's almost over (just a couple more weeks, I think)! Jeff and I are in the same math class (MATH 1050, or College Algebra). Some of it has been a struggle, but so far we're both doing really well in that class considering how hard it is. We just have one more chapter test left, then the final, so I hope we continue to do well. We have a really good teacher, which helps a lot.

I have loved doing taxes this year and last year. Because we're both going to school, we get a pretty nice Federal refund back. And the "Making Work Pay" $800 we got back this year is really helping us get our savings back up (school is expensive!).

We're taking the summer off school to recuperate before going back in the fall. And to save more money. We also need time to clean and organize our place since we really haven't done much since we moved to where we live now almost 5 years ago, so we'll be busy doing that during the summer. Hopefully we can have our bedroom, computer room, and exercise/extra room back since all 3 right now are sort of "junk rooms" with boxes and other junk.

Speaking of exercise, I just started a "Couch to 5k" thing this week. It's an app I got on my iPhone. It's for 9 weeks, 3 times a week. It's not too bad this week, but I was looking ahead a few weeks... it's gonna be tough, but hopefully I can do it. It'll help me for my first ever 5k in June (in 9 weeks from tomorrow!).

Anyway, we are still alive (barely)! :)

Photography Giveaway

Someone in my condo complex is giving away a couple free photo sessions (up to $150 value).

To enter, go to the Lee Taylor Photography website. I would love to win since Jeff and I haven't had any professional pictures taken since the cruise we went on over 2 years ago (and we don't really take our own pictures of us, so we'll just be nonexistent for the times we don't have pictures taken of us). :)

Out With the Old, In With the New

Well my resolutions/goals for 2010 didn't go as planned. Most of them fizzled out after about 2 or 3 months. I tried keeping up with my weight loss goal and was doing really well, with the help of the exercise program my work has every summer of getting in as many miles as you can by doing a few different things. But then the last few months of 2010, I gained some pounds back. But... I am still 10 or 11 pounds less than I was a year ago at this time, so I can't feel too bad, I guess. This year, I want to work even harder on that and will start back in on my treadmill exercising (at LEAST 3 times a week) tomorrow. I might even try a 5k run this year with my sister. And I want to eat healthier. To do that, I am cutting out all desserts, sweet stuff, candy, etc. So yes, even dark chocolate, which I love! I also want to get more sleep, but I'm making that goal realistic by making sure I get at least 7 hours of sleep at least 5 nights a week (tonight won't be one of those nights 'cause I hate Mondays, so I stay up too late, not wanting the next day to come sooner).

For my one spiritual goal I want to do better in is going to the temple once a month. We haven't gone very much lately (shame on us!), but this year will be better.

I don't want to make too many resolutions/goals this year, so I will keep it at that and see if I can do better this year with these ones I listed.

I hope everyone has a wonderful year this year!