Good-bye, 2009. Hello, hello 2010.

I can totally admit to the fact that I tend to live in the past. I can AGONIZE over choices that I could have (maybe SHOULD HAVE) made at various points in my life. ... I still get VERY peeved when I see all the changes that have occurred in my hometown. I know, I know. The world does NOT revolve around me and my inflated sense of nostalgia ... I'm trying to come to terms with this fact.

I also cannot believe that it's been a year since I was flitting around town, scrambling to find edible glitter and the correct food colorings for Bruise and Bucket's birthday cake and cupcakes for their third birthday.

I also can't believe that it's only been a matter of months since the recession started. THAT, my dears, feels like it's gone on FOREVER. The bad kind of forever (as opposed to my feeling like Michael and I have been married for forever. That forever makes me happy. And almost wipes out how I agonize over what COULD have happened if I HAD kissed K in that play during the Ren Faire when we were sophomores. Could I have had a date for Prom my Junior year ... and then P and I wouldn't have had our friendship go all weird there for a while. But then he (P, not K) and Rox wouldn't have gotten engaged ... and he wouldn't have cheated on her ... Yeah, I don't know. Would things have been better? Or just different. And I probably wouldn't have liked myself all that much, since I WAS dating F right then. Not that he had a problem with my stage-kissing boys. Which was good, since I was in theatre ... But he and I really didn't suit. We didn't (and still don't) have all that much in common. (Truly, we have even less in common now. And I still think about the fact that I owe him a form punch in the nose for taking advantage of a friend of mine ... But that's neither here nor there, now is it?)

We should take down the Christmas tree soon. I need to get a picture of it. I feel bad that we really didn't get presents for the kids this year. Stupid recession hitting us hard. But, hey, they really didn't notice that at all. They got their yearly ornament (or, in this year's case, a set of ornaments each) and they received more than plenty from their family who loves them very, very much. (Costumes, dolls, Transformers, pajamas, lightsabers, cars, Lincoln logs ... good stuff. Yes, my babies are SPOILED.)

We bought their birthday presents today. Nothing really huge. I'll post what they got on their birthday.

Michael's getting a new calling. Glad that it's not me. I freaking LOVE my calling. I'll be so absolutely depressed and dejected when I have to give it up. So, yeah, we'll have a few changes happening around here ... even in our family schedule. Nothing really, really huge ... just different.

Bruise and Bucket start Primary this Sunday. What's nice is that one of their Nursery leaders is now their teacher. And I get the other in YW with me. I love them both ... and I'm so excited to have one with the YW. She totally makes me laugh so hard. (Seriously, you have not LIVED if you haven't played Scattergories with her. HILARIOUS!!)

In my YW Presidency meeting yesterday, it was brought to my attention that I had accidentally moved my birthday to be the same day as our president's. She and I have a couple days in between our birthdays. I played it off, citing that (1) I'm quite fallible and (2) that I wanted to be her TWINSIE!!! We had a good laugh about that. ^_^

I should use the pasta maker that I got for Christmas. It'll be a good thing. Get me off the computer more. And fresh, homemade noodles will be yummy and healthy and (most importantly) CHEAP.

I've been reading (Dexter in the Dark, Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog, Shakespeare's Landlord ...) and proofreading paper for a friend of mine. (LOVE the "Track Changes" in MS Word. Makes it easy to proof papers online.)

Michael and I went to the temple. And saw Sherlock Holmes (GOOD. Liked it a lot. I'm ready to own in on DVD.) Boxing day, we went with Michael's family and the kids to see "The Princess and the Frog." First time taking Bruise and Bucket to the movie theater. They did really well. Phew! Maybe we can make more of a habit of this. ... When we have money to do so. ^_^

BUMMER THING: My daughter, who takes after her mother in the area of childhood tact ... well ... My mom emailed me last night, letting me know that Bucket was talking about my mom's rear. And using the words "really, really big." Which had really hurt my mom's feelings.
If Bucket hadn't been asleep, I think I would have dragged her out of bed and raked her over the coals, vented my spleen, read her the riot act, and really have let her have it. Since she was asleep, we waited until we were all up and awake and had a DISCUSSION. And touched on this DISCUSSION repeatedly. We DISCUSSED using KIND WORDS and what is and is not appropriate to discuss.
(I can say that she takes after me because, as a child, I kinda offended/hurt my Pop-pop by getting after him and his smoking habit. ... I'm sorry that I hurt his feelings. But, deep inside, I really was right. Because he died of lung cancer. ... I really would give near anything to have been wrong. Sucks, huh?)
But, hopefully, Bucket will stop "trying to be funny/silly" and treat my mom with more respect. (And my mom felt like maybe SHE was being too sensitive. No. My daughter just needs to learn tact and how to filter. STAT. She's not allowed to hurt my mommy's feelings. That's that. Or else I'll be SORELY TEMPTED to handle it how my mom handled it back in the day when _I_ questioned why her posterior was the size it was. ... She slapped me across the face. I learned REAL FAST not to ask THAT question again. ... I don't want to do that, though. It's kind of my last resort. Let's pray that I don't have to resort to it.)

That's mostly the whole catch-up ...

I should, like, I don't know, write down goals or crap for this year. (Hope for more goals and less crap. ^_^

• Really, for real, make a steady habit of personal prayer and scripture study.
  This shouldn't be such a struggle. But, for me it is.
• Make a steady habit of exercise. Because _I_ am tired of being out of shape.
  And, really, how am I supposed to be a good example to my kids if I'm not making exercise a priority? ... Yeah, that's what I thought. Thanks.
• Back up all my stuff to the external HD once a month.
• Review the guidebooks and stuff for YW (Our YW Pres recommended this)
• Attend the temple at least 1x/month.
• Maybe start doing FLYlady again ... it'd be nice to have a consistently cleaner house.
• Plan meals out at the beginning of every week (or, even better, every MONTH) -- so that I will have an idea of when to start dinner and what to shop for and all that.
• Get my computer up and running again. *sigh*
• Maybe do that 365 picture thing ... Just maybe.
• Be prepared for NaNoWriMo this year. ... Since I lost all my previous work, do you think that I should restart the plot that I had going this year? Since I'll have some time and all, I could easily revamp and make an outline and, I don't know, have NAMES PICKED OUT FOR CHARACTERS and stuff?
• Finish Bruce and Bucket's baby books. BECAUSE THEY'RE GOING TO BE FOUR. THEREFORE IT'S DEFINITELY TIME FOR ME TO GET THAT STUFF DONE.
• Finish the two books I have from Thomas Nelson publishing and review them. So I can get another free book to review, and so on and so on and so on, worlds without end, Amen. (Was that sacrilegious? Or blasphemy? I'm not TRYING to be so, just so you know.)
• Get my girly-bits examined and a general check-up. Since that'd be a good thing to do. Not enjoyable, per se. But good, preventative medicine.
• Make a little marker for Gingi-cat's grave.
• Update my address book in Gmail ... get everyone's physical addresses added into that, so that, should anything happen, heaven forbid, I will still have people's addresses.
• I want to get my visiting teaching done every month. Not just for the numbers ... but because I feel better when I know that I've done what has been assigned to me. I hate feeling like I've dropped the ball.

Well, I think that's enough for now. *sigh* We'll see how well I do. And, hey, since I've shared these goals with you, you get to help keep me accountable.
If I fail, don't rub my nose in it, TOO much. Just enough to keep me humble. Not so much that I'll be calling every doctor I know, trying to get a prescription for Valium or anything.

Happy New Year's, everyone! Let's hope and pray for a year of health, love, and some material wealth. ^_^

Or, at least, that things will be getting better and better ... as opposed to the contrary.