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Friday, January 20, 2012

A Quasi-Birth Announcement

It's official.  After much anticipation and second-questioning we are no longer putting it off. We've been considering this for a while but have been held back by a few major concerns: 1. Money 2. Responsibility 3. My Tendency to Over-think/Fret 4. Adjusting to a New Town, New Job, New School, and New Schedule.

Dave and I are seriously looking for a dog.

We got the courage to take the plunge after we had the chance to pet-sit for our friends Kat and John. They have a bichon-maltese mix named Chipper and he is the cutest. Even though we only watched him for the weekend, after he was gone we both started remarking how we missed him. One week later and we visited every shelter in town in search of an adoptee. Our living arrangements limit the size and type of breed that we can get so it is still a work in progress, but we're expecting to add a new member to our family soon! In the meantime, any name suggestions for the potential Hallstrom are welcome. Dave is leaning towards Plato (mostly because he thinks it will be funny when little kids get confused and think its name is Play-dough) but I am not really sold on anything yet.

Looking Back at 2011 and New Years Resolutions for 2012

I know it's a little late but...happy new years and hooray for 2012! Hopefully this year will bring just as much excitement and fun as last year. 2011 will be hard to beat--moving across the country, graduating from college, student teaching, and starting law school were pretty big deals. I still have a feeling that 2012  has a few things tucked up its sleeve (like finally actually getting a puppy...consider that a teaser).
We'll have to wait and see what happens, but it is a new year and that means new goals. I am a firm believer in setting goals at any point during the year (why wait right?) so many of my resolutions are simply continuations of things I've already been working on (exercising being a somewhat perpetual one of late). Still, I enjoy hearing about other people's plans for change and thought I'd share a couple of ours. One that I am particularly excited about is our goal to attend the temple once a month. We have not been since we've moved out here, and I think it will be a nice boost. Plus, we are going to get yearly passes to Universal Studios so that we can give ourselves a little extra incentive to make it down to Orlando. (Only twelve dollars a month! That's cheaper than going to the movies!) One of my personal goals is to read a book each month. So far I've blown that one out of the water--you can check out of my good reads account for proof! Anyone else have any resolutions that they're excited about--or already dropped?

Christmas, Crafts, and Law School Finals


Dave is officially done with his first semester of law school! Never mind that he doesn't get to find out how he actually did on any of his finals until mid-January. He is past caring on that particular aspect and just relieved to be finished. (I secretly fret about it, but that's just because graduating from college didn't cure me of my occasionally uptight attitude toward school. I am successfully suppressing the urge). Poor guy's brain is pretty pooped after two solid weeks of studying, stress, and test taking. He has definitely earned his three weeks of vacation.
Still, I didn't find finals weeks quite as bad as I expected. Obviously it couldn't have been that bad for me since I didn't have to take them, but beforehand various people told me horror stories about how Dave would go crazy under all the stress and pressure and blow up at me. I kind of wished that I could just cook whole lot of food, stick it in the fridge, leave Dave to fend for himself, and reappear in two weeks when finals were over. Most of my fears were unfounded and there were no crises or blow-ups. I think I did do more Christmas crafts this year than I have ever done before, but it kept me happily distracted and Dave happily not-distracted by me.

Our Christmas Tree

Post-Script:
I wrote this ages ago but I never uploaded the pictures and it's been sitting here all this time. The holidays were just too fun. Merry Belated Christmas everyone!