New Year Resolutions

Well, it's time for 2010 to begin. And you know what that means: New Year resolutions. Normally, I just think of a resolution and then I forget about it until the next New Year. And even then, I usually don't remember what it is. So, in order to ensure increased accountability (sort of) I am hereby writing my resolutions down and publishing them on the internet.

Initially, I decided that my New Year resolution would be to learn how to solve a Rubik's cube. But then I did that before the New Year. So maybe I'll pretend that was my resolution from last year and I fulfilled it in the nick of time. Whew!

In either case, I had to come up with a new resolution(s). So here they are (drumroll, please) the Alyssa Young 2010 New Year Resolution docket:

1. This New Year, I resolve to read the scriptures every day. Lewis and I read our scriptures often, but not as often as we should. And that's just silly considering how easy of a habit it is to make. At least I think so. No excuses!

2. This New Year, I resolve to keep our apartment clean. Specifically, this means

a. Dishes are to be cleaned right after they are used.

b. The living room/kitchen table is a clutter-free zone.

c. The bed is to be made every morning and dirty clothes are to go in the basket, not in front of it.

3. This New Year, I resolve to pack lunch for school in the morning and actually make dinner at night. Snacks are not suitable meals, even when I'm really tired. This also means I need to

a. Get in the habit of removing meat from the freezer to thaw.

b. Plan a menu and actually stick to it.

c. Not be afraid of leftovers.

d. Use the food we buy before it is gross.

Also, I have an indecent amount of kitchen appliances/gadgets/tools for someone with a kitchen my size. I should actually use them. I finally got an apron, so now I don't have an excuse.

4. This New Year, I resolve to exercise regularly. I like to exercise and I like how it makes me feel. I don't know what my problem is that makes me not do it regularly. I mean, we own a Wii Fit, and although you may scoff, I've gotten some pretty good work outs with that thing. In any case, it's better than nothing and I can do it in the comfort of my own, warm home. I'm also considering investing in a set of small hand weights to use with the Wii Fit. My resolution is to exercise at least 5 times each week. It doesn't all have to be on the Wii Fit, but that is a handy start.

Basically, my New Year resolution is to be more healthy. Healthy in spirit through reading my scriptures; healthy in home because it will be clean; and healthy in body because of eating better and exercising. Sounds stereotypical, right? Well guess who has two thumbs and doesn't care? This lady.

So let it be written, so let it be done.

The Twelfth Day of Christmas

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

12 stocking stuffers
11 slamm-ed tim tams
10 cups of ketchup
9 hours of daylight
8 Christmas carols
7 guns a-shooting
6 Lewis kisses
5 bags of wings!
4 calling phones
3 final tests
2 Praxis scores
And a mid-Atlantic winter snow storm!


Whew! I did it. All twelve days. When I first began this endeavor, I only started because "mid-Atlantic winter snow storm" fit so well with "partridge in a pear tree." And then I was stuck. I couldn't start something without finishing it, could I? There were many, many times throughout the twelve days when I thought, "what was I thinking?"

In any case, here's the twelfth day. Stocking stuffers. Lewis and I went to the store today and got a variety of candies, nuts, and fruits that Santa can use to fill our stockings. We may have gone a little slap happy with all the treats, but apparently Smith's decided to put all their Christmas candy on sale the day before Christmas, so it all worked out so well.

I am really excited that it is Christmas. I love Christmas and everything about it. Even though not all of my true love gifts were Christmas related, this project was very useful in getting me in the Christmas spirit. I'm so happy that Christmas Eve is finally here. It's such a beautiful holiday. True, it makes me a little homesick, but I'm so grateful that I get to spend the holiday with my great husband. I like him lots.

The Eleventh Day of Christmas

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

11 slamm-ed tim tams
10 cups of ketchup
9 hours of daylight
8 Christmas carols
7 guns a-shooting
6 Lewis kisses
5 bags of wings!
4 calling phones
3 final tests
2 Praxis scores
And a mid-Atlantic winter snow storm


Ever had a tim tam? Ever slammed a tim tam? Well, you should. It's absolutely delicious. Tim tams are a cookie that are popular in other places, but only recently made it across the Pacific pond to the United States, courtesy of Pepperidge Farm. Lewis enjoyed tim tams all the time on his mission.

The official tim tam slam involves a hot liquid such as hot chocolate. While I'm sure that would be very tasty, my only tim tam slamming experience involves 1% milk. What you do is you bite off one corner and then bite off the opposite corner and suck up the milk through the cookie like a straw. Or, if you're like Dallas, you can just eat the cookies "straight."

Conveniently enough, Pepperidge Farm packages tim tams in groups of eleven. Normally, this would be something that would annoy me. I tend to prefer numbers when it comes to prepackaged foods. But not today. Today, I thank you Pepperidge Farm. When I started the twelve days endeavor, I figured eleven would be my most challenging day.

Happy Christmas Eve Eve!

The Tenth Day of Christmas

On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

10 cups of ketchup
9 hours of daylight
8 Christmas carols
7 guns a-shooting
6 Lewis kisses
5 bags of wings!
4 calling phones
3 final tests
2 Praxis scores
And a mid-Atlantic winter snow storm


Today Lewis, his mom, and I went to lunch at Burger Supreme. And we got ten cups of ketchup for our French fries. And a few things of fry sauce, but that is neither here nor there. Why did we need ten cups of ketchup to share among the three of us, you ask? Because it's the tenth day of Christmas and it works. Shut up. I took dipped a French fry in each one, so it counts. Thankyouverymuch.

On the other hand, the fry sauce was apparently too heavy on the mayonnaise, so the abundance of ketchup came in handy.

Two days left. Just two days left.

And then it's Christmas!

The Ninth Day of Christmas

On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

9 hours of daylight
8 Christmas carols
7 guns a-shooting
6 Lewis kisses
5 bags of wings!
4 calling phones
3 final tests
2 Praxis scores
And a mid-Atlantic winter snow storm


Today is the Winter Solstice, meaning it is the shortest day of the year. Strictly speaking, we will have 9 hours and 18 minutes of daylight today, from sunrise to sunset, but I decided it was okay to round down to 9.

According, to Wikipedia, "the Winter Solstice occurs exactly when the earth's axial tilt is farthest away from the sun at its maximum of 23° 26'. Though the Winter Solstice lasts an instant in time, the term is also colloquially used like Midwinter to refer to the day on which it occurs. For most people in the high latitudes this is commonly known as the shortest day and the sun's daily maximum position in the sky is the lowest. The seasonal significance of the Winter Solstice is in the reversal of the gradual lengthening of nights and shortening of days. The Winter Solstice is also the shortest day or lowest sun position for people in low latitudes located between the Tropic of Cancer (23°26'N) and the Tropic of Capricorn (23°26'S). Depending on the shift of the calendar, the Winter Solistice occurs some time between December 21 and December 22 each year in the Northern Hemisphere, and between June 20 and June 21 in the Southern Hemisphere."

Today, the Winter Solstice officially occurred at 10:47 am.

This is very good news for me. I was getting steadily more depressed as the days got shorter and shorter. I never made it home before the sun went down. Even Sundays have been stinky because we don't get out of church until 5 when the sun has already started to set.

But now the days will be getting longer and longer, a fact that is ever so pleasing to me. I'm a fan of the sun, even if it is bitterly cold outside, which I'm sure it will be again soon. Brr.

The Eighth Day of Christmas

On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

8 Christmas carols

7 guns a-shooting

6 Lewis kisses

5 bags of wings!

4 calling phones

3 final tests

2 Praxis scores

And a mid-Atlantic winter snow storm

One of the benefits of living in a student ward in Provo is that over Christmas break, we only have 1-hour church. However, Lewis' mom was singing in the choir for their ward Christmas program, so we went to one hour of their church instead.

For the program, eight carols were sung:

-A Tiny Child Will Come

-Picture a Christmas

-Away in a Manger

-With Wondering Awe

-We Three Kings

-Tidings of the Newborn King

-Praise the Newborn King

-Silent Night

I love singing Christmas carols and I am always bummered out that the ward I'm in never sings them for as many Sundays as they could (starting with the Sunday after Thanksgiving, of course). I was excited for the opportunity to listen to so many at this program, which was lovely. Their ward choir is about 4 times the size of ours.

Although Lewis was saddened that they didn't sing Angels We Have Heard on High. It's his fav. I think he likes the glorias.

Also, we ended up staying for Sunday School, so I think it's fair to say we went above and beyond our religious obligation. Jay kay, I like church. No, really.

The Seventh Day of Christmas

On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

7 guns a-shooting

6 Lewis kisses

5 bags of wings!

4 calling phones

3 final tests

2 Praxis scores

And a mid-Atlantic winter snow storm

Lewis family has a tradition that I believe only started a few years ago now (Christmas before last, right?). On Christmas day, after all the gifts are open and the thank-yous are exclaimed, they lay each other out with guns. Now before you get your cyber panties in a twist, these guns are merely of the Nerf variety.

I participated in this great Nerf battle last year and I am happily anticipating the impending doom that will arrive this December the 25th.

While we were out shopping today, Lewis' parents purchased seven new Nerf guns for this year's belligerence. I'll let you decided for yourself why we only picked seven, when there are more than seven people in the family. Alls I know is that it's beneficial to me.

The Sixth Day of Christmas

On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

6 Lewis kisses

5 bags of wings!

4 calling phones

3 final tests

2 Praxis scores

And a mid-Atlantic winter snow storm

I couldn't think of anything for the 6th day, so Lewis helped out by pointedly giving me six quick pecks. It was very sweet and not at all cheesy like you'd expect. I don't know what I'm going to do for days 7-12.

The Fifth Day of Christmas

On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

5 bags of wings!

4 calling phones

3 final tests

2 Praxis scores

And a mid-Atlantic winter snow storm

My boss is hosting a party on the day after Christmas for all the international students who aren't going home for Christmas. For that purpose, we took a trip to Costco today to get supplies and pre-packaged food items for the event.

Boy oh boy, it was a busy day at the Costco. Apparently, Thursday afternoon is prime time at Costco for all the retirees in the greater Provo-Orem area. HOWEVER, it was a great day for samples. And if there's anything I love, it's free samples. Whoever invented the program of handing out free samples of various foods/drinks/candies was a genius. The lunch of Lewis and me (he came with us) was provided by Costco today. For free.

We sampled, among other things:

-Drinkable yogurt (but actually good)

-Diet soda that looks deceivingly like water and tastes gross

-Costco brand's knock-off Vitamin Water

-Egg nog ice cream sandwiches (it was just okay)

-Multi-grain toast

-Orange chicken

-Dark chocolate truffles (they were brushed with cocoa powder which was weird and bitter, but overall I liked them. Lewis did not.)

-Pocket pizzas

-Mashed potatoes

-Veggie chips (which are really quite good)

-And other stuff that was apparently less memorable

Like I said, it was a great day for samples at the Costco.

The Fourth Day of Christmas

On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

4 calling phones

3 final tests

2 Praxis scores

And a mid-Atlantic winter snow storm

As far as cellular service is concerned, I've been with T-Mobile for five years now. And it has been adequate. I've had my share of faulty phones replaced, but who hasn't? Well, my contract with them expired last week. Lewis and I were planning on having me pay month to month until April when his contract expired and then join AT&T together so we can (eventually) get iPhones. But then circumstances facilitated the need to save as much money as possible, so we decided that the best thing to do would be for me to join the cellular telephone plan belonging to Lewis and his mother when my contract was up (they're with Verizon).

As a bonus, Verizon said it was time to let Lewis upgrade with a new agreement, so we could get it so our time in their hands expires together.

So today, we headed over to our neighborhood Verizon Wireless store to check out the phones. While there, I narrowed my selection down to these four:

1. The Samsung Intensity

Lewis and I actually walked into the store with the plan to each get this phone. It's a pretty basic phone, no special bells and whistles (which is all we really need). It has a slide out qwerty keyboard, which is cool. However, as we discovered when we got the chance to actually hold it rather than just look at a picture online, it feels flimsy and like it will break with one fall. And if you know me, I have a bad habit of either dropping my phone on accident or throwing it across the room when I'm angry. Although I don't do that as often as I used to.

Plus it was hard to type on the keys at the top of the keyboard.

2. The HTC Driod Eris

We spent a lot of time looking at this phone. It's what Verizon wishes was the iPhone. It's a touch screen with lots of applications (or "apps" as the kids call them). Overall, it's a pretty sweet phone. However, it's a smartphone, which adds 30 bucks a pop onto our bill, and that just didn't seem too practical considering the whole point of this is to save money. And the good graces of Lewis' mom. So that was a no.

3. The Samsung Alias 2

I looked at this one mostly just because I found it to be intriguing. If you open it like a regular flip phone, the keys are one way, but if you open it on its side, the keys change. And then they change again if you want to send a text. It's pretty neat. (And if none of that made sense, just watch the video from the link). In the end, though, I decided that the changing keys were just too confusing. Cool idea, but meh.

4. The LG enV3

This one was our winner. Lewis has an enV right now, which he admitted is a quality phone in spite of the fact that it likes to shut itself off randomly and without notice. As far as design is concerned, the enV3 seems to be a good improvement from the original enV, so that's good.

The only trouble now is how we are going to tell our phones apart. We both picked the phone in slate blue because the other option was red and well, you know... red. Blech.

So that's that. Actually, we ended up stressing ourselves out about the lack of desirable phones while we were actually at the store, so we ended up going home and just ordering our phones over the phone, interestingly enough (I'm convinced that the reason we didn't just end up getting the enV3 in the store is because the one they had on display was of the red variety. That and the fact that you had to mail in a rebate to get the upgrade discount at the store whereas it's instant online or over the phone). They will be here on Friday. Which is great news for me especially because I haven't been texting since October, so basically my phone has not been used much at all. I realized that I don't get very many calls. But that's okay. It's been a busy few months at school, so the lack of cell phone usage is probably a very good thing.

Happy fourth day, everyone!

The Third Day of Christmas

On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

3 final tests
2 Praxis scores
And a mid-Atlantic winter snow storm


Today, I took three finals. And they were my last finals for the semester! It was a very happy feeling to get everything done, and to be done with school.

The best final I had was probably my Family Law exam. And that's because I took the final while at my in-laws' condo up in Park City, sitting on an extremely comfortable couch, in front of a cozy fire, typing on a keyboard that was connected wirelessly to Lewis' computer, which was connected wiredly to the big screen TV. It was delightful! If any of my future teachers are reading this, I would sincerely appreciate it if you would format my exams so that I may complete them in this manner. Mucho gusto.

The Second Day of Christmas

On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

2 Praxis scores

And a mid-Atlantic winter snow storm

True, Lewis and I both already got our Praxis scores. But then we also both got certificates saying we were in the top 15% of all test takers. True, the letters that came with the certificates said this was the case for the Praxis II test and we took the Praxis I, but still. The certificates got it right.

Boo-ya.

The First Day of Christmas

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

A mid-Atlantic winter snow storm

The conditions outside right now are similar to those that would, in Virginia, close school for a week. Snow was falling for most of the day. Thick, wet snow that accumulates to form slush. Slush is a winter staple out east, although they don't usually get it this early in the season (i.e. before Christmas).

Pros:

-This kind of snow is PERFECT for building snowmen. It sticks together like you wouldn't believe.

-Until (potentially) the middle of the night, the temperature never actually dips below freezing, so driving isn't quite so terrifying.

-It's really easy to clean off a car, and driving through banks of this stuff looks awesome as it sprays off the side.

-Seriously, there would be no school tomorrow if we were in VA.

Cons:

-The slush splashes when you walk through it, gets in your shoes, and promptly melts.

-It is slippery to walk through.

-Virginia driver suck and think they are being cautious, when they really aren't. So driving really is still pretty terrifying.

-If the temperature does dip below freezing, forget about it.

-I live in Utah, so I still have school tomorrow and it's finals.

So that's what the first day of Christmas has brought to me! Memories of winters past. Memories that are in no way associated with Christmas, because it would take the miracle of the century to have a white Christmas in Virginia, but still.