2010 has been pretty good to us thus far. We returned back to our real lives of school, work, sunbeams and various other excitements. Dan needed a back to Army haircut, and was willing to let me do it. Enough time had passed since the "incident" of 2008, where I tried cutting hair for the first time and shaved a bald spot above his ear. The haircut of 2010 was successful, partially owing to the ear edging attachment in our new costco hair cutting kit.
A quick thought on 2009
2009 was eventful. I hate living alone, but learned that I could do it when Dan left for training (though I left the light on every night). Then my kind Uncle and Aunt took me in for a few months, and I learned many things from them. Jordan was probably the biggest learning experience of my life, let alone 2009. I learned that I can go pretty far outside my comfort zone and survive. I missed my husband, family, language, culture, but I got through it. Enjoyed a lot of it. Dealt with bed bugs, made progress in Arabic, and really kind of "found myself." Cliche, I know.
2009 was a pretty transitional year for Dan too. Basic training in South Carolina was a soul breaking experience. We only got to talk 5 mins, once a week - if we were lucky. He also lost 60 lbs there - pretty crazy stuff. From there he went to AIT in the middle of nowhere Arizona. We got to talk more, but by then I was abroad and the 11 hour time difference was hard. But he made it through all of that, survived, and Im proud.
We finally met back up in Monterey, shortly after our 1st anniversary - having spent most of our first year of marriage in different states/countries. The transition to living to together and being " a normal married couple" wasn't immediately easy, but has been very very good.
Looking forward in 2010
I don't usually write this much, I try to keep it mostly pictures, so if you're already bored Stop Now. I have a few goals for this new year:
1) Compare Less - to other people and my own past
My friend Stacie posted a great devotional Elder Holland gave at BYU last year. He spoke about Lot's wife, how she turned to salt not simply for simply looking back at Sodom and Gomorrah (that always confused me), but for looking back with longing. She wanted her old life back, and didn't trust that the Lord would provide her with a better future. Elder Holland emphasized that we must have faith that "the best is yet to come." I have a serious problem with glamourizing my past, thinking that my High School days were so idealic and nothing will never be as fun.
I also compare my life to other peoples, and fear that my life will never be as good as theirs. Something I definetly need to work on.
2) Eat more "Real Food" and Exercise more
I read a lot of great books on food this year, including "The Omnivore's Dilemma".
I won't blather on about it. But I commit to eat more "real food" and less fake processed food like things. I also will try to get some form of excercise every day. Be it my Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred, which I love - or a just a walk.
3) Cook A New Recipe every week
I love cooking and trying new recipes. Even if they are failures, like tonight's was. I decided to try French Onion Soup from one of my jazzy new cook books. The picture is of Dan's soup bowl before dinner. It looked pretty much the same after dinner though, he could only choke down like one bite. Haha, but there's always next week!
I have about 5.7 million other things I need to work on improving in my life. But this blog has already been epically long. So I'll start with these.
6 comments:
Congratulations on your successful hair-cut. From personal experience, the more you do it, the better you'll get. Soon Dan will forget how it is at the "dollar cut"!:)
I loved the post. I usually check your blog on my itouch and doesn't show any words for some reason... so I have catching up to do. You are so such a supportive and good wife! I pout if I have to spend my weekends alone... and I just don't know what I would do if Devin was gone for long periods (once again why we're not doing the airforce route). You mentioned how you want to make new recipes. Throughout the last 8 months I've been trying to cook a few new recipes each week. I would recommend The Lion House Cookbook, classics edition. Here's a quick recipe from it that I love:
Honey Garlic Salmon Steaks:
Pick your salmon.
Make your sauce:
1 cup honey
3 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon soy sauce
Mix and marinate.
Put salmon in either a glass pan or a metal pan with aluminum foil (for some reason fish cooks better in a glass pan). Don't forget to spray it first. Coat the top of the fish with the sauce you made. If some of the sauce is on the pan and not on the fish it will turn black and be very hard to clean afterwards. Bake. I usually broil my fish for 7 mins on each side. If it is a salmon steak that has the skin still on it than cook for 20 minutes at say 350.
I like to serve salmon with wild rice.
Hope you like it!
I liked the longer post. Not long, and I like your goals. Here's one of mine, stop comparing myself to you and my other younger more gorgeous and smarter cousins
First I love all of your family traditions. Second, thanks for sharing your New Years post. You amaze me. Tell Dan Hi!
I'm totally jealous of your mad hair cutting skills. Merrill insists on cutting his hair himself.. I will spare you details. By the way, I like your goals mostly because they're so similar to mine. Luv ya
Your amazing! i can't believe you gave dan a hair cut.. i don't even dare to attempt! Your post was very deep and inspiring! It too makes me want to be better. Those days of meks, sonic, and tanning were indeed unforgettable... I do however feel as though life now has a lot more meaning, but it is definitely harder! One day when we are old and going to the gym together we will think how easy it was when we were this age too... Im sure of it;)
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