2013 in review

Hey there! 2013 is just about over so I thought I'd do my rundown. It was a quieter year in some ways for me, so we'll see what I did in el ano dos mil trece.

Firsts/New things
-I started my year with a new job at Tri-City Orthopaedics. It's a great place to work and I love my coworkers. Patients are crazy (but I already knew that) and I came to the job already knowing a bit about working in a medical office so I feel like I had a leg up. Crazy to think I've been there a year now. Time flies.
-With a new job I got my first very own new medical insurance! I really felt like a grown up then. I was feeling fancy so I sprung for dental too. I'm very grateful that my employer pays my premium and also pays into my HSA account. It's been fun!
-Got called as the Activities Chair-I'm not gonna lie, I've hated it. And that's all I have to say about that.
-My branch got shuffled back to the Keene building and since there are four wards we had to move to 2:00 pm church. Blerg.
-Hiked Badger Mountain up the back side for the first time
-Gained three new "nieces and nephews"-Ryken, Miranda, and Levi (Haven't met them all yet!)

-Went to the Circus for the first time and I loved it! The elephants were my favorite.

-Shot some pretty wicked awesome guns out in the Horse Heaven Hills and then floated the Yakima in Benton City, it was pretty fun.
-In preparation for my Africa trip I got a ton of vaccinations. Hep A/B, Tdap, Typhoid, Yellow Fever. I'm pretty much invincible now.

Movies/TV/Music
Lincoln

I feel like I saw this one last year, but as it's not in my countdown maybe I watched it early this year? Daniel Day Lewis was Lincoln. I read the book it was partially based on and the movie was so good. Some people thought there was too much talking but I loved the speeches and the fight for the abolition of slavery.

42

This is the story of Jackie Robinson and how he broke the color barrier in major league baseball. The actor who played Robinson did a superb job. It's one of my top favorite sports movies. And Harrison Ford even did a decent job as the growly manager.

Despicable Me 2

Minons!

Monsters University

Loved the "collegiate" feel!

Frozen

Just saw this one, great Disney magic. Idina Menzel-that girl can sing! And a shout out to hometown peep Santino Fontana voicing "Hans"!

Saving Mr. Banks-haven't seen yet but I'm sure I'll love it

Star Trek: Into Darkness

Me and mom loved Benedict. He was a really good bad guy.

West Wing

The fam got into this one on netflix. We enjoyed it when it was on tv the first time. Smart and witty writing, so easy to get hooked on. And kind of freaky that 13 years later we still struggle with the exact same issues they wrote into the storylines.

Call the Midwife

Netflix again-Midwifery in the 1950's East End of London. Not for the faint of heart. But very real and characters you care about.

The Giant Mechanical Man

-cute indie flick found on netflix, had a lot of heart. Something Monicky would pick.

Long Way Down-

got into this show after my trip to Africa, it's actor Ewan McGregor and his buddy riding motorcycles through Africa. A good buddy trip adventure. I really enjoyed the episodes where they went through Africa and I got to see a lot of the same things I saw on my trip. Watched the previous series, Long Way Round, as well.

Sara Bareilles-The Blessed Unrest

-different from her other albums, only liked a few songs at first, then the rest grew on me. Favorites are Little Black Dress, Manhattan and I Choose You

Josh Groban-All That Echoes

-the universe gave this to me for my birthday, and it was AMAZING. Don't know if this is more favorite than "Awake", but could be. Also, saw the concert for the cd three times between going to the movie theater twice and having it shown on PBS. Josh is so funny, mom and I were dying!

Books
I had a bad year with books, lots that had potential but ended up being trash. It's so easy to publish now. All year I struggled to find something good to read. These were the best of what I could scrounge up.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Felt good to support a WA author but also enjoyed reading a book that had a Native American as the protagonist.

The Remains of the Day

Interesting story, very British, but probably the most intelligent writing I've come across in awhile

Escape from Camp 14

How this guy who was born and raised in a North Korean prison camp escaped. Incredible story. N. Korea is so messed up, btw.

The Witch of Blackbird Pond

A really great YA novel

Argo

This is the book about the incident depicted in that movie, the book wasn't too hard to read, but what a crazy story!

See my Goodreads for any other book I read this year.

Trips
-DC/NYC in April with Michelle to visit Stacey and Jenny. We had a blast. I gained a new love for New York City and felt confident that I could get myself around. Highlights include seeing "Newsies" on broadway (OMG you guys. Sooooo good), accidentally finding the beautiful New York City Public Library, seeing the Empire State Building, and finally getting to play in Central Park. I also got to see Marissa and her Adelyn and we trekked around Georgetown for an afternoon-lovely!

-Utah for a weekend in September to see G and Stephen, we went to Lagoon, saw a concert and spent time together. I love to get out of town.

-Pendleton for the day to see the Pendleton Round Up. A hot day, but a great roedo!

-Seattle in October with Mom, Dad, Bub and Michael to see Josh Groban. The weekend was everything we wanted and more. Beautiful weather and time to play with Bub and Mike. Can we have a repeat?

-Africa! (Need a whole post for this one) I was blessed with the opportunity to go to Uganda with my friend Michelle for a medical service trip. It was an amazing experience. I met so many wonderful people and really got to experience something different than what I know. I learned a lot about the culture and the people of Uganda. They are so humble and happy. I miss my new African friends.

Concerts
-James Taylor-SLC, UT in September. I won the lottery to get tickets. Met up with Stephen, Gretchen and Auntie P and we enjoyed the JT/Motab concert. He played a good number of my favorites and even sang a few with Mobtab which was a little weird but worked. JT is not so old that he can't sing his songs anymore. He sang "Sweet Baby James" and I was happy. It was my first time seeing James Taylor and I'm glad I got to go.

-Josh Groban-me and mom decided that next time we just need to go to two concerts because one just wasn't enough. Although I didn't touch Josh this time (!) it was a great concert for other reasons. Dad and Michael got to come and they both enjoyed it. Mom got us second row seats that we switched some Asians for and got seats all together and I was on the end for direct JG access if he ever came nearby. Josh sang all the great/favorites and was working the crowd. I myself had a moment where Josh was singing and I waved and then he smiled and I'm sure it was because he saw me. And another time he came back after his mid-show break and walked by me (the lights weren't on him yet) and I was startled and said, "Josh! Hi!" Josh has so many songs in his catalog now that there are so many he didn't sing. It's a shame, mom and I could stay there for hours.

Other commentary for 2013:
-One of my goals for the year was to not get pulled over-I've got three more days but I think I've done it!
-I got rid of so much stress from my crappy job last year. But I gained it in my calling at church. So much frustration. I've become very surly.
-Even though I've been 26 practically all year, for some reason I've reached that point where I forget how old I am. People ask me and I really have to think about it. Also, I tend to think I'm 27, which is a total lie. Not sure why that's happening, maybe because I hang out with mostly older people.
-Stacey's visit in July pretty much made my summer. I did all my "summer" things while she was here and I'm so grateful she was here so I could do them.
-Also had a good visit with Kams while he was here in August. Several great chats and hanging out time. It's so good to have friends you've known for 22 (yikes!) years.

2014 is already shaping up to be a good one-I've already got a jury duty summons, a trip to AZ planned, Sherlock is back (guys, we'll finally see the conclusion to the Reichenbach Fall!) and the Sochi Olympics and that's only the first two months. Party time.

sunday

Today was a special day in that I didn't have my normal church schedule. Usually I have 2 pm (2 PM!!) church out in West Richland and I have to drive 15-20 minutes to get there and then we don't get done with church until 5. And most weeks I have meetings before that. But today I had a blessed reprieve and had a special stake conference at my old stake center which is 4 blocks from my house and it was at 10 am and I was home before I am even showered for church on some Sundays. So I walked.

As I walked I starting thinking how much I missed doing even that-walking. In college you have to walk everywhere. And I didn't have a car for most of my time so I walked even more. (Although I don't miss biking to the grocery store with my backpack and bags hanging off the handles..) Now I sit on my bum all day at work and drive wherever I need to go. Sedentary life. Meh.

Then I got nostalgic for the old days. I miss how my Sundays went in college. Getting ready in the morning with roommates available to ask advice on how to dress, dashing out the door to get to early meetings, cold walks up the hill or south stairs, or cramming into a nice person's car to get a ride. Church was backwards (RS first, Sacrament meeting last) in most of my wards there. And I liked it because of the togetherness you feel at the end, plus I felt more prepared to take the Sacrament. Never at BYU do you meet in an actual church building-classrooms and auditoriums are the norm.Hymns are sung to the player on the computer and people used the internet to show clips during their lessons. And then after church I had time to have a delicious Sunday nap, visit with roommates, call home, make dinner, ward stare, more antics with roommates, game nights, etc, etc. I learned quickly that no homework gets done on Sunday so you may as well not try. So I wanted to write some of those memories down for blogsterity.

Freshman year-I lived in Hinckley Hall and we had church at the University Parkway chapel (building where they teach English) in the afternoon, backwards, Sacrament meeting was in the gym where they had to put down rugs so it wouldn't be too loud. Monica would always be making scrapbooking sketches on her program and the Ukranian/Russian kid would be knitting. We were assigned Sunday school classes because we had small classrooms and each floor was it's own Relief Society. Our bishop was a new bishop and was so scared to give the Chastity lesson that he had his wife do it-I still remember they titled it "Birds and Bees do it, why can't I?"...Still my favorite Sunday of the year/semester. We'd race home for dinner after church because it was usually the only meal we got all day from the Cannon center. Every other Sunday was chicken cordon bleu with creamery ice cream-those were the good Sundays. And visiting hours, the time where boys could come over to the dorms. Eventually we'd make our way up to May Hall for ward stare and usually finish off the night with chatting or a movie watched on one of our lap tops sitting on our bed. Some weeks we had a CES fireside which we usually went to because none of us had living rooms or TVs and the Marriott Center was so close. Jenn came up with the term "Sunday Prude" which is someone who wears their church clothes all day to look righteous. (which a lot of people do down in P-town)

Sophomore year-I lived in Liberty Square with Jenn, Jenna, Jules, Monica and Marissa and we had church in the Marb, backwards, and early in the morning. More people would be at church at the end than at the beginning. This was the first year with RMs in the ward and so I had the first dose of "On my mission" stories. Monica had the van and we'd drive some weeks. My favorite was the time it snowed and the van got stuck and Eric/Lyle and another boy (probably Jeff) tried to help push us out. As an apartment we started having Sunday dinners and had people over. I claimed "ambiance" as my job (I really had no cooking skills) and would light candles, make flower arrangements etc to have a classy dinner. And we started an apartment tradition of always playing Barry White "Can't Get Enough of Your Love" to start the meal off. This is the year I learned how to make homemade Cafe Rio. We had ward stare in the clubhouse at the Lib and the first week we were told to wear fun hats. I think Jenna got asked on a date to the CES fireside like the first week and I learned that that counted as an actual "date". Monica made texas sheet cake a few times and  we often had people over for chatting. Benji was often there to help with dinner and DK too probably. One Sunday, after ward stare, we had a snowball fight in the parking lot and Bishop Larson was playing in his Sunday suit. I got beaned in the back by Eric/Lyle (who was a baseball pitcher) and it wasn't fun after that. One of the first Sundays we had an epic game of "signs" in our apartment where a lot of people got to know each other. Also, a kid named Russ taught sunday school and liked to tell stories with the phrase "'cause I'm Mormon", it was funny. And then there was the time we got a lesson at church from Bishop Larson on how us girls needed to dress nice and wear makeup so the boys would think we were cute and ask us out. Yep. That was a good one too.

Junior year-I lived in Chattsworth with Monica, Jenn and Marissa. We had backwards church in the morning in the SWKT. Ward stare was in between the other two rows of condos and it was a good time to spy on people. We walked or drove to church. Although it really sucked being out of breath when you got to church. One time, our interesting home teachers gave us a ride and then proceeded to drive up Rape Hill. I was so sure we would get caught and we were laughing so hard the entire time. It was also interesting to ride up and down  elevators for church and one time we overloaded with people, the elevator beeped until a few got off. We had a few fancy dinners this year too and Monica had a roasting pan where she made her famous roast chicken with fennel. We didn't go to the Marriott Center as much for firesides because it was so far away. But I do remember living in this apartment and hearing President Foust say that "Meetings do not need to be endless to be eternal." We had a great Easter dinner with family and friends and also an Easter egg hunt between me and Matt LaRose that got quite competitive.

Senior year part 1-I lived in Moon apartments, we had backwards church in the morning in the JFSB basement. I didn't really enjoy this year for a lot of reasons, but I didn't really get to know my ward that well and we didn't have company for dinner. Ward stare was harder and I had a lot of consternation that Marissa had to listen to ;) But I did make some friends. We had ward break the fast and I was on the committee. Someone had a connection to the hospital so we ate in a conference room there which meant we had to drive all the way over there. Our stake boundaries were weird and our stake center was all the way on 500 West even though I could see the Manavu chapel from my bedroom window.

Senior year part 2-I lived in Devonshire with Jenny, Audrey and Rachell, we had backwards church and I think I had it both morning and midday. I was back in the SWKT again. I had Bishop Lawler and I really enjoyed this ward and had great roommates. (First time living without one of my original peeps). I lived here the longest and knew a lot of people. I first moved in during the summer and we had game nights pretty much every Sunday. I learned the "Fun Game" where you put names of characters in a bowl and do different rounds of guessing the same things-explaining it without saying the name like in Taboo, charades, one word, and one action. It was pretty fun and hilarious. It was also the only ward (I think) that had friendship notes. We had ward stare out on the lawn if it was warm or in the parking garage it it was cold. I still remember when Dusty crawled out of the sewer in his Ninja Turtles costume with a pizza box and just walked away without saying anything to anyone. I missed the Sunday my roommates filled garbage bags with leaves and then dumped them from the windows on top of everyone. I still remember meeting Brent and Jason Molen at one of the first game nights of the school year at someone's apartment. They were hilarious and I remember thinking that I was going to like them. Also, Jason was sporting a creeper mustache and I enjoyed that too. The second summer I was there I had to hand out the friendship notes which was awkward because I felt like I was interrupting all the make out sessions. We had a few Cranium battles in my apartment that got quite heated because we were so competitive. Audrey had us over for dinner at her parents' house a few times and one time "Aunt Sheri" came over too. (She scares me.) One of my favorite memories is when my apartment was doing introductions and we did a "Lawrence Welk" SNL skit where I was Judice and had baby arms. It was hilarious and it was one of my favorite memories. It was also the only ward where I gave a talk at BYU, Brother ____ forgot to ask the speakers and so I skipped church to write my talk (the beauty of backwards church). And our other bishopric counselor was known for making strange but hilarious comments during ward council and I started to write them down. (I'll add them if I can find them).

Anyway, that's me getting really nostalgic. Sundays were kinda party days if you think about it. But those were the days when everyone was around, no one had work or school so it kinda had to happen then or no other time. My Sundays are still good, but much less going on. I'd really like to have church earlier in the day, but oh well.

you were born on the 4th of july, freedom ring

I like fireworks. So much that I try to keep them with me for longer than the fleeting seconds they last. I have my trusty Nikon and it has a most excellent fireworks setting. Here are my artsy pieces of work.

AMERICA

independence weekend

I had a fantastic 4th of July holiday and weekend. I got the holiday off as well as Friday because the doctors at my clinic didn't feel like working--so I got it off by default.It was kind of my mini summer vacation/staycation. And my friend Stacey was in town so we had enough excuse to do everything. And did we! (People in these events include Stacey, Brit, Erica, Michelle, Elizabeth, Whitney, Alexis, and Dave).

I started off the festivities by dressing up Joe Panda-he had his patriotic outfit on and my own patriotic outfit.

Then I decorated my living and dining room with fun red, white, and blue. I especially enjoyed the huge pop of color my little tissue pom poms. I had fun making them. Also I made a few button wheels, found two patriotic picture frames at the hobby lobby, and dug out my banner I made last year. It made for some fun decor and I get to be crafty. Win.

Then we watched an episode of BBC Sherlock. (how unamerican!)-but seriously, my mom loves her some Benedict.

I had peeps over for my usual BBQ. However, the power went out at my house at about 2:30 so after playing cards with my parental units and avoiding opening the fridge, we had to skip the pork and beans and the corn because we had no power. But BBQ was still on! The power was out for about 5 hours. It was random but some nice utility workers from the City of Richland got us back working. We did burgers and chicken and it was some of the best BBQ'd chicken I've had in awhile. Of course I made my patriotic jello and it has become rather infamous. (I like it because it combines three of my great loves in life-america, jello and cool whip).

After dinner we headed out to Benton City to enjoy the redneck firework show. I had forgotten how exciting the show is. It's like there is a pre-show, show and after-party. The kids set off their own fireworks before the actual show (which is pretty good and you sit real close and you get debris falling on you) and the after-party is all the crazies lighting off their leftovers. And we're talking big fireworks that go up in the air, not just the "legal" ones. So really we had like two straight hours of fireworks. So much better than the 20 minute River of Fire show that you have to watch from a mile away. Stacey brought birthday cake ice cream and we celebrated America's birthday on a warm summer's night. We even saw part of a mountain on fire in the background. It amazes me that there weren't more fires than there were this year. I love fireworks and I used my wonderful Nikon again to get some great shots. (I'll load them later). I still get really excited for good fireworks and Ooooohh and Ahhhhh like none other.

(Michelle's pic-that's her and her bro)

I was the only one who had work off on Friday so I hung out with Stacey in the morning. We went to Spudnuts (a Richland must) and I got patriotic sprinkles!

Then we made our way to the Richland farmers market and took in all the sights and smells. I wanted to buy all the cherries. Seriously. I wish I could grocery shop there every week, but I have to go to work. I did go to my favorite stall where you can get a fresh bouquet of flowers. You just tell the ladies what colors you want and they make it up right there. And it is so much cheaper and nicer than a wilted grocery store bouquet. I only wish they would let me design my own bouquet! I got yellows, pinks, and purples.

After the farmer's market Stacey and I checked out some antiques stores and I saw some interesting stuff. I went home, had a nice turkey sammy, and then read my book underneath the tree in the back yard on my blanket for like three hours. It was pretty perfect. Then Will and I got slurpees and met up at Leslie Groves and hung out at the Columbia River. Ahhhhhh, the river.

I met up with the gals later that night at Fujiyama's. It's the new Japanese hibatchi place where they cook the food in front of you with all the stunts and jokes. I enjoyed it immensely. It was a ton of fun and we had a great chef. I tried to read his name tag and it was a long name, possibly Mongolian? After a second look I saw that it was "Yippiekayeh". What an awesome name! The food was tasty because it was so fresh and I got to use my chopstick skillz, thanks bro for teaching me.

Saturday we went out to BC again to go shooting. Safety Dave taught us how to shoot the guns and load them and of course, proper gun safety. There were many types of guns and I tried all of them but the revolver. I was proud that I hit the target a few times with the .22 shotgun. I also tried a .12 shotgun, a hand gun, and a WWII era rifle which was pretty fun to shoot. My friend Brit was pretty excited about shooting the zombie target that we had. Everyone practiced very good safety the entire time.

Then we went in to BC proper and grabbed lunch at Wolfie's which used to be a burger joint but is now Mexican? Then we changed at Michelle's house and floated the Yakima in BC which was better because too many people float in Richland now and the river is deeper in BC. The ride was a good length and there were even little rapids we got to sail through. It was so relaxing and peaceful out on the river, plus you got some good views of the E. WA nature scene. We didn't concern ourselves too much with sunscreen, and all of us got burnt because of it. I just wanted some sun, Vitamin D, yo! We finished out the day by stopping at Finnegan Frost-an organic Fro-yo place that had some tasty flavors. And I deemed it the most hipster place in the TC. Complete with hipster music, organic fro-yo, and Polaroids on the wall a la "Sammy's" in P-town. I didn't know the TC could be hipster....

Anyway, after mowing the lawn that night I was dead. I made it through Sunday and now I am still recovering from last weekend. It was a blast and I feel like I rocked my little summer vacation and then some!