Monday, December 20, 2010

Cleaning House

No, I'm not really cleaning my house - although I should be for this weeks Christmas Celebration... I'm cleaning "house" in facebook and in my blog. I'm deleting people and deleting blogs. There are people who I am "friends" with on facebook that I've never considered "friends". Why is it that, just because we went to High School together - we should be friends on facebook. We didn't even like each other then?! I don't get it. And people that I was friends with - that I would never be friends with now (we have nothing in common, we don't talk, and they aren't the kind of people I necessarily want to have in my life and knowing my business)... So, why have them in my "friends" list?! It's not worth it if you ask me. So, I'm downsizing! I've already deleted over 200 friends - and I know I have plenty more to delete.

My question is, how do I delete the blogs that I'm following from my dashboard?! I'm not sure why I'm following some of them and I don't want to take up that space anymore. Does anyone know how to delete them?

Maybe when this is done I'll move on and clean my actual house.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

#23 Surprise my husband

I thought that this goal would be the hardest of the entire bunch! I am horrible at keeping surprises a secret - I get too excited and always let it slip! However, this surprise I kept for an entire month!!!! Travis isn't a huge fan of Christmas. He is somewhat of a scrooge - I have my own thoughts about why this is - bu the just doesn't LOVE Christmas like I do. Last year, we didn't have a Christmas tree. It wasn't a huge deal since we weren't even going to be home for Christmas at all... but this year, we are having Christmas dinner at our house for both of our families so I thought we would need a tree. For the past month I have been hunting all over the internet and being sneaky and buying ornaments for our tree. I figured I would buy a tree, decorate it and be ready for him to come home one day... Surprise - we have a Christmas tree! I bought ornaments on ebay, etsy, and a bunch of random online shops. I got the last of my ornaments on the 6th of December and so the 9th was the day! My good friend Bethany and my little brother Spencer helped me buy a tree - put it up and decorate it while Travis was at work. He was completely surprised - and really liked the tree, the ornaments, and the decorations! I was totally proud of myself! I have since added other decorations - but this is what it looked like when Travis got home from work!

Me picking out our first Christmas tree - and it's real!

The tree and garland, up and decorated! There's more now - but this was a great start!

Travis was totally surprised! I can't believe I kept a secret for that long! Wow! I'm usually horrible at surprises - so imagine my surprise when I was able to pull it off! Woohoo! Merry Christmas!

# 26 Spend more time with family, friends, and loved ones

This has probably been one of my favorite goals! I spend a lot of time with my husband, and with my little brother Spencer (who until recently lived with Travis and I). I see my mom and sisters at school a couple of times per week - and usually see my dad at least once per week. So, Who is left out you may ask? Brian, Sarah, Austin and Conner! We can't forget about them! Well, I was lucky enough to accomplish this goal in the month of November! Sarah went to Australia for 3 weeks with her father, and since Brian needed to work - the little boys came up to Utah for pretty much the entire month of November! It was AWESOME! We all rearranged our schedules to help care for the boys - and I was lucky enough to get to spend every Friday with the boys! I made arrangements with a good friend of mine - to have play dates each Friday so that the boys could have kids to play with and so that Aunt Jenny wouldn't go crazy not being able to talk to anyone all day on Fridays!

November 5th - Austin and Conner and I went with Bethany, Isabelle, and Lucy to the Discovery Children's Museum at the Gateway. I had never been there before - and boy was it fun! The kids had SO much fun playing - I kept asking Austin if he needed to go potty and he kept saying "No Jenny, I need to play!" Here are a few pics of the boys at the museum.

Conner sleeping - by the end of the day he was exhausted!

Austin playing in the ball room - he LOVED the balls!

Conner in the baby play area - isn't he cute?!

Austin using a crane to move blocks to "build things"

Austin, Isabelle, Conner, and Lucy

On November 12th our friends couldn't play - so we went to the Mall and played in the play land with Aunt Shayla and Aunt Melissa! They had SO much fun! Both boys were so tired! I didn't take any pictures because it was just the mall play place - nothing too exciting :)

On November 19th the boys and I went to the Incredible Pizza Company and met Bethany, Isabelle, and Jackson for some food and fun! We had such a great time there! I didn't get a ton of pictures because Conner was pretty crabby and clingy. I got a few of the kids though with their face paints and Austin in a little car ride... I'll get some from Bethany and add them another time!

Austin riding a car - his reward for going down the slide like a big boy!

Austin with his Dragon, Isabelle the snow princess, and Jackson the dragon boy.

Austin with the dragon on his arm. He was SO proud of it!

I love these little boys so much and miss them terribly! I'm sad they live so far away - I hope they decide to move back here! I'd love to keep playing with them! I miss you guys!

Sunday, December 5, 2010

# 18: Give more to Charity than I really should or really can afford

I am so glad I put this one on here... It made me think about people who are less fortunate than I am and it really made an impact on me!

One thing that is extremely important to Travis and I is education. Both of us have our Master's Degrees and plan on encouraging our future family to continue their education as well. So, when an opportunity came up to be able to donate money for education - we jumped at the chance.

Because of legislation this year - the budget for UVU was cut tremendously. The part that hurt the worst, was scholarships for financially struggling students. Because I teach in the behavioral sciences department - I was able to be a part of the First Annual Forgotten Carols Scholarship Gala. Michael Mclean sits on the advisory board for the School of Humanities and Social Science and volunteered to do a Forgotten Carols Scholarship Gala to encourage people to donate to the School for a good cause - but also giving them something in return.

Way back in September, Travis and I paid a rather hefty sum of money for two tickets to the Forgotten Carols through the Scholarship Fundraiser. On December 2nd, we attended the Gala to celebrate the Scholarship Recipients. Over 35 students applied for the scholarship, and two students were fortunate enough to receive a scholarship. One received a full scholarship, and the other a half scholarship. We are talking tuition, fees, books, living expenses, etc. As we met the two students, and had one at our table - both Travis and I felt truly blessed to be a part of this night!

As the Thank You for donating - we attended the Gala - were fed some super delicious good, met Michael Mclean, received a copy of the Forgotten Carols on CD with him reading the book and the music (which he autographed), and 2 VIP tickets to the show. Yes, the benefits were nice - but meeting the students (both of whom were behavioral science students) and seeing how grateful they were for a chance to continue their education was seriously amazing!

Because this is an annual thing - Travis and I will be attending each year. Well, we will be donating each year - I may be attending with a friend because Travis doesn't like the cheese factor of the Forgotten Carols... I, on the other hand, LOVE it - and it will have a special place in my heart now knowing that students at UVU will be able to have the financial means to continue their education.