December Bucket List - Recap

December is over, so it's time to see how I did!

1. Read Voyage of the Dawn Treader before seeing the movie.
STATUS: fail
I ended up seeing the movie before I finished the book, which ended up being okay because the movie was different from the book. I started reading the book the next day, but I never got around to finishing it. maybe next month.

2. No cokes for a week.
STATUS: EPIC fail.
I'm so NOT a morning person, so when I'm working the 6am shift and I don't drink coffee, coke is the only option. gotta get some caffeine somehow! again, maybe next month.

3. Bake an apple pie.
STATUS: success!
I baked one on Christmas Eve, and I also made fudge for my co-workers. both were delicious, if I do say so myself.

4. Run 20 miles each week.
STATUS: fail
I hardly ran at all, buuuuuuut I did decide that since I failed miserably at this, I needed to at least complete part of my 23 Things list [not yet published]: run at least a 5k each month. So I'm running the Flashlight 5k in Lawrenceville tomorrow at 6pm. free long-sleeved t-shirt AND pasta dinner afterwards!

5. Have a family game night.
STATUS: success
When Memama and Pepaw came up to celebrate Christmas, we ended up playing a giant game of Phase 10 in partners. Pepaw got frustrated because he and Grant were losing, bad.   But he gets mad when he's winning because we always skip whomever is in first.. so he gets mad no matter what place he's in. I wonder where I get it from?

6. Complete 30 Day Challenge.
STATUS: undecided
I missed a few days when I was working all day or doing something with the family, but I've come close! I'll finish the month at day 22, so I'll consider this an overall success, despite not finishing 100%.

7. Unpack my boxes from Athens.
STATUS: success
finally unpacked the boxes so that I could get my super awesome Georgia Christmas tree. incentives tend to work well with me.

8. Print pictures to put in room.
STATUS: as of this moment, fail. however, I still have one day left, so I'll try to print them tomorrow and will update in 2011!
I have picked out several pictures that I want to print, but I've been too lazy to actually go get them printed. Walmart just isn't convenient to get to, but I dunno where else to print them. maybe Walgreens?

I wish this had been more of a success, but I did have a great month, so I'm not complaining. I'll get next month's list up in the next few days!

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30 Day Challenge: Day 21

Day 21: Picture of Yourself

I've gone through phases in my life when it comes to taking pictures. I used to ham up for the camera, then I went through a [looooooooong] period where I didn't want to take ANY pictures [middle school. typical]. THEN I went through a phase [where I currently am] where I don't mind taking pictures.. but I don't always want to initiate the pictures. So most of my pictures are pictures of me WITH someone else. I have one by myself from the past few months:

Island Party 2010

and one that I LOVE that I haven't shared yet, featuring one of my favorite people in the world.. Hubert! oh, and Katie, too ;] just kidding!

Katie, myself, & Hubert [the mascot for our volleyball team!]

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30 Day Challenge: Day 20

Day 20: Nicknames

I don't have a lot of nicknames. My name is already short, so it can't be shortened into a nickname. But I have accumulated a few nicknames throughout the years:

1. puppy: this is what my dad called me when I was younger. I have no idea why.
2. Lobster: this is my nickname from Melissa. we were talking, and I can't remember who said it, but this is how it went:
• person 1: -chit chat, says something ridiculous-
• person 2: haha you're such a lobster. I mean, loser!
• person 1: HAHAHAHAHA LOBSTER!
3. Ewok: Melissa, Alysha, and I were watching Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi. When the Ewoks are celebrating at the end of the movie, I started doing this RIDICULOUS dance. I've never seen them laugh so hard in my LIFE. Thus, the nickname was born.

Sadly, that's it. I wish I had more nicknames. Feel free to give me a cool nickname!

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30 Day Challenge: Day 19

Day 19: Something You Miss

I miss being a kid. I know I act like a 5 year old half the time, but I miss truly being a kid. Not having responsibilities. Not having younger siblings.. being the only child/grandchild was awesome. But when I was a kid, I lived in Albany, literally around the corner from my grandparents. I miss being that close to them. I miss seeing them whenever I wanted to. But I think that more than anything,

I miss Albany.

I miss Jimmy's hotdogs. I miss only having one Walmart in a thirty mile radius. I miss Chehaw Park. I miss Putt Putt. I miss Maryland Fried Chicken! I miss GARGANOS. I miss seeing Palmyra Medical Center's "Now you know, now you know, now you know. Palmyra Medical Center: Get to know us" commercials. I miss being able to ride my bike or roller blade without worrying about getting taken out by ten cars. I miss The Cakery and having to buy my birthday cake a week early and freeze it because the ONE week out of the year that they're closed is the week of my birthday. I miss the Albany Fair. I miss the "traffic" at 5pm. I miss Lake Loretta. I miss Slappey Blvd. I miss my home church. I even miss that tiny rinky-dink, one-story mall.

I know it's crazy. I live less than 5 miles from the biggest mall in Georgia. I'm surrounded by everything I could ever possibly want or need. But I want to go back to that small town where everybody knows everybody. I think it's just nostalgia, but I love going back to Albany every year. I miss it.

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Christmas came early this year..

My mom is a nurse, and she has to work one of three holidays each year: Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Years. Well, Julia always has cheerleading nationals over New Years down in Orlando, so she has to trade for one or the other whenever her holiday falls on New Years, which it did this year. She worked Thanksgiving last year, so this year she traded with someone for Christmas. A few years ago, she worked nights instead of days, so she didn't work til Christmas night. This year, not so lucky.

So we celebrated on Christmas Eve instead. It was sad because we didn't do our traditional breakfast of sausage balls [my favorite!] and cinnamon rolls and juice, but we did go to a Christmas breakfast at a neighbor's house, which was fun. We went to the Christmas Eve service at church, then we came home and cooked dinner: fried turkey, Mom's famous dressing, macaroni and cheese, green beans, rolls, other things that Mom and Dad like that I don't, and apple pie. I managed to peel all of the apples without cutting myself, which is a huge feat considering that I somehow always manage to cut myself at work without realizing it. Perhaps it was the fact that we ate so much later in the day than usual therefore I was hungrier than usual, but everything was exceptional. Then, a Festivus miracle:

we cleaned the kitchen as a family.

It was crazy. I think everyone just wanted to get to the presents haha I made out this year. I wasn't expecting much of anything [except my jeans.. I was so excited about those! I doubled the number of jeans I own in one night!] Here's what all I got:

stocking::

• body washes from Bath & Body Works
• candy
• hair ties
• Go Dawgs fan
• 2 movie tickets [it took me all year to use the ones I got last year haha]
• garage door opener [I was so excited about this! I am so tired of having to get out in the pouring rain or freezing cold and punch in the codes to open the door!]
• striped bag from B&BW
• red watch

wrapped presents::

• 3 pairs of jeans from Gap, which we got for $30 the day BEFORE Thanksgiving. they're normally $70+, so it was a good deal haha
• black wrap
• grey and black striped wrap
• LONG pajama pants! pajama pants are never long enough on Mom and me, so she ordered some long ones from Old Navy. they are the same ones that I almost bought last week when I bought my neon pink fleece instead.
• iHome docking station
• short boots for student teaching
• Michael Kors pea coat!
• Jeopardy daily calendar
• Georgia clutch and key ring.. funny story here. Mom bought this for me LAST YEAR so that I could take it to games this year. she knew that she'd forgotten a gift for me, but she couldn't remember what or where it was. this year, she was looking for a candle, and she found it. WAY after football season.. oh well haha
• tickets to see Beauty & The Beast at the Fox!
• scarf set and a necklace with a family tree on it from Grandmom
• short Georgia Tervis Tumbler
• tall COLTS Tervis Tumbler!
• cassette tape for my car to listen to my iPod. I have one, but I'm not sure if the cassette is messed up or if the tape deck is messed up, so we shall see.

We did Christmas with Memama and Pepaw a few days ago. I got a puffy purple vest and an argyle sweater from them, and they gave me an early graduation gift too: a Georgia snuggie! It's really cute. When I opened it, though, I saw the back of the box first, and a picture of Florida fans in Florida snuggies was staring back at me. Needless to say, my face was one of slight shock. Pepaw was like, "Oh, you don't like it?" and I started laughing and turned the box to show him what I saw. We all started laughing.

It was a good Christmas. Of course, there was the traditional fighting, but luckily I wasn't too involved this year. It was mostly Julia and Dad. But it wouldn't be a holiday without family fights, I suppose.

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30 Day Challenge: Day 18

Day 18: Something You Regret

This one is surprisingly easy for me. I'm terribly tempted to write that I regret my relationship with Rylan, but I don't. It molded me into the person I am today. I know what NOT to do in my next relationship, if I ever have one, in order to avoid making the same stupid mistakes. I am stronger because of what I went through with him.

I do, however, regret the way I acted after we broke up. I was a wreck. I completely broke down and became that stupid girl who thinks her life is over because a boy broke her heart. Stupid. I couldn't eat for months. I came home every weekend. I cried and cried and cried. I had my first huge panic attack at a New Years party. I missed a fancy dinner with friends because I had to go to the doctor to get help. I became secluded and probably alienated so many people that could've become good friends. It was a bad time in my life.

And no offense to anyone who has acted this way.. it's just NOT me. I spent my entire life trying to be as independent as possible, and for me to suddenly throw that away because of a boy is ridiculous.

I wasted two years of my life trying to get over him. I regret that it took that long.

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30 Day Challenge: Day 17

Day 17: Something You're Looking Forward To

So, the popular answer here has been Christmas. But to be completely honest, I'm ready for Christmas to be over. Working at TRU for the past two seasons has completely destroyed my Christmas spirit.

I'm ready for December 26th.

But the reason I'm ready for December 26th is because I get to see my best friend. My best friend Janet lives in Boston, and I hate being so far from her. We rarely talk, and we've had a rough year, but she's my sister. She's having a get-together at Taco Mac on Sunday, so I get to see her! It'll be hard to share her with everyone else, but it'll have to do. It's better than possibly not seeing her at all. Plus there's a TRU work get-together at Chili's afterwards, so that'll be fun too. And I don't work that day. It's gonna be awesome. But mostly because I get to see my sister.

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