Countdown to Cruise!!!

We leave for our cruise in two days! I have been waiting for this trip for a long time. We are driving over to LA on Thursday, touring Beverly Hills and Hollywood that night, then we leave on our Cruise to Mexico Friday afternoon! We are staying in Vagabond Inn on Thursday night, it was the cheapest hotel we could find. My family thinks we might die there, because it sounds scary, but we'll take our chances. The actual Cruise was free from our credit card reward points and I'm still not convinced there's actually going to be a real cruise. I am a little weary of free things, I don't believe they exist. The cruise line is Royal Caribbean which is really top notch. The weather should be around 65 degrees the whole time which is sooooo much nicer than this 18 degree Utah weather. I'm glad it won't be too hot because Juan doesn't do well in the heat, he gets grumpy. And because I burn really easily. We'll get back on Monday and drive home that same day. I'm really excited and I'm sure I'll have pictures to post when we get back!

Juan, the bully

At East Canyon this year, we all went sledding. There was so much snow and when I didn't have to drive anywhere, it was nice to be able to enjoy it. I think this is the best picture of Juan attacking people with snowballs. Is that Griff desperately hiding his face hoping Juan will not hit him? Ha ha, the kids soon learned it was best to be on Juan's side rather than his enemy, so they started making the snowballs for him. Juan started hitting me and my sisters and got both Rachelle and Heather square on the head. Now my little nephew learned his lesson from Juan and he goes around saying, only hit the girls! Juan is quite the example.

New TV

This is our new tv we bought for Christmas. It's so nice and I said I'd post a picture of my clean apartment, but I forgot to take one right after I was done cleaning, so this is the best I could do. I did clean everything though! I even scrubbed the bathtub which I hate, but I didn't make Juan do it this month. When we first got married we tried to take turns on who scrubbed the shower, but Juan just kept saying it was him the last time and I stopped arguing. He does plenty of the other housework, so I guess I'll let this one slide.

Long Weekend

This is an old picture of our apartment, it's arranged differently now, but this is typical of how messy it can be. Juan is so good and he cleans up almost every night. He just picks up everything and organizes so the apartment appears to be clean. I am going to have to do some deep cleaning this weekend though. I have both Saturday and Monday that Juan will be working at the shop, so I figure I'll have plenty of time to get some cleaning in. I've been begging Juan to go up to Park City this weekend to see all the celebs at the Sundance Film Festival, but he is not for it. It would be way too busy and a long drive anyway. So I'm happy for the long weekend even though we don't have any big plans.

Goals

I'm not too much into New Year's resolutions but I do make goals every few months. This is how the pattern goes. I spend hours putting together a chart on excel in my favorite Beach font and all color coordinated and so cute. Then I print it and pin it to my bulletin board in my bedroom. I look at it and keep most the goals for the first week, and then I don't look at it until 4 months later when I replace it with the new chart I have made. Bleh! The only time I have ever stuck to one of my charts was in June when Juan was gone. I could blame Juan and say that it's when he's around that I can't keep my goals, but I really think the only reason I stuck to the chart last time was because I had nothing better to do! So now a new chart is made. Some of the goals include exercising covering cardio, abs, and weights. I also want to polish up on my scripture reading and I have made a goal to finish the Book of Mormon by April 15. There's many others but I don't want to tell too much because then I'll feel like everyone is watching me and thinking, she's definitely not sticking to those goals. Ha ha, I know no one would ever think that!

Holiday Fun

Finally I am back at work and am not the only one here! Ha ha, I came in between Christmas and New Year's because I have only worked here 4 months and didn't have a ton of vacation days saved up. I was the only one here! I turned on the lights when I came and just sat at my desk all day every day alone. I miss the students! I don't miss them because there is no traffic while they're gone, but I miss the hustle and bustle of craziness at work.

Christmas was so much fun. Juan spoiled me like crazy. He got me (I'm pretty sure he got it for himself but got to count it as one of his gifts for me) a 37" flat screen tv! It looks so nice and now we just need a nice condo or house to match! He also got me a keyboard because I've been wanting to get back into piano, the Gilmore Girls full series, a gift card to the Chef's Table, and many other little things. He was required to get me 8 gifts to unwrap, even if he had to go to the dollar store. My family was always about the quantity of presents, we just liked to see all those gifts under the tree! We spent Christmas Eve with Juan's family and Rose got us a beautiful painting of the Salt Lake temple. Christmas morning was at my parents and my dad went crazy getting my mom a million gifts. They must be doing pretty good without any kids to support. We went up to East Canyon with my family as we always do after Christmas. We went sledding and played a lot of games. For New Year's we had Craig and Lorel, and Aaron and Rachelle over. They both have brand new babies so they were lame and left right away after midnight. Ha ha! It was a ton of fun and I'm grateful for our family and friends and I'm also grateful for Juan and the little time we get alone! He has lived with his grumpy, sick wife all through the holidays and has spoiled me. He's a trooper.

Judson (Crystal's baby) with all the presents.

Christmas morning this year.

My mom's tree with the ridiculous amount of presents!

Sami and Griff as the angel and sheep in our play.

We three kings for the play.