2008 Tribute and resolutions, of course

This is in response to my dad who did a good job of posting the high points of the year as well as his resolutions. It's not like it should matter to anybody who reads this what my resolutions are, but I suppose if you post them they are at least public and maybe it makes it easier to hold yourself accountable. Or maybe it's really creepy that people post person information on the web where anybody can read it, when they should really be a little more reticent.
Nonetheless, since most people checking this are close friends and family, here is is.

First, the highlights of 2008 for us. It was not an easy year. In fact, we experienced a lot of changes. It was fun though, and here are some pictures to prove it.
To kick it off, my favorite car ever hit the 100,000 mark and I captured it on my phone. May it live to drive another 100k!

Ginna's birthday is the end of January, Max helped me make a cake.

We got accepted to our top choice of residency programs and took a trip to Providence to scout it out. We sang our first karaoke duet. Cute wife, huh.

I took and passed the western board exam. This is old news, but it means we can move back west and I can get a job. Ginna was my assistant and she was awesome.

For the entire year we owned two Land Rovers. A his and hers really. Max liked Ginna's almost as much as he liked mine.

We both graduated. There were times we wondered if it would ever happen.

In June we moved to Rhode Island. I drove the Penske and Ginna followed me in the car stuffed with all the stuff we didn't want to crush in the back of the box truck.

I got to take what has almost become an annual trip to Moab. I hope I can get one in this year.

During our time in Utah this past summer we got to spend time with our families. It was great to see Murphy before he went on his mission. The fact that Ginna could be there with him before he left was a definite highlight of the year. We're proud of him and Max loves him and talks about him all the time.

I always wanted to live in New York, at least for a little while. During July I trained in Brooklyn and Ginna and Max came with me for part of it. I learned that New York is a very exciting place but I was surprised by how excited I was to leave the city on the weekends. Here we are in Central Park.

Money I wish I could get back: $50 it cost for Max and me to get our hair cut at the barber next to our new place in Providence. The styling was included.

Max started his at his new school. He loves it. He's also cute.

Max and I found the biggest, most awesome halloween pumpkin ever. Unfortunately it got stolen from our porch after about 1 week, just before we were going to carve it. Max thinks it wandered off and got lost.

Turns out, autumn in Rhode Island is beautiful.

On a sad note, Ginna's land rover got totaled this fall. It wasn't her fault and we were really blessed that she and Max were both safe, as was the woman who ran the light and hit them. Ginna got me a cool tire cover for it. I used it to pretend I was driving on a safari on my way to the hospital.

Good news again: we got a great new car. And Max loves that his bike can fit on the rack.

Max learned to ride his bike all by himself. That means no training wheels, no help starting, nothing. We practice at the cemetery. It brings up a lot of strange questions.

Remember my favorite car that hit 100K in January? It found a safe--but temporary--home in HIghland, helping keep my parents drive through all that snow.

We took my first "paid" vacation ever. We decided to go to Disney World. Fun? Of course.


So, we're looking forward to another year. But what are we going to do?
Resolutions for 2009.
God: continue progress we've made with our family scripture reading and improve the individual.
Family: More adventures, more dates--sorry Max
Personal: I've got to learn more spanish. I've been working on this, but I haven't been taking advantage of the opportunities I have to practice at the hospital.
Health: I think I'm too busy to worry about this more than I already am. I'd like to lift more, but I'm ok to just eat healthy (which we're doing great with) and continue my bicycle commute.
Work: Study literature more. It's time to get beyond the abstracts.
General: This year we need to figure out where we want to move when we're done with all of this training. We still don't know, but this is the year to figure it out. We're open to suggestions.

I'm sure Ginna will keep everyone thoroughly updated with our doings this year. Stay tuned.

::blue::

I love how this turned out. It makes me happy.

::eyes::

There are still beautiful things in January.

I wasn't sure. I hadn't seen anything for a while.



Turns out I just needed to open up my eyes.

::yucky and slippy::

"Oh why does it have to be so yucky and slippy?" Max wondered this morning as we trepidatiously headed out to the car in the sleety icy rain.

What is with this weather?

I thought we'd left it all behind in Missouri. (No offense to those we love who we also had to leave behind in Missouri.)

This is our little bamboo patch out by the driveway. It somehow manages to stay green even in the winter, even when coated in ice.
Luckily Kris caught a ride to work with Chad this morning so Max and I didn't have to walk to school. It wouldn't have been pleasant. It was bad enough to drive.

But somehow we made it there and back.

And that's what matters.

::not as intended::

I never really realized before that stories with morals could be taken the wrong way. Did you?

The other day Max and I were watching PBS. The show had a version of the Little Red Hen story. You know--the one where the hen needs to make bread and none of her friends would help her. They keep saying "Not I, Not I" to everything she asks for. Except then when she asks who will help her eat the food they all say they will. And she says no.
And the idea is that when somebody hears this story they'll realize that they need to help, right?

Well later that day I needed to make dinner. And I wanted to give Max something to do. So I asked him to come and help me make dinner. Guess what he said? Yep, "Not I" In those very words. You can imagine that didn't make me too happy.
And I thought, WOW. Can a story with a moral like that just completely fail? Fail so much that somehow it teaches him to do the opposite thing?

It reminded me of my parents friends a long time ago. Their little daughter loved the Sound of Music and watched it all the time. But did she love and pretend to be a Von Trap child? Or Maria? No. She pretended to be a nazi. She wore a little black leather jacket someone had given them all the time, and she would say "Heil Hitler" to people.
Not exactly the message the Sound of Music was going for.

So I'm thinking we'll be talking through the things we read and watch for a while. Let's get the right message, shall we?

Goofball.

::back::

(warning--long and kind of contemplative and NO PHOTOS.  Ahhhh!)

So I was going to title this "back on the wagon" but then I remembered that falling off the wagon is usually said in referral to somebody going back to something unfortunate, like drinking or something.  So it doesn't really apply.  And then I thought of "back to the grindstone"  but seriously, how cruddy does that sound?

So I just went with back.  We're back.  To normal life I guess, back from the fun and exceptions of the holidays.  It's a little depressing, but I'm trying to focus on the good parts, not the depressing parts. (I'm not usually too good at that, so bear with me.)

I am not one to make big new years resolutions, although I think they're great.  Life just changes so much so often that if I made a big list of stuff to do all year I don't know that it would necessarily apply by the time summer rolls around.  But I am a big believer in short term improvements.  And I think that taking opportunities such as the new year to start these improvements are great.

So.  We have some things to do.

We made a bunch of life improvements when we moved out here to Providence.  It was a really good time for that, because things really changed for us.  I was done with school.  Kris was done with school and moving to a much more work like environment.  Work really eased up for me (there are very good and very bad things about that, but I appreciate being a little more free)

and Max didn't have school at all for the summer.

I set aside one day a week to clean the whole house and do all the laundry.  Besides the fact that I hated that day SO much and dreaded it coming around, the system worked out great.  The house was generally clean and we always had clean clothes, and most weeks I even was able to get them put away.

Sometime here in the fall my cleaning system all fell apart.  I think I just didn't want to do it anymore.  It went from once a week to doing some stuff once a week and some stuff every other week, then just to doing laundry whenever I could and cleaning up (and by that I mean deeper cleaning) when I couldn't live with it anymore.  Lame.

So I'm going to try to do better with that.  And even if it's deep cleaning every other week and laundry and some other stuff once a week, it's still better than nothing.

Another improvement we made when moving out here was a more spiritual kind.  We actually started having Family Home Evening regularly for the first time in forever.  It's been great.  Max loves it, and it makes him feel special.  It's been good for all of us. Even though our lessons are incredibly short, it's still great to have them, and to talk about gospel things together.  A couple of months ago we also started reading the Book of Mormon together on sunday evening.  I was a little apprehensive about trying that because Max doesn't pay attention to stuff sometimes, and I thought it might just be a huge pain.  But since he's getting really good on his reading we'll help him out to read some of the shorter verses and he loves it.  It keeps him paying attention for at least most of the time.  And it feels great to do it together.

So we definitely want to keep up with those things as we go into this year.  We want them to be a priority.

And of course the one that everybody has on their list.  Fitness.  I was doing so great in the fall.  I made more progress on weight loss, good eating and general better health than I have in forever.  And the last couple months didn't go so hot.  But luckily there's not a lot of damage done.  So I'm planning to pick up where I left off.  I'm hoping to get back to the gym several days a week and do as much physical stuff as I can otherwise also.  When it's not freezing I like to walk Max to school, and that's about a 4 mile trip there and back and then there and back again.  I was doing that a lot in the fall.  So hopefully I can do that again.

And I was cooking all our meals and using super healthy recipes.  We're already doing better with that this week and last than we were there for a while.  So we'll be able to do that again.

Making progress only makes me want more progress!

So there you go.  Those are my new years thoughts.  And we'll see how it all goes!

::the tree--a retrospective::

Because of the wonderful new piano, we had to take down the tree earlier than usual. I normally like to leave it out until at least new years, so I can get really depressed putting it away by myself when Kris is back at work. But we wanted to move a bookshelf and the tiny TV to where the tree was so that the piano could take a place of honor in the living room. So two days after christmas the tree came down. And it was kind of sad, since we really didn't get to enjoy it as long as usual because of being gone so much of December for our vacation. But it was kind of nice to get it put away and not have to worry about it. And Kris was home, so I got some help.

A few words about the tree. It is fake. And when I was younger I swore I would never have a fake tree. Then my mom got me one after Kris and I got married. We've used it every year since we left UT. Seems like since that time we've always spent some of december out of town. It's pointless to get a live tree and then leave town and let it die. It's also probably a fire hazard I'm guessing. So my mom did the right thing. It's been nice to have the tree. And although I hope we can get a real tree next year, this good old guy will probably be coming up from the basement again.

So.  Anyway.  If I had to define a theme for my tree it would be hard. But I'd say the main theme would be Kristen ornaments (as in my mom). Most of the ornaments, and most of my favorites have been made by her at some time during my life.
The sub theme would be animals, and below that would be birds, then fish. We have lots of birds and fish on the tree.

Such as this bird. Not made by mom this time, but a great deal at an after christmas sale last year, yay.

Here's our number 1 fish. She's the queen. It's the mama fish. Remember Max's best friend Mama Fish? (you can see her in a photo in this post if you need a refresher)
My mom made this mama fish for Max a few years ago, and somehow I've been able to keep him from kissing her to death. She's adorable and it's been fun to hang her on our tree every year.


Here's a sheepy that my mom made for me so long ago. I can't even come close to remembering what year. So cute.
(I love the way the christmas lights look back there behind it!)

And a more recent sheep by mom. Gorgeous, wearing a quilt as some sort of saddle blanket. These are the kind of ornaments I don't always get out when living in a house with hardwood floors, a small boy and a big dog. But this guy got to come out this year, and somehow survived!
Behind him you can see one of my Russian basilicas.

I got two of these little guys when I travelled to Russia and Siberia in college. I don't think they were meant to be christmas ornaments, but I thought they were perfect for the tree. And they're fun to hang up because I remember my trip.


My mom made this teeny tiny adorable tree for me when I was little. You can tell how small it is when you look at the lights compared to it. I always loved the miniscule ornaments she made out of clay.  Amazing.  I think this one may have been in 1989? Correct me if I'm wrong.


This was somehow not made by my mom, but by one of her friends. It came from the famed christmas party. I love it.

So that's just a little taste. I just grabbed my camera really quickly while cleaning up and took a few fun pictures before I packed all the ornaments away. But there are many more, and they're all special. I guess it's good to leave stuff to put up here next christmas. What if I ran out of things to talk about?!?

But I forgot to write about my christmas miracle. It had to do with the tree.
When we came back from Florida I plugged in the tree and realized that one of the strings of lights had gone out--at least half of it was out. So there was a big black spot on the tree. Kris didn't notice it and claimed to hardly be able to see it when I pointed it out. I really wanted to fix it, but things got a little crazy. I got new lights, but wasn't able to pin down enough time to take off a bunch of the ornaments, untangle the lights and then put them all back on. In fact, it was starting to sound really hard and stressful.
So I took Kris's advice and just ignored it (to the best of my ability.) It was hard because every time I saw the tree in the dark it kind of bummed me out. You girls know what I mean, right?
BUT here's the great part. When we came out on christmas morning all the lights were on. It did feel a little like a miracle, although I'm sure that miracle energy should be spent on much more important things. But it made me feel happy and good and blessed. And that's a good way to feel on christmas morning.

And this is officially my last christmas post of the 2008 holiday season.

::santa is awesome::

Why is Santa so awesome? Because he brought us this:

No, not the cute yet belligerent little boy, the digital piano!
And although it's a bottom of the line version we are only slightly (read extremely) worried that Max turning the power button off and on ten thousand times will cause it to short out and quit working.

But despite that we are so excited to have it. It's fun to have music in the house. It's fun to practice even though neither Kris nor I are very good. There's a lot of need in church for people to fill in playing hymns and such though, so hopefully we can get our hymn and primary song skills up to speed. And hopefully Kris will be able to get some accompaniments learned so we can do some instrumental stuff in sacrament meeting. And hopefully Max will learn to play something besides hot cross buns!
Whew. Lots of hopes. We'll have to also do some work to go along with the hope I guess. We'll keep you posted.

But it's really true. Santa is awesome. And as we said to Max on the morning of the 26th, yes, it's really too bad he doesn't come every night.

::reasons why::

Sometimes things happen to us that make us remember, or sometimes realize the reasons we do the things that we do.

The other day one of Kris's past patients came to visit him and bring him a gift.


Can you read it?
In case you can't, it says (word for word):
Dear Dr. Kris
I wish a meery christmas.
and a happy new year.

Thank you for keeping my smile healthy.

this is the medal for the best dentis in the world.
xoxoxoxoxo, princess ________

Isn't that adorable? How sweet of that family to do that for Kris. It's something he'll always have.
Our bishop at church was saying this week that it's easy for us to take people for granted. People do things for us all the time, and the world is a better place when we thank those that help us, and acknowledge them, whether they're doing their job or not. Being the beneficiaries of some loving thanks like this really does make me want to spread the love.