Note to 2012

dear 2012,

i'm really excited for everything you might bring to my little family. i feel like this year could really be our most exciting and adventurous yet! 2011 was a little rude to me but i know you won't be like that. i know you'll be the year for growing and building self esteem and confidence and basically really becoming the person i've always wanted to be. i also know you'll be full of creativity and hopefully some good health thrown in there too, that would be nice. but mostly i want you to be a year full of love and fun! 

let's see if we can make that happen.

love, Nikki

bye bye 2011, helloooo 2012

Matt and i rang in the New Year with Han and Leia...and sparkling cider.

and i didn't even have to wake Matt up to kiss me at midnight!

yuck.
and now 2011 is overrrr!
so weird.

i've really been digging the bloggy posts where people put pics of their adventures for each month so here's mine!

January - not a lot happened but i gots my hairs cut

February - valentine's day!

March - trip to Sedona

April - made a wall and repainted our downstairs

May - Harry Potter camping trip

June - birthday trip to the Wildlife World Zoo

July - trip to Seaworld

August - shark week!

September - got a little puffer fish

October - trip to Endor

November - 5 year anniversary

December - my Etsy shop opened and did amazing!

Eve

Happy New Year's Eve everyone!!

Matt and i have a super random tradition of going to a Chinese buffet on New Year's Eve and stuffing our faces until we're ready to pop so i'm definitely looking forward to that tonight!

and we'll see if Matt can actually stay awake until midnight so we can be cute and kiss.

every other night of the year Matt can stay up until 3:00 or 4:00 AM no problem but then on New Year's Eve he falls asleep at like 10:00 PM and can't be woken up by anything.

mystery.

So Long 2009...and Good Riddance

I've been thinking a lot about the changes I need to make in my life to get the results I want. I came across a new blog called www.6changes.com. There's a lot of info there but it taught me a lot about the reasons I've always failed at New Year's Resolutions and making changes in my life.

The secret is making "habits". It recommends making 6 Resolutions. One for every two months of the year. This is one of the reasons I always fail. I always try to do to much at once. This way I can focus on one thing and start with baby steps. That is the second reason I can never keep a goal longer than two weeks. I try and lose 30 pounds in one month instead of making a "habit" and slowly building up an exercise routine. The third rule is to be publicly accountable for your goals to help you keep motivated and log your progress. 

So that's it, I'm going to:

• Start with one change at a time.
• Begin by taking baby steps.
• Commit publicly and keep a log.

These are my New Year's Resolutions:

1. Financial Organization. Organize bill schedules and debt payoffs. Organize filing cabinet.
2. Daily Exercise and Diet. Activities I enjoy. Cut back on processed foods. 
3. Stop Internet Obsession. Cut off impulsive behaviors like checking e-mail, facebook, and Google Reader.
4. Wake Earlier. Make quiet time to relax, create, or exercise.
5. Focus on Creating. Set aside time every day to create something amazing.
6. Declutter. Simplify schedule and possessions.

Obviously there is more stuff I want to conquer, but I have to keep it simple. I am going to break each change down into 8 steps, 1 for each week during the 2 month period.

Nikki and I coined the phrase, "Zen in 2010." That's what I am going for.

(Sorry I'm not as funny as Nikki is. I will try to incorporate some humor in my next posts.)

today is the first day of 2010. epic.

to prove our level of awesomeness i will tell you that we did not receive one invite from any of our friends to participate in any exicting new years eve parties so what did we do? we decided to have some fun of our own!

we first took a lovely trip to safeway since we had a gift card and needed all-nighter supplies. we ended up with this...

junk food junk food and, of course, more junk food. you simply can't go wrong with soda from your childhood, pretzels dipped in nutella and what great party doesn't have fritos, bean dip and martinellis?

we arrived home and hunkered down to watch one million, literally, episodes of dexter. our new favorite show.

we finished the first season and man was it great! i must say that i thought the first part of the season was totally predictable. i consider myself a forensics expert. partly because of my childhood ways and partly because i've watched way too many CSI episodes and this made me think that i had dexter all figured out but then POW! the end of the first season totally threw me! i couldn't believe it! i guess i'm not the forensics genius i thought i was. bummer.

matt fell asleep before midnight, as always. i did wake him up for the traditional midnight kiss though. & then i spent all night waiting to fall asleep. matt snored away while my curse of insomnia kept me up all night. plus the bad serial killer dreams started as soon as i actually did fall asleep. maybe i shouldn't watch dexter so close to bed time. mental note.

now today, new years day. a day full of more dexter and junk food. i did pry matt away from the tv to take me to the mall to search for a cute dress which i didn't find. sad. i did find a cool one online though & matt bought it for me!

isn't it cute?? i do not own one single dress, shocking i know, so i'm really hoping i end up liking this one when it comes. matt is such a sweetie to buy it for me!

hopefully the greatness of last night & today is a sign that the rest of the year is going to be amazing!