2013 Thanks

Rather than focusing on goals right now, I really just want to focus on things I'm thankful for right now and from this last year.


I'm thankful for

1. People-family, friends, coworkers, and classmates. I am so blessed! 
• Some of you in particular really helped me this past year, and please forgive me if I forget someone,  but thank you for being there for me, making me feel loved, and for being my friends, Jordan, Lauren, and Chelsea, Tiny, Steve, Sierra, James, Annie, Hailey, Jodi, Chelsea, Kristen, Scott, Deb, Camille, Camilla, Chris, Joel, Rebecca, Courtney, Mallory, Ty, Lauren S, Lyndi, Marissa, Meredith, Paul, and of course my wonderful family. I love you all so much!
2. School-I checked my final grades, and my gpa for the semester was 3.70. I worked very hard but also feel very blessed.
3. Jesus Christ-I feel like I have come to better understand my savior, Jesus Christ, this year. Christmas this year felt very Christ-centered, mainly because I made an effort to make it more Christ-centered, and I loved it. I spent most of the year as a Relief Society teacher, and I have really enjoyed the calling. I've had to work to strengthen my testimony about many things so that I can teach about it. I have had to learn to listen to the spirit even more so that I can teach what Heavenly Father wants me to be teaching. I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and my beliefs shape my life and help me feel peace and joy and love. More than anything, my belief in Christ gives me hope. I feel and believe the gospel of Jesus Christ to be true. I sometimes have my doubts, but I do believe. 
4. Music-I went to many concerts this year. I saw Tim McGraw and Faith Hill in Las Vegas with my mom. I saw Tim McGraw with my friend Chelsea. I went to Josh Groban (he's so amazing!!), sat outside a Josh Turner concert, and went to Luke Bryan's concert. I also went to a few fantastic musicals. I went to Shrek the Musical, which is the BEST! I went to Tarzan and I believe it was this year when I also went to Hello Dolly. I also went to the Messiah Sing In, which is wonderful! I feel like I'm missing some of my musical experiences, but I just love music. For Christmas, my mom got me a ticket to hear the Utah Symphony play Harry Potter songs in February. I'm so excited!
5. My health- I feel like I sound like an old person being thankful for this, but I seriously have been thinking lately about how I'm so thankful for my health. I was sick yesterday and have been a bit under the weather lately (probably because of my lack of sleep from my busy life), but in general, I am a fairly healthy person, and I feel very grateful for this. 
6. Books- I've been able to read over the past week and over Thanksgiving break, and I have loved it! I love books! 
7. Funny things- Laughter is so great! I love when I've had a hard day or week and I go find something funny to help cheer me up, and it really helps. I also love funny people. They're the best!
8. Being American- How am I so blessed to have been born in America and born to a family that was able to provide for me and bring me so much comfort. I am truly wealthy. I have thought of this so much, and I so want to give back to those who are less fortunate than me. 
9. The best roommates- This sort of falls under the category of people, but I'm calling it different because not everyone I've been roommates with has become a close friend. I just have been thinking this year about how I've been so blessed roommate-wise. I have had some wonderful roommates who have become best friends. I have learned so much from roommates. Some people have horror stories with roommates, and I haven't had that. It's not like every situation has been perfect, but overall I've had a good experience with roommates, and I am thankful for that. 
10. Having learned new things this year- I feel like I've learned A LOT this year. I've been in school this last semester, yes, but I've also learned so much about life and people and tolerance. I've learned a lot from some lovely friends and family. I wish I could summarize it better all here, but maybe I'll write a post about it. 
11. The Ocean- I had the chance to visit the ocean this year for the first time in a few years. I also love lakes, but I realized the loveliness of the ocean that I had forgotten. I understood why people are so in love with the beach. I am still a mountain lover, not that I love one over the other, but I am happy to live near the beautiful mountains. 
12. Goodness- I don't know if this will make sense. I sometimes get very discouraged with the world. A lot of bad things happen, a lot of people have horrible lives, and a lot of people don't make good decisions. It makes me very sad. But then I hear stories of goodness. Or I see goodness. Times when people go out of their way to help others. Times when people keep going despite things being hard. It gives me so much hope, and I feel like if I can be good, and try, maybe I can help make the world a better place, at least to the tiniest bit. 
13. The new year- In the words of L.M. Montgomery in Anne of Green Gables, "Isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?" It's not like this year has been bad (it has been hard, but I don't think it's been bad), but I just like this thought. It's lovely.

I feel like this list is rather generic and boring. But I just feel thankful. 

Now

I feel like I have so much to say today, so I'm just going to spill some things.

So, I love school. However, I just had my last class before Thanksgiving break, and I still have work today and tomorrow, and I have a lot of homework to do, but having a couple days to get a bit more sleep and possibly some for fun reading in sounds like the most amazing thing ever! I am just feeling full of excitement for the rest of this week!

I also am feeling very full of joy. On Sunday, sacrament meeting was amazing. It was precisely what I needed. The talks were on gratitude, and as I listened, it was as though a part of me woke up. How could I have forgotten about how I want to live my life with an abundance of gratitude? And how had I forgotten the joy and love that gratitude brings? Somehow I had forgotten, but I received a beautiful reminder in those talks. I had been going through the motions of gratitude, saying thank you in my prayers and saying thank you to people in my life, and I knew I was thankful, but I wasn't actually feeling thankful. But with that reminder, I have changed my thinking. I ask myself: What am I really thankful for? And at moments when I'm feeling low, I only have a few things. But the funny thing is that once I really recognize and express and feel my gratitude for those few things, it brings me a little dose of joy, and then with that joy, I can see even more of the things that I'm grateful for. With my greater sight of the wonderful things around me, I am better able to see God's love for me and for everyone! I am able to see how people are really very talented and wonderful. It just requires opening my eyes through gratitude. Gratitude doesn't solve all my problems, but it allows me to see things in a more hopeful view. It allows me to feel like I can accomplish the things I need to accomplish, and I love it.

So, speaking of gratitude, I am so very grateful right now for my ward and fhe group. I can't say that I was too excited about this new ward when I moved. Not only was church at 8:30 a.m. (soo early!!), but I also felt like the ward was too big (since my previous ward was tiny), and I also felt really old in this ward. I had kind of planned to half participate in the ward. My schedule is crazy busy anyway, and I felt good about where I was in the gospel. However, this ward has been wonderful for me. I have met so many wonderful people, and I just get the feeling that this is where I'm supposed to be. I'm supposed to have these people in my life, and maybe they are supposed to have me in theirs. My FHE group is really fun and kind. It's been a while since I've been in a ward where I feel like I can rely on people like I feel I can now. My ward is also full of people who are very enthusiastic about the gospel, and their examples to me are helping me become better and realize that I can be enthusiastic too! This ward also pushes me out of my comfort zone somewhat often, which helps me grow.

I'm really glad Thanksgiving exists, just by the way. There are lots of great things about Thanksgiving!

How a consistent lack of sleep has affected me

So, I have not been getting much sleep. It's bad. But between the 10-hour school/work days, a several hours of homework each night, and several other things, it's kind of difficult to make sleep happen. But I need to fix this. Lack of sleep doesn't really do great things for me, or anyone probably.

So, here is the thing. I can actually function pretty well without much sleep. I don't even feel too sleepy most of the time, but here is how sleep does affect me negatively:

• I am incredibly grumpy without enough sleep. I pretty much hate mornings (more so than I would anyway) and hate other things. I'm not typically a hater.
• This is similar, but I am so very irritable without sleep. I feel so annoyed with people all the time. And the thing is that I know that this is mainly my problem, so then I feel annoyed with my irritability. It's a rude cycle. 
• I feel achy and like I just want to be lazy.
• I don't know if this is from lack of sleep, but I heard sleep deprivation can cause this problem, but I crave sugar all the time these days! What happened to healthy me? I think healthy me is still there, but wait, where are the cookies?
• I feel like my memory is terrible. Things I have known for a long time, I now have a hard time remembering. And remembering new things: good luck to myself with that! Normally I'm pretty good with names, but not so much right now. 
• I don't feel like I experience life fully. I actually still do a lot and have the energy to do a lot, but I feel like I get a little bit detached. 
• I keep feeling like sickness is coming. 

Ok, so I need to stop with this sleep deprivation fiasco. So, what am I going to do? Well, I think I want to set a goal. Here it goes. Getting fewer than six hours of sleep a night is not an option for me. You would think that this goal is not too bad, but it's actually kind of stressful to me. How am I supposed to get everything done that I need to? So, I need to remember to be nice to myself if this doesn't happen, but I also need to make this a major goal. I need to plan ahead where possible to make this happen.

Wish me luck on my sleep endeavors! 

I am enough

My friend posted this TED talk on facebook. The Power of Vulnerability

I just watched this, so I'm still processing, but I loved it, and I think everyone should watch it! Man did I need to hear that. I am definitely guilty of trying to numb my vulnerable feelings, but I also try not to. I just loved this talk, and I want to live more wholeheartedly. I definitely want to think about this and also come back to listen to it.

Harry Potter Halloween Love

I LOVE Harry Potter. This is a fact.

I'm thinking that I might be Luna for Halloween.



I think I just need a blonde wig and some of those spectacular specs. I'm not that big on dressing up. I think it's fun, but it makes me self conscious. But I hope this costume works out! Unless I come up with something else awesome. :)

Possibly Stressed

I might possibly be stressed out.

I think it's weird that I'm stressed today when I wasn't really stressed yesterday, even though not much is different.

I think certain things just came to my attention today. For example, I realized that I can register for Winter semester classes in just a week and a half. I went to look at what's available, and I'm not sure how I'm going to make things work. If anyone has any good ideas for me for language learning, help me out. Some things at work also caused me stress. My performance review for the year is on Friday. I recently changed managers, and I don't necessarily feel like the month where I've had my new manager has been the best reflection of my year as a whole. However, my new manager is really nice, so it should be ok. Performance reviews just make me nervous though. Also, my life is busy. Work or school from 8 to 6 and then homework and eating and my attempts at maintaining a social life afterwards make me quite busy. I guess it's time to go back to the day by day method, while also planning ahead where I can. I can do this!

Compliments

I know. Two posts in two days. It's crazy! I've just been feeling very reflective this week.

So, I'm a big complimenter. I have been for years. I just have all these thoughts about people in my head about how wonderful and amazing and talented they are. I also feel like these thoughts don't really do me any good, just sitting there in my brain, so I might as well share them! I know that sometimes people think that since I compliment so much, the compliments don't mean as much. And people can think that and it could be true, but I definitely mean what I say. I think sometimes people also think I compliment so that I can get something. I can't say that's 100% wrong because sometimes I share my compliments with people because I think they are awesome, and I want to be their friend. However, the compliments are sincere.

So, it really amazes me how often I'll tell someone how great I think they are, and they respond by saying something about how they really needed to hear that. It doesn't always happen, and sometimes people say it to be nice, I think, but it happens. A lot of times these people are people who look and act like life is going great. And maybe overall it is, but there are times when kind words from a friend can really make things better. I know that's true for me. Yesterday was feeling kind of rough, and a friend texted me some nice texts, and it made my night feel much better!

I'm not posting this to try to make myself sound all good or anything. I could be such a better person than I am. I just felt like I should write about this: how kind words can really be helpful and how sometimes people are having a harder time than you realize.

Sometimes I've given compliments and then people tell me that I'm going to contribute to an overinflated ego or something. And I do believe that humility is a good thing, but, at least for me, I feel like the world pulls people down enough. I'd rather build people up.


This is not related, but General Conference is this weekend, and I can't remember the last time I was this excited for it! I am seriously so excited to hear the words of the prophet and to learn more about the gospel. I am so excited to learn more of Christ. It's going to be the best weekend!

Encounters

Someone has been on my mind a lot this week. Someone who used to be a best friend. And a song just came on that we both loved. I have been wondering if he's doing well and whether he's been able to overcome some struggles he had and whether he is happy. I hope he is. I've been thinking about how I'm different from how I was then. And also how I'm the same. But I also have been thinking about how that friendship changed me. I'm sure I can't see it all, but I can see some of the change. And I hope that I had a positive influence on his life.

I don't think everyone will agree with me, but I feel like every single person we encounter, whether for half a second or 80 years, makes an impact. I feel like there is so much I can do to help others. I sometimes feel like I need to be positive 24/7 so that I can help others feel happy, but I don't think that is actually the case. I think I need to be true to myself in both the stressful, unhappy times and the peaceful, happy times.

So I'm doing the best I can in my lovely life. And I hope that helps.

End of the Second Week of Grad School

I did it! I survived the first full week of grad school + working full time! Last week had Labor Day, so it wasn't a full week.

The first couple of days were pretty overwhelming coming back to school. I hadn't been in school for three years. Isn't that crazy that I graduated three years ago!? I felt like everyone in my classes already knew what they were talking about, and I didn't remember all of the terminology from years ago. I felt like a lot of things were really over my head. It was also really difficult having such long days (still is, but I am getting used to it). I start working around 8 every day, take breaks for my classes, but then work until around 6. I also am really used to the luxury of not having homework. Now that I have it, I have to be a lot more careful with scheduling my time. So, things are kind of challenging, but things are also starting to feel more comfortable and familiar and are falling into place.

I am really loving my classes. I love learning and being in class and learning from the professors, who are seriously so incredibly knowledgeable and impressive. I get really excited to do my homework for my sounds class because I am a nerd and find phonetic transcription to be a super exciting thing. :) Although I can't say I love every page of everything I have to read, I do love learning about language from so many different perspectives and being able to see connections. I love having classmates who have different perspectives and personalities that I can learn from and build relationships with. I also find campus to be quite lovely. I feel like although things have been much more stressful and difficult than I am used to, I have also had so much happiness in just my two weeks of school. Walking on campus makes me happy. I love the environment here.

I feel like there are many challenges ahead of me in grad school, but I'm kind of just taking things one step at a time. I have a calendar that helps me remember when things are due and when I have happy plans with friends. I am happy to be in grad school and feel like I have learned so much in just these two weeks! And this makes me feel really grateful.

Life is pretty cool.

25!

Tomorrow I turn 25. I'm excited and think it's going to be a fabulous year!

I want to spend my day being as kind as I can and helping others have an amazing day! I want to have lots of fun with people I love.

I also remembered a blog post my friend had written of 24 things she had wanted to do when she was 24.I want to do that. So here it is, my list of 25 things I want to do while I am 25:

1. Volunteer at least three times in the community
2. Be brave
3. Host a dinner party
4. Take horseback riding lessons
5. Visit or make specific plans to visit Nashville
6. Go to Disneyland
7. Perform on my flute
8. Improve my piano skills to the next book level
9. Hike more often
10. Send snail mail to at least eight people (snail mail is the best!)
11. Participate in my classes in graduate school (rather than trying to just be a listener)
12. Do well in my classes in graduate school
13. Learn Spanish
14. Go to the temple at least once month
15. Write thank you notes (messages, emails, etc.) every week
16. Read
17. Take pictures
18. Learn to cook at least 5 new recipes
19. Be me
20. Even though I'll be busy starting in the fall with school, make sure I have time to be there for friends and to help
21. Overcome a bad habit
22. Audition for a musical
23. Love more
24. Go skiing!
25. Keep my room and kitchen clean

I may change a few of these, but I am so excited! Those last two were hard to think of, but once I thought of them, they felt perfect. 

Like Dessert

So, I was just eating some raspberries--one of the most amazingly delicious things on the earth. Eating raspberries just makes me happy. I'm pretty sure that it's just like eating dessert to me. It got me thinking about last fall. I was participating in an 8-week health challenge. One of the rules was that you could only eat dessert/sweets one day a week. This was very doable, but I do have a bit of a sweet tooth, so some days I really wanted something sweet, so I found non-desserts.

For me, several fruits can satisfy my sweet tooth. Raspberries definitely can, along with peaches and strawberries and mango and pineapple. Sometimes apples and oranges can. I just really love fruit, so it makes me pretty happy to eat it.

Something else that is like dessert to me is sweet potato. I just would cook up a sweet potato like a baked potato, and then I add a bit of butter and whichever spices I'm in the mood for, and it is heavenly. Squash can be eaten similarly and is delicious.

Avocado is not as sweet, but it is so good to me that it is like dessert. I'm pretty sure I could be happy about eating good avocado daily.

One thing that I also love is smoothies. I have a Ninja blender, so it chops things up pretty well. I would typically add lots of fruit and sometimes some greens and sometimes milk, and I would have a heavenly smoothie. One day, I decided to try to make a new type of smoothie. Yum! I used a little milk and added frozen fruit (I think I used  a blend of fruit from Costco). I then added just the littlest bit of vanilla. It ended up tasting like really good ice cream, but it was so much healthier!

I just was thinking about how my sweet tooth can totally be satisfied by healthy deliciousness and how that makes me happy!

Rough Weeks

I just wanted to say right now that I am very grateful for rough weeks.

I love how I learn a lot from them and how, not every time but fairly often, people will randomly reach out to me on those weeks.

Rough weeks sometimes become the best weeks.

Angels Among Us

Alabama sings a song called Angels Among Us. When I was possibly around the age of 9, I was in a singing group. In this singing group, I was first introduced to this song. I think we sang it at a Christmas concert. This song touched my soul, I believed it, and I loved singing it.

I seem to forget about this song, but then it will pop up, and I remember. The song came on the radio this morning, and it was what I needed to hear today.

I particularly love this line:

And ain't it kind of funny that at the dark end of the road.
Someone lights the way with just a single ray of hope.

Even though there is a lot of sadness in the world, there is good too. I know that Heavenly Father watches out for us. I hope that I can help others and be someone who can light the way with hope.

Here's the song. It's just the words, nothing exciting, but it is just a wonderful song.

Happy

Hi,

So, I haven't written in a while. Life has been quite busy with lots of things. I got into grad school and have been preparing for that. Yay! And Kaylee's wedding is coming up soon. I am so excited for her! There are lots of preparations to make though. I also recently got back from a quick trip to Texas. It was highly beautiful and wonderful. I would love to devote a post specifically to the trip. I loved it so much there, and I am missing the friends I spent time with there. Work has also been pretty busy.

I just have been really happy recently. I don't know if it's the change in weather or if my vacation refreshed me or something else, but I am just very happy to be me and have my life. I am excited for General Conference this weekend, and I'm just excited about life!

I really want to be a better me, and I am working on serving more and overcoming the things I struggle with. Life is lovely and I am so blessed!

And that is all for now.

Vegas Adventures

A little less than two weeks ago, my mom, dad, and I headed out to Las Vegas for a fun weekend. The primary purpose of the trip was to see Tim McGraw and Faith Hill perform at the Venetian, and I will tell you, I was really excited!

The car trip was pretty enjoyable, and it passed by pretty quickly. Maybe working 8 hour days has made 6 hours feel not very long. When we got to Vegas, one of the first things I noticed was the sunshine and warmth. We had been living in the 20s, and I'm pretty sure when I got out of the car that it was in the 50s or 60s. It felt so good! We checked into our hotel and then decided to go get some food since we were pretty hungry. We went to an Italian place called Maggiano's. Oh man, it was good. We all shared our food with each other. Our plates were being passed all around. My dad kept saying, "ooh! This is my favorite." And he settled on the decision that whatever was in front of him was his favorite. All of the food was just that good.

So, after we had filled ourselves full of amazing Italian goodness, we decided to go into the adjoining mall. This mall was HUGE! I bought my mom a bracelet for her birthday from Brighton. And then we went to Dillards. We shopped for a while and somehow managed to find my dad. He told us that the  mall had just had a fashion show and that it was cool, and we decided to try to come back and see it the next day. We got lost trying to get out of the mall because it was so big, but we finally made it back outside and over to our hotel. We stood outside and watched our hotel's show. I will tell you that the show at Treasure Island is kind of weird. It's kind of inappropriate, which I suppose is somewhat expected for Vegas, but it was just weird. There were some cool things, like standing outside without a jacket, haha. And I always love fireworks! The pirate ship in the show was pretty cool too. So, we watched the show and then decided to go relax before the concert.

At seven, my mom and I headed across the street to the Venetian (my dad doesn't love country like my mom and I, so he didn't want to go to the concert and didn't have a ticket). The show started at 8, and we were so excited! The Venetian is a very pretty hotel. I enjoyed walking through it to get over to the theater. We had to wait a little while to go into the beautiful theater, but then it was time to go in! We realized as we found our seats that we were in the very back. Really. We were the second to last row. However, we didn't care. It was still going to be great, and we knew it! The show started, and I loved it so much! My mom and I sat by people who were not very enthusiastic, which was sad, but we loved it, and I was so happy! My new camera from Christmas allowed me to zoom in really close and see Tim and Faith. Faith wore some beautiful clothes. They both performed really well and they have amazing voices. I love Tim McGraw and Faith Hill. Both of them were artists who I really loved when I was younger, and I still love them. They are cute and married, and they just seem so great! I would love to meet them one day. My one complaint about the show was that it was too short. An hour and a half did not even cover half of Tim and Faith's songs, and they also sat on stage and talked for a while, and I would have loved more of that too. It was a very lovely concert though, and I'm so glad I went, and that I went with my mom!

So, we had arranged to meet up with my dad and go over to Serendipity 3 and get a frozen hot chocolate after the concert. My mom had heard they were good. We called my dad and he told us to hurry over to the Bellagio to see the water show. We were walking so fast down to the Bellagio--all of the people trying to hand out things totally ignored us because they could tell we were in a hurry and determined, so that was good. Also, who knew that people dressed up as crazy characters at night in Vegas?! I saw Minnie and Batman and some Sesame Street characters. It was funny! We only caught the end of the show my dad wanted us to catch, but then he said they go every 15 minutes, so we just waited for the next show. The water show was really pretty, and I loved the jazzy music. :)  We headed over to get our delicious, but rather expensive, frozen hot chocolate, and we sat and talked and just enjoyed each other's company and the people watching. I relished the warm weather. It really made me so happy.

We headed back over to the hotel and wound down and went to bed. I loved being able to get so much reading in.

The next morning, after we had gotten ready, we headed out to breakfast. We ended up just going to McDonald's, but since I hardly ever go there, I thought it was delicious. I'd definitely recommend their oatmeal. It's good. We walked around Vegas for a while after breakfast. My mom and I got some really good gelato, and we went back over to the mall from the previous night. We hardly shopped, but we did catch the fashion show, and it was funny to me and also fun. The clothes were from Banana Republic, and they were really cute, but I just thought that some of the models made some funny faces. We were pretty tired at this point, and we decided it was time to head out. We got to the car and made our way to Henderson to pick up a cake for my cousin. We ended up stopping at The Container Store and Whole Foods. The shopping center we were at was cool.

We drove up to St. George and enjoyed the rest of our evening there. Then we drove back home the next morning.

Our trip wasn't long, but it was a lot of fun. The sunshine and warm weather and fun really refreshed me. I feel much more prepared to handle more winter (and don't get me wrong, I love winter--it's just, long sometimes). I loved spending time with my mom and my dad, and I think they are so fun and generous. I love that they are able to have and enjoy adventures with me!

Life is great!

Flowers!

I'm pretty sure that most people know that I really love flowers. I took floral design during my last year of school, and it was one of my favorite classes from my undergraduate education, and that's saying a lot since I really loved school and my major.

Last Friday was not my best day ever. In fact, I was calling it an awful day. I wasn't feeling very good, and I wanted to be having fun with my friends, and I kind of felt forgotten (I was also being dramatic; oh well). However, at about 8 or 9, one of my best friends  brought me some potted orchids.

Kind of like these, but mine are prettier



This was one of those little miracles in life and answers to a prayer. Not only did these flowers and the fact that my friend had thought of me when she bought them make me happy for the rest of the evening, but it has made me happy all week! I have placed the orchids on the desk in my room, and they just make me so happy. They are so beautiful!

My friend also told me that the way the orchids looked reminded her of me. How cool is that to be compared to a beautiful flower!?

I think that flowers make the world a better place with their beauty. They bring joy and can be a comfort to people. For that reason, they are wonderful.

Bittersweet

There are two parts to the word bittersweet: bitter and sweet.

Therefore, if you are going to use the word bittersweet, please make sure that there is something bitter and something sweet. The definition in Merriam-Webster includes this in the definition, "pleasure alloyed with pain." I like that.

Ok, I just wanted to clear this up since I've seen this word used incorrectly a few times recently. I don't have a lot of language pet peeves, especially considering that I'm an editor, but this is one that I just noticed and felt very upset by. A little ridiculous, but I am a word nerd. :-)

Reflections

So, I'm feeling pretty behind. I'm still in Christmas mode, but I suppose it is the new year, and I did want to review last year's goals. I'm sure I'll make some resolutions, but I'm not quite there yet, and I'm really ok with that.

But here were my goals from 2012 with how I did on them:

• Go to the temple more- I think I did do this, but I still didn't go as often as I would like to
• Visit nature more- I did not do this one, and that's pretty sad. I love nature. It brings me a lot of joy. The great thing about life though, is that I can still keep trying!
• Serve- I did serve, and it was lovely! I am excited to serve more.
• Eat well and work out- I think I have worked out more this year than in other years, so, yay, success! I also have eaten fairly well, maybe not as well as I could have, but I did pretty well.
• Smell good- I hope I was successful. I just don't want to smell bad, ever.
• Be kind- I was pretty kind! There were times this year where it was less natural for me than in the past, but I was still pretty kind, so I think that's good!
• Do monthly goals- hmm, I did this for a few months
• January's goal did not happen. I tried to do a book drive for a hospital.
• February's goal totally happened, and there were two! I took a cake decorating class, and I organized photos for my mom
• March's goal was back to my basics and buy a gym membership and save money and take care of my car. I think I did fulfill back to my basics, which meant that I wanted to do things that I genuinely loved. I wanted to spend time with people I loved and do what I felt was right. I believe that I succeeded in doing this in March! I also did get a gym membership, but I don't remember if I did the other two
• April- support my friends, especially with graduation! I feel like this is a weird goal, but I would say I succeeded. I didn't want to be so upset about people complaining about school. Just because I love and miss school doesn't mean tests and projects and finals aren't a pain. Also, my friends graduated, and it was so exciting!
• May- read scriptures every day for 30 minutes. I don't think I quite met this goal, but if I'm remembering correctly, I did do a very good job. It was good!
• months after May- I didn't make any specific goals really for these months, at least, not that I wrote down. I did accomplish a lot and continue pursuing things.
• Share hope, peace, and love with others- hmm, I tried on this one, but I don't know if I did the best I could have done
• Listen- I think I listened well, but I can still improve
• Learn to cook more things- I actually didn't cook a whole lot this year. It was weird. I did learn a few new recipes, and I took a cake decorating class.
• Write thank you notes- I actually didn't really start doing this until later in the year, but it has brought me so much joy! Expressing gratitude is a wonderful thing!
• Be in a musical- This did not happen, but it is still a life dream of mine!

There are a few others, but they are a little silly. I think I had a successful year! I would also like to write a list of highlights from 2012 like I did for 2011, but I will not do that right now. 

Happy New Year!