New Year 2012

Okay, it has been a year from my last post. Life just got....busy and crazy. Looking through the photos on my phone here is a summary of what happened in the last year:

• I saw a Cirque du Soleil performance here in St Louis - Dralion. It was a Christmas present from Dominque and it was totally awesome! I have wanted to see one of those so bad!



• We had some crazy snow in January and February.



• My Mom had a hernia surgery. She had so many hernias...they stopped counting after 6. (There were all from a prior surgery...not healing well) So for quite awhile Mom was out of commission.



• I had a good friend, Brooke get married. They were a cute couple!



• Leslie brought over their extra fouton and it is now our seating in the clean basement...and bed for Luke when he visits. :)



• I went to Branson, Missouri for a work function. It was pretty fun, 4 hours of classes and then they had excursions around Branson planned and organized for us.



• Dominique and I took a trip down to Orlando to see the Disney parks. We drove down and had a lot of fun. The Harry Potter theme park is really awesome!



• I took Mom to go and see Josh Groben in concert with Ellen and her mom. It was an awesome concert and at the end of the night Ellen dropped her shoe beneath the stands...that was actually pretty funny. :)



• I dog sat Dominique's parent dog, Trip for a week while they were out of town. He is cute puppy...definately likes the attention.



• I took Matt's kids to a Cardinal's game on his birthday night...since he had to work. We had a blast in awesome seats!



• I started doing HCG. It's a hormone weight loss drug where you cut down to about 500 calories a day. Yes, it sounds hard...and it was. But I was pretty unhappy at my weight and wanted a change. A quick jump start was what I wanted to make me feel more motivated on my own to keep going and get back in shape. I did it for 5 weeks...then got a kidney stone and stopped around then...one week shy of my stop date. But I did lose 25 pounds in that 5 weeks. YAY!!



• I turned 31, yes I am old.



• My friend Robyn got married. They are such a cute couple and seem really good for each other. I wish her so much happiness.



• Due to my old age...I graduated/got kicked out of the Singles Ward here. So starting in November I started going back to the family ward. Which is weird and comfortable all at the same time. Go figure.



• After the HCG was done I did start going to a gym. I had a few training sessions with a trainer...and have been going 3-4 times a week, every week. So far so good.



• Went to Sam's dance recital, it was fun and she did so much better this year than at her old dance studio. So proud of her!



• And finally for Christmas Matt came over on Christmas Eve and we got to spend the holiday together, the 3 of us.

And now we are onto New Years. :) I did the usual tradition, hang out with Dominique at her place. We did dinner at PF Changs, then headed back to her place for a TV/movie marathon. Here is Cody (left) and Riley (right) in their Christmas finery. Dominique finally got a picture of them together! :)

Dominique gave the dogs some bones...to keep them occupied and not want to be scratched all night long. And the dogs have this...funny routine. Please watch the clip and enjoy! :)

Part 1 -


Part 2 -

And just to memorialize the year end, here is me vegging out on Dominique's couch:

And here is Dominique drinking the sparking grape juice we got...yes it really is sparkling grape juice. Actually...she had wine glasses we were going to drink out of but they had weird spots on them. So she served it in some glass Shrek McDonald's cups. But...literally 1 minute before the end of the year, Riley was getting needy for attention and his wagging tail knocked off Dominique's glass from the coffee table. She barely got it cleaned up before the count down...and just didn't want to deal with another cup. So she used the bottle. I swear...no alcoholic here. :)


Riley being needy...wanted some of what mommy was drinking. Silly dog.

So what a way to end the year. In Dominique's words..."2012 is going to be a great year...it can only get better from here."

So I end the year at my goal...40 pounds lighter than i was on Labor Day weekend. My goals for 2012...lose 50 more pounds, hike the Grand Canyon and get my debt paid off. Let's go 2012...we can do it!