10 for 2009

10 favorite things I did in 2009:

1. Played, ran, and lived at the beach for 4 days.  I loved our San Diego vacation so much that it's my #1 thing that I did.  I can't wait to go back next year.  Just seeing and being next to the ocean was heaven.
2. Attended the Oquirrh Mountain and Draper temples' open houses and dedications.  I liked that they were so close together. And I like looking across the valley at them; they are so pretty.
3. Visited Zion National Park and stayed away for a night with Shane.
4. Camped with my cute family.  My boys loved it.
5. Planned a 5k race for my ward/neighborhood.  It was really fun.
6. Welcomed some new next door neighbors. Surprised this made my top ten? They always say you can pick your friends but not your neighbors. We've had some doozies over the past 10 years, but I think we finally have some who will work out.  They even shovel their sidewalk and park in their garage.  Who knew?
7. Met up with some awesome bloggers for a night out.
8. Planted a (mostly successful) garden.  Those squash bugs did almost get th best of me, though....
9. Cooked Thanksgiving dinner for family and friends at my house.  This was awesome!
10. Went boating at Utah Lake.  It was such a great day we had with good friends.

9 favorite books I read in 2009:

1. Forgotten Garden, Kate Morton
2. Cold Mountain (this was a re-read, but I enjoyed it so much)
3. The Help
4. Sea of Poppies
5. The year of the Flood
6.  Her Fearful Symmetry
7. The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane
8. The House at Riverton
9. Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society

8 things I did in my spare time:

1. Reading (32 books completed, with another 4 or 5 either set aside for a later [or non-existent] future date)
2. Running (found a new favorite run near my house, ran a 5 mile race with my sister, ran on the beach.)
3. Sewing (made four baby blankets, one table runner, and a partially-done Christmas wall hanging)
4. Playing the piano (can play O Holy Night all the way through, can do top hand of Hark The Hearald Angels Sing which is two more Christmas songs than I could play last year [when I could play none]
5. Shuttling kids back and forth to school and stuff.
6. Painting (did my kichen in April, and just painted the hall and one living room wall yesterday. I even distressed some wooden frames so they looked different and hung some new pictures in old frames. Fun times!)
7. Napping (I'm sure I didn't get as many of these as I would have wished for....maybe next year.)
8. Vacationing (mentioning this again, but when have you ever known us to leave home multiple times in a year? It's some kind of record, I think!)

7 things my kids did that made me proud:

1. Thomas' baptism.  It was a great day, and I'm proud of him.
2. Ben learning to ride a scooter.
3. Thomas having fun in the water at the beach and at the lake this summer.
4. Ben learning to write his name.  Even when he carved a "B" in my hutch, I still loved him.  The kid just really likes to write his name, aparently.
5. Thomas finishing a 400 page chapter book.  I told him a long time ago if he ever reads a book that has 500 I'll pay him $50.  He might do it this year!
6. Ben helping us paint yesterday.  He did a great job.
7. Both my kids when they each picked a blanket from their stash to give to a homeless shelter.  I like them learning about helping others.

6 places we frequently went:

1. Walmart.
2. The library.
3. Harmons.
4. Chili's.
5. Kohl's.
6. The park.

5 favorite movies from 2009:

1. Time Traveler's Wife
2. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
3. My Sister's Keeper
4. A Christmas Carol
5. 2012

4 goals for 2010:

1. Run faster.
2. Read 35 or more books.
3. Spend more time playing the piano.
4. Keep my temper better.  Especially with my sweet little boys.

3 things I will (hopefully) do in 2010:

1. Run the Wasatch Back Relay.
2. Go back to San Diego, but maybe visit Disneyland instead of Sea World.
3. Go to my friend Rebecca's wedding in Virginia (I might even get to visit Virginia Tech; squee!)

2 things I loved about Christmas 2009 (since I won't do a December list):

1. This year was great, so it more than made up for last year's.
2. I got to visit my dad one week before Christmas. I was so relieved that I saw him before, since I knew I probably wouldn't on Christmas day.

1 word to describe 2009:

AMAZING!