Bring on 2010

Wow, I can't believe it is already February 2010. Where did January go? Anyway, here we are and plenty has happened since the new year began. So in the format of random thoughts, here is a recap of our first month of the new decade.

New Year's

Ok, so New Year's Eve is officially last year and last decade, but there you go. New Year's Eve was enjoyable as always. I am pretty sure I gained 5 pounds that night alone. First there was Timi's little smokies. I think it is probably a very good thing that those make an appearance in our house once a year only. However, if those weren't tempting enough, she added cake balls to the menu this year. If you don't know what cake balls are (I didn't) they are a baked cake broken up and mixed together with frosting and I am sure other healthy things and rolled into inch wide spheres and then covered in chocolate and put in the freezer. (I have decided that if I ever contract a terminal disease, I am switching to a cake balls only diet. They are sure to bring about my demise much faster, but in a heavenly way so as to make the whole process a joy.) I had about three more of those than I should have. That would have made for a perfect menu already, but then Rachel brought over a crab dip in a bread bowl that was fantastic. Then there was cheesecake, a jalapeno dip and unlimited amounts of Dr. Pepper, all of which would have been the highlight in some years past. Every year, I try to focus on a memory that made that New Year's unique. I think for New Year's Eve 2009/10, the food has to be in the top three with strong consideration for number 1.

Speaking of which, isn't it amazing that we just finished a decade and I didn't seem to see a whole lot of countdowns of the year or decade. I live for those things and it just seemed like there weren't as many as there should be for the end of a year, let alone a whole decade. We'll deal with that in a moment.

As far as other things related to New Year's, the games were fun, the visiting was even more fun and now that I am in my late 30s, going to bed was pretty darn enjoyable too. The kids all made it to 12:00 except Kate. Not that she wasn't involved. Below you can see her keeping up on her flirting with Rhett. She doesn't seem to like to go to too many people, but she does seem to like Rhett Dodge.



A Minor Annoyance

As I mentioned above, there were very few "Best Of" lists for the 2000s. That was kind of depressing. Then when there were "The Best Movies of the 2000s" lists, the movies were STUPID! So I thought, I can do better than that. Well, you know what. The movies made this last decade were not that great. I kept coming up with movies that I thought should be on the list and realized most of them were released in the '90s. So anyway, my main point is this. I hope movies get better this decade because it is sad when I have a hard time coming up with a top ten for an entire decade. Now I don't mean to imply I didn't have movies that I liked, it is just that I have a hard time considering some movies that I find enjoyable as being worthy of inclusion on a best of the decade kind of list. I am not holding my breath. Hollywood seems to be determined to suck more and more each year. Anyway, my top ten movies of the last decade are:

10. Dan In Real Life
9. Batman Begins
8. Ocean's 11
7. Pride and Prejudice
6. The Bourne Ultimatum
5. The Count of Monte Cristo
4. The Incredibles
3. Pirates of the Carribbean: The Curse of The Black Pearl (Specifically not the other two)
2. The Dark Knight
1. The Lord of the Rings (All three made one story so...one entry, but I mean they got the number one slot.)

I recognize this list is far from perfect, but I had to see one list that somewhat reflected my thinking, even if it was my own list.

Before and After

January has brought a lot of changes around our house. Specifically in the way it looks. Shannon got the painting bug and painted most of the walls in our living room. She is looking to wrap that up in the next week or two. And this last weekend, we finally tiled the majority of our house. When we moved in, we had the stamped concrete. It was very pretty. However, it was dark. Shannon is not a big fan of dark. In fact if anyone has not opened the curtains by 7:30 in the morning and let the sunshine in, you risk getting a major withering glance from my wife as she mutters about how much like a cave it is with the curtains/blinds closed. So having a dark floor just didn't work for her almost from the get go. And to show you how great of a husband I am, I finally responded just a mere 4 and a half years later. Below you will find pictures of the recently repainted family wall and before and after shots of our floor. Also included are pictures of the workers and of me after eight hours of working the wet saw cutting tile. Many thanks to Tommy, Heath, John and my dad for the hours spent. Especially Tommy who took on the brunt of the work. This job brought into sharp focus how not young I am. The amount of pain I felt in the days following this project in comparison with the amount of work that I actually did is not a good ratio. My knees are still aching.













So now we move into February and it isn't slowing down anytime soon. My grandfather's funeral is this week. Braden turns eight this month and that is followed quickly by his baptism. The temple dedication is getting closer with each day and that is very exciting, but it means a lot of work and preparation for the actual event. Kids keep growing and clothes not fitting. Abby ate her first full footlong sub last night which is a rite of passage in a way. She is certainly not my "little" girl anymore. And we are looking forward to taking our children to their first Broadway play at Gammage in February when we go see Mary Poppins. Life is full and we find ourselves just trying to keep up.