Late Start to 2009

I've come off to a late start for 2009 in the sense that I am still evaluating my 2008 and thinking about resolutions for 2009 (which can be considered is good that I'm still thinking about resolutions as most often people make them and then forget about them two weeks later).

I just loved how Alex described her year with different significant events, so I decided to do the same. Please allow me to list off several things about 2008 that stood out to me.

We'll start out with the best picture of the year- well the best picture in my book. This, along with the photo on the sidebar, captured everything about 2008. I say this because 2008 was our first full year together as husband and wife and also our first full year living in Grand Cayman.

So, we'll start with January. A huge event that I will always remember about 2008 was the passing of our dear President Hinckley. I will remember Celeste telling me the news over the phone, watching his funeral during a lunch break, and most importantly I will remember all of his words of counsel and comfort throughout my life.

Next event came in February when we celebrated Valentine's Day. I created a very romantic dinner on the beach for David and myself. My feet got EATEN by ants and I was miserable for about two weeks as I woke up every single night itching the heck out of them. So miserable in fact that I thought, was that whole Valentine's dinner even worth it?

We both received new callings this past year as well. David moved from YM presidency to Sunday School presidency and has been doing an exceptional job teaching Gospel Doctrine each week. I am in the primary presidency and still play the piano in sacrament meeting and teach singing time every week.

March brought an exciting trip to Seattle where I met my family and participated in the annual auction in Anacortes (6th or 7th year for me). I spent a lot of time with Savanna and Makenna this trip too.

In April we celebrated our first anniversary. We even had the top of our wedding cake saved and all (although it wasn't very good to eat).

May brought another family tradition of going to Walt Disney World. This time David accompanied us and we had a magical week indeed.
In May I also moved from the jewelry store to the Dental Office. Switching jobs is really hard for me. I get stressed out and worry about making mistakes as I'm learning to adjust to my new position, but this switch was actually the easiest one yet. I am still enjoying my job (at times) and feel very blessed that we both have these jobs during such a scary economic crisis (another thing that I will remember about 2008).

In July we had some special visitors. David's cousins Riley, Rob, Elisa, and Baby Sean came to visit for a weekend. We are excited to move back to Provo and be near Rob and Elisa later this year.
Staying at Kristy and Sean's place to babysit the cats was a huge highlight of 2008. It was basically the same as staying at a resort. We watched a lot of the Olympics this week, which was a lot of fun. I've never been so into the Olympics (I'm talking emotional episodes and all) and I cannot wait for the next ones.

We endured two hurricane warning/watches in 2008- Gustav and Paloma. Each brought a few scares, but mainly some fun sleep overs that will continue to be highlights of our year.

In October we enjoyed a most wonderful vacation to California.
We visited family and friends, shopped our bottoms off, and covered a lot of Northern California ground in one week. David's family sure knows how to have fun. We know that every visit with them will always be eventful and memorable.
Halloween was low-key. We went to a little party at Jeff and Kieren's and embarrassed ourselves as we were the only ones dressed up. Can you tell what we were?

A roller coaster ride! You can't really tell by the photo, but David constructed a cardboard seat with fake legs and feet to look like we were actually sitting. The best quote of the night was after I pointed out that, "We really are like actual Disneyland visitors because our camera case is in the middle of us on the seat," (not pictured above) and David said, "Yah, and I'm sweaty and frustrated," because our pants (from the fake legs) kept falling off and it took forever to get in and out of the costume. Maybe you had to be there- but it was funny.

2008 also brought a lot of politics in my life. I have never been into or known much of politics, but this year I was very interested- mainly because of Prop 8. 

I'll never forget waking up in the middle of the night to see that Yes on 8 was ahead and feeling the relief and gratitude for that.

We all remember Pirates Week since this picture was on the blog, our Christmas card, and now this post. That week was very fun with the cardboard boat race, baby sitting the Hernandez kids, and eating fried fish while being dressed up as a pirate and a wench.

2008 was a disappointing year for BYU football. Again, I'm not much to get into sports either, but this past year was a new beginning with the Olympics, politics, and college football.

Towards the end of the year we said goodbye to wonderful friends. Elder and Sister Pack are now serving in Turks and Caicos where they are holding church meetings in their home and bringing the gospel to an island that has been waiting for it for years.

Jamie and Casey (fellow bloggers- even wrote a tribute post to me that was one of the nicest things in the world!- and long lost best friends. It felt like we had known each other our whole lives) are so missed! Luckily we email to keep in touch and we look forward to seeing them in Utah, but I still wish I had these girls to spend time with while living out here.

And finally we ended the year with a very wonderful Christmas.

I would have to say best movie of 2008 for us was Australia and It's A Wonderful Life (neither of us had ever seen the full thing before this past Christmas).

Best TV series of 2008: LOST, the Office, and American Idol. 

Best book of 2008 for me: The Five People You Meet in Heaven (regretably the majority of the books I read were of the vampire nature).

Best purchase: Our camera and the three pairs of shoes from Last Chance.

I guess I could go on and on with different "Bests" so I'll end there.

Reflecting on 2008 has given me a chance to realize how blessed we are. I have so many things to be thankful for- our health, the gospel, wonderful families and friends, jobs, the island, the branch, and many more years to come.  Now, I am ready for 2009 since I made my list of 2008 events. Here's to a new year.