New Year, New Things

It's January 1 which means it's a new year.  I'm glad 2013 is over.  It wasn't a bad year.  Not at all.  But it is nice to start fresh.  I will turn 30 this year.  I have been scared of turning 30 for some time, but as I get closer I am getting more excited.  I hear your 30s are the best decade of your life.  So cheers to that!

I went to a church dance last night to ring in the new year. I haven't been to a dance in like...3+ years.  It was good.  I showed up at 11:15 pm and left just after midnight.  That is about all I can take of dances these days.  haha.  I then went to a "waffle party" that a girl in my ward was having at her parent's house.  Something like 45 people showed up.  I think her dad was having more fun making waffles than anything else that was going on.  Awesome!  I checked out at 2am and headed home to sleep.  It had been a long day of flights and traveling.  It was nice to sleep in my own bed again.

2014 is going to start off with a bang.  Somehow I have managed to squeeze a 4th family into my babysitting cycle.  It's already sort of stressing me out to shuffle this many people around. But I'll manage.  My job at work is changing a little bit.  My company decided about a year ago to off shore some of our workload to India (something I don't really agree with, but they didn't ask me.  Rude!).  My new job will be a "supervisor" over a team of 8-ish people in India.  I will monitor their work, audit them, answer questions, etc.  They will still have what's called a "team lead" at their office in India that will do other managerial type things like making sure they are at work on time, approving days off, etc.  My new position will be a nice change of pace from the usual.  So that is nice.  Hopefully the next step will be a "real" manager at my company.  We will see.  I will also start my Painting Training at the end of the month, and I am excited about that.

I haven't officially made any new years resolutions, but I plan to as some point.  This year it is probably going to have to be a little different from years past.  The next 4+ months are going to be jam packed.  I'm sort of exhausted just thinking about it.

Christmas was good this year.  I got to spend some time with my new baby niece, Madeline Noelle, who was less than a week old when I saw her for the first time.  She is amazing and has that intoxicating baby smell that I love.  She and I spent a lot of time snuggling and I loved it.

 Yeah, I do!

I got a Roomba for Christmas from my mom.  Do you know what a "Roomba" is?  Well, if you don't it's the little vacuum that goes on it's own.  You just push the button on top and off it goes!  Haha!  I love it.  Apparently you can program it to pop off it's port at certain times to vacuum whether you are home or not.  i.e. you could set it to vacuum every Friday at 3 pm.  Awesome!

Here is a video for your viewing pleasure.  (This is neither my cat, nor my Roomba, nor a video I took, but you get the idea.  Also upon further inspection of the instructions it says you are not to allow anything to "ride" on top of it.  hahaha)

I also got a new shower curtain for Christmas (which I haven't hung yet).  The old one, that I made got ruined when I tried to wash it.  Oops!  I guess it was time to retire it.  Sorry Amy and Nicole.  That means the blue fabric decorations that you made for me no longer match in my bathroom.

I also got a new phone.  It is shiny and perfect.  I love it!  Thanks Mom!  I got lots of other fabulous gifts that deserve mention, but you would be bored if i did that, so I will refrain.

Also, it was sad to say goodbye, but I had to let go of the "AL-SHAG."  It was a rug I made at Nicole's apartment in Lafayette on July 14, 2007.  (Happy Birthday Amy, haha)  It was made out of place mats that I sewed together.  It has been through many apartments with me, but sadly it is faded and stained and it needed to go.  RIP Al-Shag.  RIP.  Note: Nicole made that tag.  I looked much better before it was so beat up.

And some more pictures, just because:

The Colts jersey I made for Madeline

 The painting I did for my brother. Hinkle Fieldhouse (the basketball stadium at Butler)

 Lucy, my parents dog.  She is wild.  And when I say wild, I mean, she is completely out of control.  But still cute!

 Note: I call her Lucy Lou or Lucy Goo.  She loves me!

 This is pretty much what we did all week at my brother's.  That's what vacations are for though, right?

 My mom and Juno both asleep.

And then of course Juno sleeping in the most comfortable positions. Haha...Dogs!

This is the baby's nursery.  Adorable, right?  You know you love it!

And that's it for now.  Happy New Year!