January

January is my least favorite month. It always seems to be full of challenges but I will start with the good news first.
1. I purchased a new car on Friday. A 2009 Hyundai Sonata (red). I love it. It is so similar to my Camry that I had a few years ago but not as much. Plus, it gets great gas mileage and I can use regular gas. I can't remember the last time I could do that. Tyler is even more excited because he got the Honda CRV. I had purchased it planning on giving it to him but didn't think it would work out. It did and everyone is happy. I will not mention the insurance for a 17 year old male.
2. I started school again on the 7th. It is going really well other than I don't want to be there. Thank goodness no writing this time. Just not in the mood to write 10-15 page papers each week. Every Wednesday I just want to stay home.
3. Dieting - I put on my "fat" jeans the other day and they were no longer my fat jeans. I decided something must be done immediately. I can't continue like this any more. I think this is the most I have weighed in my life. I can fortunately still fit into all my clothes but they are no longer comfortable. I want to lose at least 5 pounds but my goal is 10. I keep telling myself to be patient and worry about a pound a week but I want it all gone now! Thus far haven't lost anything but just have to keep going. I really need to start doing sit-ups again.
4. Tyler backed into a car a few weeks ago. It happened @ 11:00 p.m. at night. He was leaving a party and I guess didn't see there was a car behind him. It was a small black car and granted he is in a bigger car. I had been praying that he would be safe driving and decided I needed to change my prayers. Who cares about safety. I am now praying he doesn't hit anything or anyone. We were able to deal with the cost without involving the insurance company and the family was really nice working with us. A hassle though and gave me nothing but headaches.
5. Our ward was dissolved. I guess they wanted to make all the wards bigger. Everyone in our existing ward stayed together except for three of the condo buildings. Seven-ten families were sent to a new ward. Tyler is handling the change fine but I am struggling. Each week something seems to happen that frustrates me. The first week they didn't plan on extra people and it took us 45 minutes for the sacrament. It was awful. The young men didn't know what to do. We have one disabled youth who while passing the water was crying as loud as he could "I want more bread." His mom had to finally take him out. We are now 60+ people in Sunday school. There is not enough parking or room in the chapel so people have to sit in the foyer. Yesterday Tyler left for church 20 min. early. Thank goodness he has a car. I left on time and got to church and no place to park. Even the street is full. The weather was awful. Huge snow flakes that were really wet. There were puddles of water everywhere. I drove back home and was going to walk but couldn't find my snow shoes. Luckily I didn't because I would have had to swim across the street. I called my dad and he left his meeting to pick me. Needless to say we both missed the sacrament and I had to sit in the foyer.
6. The weather - I can't wait for winter to end. Snow, snow, snow and it is freezing and not melting. I want warm weather.

Disney Pics

I stole these from Kirstens blog. Check out Scott on Splash Mountain. I couldn't believe you could see him but a perfect shot and we somehow managed to block the person sitting behind me. Ok, it was my hair which went everywhere. We have over 300 pictures from the trip. I need to buy Tyler another photo album. We only purchased one at Disneyland.

Disneyland

Well, we are all back home now. We had a great time in Disneyland with everyone. The weather was colder than we would have liked but it was December. Fortunately we didn't get rained on much and during the day it wasn't too bad. We made our dining reservations 60 days in advance which worked out great. We were able to get in to all the places we wanted such as the Character Breakfast on main street. If you have never done it you should plan on it for your next trip. The best breakfast, even if they do not serve grits. We also ate at the Blue Bayou and Ariel's Grotto. Highly recommend both. The tri-tip at Ariel's was some of the best I have eaten. Enough about the food. We loved going on all the rides even though a few of us were not feeling 100%. It was really fun to ride the rides with Kirsten's kids. Scott loved California Screamin. He just so calm and relaxed about it. There was a dad trying to get his daughter to go on it but she was too scared and at the end jumped out of line. Scott is only 5 and wasn't a bit concerned. He was beside me and the countdown from five started and his hands went right in the air. I couldn't believe it. I don't think he really like Tower of Terror but he rode it twice. He kind of had a shocked look on his face. What was really amazing is that he took the best pictures on every ride. I was sure you wouldn't be able to see him on Splash Mountain because we were towards the back but he was in perfect camera position. My mom of course loves Soarin' over California and we all love Peter Pan. Michael, Jackie and I stayed in the park for New Years although I was really tired. The memory of being there was more important and I am glad I did. It was fun celebrating with the croud and listening to the music. We also went to Sea World for the first time. That was probably the coldest day but we managed see all the shows and get the rides in we wanted. Time went by really quickly. Best memory - Scott was feeding the sea lions fish. The birds were really aggressive and one bit his finger. He cried for like two hours about how he hated birds. I told him we were going to go get some lunch and he said, "I just want to eat that bird for lunch." It all made sense when at Belle's library he answered that he would rather eat nice people for lunch instead of eating with nice people. Another successful trip. We found lots of cute clothes and pins for the kids. Check out Samantha's hat. Loved it!