Happy New Year!

I was amazed. Braxton rang in the new year with the rest of us and didn't even fall asleep in the car on the way home (20 minute drive home). We didn't even have a huge grump on our hands either. We got a honeybaked ham from Kent's work for Christmas so we shared it with Brian and Cheryl and their families at Cheryl's house. It was actually a pretty low key party because mostly we just watched movies and ate. As usual Erik made delicious food (we are so happy to have him in our family for other reasons too, but especially for all the good food he makes). We had some great meatballs and shrimp wrapped in bacon. MMMMM! Have I ever mentioned how I love shrimp and seafood? Just curious.

We watched Meet the Robinson's and Transformers. Kent and I hadn't seen transformers and we were quite impressed. About ten to fifteen minutes before midnight transformers was over and Kent went outside to get ready to set off fireworks we had left from July. They were pretty fun. After that it was back home to sleep. Today was basically sleeping in shifts. I took an early nap while Kent and Braxton took later naps.

In the spirit of new year's I looked over my goals from last year and I am setting some goals for this year. Last year my goals were:

*visit teach monthly
*attend temple monthly
*15 min. scriptures 5 days a week; 3 conference articles a week
*morning and night prayers
*drink enough water daily
*eat three + fruit and veggies daily
*exercise 30 min. 4 X weekly
*Spend 1 hour quality time with Kent weekly

I did fabulous on visit teaching until about September and I felt my testimony of visiting teaching grow a lot. My companion and I are going to have to recommit ourselves and find the time when we can go visit. I did well with temple attendance, but still could do better. Scripture reading I still struggled with as well as prayers. I did well on the healthy stuff for a few months, but then I lost that as well. I think Kent and I did pretty well at spending time together, but I think we still need even more time and we need to make date night more important even if we don't have the money to do much I still need to be courted.

My new goals are a little less ambitious in hope to actually accomplish them this year. First:

*Keep up visit teaching monthly
*Attend the temple at least 12 times this year (makes monthly sound pretty pathetic this way)
*Read scriptures every day and study 15 min at a time for three times a week.
*Stay 100% on top of paying tithing!!! (This one is a must)
*Exercise at LEAST 3 times a week for 30 min. or more.
*Keep a rolling list of gratitude's DAILY for mental health.
*Make sure and have happy play time with Braxton each day

This is a little bit more simple, but I think I can feel good about it. One thing I learned from November and December is that as I took the time to write down what I was thankful for each day it truly helped me to have perspective. I wanted to continue in December, but as I got distracted I got down and I was less and less able to see what it was I truly did have which spiralled me into more depression. So I am going to keep going on my thankful blog on the side. I also think this may help me out with my seasonal depression. I pray that 2008 finds me happiness and growth as well as mentally, physically, and spiritually strong. I pray that I can find positive things to focus on in my life and have better perspective in dealing with my struggles. I wish the same for all my friends and family. I love you all!