Old Pictures from My Old Phone

 The Tidal Basin in the fall time.

 A bridge near Lara and Glen's house.

 I liked this sign. :)

 The Washington D.C. temple.

 A pretty and historical house in downtown Vienna.

 Me at the Masonic Memorial in Alexandria.

Looking at the Navy Memorial from the National Archives.

 A crane (at least that's what I think it is) in a pond near my house.

The fall time!

50/50 Challenge Results 2012

At the beginning of 2012, my work had a challenge, read 50 new books and watch 50 new movies during the year.  You can read more about the challenge in this blogpost I wrote at the beginning of last year.  Now for the results of the challenge... I read 41 books and watched 43 movies.

Sometimes I would just read books and watch movies just so that I could count them toward my number. As a result of this, I read a few books and watched a few movies that I did not particularly like, but I read or watched them anyways.  I might tell you a few of the ones I didn't like, but mainly I would like to tell you the ones that I liked the most.

The books I really really liked:
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom
The How to Train Your Dragon series by Cressida Cowell
Have a Little Faith by Mitch Albom
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
Any historical fiction books by Ann Rinaldi

The movies I really liked:
Children of Heaven
Life of Pi
Les Miserables
Whisper of the Heart

Movies I did NOT like:
Contagion
The Woman in Black
The Backup Plan

Basically with the rest of the movies or books, they were good.  I liked them.  I may have even liked them a lot but the ones I wrote above are the ones I liked the most.  The ones I did NOT like were pretty bad (at least in my opinion).

If you would like to see the full list of movies and books that I watched and read, you can click the tab at the top of my blog (under my blog title) that says 50-50 CHALLENGE to see them.

So... I Bought a Car!

 Yaaaay! 

My old Hyundai Elantra took a turn for the worse.  I decided it was no longer worth it to keep on fixing it. It cost a lot of money and I worried every time I went out on the road that it might break down.  So I called my bank to see how much I would be approved for to take out a loan, then I started searching for a used car.

 This car came up.  It's a 2009 Toyota Corolla.  It was within the lower end of my price range and I liked the color and the way it drove.

 So I bought it.

I have had the car for just about a week now and I really like it.  It's nothing fancy, but it feels a lot better than my old car.  I don't worry every time I go out on the road that it might break down at any moment.

I am hoping this car will be a good, reliable car for me for many years to come.

The Beach on Christmas Eve Eve!

 Here are pictures from the beach in California over Christmas break. I love the beach. It was my one request of what I wanted to do while I was there.  It was well worth the 20 minute drive to there :)  (Oh if only I could live 20 minutes from a beach all the time...  maybe someday.)

 Dad, Nate, Tim, and I took Sunday afternoon, Christmas eve eve, to fulfill my desire and go to the beach.    It was a beautiful afternoon/evening!

 Timbo and I

 Nate and Tim didn't like all of these self-portraits I was taking, but I took them anyways.  (On a side note: Ladies, these two brothers are single and they're awesome :)

 We found this cool spot to get jumping shots.  Nate definitely got the most air. 

 Tim did get off the ground, I just wasn't able to capture it on the camera :)

 I liked this shot with the cool rock formation.

 I took this shot and really liked it and made Nate take a picture of me like this.  See picture below.

 Papachka stayed in the car while Nate, Tim and I walked a long the beach.  It was a lovely beach on a beautiful evening with good company! 

Thanks Papachka, Nate, and Tim for coming with me on this little excursion. 

California until Christmas Eve!

I spent from December 18th until Christmas eve in Southern California.  I stayed with Kristina, Tom, Andrew and Madeline.  Dad and Mom were the first to arrive after me.  Then Heather and Tim came a couple of days later. Then Nate made his way the night before I left.  I love my family.   I really like Southern California and I really like the beach!  

My flight to Chicago was cancelled in Baltimore due to horrible fog in Baltimore.  I left early the next morning and flew to Denver then onto Orange County, CA.

It was Christmas time and we could wear short sleeves and jeans during the day. I loved it! 

The lone tall tree.  There is the awesome smaller tree next to it decorated with ornaments.

A beautiful sunset!

The Pacific Ocean!

San Diego Temple!  The light through the windows was beautiful!

Mamachka and Papachka!

Mormon Battalion Museum.  This museum pretty much rocks! 

The San Diego Temple is right off the freeway like the Washington D.C. temple.  It is magnificent! 

I have pictures from the beach but those will have to wait for another post...

Hello Darkness... and the Gym

 I've had this post in my mind and ready to publish for awhile now and I decided I should actually publish it.

Hello darkness.  My old friend.  Oh wait... that is not what I meant to say.  I don't get daylight savings time. It seriously sucks.  I mean does it really save us money when it's dark when I get up in the morning and I have to turn on my lights in order to get ready and then it's getting dark on my way home and I must turn on my lights to do anything once I get home?!  Does it make any sense?  Does it really help the farmers or whoever the hell it's supposed to help?  I doubt it.  Actually I think someone should do a study about it and see if it is really beneficial for anyone or anything.  OK, I think I am done with that rant. 

I signed up for a gym membership a couple of weeks ago.  I am kind of excited about it and I had these grand intentions of going a few days a week, but it's proved much harder than I thought.  Things keep on coming up when I plan on going or I don't feel like going out in the cold or blah blah blah whatever my excuse is for that day.  But I am determined to get myself there at least three days a week.

The gym is close to my house; there is lots of equipment there and one of my friends has a membership there too. I am hoping with these three factors it will help me to go more.  We will see.

P.S. I am still running, but since it's starting to get cold outside and it gets dark so early, I have only been running once a week and then do other things like workout videos and now go to the gym. 

Day 5-Sunrise Over the Caribbean, Our Last Day

 Apparently I was up bright and early a lot on this trip.  On our last day, I watched the sunrise over the Caribbean Sea.  Although I had been up for a while in the night with diarrhea (tmi, I know), it was worth the early morning wake up call. 

 I think this shot is my favorite!

 My spot for watching the sunrise. A 30-second walk from our room to the beach.

 Downtown San Pedro was a pretty clean, cute, and colorful town filled with lots of golf carts.

 My feet in the Caribbean Sea!

  Nate and I took a stroll along the beach in downtown San Pedro.  It was beautiful!

 I liked this shot with the cool trees on the beach and the lady setting up shop.

 I liked this colorful high school.

 Cayemart!

 Look how colorful the police and fire stations were.

 Nate and I on our rented golf cart.

Since I did not go snorkeling in the Caribbean, I decided I needed to take a swim in the sea.  This picture does not show me in the Caribbean, but it was taken after I had gone swimming.

 The weather was lovely the whole time we were there.

On our flight back to Belize City to catch our flight back to the states. This flight was full, so full that they had a passenger sitting in the co-pilot seat (no joke).

Overall this trip was awesome!  I loved visiting and exploring two new countries.  Thanks Nate for letting your little sister tag along with you!