2015, by the numbers

I really like doing this year-end review by the numbers. It makes me happy. Though numbers can't accurately sum up everything, I think they do a decent job. I'm interested to see how my numbers next year will stack up to this year's numbers. Happy New Year, everyone!

Traveling:
Miles driven in my car: 14183
States lived in: 1
States lived in/been in: 5 (6 if you count the layover in NY on the way to Brazil)
Countries visited/lived in: 2
Round-trip plane trips: 2.5
Amusement parks visited: 0
Times driven to Utah and back: 6.5 

Work: 
Jobs held: 1
States where I am now an LCSW: 2
CEUs completed: 31.25

Personal:5
Dates went on: 0
Books read: 85 (and according to Goodreads, that was 29,739 pages read)
Places lived in: 1
Wards member of: 1
Roommates had: 2
Cars driven: 3
Blogs posted: 6
Friends on Facebook: 437
Massages received: 12

Entertainment:
Restaurants visited: 118
Times went out/ordered/got food from restaurants: 167

Movies watched: 43
Plays/musicals attended: 7 

Concerts attended: 1 

Spiritual/church:
Callings held: 3
Blessings (including setting aparts) received: 3
Temples/temple grounds visited: 5
Number of proxy initiatories completed: 61
Number of proxy endowments completed: 13
Number of proxy sealings completed: 5
Live sealings attended: 1

101 List:
101 list goals completed: 31
Novels written: 1

My Year in Facebook Statuses- 2015 Edition

January

• New favorite life accomplishments: 1. Totally rocking a Minute to Win It type game and moving 50 M&Ms from one bowl to another using only a straw and my breath. 2. Becoming an LCSW!

February

• Someone told me today that I remind them of Brené Brown. That's one compliment that will really stick with me. She's totally my spirit animal.

March

• First world problem of the day: realizing you're super hungry right when you finish your dental appointment. Deciding whether to stay hungry a bit longer to enjoy your super clean teeth or to just give in and eat is a really tough decision...
•  An amazing hour and a half massage right before bed? Don't mind if I do! I love having a massage therapist as a roommate! :-) (Also, if anyone wants a fantastic and reasonably priced massage, contact Meagan. I can personally vouch for her incredible skills.)

April

•  Anybody else sometimes Facebook stalk themselves at 2am? No? Just me? Ok...never mind. Off to bed I go, then. :-) (And for the record...I blame Meagan for starting this. Haha.)

May

• My toilet got clogged yesterday and my fire alarm went off over a piece of burnt toast tonight. Why did my apartment suddenly decide to make me pretend to be an adult who fixes things?

June

•  Waking up with a headache is the worst. Today might be a kind of long day...

July

•  ...apparently, I have new upstairs neighbors. And I'm once again reminded how loud people can be, even when they're just walking around.
• Why do I always forget how much I love swimming and how soothing being in the water is to me? I might just have to splurge and get a membership to a gym with a pool...
•  So excited for holiday/vacation day tomorrow! Pretty sure this is my first time using a holiday or vacation day since starting my job where I'm not leaving town. Little sad, but it'll be so nice to just relax at home, especially with this great weather!
• Started the day off with a water aerobics class where I felt slightly out of place, as I was the youngest participant by at least 30 years. But it was an awesome workout, and I have a feeling the day is going to continue to get better!
•  So tired after such a long (but fun and productive) day. Hiked Table Rock, went to the farmer's market, cleaned the church, floated the river, read a bit, ate pizza and watched a movie, and played Phase 10. Who knew you could fit so much into a Saturday?

August

• Had so much fun at the Pentatonix and Kelly Clarkson concert! Gotta love amazing artists at a great outdoor venue on a perfect summer evening with great friends.
• In honor of my upcoming birthday, I'm considering jumping out of a fully functioning plane. Because why not? Any recommendations for good skydiving companies in the area, or within a good road tripping distance? And anybody want to go with me (or have other awesome birthday suggestions)?
•  And...I'm roommate-less again. What is it with all my roommates leaving me for Utah? So rude! Haha. Gonna miss you Meagan! Provo and UVU aren't gonna know what hit them. J

September

• Lovely weather, enameling, a free 10 minute massage, and a dollar scoop of Ben and Jerry's for dinner. I'd say September's edition of First Thursday was a success...even with me parking in what was apparently a paid lot and getting a small ticket. Whoops.
•  Oh my gosh! I forgot how much my blood pressure rises during BYU games. What an amazing last play! Go Cougars!
• I had such an amazing weekend in Grand Teton and Yellowstone! Sad I missed watching BYU beat BSU, but I really couldn't pass up going on such an incredible trip. I need more adventures like that in my life. (Now, if only I had more vacation time...Haha.)
• Anybody want to give me their TV provider log-in info so I can watch the BYU game? J (I don't like games being on channels I don't have!)

October

• Ok, Phoenix/Mesa friends, I'm coming down October 22-25 for another friend's wedding. (What is it with all these friends getting married in Arizona in October?) I have a bit more time to play and explore as compared to this last weekend. Any recommendations of things to do? And anybody want to join in on said adventures?
• Survived the three days of grand opening! So tired and ready to collapse into bed...But still so excited and grateful to be in a new and beautiful store with such a great team.
• Got a window seat, even though my boarding number was C18, then I got to watch Say Yes to the Dress on my flight because of the free live TV! Thanks, Southwest. This trip is off to a great start!
•  Finally signed the contract to add my new roommate (who has been here for almost 3 weeks already... haven't been super impressed with this new management company). Instead of just a one-page agreement like the previous company, they essentially made me re-sign an entire lease. Reading through all the stuff I had to agree to almost makes me want to just buy my own place and stop renting! But I don't think I'm quite grown-up enough to do that yet... right?

November

• I don't think I've ever been so unprepared and unmotivated for NaNoWriMo before. I'm not even sure if I see myself getting to 50,000 words. The 1667 words for the day is intimidating enough right now. This month is going to be interesting... but here we go, anyways.
• Oh, NaNo. I'm less than 4000 words in (where I should be around 13000 words if I were on track) and I just decided to switch from third person to first person narrative. This is going to be fun.

December

• This cold weather is making me very excited to go to somewhere where it's summer to celebrate Christmas. Who needs a white Christmas? Not me.

Summer 2015, bullet-point style

Um... where did summer go?

I haven't written since April, and I keep putting this post off, thinking that I'll do a nice and long catch-up post, talking about all that's happened in the last 5 months. And I kept telling myself I couldn't write a post without pictures, but if I have to do that, then this really will never get posted. So I think I'll do more of a bullet-point update and if you want pictures, you can see my Facebook pictures. And if you want more details, you can always ask me in person. (Novel concept, I know.) So, without any further ado:

Things that I was able to cross off my 101 list this summer:

• Participate in St. Luke’s weight loss challenge (January-May 2015)
• Go to a temple open house (May 23, Payson temple)
• Read scriptures for at least 30 minutes for a month (June 2015)
• Visit the Boise Art Museum (June 4,  during first Thursday)
• Order delivery (Papa John's, June 27)
• See 5 new plays/musicals I haven’t seen yet (Count of Monte Cristo, Pippin, Gypsy, Over the River and Through the Woods, Dial M for Murder)
• Watch entire Dressing YT course (I should probably write another post about DYT...I love it!)
• Hike Table Rock (July 24)
• Get food from food truck (Pizza from Provo Farmer's Market, August 8)
• Go to concert (Kelly Clarkson/PTX, on August 8)
• Go to the Boise Train Depot (August 12)
• Go to Yellowstone (September 10-13)...also went to Grand Teton, and technically got 5 more stamps in my National Park Passport between the 2 places, but I'm not sure if I should count that

Other non-101 list updates:

• Floated the river a couple of times.
• Went to Utah a few times.
• Visited the Family History Discover Center in Salt Lake--it was way cool. I highly recommend it. (May 22)
• Read quite a bit. And did quite a bit of hanging out with friends.
• Went to the Boise Farmer's Market
• Got a makeover at the DYT salon. So fun!
• Went to an overnight bachelorette party at a cabin in Cascade.
• Meagan (the roommate mentioned in my last post) moved out. It was super last minute. She just felt like that's what she had to do and move to Utah to pursue school. I miss her. She was a great roommate
• Started working full-time in one store, so I don't have to keep being a "split personality" working in two different stores, as my boss calls it.
• Went to the Western Idaho Fair (August 27)
• Got another year older. Weird.
• Did some enameling during a first Thursday. Neat experience.
• I'm going to be getting another roommate at the beginning of next month. It's been kind of nice living by myself for a bit, but it'll be good to have someone else around.

Uh... I guess that's it for now. Maybe, if you're lucky, you'll get another post sooner than 5 months from now. :-)

More 101 things and a new roommate

Yikes. Looks like it's been a while since I blogged. I had all these grand plans of all that I was going to talk about and include pictures, but that feels like too much effort and I'm getting further and further behind. So... Here's the quick update of what's happened in the last two and a half months.

I crossed a few things from my 101 list (11 down now!)...
Go to a dueling piano bar
Bear testimony in sacrament meeting
Visit the Idaho Botanical Garden
Tour the Old State Penitentiary
Buy an annual pass for something (bought it to the Idaho Botanical Gardens... it's great)
Write in journal every day for a month

I got a new roommate, Meagan. I wasn't really looking for a roommate, but Meagan was in my ward and mentioned that her roommate was getting married and that she needed at least a temporary place to live as she worked to find a more permanent place. I was a bit hesitant, as I was liking having my own place. But I felt like it could be a good change, as I had been isolating a bit too much. And Meagan living with me has even better than I could have hoped for. It's been really great for both of us. I'm very grateful to her, we've clicked surprisingly well, and we are becoming good friends. It's going to be weird to have her leave me for a bit over a month for a trip she already had planned before she moved in! (Though I think I've convinced her to stay a bit more permanently. She thinks I'm a much better roommate than my last roommate did. Haha.)

Work's been crazy, but good. Some days are really hard, but good things are happening anyways, and I feel like I'm learning and growing a lot. Plus, I'm an LCSW in Idaho now, too!

I'm not being as successful at being healthy (exercising and eating right) as I should be. It's been hard when I still haven't been sleeping super great and I do seem to get headaches more often than I'd like. Though the massages I've gotten from Meagan have helped. (Benefits of having a massage therapist for a roommate!)

So... yeah. There's your super quick update. Hope all is going well with all of you that might occasionally read my blog!

Officially an LCSW! (And kicking off my 2nd 101 list with a bang)

Not even a month into my new 101 list and I've already crossed off 4 things from the list! First off... I'm now an LCSW! At least, in Utah. And I sent in my application for my Idaho license this week, so hopefully that goes through soon, too.

However, it does feel slightly anti-climatic. I may be an LCSW now, but I still feel like I have no idea what I'm doing most of the time at work. I guess that's the nature of working with people and their issues... And that can be draining. Trying to avoid compassion fatigue. But it's nice to have those letters after my name now. It's so official. And it's nice to know I have that to fall back on, if I ever need to.

I also managed to hang up all the pictures in my house (thank you, Command Picture Hanging Strips, for helping me to avoid putting a bunch of nail holes in my wall). I bought a Blu-ray player. And I went to the Idaho Historical Museum with Karen when she visited me this week. The Museum is going through extensive renovations for the next couple of years, so they have a temporary location that we visited. We had the place to ourselves and we got to learn some interesting things about Idaho. And we got to dress up as toppings on a baked potato. Because... why not?

So... 4 goals down, 97 more to go. :-)

101 List- Try 2

Another new year. And instead of doing New Year's Resolutions, I am starting a new 101 list. You can view it here. Hopefully I can get more than 63 this time. Feel free to look through and tell me what you want to participate in. I definitely want friends to join me in these adventures. It's more fun that way. Happy New Year, all!