On the brim of another year and I’ve never been one to make New Year’s resolutions. They aren’t my thing and I actually don’t think I’ve ever made New Year’s resolutions. Call me a New Year grinch.

I was going to be completely content sitting at home by myself tonight just relaxing then was invited to 3 parties. I guess I’ll be social and hit up 2 out of the 3 to ring in the New Year.

I was reading this blog: 25 New Year’s Resolutions Every Person Should Actually Make For 2014

25 things? Some I think are stupid. Some just don’t pertain to me. Some I think are great ideas. For me, 25 new resolutions seems, dare I say, unrealistic.

Facebook for the last couple years has done a “Year in Review” and this year, the top thing in my review is my friend’s wedding. Obviously Facebook is not one to tell me the biggest events in my life but I laughed that it wasn’t even about me.

This year, for the first time in awhile (if ever), I’ve decided to make a couple resolutions. Why am I blogging about it? Easy. If I keep it to myself (as in not in writing), it won’t keep me accountable. I know there are some that read this, not many, and that and knowing it is written here is enough to keep me accountable.

These aren’t groundbreaking resolutions by any means. Actually very stereotypical, truth be told. (In no particular order.)

1. My relationship with my Savior. You see. My joy doesn’t come from anything or anyone. Truth be told, I’ve lost sight of this recently. You can have all this world, Just give me Jesus. He IS my priority.

2. I need to lose weight. Get in better shape. This doesn’t define me by any means but I’m fat and I need to do something about it. That’s really it. I don’t have a scale but I have a mirror. I was almost brave enough to post a picture of the scale (that I stepped on at work). I did take one and even one of those gross before pictures. Maybe when there is an after, those will be posted but no promises. This isn’t something I want to do for someone else (as in maybe if I was skinnier, I wouldn’t be single – not at all) but simply for me because it’s simply time.

3. This is gonna sound stupid maybe even selfish and I’m not sure how else to word it but I need to figure out who I am. Have you ever seen Runaway Bride? Richard Gere’s character is upset with Julia Roberts character for not knowing what kind of eggs she likes. She doesn’t even know because of how she adapts/changes her preferences to the different men/people in her life. This is not about eggs for me. I like easy over eggs – the runnier the yolk the better. I digress. It’s about figuring out who I am, not in some spiritual “find myself” journey kind of way. Maybe this should be defined, simply be me – not who others perceive me to be or like what they like, just because they like it. This is not really a measurable goal, which are goals I don’t really like but in the end, I’ll know. (Are you like, sick of the word like yet?)

4. Live in the now. I know I live in the past. Analyzing, what if-ing, revisiting. I want to live in what the Lord has given me today. What’s that quote? “Yesterday is History, Tomorrow a Mystery, Today is a Gift, Thats why it’s called the Present.” This doesn’t mean forgetting the past or erasing it somehow. I truly believe the past is there for us to learn from but we I also need to allow myself to move forward. This is hard for me. I’m an over-analyzer by trade.

5. To be fully present – which really goes hand in hand with “Live in the now”. What do I mean by this? Less time on my phone, computer or anything else that may distract me from building relationships. When I’m spending time with someone, whether for hours or a brief conversation, my attention is on them – not checking my email, texts etc. I know this will be challenging (especially for techy, fast paced me) but it’s necessary for me (and dare I say others, too) to be aware of this. I need to put genuine time back into fostering relationships. You know exactly what I mean.

Putting words to the truths floating around in my head forces me to recognize them and gives me more strength to make better decisions in the future.

From zero to five resolutions. There you go. 2014, bring it on.

Welp, I missed this by a day. Life is just ridiculously busy. I seriously can’t believe it.
(For those just joining – I randomly started doing “random” posts a year-ish ago on the 11th of every month. So sit tight and enjoy. Yes, I’m posting this at work…don’t stone me.)

As an adult, I really wish snow/winter wouldn’t have an barrier on roads/driving. Obviously as a child, I enjoyed ALL the snow days we got but as an adult, it’s just a nuisance.

Branding Image. I really hate these kind of things. You really can use any words and make them say what you want. Point and case.

I don’t really fart or burp a whole lot. I actually can’t really burp well. There are somedays where I go on this gassy kick and my farts are so rancid I don’t like to be around me. Seriously. That was today. 11/17. Also growing up the word “fart” was almost like a swear word in our house. To this day I even hesitate before saying it…we said “buster”.

In past years I read the BSF notes because I had to but for some reason this year I’ve really been enjoying them. Most nights, I come home and read them on Monday night because I’m eager to read them.

I swear the second I hit the pillow at night, my brain wakes up. I have a couple great idea for blogs and can write them out so well in my mind. The second I sit up, I can’t remember how I was forming it in my mind.

While I’m sleeping, I know I have to go to the bathroom when my dreams get really absurd.

Someday when I get engaged, I really want it photographed but I don’t want to know until after the fact that it was photographed. As in, I don’t want the photographer to come out of the woods or whatever to have a little chit chat afterwards.

Sometimes dealing with parents is the most difficult part about coaching and makes me wonder, is it really worth it?

I am so excited for winter Olympics (2 months away)! Confession. I LOVE curling. I know, that’s so sad but I do. I also love bobsledding/skeleton/luge. If I could ever do that (bobsledding), just go down the track once – that would be one killer experience to me! The Biathlon is also pretty intriguing to me. I just love the Olympics!

There’s this guy at work (yeah, that was misleading…he’s 50+) who randomly knows different information about me photography because of ArtPrize, cooking because of a chili I made for a cook-off, techy because of work things (I help him a lot). He came into our office one day and said something like you probably skydive, too. Ha. Yep…twice. He laughed and said your life is comical. I took that as a compliment because that’s how he meant it. He came back the other day, pulled me in the hallway to ask me if I…sing. His reasoning was because I’m good at everything else. haha. I told him he has found my kryptonite and I’ll tell you, he was very sad. He needed me to sing in chapel with some others.

For some reason the story of Noah came up in our discussion tonight at BSF. It tied in somehow to how we sugar coat Bible stories and don’t want to offend people.

I immediately thought of this post.

We got a little off track as we started talking about a film that is coming out about Noah, subsequently, named “Noah”. If you haven’t seen the trailer for it, here it is.

I get it, I know Hollywood needs to over dramatize things but that aside, I actually think it may do a good job displaying the real destruction of the earth instead of the below.

(I just Google Image Searched “Noah’s Ark”)

I’m sorry but you idiots making these graphics. Have you ever read the story of Noah’s Ark?

All that aside, the thing that gets me the most are the comments under the trailer.

“Its sad that people actually believe this made up story.”

“So millions of species chilled in a ship smaller than the titantic, that didn’t eat each other, and were released from the same spot. If that were true wouldn’t one continent house all the ecosystems of animals and wouldn’t plant-life be absolutely destroyed? Yeah, I don’t believe that either.”

“t’s hilarious people whining.. “This isn’t how the real story goes”..What real story? Lol you mean a fairy tale? ”

…and they go on. We live in a lost world, friends. I need to live a life of more urgency for the unsaved. For those who are weeds appearing to be good seed.

Well, the grandparents are officially off to Florida. So, this may be the last edition of Grandma-isms for awhile. Two of the saddest parts of this for me are 1) not seeing them in church on Sunday morning. I seriously treasure being able to see them every Sunday and how faithful they are to His Word. Not to mention, Grandma always comes in later (after singing has begun) and yet, she always makes the rounds to all of us (the Wynalda section), saying hi and giving hugs and 2) not having them around for the Wynalda Christmas. They used to leave for Florida after Christmas but haven’t done that in the past couple years.

A couple weeks ago, I needed my Grandparents to help me transport a second copy of “IMAGE” to Right to Life. My car doesn’t fit it, which is why I needed them to tag along. The lady I had been communicating back and forth with was later 30′s and reminded my Grandma of a friend of mine. Somehow that constituted for my Grandma to ask if she was married because she was wearing a ring on her ring finger, which of course, Grandma notices. The lady was not to which Grandma began in on why she shouldn’t wear a ring on her ring finger and telling her all about my singleness, too. I couldn’t believe that was happening – it happened so quickly. The lady was very gracious with Grandma and her could’ve easily been taken offensively comments. I followed up with the lady with an email the next day thanking her for not being offended.

Speaking of marriage, I will be incredibly sad if my Grandma and Grandpa aren’t at my wedding (due to death).

As of September 13, 2013, I made the move out of my parent’s home. I’m the first single woman cousin who has moved out and not for the purpose of school. I’m still in the area with all the family but living and navigating life in my own place. This is a new concept to…everyone. Mostly my parents and grandparents. They worry about me and I can’t say I blame them for that. It has its perks and disadvantages. Some perks being, they think you’re starving all the time which means invites to dinner!

(I don’t know why this picture looks like a mirrored image.)

It also means random items being given. Grandma knows how busy I am with basketball, BSF etc and knows putting up a Christmas tree in my apartment is not top on the priority list. So she purchased me a midget tree with lights already attached. Easy set up and had an ornament hanging on in her garage for years which she gave as well. So I have 3 ornaments. 1) From the Grandma’s garage 2) a bball one from one of my kids and 3) one from a kid at church for being the SS teacher. Along with the tree and knowing they were going to take off to Florida soon, I was also handed the below.

No, I’m not starving but I’m also not complaining. I’ll definitely miss the Grandparents while they are gone. They just celebrated 56 years of marriage which is such an incredible example of how it should be. We are all somewhat ready and understand they may not have many more years together but that doesn’t make it any easier.

Until April, probably but you never know what she may say during a phone call!