This One's for You, Sus

10 Honest Things About Me
also titled, More Than You'll Ever Need to Know

1. I make a lot of "never" statements that usually end up coming true. For example...
"I'll never date Eric." "I'm never getting Facebook or a blog." "I'm never going back to school." or case in point... "I'll never write lists about myself." As I usually eat my words, I am working on changing my statements to... "I don't plan on having kids for X years" "I don't think I want to live in suburbia..." etc.

Okay, one down.

2. I am much better at planning to workout than actually doing so. Perhaps, my intrinsic motivation for working out is not what it should be. This is somewhat embarrassing as I have played sports since a young child and even ran competitively in high school. I do much better working out with a buddy or hopefully with joining a gym, which Eric and I did yesterday.


3. I love hosting parties! When I was a young child I would make elaborate decorations for birthdays, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Valentine's Day... you name it. I would also plan carnivals in my backyard for the neighborhood friends. This has not waned with age, and owning a house has made partying a priority. We've had a Mexican Birthday Party, PJ party, game party, and we have an exciting Christmas party and January's a Boring Month party on the horizon.

4. I frequently make up ridiculous songs to common tunes. This is useful in the teaching profession and when I was memorizing vocabulary words in sixth grade, but I must honestly admit that I pretty much make them up all the time. I really can't share any with you because a) it's embarrassing and b) they are very spur of the moment and I don't normally remember them.

I have, however, never done karaoke.

5. I can be long-winded. See above numbers. I can talk for hours about things I am passionate about including poverty, politics, education, Sierra Leone, education.... But in honor of this "revelation" I'll stop here.

Lucky you.

6. Speaking of education (mwa haha), I knew I wanted to be a teacher at the ripe ol' age of 5. I marched home from kindergarten, bribed my 3 year old brother, and played school. I especially loved grading the papers. Twenty years later, after a brief middle school stint where I was going to be a psychologist b/c school is so uncool at that age, I am teaching my fifth class how to read. And I still love it all... except grading papers.

7. I love to bake and cook. This is a skill I've been acquiring post getting married. With my mother-in-law the world's sweetest Martha Stewart, I guess I figured I needed to make some good faith efforts in the kitchen. And I discovered, I like to cook fun and fancier things. But what I enjoy most is when Eric and I cook together. Shrimp stuffed tomato anyone?

You know you're skimming.

8. Speaking of Eric... I love him a lot. He is good for me- a good leader, a good husband, a good friend. He is my gauge and filter for when number 5 kicks in. He has a gift for communicating and putting others at ease. He's going to be a blessing to a lot of people in his ministry. He gives the best anniversary gifts ever. He's made me a liberal and ever so slightly a nerd. And we've almost been married for 4 years, if you round up by half a year. He will probably think this post is ridiculous.

9. I love language. I'm way into Scrabble; I've taken up crosswords; I started a bookclub; I get great pleasure out of editing papers; I get an even greater pleasure out of explaining the grammar rules behind my editing marks; I love commas (except in this sentence); it was a beautiful day when I discovered diagramming in sixth grade; and I secretly enjoyed writing literary analysis papers in high school as well as my course in Advanced English Grammar in college.

Lest you think too highly of me, I also greatly enjoyed the Twilight series.

10. I love being 25, and I love living in Denver.

Enough said.

Oh and... I'm supposed to nominate other people to write these honest things. So I nominate...

1. My Grandma (GM, I'm talking to you!) I know you won't write a blog, but this is my secret reminder of what I do want someday :)

2. Carissa You have exciting things happening- write about them :)

3. Amy I'm sure you'd love this exercise.

4. Julie I think you'd actually enjoy it.

5. Mary Maybe you could do a photography one.

Over the Mountains and Down I-40...

This year all the Andersons traveled to Sedona for Thanksgiving! My grandparents graciously hosted and Eric's parents, brother, and 3 sisters all graciously traveled. It was a lot of fun! We did some good hiking and sight-seeing and game playing. (By some kind of miracle, I won Settlers.) Oh, and we ate yummy food too! I wish I had more pictures to post, but I am waiting on them from family members who were better at taking pictures! Having good family together for the holiday reminded me of how thankful I am for all of them!

Scenic views

Eric's mom, Laura, and my hardcore Grandpa
Alyssa being glamorous...

Cowboys and Settlers

Though we didn't really dress up, we still had a lot of fun! While passing out candy to ages 1 to like 40???, we had friends over for an October 31 game night. First Eli settled it in Settlers with a close win, and then we went on to play the best game ever: BANG! I was the sheriff for the first time ever, and I am sad to report that my deputies did not do their job, nor I mine, and the west has yet to be won! However, it was awesome fun. Even all my skeptical friends agreed. If you want to play Settlers with us sometime, please do! But if you want to play BANG you need to become friends with Eli and Naomi first :)

This Fall Break Is Brought You by....

SNOW! Lots and lots of snow. Enough snow to get school canceled for two days!

Last Wednesday, the snow started falling and kept falling and kept falling until Thursday night. Wednesday, I slept in post the 6:15 a.m. wake-up call from my principal (good thing I was still in bed!), did some yoga, called offices I never have time to at work, went sledding!, and stayed up ridiculously late with Eric and friends playing a full game of Mexican train.

Thursday only got better with another sleepy morning, more yoga, and then girls' time with two Sandra Bullock movies and a fire. Susan did have to pick me up though, as our car was officially stuck outside of our house. Being on the corner, we collected more than your average amount of snow!

When I returned home, Eric took a paper break (he used his snow time more wisely than I), and we began shoveling our sidewalk, our car out, our driveway, and a path to the garage. I am very
proud to say that I shoveled our driveway, only managing to fall once. All in all it was wonderful.

Friday was a return to responsibilities, and Saturday was sunny beautiful. And that's Denver for you.