New Year

The first couple of weeks of 2011 have not been wonderful to say the least.
-Flu
-Other OT quit so double my workload
-Terrible neck pain for 5 days
-Foot pain for a week and counting
But luckily I've been able to manage. I'm trying to be positive about work and changing my mindset about things. It's helped a lot. I did get a great holiday weekend in San Diego and Orange County with my parents and Laura. It was wonderful to just sit by the pool and soak up the sun. 70s and 80s in January is why it would be hard to leave LA. A day off of work and plenty of sunshine will make any week better. While my triathlon training is going to be postponed due to injury I'm going to make it to one this year. A couple of new therapists have been interviewed so hopefully work will slow down soon. And with any luck my flu shot will actually keep me from getting sick again. Bring it on 2011, it's gotta get better from here.

Catch up

I feel like I'm usually playing catch up on my blog. Somehow I just never manage to write things as they happen and then it slips my mind. But it's been an eventful last 6 weeks or so. I guess you'll get the quick version. We had our annual Greenfield Christmas party the first weekend in December. It was a success as always. We made hundreds of sugar cookies and had people decorating them in the kitchen and then we had a Christmas ornament making table in the living room.


Shana decorating her cookies.

All the Greenfield Girls

Sara couldn't stay away and decided to come back for the party. She ended up staying 20 days instead of 4. I guess we're pretty persuasive.

Our real Christmas tree. Love the smell.

Hundreds of cookies. Yes we had leftovers.

We had a ward activity down on Balboa Island at a beach house down there. It was lots of fun to look at the lights and walk around while peaking into everyone's houses because the USC vs. UCLA game was on.

It was Southern California freezing so we were all bundled up.

I got to go home for 10 days for Christmas. One of the perks of working at a school. We had great weather for the first 4 days (no rain) and then it still wasn't bad the rest of the time. We even got a little bit of snow. We made our usual gingerbread houses and went Christmas caroling. I also got to go to dinner with some old friends from high school. It was great to see them.

Old Mother Hubbard went to her cupboard to get her poor dog a bone. When she got there, the cupboard was bare...



We decided to clean out our pantry before our new roommate, Ali, moved in. We had a spider infestation in the bottom of the pantry and needed to clean it out. So we put all of our food on the kitchen counters and went to work. We filled half of the dumpster with expired and disgusting food and then went to work putting it all back into the pantry. I think it's safe to say that should something happen we'd be set for food for at least a couple of weeks.




Now our pantry is sparkly clean and filled with wonderful food, just in time for Ali to move her stuff in!

St. George Vacation

A couple of weeks ago I met up with some friends (Josh and Kellyanne) from Utah in St. George for the weekend. I unfortunately left on Friday afternoon and it took me 8 1/2 hours to get there due to horrid LA traffic. But I finally got there and it was a wonderful vacation weekend. We stayed in a "cabin" that was gigantic and had all the amenities possible. There was a pool, tennis court, 4-wheelers, etc. and I got to play some tennis, explore the grounds, eat a pomegranate straight off the tree, partake in a poolside BBQ, hang out in the hot tub after the freezing pool, and just relax in the beauty of nature. It was fun to meet some new people and just have a weekend away from life.

Halloween Murder Mystery

The week before Halloween one of my friends hosted a murder mystery dinner. We were all dressed up as different storybook characters. I got to be Katherine from the Taming of the Shrew, the man hating, woman's rights activist. I only got a picture of all the girls, but it was a blast and I didn't even commit the murder in the end.

Engagement

Nope it's not mine...My old roommate from the Missouri apartment, Heidi, got engaged a couple of weeks ago. Her fiance, Nate, told Shana and I that he was going to propose on a Wednesday night, the same day they went to Phantom of the Opera. So Shana and I met up with them in Hollywood at Bossa Nova for dessert to help them celebrate. Heidi didn't know that we were going to meet them so it was a nice surprise for her.

Downtown Light Festival

In October I went with a few friends to a light festival Downtown. There were many different exhibits all made with different lights. Here are a few of my favorites.







Plus a beautiful view of the city buildings.