2014 Favorites

In just a brief overview of some of the wonderful things I have loved this past year in terms of books, movies, tv shows, websites, and totally random things that are not work related. 

• Books
• Belly Laughs by Jenny McCarthy
• The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff
• Seven by Jen Hatmaker
• Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
• Divergent by Veronica Roth
• Insurgent by Veronica Roth
• Allegiant by Veronica Roth
• Fault in Our Stars by John Green
• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
• Kingdom Keepers books 6 & 7 by Ridley Pearson
• totally juvenile fiction - however, if you are a Disney lover you should probably just read this series
• Movies
• Frozen (yes, I know it came out in 2013 but really we watched it more than I care to admit in 2014)
• Captain Phillips (yes, also came out in 2013, but I am behind the 8 ball and enjoyed this movie quite a bit)
• The Wolf of Wall Street
• The Book Thief
• 12 Years Slave
• Daniel Lee's The Butler
• Monster's University
• Mockingjay part 1

• TV shows
• Downton Abbey
• We are borrowing these seasons from a dear friend who owns them - loving this story
• Big Bang Theory
• Still love this show
• Bones 
• I realize this came out years ago, however, I am finally catching onto the wonderfulness of the whole thing
• Grey's Anatomy
• we are a season behind because we watch it on Netflix
• Call the Midwife
• I LOVE this series and wish there were 12,000,001 episodes - its on PBS.com and free to watch - go watch it
• Game of Thrones
• We stumbled upon this tv series after we caught up on Downton Abbey and ran out of seasons on dvd
• Several friends recommended it to us - while a bit graphic and the language leaves something to be desired, we surprisingly like it
• Miscellaneous Things
• Nikon D300
• I have fallen more and more in love with this camera this year, while actually using it quite a bit more and learning a ton about the different settings
• Pilot Frixion Ball Clicker erasable pens
• I found a few of these pens randomly in the church - who knows who left them and actually bought a pack of them - I LOVE erasable pens
• I Love This Yarn
• still by far one of my favorite yarns 
• okay I actually have other favorite yarns - however, this one I find wonderful in terms of price vs quality vs softness
• I hate that it is only sold at Hobby Lobby and Hobby Lobby online
• I don't like yarn shopping online - I like to hold the yarn in my hands
• The Project Life App
• A wonderful app for iPhones that allows you to create photobook pages right on your phone
• WORTH purchasing
• If you use your iPhone to take pictures and create photobooks it is worth getting this app - I LOVE IT
• Websites
• www.ravelry.com
• yay for free patterns to make sweet stuff
• www.facebook.com
• sooo wonderful to keep in touch with family and friends - while some days I hate facebook most days I come back to it and enjoy the ways it allows me to connect with those who are far away
• www.pinterest.com/sthomson/
• www.instagram.com/sathomson
• www.allears.net
• Yes I am obsessed with Disney and I love being kept up to date on what's happening in the parks
• www.youtube.com
• I love having some where that is easy to share videos with family and friends
• www.shutterfly.com
• the only way I will consider making photobooks/scrapbooks
• I also back up all of my photos here
• www.picmonkey.com
• love that this is a free website
• I use this for both work and personal stuff
• www.pandora.com
• I seriously listen to this every day at work

Do you have any favorites from 2014 that I should check out?

Ten Months as a MRS

I just realized I missed our 9th month update. Life was nuts.

The Wonderful Things:

• We have gotten some spring days! but they are few and far between.
• My husband brought home two movies this past month for me (which we NEVER, or rarely hardly ever buy movies, mostly because we Netflix 99% of our movies or borrow from friends) and he got me the new Hunger Games movie and Frozen (LOVE THEM BOTH)
• We are making some serious progress on the basement. We insulated the basement ourselves and we don't hate each other like everyone told us we would. I would dare to say we even had fun doing it. We like doing projects that are within our abilities, we know when to call in a professional. We aren't above hiring someone else to do pieces of it.
• We went to Chanhassen Dinner Theater's version of The Little Mermaid, soooo wonderful
• We both had birthdays (Marc's is 4/3 and mine is 4/5)
• Our chickens have been shipped and should arrive tomorrow or Thursday - you have been warned that there will be a chick explosion on my page
• Marc has really gotten into woodworking/building things (he built our chicken coop) and it has been really fun to watch his skills develop and some of the fun stuff that he has built 
• once the weather gets nice and he can be out in the garage a little bit more I imagine he will be even more happy to be out there and it will be more fun to hang out there with him, I don't love hanging out in the cold 

The Things No One Ever Tells You About:

• It is hard to make decisions about how you are going to finish off your basement. Certain things I just don't know what to choose (yes, I know, first world problems) 
• which tub/shower to pick shouldn't be this hard
• which color of off white you want your primer to be really doesn't matter
• When boys are sick the world ends (I know I have had this one before, but seriously)
• I know being sick sucks and actually he did much better this time than before but still when boys get sick the world ends
• How amazingly wonderful it is when for a few hours you are totally caught up on all of your laundry, washed, dried, folded, and put away
• really I just feel wonderful whenever my house is totally clean
• Marc really is pretty good at helping with keeping our house clean 
• he really really really likes to vacuum, seriously, and takes it upon himself to vacuum up golden retriever about every other day - I will happily scrub the bathrooms to not have to do golden retriever every other day

The Miscellaneous Things:

• I still wish my family lived closer
• I am jazzed our basement is coming together, it will be AWESOME when it is finished.
• I am excited for Easter
• The camp I help to co-manage almost has a full summer calendar and that makes my heart happy because now we don't have to fret about meeting budget and what not

Antsy

I am thankful for the cold weather, I am anxious to get out on the lakes snowshoeing. I am definitely not one who pushes the envelop of getting out on the ice before I should. People a little further north have already put out their ice houses and are driving trucks on the ice. Around my area it is a catch 22 there are ice houses starting to go out on the lakes and people are beginning to get out there, however I am a little bit cautious as I think about getting out there. Until I hear there is a solid 10 to 12 inches on the ice I won't be going out. There have been several people who have fallen through the ice in years past and I am just not that much of a dare devil.

In the meantime I find myself at the poor farm and other wonderful places. The Arb is out due to the vast number of cross country ski trails (which are beautiful and wonderful however they are not dog or snow shoeing friendly). So I wait, impatiently for the ice to thicken so I can snow shoe.

It is hard to be up north at times. I love it most of the time, but some of the time it drives me nuts. I suppose it is like most places. Never the less, I shall walk my dog around the poor farm and my neighborhood and get my good workouts in at the gym and dream of skiing in the Rocky Mountains and snow shoeing on the lakes in days to come.

I really do love the snow. I enjoy being outside in it. I even don't mind shoveling it. I welcome winter and the chance to curl up on the couch with a good cup of coffee and a wonderful book.