That's how I roll...

Did you know that my nephew is a baby genius? Of course you did, because he's related to me, right? Check out his new trick:

Yep, my 1 month old nephew rolled over last night. Not once, but twice. So that means it's for real. And that he's super smart. And don't you love his rockstar hair? It's all natural, with no product. Ryan Cabrera is super jealous.

What's for dinner?

I cooked dinner last night. That's the second time this year! I'm not going to lie, I'm kind of impressed with myself. Plus, it was very tasty. I made southwestern chicken in the slow-cooker (love, love, love the slow- cooker), a salad, rolls, and picked up angel food cake and mixed berries for dessert.

There was improvement from the last meal because I didn't have to consult with anyone on how to do anything this time. That might have something to do with the level of difficulty of this meal (it wasn't), but improvement is improvement. Who knows, next month I might cook 3 times and may even venture out of the slow-cooker realm! Baby steps....

Six degrees of Lufkin.

I have long known that Lufkin is everywhere. For a small town, it gets around. It's very rare to meet anyone (at least in Texas) that doesn't know of the place or know someone from there. And you'd never believe how many people I've run into OUT of state that have some tie to Lufkin.

Last night I attended a happy hour for Junior League provisional members. I am a member of the largest provisional class the Junior League of Austin has ever had, there's more than 200 of us. So needless to say, I don't know everyone.

I sit down at the table and start talking to the girl that's sitting next to me. We are having the standard "get to know you" conversation, as we haven't crossed paths thus far in our provisional year. She's telling me about how she actually works in College Station at Texas A&M and her husband is enrolled in the MBA program at UT. Right now she stays with one of her best friend's in College Station three nights a week and is back home in Austin for the weekend. She asks me what I do for a living and I tell her I work at the Capitol. She then asked the question which almost always immediately follows, "Did you go to UT?" I tell her no, I went to SFA and that I'm originally from Lufkin. She then tells me that the best friend she stays with in College Station is marrying a guy from Lufkin, and maybe I know him? It is at that point that we discover that not only do I know the guy, but my twin brother is a groomsman in the wedding (and she's a bridesmaid)!

Talk about a small world. We go on to discuss this for a bit. I warn her about one of the other groomsmen (Jesse), and she tells me oh, yeah, she's heard. It's her responsibility to keep said groomsman away from the microphone because at the last wedding he gave a toast that was just senseless rambling. Yep, that was at my twin brother's wedding. And to tell another quick funny story, the bride and groom numbered their response cards so it would be easier to match up the responses. Jesse's card was #14. On his reply card, he listed the top ten reasons why he should be in the top ten. I would LOVE to see that.

My fortune.

We had chinese for lunch today and I just couldn't resist sharing my fortune. My apologies for the cheese factor.

Resolutions.

Looking back at the resolutions I made last year and looking forward to making any resolutions this year, it occurred to me that I'm not really cut out for this year-long resolution thing. I'm a procrastinator. Giving me a whole year to complete a task is just simply asking for it not to get done.

Therefore, I'm going to take a new approach to making resolutions this year. Instead of listing a bunch of goals that won't be achieved over the course of a year, I'm going to make monthly resolutions. Just one resolution per month that pertains to some sort of my well-being whether it's physical, financial, spiritual, or just general. Surely I can stick with one resolution for one month, right? And hopefully some of these resolutions will become healthy habits that stick.

So my January resolution is to run one time a week. That's it. Just one simple run, whether it's 20 minutes or 2 miles. I'm doing other work-outs through out the week, but I've been slacking on the runs. It's something that I miss and something that will be pretty important once Session starts and the free food just starts rollin' into the office. Oh Session, I can't believe it's really here.

VICTORY!

Last night I finally succeeded in world domination. Or at least, in the world of RISK (the most awesome board game there is).

Some time ago, in a discussion of all things totally awesome (or something along those lines), it came out that both the boyfriend and I think RISK is just the best board game ever created. We've discussed this several times since, but had never gotten around to playing. He didn't have the board game in his possession and mine is at my parent's house in Lufkin.

After our many Christmas travels, it was decided that we should spend New Year's Eve very low key. Or "very old couple" as my favorite cousins have said. He decided to make lasagna and I decided to pick up RISK at the local Target. This actually required two stops at two different Targets because RISK was apparently a popular New Year's Eve game and the guy in front of me got the last one at the first top. I must also make mention here that they have these cool collector's editions of classic board games out right now that are in wooden cases that make them look like books. Pretty nifty.

So we rang in the new year with dinner, champagne, and a couple of games of RISK. All of which the boyfriend beat me. Since then, most evenings have been filled with games of RISK, as well. And they've all ended with me losing. I was doing quite well when a few friends joined us on Saturday night until everyone started ganging up on me.

Finally, last night, I won a game. And I have to give the boyfriend credit, he didn't concede like I usually do. He played until his last army was lost. Maybe my winning will deter his want to play a bit. Probably not. At least I will get a break from plotting world domination while he's out of town the next few days.

Happy 2011!

I'm still finding it difficult to adjust to saying "2011". Of course, this is nothing new, it happens every year. Perhaps I will adjust to 2011 when I adjust to pushing the correct floor in the elevator. I still seem to think I work on the 4th floor, and not the 3rd, and have to make a conscious effort to press the correct button every time...

Life has been busy, to say the least, since I last posted! Our Christmas travels ended up totally six days and over 1100 miles traveled. Some might say it's a Christmas miracle that we both survived the quality time in the car together AND are still talking, let alone dating. All of the travel was worth it and it was wonderful to spend quality time with our families and friends.

I am pleased to report that since my last post, I've gained a new baby nephew! David Jace was born on December 28 at 10:07 am, weighin in at 8.5 oz and 19 3/4 inches long! And man, he's got a lot of hair! When Jay first called me with the news I asked if Jace looked like him and he said "He's got a lot of hair." Me being the loving sister that I am who enjoys teasing Jay about his hair loss, replied "So you're saying he doesn't look like you." Bahaha. I got to hold that sweet baby in my arms that afternoon and spend some time with world's bestest big sister, Madelyn. She loves to hold her baby brother and give him kisses. I'm actually impressed with how well she is adjusting, so far. She wasn't a big fan of becoming a big sister.

It was very nice to have a few days off from work. I enjoyed doing as little as possible for a few days after our whirlwind travels. I did start off the New Year with something I don't ever do: I cooked dinner! And it was pretty dang tasty, too! I shall try to post more about that later.

So here's to 2011, please be kind. 2010 definitely had it's ups and downs, but overall, I can't really complain about the many blessings the year brought to my life. : )