2011: You say goodbye and I say hello: 2012

I suppose I'll start blogging again by wrapping up 2011 (in January, but whatever).

I feel like I lost the writing bug this year, but I'm hoping it shows itself again in 2012. For now, here's a marathon of a review. If you make it through, you deserve a medal.

January
After being unemployed for more than seven months, Garrett got a job. It was a huge relief. It's been good for him. Since it's a student job, he has flexible hours, but he's allowed to work up to 40 hours a week. It doesn't come with benefits, but still pays more than my job, which I've been at for six years and requires a degree. Sad. I considered becoming a vegetarian, but ultimately never gave up any meat. I still think about it — more than most would assume — and feel good about myself after a non-meat meal.

February
I wrote a column for work about Cache Valley being a small world and realized my skin has sufficiently thickened up over the years after feeling not one bit of "ouch" when reading some of the comments. Also for work, I got to ride a camel. It was awesome. Freezing, but awesome.

It snowed and snowed and snowed. The one good thing about this is sending your kitties out into the deep snow and watching them pad around. Jet looks wonderful with a white background.

March
Things got political with Utah's House Bill 477, which took up much of the space in my brain during that month. The Associated Press announced "e-mail" could become "email," making journalists everywhere — including me — squeal with glee. I saw some old friends and spoke on a panel at the Mountain West Regional Public Relations Conference at USU. Garrett and I decided to make the trek to Las Vegas to see the Aggies plan in the WAC Tournament. We watched basketball and walked around Vegas for two and a half days. And, of course, I found the only flowers in the area. 

April
My trusty little Corolla, which I'd been driving around for the past year as a dual-colored car after losing its hood in 2010, became one color. My nephew, Anderson, turned 1 and learned to walk. Now, he's running, hopping, jumping from things and even fake limping to make people laugh.

This was also the month of the alpine fir tree. After considerable research, Garrett and I settled on buying two alpine firs (I think one is a subalpine because it looks different, but whatever) for our front yard. I love the little guys, despite their distaste for our low(er) elevation and dry summers. They made it through the summer with the help of massive drinks of water every day, and I think if they make it to the year mark, we'll be safe.

May
I showed off a bit of my feminist side blogging about how little Mormon girls need to be taught in church about things other than homemaking and becoming a mother. Natalie at the Bobby Pin was kind enough to post something I wrote for her "Define Beautiful" project. I loved getting to see old high school friends when Chelane graduated from pharmacy school at the University of Utah and had a little party. She and I drove up to Boise a week or two later to search for apartments for her to live in during her residency at the hospital up there. It was then that my newly pretty car became not so pretty. After 10-plus years of no tickets, no crashes, no driving problems whatsoever, that came crashing down. So sad. So expensive.

June
This was a busy month. I taught a class about reporting and interviewing to a group of high school yearbook students at USU. I planted stuff this month. And got some more trees. I love June because everything is growing, green and pretty. It might have become my favorite month.

My family got together and had a group shot taken for the first time in a long time.

And then a few of us went to Moab and rafted the Colorado River for a couple of days. We stopped at Goblin Valley for a few hours to see the crazy landscape.

Part of the month was also rough for me for a reason I won't go into here. But I will say I learned that Garrett will do hard things for me when I can't do them. Things that are hard for him, too, but things that he knows I just can't bear to do on my own. Also, people who abuse or neglect their animals will rot in hell. Yes, that's related to everything I just said.

July
I volunteered to judge newspaper articles for another state's contest, not realizing that it would nearly kill me.  I spent more than 15 hours going over stories and packages trying to award some lucky journalists in Nevada some random awards. I hope they're appreciative. Garrett built some shelves in our garage, which was lovely. My cousins, aunt and uncle from Illinois came to visit and stayed at our house for a couple of days. We left for Virginia the last week of the month to see Garrett's family. We met Wynne, went to the zoo to see lions, saw an international soccer game, stayed at a "river house" for a couple of days and visited some historic sites. It was a great trip.

August
We hung out with Joey and Emily at Bear Lake; the water was warm, the lake was gorgeous and the company good. We hit our two-year anniversary or living in our house, so I wrote a list of things to know when you build a house (i.e. things we might do differently next time). We (mostly Garrett, but I did help) built some massive retaining walls on the south side of our house. In an effort to take advantage of the good weather, I spent a good portion of the month eating lunch by myself in random parks around the city. I can tell you all about the creepy, old foreign guy who hangs out at Adams Park and which trees to NOT sit under at the Tabernacle.

September
We spent much of this month and the next in the yard. An early snow prevented us getting our entire front yard done, but it's trenched, piped and flat, ready for sprinklers to be screwed on and grass seed to be spread in the spring. This poor little beech tree has been moved more times than it knows how to handle, but hopefully it's in a spot to stay now.

I wrote about how I feel so disconnected from other women my age and how maybe that's OK. Garrett and I went to Illinois to see my aunt, uncle and cousins. It was an incredibly refreshing long weekend, and I'm so glad we got to see people. We stayed at their house for a few days and in Chicago for a night. It's an awesome city — seriously. While in the Midwest, my aunt and uncle took us all to a traditional apple orchard, where we launched apples, ate caramel apples and sat in a really big chair.

October
I successfully picked 19 out of 20 games correctly as the guest picker in our newsroom one week, only missing out on a perfect week because I succumbed to my pride by not picking BYU as a winner. I wrote about how I stare at a picture of Jesus sometimes at church to keep me from getting up and walking out. And our camera broke, which means there are no photos from October, November and most of December except the crappy ones on my phone. Otherwise, I'd show you and adorable kitten my sister and brother-in-law adopted. Sorry.

November
I spent two days in Salt Lake City at the AP NewsTrain conference, which while exhausting — it started too early and provided no caffeinated beverages — was awesome. Great presenters, great ideas. I quit blogging for multiple reasons, but mostly because I just needed a break. My old journalism professor asked me to teach a class on copy editing and design at USU this next semester. (Wish me luck. Seriously. I'm getting nervous. ... But excited.) We had Thanksgiving at my parent's house with some extended family and a delightful German guest of my uncle. My brother-in-law Shawn had the month from hell after a knee surgery gone bad. He had to have a second emergency surgery in the middle of the night, was in the hospital for days and couldn't put weight on it for six weeks. It's been rough on their little family.

December
Work was insane this month. Holidays + reporters on vacation + a general lack of news + the same usual space that needs to be filled = a stressed-out editor Emilie. Regardless, we managed to have some fun outside of work. Garrett and I went to Boise to see the Aggies play in their first bowl game since 1997 and see Chelane. They lost, just barely, but it was a good game, and it was really good to see Chelane. Also this month, Manette hosted a Christmas party, which was all sorts of fun. (Really, it was a ton of fun.)

We spent Christmas with my family in Bountiful. And the dog, Midas, who pretty much was doing what we all felt like doing after unwrapping Christmas presents.

Thanks for making it to the end! You're all wonderful!