From Jennifer and Yvonne:

1. What did you do in 2006 that you'd never done before? Went to my first YSA conference, went tubing on the "hooch", went river rafting, went to my first Braves game, saw the Harlem Globe Trotters, went fishing in Georgia and on the Chattahoochee for the first time, met my fiance and got engaged (not all at once!), camped in my first hay field- of course it was already harvested...
2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I hardly EVER make resolutions... so I guess I didn't keep them... or maybe I did... HA, HA!
3. Did anyone close to you give birth? no... don't think so.
4. Did anyone close to you die? mmm... no... I don't think so either.
5. What countries did you visit? If you consider some parts of the South a different country then yes.
6. What would you like to have in 2007 that you lacked in 2006? Motivation to exercise.
7. What day from 2006 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? Well, lots of days- but mostly the first time I hung out with my Ryan, and the night he proposed and a few other very private things.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Getting a new job that pays me the best I've ever been paid and finding my husband! Go me!
9. What was your biggest failure? Not doing more service, not being in better communication with members of my family and friends.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury? No, for that I am very grateful. I got a couple of scrapes and bruises, but I survived.
11. What was the best thing you bought? hmm... probably my digital camera. I take that thing with me EVERYWHERE I go.
12. Whose behaviour merited celebration? Ryan, for actually proposing when some guys might have chickened out!
13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed? No one really, that I remember.
14. Where did most of your money go? I don't know... bills, clearance items, my car, food.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Duh... come on, by now EVERYONE could answer this. But I'll say going to Utah with Ryan and seeing his face when he saw REAL mountains for the first time. (And of course getting a pretty sparkly thing on my finger!)
16. What song will always remind you of 2006? Mushaboom, Shake Your Money Maker, Shh, My Baby's Got Sauce
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. Happier or sadder? HAPPIER!
ii. Thinner or fatter? Fatter...sad
iii. richer or poorer? Uh... well kind of both
18. What do you wish you'd done more of? Prayed
19. What do you wish you'd done less of? Cursed
20. How will you be spending Christmas? This year? Maybe with Ryan's family since we spent it with mine this past Christmas
21. Did you fall in love in 2006? HECK YA!
22. How many one-night stands? NADA
23. What was your favourite TV program? CSI and I guess Miami Ink
24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? There are very few people that I hate... I don't even know if I could really say I actually HATE anyone. I dislike some people and their actions, but no hate. That's bad for you.
25. What was the best book you read? Um... The Da Vinci Code
26. What was your greatest musical discovery? Imogen Heap as a single artist, Feist, Gorrilaz
27. What did you want and get? I wanted it to be a good year and I SO got it.
28. What did you want and not get? Skinnier! HA! A new car.
29. What was your favourite film of this year? Probably Stranger Than Fiction
30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? My 27th birthday I went to institute and then hung out with some friends at The Wave. It was lots of fun!
31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Nothing! I couldn't be more happy with the way my year went, I was VERY blessed!
32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2006? Just trying to find stuff that fit and didn't make me look fatter!
33. What kept you sane? My sister, my love, my friends, being outside occasionally, road trips.
34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? I really don't know anymore. I have a lot of respect for a few, as far as looks- probably Johnny Depp.
36. Who did you miss? My family. My nieces and nephews, Andrea...
37. Who was the best new person you met? Duh! Ryan!!!! But I met A LOT of really great people this last year and have made some fabulous long time friends.
38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2006: You'll get what you want when you're not looking so hard. It's all in the Lord's time.
39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year: Ha, ha- I'll throw a little Dirty Dancing out there- "I've had the time of my life, and I've never felt this way before. It's true, and I owe it all to you........" ha, ha- yes, you are allowed to laugh at me!

We are Homeowners!!!!

So yesterday Ryan and I met with our realtor (Ashley's Dad), our loan officer, the closing attorney, and the home seller and realtor and we closed on our FIRST HOUSE! It's the most exciting thing next to getting married of course! I just feel that we have been truly blessed to not only have found each other, but to have found a perfect home that we get to start our life together in! It came to me in a sudden realization yesterday that I was really growing up... I was sitting next to the man I'm about to marry in two months and we had just bought our first HOUSE. It was the coolest feeling in the world! Heavenly Father is very mindful of us, that's for sure.

I have to say that I think Ashley and I are pretty stinkin' cool.

Weird Al Shares Your Taste in Music

See his whole playlist here (iTunes required)

Which Musician (or Group) Shares Your Taste in Music?

Why So Many Ribbons?

So... there are a lot of ribbon magnets on people's cars here in the South. I think it must've started out with the breast cancer awareness pink ribbon, but now a whole new slew of them are being slapped on to the back of people's cars. Some that say "NOLA" for New Orleans, LA (which cracks me up because my mom's name is Nola!) or some that say the token "Support Our Troops". It seems like there's a ribbon for just about anything out there; SIDS, down syndrome, diabetes, Puerto Rico... the list goes on. And let's be honest, I'm not such a big fan of these ribbons, I think they've become sort of cliche. BUT I found one that I really liked. It was on a car in the parking garage at work. I noticed first the size of the ribbon compared to the size of the car, and as I got closer and read it, it seriously CRACKED ME UP! So I just had to share. I'm grateful for people's sense of humor!

Home for the Holidays

Well, I finally got Ryan on an airplane. And as nervous and anxious as he was- he made it across the country for his first visit to The West!
We went to Utah for Christmas to not only visit my family and friends, but for Ryan to meet them all for the first time! The first day we got there, we met up with my parents, sister Shauna and my sister in-law Samantha on temple square.

(Time for a quick typical Mormon shot in front of the Salt Lake City Temple!)
We ate lunch together and then my brother Greg met up with us and the boys went on a tour of temple square while me, my mom and Sam went wedding dress shopping! After a few stores and driving around we FINALLY found a shop that had the most perfect dress for me! I wish I could show you, but Ryan checks this daily! So it'll have to wait until after the wedding! We both survived our adventures and that night, we met up with Ryan and Kate Webb, Andrea, Travis, Christina and Marin for dinner at the Pizza Factory and had some good eats and good laughs. I REALLY miss the good ol' days with those kids. We really had so much fun together and still do whenever we get back together.

The next day we went to my brother Greg's and hung out with he and his girls, including Sam. It was snowing and Ryan was super excited about that. He's only seen Georgia "snow"... not the real kind! So we went outside in the yard with Alyssa and Brooke and played in the snow and "sledded" down their itty bitty (but fun) hill.

Here is Courtney too... she really took a liking to Ryan. She wouldn't even come to me- but decided she was okay with him! He's got a way with kids... he'll be a good daddy. Aren't those girls just so beautiful? Why thank you! Flesh and blood baby!

We did a little running around and visitng friends before we made our way up the highway to Logan to see my parents.

Emily and Deb Hatch and Andrea and Christina

(love you girls!)
We didn't do much of anything that night, but the next day we went on a little drive up to Idaho so that Ryan could say he'd been where Napoleon Dynamite was filmed and that he'd been to Idaho... two states down in the West.

I don't really remember much of what we did after that except for maybe shop and hang out with my parents and stuff... just stuff. Oh yeah, Ryan made a snow man. He REALLY wanted to do that while we were there- but the snow wasn't wet enough. So this had to do. But let me tell you, he had lots of people comment on it at church!

The next day was Christmas Eve and we went to Sacrament meeting and enjoyed a beautiful and very Spiritual Christmas program. It really helped bring the true meaning in. We relaxed a little more and waited anxiously for my sister Delinda's arrival from AZ. She had just spent about 3 or 4 days in a moving truck driving all the way from here in Atlanta to Texas to pick up a friend, and then onto Phoenix and then picked up the next day to drive to Utah. In the meantime dad, Ryan and I took a drive up Logan canyon for Ryan to see the "hills" as he would call them, just to annoy me.

At Bear Lake, such a beautiful very COLD day!

Delinda got there right on time for our traditional Christmas Eve routine.

Merry Christmas! We woke up and opened presents and had a good breakfast and did the whole "burn the roast for dinner" thing were our clothes smell like burnt roast for the rest of the visit. Sick.

Here's a couple of our enagements that Delinda took. It was so stinking cold.

It was such a fun trip, I'm glad we got to go but it was too short that's for sure.