My 2010

I don't make New Years resolutions. I like to leave goal-setting and progress-making to other, more motivated people. But I do like to take a minute at the beginning of each new year and reflect on some of the things that happened the year before. Where have I been in the past year? What have I done?

In that spirit, here are the "retroactive resolutions" I would make for 2010.

• Earn my insurance license
• Go parasailing in San Diego and shopping at the Mall of America in Minneapolis
• Win big (we're talking over $16 here) in Vegas
• Cross-stitch Christmas presents for some close friends
• Make my office at work a Typewriter Free Zone - FINALLY!!!
• Read good books ("Mockingjay," "These Is My Words" and "The Forgotten Garden" were some of my favorites)
• Play the Tabernacle Organ
• Accomplish my goal of attending a session at each of the temples in Utah. (New temples I visited this year: Manti, Oquirrh Mountain, St. George, Monticello and San Diego)

So that's it. I didn't lose 10 pounds this year. Sometimes I exercised more and sometimes I exercised a whole lot less. I didn't get a new job, although I sure as heck thought about it. I lived alone in my two-bedroom apartment and I loved it. I cried with friends who lost their Mom to cancer the Sunday before Christmas. I watched The Racecar Movie (also known as Cars) with my nephews 197 times. I welcomed a darling new niece to the family. I ran my car into a cement wall and somehow walked away with a scratch on my face, $564 in damage to my car, and tires that stayed in alignment through it all. (I consequently became a Honda Driver For Life.) I taught Relief Society, did my visiting teaching, and was released on the last Sunday of the year from the calling that has defined me for the past three years. I saw Brad Paisley, Tim McGraw and Lady A in concert. I opened my heart... had it smashed... and repeated the cycle with the Same Dumb Boy more times that I'm willing to admit. I learned to make decent sugar cookies. I'm older, wiser, more exhausted and way more fun than I've ever been before. And I'm smiling as I skip my way into 2011, ready to do it all again.