Spotlight 2016: Andrea

Andrea, 2015

Something in 2015 that...

*you saw or did that was awesome:  Hiking to Cecret Lake in the mountains of Utah

*you'll remember:  My 20th high school reunion

*you want to forget:  Leaving my suitcase at home when we left on the road trip.

*scared you:  Grandma Cuca falling when we were hiking in Tennessee and wondering how I was going to get her down the mountain.

*you're good at:  Meeting new people, especially at church.

*you're proud of:  Brandon, for waking up at 5:20 every morning to go seminary. He's amazing!

*made you happy:  Vacationing at Disney World for Spring Break.

*you learned: Well...I'm learning how to speak Spanish. And I learned more about using the settings on my camera in a dSLR boot camp class.

*made you laugh: Playing Telestrations with Andrew's family at Tony and Cindy's house.

*was silly:  My family. They crack me up.

*was exciting:  Andrew getting a promotion at work. So proud of all his hard work at Avery.

*you earned, won, or accomplished: GRADUATING FROM BYU! Woo hoo! It only took me TWENTY YEARS! :)

Any other notable changes/events for 2015:  I'm serving as the Vice President of the PTA at Caroline's elementary school. I've liked it! Brandon officially outgrew me last year, which was a little weird. We took our longest road trip ever (both in days and miles), which was fabulous. And I've made an effort to start cooking and baking more things from scratch this last year. I've started to find pleasure in cooking...but I still hate doing dishes.

Hopes for 2016:  Go on a cruise with the kids for Spring Break. Spend Memorial Day weekend with both sets of grandparents. Watch Caroline get baptized. See Brandon participate in his first church youth conference: a pioneer trek! Send Whitney off to her first week at Girl's Camp. Make the annual road trip and have a reunion with Andrew's side of the family at Bear Lake. Continue to find joy in teaching my gospel doctrine class at church. 

Follow-up from last year's hopes:  I forgot to do last year's hopes! Boo!

Hobbies: Tennis, reading, going out to lunch with my friends, board games, singing, and playing the piano.

Something you like about your job:  Having some one-on-one time with each of my kids at the end of  their school day to hear all about the ups and downs of their days.

Something you don't like about your job:  Spending an hour and a half driving my kids to and from school every day. I like having them to myself for a while, but I wish Whit's school wasn't so far away.

A job you might want when you're older:  Dental hygienist. I've toyed with the idea of doing some sort of refresher course, getting licensed here in NC, and going back to work, maybe as a temp. So far it's just an idea and I haven't taken any actions toward that goal.

FAVORITES:

Restaurant:  Mad Greek Grill and Southern Roots.

Sport:  Football to watch, tennis to play

Recent reads:  Does listening to audio books count?  The Wright Brothers by David McCullough, Jane Eyre, A Long Way from Chicago, Wonder by RJ Palacio, Little House in the Big Woods.

Candy or other treat:  Cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory

Color:  Purple, black, red

Animal: Baby monkeys

Snack:  Stove-popped popcorn, almonds

TV show: Downton Abbey, Survivor

Place:  The beach

Season:  Spring

Meal:  Chicken and rice and beans with homemade tortillas

Song:  Like I'm Gonna Lose You (Megan Trainor and John Legend), For Good from Wicked

Game:  7 Wonders

RANDOM FACT:  I've always had really thick hair, but over the last couple of years, it's starting to thin. The individual strands are still thick and coarse, but my ponytail is much smaller than it used to be. Not sure how I feel about that.

Spotlight 2016: Andrew

Something in 2015 that...

*you saw or did that was awesome: Going to Nuremberg, Germany for work and having dinner in the basement of a castle that was several hundred years old.

*you'll remember: Watching Andrea graduate from BYU.

*you want to forget:  My entire year of work going from a big restructuring in April, to completely changing our front-end product development process in July, and then the biggest restructuring we have EVER had in November. It was one of the most demanding, stressful, and difficult years I have ever had at work.

*scared you: Riding the Tower of Terror at Disneyworld with Brandon and Whitney. Even though it took an hour waiting in line to get to the ride, I still didn't realize the ride was a sheer vertical drop. It was terrifying.

*you're good at: Going on tennis dates with my hot wife.

*you're proud of:  The successes of my family, whether great or small.

*made you happy:  Playing competitive tennis for the first time in my life. It was so much fun to be part of a team and to compete again. I had been inactive with competitive sports for so long because of my knee and back problems, that it made me happy to compete on a team in a league again.

*was exciting:  Watching the Carolina Panthers go 15-1 in the regular season then advance all the way to the Super Bowl. (even though it was played in 2016.)

*you earned, won, or accomplished:  I won my fantasy basketball league championship!

Any other notable changes/events for 2015:   I got a promotion at work and moved into a director role, supporting two of our global businesses. Andrea's graduation from BYU. I lost over 20 pounds. 

Follow-up from last year's hopes:
Win my fantasy basketball league.
YES!
Watch Andrea graduate from BYU.
Yes!
Enjoy having one child in high school, one in middle school, and one in elementary school.
Yes.
Have good health.
Yes!
Have the Panthers win the super bowl.
So close!
Find out that I really enjoy competitive tennis leagues.
Yes!

Hopes for 2016:
Win my fantasy basketball league.
Finally enjoy BYU football again.
Get comfortable in my new role at work.
Let the Lakers get the #1 pick.
To see significantly improved home teaching across the High Point stake. (Pres. Baughan assigned this to me.)

Something you like about your job:  That I am now working from home.

Something you don't like about your job:  The amount of information I have to try to keep straight in my head.

A job you might want when you're older: Fantasy basketball blogger

FAVORITES:

Restaurant: PF Chang's

Sport:  Football

Recent reads:  Grey Mountain by John Grisham (I have a complicated relationship with Grisham. I keep thinking each of his new books will rekindle our relationship. And then they don't.)

Candy or other treat:  Peanut M&M's

Color:  Blue

Movie:  Napoleon Dynamite

Animal:  Cat

Snack:  Pistachios

TV show:  NFL Football

Place:  The beach

Season:  Fall

Meal:  Crab legs

Game:  7 Wonders

RANDOM FACT:  I drive a Honda Element because it was the only vehicle I could find where I could sit up straight and not hit my head on the ceiling.  

What January Looked Like

Whit and I got to cash in on her Christmas present:

Wicked!!

We LOVED it.

Soooo good. 

Loved sharing a spectacular night with my girl. 

I made a couple of trips to Charlotte this month.

At B's school, during finals week,

they have an extra day off as a finals make-up day.

He and I took the day to head to a climbing gym

that has a speed route.

The orange ones that are shaped kind of like duck's feet

make up the speed route.

He's hoping to try competing in speed climbing,

so this was good practice for him.

The next week, all the kids were out of school,

so I took all three kids back to Charlotte.

They climbed. 

We stopped at IKEA for lunch and to pick up a few things.

And then the girls played Magiquest.

Skate night 

GNO at Martha's!

January = YM basketball season

Our ward team STRUGGLES.

We're trying to help B enjoy the game without

getting too upset about getting DESTROYED every week.

SNOW DAYS!!!

I am LOVING my mixer.

It has helped me FINALLY make good chocolate chip cookies.

I've been trying for 18+ years. 

The city plows the main street in our neighborhood... 

but not the street we actually live on.

So we didn't leave the house for 3 1/2 days.

I loved it. :)

Elf Spaghetti!

We had Sister Lawin and Sister Miller over

after Christmas to recreate the spaghetti that

Buddy eats in the movie, Elf.

 It was gross.

C can climb the rope!

I could never climb that thing. 

FHE activity: playing with play-doh 

Post-choir concert celebratory frozen yogurt 

 

Andrew has been a Panther's fan ever since we moved here.

The rest of the family has jumped on the bandwagon

now that they are going to the SUPERBOWL.

Can't wait!!