New Year's Resolutions 2012

Okay. Well, it appears that my last post was viewed at least 20 individual times, so I know some of you out there are reading it. However, only two people commented! Since those who commented are the two most important women in my life, I will go with what they suggested...list time! (Christie, I'll do my best to have fun with it.)

Like the past two years, I will have 10 resolutions and they are in no particular order. All of you need to make sure that I keep them! Here we go.

1) Go camping! I had this on my resolution list last year, but I never did it! Ryan and I have the equipment to go, so dang it even if it is in my backyard or living room, I will go camping!  lol

2) Bake more.  As many of you know, one of my goals (especially for in the next couple of years) is to open a bakery with Justin.  I've already started the business planning side of things (well learning about business and starting a business plan), but I need more of the baking aspect!  Justin and I have been baking and decorating a lot since last year, but this year we (well I know me for sure) need to bake more.  I have lots of recipes and I have only really tried a few.  I also need to refine a few recipes.  Speaking of which, has anyone been watching 2 Broke Girls?  I have and I love it!  On the most recent episode, Max revealed that her cupcakes have always been from a box.  That used to be me!  You can ask anyone who has ever had a cake or cupcake of mine that came from a box...you wouldn't even know, and I've heard they are pretty delish (I'm trying not to sound too conceited but it's not working)!  Anyway, I want to make delicious sweets without the box mix and from scratch.  Eventually, I will be like the bakers on Food Network and bake from scratch without a recipe.  Now, how can all of you help me with this resolution?  Request a sweet from me and/or volunteer to eat whatever I bake!  The hardest thing for me in terms of practicing and trying new recipes is that Ryan and I cannot eat a whole batch of cookies/brownies/cupcakes or a whole loaf of bread or a whole cake every time I want to try something.  If you volunteer to be my guinea pig, I will give you what I bake!  (Trust me, get it now while it's free because eventually it'll cost some money.  :)) Or, if you want to order something specific from us (we did a 300 cupcake gig for my parent's anniversary party), let me know too!

3) Be more romantic.  This one may come across a little strange.  Shouldn't guys be the ones who need to work on their romance?  NO!  I think women need to be more romantic too instead on focusing on dropping hints about how they want their significant other to be romantic.  I have noticed that as Ryan has started an official graduate school program, we pretty much see each other in passing during the week days.  On the weekends, we both catch up on much needed sleep and often we have errands that we have to run.  Anyway, basically, I want us to be able to spend more quality/fun time together and for me to be romantic too!  He doesn't always have to be the one to fix dinner or surprise me with flowers.

4)  Pretend to be the paparazzi.  Once upon a time, I used to love taking, posting, printing and scrapbooking photos.  Now, you're lucky if I have a camera with me.  I want to get back into taking pictures and finally fit into my Asian stereotype (ya know the people who wear cameras around their necks to take pictures of anything and everything?).  So...the goal is to bring my camera with me everywhere.  Maybe I can even do a photo blog post!  Who knows.  How can you keep me accountable with this resolution?  Ask me to take a picture of me and you!

5) Have a sit-down dinner party.  Yes, I'm cheesy.  Ryan and I love to entertain. We have had people over all the time to watch TV/movies, game night, knit 'n bitch, etc., but there has only been one occasion since we moved into our house (3 years ago) when I remember that we sat down at a table and had an entire meal together with Kristina and Emmie (Easter of last year I believe). I want to have another where I cook (Yes, that's right, where I cook and baking a casserole does not count) and we all sit around a table and eat!  Who's with me?

6) Don't just like it, do it!  Ok.  Tell me that you don't have a Stumbleupon.com or Pintrest.com account.  Don't know what it is? Look it up and get addicted!  Anyway, I have a Stumbleupon account and have over 150 liked pages.  Most of them are recipes and craft projects, where others are related to business and wedding stuff (you can never plan too far in advance).  However, out of all of those pages, I can honestly say I have done only one.  ONE!  It was a recipe for cheesecake strawberries.  Anyway, it's time to actually do what I liked.  I guess it's time to actually pick up sewing.  ;)

7) Be more musical.  Many of you may not know this, especially if we met in college, but I am a classically trained flutist and I used to sing in choir (yea, back in middle school, but I won a couple of awards so I think that counts).  Anyway, since I moved to Johnson City, both have seemed to disappear in my life.  I still have my flute and plenty of sheet music, but the last time I played was a couple of years ago.  As far as singing...well I sing in the car...when I'm by myself...and on the interstate...when no one's looking.  Yes, I'm a nerd, but I don't know why I've become so shy when it comes to singing.  Anyway, back to the resolution.  I want to pick both back up.  But, I'm not making any promises for karaoke!

8) Read a book or two or more.  Most everyone knows that I hate to read.  I have never liked reading and I doubt that I will ever be a book worm.  The only time I ever read is for class or work, but never leisure reading.  Even the blogs or articles that I read online have some sort of purpose, not just for fun.  Anyway, I have two books that are sitting on my shelf that have been loaned to me.  One is Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man by Steve Harvey (from my mom) and the other is Onward by Howard Schlutz (from Christie).  My goal is to have the first one read before the movie comes out.  I would like to finish the other one before the summer begins, but that might just be a book that I bring on the plane to the Philippines to read.  If I finish both before the summer, then I guess I can start reading those other books that are currently collecting dust on my bookshelves.

9) Share more about me.  One thing that Mom posted in her comment is that blogging for her is more soul-searching.  There are several reasons why people blog...to post updates about family news, practice writing, and give people an opportunity to get to know who the blogger is.  I want to do all of the above.  A couple of weeks ago, I read through a lot of my old posts.  My tagline even says, "a narrative of a college grad".  Anyway, since now I have to manually post a link to my news feed on Facebook (dang you new Facebook!) I want to provide an opportunity to be real and for people to get to know me better.  That'll be a little difficult because I'm fairly shy and keep a lot to myself, especially how I feel and think about certain things.  I'm going to challenge myself to be a little more open and hopefully have all of you get to know me a little better.  That leads me to my last resolution...

10) Blog at least once a week.  That's right...I was specific on this one.  The last two years I put blog more, which depending on what you define "more" as could mean anything.  Once a week, at least.  I'll even add not to include a post that only does a resolution check does not count!  This one I really need someone to hold me accountable!

There ya go.  I have 10 resolutions.  Hopefully I can keep them all!  I thought of an idea while in the waiting room at the doctor's office today...does anyone else want to start a blog or continue blogging?  When I was   thinking about blogging, I looked into an option to get daily prompts for some inspiration for blog posts.  I didn't find any that actually stuck to a daily or even a weekly blog post prompt.  Anyway, I would be interested in typing up some random questions/prompts for a daily/weekly blog post.  However, I don't want to do it if no one is going to blog.  Okay...convincing time...If you started a blog 1) it would give you something to do when your bored 2) it will help your writing in general 3) it would allow me and others to get to know you better 4) it'll be fun!  Let me know if you start one and I'll add you to my blogroll ->

Okay.  That's enough post for now.  Check back next week for a blog post!