28

Happy new year! I think there might not be a much better way to spend New Year’s Eve than with family (especially church family) and friends. We went to two parties this year, and got to spend time with a bonus friend – Evelyn!

Meet Evelyn, Bethany’s cousin; she’s�vogue-ing with Bethany and me:

New Year’s is my birthday (I’m 28 this year). �I always forget because it’s so quiet after New Year’s Eve. �So I’m always surprised when I get tons of phone calls from family and friends – especially when, like this year, I’m working or busy instead of staying home like most folks. �It’s nice that my loved ones remember – even when I don’t – that this isn’t just another day. �It’s the one day in the year I don’t mind talking incessantly on the phone. �=)

There are always a million things I want to do with myself when a new year dawns – many resolutions I’ll never follow through on. (How about THAT grammar, Leah?) �This year, I decided to write out the list of things I’d like to do but will never accomplish, so you can all be as disappointed in me as I will be in myself. �=) �Here’s what I’m not going to resolve to do, but will nonetheless eagerly attempt (at least for the next few days):

• Stop biting my nails. �(FYI: I’ve been resolving�on�and failing this since I was 10.)
• Lose weight. �(Again, every year, I say “THIS is the year.”)
• Exercise. �(Directly related to the above, and the main reason I never acheive that goal.)
• Spend regular and significant time with my sisters. �(We’ve drifted as we’ve been far apart geographically.)
• Read my Bible every day. �(That’s EVERY day. �No sick or tired or no-time days.)
• Take more pictures, and more meaningful pictures, with my awesome camera.
• Do something with my pictures – scrapbook, post, frame and hang, etc.
• Keep my house clean – not just clean, but Lorene Woodrum clean.
• Keep a plant alive for a full year. �(I keep a dead-for-three-years poinsettia around to remind me not to attempt this.)
• Think less about myself and more about the people around me – that means being a better wife, a better daughter, a better sister, a better friend.
• Keep in touch better with people I love (to the tune of at least�emailing, if not sending cards and real letters).
• Remember and acknowledge birthdays.
• Start learning to play the flute and the guitar. �(I have both – I just need to actually learn to play.)