Professionally:

• Provide excellent client service and streamline procedures in my firm to run a more effective business
• Read at least one business book a month and implement the things I’ve learned into my business
• Attend the MO Bar’s Annual Family Law Conference in August

Personally:

• Read the Book of Mormon every day. This shouldn’t be much of a change, but I’m going to aim for a little more focused reading. My days are always better when I get this reading in.
• Be an awesome Primary teacher.  This year at church, I’m teaching the 9-11 year old girls. They are the BEST girls ever. Our class is a little bigger than last year – we grew from 5 girls who attended regularly to 11! We are going to have some fun times.
• Take a lot of pictures. There’s something to be said for remembering the moments. Pictures help me do that.  (Note to self – back those pictures up! I dropped my laptop today. Totally obliterated the hard drive, including all my pictures. Sad day. But there IS a silver lining – I got a new laptop. That I love.)

Physically:

• Smile when I run. A friend of mine told me he’d start running the day he saw someone smiling while they ran. I’m making it my personal mission. :)  In all seriousness – I’m totally running the Kansas City Marathon in October 2010. And I’ve managed to recruit my 13 year old bro to do it with me. ($50 goes a long way with a 13 year old. I am not afraid of bribery.)
• Amazing abs. I want them. And this is the year that I’m going to get them.

There’s a couple of talks I read this past week while I was thinking about goals. They were excellent, so I’m sharing them with you. Both were given by Thomas S. Monson, the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  The first is “Decisions Determine Destiny”  and the second is “Great Expectations.” Happy New Year!

I love food, but when you are only 4’10″, your calorie intake is kind of limited. (For some reason, when you are small, your body doesn’t need quite as many calories to run as someone who is tall.) I made peace with my height a long time ago.  After all, it hasn’t changed since I was about 12 years old. So I know where my calorie intake should be and how to adapt my workout for the days when my love of food might take me over the top of that.

I love all types of food – mexican, italian, american, greek, middle eastern, japanese (including sushi!), chinese, polynesian…. Seriously. I make sounds when I eat. Can’t help it – I’ve done it forever I think.

At my house, food has always been one way we all come together. When I was growing up, we actually all sat down together to eat. For a family of eight kids, that was always a fun rowdy time. Now I make it home most weekends, and we still all eat together. What a life :)

For anyone who doesn’t know what quinoa (keen-wa) is, it’s a plant seed that’s used like a grain.  There are some great articles on it at Men’s Health, the California Chronicle, BodyRock.TV and Ask Men. I’ve used it (the regular stuff, not the flakes) like rice or couscous in a lot of different dishes.  It’s a great way to add some variety to your diet without breaking the bank.

If you’re curious, info on agave nectar can be found here.  Since this was my first intro to it, I don’t know as much about it except for the fact that I liked it.

photo from imapmy.com

One of these days I want to run a marathon. You know, just to put it on the list of “really cool things I’ve done.”  The problem?  Well, I’m not much of a runner.  I hate the treadmill.  I’d much rather do the stairs.  If I’m going to run, I want it to be a little less tedious.  (Somehow, the stairs are never as boring as the treadmill.) I think that I might have found the answer to my problem – the iMapMyRun app for the iPhone keeps track of me as I run using GPS.  I never have to measure how long I run or keep track of my time – it keeps track of all that, PLUS it calculates my pace.  I can be outside and just run… I love it!  As long as the weather holds out, I think I’m going to be outside. Running.

I was sitting here tonight thinking about my blog post, and thought I’d make a list of the top ten the things I miss about living in the city.  Turns out, I couldn’t come up with ten.  Sure, I miss the convenience of having some things right there – Whole Foods, Bikram Yoga, Cool Art Galleries, Great Restaurants and Good Shopping – but for most of those things, 40-60 minutes really isn’t a bad drive.  (It’s not like I’m facing lots of traffic on that drive.) I’m debating whether it’s worth the trade-off.  You see, I have “space” issues. Eventually I want my own space.  Like acres of space.  Enough for at least two pigs (see About Me).  And two big dogs.  And room to grow my OWN organic wonderful fresh local produce.  And maybe even raise my own steaks.  (aka, I could create my own Whole Foods.  And it wouldn’t even be nicknamed Whole Paycheck.)

It’s a toss up.  If I found a way to put a Bikram Yoga studio somewhere on my space, I think I’d have a clear winner.  For now though, I’ll just drive.