We Made Ice Cream

Happy New Year (a wee bit late)!

This year has already been full of all kinds of awesome.

This weekend, I was able to knock two more things off my list.  Spontaneous road trip, and spend a night in a hotel for no reason.
We decided to go to South Lake Tahoe. It was snowing, so that was pretty cool.  We even got to make a little snowman friend.  This was the first, legit, snowman I have ever made.  I love the snow. :]  We also had a snowball fight, which was awesome!  While we were playing, I saw the most perfect, amazing snowflake land on my jacket.  I know snowflakes are supposed to look really neat, but I have never seen an actual snowflake more than just a tiny dot.  I tried to snap a photo, but it melted too fast. It was really beautiful though.
We also did a little bit of gambling!  I turned $20 into $70, then lost it all.  It was a magnificent failure.
Overall, the this trip was absolutely amazing!

Other items we were able to do, from my list:  I made ice cream in a bag! The recipe was simple:  milk, ice, sugar, salt, and vanilla.  We thought it would be fun to make mint ice cream, instead of vanilla, so we used mint and added chocolate chips.  Our ice cream turned out ridiculously minty - what else would I have expected.  It was insane though.  Good, in small amounts. I could not even finish the photo you see above.  I would like to try this out again, but with vanilla.  Or maybe vanilla and a small amount of mint.

I have completed 58 goals!  More than half way there! 

I started my new puzzle, cats already destroyed it.  Nothing new there!  Hopefully, my new setup will prevent that from happening in the future. I am doing the puzzle on a piece of cardboard which I cover with more cardboard and set in my closet.  I am sure they will figure something out to mess with it though...

Nikki found this photo to describe my life...

Nailed it.
Last Friday, I joined the Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District Biologists in the annual Christmas Bird count! Rawge and I got started on an early and frosty morning!


Speaking of early and frosty, he and I also decided we would make a bet!  On Instagram, he posts these amazing photos of wildlife, but hardly gets any "likes" at all, while I can post a photo of my cat on the toilet and get dozens of "likes."  I told him it was because he was not adding in the right hashtags to get his photos the attention they deserve.  We both decided to take a photo, in the frosty morning and see who could get the most "likes."  Needless to say, with all my hastags, I won.   This was actually one of the nicest photos I have ever taken.  I am proud!

Now, back to the bird count!  I had a lot of fun seeing all kinds of birds I had never seen before, as well as a few of my favorites, including Killdeer!  I did not get to take any photos of them, but Killdeer are perhaps on of my most favorite birds.  Not because they are absolutely gorgeous or anything, but because of their personality.  If a predator is going after it's nest, Killdeer will fake a broken wing, flop around on the ground, and make a sound of distress in order to get the attention of the predator.  If that won't get it's attention, they will come closer to the predator and make a louder noise to draw attention.  The predator will see the bird, and think it is an easier target because it is injured.  Once it has lured the predator away, Killdeer will suddenly "heal" and fly away.  They are just so neat!

The major sight of the day was a Bald Eagle!  They had never had an adult Bald Eagle ever make an appearance in the area, so it was really exciting.  Hard to photograph though, because we were so far from it.  Luckily, we had a scope, so I was able to, carefully, take a photo through the scope with my phone!  He was a neat little guy.  I had never seen one before (apparently they are rare to see - as they were close to extinction), so it was pretty spectacular.  Fun times!

Upcoming goals:
I have decided I need to start classes, to get scuba certified, in the next few weeks.  I realized, I need to be scuba certified in order to swim with sharks.

Finally, we are planning a wee trip to New York at the end of the year for New Years Eve!

I have an exciting year planned out!

In other news:
"In 2002, the average user spent 46 minutes on the Internet a day - In 2012, the average user spent 4 hours on the Internet everyday"
(Follow UberFacts on Twitter)

-jennilea

Dear Santa...

The photo to the left will be explained further into the post.  Spoiler alert: it is awesome:

Speaking of awesome, for Christmas this year, I got season 7 of HIMYM!  Marathons will be happening for WEEKS!
In addition,  How I Met Your Mother has been signed for a 9th season with all original cast members.

To top it all off, the Backstreet Boys performed this morning - nailed it.  All my dreams...

My last post discussed the Dear Santa program; we were able to adopt 3 letters!  I headed out to buy presents for the families (with Christina), and we ended up meeting a lady at WalMart who was selling things to raise money to buy presents for her kids.  Our church had received a lot of donated, unopened toys, so we were able to help out this family as well - for a total of 4.

The first family had 6 kids!  The college group and I headed out with their gifts, including a crib and two mattresses, When we arrived, the kids opened their presents with excitement.  Their mother pulled me aside and let me know that this was their very first Christmas they had every had, with presents.  They were very excited over getting presents, coloring books, crayons, jump ropes, cards, tiaras, etc. I am pretty sure the puzzles were their favorite though.  I was happy we were all able to see them open their gifts!

The next family was the one with the letter from the little boy. We bought his grams a Bible and had her name engraved it in.  She was so happy to have her new Bible and couldn't wait to open it up!  They were very grateful, and even gave us a thank you card.   In the photo to the left, the boy in the red sweater is the one who wrote the letter.  It was a very sweet moment to see them interact together.  She was so proud of her grandson for thinking of her and for his heart for God.   This was an absolutely amazing thing to be a part of.

We did not get to stay to see the other two families open their presents, but they really appreciated their gifts.

Four families lives where impacted this Christmas because of Carmen's suggestion to add Dear Santa to my list.  This has been an great experience altogether, and I plan on doing it again next year with the College Group.

On another note, school is out, which is nice.  I was lucky enough to be able to enroll in all the classes I need for the next semester and will have my AA by May 2013!  I have also applied to Sac State and am ready to transfer over.  I will be majoring in Communications, and can't wait to see where this will take me.

In the time off, so far, I have enjoyed spending time with mySteven.  Definitely long overdue, as my night classes took over my life, and he had to work late nights.  I have also began working on my new puzzle.  This one is tough.  A lot of the colors are very similar.  So far, the border is done, and two birds.  Photos will come as I get a wee bit further.  Toilet training my cats is getting better. We will be punching out our first hole this month!

I also attended one amazing Ugly Christmas Sweater White Elephant Gift Potluck Game Night with my awesome friends.  We were all dressed in our best for this wonderful occasion.  I am grateful to have all of these wonderful people in my life.

I am also looking forward to running again!  I have not ran in a month.  Disappointing.  I have found a web site that tells me all of the runs that are coming up, and have found a few that I may consider for my half marathon!  Training really needs to ramp up though, because it will be within the next month and a half.

2013 is going to be crazy, fun, amazing, and full of new and exciting experiencing!  I cannot wait for it!  Next year will be my last opportunity to go to New York for the new year, before my list is up, so that will be happening.  I am looking forward to all of the traveling and adventure that will be had!

In other news:  "The pattern of your heartbeat changes to mimic the type of music you're listening to."
(Follow UberFacts on Twitter)

-jennilea