Snow Storm Gandolf

I survived Snow Storm Gandolf. Recently the weather channel started naming winter storms for a bunch of reasons that I don't really care about. I love it. I think the name game will increase awareness and hopefully encourage people to stay out of it.
Anyway, downtown Salt Lake always gets hit a little harder than my south west located home. My coworker thinks he's being funny when he sends me this text message.

It's not funny. I hate driving in the snow. Especially at night when I get off work...at 11 p.m. I'll tell you a secret, they don't really plow the roads around then because there aren't a lot of cars on the road...not really a demand.
The text is a joke..but I'm considering it.

Adulthood

For the first time since I was sixteen I made my bed and it won't be the last time.Hello, adulthood and motherhood.

Lucky Number 13

With the awful taste of 2012 still lingering in my mouth, I like to look forward to the future with optimism. It's only day six of 2013 and it's hard to really anticipate or know what the year has in store. One can never predict the future. 2012 was far both busier and harder than I expected. I have high hopes for the future though. When I see 2013, I see a rebuild for Michelle Hunt--a recreation of who I'm supposed to be with some key events of course.
I love lists and I love pictures. So here's my second picture list of 2013.

Leah and Paul

1.  Jersey Wedding: It's the last wedding on our long list of weddings starting in 2012. One of Dave's best friends, Paul, is finally getting married to his beautiful, awesome girlfriend/fiance', Leah. They live way over on the East Coast in New Jersey. Although we will likely have a full-ish schedule of wedding stuff, it will be a lot of fun to check out some sites while we are there.

This morning's Einstein hair

2. Cameron: I know it's not especially interesting to list my child as an event for 2013, but she will be a big part of my life every year for the rest of my life. To not include her would be a lie!  Anyways, this year she will walk and maybe even start talking. I'm so excited to finally be able to understand all of her gibberish and know exactly what she wants. This year will be a pretty epic step into her childhood.

Random picture of a heart. 

3. Grandparents & Great-grandparents: Dave and I are making a trek to Reno, Nevada this year to visit his grandparents. They couldn't make it to our wedding due to their age and his grandpa is wheelchair-bound. We're excited to go on a trip with Dave's dad and Momma Jean. It's going to be a really exciting event to introduce Cameron to her great grandparents; I really hope she isn't completely crazy on the long drive...

4. Job: The luckiest part of 2013 would be my exit from KSL. The job was great when I was single; late nights and weekends were not a problem. I usually stayed up pretty late anyways. Now the late nights, weekends and holidays are causing a big strain on me and my family. In October I prayed that I would be able to move on in my career by April. I still have four months to make a big life change.

5. Repairs: This is the year of the house. I've got big plans for this year. I want to get the house painted, put up pictures and finally make it our house. In the spring we will have to replace our sprinklers, watering them by hand last year was freaking awful. Maybe we'll finally put up a fence to drown out some of our neighbor's ridiculous, late antics. Or put up some darker drapes so their back porch light doesn't blare into our room all night long.

6. Dave: My husband of course. We'll be there together in 2013, rocking the married life and working out shnizz like the awesome couple that we are. We'll finally finish Borderlands 2 and maybe even finish Resident Evil 6 (because we're nerdy like that). We'll work on our puzzles and watch our shows. I'd like to hope 2013 brings some more date nights. They are sure hard to come by since our days off never line up and both our work schedules end later than most date nights even start. Babysitters are equally hard to come by when you need to use them during the week...multiple times. Lucky 13 could bring us closer so we're more than co-single parenting. That's my hope, anyways.

Too bad I can't come up with seven more things to make it super duper lucky...or unlucky.  I'm thinking optimistically today. 2012 was an obstacle we had to overcome to get to the beauty of 2013. Lucky number 13, I'm wishing on you. :)

Trains

At a family gathering a while ago we discovered Cameron has some serious love for trains. We started up my dad's old trainset and Dave held her while we watched. It cracks me up every time. She waves her arms and kicks her legs so hard while she squeals happily. I've been wanting to share this for a while...so here it is...finally.

2012 Review

I want to join with all the other blogger's this year in recapping 2012. New years blog posts are my always my favorite to write. This year was more eventful than 2011 and extremely emotional for me. To narrow it down to 10 things was extremely hard and some of the events and moments in 2012 will linger through 2013.


Dad and me back in like 2010 at the car show

1. My dad: It's funny how there are some words you just can't say. Even after four months, I still can't say some words when paired with my dad.  The events of this year are shadowed with by these enormous words.  He passed away in August after a year long fight with esophageal cancer. It was faster and sooner than anyone expected. August was a roller coaster of emotions. When he first started getting really sick, I put a picture up as my profile picture of my dad and me. I still can't take it down. My dad was my rock and his passing has shaken my whole life. Grieving is a long, hard process when you know and love someone for a long time. 25 years I called him dad and now that huge presence is a deep hole. That hole is still there and I know I'll always miss him.

Cameron a little after her first birthday

2. Cameron:  It's been a little over one year since we had cute, little Cameroo. With each milestone, she gains more independence and smiles a little bit more. She crawls faster than I can walk and loves to stand using the couch, but just don't help her. Like mom, she hates people helping her.

First day of braces
I had no idea the pain I was in for.

 3. Braces:  It's about time right? I've had pretty crooked teeth most of my life. It's not detrimental to my health. According to my dentist, my teeth are in perfect shape underneath the surface look. Just like anyone, my teeth have been pretty hard to get over. I know it sounds like a sob story but whenever I talked to new people, I knew they were staring at my teeth. Bah. So this year, I decided it was time to get them fixed. I'm almost half way done and they already look perfect to me.

Dave and I.

4. Honeymoon: It may be a year and a half later, but Dave and I finally took our honeymoon and I knocked off an item from my bucket list. We went on a cruise with Dave's newlywed friends Brad and Jaycie.  The cruise ported in Belize, Bahamas, Cayman Islands and Mexico. The cruise was NOT that fun. Carnival is a sucky cruise ship venue, but it was cheap and ported at all the destinations I wanted to. The highlight was visiting the Xunanatunich ruins in Belize. It was a two hour bus ride there and back and a pretty intense hike in 90% humidity, but when we saw them it was breathtaking!  One of those moments I will take with me forever. It was the highlight of the year for sure.

house!

5. House:  We moved into our house!  It's the perfect dream house for me.  It's a lived-in house so we gained a lot of "homeowner experiences" like turning off the outside water at 10 p.m. because one of the copper pipes burst or setting mouse poison out in odd places so Cameron wouldn't eat any of it. (We haven't seen the mouse in a few months. I'm still not 100% sure if it's dead or not). Oh and our electrical layout in the basement is all wrong...so we got really good at flipping the power on and off. Despite the adventures, owning a home is totally worth it.

Random unrelated picture,
because I don't want to show you blood.

6. Hyperthyroidism: I had some major depression this year. I'm not afraid to say that I went for help. Sometimes talking to your spouse isn't enough. When I saw someone, he recommended I get my blood checked and they found that I have high thyroid levels. I've been on a it for a little over two months and I've noticed a huge improvement and quality of life. I gotta say how important it is to get your levels checked every now and again. So important! Especially after having a baby, because that stuff messes with your whole makeup.

Davey-Roo

 7. Dave: November marked our two year dating anniversary. Dave is great. This year marked big changed in his job. He moved over to the business center portion of his job and got a promotion. He's a great dad to Cameron and fantastic husband. Marrying him was the best decision I've ever made (right alongside my decision to keep Cameron). We've had a lot of big challenges in the last two years; more than most couples have in ten years. Through it all we made it together. I think if we can make it through 2011 and 2012; Dave and I can make it to forever.

We're standing in line for
The Dark Knight Rises.

8. Batman: My other man. Any other blogger mentioning this would be considered really weird and maybe I am really weird. The Dark Knight Rises was a big part of 2012 for me. The Dark Knight films made me respect Christopher Nolan so much. He brought a different kind of Batman to the big screen. We related to the hero. The Dark Knight Rises was a big letdown for me. There were some massive plot holes and the ending was silly. No one wants Batman to live more than I do, but the ending was so hollow. Big let down.

Beauty

9. Church: Progress.  I want to make the same disclaimer as I did last year. I know that some people don't value religion and don't believe in God. My recap of 2012 wouldn't be complete without the church. This year marked big progress for me.  I reached a point in fellowship that I haven't been a part of in almost five years. In some ways I feel like an old friend has finally returned after a long trip abroad. Now if only I could change my job. My ward starts at 1 p.m. this year. I leave for work at 2:30 p.m.In order to further my own growth, I need a new job that doesn't make me work on Sundays.

Our tree-topper at work

10. Job: Speaking of job. I'm still here at KSL. This new C.A.L.M. act is making my job very busy and more complicated than ever. I work 3-11 p.m. every weekend and three days a week. I work most holidays and spend most of my job watching commercials and television programming. I've applied to more than 30 jobs since October. I'm getting kind of desperate to leave KSL behind me. Television has a lot of bureaucratic garbage. 




2012 was eventful. It was busy and very hard for me. I hope to leave most of the events from 2012 where it belongs: in 2012. I'm realistic about 2013. It will be similar to other years. The new year will probably bring new challenges, but I hope it brings more joy than pain.

Text Messages

Dave and I were a lot like most modern couples when we were dating, centered around text messages and dates. Throughout our "courtship" Dave and I exchanged a lot of text messages.  A lot of them were super cute or romantic. Even when we were newlyweds there was always a few sweet messages sent throughout the day to remind each other of "love" or something.
Now we have a little girl. Our text messages typically center around Cameron's activity and happiness level throughout the day.
I've been at work for almost three hours and my phone vibrates with a message from Dave. 



Married life is such a beautiful thing, especially after children.  Dave knows just how to describe a diaper so that I cringe without even seeing it. He says such classy things. Since Cameron's birth, it's amazing no other women have tried to pick him up by now.

News & Pictures

You know what I love? Checking the news online.  

That's right, I work for a television station that broadcasts news stories at least three times a day and I get my news from the internet. Isn't that glamorous.

In my defense; I check their web site first. Sometimes there are things and stories on their web site that cannot be made up.  Like the story I stumbled upon back in March. The story is titled "Stick Ponies". It's a a very serious story about some very awkward people. Read the story, watch the video and laugh heartily at the expense of Utah news. 

Random amusing stories like "Stick Ponies" are rare in news these days. There is too much violence, war and political agendas to ignore.  Sometimes I think people out in news try to use a little humor to tell serious stories. Like my favorite sports reporter, Rod Zundel, and his amazing story about Jazz player, Francisco Elson-hilarious. Sometimes articles are paired with awesome pictures.

Today Former President George H. W. Bush was taken out of intensive care. (Sarcastic comment here). The picture KSL paired it with becomes pretty epic when you read the headline.  He looks like he is cheering for the return of his health.

Right on, G. Bush, you conquered bronchitis in your old age and I'll cheer for the rare moment of serious news making me smile and chuckle slightly.