Welcoming 2012

Quick Updates:

• We had a lovely Christmas - we hosted this year and enjoyed having both sides of the family spend the day at our house for breakfast and dinner. We made our first ever TURKEY! Thankfully with the help of this website, it turned out perfectly cooked, tender, and full of flavor.
• We GREATLY enjoyed having a whole week off of work - We worked on some small projects around the house, including Michael having started the work at building a cat tree, and Christine sewing some curtains using a sewing machine for the first time ever (I had to read the manual first). There are several more work projects on our to do list, but Rome wasn't built in a day now was it?
• We have been consistently working out - Since we started building the house, we quite our gym membership to save a little money, and then once we moved in, we were a little overwhelmed with our schedules to consistently work out, so once things calmed down in mid-December, we started doing P90X daily. We took a break on New Year's Eve and one day when I was feeling too sick with a cold, but other than those two days, we've stuck with it. I hope we continue to be disciplined about it. Tonight is Kenpo-X!
• The Cherrys visited for New Year's - They came down to visit on the 30th through the 1st. It was such a blast to see them and do some usual Cherry-Yager activities: play Nertz and other board games (Pandemic was a new game they brought and we loved it so much we already ordered it from Amazon for ourselves - it's a cool game where you all are on the same team, trying to save the world from diseases, so you either all win or all lose - good for the marriage), the boys play Tanks on Wii Play while the girls talk, all of us play New Super Mario Bros and panic in various scenarios and end up bubbling to save ourselves (if you've played before, you'll know what I mean about bubbles), watch a movie together, and just laugh and laugh. We also hosted a New Year's Eve party for the NWYM class to attend if they so desired - it was a fun night of yummy snacks, more games, and even more laughter to ring in the new year. We were sad to see the Cherrys go, but we'll get to see them again in two weeks when they return for her baby shower, yay!

Milestones From 2011:

• Saved enough money for a down payment for a house
• Michael competed in two arm wrestling tournaments this year and won in his division! (First one was in April, second in June)
• We went on our first cruise ever in April with the Cherrys and LOVED it!!
• Randomly met the best builder in B/CS during May's Parade of Homes
• Considered buying a pre-existing home, but there just wasn't a good candidate that would be a wise investment, so...
• We decided to build a home, which we happily moved into in October
• My work about texting and driving received international news coverage - it's very exciting to see your hard work receive recognition, and hopefully educate the public about the dangers of texting while driving.
• We hosted Christmas at our house for the first time.

Looking Ahead to 2012:

• Finish some projects for the house, including: DIY cat tree, homemade DVD bookshelves, and others
• Continue to workout (P90X) consistently
• Stick to the Bible-reading plans each of us selected to read the Bible in one year - check out some plans at youversion.com - you can use their Bible app to remind you, or even read it on your phone. Michael chose the OwnIt365 plan, and I selected the Chronological plan.
• Grow our faith more and more - through a trial we've been going through, the Lord has faithfully refined our character over 2011, but I'm confident that He is not finished with us yet, so as we move into 2012, I pray that He will continue to be our hope, comforter, and strength as we patiently wait for His will to be revealed in our lives

Good bit of wisdom heading into 2012:

1 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. --Hebrews 12:1-3