two thousand thirteen.

happy two thousand thirteen from jeff and i. jeff with the scarf and face that can resist flinching for any ten-second self timer....err, i mean, large group of friends that took this picture at one of the loud and boisterous new years parties we attended? 

now, let's talk about two thousand thirteen. i'm a closeted goal-oriented person. i usually aim low so that i won't fail...i know, i know, this may point to some serious internal issues but, hey! who wants to paint my nails? but this year, i'm aiming high! what's that quote? shoot for the stars and if you fail you'll land on the clouds? something like that? how terrifying that i know that quote...and the thought of falling through space and hopefully, hopefully landing on giant cotton balls, for that matter.

and, without further adieu, my goals(!):

+ run, baby run! : i go through phases of loving running and hating running and right now, i love it. i've signed up for...get ready... two marathons this year to run with my brothers and the thought of it makes me sort of want to crap my jeggings but shoot, i'm excited. (will the man-card forever be in my pocket? step up your game, jeff stapleton! ;)

+ shoot my brains out: eww. that sounded horribly violent. i don't actually want to shoot my brains out, but i just want to shoot so much that my brain will feel like crawling out my mouth and plopping itself on the couch next to me. i love taking pictures of people and making them feel like 1,00,000 bucks so i might as well get better at it, right? (umm, please look at this picture of my sister mckenzie -- she's a beauty)

+ violently wave my hand around in sunday school: you guys, i secretly have always wanted to be that kid who waves his or her hands around like they are directing air traffic. actually i've always wanted to secretly knock that kid upside the head with my scripture case but, you know. two thousand thirteen is a fresh start. my point is that i want to know the answers and be so confident in what i am about to say that i am squirmish to share. there is so much about the gospel that i don't know and want to learn and mark my word, i am going to learn it and wave my hand violently! (...or just shoot death glares at the person who does...)

+ be more...accessible: i stink at keeping in contact with people. ask any of my friends. i won't return texts for days or will forget to call them back. in other words, i royally stink. with all my friends leaving on missions and my family a whole state away, i need to be better at keeping updated on the people i love. (wait, snapchats count, right?!)

+ deeply inhale and be grateful: i remember the first day of my freshman year at college, i walked by this girl who stopped in the middle of campus, dropped her arms to her side, closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. i laughed then but i admire it now. (well, kind of -- she was holding up all sorts of traffic and made me walk straight into a man because i was staring at her) she was fully present and fully grateful ...or maybe she was just really strange? let's go with grateful. this year, i want to be more present and grateful for everything in my life; i want to jump on opportunities and be brave. and i also really want to walk into byu campus and hold up traffic with a giant inhale.

+ love the guts out of my jeffrey.

+ (i'm stealing this one from my sweet mama) make everything around me more beautiful: i was talking to my mom today and she told me that her new years resolution was to make everything around her more beautiful and i loved that. i want to fix anything that's bugging me and make it beautiful (or find the beauty in it); be it our ugly coffee table or my messy hair that's always, always, always in a top knot.

...now please remember to forget these come march when i'm curled up in a ball watching fifteen episodes of friends and lacking any sort of motivation?