sometimes i dread january.

It's true. Last January had to go down in the history of bad January's. 2012 comes in at a close second though, the month I was diagnosed with mono and barely felt alive. Call me sometime and I'll tell you all about my nightmares of that and Provo High School.

As I was explaining (more honestly complaining) the other day to Max about how the sun goes down too soon, and the cold weather is miserable and why does January have to be 31 days? Max made me say five things I was grateful for. It turned into a list of five things I Like More Than I Like January.

1. Chili's chips and salsa. It's the only thing I'll ever order. I even get them to-go every Monday on my way home from work. I'm not ashamed in admitting at this point that I can even eat the whole bag by myself, with no help. There are only a few foods I love that much.

2. Something I've always wanted to do is karaoke. I've talked about it forever and so I said, sure, why not make 2014 the year that I make it happen? And I made it happen. Unchained Melody and me. In public + in front of strangers. I felt like a million bucks afterward, (and not because of any standing ovation) I had finally accomplished a five year mission!

3. Roundtrip airfare from Provo to LA and San Francisco for as little as $45/each way. Yeah, we have a vacation scheduled every other month at this point.

4. I woke up on Saturday morning to Max cleaning. CLEANING. The entire apartment was finished by the time I got out of bed! I remember hearing married couples talk about these kinds of things and I always thought, what's the big deal? But I guess I just joined the club. If cleaning the house is a love language, it's mine.

5. Reading just for fun. Since most every book club I have ever joined has never actually happened, I told Max it's up to us. So we started our own book club a few months ago, and although we've only read two books together, and our "book club meeting" consists of eating fruit snacks and talking for ten minutes before we go to bed, I think it's the best book club around.

And that's it. This January, in all honesty, has been eons better than the last two so I won't complain anymore (and plus we're halfway over right?) Hope you have a happy January 3-day weekend!