Happy New Year!

Today is the first day of 2012 and I'm snug as a bug inside my home. It is below zero today. I skipped church this morning due to an achy body. I slept terrible last night because of the fireworks in my neighborhood...I'm not complaining about fireworks, it doesn't really bother me at all that people are out at midnight having fun. What is a pain is our dog Roxy who is petrified of them. We let her sleep in bed with us because she was panting and shaking and needed to be near her humans. Taz was fine - she seemed curious about the noise and sat at the back door looking out. She wasn't frightened at all. Because Roxy was between us, shivering and panting, I slept on my side and must have had a twist in my back because at 1:30 am when I rolled over my back was killing me. Roxy jumped down and slept on the floor the remainder of the night, but the damage was done.
We have had one of the snowiest winters on record so far this year. This is our driveway - Sweetie piles the snow up on each side each time he shovels. It's getting so high that when I back out in my car I can't tell if any cars are coming. I may have to start backing into the driveway so I can see better.
This is the back yard. We had some problems with a leaky garage roof, so Sweetie is shoveling it off each time it snows a bunch. That's why there are big piles of snow in the backyard too. I don't know what possessed anyone to put a flat-roof garage in Anchorage, AK. We get lots of rain in the summer and lots of snow in the winter, so it makes for a very inefficient roofing system.

I didn't make any New Year's Resolutions because I'm tired of always breaking them. What I have done is make some general suggestions for myself:

Eat less and eat healthier, get more exercise, write thank you notes to businesses letting them know when an employee has helped me above and beyond (good customer service seems rare and I'd like to make sure the employee who provides it gets recognized), and do something art related every day even if it is just a quick sketch. I want to take better care of myself and quit being so over-committed that I feel stressed all the time. I need more lazy days with nothing to do. I have so many ideas and plans for my art, but rarely get them done because I'm too tired to do it.