Is it the end of the year already?!

It's just after 2:00am on the last day of 2011, and instead of sleeping like a normal person, I'm blogging. This year has flown by, and this blog--sadly--has been neglected for the majority of that time. Sorry 'bout that. (Cue the excuses.) For the most part, our lives just don't seem that interesting - we go to class, go to work, make dinner, do homework, lather, rinse, repeat. But then when life does get more interesting, we're so busy running around like chickens with our heads cut off that blogging is the last thing on our minds. So here I sit, at 2 in the morning, to write a brief (ahem) update on how our lives have been going.
(Deep breath.) Here goes:

Darren started the Junior Core for the Information Systems Major at BYU this past semester. It's a very competitive, very time-consuming endeavor, but he handled it well and was really enjoying it (well, mostly). He quit his job to focus on school full-time, and was humming along just fine with the ISys program. ...And then he got sick. We're not sure what with, exactly, since doctors are still running tests and telling us they'll get back to us (uh-huh, yeah, sure...), but Darren's been feeling dizzy and rather weak for the last few months. (They say it might be vertigo, but that seems to be a rather general diagnosis, so we'll see how things turn out.) As you can imagine, this interfered with his hard-working, perfectionist student type of schedule, and as a result he ended up dropping his classes this semester. The plan is for him to take this upcoming semester off from school and focus on getting his health back under control. We're both working on being optimistic and patient through all this. I think that's what the Lord is trying to teach us (or at least teach me).

This past semester, I have experienced the hectic-ness that is being a full-time student and a part-time employee. I was blessed enough to have a job offer from the company I interned for this past summer, Cedar Fort Publishing. I work as a book editor, reviewing manuscripts, designing page layouts, corresponding with authors... And man, is it exhausting sometimes! But I wouldn't trade it for anything, really. I love my job, and my classes have gone well. I'm down to one last semester to go! Woo-hoo! Along with school and work, I've also kept up my favorite hobbies--cooking and stamping. Those took up more time than they probably should have this last semester (along with catching up on some great TV shows like Bones, Frasier, Psych, Castle, and Numbers...) but it's been a learning experience. ...Yeah, we'll go with that. I've learned that I'm much too easily distracted to have Netflix so easily at my fingertips. And I've learned that Latin is an evil zombie language that eats both my brain and my time. I've also learned how to cook some really great dishes.
Which brings me to my last point: What would y'all think of me turning this into my own kind of hybrid family-update/cooking blog? I've had a few people request that I post recipes online somewhere (since it's most of what I post about on Facebook, it seems), and I thought that this would be a great place. So here are my goals: First of all, to post more often on here so that maybe, just maybe, some friends and family will read it, and Second, to post my favorite recipes on here for anyone to have access to. Some will even have step-by-step pictures, if I can manage it.

And now, to sleep. Have a wonderful, happy, safe New Year's Eve, and a fantastic New Year!