New Year's Eve

So I wanted to elaborate on my goals and this may be the only quiet time I get today.

1. My goal is to lose 23 pounds in the next 10 months (by my 35th birthday). I know, you may think I don't have that to lose, but I hide it fairly well. And I'm tired of feeling puffy and gross. I've been reading and following Judith Beck's 'The Complete Beck Diet for Life'. I would highly recommend this book. It's been helpful for me in the last week to get started eating better. I am amazed at how much I stuff in my mouth and don't even think about it. Luckily, I'm fit from Shocker Fitness but I plan to boost up my workouts.

2. I lost my mojo last year for scrapbooking. But after taking a 4 month hiatus, I'm ready to get back to scrapping. I have so many tools and techniques to use in scrapping, but often I use the same old stuff, so I want to break out of the box sometimes.

3. I remember birthdays...a few days after they've happened. So will work harder to get cards out early.

4. I do so much. I work full time, run errands, go to dance class, play with L...the list goes on. While I love my time in the morning to exercise, the 90 minutes after I put L to bed to my bedtime are often unproductive. So I want to work on planning more "me" and "us" time. I want some time to create, but I also want to hang with my honey more.

5. I have a few people who don't have internet and would really appreciate a handwritten letter. My goal is to do that once a month.

So there it is. I'll keep you updated on my progress. Happy New Year's Eve and have a safe night!

2009 Goals

So it's the last day of the year. I thought 2008 was great. I am looking forward to new changes next year (including a smaller me and a new house). Both will take lots of work, but I'm game.

So here are my 2009 Goals. I may post them on the sidebar so I can keep better tabs on them.

1. Eat healthier and quit overeating.

2. Use one new scrapbook tool a month

3. Remember birthdays

4. Organize my "me time"

5. Write a special friend once a month.

I'll do a post soon elaborating on my goals, but it's late and I need to go to bed.

Frosty shirt

Jill wanted to see the new cool Frosty 5K shirt. Sorry I can't get it to rotate.

I amaze myself.

So next year one of my goals (yep, this is a sneak peak) is to do 6 races. This year I completed 5 races. Of course, I'll do the Frosty 5K on January 1 (just picked up the packet this morning...the shirts are royal blue and soooo cute!!). I'm also going to do an indoor triathalon at the end of January. That consists of a 2 mile run (easy), a 6 mile bike (also easy) and 500 yard swim. I was a little worried. I love swimming but I have had difficulty swimming more than 5 laps at a time. Well, this morning I swam 40 laps and felt great!! It took me 13 minutes to swim 500 yards. So now, I'm really looking forward to the triathalon and I'll definitely be swimming more often.

Work starts in 11 hours.

My nine day staycation is coming to an end. I've had a wonderful time. I got to spend a week with my parents, stay up until 1 am and sleep in until 10. L has been an angel and we got to shop together, go on a walk and make a trip to the library.

But reality starts soon. And that's okay. I have three days this week, then a four day weekend. I'm ready to get a little more motivated. This week I'll be discussing my 2009 goals and how I am going to achieve them.

I hope 2009 is even better than this year (which was pretty darn good).

Boxing Day

Today is Boxing Day, a day celebrated in Britain. The British celebrate it by doing something fun so we went to the movies. We watched Adam Sandler's 'Bedtime Stories'. Excellent movie. I would recommend seeing it. L loved it and we thought it was well written and a fun story line. We also ran several errands. I bought a new Vera Bradley purse with my Christmas money. We exchanged some socks at Gymboree and drooled over the new collection (it has daisies on it). L spent her Christmas money on a new pair of rain boots (adorable). Went to Target to exchange a movie and pick up a few things.

The day went quickly and L made it all day without a nap. Tomorrow mom and dad leave and we will be sad to see them go. It's been a wonderful week. I love hanging out with them.

Christmas was good

Today was a good day. Santa ate the oreos and chocolate milk that L put out for him and left her a little note.

We opened our stockings before everyone arrived this morning. I got two WSU tshirts and a beautiful necklace.

Present unwrapping took 2 1/2 hours. It went well. Great grandpa took 10 minutes to open one gift and he was chastised for that. L's gifts from Santa included the infamous talking Dora doll, a Mickey Mouse clubhouse and friends, and Dora bowling. She also got a Hannah Montana guitar, tons of games and clothes.
Jeff had a sports Christmas. He received an electronic hockey game, a Cowboys clock and fleece blanket (made by my mom), a Steelers sweatshirt and a skateboard. The skateboard was a little more tricky than he had thought....it doesn't sit by itself.

My gift highlights included new scrapbook organization storage pieces, Batgirl comic, a panini grill, and two tickets to see Celine Dion next month. I am so excited about going!!!

We had a lovely dinner of ham, baked potatoes, green bean casserole, christmas salad, and peppermint cake. After everyone left, we took naps (and Jeff played his new Monopoly game for the Wii). Christmas is over for another year. I miss seeing everyone already.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Day 2 (of 9) Xmas vacation

Today I spent cleaning and cleaning. The house looks great (I knew it would, but always sweat it a little). We have the "sports room" set up with couches. It's a nice living space. Boy, do we need a basement.

I made chocolate covered cherry cookies and chicken enchiladas today. They were both very good. I felt like a chef!

We did a little shopping today. Went to Kohl's for a tablecloth, Petsmart for the animals presents, and Target for a couple chairs (we will have 11 people over on Christmas Day). None of the places were terribly busy. I was surprised.

My mom and dad made it into town about 6 pm tonight. No bad weather for them this year, thank goodness. We had supper and L got to open a couple of gifts. She got a rocker girl outfit (which will go well with another gift she gets in a few days) and gears (she loves them...I'd never seen them). She was a happy girl.

Off to bed. Going to my last Shocker Fitness workout for this year tomorrow morning.

The Start of my 9 day vacation

Okay, so I don't get as many days off as Jeff or my teacher friends, Jill and Betsy, but I'm going to enjoy the fact that I don't have to work for the next nine days.

The first two days will be spent cleaning the house. It is a mess. I've already made my list of things to do. I plan to work hard so the rest of the week, I can relax.

My parents should be here tomorrow afternoon. They get to stay here for the whole week. I'm so excited. We get to do a little fun shopping, pedicures and eat out. L will be getting lots of spoiling time in, I'm sure!

I do have to stop into work Monday to have our Christmas lunch. Thankfully, someone had a great idea to have a cookie exchange. No secret santa gifts. Didn't have to stay up until midnight fixing little treat boxes. I am bringing three dozen chocolate covered cherry cookies. Already made them once (for book club) and they were delicious.

I am thankful to have this week off so I don't feel so hurried when Christmas comes. I hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

We've been busy.

We've been a busy family this week. Tuesday was parents day at dance. It was great to watch L dance. She's getting pretty good. She definitely does better at ballet than tap. It was really icy that day so we skated our way home to a warm house. Wednesday, I had our annual Christmas book club (no pictures). The dinner was good and the book exchange was eventful. I ended up with 'Tender Bar'. I'm interested in reading it soon (along with the other 20 books I have on my nightstand).

Haley got dressed up with my scarf. Some days she's doing well without Ditto, other days, she's a wreck. I keep hoping and praying she will do better (either that or she needs some Valium).

On Saturday, I dragged (I mean, took) L shopping with me. We went to SEVEN stores and she was great. I prepped her before we went into each store so she'd know what we were getting and it worked. We were both tired and hungry by lunch so Mickey D's got our money. Then we went to see Emmet Otter's Christmas (a depressing Jim Henson movie). L sat on Santa's lap (after 20 minutes of coercing).

Today, we finished up shopping and I wrapped all the gifts. I am 90 % done and am happy with that thought. We spent time at the library this afternoon. After supper (chili....delicious on a cold night), L and I made a upside down pineapple cake. I have never made one before. It was pretty easy. L had a good time helping. Unfortunately, the cake stuck to the side at the end so it fell apart some. But I think it will taste good.

As you can see, the batter was VERY good.

My amazingly cute 3 year old singing 'the christmas tree'.

Priceless.

Knolla's Pizza

Yesterday while we were watching Butler beat Snow, Utah, we saw a commercial for Knolla's Pizza. The pizza looked good so we thought we'd try it for dinner. Oh.My.God. The best pizza I've eaten!!! We had cheese breadsticks which were cheesy and a little salty and melted in my mouth. The salad was delicious. We split three 9 inch pizzas. One cheese. One was cheeseburger pizza...a nice combination of ground beef, pickles and mustard. Who would have thought that mustard on a pizza would taste good. The third pizza was Coney Island pizza. It tasted exactly like a chili dog. Delicious!! We were very impressed by this little pizza joint. It's a must try in Doo-dah!

Haley

Looking at this picture, you'd think she was adjusting well to her best friend being gone. And when we're home, it's true. She loves the attention she's getting. We play chase down the hall, fetch with her new toy. She got to go outside in the front yard and wander and then L, Jill and I took her for a walk. She loves all of this.

But then we leave and hell breaks loose. I think she's chewing on the door jam again. She peed in her area so many times last night. And she drinks all her water. I feel so bad that she's so anxious. The vet says it will pass...give it time. I only hope it's soon.

TSO concert

Last evening, we joined 11 friends and watched an amazing show put on by Trans-Siberian Orchestra. If you haven't been to see TSO, you have to. A must. They put on a great Christmas show and spend the last 45 minutes doing random rock Christmas songs. They have so much energy and are great to watch. They played almost three hours.
When we first saw them, it was a little show at the Cotillion and this year, they sold 7700 tickets at the Coliseum. Only 362 days until the next time we can watch them.

L's Spangle wish

For some reason, L has been begging me to take her to Spangles. I'm not sure why. Jeff refuses to eat there (in fact, he informed me that he just celebrated his 15th year free of Spangles) since he got food poisoning. I'm not a fan of Spangles. Their fries are icky and the burgers are okay. But I really wanted to fly thru grocery shopping last night so I told her if she did everything I asked and didn't whine, we'd stop there on the way home. And she fulfilled the request. Dinner wasn't bad. The Reese's caramel slider was the best (can't really screw up ice cream). L was very happy with her grilled cheese and fries (I ate her pasta salad). We might do that again sometime.

It's Beginning to Look like Christmas...

This morning, L and I got up to put up the Christmas tree. L thought it would be fun to fall into the dirty old tree box. That kept her occupied while I got started. L was a huge help. She handed me the leaves and the lights. She decorated the bottom half of the tree. It only took me 80 minutes to get the tree decorated.

I tried to listen to holiday music on the TV, but L was not happy. She wanted to watch a holiday movie and decided on ' A Nightmare Before Christmas'.

After we got everything up on the tree, she nicely posed for a picture. Then we started decorating the house. She took several christmas animals for her room. I think the house looks nice.

I have mentioned this before, but today is Reggie favorite day of the entire year. She loves having the tree up. This year, I bought a tree rotator so Reggie was pretty freaked out today. I finally shut it off after supper and as I type, she's diving under the tree.

Pre lit, pre decorated tree. I love a fake tree. Less mess. Available any time.

Productive day

Yesterday, we were a productive family. First we put new sheets and a comforter on our bed. Haley decided to mark her scent over Ditto's by peeing twice on the bed and once on the dog bed they shared (why do I feel like we have such a pee problem at our house?)
L was a big help. She laid the sheets out and then jumped on the bed singing, "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed".

Our nicely made up bed. Luckily, Haley didn't pee on it last night. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

While we were doing that, Jeff rearranged the furniture. We took out one of the couches and moved it to the den area (formerly the sports room). This is a big start for Project: Get out of the Hamptons.

We spent the evening sharing pizza and lots of laughs with Joe and Melissa. Next: the Christmas decorations.

Black Friday

This is the time when I started out this morning. It was dark, cold and misty. But I was ready and armed with the credit card. I joined Kurt, Kasey and Twila for a morning of fun. We stopped at Walmart first and bought toys and movies. I was fortunate to get to Michael's when they opened and took advantage of the cricut cartridge sale. Then we were off to Lowe's and Kohl's. More shopping and a little bit of line waiting (not as long as last year).

Kasey and I took a quick break while Kurt buys new shoes. We feasted on McMuffin's from Mickey D's and headed off to Office Depot, Target, World Market, Ultimate Electronics, Big Lots, Scrapfunattic and Barnes & Noble. We were done by 11 am. I had so much fun hanging out with these three friends. That's the fun part for me...the adventure.

Farewell to an Old Friend

Dear Ditto,

Thank you for sharing 13 years with us. You were a faithful friend to us. You made us smile, laugh and appreciate all the great things about a dog. You shared our joys, our sorrows and everything in between. We loved your spunk and the desire to be the "perfect" dog. You were a great buddy for Haley. She wouldn't have made it without you.

We're so sorry that your body gave out. We know how tired you were. And we know that you are finally at peace and breathing without difficulty. That's the great thing about being a dog...you can die with dignity.

We love you and will miss you terribly. We will continue to tell your stories and remember all of your greatness.

Love, your mom and dad

(photo from 01/2008)

Isn't She Adorable?

Sunday morning we took L's picture for the Christmas card (and this is not the picture, but it is cute).

Haltime at the WSU game

Last week at the game, we had the best half time show ever. These guys were hilarious!

The Gingerbread Village

We spent this afternoon at the Catholic Church making gingerbread houses. We met Maria and Casey for lunch at Red Robin and then headed over. We didn't have to wait in line. We looked over all of the houses up for donation. They were beautiful.

We saw Denise, Lexi and her grandma when we got there and sat at a table with them. We had a great time. L and Lexi are old enough to work on their houses by themselves. L had a great time eating the "glue". Casey and Maria made their own houses and had decorating.

L helped me work on my house. We brought extra Halloween candy and used some of that.

Wendy (Lexi's grandma), Denise and Lexi.

L with her completed house. She had so much fun, but she was tired when we drove home.

The Turkey Trot Rocks!

This morning it was 34 degrees at the start of the race. It was chilly but we quickly warmed up when we started running. I ran the 10 mile race in 1 hour, 39 minutes. That was 6 minutes less than my goal. I am thrilled!! I did well until mile 8 and then fatigue set it. But Judy was great. She kept pushing me the rest of the way and I finished strong. I had a turkey brat and a banana and then went home (it gets very cold when sweat freezes). I'm very pleased that I ran the whole way.

I've Been Tagged

Okay, I've put this post off long enough. I think I've done every thing else and I don't have a legit reason not to write my tag. Thanks, Denise for the tag.

Here's the rules.

1.Link to the person who tagged you.
2.Post the rules on your blog.
3.Write 6 random things about yourself.
4.Tag 6-ish people at the end of your post.
5.Let each person know he/she has been tagged.
6.Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

My 6 Random things:

*I'm an only child. I'm married to an only child. And we only have one child. And I like it that way. I don't think I've missed out not having brothers and sisters.

*I was an all state bassoonist for three years in high school. I even played in symphony band at KU for a year.

*Since the bassoon has no place in marching band, I played sousaphone (tuba for the layperson) in KU Marching Band. Before my freshman year, I'd never picked up a tuba. But I had a great time in band and made tons of friends.

*I have worked as a PA for 10 years in the same place. And I still love going to work every day. I should like my job. I get to work with kids all day and I have banker's hours (8:30 to 6 M-F, no weekends, holidays or call).

*Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because it's all about spending time with family and friends. It's the most underrated holiday (in my opinion).

*I have two guilty pleasures: Grey's Anatomy and a peppermint mocha from Starbucks.

I think everyone I know has been tagged, so it ends here for me. Thanks Denise!!

W.O.M.L.-Saturday

This is the last installment of a Week of my Life. It's been interesting. A little time consuming, but fun. This morning I slept in until after 10 am. I had Jeff get up with L so I could catch some zzz's. It was wonderful!! We had a pretty lazy day. L and Ditto hung out on my bed snuggling.
Then I went to tackle my scrapbook room. This morning it was a complete disaster. There is no creativity in such a mess. I ironed all the clothes and sorted all the mail. I had two trash cans full of stuff. Before we left for the evening activity, it looked really nice.

While I cleaned, L painted. On her paper at first, but then decided to use the paint for her hands. She says, "look at my spiderman hands!" Then she used the dry erase part to draw. She made Sally, the boogie man and Jack (from Nightmare Before Christmas).

In the evening we headed out to the Special Olympics charity auction. We had a great time. It went quickly. Jeff got a few things at good prices.

W.O.M.L.-Friday

So my day started out very early and ended very late, hence I'm blogging the next day. Woke up at 5:20 to exercise. We ran a 400 meter this morning. I beat my last timed race by 2 seconds (ran it in 100 seconds). We did circuit training this morning. It was a nice little break from our general stair climbing.
After I dropped L off at daycare, I went to the doctor's for a quick check up. I was happy to hear that my blood pressure had dropped 20 points in each number. So even though I haven't lost weight, there are many other benefits to Shocker Fitness. I had a busy day at the office. But I did get some things off my desk which was nice. At least my to do list will be a little shorter Monday.
We met Kurt and Kam for dinner at Cinnamon's Deli. It was so good. I love their bread bowl soups. The kids had a great time. They spent part of the night "fighting" with the silverware and then stealing each other's food. We visited for an hour. We haven't seen the Konda's for a few weeks.
Jeff had a great idea when I came home last night. The 'Nightmare Before Christmas' was playing in 3D at the Warren, so we went to the 10pm showing. But we had time to kill before the movie, so we stopped at Border's. I found some books I was looking for. They have a nice quiet kids section, so Jeff, T and I sat and read books while L checked it all out.
L had a great time at the movie. She kept her glasses on almost the whole movie (I think she was just tired at the end). She freaked out in the beginning because the pumpkin "jumped" out, but she was okay with the rest. Please note: she has already seen the original version of this and the 'Corpse Bride' by Tim Burton and she thinks they are both very cool.
We had a great day!! A nice way to end the week.

W.O.M.L-Thursday

Oddly, there will be no pictures today. I blew it and forgot to take my memory card out of the computer. Doh!

So here's my brief summary for me to stick "fake" pictures with later.

Got up at 6:45....too late for a preschool morning. Jeff got L up (thank goodness). i scarfed my breakfast done, got L dressed and we were out the door to preschool.

I went to bed with a headache and woke up with it. And it progressed to a migraine. And it took me ALL flippin' day to get rid of. I got several things done (hope to take the clean desk picture tomorrow). Don't remember much...just wanted to go home and sleep.

We had a drug rep. lunch which was okay with lunch consisting of fattoush salad, hummus and honey rolls. My perfect lunch and it was delicious.

Got home late (6:30) to find L sleeping in the car. She didn't get a nap today so Jeff was hanging out with her. Had to wake her up a half hour later and listened to her cry and whine for 20 minutes. Ick.

We went to dinner at Olive Garden and it was delicious. I had tilapia, salad, breadsticks and a yummy chocolate dessert. Shopped a little at Target. Came home, put L to bed, took a shower and sat down to blog.

I'm exhausted. It's hard being a girl. :)

W.O.M.L-Wednesday

Started this morning at 5:30am exercising. Ran 2 miles this morning. Had no desire to get up and go but felt great after I got started. Then I came home and enjoyed my standard breakfast and the newspaper. I eat the same thing every morning...egg beaters sandwich and a glass of orange juice.
Then L got up with a couple prompts, got dressed and watched Franklin. She ate vanilla wafers and apple juice for breakfast.

She was so sweet and snugly this morning. She and froggy are best friends.

Off to work I went and found out there was no power in the office for a couple hours. Made for an interesting morning. I got lots done on my to do list. Jenny got a new headset and we joked that we wanted a Big Mac and some fries. She takes it all in good stride.

After work, I headed home to find L crying. Her mouth has been bothering her today. A little Tylenol and she was better. We are off to Target where we filled the cart full. Our refrigerator is packed. L barely fit in the cart.

We came home, had a nice dinner and created L's turkey for preschool. We had a great time. I'll post that tomorrow. A relatively quiet day for me.