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.