Twenty Twelve

I didn't put much too much thought into resolutions for the new year. Really I just jotted down a few things that I'd like to work on. Things that were already on my mind, and I had already been starting on. So, here are the things I'd like to accomplish in 2012:

.Drink 40 ounces of water a day: The number sounds a little random, but I have a 40 ounce plastic bottle that I take water to school in. I've been having headaches and breakouts lately, and I think dehydration might be a key part of the problem. One bottle a day is the goal.
.Drive: With the changes in jobs and school I need to work harder on getting my license. I signed up for an online Driver Ed course which I'm almost halfway through; passing the test for it will exempt me from the written test at the DMV. And today I spent about 30 minutes practicing my driving with Josh. Sure, I am so tense during it that my whole body aches now, and I might have had a small cry when I got home, but I guess stuff like that is normal when you're trying to conquer one of your worst fears.
.Be more involved on campus: With the changes in work I'm hoping I'll have some more time available to be more active on my campus. I have enjoyed working for DSS so far, and hope to be able to go to more Historical Society and Phi Theta Kappa events this semester. The vice-president of our campus told my TX Government professor that he thought I was one of the strongest students on the campus, and I'd like to do what I can to earn the high opinion he's bestowed upon me.
.Use what I have: I have so many things that I don't use when I could, and yet I'm always looking for something new. So, one of my goals this year is to use what I have. I mean that in reference to many things- from getting creative with the wardrobe I already have, to cooking through my freezer and pantry instead of constantly stocking it. Last night Josh and I pulled out the Beatles Rock Band instruments to enjoy something we already have. Today I finally cooked a chuck roast I've had in the freezer for quite some time. We had delicious shredded beef tacos and there's another dinner's worth in the freezer for the busy school nights ahead. I want to make use of the resources I have at hand, not constantly look for new resources.
.Read 20 books: This goes hand in hand with the last resolution actually. I have easily 20 books around the house that I've bought or received, but haven't read yet. I honestly don't know how attainable this goal will be on top of school, but there's no reason I can't try.



































via pinterest

New Year

Well, it's a new year now, isn't it? Josh and I spent NYE day celebrating the 1st birthday of our best friends' twins, and then spent a quiet evening at home watching Simpsons, snacking, and doing laundry. Exciting I know, but there's nothing else I would rather have been doing.

New Year's Day was a marathon shopping day. Holly picked me up and we grabbed some breakfast before heading to Stephanie's. I got to play with the twins a little more while she finished getting ready. Then we headed to Home Goods, Ikea, and lunch at Chili's. Steph went home, and Holly and I moved on to Anthropologie and Target. I got several cute things at Anthro, including the Hop, Skip, Jump skirt that I wore to work today. At Target I got some great basic sweaters on sale, a second pair of jeggings, and a new belt, all of which were paid for with gift cards. Then we went back to my house and I forced Holly to help me make some new outfits with my purchases so I knew I didn't waste my money. Holly left, I tidied up and went to bed.

Josh had been in Houston for a show and driven back w/ a bandmate, arriving home early in the morning. We both slept in Sunday, however I got up before him and worked on framing up some photos for our bedroom over coffee and some Bob Newhart Show. Once he was up I had moved on to watching some Simpsons and started putting together the new drawers I'd bought for my closet at Ikea. I went to work installing them, which led to a reorganization, which led to some closet purging. I worked on Josh's side a little bit too. It took me quite a while, but I finally got things just the way I wanted, including a new pull out peg rack that stores my necklaces. I showered and we made a late run for groceries. So, all in all, the first weekend of the New Year was pretty darn productive.


Oooh, aaaah, organized.

Weekend Roundup- New Year's Edition

Well, shortly after I posted my 2009 Goodbye where I mentioned looking forward to loving on Stephanie & Rodney's soon-to-arrive twins I got a text saying they were arriving early- as in, about an hour, ha. I grabbed a ride from my bro who happened to have the day off and be heading my way, and made it to the hospital just a little after they were born. Things happened so quickly though that I was the first person there, aside from Rodney's mom who was sitting with their 4 year old Rylee. Stephanie's mom and youngest brother arrived just a few minutes after me and we were all there early enough to see the twins rolled back to be cleaned and examined and Stephanie rolled back to her room a little bit after them. I spent the next 6 hours at the hospital visiting with all the family and friends coming and going, trying to be helpful every now and then, taking pics, and of course loving on the twins. Logan was born first, weighing in at 7 lbs., followed by Hadley at 6.2 lbs. Josh came to see the newborns when he was done at Rock School, and then we said goodbye and made our way towards home. Josh had already eaten, so I grabbed some bad fast food on the way. We got into our jammies, played a few rounds of chinese checkers, uno, gin, and yahtzee while we watched Monty Python episodes. We shared some champagne and a kiss at midnight, listened to a surprising amount of firecrackers and the like going off in our neighborhood, and tucked in to bed. So, that was our exciting new year's eve, ha. And the rest of the weekend consisted mostly of mucho chores, one more visit to the twins with Holly before we went to see A Single Man (movie good, Colin Firth great), a night of wigged out dreams partially influenced by said movie, grocery shopping, and a lot of Muppet Show watching. That about sums it up. Here are some pics I took on the trusty iPhone the first day at the hospital.



Rylee and Rodney with new sister/daughter Hadley



Rylee and Rodney with new brother/son Logan

2009 Resolutions: Out with the old

So, before I delve into my long list of resolutions and goals for 2010 I wanted to recap quickly where I ended up on my 2009 resolutions as of yesterday.

2009:
.Read 15 books- I read 14 new books, 1 new audio book, and re-read 4 favorites for a total of 19
.Set up an efficient new household- I've definitely got a system going that is working for me, but not perfectly. I feel pretty darn efficient, but there is still room for improvement.
.Finish my needed dental work- made no progress whatsoever.
.Try yoga and tai chi- did try yoga, and got a tai chi dvd from Netflix in the past few weeks, but never found the time for it.
.Watch 5 foreign films- Breathless, Cinema Paradiso, Metropolis, Shall We Dance, and La Strada
.Travel more- We went to Washington DC, San Francisco, a quick one day jaunt to Austin, and I went south for my sister's graduation.
.Cross 5 things off life-goals list- I was able to check mark: See Woody Allen Live(!), Learn to put on eyeliner (embarrassing, but being honest here), Go to Washington DC, Read all of Jane Austen's books, and Win a contest (crossed off when I remembered I'd actually done this in 2008, ha)

2008 Continued:
.More physical activities: pilates & walking- failed miserably here, involving this in new resolutions
.Study photography and experiment- I took 4 classes at a local camera shop, read several books, and took an online course. Also experimented with the Holga I got for Christmas last year. Plan to continue with my hobby this year.
.Keep up with Newsweek reading- did pretty poorly at this.
.See our friends more often- We definitely socialized a lot more this year, more parties, more hang outs, made new friends and traveled to see old ones.
.Improve my wardrobe- I'm definitely looking better than I was last year and think I am getting a little closer to developing a personal style.
.Be much more money conscious- I did better tracking our expenses, and we have several targeted savings accounts for our different goals now. We could be more frugal though.
.Try 4 new restaurants- I try not to count out of town restaurants, since obviously most of those are new. This year we tried a couple of new restaurants in the area, but we also stood by our old favorites as well.

Au Revoir 2009

It's really hard for me to believe that in twelve hours this year will be over. 2010! This time last year I was figuring that 2009 couldn't possibly be as great as 2008 was, but it definitely proved me wrong. 2008 will remain #1, maybe because it was the first truly awesome year I've had, but 2009 absolutely didn't disappoint. Here are some highlights of this tip top twenty-oh-nine.

We bought, painted, and moved into our first house!















We found a new local restaurant we like, Chadra's.
I took several photo classes at a local camera store.
We switched to buying organic, mostly local, meats.
We vacationed in Washington DC and attended Steve & Meri's wedding.















We threw a house warming party and were so happy to have so many friends come to see the place and party with us!
We hosted a baby shower for our best friends Stephanie & Rodney and their twins, who will be here so very soon!
We spent time in California with our good pal Diggy.















In just the last 6 months I've seen Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Paul McCartney, The Smothers Brothers, The Swell Season and WOODY ALLEN in concert.
An online travel agency picked up one of my travel photos.
We made new friends, and spent a lot of time surrounded by old and new friends this year.
I took an online photography class.
I roasted my first chicken!
My baby sister graduated from high school- salutatorian!
We celebrated our 11th year together and our 3rd wedding anniversary.
I had a Fort Worth Camera and a photopl.us Photo of the Day
We had our first Christmas in the new house.

Who knows what 2010 has in store for us? We're hoping for a camping & trout fishing trip in the near future with Josh's dad. I'm hoping we'll be able to get down to see my sister's new house. I can't wait to love on Steph's coming twins, and Rob & LeAnn's little Violet (also due very soon). And I definitely can't wait for all the fun and new experiences Josh and I will get to share together. 2010, be on alert- you've got big shoes to fill! I'll be back tomorrow with my 2009 resolution accomplishments and what I hope to work on for 2010. Happy New Year everyone!!!

One Week Check-up

Sorry I've been quiet the past couple of days. We're trying to buy another house and currently dealing the tug of war contract stuff. I'll share more if things go well.

Now, I don't intend to do a weekly post on my resolutions. That would be a little too obsessive, even for me. But, I did want to do a little first week check-up to see how I'm integrating my resolutions into my year so far.

-Last night, after a quick shower, was spent almost entirely in bed reading with a cozy dinner of tomato soup and grilled cheese. I might need to make this a weekly thing, which is a great use for the nights Josh has practice.
-Tuesday night I spent an hour reading and taking notes from The Camera and reading the first chapter of Complete Digital Photography.
-I walked 1 mile each day last Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I took a break Sunday, Monday and Tuesday I did my old routine. After having done almost nothing but lay in bed the four days prior to New Year I have been quite sore the past few days!
-I still need to call the dentist office, but I did set aside money in the savings fund this week for my next round of dental work.
-I also set aside a little money for travel sometime this year. We've got a lot of expenses coming up depending on how the house prospects go, but travel is important to me and I intend to give it priority.
-I've been poking around corners of the blog and my magazine collection for ideas to incorporate in our new household, whenever the time comes to set it up- taking notes, folding page corners, making bookmarks, etc.

We'll see how well I can keep it up!

Resolutions Version 2009

I've been thinking about what resolutions I would like to make for this new year for several weeks now. Last year was the first time I've really made a strong list and accomplishing just some of them made me feel really great. I had been keeping up with my progress on a monthly basis, which I think helped so I'll try to do that again as well. I've got a list of new resolutions as well as some from last year that I want to continue, renew, or actually get done this time.

New Resolutions:
.Read 15 books this year
.Set up an efficient new household
.Finish my needed dental work
.Try yoga and tai chi
.Watch 5 foreign films
.Travel more
.Cross 5 things of life-goals list

Continued Resolutions:
.More physical activities: pilates & walking
.Study photography and experiment
.Keep up with Newsweek reading
.See our friends more often
.Improve my wardrobe
.Be much more money conscious
.Try 4 new restaurants

Goodbye Good Year

Despite my current illness, and the rather rough bout of depression through the summer, 2008 has been without a doubt one of the best years of my life. Here are just a few of the things that make me feel that way.

-Wonderful trip to Manhattan: Ellis Island, Pizza @ John's, Central Park, and 59th street bridge
-Marking 10 wonderful years with Josh
-My first jazz concert: sublime!
-Participating in the political process: caucusing, delegate at District 10 convention, and voting on a cheery election day morning
-Fun visits to the Amon Carter and Kimbell Art Museums
-Trying 4 new restaurants and finding a couple of favorites
-Getting more exercise: walking and pilates
-Eating better: Start making salad for us throughout the week, try more vegetarian recipes
-Making new friends and finding old ones
-Cruising along on our second wedding anniversary: lazy day on the beach, hiking Mayan ruins, good eats and good times
-Saving over $18K this year!
-House-hunting: maybe depressing at times, but a marker of a new phase in our life
-Celebrating with friends their weddings, birthdays, new births, etc.
-Supporting Josh in his new job that he loves
-Accomplishing half of my New Year's Resolutions
-Feeling positive about the year to come

Very much hoping that 2009 will be very jealous of this list and set out to top 2008! I'll share my new resolutions in the new year. Right now I'm hoping I'll be feeling well enough to drag myself out of bed to go by the party being thrown by Josh's bosses and then to the DeMeglio casa party.