Monday, December 28, 2009

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope that you all had a great Christmas. We had loads of fun! It was nice to have a long weekend with Phil at home and him not working. The past couple weeks he has clocked over 60 hours. Too bad he's not hourly!!

Charlotte absolutely loved opening her presents. She knew exactly what to do when she got a present, but after a few presents she just wanted to play with her new toys. By the end of it, there were just presents left for her (she had like three times the number of presents than Phil and I had) and we were just opening them for her. I guess we could have waited but I think we both just wanted them open. Then she played and played and took a 3 hour nap!! (She normally sleeps for 2). I made a vegetarian meatloaf, cheesy potatoes (substituted milk and cream of celery for the cream of chicken), stuffing, salad, homemade bread (in my new breadmaker yay!) and we had some cookies Grandma sent us.

I got some great gifts too! The breadmaker is amazing! Its West Bend and makes a normal sized bread loaf, not one of those weird square ones. So now I can actually cut the bread and have easy sandwiches and such. I think I'll go back to making almost all of our bread now that we have this machine. :-D. I have already made a white loaf, raisen loaf (though I had crater bread, lol) and a chocolate loaf of bread--delicious with cream cheese! I got some cookbooks (bread for the breadmaker, vegetarian crockpot, and a big vegan one). Plus a fruit dehydrator (which has been on non-stop since Christmas afternoon, a pearl necklace, icing tips (already put to use), clothes, and the list goes on! This year for Christmas we got Charlotte mostly toys that didn't require batteries, which ended up being a lot of wood toys. I found some nice Melissa & Doug wooden toys at TJ Maxx so Great Grandma and Grandpa L got those for her :). Plus we found some great toys at IKEA. She got a set of metal pots and pans (small, for her play kitchen) and when she opened them she walked right on over to the real stove and wanted them up there (all from Grandma and Grandpa L). It was very cute, she must have assumed metal pans belong on the real stove! They make this ball thing that shoots balls out the top and she has always adored it. So Grandma and Grandpa K got it for her (as well as plenty of other toys) and they even found her a healthy pretend food set. And of course she got lots of books, which she spends at least a couple hours reading everyday. Phil got some great gifts, but I'm thinking that if you got this far you probably don't want to read about everything he got as well! Though I must highlight an electric razor, video games, gift card, etc.

Phil is back at work today for a couple more days and then we are headed to St. Louis EARLY Wednesday morning. I'm really hoping the baby.... I guess toddler now, sleeps for at least one plane ride, but I'm not expecting it. I'm just really hoping she'll sleep great at my in-laws. She did pretty well at my parents but if I can get her to sleep well (and take naps) the whole trip will be so so so much easier! We're also going to a wedding on Saturday so hopefully we will see some friends! But I'm excited to see family again :-).

I am going to upload some pictures while the baby is napping. Maybe I'll have a few to post here too. :-D

Monday, December 14, 2009

2010 Resolutions

Its about that time of year again... and since I am pleased with last years results, I'm going to make another list. :-D.

Number One-Find a new name for the blog & continue to blog weekly. Since the blog is just about a year old, I think that its time to come up with a new name. I also want to ACTUALLY blog weekly (not just have an average) and make sure I am doing it for the right reason... which is to be able to look back on a journal of these years and be able to remember them better. I also send this to my family, so they can see what we are up too. I just have to remember that this resolution was always about me (selfish I know, hehe) and that I should keep it that way :).

Number Two-Start Counting Calories. I am still over my prepregnancy weight and I would LOVE to get back down to it. I think that counting calories will really help me know exactly what I'm eating and how much I can eat without going overboard. It will also be something good to do in combination of exercising. Which brings me to number three...

Number Three-Get addicted to running. Some sort of exercising always seems to be on everyone's resolution list every year... and most of us never achieve it. I know I haven't yet. I decided that this year I want to, and well just have too, so I am going to get addicted to running. I used to run in high school, and I was in such great shape! I want to be able to run again, and keep running! Just keep running, just keep running just keep running, running running...

Number Four-Get a job to pay off this debt. Putting Charlotte in daycare scares me so so so much! But I'm thinking that it really is time to find something part-time for a while. Even if it sucks, at least it will pay off some debt. And once I really can't stand it, I will just quit. We just need to figure something out that we both feel comfortable with that will contribute. Once its gone, it'll be easier to have one salary and save up our e-fund and for a house. This also depends on Phil's job, as he has to work a lot of overtime :(.

Number Five-NEVER be bored! Life is too short to be bored, so when I'm feeling bored I'm going to find something to do. Whether it be play with Charlotte, talk more to my hubby, call up an old friend, or clean, I won't be bored. I should say that just "veging", because I need to relax, isn't being bored :-D.

Number Six-Complete the couch to 5k program. I started it once but never finished it. I want to complete it... and then run a 5k! So by January 2011, I will have completed it and ran a 5k.

I have a lot to accomplish this upcoming year, but I know its do-able. Wish me luck!!

2009 New Years Resolutions Revisited

I know it has been AGES since I have written in here, and I'm ready to start back at it. I am going to change how I do things though. I used to get so caught up reading what everyone else wrote that it would take so much time out of my day. So I apologize in advance, but I'm going to be a bad "blogger" and probably not read much of what anyone else writes... but in doing so, I WILL have time to write entries, even if they are short. Plus, the original "resolution" was to write entries, not keep up with lots of random people (once again sorry guys!).

2009 is coming to an end and its time to evaluate my 2009 resolutions.

Number One-Blog/Journal at least once a week---Partially accomplished. This resolution seemed to go well for a while, until I got too caught up in it and what everyone else was writing. So I have faith to start again, and continue writing, but more for me and my experiences than anything else. I have to say that on average, I wrote just over 2 posts a week for the entire year ;-).

Number Two-Brush my teeth well. ---Accomplished! I have to say that I do brush my teeth well AT LEAST twice daily. And now that I have an electric toothbrush (got it for free, yay) that it helps even more :).

Number Three-Exercise at least 3 times a week. ---NOT accomplished :(. Well I did lose about 10 pounds, but I haven't been exercising. So this resolution went NO WHERE. I think that I'm going to start counting calories this January and see where that takes me. I don't think that it will be something I do for a full year, but a few months will really let me know where I am, and how much one, or five cookies sets me back a day. This way I can portion what I eat better and know when I am going overboard and when I'm not. I am also thinking about seeing if Phil wants to do the couch to 5k program with me starting in January and that way I have someone else to push me along. I have yet to discuss it with him.

Number Four-PORTION SIZES! --ACCOMPLISHED!! We do eat much much better than we used to and we are also now vegetarians (yay!). Now if only I didn't love cheese, I could be on my way to veganism. But, I don't see that happening anytime soon. And quite frankly, I'm not sure I would be happy with the choice. I can't believe how well we have done at this. Using e-mealz has helped, as well as just not being as hungry anymore. (Probably has to do with FINALLY not nursing any longer--Char self-weaned a few months ago).

Now its time to think about resolutions for the following year...which will be a different post.

I am very happy with what I have accomplished so far this year (except for the not exercising thing). And I have also accomplished much more than just these four resolutions, which I will update on in another post.

See ya soon :-D