Second Christmas a second time!

So I talked to my mommy the other day and she is going to let me set up the whole thing.  She will provide the venue and the food, and I will coordinate people!

This is perfect because I have no venue and I'm no good at food.  I am, however, decent at coordinating people.  Yay!

Like a kid a Christmas...

...But it's not Christmas yet!
For some reason, I'm all psyched up about Christmas already.  Today it is supposed to be in the 90's and I just want to bake Christmas cookies.  No, I'm not actually doing it, but that's mostly because my work schedule doesn't allow it.

Last year was the first year we tried a fun new idea and it went very well!  Due to my work schedule at the airport, I couldn't be home for Christmas.  It was the first year that I couldn't be there on Christmas Day!  So my mom came up with this nifty idea. Since my brother and I wouldn't be in town until the weekend after Christmas, she set up "Second Christmas."

Now, Second Christmas turned out to be a lot like regular Christmas, but on a different date.  We still did breakfast food around noon.  All the usual family members showed up, plus more!  

Often on actual Christmas, the family members all have very busy schedules and they can only stay for a little while.  On Second Christmas, there are fewer places to be, so we can actually socialize for a while.

I've realized that this works very well for me because now I can enjoy Christmas with Dale's family without having to rush out early in the morning to visit my family.  With Second Christmas, I can actually relax a bit and enjoy being with family.

I'm so excited for Christmas and Second Christmas!

The Color Run

I've officially run a 5K!  Okay, so I didn't run the whole thing, but I ran as much as I could.  It was so much fun!  I made sure to get as much color as I could through all of the stations.  I did end up finishing this in less than an hour.  I didn't have a solid time, but I had enough time to run / walk 5K and wander the park looking for my people all in less than an hour.

After the run, there was an after party where they threw even more color!  Even the people who came with us, but didn't run got to get some color.  I let Fifi wear my white t-shirt so she could get it properly full of color.


I will definitely do this again!  It was such a great time had by all/

Bowling with a curve

So tonight in our bowling league it was our "fun week" which means that the scores didn't count at all.  So I started trying to throw a curve ball.  I actually did much better than I had anticipated!  

I'm hoping my friend can borrow his mom's reactive bowling ball, so I can see how that helps.  My ball is made for bowling straight, so it goes straight usually.  A reactive ball should curve more with my new style.  :)

I'm excited to try something new!

I ran 3 miles today!

I'm getting ready for the Color Run in about a month and I wanted to see how long it would hake me to run 3 miles.  So today Dale and I went to the gym to check it out... I did 3 miles in 45 minutes!

This is huge for me!  I've never been one to run if I could help it.  Add in some really crappy lungs in a rather out-of-shape girl and I'm kinda impressed that I could finish at all! My legs didn't really feel the burn until after the first two miles.  My lungs, on the other hand, felt it pretty much right away. 

I have found that having my Kindle there with a good book helps pass the time and takes my mind off the pain.  If I have something to concentrate on that isn't my lungs or legs on fire I seem to go farther faster.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

This year I finally got to St. Patty's Day at grandma's!  It's been years since I've been able to go home for the high holy day and I've been waiting for it to fall on a Sunday for a few years, since that's a good day for me to party.  It was a really long day for me, but it was so much fun and totally worth it!

I had to work Saturday night, as usual, so it started with a 12-hour shift then a 3-hour drive.  I then stopped at my parents' house to say hi, take a shower, then headed to my best friend's baby's baptism.  It was Cayla's big day and she was so good and quiet, even.  After mass I chased Bella (her big sister) around the church for a little while so the parents had a chance to chat with family and friends without much worry for her.  They then were planning to go to brunch, but I went home to take a quick snooze instead.

Too soon it was time to go to grandma's. I had a few surprises to reveal when we got there.  My two little nieces had no idea I was coming in for this and I got to surprise them.  I even had birthday presents for both of them!  After being attacked at the door by Fifi, I also surprised Sam.  They loved their birthday presents!

Then it was time for chilling out and eating.  Grandma was worried that we wouldn't have enough desserts, so of course everyone brought desserts and she had too many desserts!  But the corned beef was amazing as always.  It was great to have a chance to hang out with my family for a change.  Even one of my cousins' best friend showed up and it turns out that he is a bagpiper with the Cleveland Fire Department Pipe and Drum Corps.  So we had our very own bagpipe entertainment!

Overall, it was a great time and I'm so glad I had a chance to go this year.

Poor skunks!

On the way home from work the other day I was listening to the Canadian country station. Since people can't keep from talking on the radio in the morning, I ended up listening to the news section.

There is actually a city (or maybe county, I wasn't listening too intently) that enacted a program to temporarily (so far) euthanize skunks. They are going to hire one person and contract with a local veterinarian to kill skunks.

My question is what did skunks ever do to harm people? Raccoons have a worse temper and porcupines are more dangerous when frightened. Seriously people, how bad are skunks?

They even had a sound clip of some guy who had been outside grilling when two skunks walked into his yard. He took the chance to walk into his house until they vacated his yard. By that point his steaks were burnt. Silly me, I blame the overdone steaks on the idiot who fled from skunks instead of continuing to grill in a non-threatening manner until the critters left.

Come on! What happened to live and let live? End rant... for now anyway.

Lucky Girl...

I've come to the realization that I'm one lucky girl.  So many of my friends have jobs that they simply tolerate, at best.  I have two jobs that I love!

At the airport, I get to hang with pilots and work with awesome people.  I even get some awesome photo models in the form of some gorgeous planes.  I love being in this environment and I never could have imagined having such an awesome career.

At the trucking company, I'm constantly learning so much.  I may work in dispatch, but I have responsibilities in so many places.  I am learning about a bunch of different aspects of running a company.

I'm such a lucky girl, I just don't think many people actively appreciate what they have and I just wanted to share.

Organization started!

So today I finished assembling my $40 shelving unit from Office Max.  It's a really nice shelf setup and looks amazing.  I still have to wait for the wood glue to cure, so I haven't put much on it at all yet.  I used a different glue than they had provided, hence the cure time.

I'm hoping this will clear up my desk and the area near my desk.  I'll be using recipe boxes for my postcard stuff right now, but if I find something else, I'll switch it out.

Now I just have to update my corkboards for the new year and wait for glue to cure and I'll have a bunch of stuff to do tomorrow!

Happy 2013!

Out with the old, in with the new! 

I'd like to admit that 2012 was a good year for me in the way of milestones.  Most notably, I paid off all of my credit cards!  That was my resolution at the beginning of the year, and I finally achieved it in December. 

This year will be more about getting my life and home in order.   Currently there are three people in my little apartment and it's getting crowded.  I'd love to be back to just Dale and I, but financially it makes more sense to have one more person to share the load.  Our lease is up in springtime and  we'll revisit this setup when that gets a little closer.  Until then, I have to try to take up as little space as possible.

Goals for this year include:
Clean and maintain my apartment.  (I don't ever want to be embarassed about having people over anymore)
Save up for a down payment on a house
Lose weight and live healthier (Isn't that on everyone's list in January?)

And the important part... How do I plan to go about this?
FlyLady for the apartment.  They go by "baby steps" so you're never behind.  FlyLady focuses on small goals and developing good habits.  My mom has used this and it has worked very well for her.  I just have to get better at managing my time and motivating myself.

For saving, I won't be touching my commission checks, and my paychecks from the trucking company will be going directly into an account that I don't see.  It is a credit union and earns a decent interest rate, so it'll be multiplying itself as well.

As for losing weight and living healthier, I have a FitBit pedometer and scale that automatically synch to my online account.  I can also use their app to track what I eat, and any extra activities I do outside of walking.