2012

So it is officially 2012.  As usual, I have a couple resolutions for the new year.

Last year I paid off two of my three credit cards.  This means that number three is on the chopping block for this year.  It has the highest balance so it's going to be a bit of a challenge.  But I think the most challenging part will be that, with Dale in school, I won't be able to attack this one as hard as I did the last two.  We'll see how it turns out.

The second resolution is to lose some weight.  I have already started to attack this one!  My mom steered me to an app that follows your phone's GPS as you walk and tracks how many calories you've burned.  I can share these walks on Facebook, too. 

My mom and I share our walks and get a little competitive with them.  She walks in the morning with the dogs. She has a nice place that is away from civilization a bit, so she can walk on the soft ground instead of a hard sidewalk, which is nice. 

Dale and I have been exploring a bunch of new places to walk.  With the weather getting colder we have been looking into more indoor places such as malls.  On warm days we go to parks, but those are getting rare.  But it's getting me out and moving, which is the point.

What resolutions do you have? How are you working on them?

Yay! Victims *Ahem* Volunteers, rather.

So I've been trying to get better at taking pictures of people.  I've never been that great at it because they don't just stay still and let you take a picture.  People require work, and boy that is definitely a life lesson there!

Well just before my most recent visit to Ohio, my friends Rebbie and Choji got all engaged and stuff!  (Congrats, kids!)  Well, I offered to take some pictures of them and if they liked the photos, they could feel free to call them the official engagement photos.  I figure this is a win-win since they would get engagement photos and I would get practice and possibly some additions to my portfolio.

Well, sadly Choji wasn't feeling well during the time I was there, so we didn't go out.  But my sister found another victi- *ahem* volunteer!  Her coworker Kara would be interested in sacrificing her family to my photographic lack-of-practice.  Well, I know that kids are a challenge in real life, but to photograph them and make them look like the angels their mommy knows they are is way more than a challenge.  I'm totally psyched (and a bit scared) to attack this challenge.

And this "morning" (I use the term loosely) Rebbie texted me to see if I would be interested in maybe taking some shots for her senior pictures!  I'm so excited to have all of these offers to help me out.  Sure, it's helping them, too, but if I'm already going to be down there, the shoot will only cost my time since I have no props.  Sure, prints will cost, but that would be a direct pass-through for these ladies.  

I'm ready to start practicing!  Oh, my models are 200 miles away!  Bummer....

Almost Christmas!

It's officially Christmas Eve eve!  I'm totally ready for the Christmas part of Christmas, I'm just not ready for the work part.  I have it all planned out, I just have to make sure I sleep!

Starting Christmas Eve...  I'll be enjoying Christmas Eve at Dale's mom's house.  After dinner and our ONE present, I'll head to work.  After locking up at work, I'll head back to Dale's mom's house for Christmas morning.  After seeing what Santa brought, we will have breakfast and have birthday cake! 

After all of these shenanigans, I'll head off to my parents' house for Christmas brunch.  Santa stops there too, so there are more presents!  All sorts of family will be there, so it is wonderfully loud and obnoxious.  After this we get a nap, then we head to grandma's.  When we are done at grandma's, Christmas is pretty much over, so we head home for some well-deserved sleep.

Other than work, this is pretty much every Christmas for me for the past few years.  It is a lot of activity and a bit more driving than I'd like, but it is worth it to spend some extra time with my family that I don't see enough.

I hope everyone has a great holiday season.  Drive safe and enjoy your friends, family, and loved ones.  Keep in mind that not everyone can be home for the holidays.  I am thankful for these people as they keep us safe while we are celebrating.  Peace and love, everyone! 

3 days!!

In 3 days, mommy, Bridget and Rebbie will be here!  We have some shopping and baking tentatively planned.  If we make an actual plan it won't work, so we have some ideas at this point.

We have permission to invade Dale's mom's house for the baking.  She has two full kitchens, so we can get through this a little faster.  Her only requirements were that we cleaned up after ourselves and that we leave her some cookies when we leave.  We can do that!

We are also planning on some shopping at Great Lakes Outlets.  They have a Victoria's Secret outlet, so that should be a blast!  We hope to get some Christmas shopping done while they are up here.  It's just so much more fun to go shopping with friends, than all by yourself.

When we go shopping, I'll only be taking a list of people who I would like to get gifts for and when something strikes me as awesome for that person, I'll pick it up.  I'm curious if this is how most people shop or do they plan things out before they head to the store?

I also ordered some postcards from Zazzle with a wintery flair to them.  I'm all excited because I designed these from photos that I've taken!  And with my postcard project I hope to reach a bunch of people.  They should be here next Tuesday, so I can't wait to see how they came out. 

Our first Thanksgiving dinner!

So this morning, when Dale attempted to place a pre-order online for a Boston Market Thanksgiving dinner, our internet went stupid (not surprised) and he couldn't place the order.  So instead he went to Meijer.

He picked up all of the stuff we should need to make our own little dinner.  So tomorrow we'll have some turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn, and possibly even meatloaf!  I'm totally looking forward to it!  

This is the first year that we can't go to either of our parents' dinners.  I work that night, so going to Ohio is out of the question and his mom is out of town hanging with his sister for the holiday.

Now back to cleaning the house in case I decide to invite a couple friends over for our mini-feast!

Thanksgiving

This has been a great year!  So much has been going well in my world this year.  I got two credit cards paid off, Dale started school, and I'm starting to feel my world coming together.

Neither Dale or I have any real plans for Thanksgiving yet, but I have to work that night.  As of right now, our only plans are to stay home and enjoy each other's company for a whole day.  With me working two jobs and Dale having work and school (which is like two jobs) we don't see each other very often. 

I'm actually looking forward to having a holiday without any solid plans!

Cookie list

Looks like it's getting to be that time of year again!  I'm getting my list together for cookies this year.  Usually, I go with about three or four standby recipes and one new one.  Over the years I've had a bunch of great recipes. 

For this year, I'm planning the following list:
Chocolate chip (duh)
Sugar (the soft ones)
Peanut Butter (some with jelly, too!)
Ginger

Not sure if I want to do one more.  This year it turns out that I'll have some help baking but I think fewer recipes with more quantity may be the trick.  Opinions?

One down!

Remember when I said my New Year's resolution was to pay off a specific credit card?  Yeah, I already have that done.  I'm totally proud of myself for having it all paid off two months early!

Now I still have two cards that carry a balance.  The lower balance one I can have paid off by the end of the year.  That would be two cards paid off instead of just one!  The other cards is going to be quite a bit trickier.

Keep in mind that I allowed myself until the end of 2013 to have all three paid off... But I like a challenge.  Now with Dale in school, it's a bit harder because I try to pay more when rent comes around so he can make his bills.  But I'm still going to work my butt off to get this last one paid off as soon as possible.

If I run things REALLY tight in 2012, I can do it.  That would be very nice.  But, honestly, I will be quite happy if I can get this paid off and some saving built up before Dale finished school.  Yes, I'm a dreamer and a planner.  No, my plans don't often work out.  But hard work and scrimping has gotten me this far, and I will continue with it for a while longer.

P.S. I found out from a 'class' at my local library that for your credit score, when the bureaus look at credit cards, they look at "available credit"  vs. "balance" and if your balance is more than half the total available credit, it drops your score significantly.  I found it to be good info, and I hope it helps.

Postcards Project expanding

My postcard project is slowly starting to expand a little further.  I am now starting to send postcards to family and friends as well as my forums people!  
A few weeks ago I added my aunt who had been in the hospital to the list as well as my grandma who loves to travel.  Just today I added three more people!  Now the list also includes a friend of mine from high school who is in the Navy and scheduled to go to Tokyo in a few months, my sister who I don't see very often, and my niece!

I'm totally excited to see this grow.  I was previously worried that I wouldn't be able to keep myself motivated on this project, but I have found that getting a postcard in my mailbox once in a while keeps me interested in keeping this going.

I'm such a dork...

I'm totally excited to make this slow cooker pot roast recipe I found on an A1 bottle!

I'm planning to make it on Monday.  I'll start it in the morning then soak up the smells in the apartment all day until it's ready for dinner.  I even invited a couple friends over to share the wealth.  (The recipe makes 8 servings!!)  I'll let you know how it goes... I'm totally psyched!