Another tick on the to-do list!

So for my trip trip to Bermuda, I have a few goals I would like to reach.  Of course I have to save up the money.  For that, I've been working tons of hours at another store and totally running my butt off.  But it's paying off so far, literally.  Heck, my last paycheck for two weeks was what I would normally make in three weeks!

But the other thing I'm working on is getting in shape, watching what I eat, and overall losing weight.  I have taken a few steps toward that one already.  I signed up for SparkPeople, which is an online community for losing weight.  The website helps you track what you eat in a day, how much exercise you get in a day and a whole bunch of other helpful tools.  I've actually been keeping up with it pretty well.  I've found that I eat too many carbs, but I'm totally not surprised by that.  I love carbs.

Also, today Dale and I went and got me an AbCircle Pro.  It's one of those things you see on TV, but it's pretty neat so far.  As long as you keep yourself away from just using momentum, it seems like it will be a useful tool.  And it's so much quieter than I thought it would be!  I can totally use this while watching TV.  And right now it's in the middle of my living room, so it's easily accessible.

Looks like this cruise is an awesome motivator for me so far!

Bermuda!

So my sister has convinced me to go with her and our grandparents on a Bermuda cruise.  In October we will be going on our first cruise!  We are both currently working on getting our passports.  Hers is already in the works.  I still need to get my birth certificate, so mine will take a little longer.  But at this rate, we will both have passports before our trip.

I might even be able to warm mine up by flying around on one of our trips that goes out of the US.  I'm almost as excited about getting my passport as I am about the cruise!  I've never been on a cruise ship and this one look huge.  We will have a bit of time to hang out and explore the area while we are there and I will make a valiant effort to fill my 16GB memory card on my camera. 

I can't wait.  259 days!

Pull- apart bread

This just totally made the list of thing to make SOON!  I even already have all the ingredients except for the yeast.

http://www.joythebaker.com/blog/2011/03/cinnamon-sugar-pull-apart-bread/

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?