I'm Back!!!!!!!
I am finally getting around to posting my progress from the last year on the resolutions that I made for 2011 :) and hopefully begin blogging more as I share my resolutions for this new year!

Progress from 2011

• Take the G.RE and decide on a PhD program, possibly begin my program this fall. It has always been my dream to get my Ph.D and pursue a career in higher education teaching college. I am going to study, take and hopefully score well on my G.RE this year. I have begun researching what field I would like to get my Ph.D in but I need to finalize my decision and start the process to apply. With all the changes this year in my job I did not complete this resolution but it's still in the fore front of my mind and it will happen someday, just not in the near future.
  
• Leave work at 4pm at least 3 days per week so that I can get home at a reasonable hour and spend time with my family. I work far too hard too hard for how much they value me at work so I need to make it a priority to get as much done throughout the day as I can so I can leave work at 4pm and not waste time there.- Quit that crappy job and took a new one, got laid off from the new job, and got another new job that is by far the dream job. I leave work everyday at 4:30 because those are my hours and in case I didn't make it clear enough, I LOVE MY JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  
• Have a sit down family dinner at least 6 nights per week. This is extremely important to me because I know it's so very important to having a healthy family that communicates and shares their days with each other.- We have been sitting down most nights for family dinner and it's been great! I am not sure if it's averaged out to 6 nights per week but we've had some wonderful dinner time memories over the past year!
  
• Cook dinner 3-4 times per week leaving the rest of the nights to my wonderful husband. I love to cook and with everything going on this past year the job of cooking has flown out the window and it makes me sad because I love it and lately it's seemed more like a chore. I want to get that love of cooking back this year!-I cooked a lot more this year but I hope to increase it to more this upcoming year. I would love to tackle more of Rach.ael Ra.y's 30 minut.e mea.ls :)
  
• Reduce my credit card debt by 50% this year. I will have to online tutor at night and sell things that are unnecessary to daily life but I'm going to vow to find a way to reduce my debt this year!- After taking a new job and working part time along with subbing, then getting laid off this did not happen. It's going to be a continuous goal for quite a few more years.
  
• Run and workout at least 5 days per week. Even if it's just a walk around the neighborhood I want to stay active to help reduce stress and improve my health.- I have been working out a great deal and I think that I pretty much fulfilled this resolution on the average :)
  
• Find a new job by the end of 2011. I want to find a position that will value my talent and be happy that I'm a part of their workplace.- YAY!!!!! I did this :) Not only did I find one new job in 2011.....I found TWO!!!!!! I am valued for my talent and incredibly happy right now!
  
• Read at least 24 books this year. I am part of a book club but I really need to carve out time to read each day so that I can meet this goal- I am not sure how many books I read because I didn't keep track... whoops! I read a great deal but I'm not sure if I hit that 24 book amount.
  
• Run a full marathon. I'm thinking the Charle.voix marathon since I ran the 1/2 last year and it was awesome.- I trained for another 1/2 but got sick and also didn't have the money to run it but this will be on my list this year!

So here goes nothing.........The New List for 2012!!!!!!

• Run a full marathon-My husband and I are going to sign up for a full at the end of June and we have begun our pre training :)
• Read 52 books this year- I love reading and I received gift cards for ebooks for Christmas so I am going to get started on this goal. I am not going to say a book a week because I just want it to be an average. I am also going to keep a running list so that I can actually keep track of how many books I read.
  
• Reduce credit card debt-it's a continuous struggle with unexpected life events but I took on another job and will still online tutor to try to work on reducing the debt and saving for the future!
• Drink 8 glasses of water per day-I don't drink nearly enough water and I feel parched on my most days because of it. My skin, hair and nails are in rough shape and I know my body needs the water!
• Stop biting my nails- Now that I am in a professional job I want my hands to look nice. Due to not drinking enough water and constantly chewing my fingers my hands look terrible. I am going to really try to take care of my nails and cuticles so that I have healthy hands in 2012!!!
• Have more sex- It's true......I need to have that sexual connection with my husband more because our relationship needs that intimacy. It's our 7th year of marriage and damn if I am going to go through that 7 year itch!!

This is the list for now.....we'll see if I need to add anything in the next couple of days :)

Resolution Progress

• Take the G.RE and decide on a PhD program, possibly begin my program this fall. I have still been exploring programs and talking with people. I'm really up in the air about this and will begin looking at GR.E prep sites soon.
  
• Leave work at 4pm at least 3 days per week so that I can get home at a reasonable hour and spend time with my family. I have been pretty good at doing this but last week was worse because we had a late staff meeting and stuff come up so when things pop up it's hard to get out of there on time. Though I have been much better and I've been getting their later too.
  
• Have a sit down family dinner at least 6 nights per week. We have been having a lot more sit down dinners and that has been so nice, though when R or I have meetings at night it gets more difficult.
  
• Cook dinner 3-4 times per week leaving the rest of the nights to my wonderful husband. I have cooked so much since the new year! I made a BBQ chicken pizza that was SOOOO good. I've made some old favorite recipes but I'm definitely cooking more that I had been.
  
• Reduce my credit card debt by 50% this year. This hasn't been going great because of the fact that we just don't have enough money for our monthly bills and I have not been able to get tutor hours. R has to get them for me because I can log on at 12pm on Thursdays. I'm at work and you literally have to get right on at 12pm and they are gone at like 12:01pm. I'm going to look into other ways to make money or start finding things on Craisli.st to sell. I am applying for jobs this weekend in hopes that I can find something that pays better!
  
• Run and workout at least 5 days per week. I have done this this week! I worked out everyday since last Sunday.
  
• Read at least 24 books this year. I haven't done very well with this. I think it's partly because I end up surfing the net or doing other stuff with my free time. I need to get more dedicated with reading!
  
• Run a full marathon. I made my training program and marked the race day on my calendar.
  

So far I'm doing pretty good and just need to carve out more time for reading and couponing so I can save more money on groceries! I also need to find more time to tutor!