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 :)

More Progress and My Week

• My career path is all over the place this week. We learned that our school that I currently work at may lose their busing services because currently we get our busing through the city where the school is located. They apparently are like 2 million in the whole and so they are looking at cutting busing to chart.er schools. This would cut our student population in 1/2 which means that our school would lose a ton of money and probably staff member jobs would be cut at some point. In addition to that craziness, the job I interviewed at before Chri.stmas just called me back yesterday and offered me the position. I hadn't heard from them so I just figured that it was not going to happen so that's weird. They won't budge on the pay so I think I'm going to turn it down because I can't take that huge of a pay cut. I've been thinking more about programs I could begin and R suggested maybe looking into MB.A. programs because they have great placement programs when you finish. I'm really tired of working with kids.
  
• I left work Monday-Wednesday right at 4pm and it made this week so much more bearable because I did have time to recharge and I actually felt ready for the next day.
  
• We had a sit down dinner 5 nights this week so that was HUGE progress! It's really hard when I have to work late or when R has a meeting. We are doing pretty well though!
  
• I cooked 3 times so far this week and have plans to cook tonight so that has been awesome!!!!!!!
  
• I didn't do so great on this this week. I only tutored one hour and then I forgot part of my time last night :( I also forgot to have R schedule tutor hours for me for next week :( This will be a work in progress and I hope to be able to continue to work hard on this over the next year!
  
• I only worked out 3 times this week due to working late or R having meetings. I need to definitely carve out more time to work out and begin a workout plan.
  
• I suppose I could have a new job by next week if I took this position I was offered but unfortunately I can't survive on even less money than I'm making now. I'm sure this is going to happen though because my school could in fact be laying people off.
  
• I have time today set aside to read and I've read a little before bed a couple nights this week. I'm really hoping this book I am reading gets super interesting, super quick!
• I worked on my training program and marked the date of the marathon on my calendar!

So in addition to everything that's been going on Little man had strep throat again this week and I had to take him back to the dr. He put him on a new medicine at my request so hopefully it takes care of it once and for all. In addition, he has a sleep study tonight at 9pm to see if his enlarged tonsils are affecting his sleep and if he needs to have them removed.

R and I sent a letter to a little cafe in town that is up for sale. We offered to take the cafe over for the woman and have a rent to own situation for awhile until we can buy it outright. It's a great little place and we both have a love for food and it's always been a dream to run our own restaurant. We were looking at that for our retirement but the opportunity arose sooner so we decided to jump on it! We'll see if anything comes out of it and I'll keep you posted.

I had a really bad end to the week at school yesterday so I'm so glad it's the weekend! I had two kids verbally fighting, screaming across the classroom. Another student throw a toy at another child, tip over a desk and throw a tub of books, another child have to be physically pulled out of my classroom by two staff members due to the fact that he wouldn't move and was blurting inappropriate comments, and another child get called to the office and yelled at about a cell phone and then sent back to class crying. This all happened in the first 15 minutes of my day from 8-8:15am.

Progress

• I've done a lot of research on Ph.D. programs since the New Year. I'm sifting through many options and still in the exploratory phase.
  
• I have left work by 4pm everyday so far this week and I'm LOVING it! I feel like I have all the time in the world. My nights seem to last forever and I feel WAY more productive at work :)
  
• We have had a sit down dinners every night this week and I've planned the meals for the week and did my shopping on Sunday so we're not scrambling around trying to "figure out" what to have.
  
• I cooked dinner Sunday and look forward to making a couple more meals this week :)
  
• I scheduled 5 hours of tutoring this week and paid cash for groceries, my Tar.get purchase, along with gas. I can't wait to earn more money and pay down my debt!
  
• I ran 2 miles and walked a mile last night. I will be working out every day for the rest of the week!
  
• My sister in law found a job opportunity for me last night and I applied last night.
  
• I am in the process of reading my book club book but I'm not crazy about it, at what point do I abandon it and move on. I think I need to give it a chance and try to get "into" it.
• I am going to plan my training calendar this week.

Here's to a great New Year!

Resolutions

I think I have skipped this post for a couple years. After the year I've had I feel that it's fitting to write down some resolutions. I have come to the conclusion that I'm the only one who can control my destiny. I'm tired of just being in the back seat of my own life and letting others dictate what's happening in my life. Here are some of my resolutions for the upcoming year:

• 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.
  
• 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.
  
• 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.
  
• 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!
  
• 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!
  
• 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.
  
• 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.
  
• 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.
  
• Run a full marathon. I'm thinking the Charle.voix marathon since I ran the 1/2 last year and it was awesome.

I know this is very lofty but I need to set my goals high and work to achieve something big and bold this year because 2010 was not my favorite! Yay, for a new year!

What a Smashing Night!

So my friend came over last night, who I haven't seen since October of 2006. She is getting married on March 29th so she had lots of fun wedding plans to share with me. I'm now seriously thinking about revising my resolutions because my lovely husband smashed into her car. I still can't believe this happened! He's not used to having someone in the driveway and he usually centers his car in the garage since we only have one car so all those added up into two smashed cars. My friend has had so many car accidents that she took this one rather well but again was she going to be a bitch, probably not, under the circumstances? I felt terrible and still do. We don't have the money for this and we certainly can't afford our insurance rates to go up. I didn't sleep well at all last night because I'm trying to figure out a way to make some money and contribute to our family in case my husband's second job ends. It's temporary so we never know when it's going to end. We have money in savings but I don't want to use it now when we actually have him working two jobs just in case we might need it more when he doesn't have the second job. It's always something, I swear! For all the times things have worked out for us, we've had double the amount of things not work out.

R took Little man to return something so I have the place to myself, and it's actually clean since I went into a cleaning frenzy last night since my friend was coming. I'm going to be taking a walk soon and hoping that helps my mood. I hate when things like this happen because it sends me into worrying about money mode and life is no longer fun. I did call my district office and got information about substitute teaching. I have to send an e-mail on Monday to get more information and set up an appointment. You have to interview with the superintendent of the the schools before subbing because he likes to know who's going to be in the buildings. They pay pretty good $89.60 per day but then I don't really end up making that much because daycare for Little man for 1 day costs $40. There's a shortage of subs though so hopefully I'll be able to get some jobs. My mom also offered to come for days so I could sub in which case that would be free for childcare.

September 2nd and Delurking

That's my due date. Not that it will happen but that's exactly 3 1/2 years since I had Little man, so it would be cool to have him or her on that day. Little man was born on March 2nd. I've been really tired lately and luckily Little man has been sleeping in with me in the morning. He will usually climb into bed with me somewhere between 6:30 and 7:30 and then we'll fall back asleep until 8:30 or 9, it's been heaven! Until this morning when we didn't want to doze back to to sleep and woke up at 7am wanting breakfast, we are both so tired right now.

So I'm a little late with the delurking day, but if you read the blog, I have no idea how to check, let me know you are out there. I have links to many blogs I read and I'm getting quite the list, compared to when I started out, so if you read and I don't have you, let me know. I would love to receive more comments. I'm trying to get better about commenting on other people's blogs so hopefully that will help.

I've been doing pretty good with my resolutions. I have a girlfriend from college coming over tonight. She's getting married in March so she's going to share all the details and stuff with me over snacks and munchies from Whol.e Foods! YUM!!! Can I just say that I have the best husband in the world because he's actually the one going to Whol.e Foods to pick up the snacks since I don't have a car and it's by his work. Yoga has been a bit difficult because I tutor at night so I haven't been able to do that as much as I would have liked. I'm going to have to revise that resolution and figure out a time that will work to fit that in more. I've been walking but the weather has been weird this week. It was like near 60 degrees at the beginning of the week but we've been getting some terrible rain storms, and now it's just rainy and cold. Hopefully the weather will get more stable or at least not rain so I can walk more. I actually don't mind snow and cold because I have all the cold weather gear. I'll be updating some more about my resolutions later on this month. Hope everyone has had a nice week!

Well the Bad Continues

The pipe hubby glued ended up holding but now the other one is shooting out water (there are two going to the water softener) so hubby got sprayed this morning with ice cold water. Luckily last night we went to H.ome De.pot and bought a wet/dry shop vac, which I put together myself and used to suck up all the water. We're concerned that it's something more serious so we're just going to go the plumber route and hopefully we can get some quotes from different companies and it won't be too much! Oh and that wonderful garbage can that I placed to catch all the dripping water just so happened to have a leak in the bottom, fabulous!

My other issue is that I actually called my best friend yesterday and she asked if her and Baby V could come down today and maybe we could go get lunch and hang out (which would totally count for my girlfriend time 2-3 times per month so I was excited that I was keeping to my resolutions so well), but now all this is going on! I think I'm still going to have her come because I don't want to complain too much about this since it was her and her gracious husband that let us live in this house for free while we were in the process of buying it. I feel like I don't want to make her feel bad because something happened to the house they sold us, when in all reality there is nothing they could have known about, it is just an unfortunate event.

This all leads to the reason that I'm up at 6:20am this morning when all week I've had the luxury of sleeping in. I need to get the house looking somewhat presentable. R got the crib so that's in the middle of the entry way and needs to be moved. I have some plastering to do in Little Man's room, luckily my mom offered to keep him until Sunday so we would have all tomorrow to work and get stuff done. There are tons of Christmas decorations that still need to be put away, and the tree still needs taken out. I'll be working on putting the decorations away and R will get the tree out tonight or tomorrow. Oh and I'm in charge of calling plumbers using a wonderful script that my husband will be e-mailing me shortly because I refuse to be one of those girls that calls up a repairman and has no idea what I'm talking about. I hate going in car places for that same reason, even though, I know more about cars that most girls. Well and now I know more about water and pipes that most girls probably care to know too.

One more quick point.......can I just say that I don't know how single woman live in houses and do this by themselves? I would be scared to death of something going wrong and then if something did go wrong I would have no idea how to fix it. I give them a lot of credit and admire them a great deal! Well I'm off to shower so I can get a great deal accomplished today!

The Year Everything Worked Out

This was the motto my husband came up with on New Year's day 2007. Boy was he right!!! 2007 was the year that everything worked out. We quit our jobs, safely moved back to MI, he was able to keep his job he had in Miami, lived with my parents rent free for 5 months and had help with Little man, R found a job that has turned out to be great so far, bought our first house, and ended the year pregnant with baby #2. What more could anyone ask for?

So this year, 2008, he has deemed the year of industry. We are going to be industrious and have a fulfilling and productive year. We are taking wonderful care of our bodies and exercising everyday. He's scheduled multiple 5K races starting in May and hopes to get his time down under 19 minutes. (which is completely possible because he had a 22 minute this year) We found an awesome weight set on Craigslist for an AWESOME price. We've been doing Namaste Yoga everyday and it's wonderful. I love FitTV! He asked me this morning (jokingly) what I was doing so far this year to be industrious and I laughed and told him that I was growing a baby inside my uterus. He definitely agreed that was industrious, lol.


I just found a crib on Craigslist that just so happens to match the the changing table we already have for a wonderful price. R is picking it up tonight. I'm finally getting the hang of the stay at home mom thing and prioritizing the tasks. I think it just took me a long time to get used to the idea of being a stay at home mom. I have a lot to do today because Little man has been with my parents all week so I could get Christmas packed away and get his room finished. We just need to sand and finish painting. The guy who we bought the house from had attempted indirect lighting with crown molding and he didn't really know what he was doing. We finally decided after R tried to fix and finish it that it would be better to just take it down. So we have like 6 inches at the top of the wall that needed to be painted and a lot of patching from all the nail holes. Little man is returning on Saturday so we hope to have it done by the time he gets home. It's going to be time to start thinking about the nursery before we know it! I'm not really looking forward to that because it means we will be losing our office :o( We eventually want to finish the basement but not sure if we'll be able to do that in the near future.

I hope everyone has had a wonderful 2008 so far and good luck to everyone with resolutions that they are going well! I'm happy with mine so far and am continuing to work towards my goals!