Meeting my goals?

Well, I can quickly see that I'm only reaching about 50% of my goals. I guess I shouldn't be too hard on myself... We did have a date night last Friday, I am back at the gym, so sore last week I could hardly walk, and just from taking a "little bit" of time off! We are eating pretty good. I think we have only ate out 2x this month and one of them was our date night with some friends. I have been reading my Bible and also another uplifting book. I have cleaned out some cabinets and closets and gave a bunch of stuff away. I haven't done any scrapbook layouts, nor blogged wkly (this is at 2wks) and Josh and I haven't went anywhere alone yet. I'm sure he'll pick ChuckECheese or something. Oh, wait a minute, I did take him there this month: Can it count when we both have friends with us?? That wasn't really what I had in mind!

Josh in the Top 5 in State!

I'm surfing the net instead of working... Thought I'd just blog a quick note. The new year is starting off good. I'm focusing on my goals, I put them on the refrigerator for all to see. I'm sore from working out again, that's a good thing.
I've planned mostly healthy meals for the next 10 days. I need to come up with a different kind of breakfast. I'm a cereal eater and that's not really a good thing.
Christmas decor is almost all out of the house, and I cleaned real good the other day. I sorted & bagged up 2 trash bags out of Josh's room when he went back to school. He hasn't even noticed anything gone. I gave it all away on FreeCycle.com
On a brag note; Josh got a letter from the PKC(Professional Karate Commission) that he placed in the Top 5 in the State in 3 categories! He is 2nd in Chanbara(padded sword fighting), 3rd in Kata(forms), & 5th in Kumite(sparring). We are so proud of him. There will be a banquet to receive his awards in Feb.
We have had awesome weather for the beginning of Jan 2008, unseasonably warm, rain instead of snow. That's OK with me.
I was able to scrapbook all last Saturday and looks like I'll be doing it a couple more times in the next month or so. I love these breaks from routine to craft and look at pics. That reminds me, I need to download Christmas pics still.

Goals

Happy New Year! Of course, I want to make some goals for myself, so here it goes...
(Not necessarily in any order)

Continue to place my trust and faith where it belongs - God
Accept myself, forgive myself, and get back up whenever I fall down
Show love and respect to people, even(no especially) those I find it difficult to love (I'm a bit afraid this one will be like praying for patience)
To post a blog weekly
To do a 2 pg scrapbook layout weekly
To read my bible or at least a Spirit filled book daily
To exercise at least 3 x weekly
To eat healthier & lose weight (I have a number in my head, but seriously, any amount will help!)
To have a date night 2 x a month with hubby and 2 x a month with son

Choices

Busy, Busy. I find myself without enough time to relax with my family. I don't like it. I've been thinking about what choices I make each day, and what I could change or improve on to give me more quality time with Josh, Rusty, my Mom...
I'm looking forward to Christmas break when we will have more time together.
I read a great quote yesterday that sums up how I feel right now, “As we consider various choices, we should remember that it is not enough that something is good. Other choices are better and still others are best. Even though a particular choice is more costly, its far greater value may make it the best choice of all.” (Dallin H. Oaks)

What am I doing with my time?

Well, I haven't posted for a while. Does that mean nothing has been going on? Or does that mean that too much is going on?! Probably a little of both. Nothing EXCITING I guess, just daily life. I try to do so many things, and sometimes end up getting nothing done. Why do I do that to myself? Attached is a new cool picture of Josh that my good friend Robyn took. She has really blossomed into a talented photographer. She has even suffered through tutoring me a bit on Photoshop.
I am getting started on my Christmas shopping (online) and have tackled a music downloading project today so that Rusty can have a fully loaded MP3 player for a present. As I am too tight to pay for online downloads, I have to pull all the CDs that he may want, download them into my computer and eventually "Sync" them up to the phone/MP3 player. I can do it, I can do it!! Just something else that takes TIME.
You'd think I have plenty. My son is in school all day now (35 hrs/wk), I only "work" about 15 hrs a wk, what am I doing with the other 20 hrs of my week days?? Let's see, gym time= 5 hrs, shower time= 5 hrs, groceries and misc shopping=3 hrs, email, bill paying, mail, blogging,surfing the net= 8 hrs, laundry & dishes= 5 hrs, housecleaning (ha)=2 hrs, cooking prep for dinner= 2 hrs, phone calls= 3 hrs...Wait a minute! That adds up to 33 hrs + 15 for my job (48 hrs in a 35 hr week. This is a great example of how I try to fit too much into my days. This has also been educational to me to sit down and itemize this. I clearly see that I need to QUIT the gym, QUIT showering, and QUIT housecleaning and laundry ;)

Old friends, still friends

A few weeks ago we were eating at Texas Roadhouse after church. I looked across the room and saw Tammie who is a friend from Peru that I've lost touch with as I forgot her newly married last name. It pleased my heart to see her & I hurried over to give her my email & phone number. We have since caught up on each others lives and I hope we will stay in touch from this point forward. We have a long history together with a lot of similarities and again at this point in our lives, we have both changed a lot but still have a lot in common.
Then on Friday night, I received a phone call that said Private caller...the lady on the other end played Guess Who with me. It took me a minute but after hearing her voice say a couple sentences I knew it was Kristi. Once again, my heart was so pleased. I have missed Kristi so much. She has been through a lot and I only had an email address but haven't used it. I regret that. She called me as she has lost a couple people recently and she is thinking of old friends too. We talked for almost 4 hours!!! I think we are pretty much caught up and now we can stay in touch and get together and live our lives in the present. I am so happy for her, to hear how she has recovered from some issues in her past. I have and always will consider her a dear friend.
The only sad part of re-connecting with these 2 gals is that it appears that my bestest friend from these days, whom both Tammie & Kristi remember as us being inseperable, has cut me out of her life and I don't even know why. Krisit got my number from Hope and she gave her the last number she had for me and just said that she hasn't talked to me in years. Like it was no big deal. I have sent her several cards over the last few years. I don't have an accurate email or phone number for her. Sometimes I think about just showing up at her door. I can't figure it out. I know that we live different lives now, I'm a mom of a 6 yr old and her son is in the military now. But I thought we had a friendship that would last a lifetime. It really breaks my heart. So, this re-connection is kinda bittersweet as it re-surfaces this open wound between us that I don't know how it got there. I just pray that through all this, possibly I will be able to reconnect with Hope also.

Selfish? Nah!

Well,some may say it is selfish to do what you want, when you want...And I just have to say that it feels good to do that sometimes! I have spent the last 2 weekends and a 1 weeknight ( at a Stampin Up party) scrapbooking and stamping & I loved it!!
I feel pretty good about my progress. Someday I'll try to post some page layouts or cards. Both of the crops I've went to have been totally awesome, the best I've ever been to. We made paper bag books & tag books out of a file folder & some other stuff at the first crop I went to. It was in Greentown, to benefit the Childrens Library. This last crop was a 24 hr crop. I went home and slept from 2:30 am to 7am. It was sponsored by a Stampin Up rep, Tiffany. I didn't know it till I got there, but she brought ALL her current stamps for us to use, in addition to her inks & punches. This may not seem like much to someone not in the Craft, but WOW! I was in heaven. She also gave us tons of product for our sign up fee, provided 3 great meals, and had doorprizes. I met all new people at both crops, as my regular batch of croppers did not choose to go to either of these.

This morning at breakfast, I commented on how we had been apart this weekend but all did something that we enjoyed. I was at the crop from 6pm on Friday till 6pm on Saturday. Rusty went to another Martial arts seminar, this time in Indy & free. Josh spent Friday night w/Gramma Karyn and went to a Civil War re-enactment on Saturday in Hartford City. He highly admires Abe Lincoln and he got to shake hands with "him"!! It was a great weekend all around. And today we were able to relax together and get ready for the week ahead.

In the end, I don't think it was selfish at all, as time away from each other allows us to treasure our times together better.

"Rainbow Sugar"

I just had to write this down so I won't forget in a few months! I picked Joshua up from Kindergarten Monday and told him I needed to go to the store for some sinus medicine because I have a cold w/ a bad headache. Not showing any empathy towards my ailment he quickly said, "Can we get some rainbow sugar?" I said "What?" He says it again as serious as the first time he said it. So I asked if it was mult-colored sugar or what. He said they had it for dessert at school. Then it hit me, Rainbow Sherbert??? I said that & he goes "yes, yes, that's it".
So he has discovered a new treat that he likes. I actually like sherbert myself but Rusty doesn't care for it so I haven't bought it except for making birthday punches. So I bought him some Rainbow Sugar and we enjoyed a couple scoops when we got home (only 1 g of fat!).

Smell the fresh air!

I absolutely LOVE fall. I know it's not really here yet, but some leaves in my backyard are changing already. I have all the doors and windows open on this cool crisp Saturday morning. It's almost cold in here, but I don't care. I love the smell of fresh air. Smells much better than DOG!
We are going to do some yard work today and probably go to the park after Rusty gets home from work. At least as of now, it appears the UAW won't be on strike -YET. I know this contract time causes him a lot of stress. And he is working so much O.T. to put $$ in the bank for "just in case". I think he'd be less stressed if he wasn't working so much. At least he will be off in a few weeks for a whole week. And we don't really have anything planned, once he returns from Tampa (karate conference).
Joshua is doing wonderful. I am amazed everyday by the maturity he has shown since starting Kindergarten. I think part of the improvement is me & him not being together 24/7 also. He is reading everything he can. He loves NonFiction(true stories) books. He is very interested in History related books right now. One of the kids in class this week, (when I filled in for the teacher for an hour) told me 2 things that made me feel really good; 1. I can't believe Josh can read everything he sees. 2. He also said when I was leaving, "I wish you were my Mom". WOW, what a compliment !!

Blog- Where did that word come from?

I was lurking at my friend Robyn's blog and decided to just go ahead & click that little link to Create a blog for myself. I don't know how current I will stay with this but I'm going to give it a weekly shot. It will be a nice way for friends & family that are out of town to read about our "goings on"
I wonder who came up the online journal being named "blog"?? I think I'll have to Google it and do a little research! That's another way to keep me from doing my paying computer work! I am guilty of doing "research" on a regular basis. It may have to do with a question Joshua asks me, like this mornings..."Do our eyes grow bigger as we grow?" I said No at first but then realized that adult eyes do appear bigger than a childs eyes. So, I'll have to research that, for the education of my son, of course! And many times I'm surfing the Scrapbook sites. I think I spend more money and time thinking about scrapbooking than I actually spend actually doing it. I don't think I'm the only one in that boat though.
I will hopefully be posting my ongoing weight loss on this blog. I joined a gym when Joshua started Kindergarten and have been exercising around 4-5 hrs a week more than I used to: which was 0 hrs! It has been almost 4 wks since I joined and I have lost 3 lbs. I am trying my best to eat rabbit food- salad for lunch. And we are leaving the carbs out of our dinners. I am feeling pretty good so far. Would love to lose 5lbs a month. " Lord, I pray you remind me with that small still voice when I am tempted to eat wrong"

"Rest in peace 9/11 victims." We will never forget.