March 2013 Check-In

Hello friends.  So, you remember that blogging more thing?  Oops.  I had a surprisingly busy February, despite work being slow.  So, yup, slightly failing.  Moving on.

1.  Travel to at least four new states.  I did make it to Vegas last month, more on that later.  Steph and I also have tickets to see Luke Bryan at Cheyenne Frontier Days in July.

2.  Get my first apartment.  I should be moving in sometime in the next week.  Just waiting to hear from them on the official date.

3.  Get my first car.  Boom.  Done.

8.  Go gambling and win.  I went gambling and lost.  But only twenty dollars.  Pretty good accomplishment, I’d say.

16.  Pick up something active.  I’ve signed up for one relay (in April) and one 5K (in July).  Still working on the Couch to 5K app, though not as well as I had been.

17.  Track monthly/weekly spending.  I’m tracking said spending.  Keeping on top of it, again, not going so well.  Making rent this month has been slightly terrifying.

18.  Create and maintain a budget.  I’ve tweaked a bit of the budget.  I guess part of maintaining a budget is adjusting it as necessary.

19.  Create and maintain an exercise plan.  I’ve created my cardio routine, now I just have to settle into the rest of the things.

21.  Try a new Pinterest recipe every two weeks.  I have a couple of recipes I’ve tried that I would like to share soon.

22.  Try a new Pinterest craft every two weeks.  I have a t-shirt project I’d like to share.  It’s not from Pinterest, but it is pretty exciting.

23.  Get extra organized.  February was little things month.  March is packing month and once I get into the new place, I can start organizing from scratch the way I like.

26.  Create and maintain traditions.  The Arizona game attendance tradition was continued.  Also Dustin Lynch.

How about everyone else’s February?

Getting Organized by Starting Small

So I promised I would post more, and here is a new post about one of my goals this year, getting super organized in general.  I do have a fairly organized planner, closet, and so forth.  But even the tiniest things can be an utter mess.

Namely, my pinterest boards.

The boards themselves are doing pretty well, but my method to organize them is a bit lengthy.  Ninety percent of the time, I go over the new pins in my feed while I’m commuting to work on the train.  Double checking that the pin goes to a good link, that the recipes are actually things I could cook, if the full article is actually useful to me, and so on can be a bit time-consuming on a cell phone screen.  So I usually just “like” the pin so that I can go back to it later.

Therein lies the problem.

Eight hundred and ninety-five problems to be exact.  Though just yesterday, I sorted out maybe one hundred fifty of them, and about a week ago, I sorted through maybe one hundred.  These things take time, or at least a lot of free time.

I have the same problem with my email.  I’ll open what I want and then just let the rest sit there.  And even once I open things, I rarely discard them.  So my emails sit quietly constantly filling up.  It’s all a big mess, really.

So, I’ve decided to make February’s goal to organize the little things.  And this helps me organize for more of my goals too.

By organizing my pinterest boards, I’ll have a full view of all my crafts, recipes, and exercise and cleaning ideas.  Then I can work on my twice a month pinterest crafts/recipes as well as my exercise and cleaning plans.

All a win/win, right?  Plus organizing the small things can implement the motivation for bigger things, like really working on that budget or keeping a clothing inventory.

Do any of you have ideas on getting organized by starting small?  What organizing projects have you tackled so far this year?

February 2013 Check-In

Hi friends!  I know one of my goals this year was to blog more and then I left you all hanging for a month, I apologize.  Now that the football season is over, work should be much calmer.  In the meantime, though, let’s look at what has been happening in the past month.

1.  Travel to at least four new states.  Vegas in twelve days!  So excited!

2.  Get my first apartment.  I just have to go back and pick up my paperwork, should be moving in March.

16.  Pick up something active.  I started the Couch to 5K program.  Barely started, but started.

17.  Track monthly/weekly spending.  I’ve been pretty good about keeping track of my spending, keeping on top of it is another matter, unfortunately.

18.  Create and maintain a budget.  I’ve created a budget.  Let’s see how the maintaining goes.

19.  Create and maintain an exercise plan.  I started running.  That’s what I’ve got so far.

21.  Try a new Pinterest recipe every two weeks.  More on this later.

26.  Create and maintain traditions.  The Stock Show was our January tradition.

How did everyone else’s January go?

Happy New Year and the 26 Before 26!

Happy New Year, folks!  I know it’s been a while, but it seems every year there wouldn’t be some thing that comes up at the end of the year… every year.

Last year, I wrote this list on my phone while riding the Pacific Coastliner after Allie’s wedding.  This year I took a day to rest up after my extremely long and sticky New Year’s Eve at work.  But now here we are on the second and a new start to the new year.  Last year saw many things happen, change, and not change all at once.  But it’s a new year, and subsequently, time for a newish list.

 

1.  Travel to at least four new states.  This is a continual hold-over, but even though I have yet to get to four new states in a year, I have been able to travel more than before.  Last year I went to Pennsylvania and New York again.  I also made it to Texas for the first time ever.  This year, a flight is already booked for Vegas in February as well as a few other potential trips planned.  We’ll see what happens this year.

2.  Get my first apartment.  This is still a hold-over, but last year I managed to get on the waiting list for a good apartment and now it’s just a matter of playing the waiting game.

3.  Get my first car.  Still a hold-over, but should be coming come March.  Just waiting.

4.  Take up tennis seriously.  I had plans this summer at camp, but this year my plans may have to be a bit different.  I think I may take lessons.

5.  Finish engineering bingo.  Every year I put this back on the list and still fall one short.  I’m not sure if I want to keep it on the list, but it’s here for now.

6.  Ride a horse.  This year it will happen.  It gets harder with Larissa moving, but I imagine we’ll get this  done.

7.  Get back into dance.  I still want to do this.  Bree and I have talked about starting Zumba together.  So there’s a start.

8.  Go gambling and win.  February.  It’s happening.  Gotta allocate a tiny bit of money for that.

9.  Be a model.  The other Deidree and I talked about doing a pin-up shoot.  Sounds fun.

10.  Host a dinner party.  I still want to host a dinner party, or any sort of party.  It will come.  I have ideas for that.

11.  Complete NaNoWriMo.  Last year I had no inspiration.  This year I will put more effort into starting the planning in October instead of getting to November and throwing my hands up.

12.  Try skiing again.  I really need to work on this to get it off my list.  It will be good.

13.  Career applicable volunteering.  I bought a gift for a Polish orphan last year and it made me smile so much.  I want to get back to working with kids, especially with the void of camp.

14.  Get more involved in Greek life.  I think I want to start volunteering with the fraternity in a bigger capacity.

15.  Go to a road game the alma mater wins.  It will happen this year!  I believe in the alma mater’s prospects.

16.  Pick up something active.  Maybe run more than one 5K every three months.  If I continue with that plan, February is coming up, though.

17.  Track monthly/weekly spending.  This year I want to get on top of my budget, so I’m planning on staying on top of my spending.

18.  Create and maintain a budget.  I’m planning on getting on top of where my money goes, so it’s only logical to get a budget started and stay within that.

19.  Create and maintain an exercise plan.  I want fit arms.  This is pretty much what this boils down to.  But obviously it’s bad to only focus on one aspect and not your overall health.

20.  Create and maintain a cleaning plan.  I don’t vacuum or dust as much as I should.  Routines help keep things together, so I want to be better about maintaining them.

21.  Try a new Pinterest recipe every two weeks.  I pin so many recipes to my boards, yet they sit there and look pretty.  I want to maintain a Pinterest for a reason, not just to hoard a bunch of things I like.

22.  Try a new Pinterest craft every two weeks.  I miss crafting, and I find so many things I like and pin them to my boards.  So I should stop pinning and start doing.

23.  Get extra organized.  I have the main aspects I want to focus on, but 2013 in general is the year of organization for me.

24.  Become a Budget Beauty.  Last year was all about being a proper Belle.  This year is going to be all about continuing that for me, but also learning to live better within my means.

25.  Be better about blogging.  I missed you all this past year.  I want to try to be better about getting back into posting this year.

26.  Create and maintain traditions.  Last year I focused on sending out cards, I want to keep doing that.  Last year I also missed out on several of my traditions, so this year I want to make sure that I don’t forget about them.

And one to grow on:  Work on trying new things.  Sometimes, I get so stuck in my ways.  This year, I want to grow and change more.  There are always new things on the horizon and now’s as good a time as any to start.

 

What goals do you all have this year?  Tell me about them!

My Plan for the Weekend

Well other than working and seeing the boy, here is my current dilemma:

What my closet looks like now:

What it will look like after Monday:

So this isn’t entirely true.  My closet is actually more similar to the end goal, just a bit disorganized (I’m way too organized to just throw things wherever).  My current problem is that I’m not quite sure what all I have and I think I need to go through things and find a better way to organize them.

I realized this when I fell in love with these:

But, I have tons of jewelry I never wear!  It’s all compacted in a carrying case, so I never see it.  So I think my real goal here is to figure out what I have and make use of that before I go out and buy a bunch of new pieces.

Some Things I’ve Wanted to do Lately…

So there’s a few things I’ve wanted to do lately.  This post will be really boring, because there’s really not a lot here…

1.  Sleep.  I don’t know if this needs an explanation, but I’ve really wanted to sleep lately.

2.  Go to the zoo.  Apparently we have a new elephant habitat.  Also the zoo is awesome.  I want to see some miniature giraffes.

3.  Clean.  I don’t want to clean…  I guess I need to clean.  But every time I’m at work, I think to myself “Darn, I could be cleaning right now.”  But not when I’m at home, doing nothing.  Only at work…

4.  Go to the bank.  I keep saying I will and then I don’t…

5.  The post office…  Same as before….

 

Also related is my list with Larissa.  We don’t have a lot of time together.  She’s gone this weekend, I’m gone all summer, she and Jake are looking for apartments at their first duty station when I get back, and then we have maybe a month tops…  But probably not.  So here are the things we’ve said we need to do.

1.  Go horseback riding.  She is the accomplished horse rider among us and she has made it her personal goal to get me on a horse.

2.  Go to the amusement park.  Because that’s just fun.

3.  Eat taco bell.  We do this when one of us picks the other up from the airport.  It’s a thing…

4.  Everything else.  I guess it goes without saying that with so little time left, we have to make the most of it…

 

Anyway, there are some lists for today…  Yay…

 

The Montreal Trip Part Eight

So it’s been at least a year since I told y’all any part of the Montreal story, so…  Here it is again.  Yes, I have an installment planned for next weekend as well.  So there’s that…

So Last Time (Part Seven):  Where they serve dog in Canada (with rice!), why museums are so expensive, and Molson is Coors, y’all!

This Time!…  The extremely odd place we finally find rice, football (but not soccer), and “you all close st what time?”

So we took the long trek back to hotel from the Molson brewery.  And it was long!  It was cold and by this point it had started to snow lightly.  The air was fluffy and all sorts of things like that.  Shawn complained bitterly the entire time.  Blair and I weren’t happy either.

But eventually, we were almost back to our hotel.  And, wouldn’t you believe it, we happened upon a grocery store.  There was a grocery store at the corner of the building our hotel was in.  “You think they have rice?”  Brent asked.  Does a grocery store have rice, Brent?  No idea.

In we went.  Sure enough, they had rice.  Kind of a weird place to find rice, right?  Why on earth would a grocery store have rice?  I have no idea.  So, Brent bought some rice and we walked through the mall back to our hotel.

Everyone separated for a few hours.  Shawn and I took a nap because we were chilled to the bone.  I honestly have no idea what everyone else did.  But maybe two hours later, all the boys ended up back in our room except for Seth, who was somewhere with Blair.  Anthony started flipping through the channels and came across the Seahawks game.  The boys were all excited because football was on, so that’s what we ended up watching.  Meanwhile, I was simply confused.  I thought we were in Canada, right?  So why was the Seattle Seahawks game on?  I would understand if the boys found a hockey game and it was the Avs playing the Ducks or something, but there are definitely no NFL teams in Canada.  Not that it was soccer season, but I was pretty sure that’s the kind of “football” the rest of the world watches.  I’m not really sure what kind of market Canada has for the NFL…  Maybe it’s a larger market than I thought.  I guess they have the CFL, so it’s not too out of the realm of possibility….  But it was definitely surprising to me.  Admittedly, I forget who the Seahawks were playing.  I know it was playoffs, but we were rooting for the Seahawks, so whoever they were playing has escaped me.

We watched the game in its entirety.  During half-time the boys went down to the sauna and I took a shower.  Once they were back, Blair and Seth returned with some poutine and a good time was had by all.  We considered starting our drinking, someone suggested we get some food, and Blair reminded the boys about the fireworks.  The boys agreed to go.

I then lamented to Blair that I didn’t think I had enough clothing for tonight.  Not that I didn’t pack enough, I did.  I just packed enough to go out in upstate New York, but not enough to go out in Montreal.  It’s the difference, I think, between just going to the bars downtown or going out to the bars downtown.  If you’re just going to the bars, you can wear whatever it is you like.  If you’re going out to the bars, you dress up and you look fantastic.  And I feel like that’s the difference between going out in upstate New York and Montreal.  Montreal is very much a “dress up and look fantastic” place.  At this point I really only had sweaters and polos.  Not good enough.

Blair suggested that we go for a shopping trip while the boys got ready and finished the football game.  So Blair and I grabbed our bags and headed out toward Rue Saint Catherine.  I suggested we head to Forever 21.  Not the best quality clothing by any means, but it’s reasonably priced and chances were good I could find something appropriate on short notice.

So we got there and it was two floors!  That was the largest Forever 21 I’d seen at that point.  The first time I went to New York, I successfully avoided any shopping whatsoever.  Last year, I was not so lucky and was able to enjoy one that was three floors.  Clearly the dresses were on the bottom floor, so we headed down there.  Racks and racks and racks of clothing.  I found a few things I liked, but not in my size, which is always disappointing.  Apparently people are smaller in Canada, because I can always find my size in Colorado.  Good for you, Canada.  There was no sarcasm there, I really did mean that.

While I was on my mission for a dress, Blair found several great outfits for herself.  It was at this point when an employee let me know they were closing at six.  At first I was confused, at six?  It’s Saturday….  That’s a weird time to close…  Then I was excited thinking of the prospect, as this was when I still worked at the department store.  Wouldn’t that be nice if the store closed at six on Saturdays?  Then I could go to work and still get stuff done!  And then sadness because that was wishful thinking, but in the meantime, I found a dress I liked, tried it on, and it was perfect.  Blair and I paid for our things and were on our way back to the boys.

And just in time for fireworks too!

Shawn and I wandered away a bit during the fireworks, also his dad called.

Then we all decided to find food, but it’s not only the retail stores that close at six.  No, it’s the restaurants too.  (And now that I work in a restaurant, I am also jealous.  What is this?)  So we wandered around aimlessly looking for food, and we ended up back at the grocery store where Brent finally got his rice.  We all ended up getting sandwiches, except Anthony decided pasta was a good idea.  Our hotel room didn’t have a microwave, so where he planned on heating it up, I don’t know.

But I learned one thing, everything that isn’t a bar closes ridiculously early in Montreal!

So there was that…

Next time (and I promise it’s next weekend and may be a bit longer of a snippet!):  Overly friendly Canadians, the boys finally make it to a strip club, and the really stupid thing I did while leaving Steph a ridiculous message.

June Resolution Check-In 2012

So I know May’s resolution check-in got lost in cyberspace.  You will see it.  I promise.  In  the meantime, let’s take a look at May, since it’s still in the process of being updated…

1.  Travel to at least four new states.  I didn’t get to see Melissa, but I have now officially been to Texas!  I know this only completes a quarter of this goal, but it also completes a quarter of this goal!  So excited.

5.  Go on a road trip.  Road trip 2012 is completed!  I have a post in the queue detailing the cities we drove through…  On the whole, not very exciting.

13.  “Once a month.”  May was busy for me.  I got to see Larissa and Jake quite a bit in Texas.  I saw Lilac, Stacey, the other Deidree, Tony, Dylan, Amy, Amanda, Addy, her husband Keith, Kelly, Megan, and Rachel just came back from Africa at the end of the month!  Lots of people.

14.  The Great Letter Writing Campaign.  Had a few birthdays and wrote to Seth.  Sent a postcard from Texas to Steph.  All in all, a good month.

15.  Personal pampering twice a month.  I sat out in the sun and got a tan.  Does that count?  I’m saying it counts.

18.  Keep a household.  I organized my closet and started a donation bag.  Yay!

19.  Craft once a week.  I have a picture frame for the GGG-Baby.  That’s about all I did…

25.  Work on writing.  I haven’t kept up with this as much as I would like.  I feel like it’s mostly catch-up these days.

May’s teaching career step:  Started work on the application.

How’s everyone else’s list going?  Have you chunked out a few things that you’re pretty proud of?  We’ll get May up soon, but otherwise, we’ll check back in July!

The Other Towns we Drove Through and Why Jason Aldean is a Crock Pot

So I mentioned our lovely trip through the Safety Corridor yesterday.  It was awful.  It was that awful, it bears mentioning twice.

We also drove through Amarillo twice.  On our way back, we stopped to have lunch at Cracker Barrel with one of Larissa’s friends.  Their biscuits are amazing and Larissa’s friend was nice.  We do have a couple of Cracker Barrels in Colorado, but I think I went to more on this trip than I have in the past year.  We also discussed going to the Draft Horse museum, but opted to keep driving instead.

On the way down to San Antonio, Larissa also killed every butterfly in the state of Texas.  I know this because there were no butterflies on the front of her car on the way back.

We also stopped in a little town called Fredricksburg on our way there.  We ate BBQ.  It was amazing.  I have nothing else to say on the subject.  It reminded me of the downtowns of smaller cities.  Very quaint.

On the way up, we drove through Dallas/Fort Worth to get to Arlington.  It was terrifying.  Worse than driving in LA and Manhattan.  You’re going to ask me if this is possible and I will stand by my assertion.  Terrfiying!

Arlington was nice, albeit our stay was short.  More on that tomorrow.

We then spent the night in Witchita Falls, Texas.  It was absolutely tiny.  I’m halfway convinced the only thing there was the AFB.  Our room there was actually a house.  It was impressive and cheap.  If the commissary hadn’t been closed, we could have cooked our own dinner!

We also drove through a town with a sign saying to elect Johnson for Constable.  I didn’t know towns still had constables.  We also contemplated how old the sign was and whether or not Johnson for Constable was still among the living.  No, I don’t remember what the town’s name was.  They have a constable…

And that’s pretty much our trip minus the San Antonio part.  And I will get there.

Now, why Jason Aldean is a crock pot.  Have you heard his song “Fly Over States”?  Well I get the meaning.  There’s more out there in the world than these big cities, blah blah blah.  These tiny towns pretty much suck.  I’ve seen a harvest moon in Kansas.  Not worth it.  I’ve met a girl from Amarillo.  Sure she was nice, but I’m nice and I don’t live in a fly-over state.  And is there a reason you didn’t mention Nebraska or Iowa, Jason?  Is it because you didn’t think you could convince people that Lincoln or Ames was worth going to?  It’s because they’re not.  Neither is Amarillo.  If you’d sung about the Safety Corridor, I think I would have punched you in the face.

Finally Making it Around to Old Big 12 Haunts…

…And my reactions therein….

Also not that it really has any real bearing on the topic, but if I never have to go through the Safety Corridor in New Mexico ever again, I will be a happy, happy, happy girl!  (And this is noting that I already had to drive through it one more time than I really wanted to…)  I don’t even know how driving 45 mph through New Mexico is faster than any other route…  But apparently it is.  Never again.

As for old Big 12 haunts…

I admittedly kept myself busy throughout college and didn’t make it to any road games (you can also read that as I was working because I had no money to do these things, tomatoes and tomatoes I guess).  Although on an entirely separate pre-college excursion, I had made it to Iowa State’s campus.

That should have taught me something.

We spent our first night in Texas in Lubbock en route to San Antonio.  Larissa rolled her nose at it, and I kept trying to defend Lubbock with “Well, it’s home to a BCS AQ-conference school, so it can’t be so bad.”  In reality, all the buildings were dilapidated and the entire time there, it seemed like a bit of a ghost town.  It reminded me of Pueblo, really…  And that’s not a good thing.  I read somewhere once of Texas A&Mians… A&Mites?  Aggies?  Let’s go with that…  I read somewhere once of Texas A&M Aggies calling Lubbock “a barren stretch of dirt some West Texans call a city.”  And I do apologize, Lubbock, and I don’t mean to judge too much, but when the Pacific Ocean is your backdrop to age three and the Rocky Mountains are your backdrop from that point onward, it’s kind of hard not to judge and agree… at least a little… (and I’m sure I’ve complained about the “mountains” of Pennsylvania here before while we’re on the topic of judging based on landscapes).  So, Lubbock, one Big 12 haunt I am glad to have not visited in college.  We did eat a nice dinner at a cool restaurant though, so at least there’s that.

On our way up to stop by HQ on the way back, we drove through Austin.  It was pretty nice from the car window, I suppose, and I do need to visit Melissa before she leaves Austin, so I guess I will hold my judgement on it until at least then.

We also drove through Waco on our way up to HQ.  I had been taking a cat nap at the time and was awoken by “Oh, look how pretty the campus is, look how pretty the campus is!”  And the rest of the town…  kind of barren, boring dirt.  But it wasn’t dilapidated, so there’s a step up on Lubbock, I guess.  I did have a funny conversation with Anthony after the fact.

“So I was taking a nap and they woke me up to tell me how pretty Baylor’s campus is.  Maybe I wanted to sleep through Waco.”

“Read this:

‘Tortilla Tossing:  Wacoans have created a game consisting of tossing tortillas from the bridge aiming to hit a concrete pillar stationed in the Brazos River.  Learning the art of tossing the tortilla is much more difficult than it first appears and keeps players continually coming back to the bridge.’

Supposedly, guys that make the shot marry a Baylor girl and vice versa.”

“I’m not sure what you’re trying to tell me.”

“That’s probably one of the only reasons to go to Waco.”

“I see…  Tortilla tossing, very lucrative use of your time.”

So there’s that…

Final consensus on old Big 12 haunts in Texas:  Austin might be worth seeing.  Otherwise, eh.  And I didn’t even make it to College Station, though I can assure you it probably wouldn’t change my opinion…  Sorry, I’m not sorry Texas A&M.

Tomorrow!  The other towns we drove through and why Jason Aldean is a crock pot.