Recap

There are many things that I am planning to do this year to improve my life, my family's life and my surroundings. My new goals are "evolving" as I said before and I don't have them quit defined yet. My previous goals


1. Improve our finances.
2. Spend more time having fun! (Got to have #1 to do #2)
3. Get in better physical shape. (I know - practice what you preach. I am a physical therapist after all!)
4. Be more organized.

Well there is The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly!

The Good:
Our finances have greatly improved. Amazing in this economy. Our retirement funds and Logan's college fund did dive but there is more time for them to pop back up. Lots of time! We are completely debt free except the house. We still owe just over $100,000 on it. Charles' new job he got a year ago turned out to be a great thing. He has now become a permanent employee and has had two raises so far. He is also a foreman of the whole metal shop and the company is planning to expand in this year. It is a very stable company with booked contracts through 2010 and it also has no debt. The owner runs everything on profits. I have changed my working situation too. Since things were looking up I now work mainly as a contract physical therapist for many different home health agencies. That allowed me to close in my coverage area. I can get more visits done in an 8 hour day if I want to. But instead I have chosen to limit my hours so that I can put Logan on the school bus in the morning and be home when he gets off. I am also taking a day off every other week to volunteer in his class and take some time for myself. Now down to the numbers. With Charles working we have managed to save $25,000 this past year. We have it in a high interest savings account that earned 3.5% last year (just got my statement). That is our emergency fund and we don't plan on touching it unless one of us is unable to work. I think we did so well because we stuck to our budget and our best tool was to use cash for food, household stuff, and our remodeling. I also had a cash budget for Logan's clothes and haircuts. I did have to increase the food budget during the third quarter so we weren't eating pasta and rice all the time with the increase in food prices. We had enough left over at the end of the year that we bought a new TV (and of course I found a great deal). So our number one goal last year was to improve our finances. We have definitely done that. This year we will continue to save so that we are putting money in our retirement and college funds and the extra will go to some desperately needed remodeling (If you have seen my kitchen you know what I mean!).

And the fun part - we have mostly stayed at home for fun stuff. We watch DVDs that I get at the library. I just watched the Great Debators last night. Really good! We are reading more. We are spending more time in the garden working on the yard. We are trying to get more projects done. We did take some day trips this year to local happenings and parties. Nothing big, but we were never bored. This year we are planning to travel a bit which we have not done in a while.

The Bad

Getting organized. Well, in my defense we have gotten rid of a lot of stuff. I had made a few trips to drop of stuff at the thrift store and we finally cleaned out the "junk room" We plan on turning it into a loungeing room with a new futon for guests. Still working out the details on that. Overall it has improved since I have had a little more time to work on it, but here is still lots of room for improvement!

The REALLY Ugly

Getting in better shape. That hasn't gone as well. I go in spurts and do well for a few weeks then I fall off the wagon! I believe that this one is now going to the top of the list this year. I plan on making this my number one priority and will be working out a plan to do it over the coming weeks. You have to have a plan!

So now you know what I did last year. Soon I will post my new goals and will recap them as the year goes on.

Good luck to everyone in the new year!!

Presents Galore!

Twas the night before Christmas... Logan wore the Santa hat for nearly two weeks straight including to bed, but I would only let him wear it to school on the last day before vacation.


Santa has been here!


"I got more Hot Wheels than I can count but my Hot Wheels over the door organizer still isn't full!"


Notice that Santa ate all his milk and cookies!


And one of my favorite gifts... cold hard cash!


Are there more Hot Wheels in there?


Future West Virginia Student!


Logan got a letter in the mail from Santa a few days before Christmas. In it Santa said that he saw the elves working on a very special gift for him. Logan is convinced that a set of golf clubs is the best gift he could have ever gotten!


It was a great day. Charles and I gave each other some very practical gifts like a blender (to replace the two identical ones we have that barely work), a frying pan (when I said to a man in the store that I was going to give it to my husband, he was convinced that I was going to hit him over the head!) and we all got stainless steel water bottles so no more plastic bottles allowed!

It's Snowing!!!!!!

Snow is a very rare thing here. The last time it snowed was Christmas Eve (yeah, perfect timing!) of 2003. It was very light and only lasted about an hour. We were out to eat when Dad and Nan were here. The cars were dusted and it was mostly gone by the time we got home. It was very exciting.

Well it has been snowing here since this afternoon, lightly but constant and we are expecting it to continue into the night! Now I am wondering about school tomorrow. This would be no big deal in most of the states but here it could be disastrous since the ground is wet and much of the area is expected to stay below freezing all night. Houston in general does not have resources to take care of snowy or icy roads.

Logan thinks this is the greatest thing ever!



When the bus pulled up the kids had all the windows down and stuck their arms and heads out when the bus stopped to let Logan off. They were very loud and having a great time!



Logan is collecting it off of my car and making ice balls to throw at Charles.



This is my car later in the evening. Crazy! Hard to believe it will be 75 this weekend!

THE NEXT MORNING - The snow on the ground was all gone, but on everything else it had all turned to ice. School is on time in our area but not in the areas I work in. We got 1" of snow and parts of Houston got 2.5"!! Traffic in Houston is a nightmare. Luckily I head the other way. But I have a light day and will probably start late just to avoid any sitting in traffic. They said we may do this all again next week!

Beverly Hills Chihuahua

Beverly Hills Chihuahua turned out to be a really cute movie! Logan and I went while Charles went to a football game. I thought it would be an okay talking dog movie for kids but it really was a lot better than that. There were many stars in the movie and of course the dogs were really cute.

Synopsis from Rotten Tomatoes website: (it's late and I'm tired!)
In the Disney comedy, BEVERLY HILLS CHIHUAHUA, a pampered Beverly Hills Chihuahua named Chloe (voice of DREW BARRYMORE) finds herself accidentally lost in the mean streets of Mexico without a day spa or Rodeo Drive boutique anywhere in... In the Disney comedy, BEVERLY HILLS CHIHUAHUA, a pampered Beverly Hills Chihuahua named Chloe (voice of DREW BARRYMORE) finds herself accidentally lost in the mean streets of Mexico without a day spa or Rodeo Drive boutique anywhere in sight. Now alone for the first time in her spoiled life, she must rely on some unexpected new friends -- including a street-hardened German Shepherd named Delgado (voice of ANDY GARCIA) and an amorous pup named Papi (voice of GEORGE LOPEZ) -- to lend her a paw and help her to find her inner strength on their incredible journey back home.

Walt Disney Pictures presents BEVERLY HILLS CHIHUAHUA, directed by Raja Gosnell (“Scooby Doo”), screenplay by Analisa LaBianco from a story by Jeff Bushell and starring an all-star cast including Piper Perabo, Manolo Cardona and Jamie Lee Curtis with the voices of Andy Garcia, Plácido Domingo, George Lopez, Edward James Olmos, Paul Rodriguez, Cheech Marin and Drew Barrymore.

Sleep

Wouldn't it be nice to be able to sleep anywhere, anytime?

The BIG Post

Well, lots has happened in the past month that I have not gotten around to post about. So here it goes!

Charles added a new raised bed to our backyard. It took the whole weekend and he did a great job.

You start with this...


and add this...


and you get this...


Those are blueberry bushes. I am going to order strawberry crowns and plant them in the middle and around the edges.


Then I harvested enough basil to make pesto all year long. This was about half the pile washed and trying to dry it a little.

This was all of it with the stems removed.
Then processed in the new food processor with olive oil.
I filled a few ice cube trays and popped them in the deep freeze. Now I have two bags of basil cubes. It only take one to make enough pesto for one dinner and some leftovers for spreading on toast for my lunches.

And lastly, Logan went to a local YMCA overnight camp for first time campers. It was from a Sunday afternoon to a Friday afternoon. From the moment he got up Sunday and every two minutes, he was asking if it was time to leave yet. He was so excited! After about two hours of "Is it time to go yet?" I got out the digital timer and set it to count down to the moment of departure. Then for the next five hours I heard, " Only 4 hours and 23 minutes until we leave." He wouldn't go play or do anything else except follow me around and announce the minutes to go every two minutes.




This is his bunk. We got to help him set it all up. Camp was a great motivator to get him to start doing things on his own. Like he would usually not take a shower without someone turning on the water and waiting until he got in and then you had to magically be there when he got out. I told him that if he didn't learn to do it himself that he would be the only one there with a Mommy in the bunkhouse. It also got him to start cutting his own pancakes and such. Worked like a charm!


These last two were added because Dad thought Logan looked a little worried. He was really jumping off the walls. The last ten minutes he was really quiet and didn't say anything.


Oh and I was also in a car accident. I was rear ended by a pickup truck and the driver had no insurance and no license! Luckily I have uninsured motorist and rental car on my policy. Hopefully I will get it back next week. No one was hurt at least!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Blogging Games

Okay, my friend Karen is doing a blog "game" and I am joining in. She asked readers to post a memory of meeting her.

This is straight from her blog:
1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

New Matt Dancing Video

I think I shared a video by email that showed a man dancing at different places in the world. Well he has a new video for 2008. The website also has an outtakes video that is almost better than the polished one. Check it out!

(To improve the resolution, click on the video after it starts to go to the YouTube website. Then click on "watch in high quality")


2008 video




Outtakes video

Catching Up

I'm finally getting back to doing all my usual things. I haven't written much this month, so here are some things I meant to post when I was sick.

For Memorial Day, we went to The Health Museum to see a new exhibit called "Grossology". It talked about all the gross things your body does, like farts and bugers. It's interactive and Logan thought it was a lot of fun. There is even a station where you name that smell! Just imagine stinky feet, armpits, bad breath and you guessed it, farts! It is a temporary exhibit just for the summer. Then we toured the rest of the museum that was more serious but I was really disappointed. About half of the interactions did not work and you were left wondering what it was all about. Here is a picture of Logan on the "blemish" climbing wall.



Here is Charles pulling nose hairs!




Then one early morning we went blueberry picking at Moorehead's Blueberry Farm about 10 miles away. We got 8 pounds at $1.50 per pound!



Logan and I can only take about one hour of picking then it gets way too hot. We go back and wait for Charles and eventually we have to call him on his cell phone to get him to give it up. So this year he went back on his own one morning and came back with eleven pounds! We ate some fresh for a few weeks, gave some away and froze the rest. We will have enough to last us till next picking season.





Then there is the garden. I really think we planted too much in this little space, so next year we will spread out a bit more. We are planning a few more beds and it will make it a little easier. Here is a picture of the garden earlier in June. And since then it is even bigger. The Cherokee Tomato is now much taller than me. We had to add extra support to the tomato cages. We had a good storm the other day and it caused all the vines that are standing nice and tall in the picture to bend back toward the ground over the cages. We may loose a few branches because of it. Next year we will probably not use the cages but build a tall frame and tie them to it.



Here are "Red Star" and "Cherokee Purple".


We have been picking about 20-30 cucumbers each week. Our co-workers love us!



Well that's it for today. I have a few more things to post about. But it will have to wait. Too much to do!

I'm writing a book!

I know, like I didn't already have enough to do! Well this surly won't be a page turning thriller but I'm writing it out of frustration. With my job I see people everyday who say "If I had only known!" Well now I'm going to tell all! It's going to be a resource book for people with less mobility and their caregivers. I will hopefully explain things about medical equipment, senior advocacy, when to get help, loosing independence, local and national resources, etc. I am hoping to have it done in a year and publish it myself with a print on demand service. So if anyone has any advice I would love to hear it! I have looked all over to find a single resource for my patients to explain the basics of these things and have not found one single thing I can point my patients and caregivers to. So hopefully I will write something useful that people will want. Let me know what you think!

And... today Logan and I are going to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo to see Brad Paisley in concert with my friend from work and her daughter. It should be fun. Then tomorrow we are going to start getting our garden going. Ya, I know a little late here but thats the beauty of it. We actually have two planting seasons for summer plants because it is really too hot in July and August for many vegetables.

A New Year - New Goals!

Yeah, I know the same old goals! But hey, I could say that resolutions will never work and then I would be right were I am now. Not that it is a bad place to be but I know I could do better. So here it goes.

1. Improve our finances.
2. Spend more time having fun! (Got to have #1 to do #2)
3. Get in better physical shape. (I know - practice what you preach. I am a physical therapist after all!)
4. Be more organized.

Maybe a little ambitious but I think each one has something to do with the others. We had spent the majority of the past two years trying to have a baby. Not successfully as most of you know, but we are looking at the positives, and there are many. It includes not spending as much money on a second child for his/her lifetime (and ongoing infertility treatments), more time for Logan, be empty nester's sooner (this is important at my age!). Logan is six years old and will soon be at an age where he will travel easier. I have spent a lot of time the past year finding the important tools to learn about how to improve in each of these areas. Now I am working on fine tuning each one.

First Charles spent the past year starting a business that has not yet made it. It's a great idea and he does have a great product but we are both lacking the business experience to make it really work. So he is still going to work on it on the weekends but he started back to the work grind last week with a new job very close to home. He works 7-3 and will be home in time for the bus so Logan doesn't have to go to day care except for holidays and the summer. We have made it on what I make but don't have any to put into the business and nothing has been put in savings this past year. I don't want to make that a habit!

For #2 it will have to be local inexpensive stuff for the first year until we have met goal #1. We are hoping to make a couple trips for 2009.

For #3 well - that just needs to be done. I know what to do. I have another goal for further down the road once I can go part time. I want to get my pilates certification and it could take a year or more. But the issue comes down to the fact that it you want to teach all those exercises then you have to be able to DO them! Not the same as teaching people to walk again.

Then on to #4. Getting organized. Our first challenge is to declutter. We had one garage sale last fall and we are doing a benefit garage sale for one of our nurses at work in about a month. And somehow I am in charge of ORGANIZING it. Silly people! How hard could it be? Okay stop laughing!

So I plan on posting my challenges and achievements on my resolutions. Nothing like a little accountability. I think if I write about it I push myself a little further with it. If there is anyone who would like to join me you can post your updates in the comments!! I would love some company!

My first motivation was to watch this video on time management. I know, snoozeville! But really, this one is great. If you have the "time" it's great to watch.

Watch Video

Monster Jam 2008!

We did it again! This was Logan's fifth trip to see Monster Jam in Houston. He loved it! We got to hear the ROAR and smell the fuel and eat junk food. This time we used the pit pass to get an up close look at the trucks and Logan even got to have two of drivers sign his flag and program. Really cool. I could have had a better time except that I was a little sick. But no problem that a little Advil and throat lozenges couldn't help... Until the next day. I felt like I got run over by a monster truck. I ended up missing two days of work and probably had the flu. Yuck. I don't recommend it!

He is a slide show of the pictures I posted in my photo gallery.

Vacations Days Are Great!

Well, Dad and Nan just left this morning and it has been a very relaxing Christmas break for me. I took the week off of work and for several days I did nearly NOTHING! That ROCKS! I am using this weekend before going back to work to do some things I should have found time to do during the week (pay bills, balance checkbook, blog, organize, laundry, blah, blah...)

So While we had guests we ate lots of good food and sweets, and went to a couple of cool places. We first went to George Ranch Historical Park. It is like an indoor/outdoor museum with demonstrations of ranching, blacksmithing and the like. There were a couple of house tours of how the rich people in those days lived. Very interesting and I am grateful for indoor plumbing and central heat/air conditioning! There was a bench with a couple of cute statues ready for picture taking.

It looks like they joined a new family! Logan liked riding on the cart pulled by the tractor. He wasn't too keen on the house tours though.

We had a wonderful Christmas morning with lots of presents. Just outside the window Logan got to see another gift Santa left him.

Santa told us that he found it at a garage sale down the street for only $10 and spent a couple of nights up late painting it! Go Santa!

Logan had fun opening up lots of good stuff from Santa and Grandma and Grandpa.

The day after Christmas we did what half of all other Americans were doing, Shopping! We went to Ikea which is one of my all time favorite stores. If you dont have one in your area then I am really sorry. They have modern furnishings and housewares at really good prices. Several pieces of our furniture are from there and when we get to remodleing the Kitchen we will probably get the Ikea cabinets. They are a great deal and are really pretty. It's a humongous store and you could spend many hours in there (and we have!). They thought of everything. There is a cafeteria and a secured, kids only play area where you can leave the rugrats while you shop! Then we went to Fry's Electronics store and looked at all the great stuff that we may someday be able to buy (when we win the lottery).

Then I spent two days doing almost nothing. I did make a couple meals, emptied the dishwasher a few times and I might have done a load of laundry. I really enjoy my "time off!"

I hope everyone had a faboulus Christmas and we wish all a Wonderful New Year!