Tag Archives: family

Goals update

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Since we are at about 1/4 of the way through 2012, I thought that I would revisit my goals for the year to see what my progress is as well as whether or not I should make any changes. Overall, I’ve been pretty good with sticking with my goals, but I am going to drop the Sprite Stitch Challenge. I just don’t have the time/resources that I thought I would at the beginning of the year.

Health

  • Lose at least 75 lbs by the end of the year (totally doable and will leave me at a still healthy weight): I am already at -25 and am working on the rest of it. May have to make another goal once I reach this one, though.
  • Exercise regularly (weekdays; alternating between cardio and strength exercises): Exercising regularly, but I have not been doing the strength training exercises like I had wanted to. I will have to make a concentrated effort to work on this.
  • Drink recommended daily amount of water every day (even the weekends, which is where I usually drop the ball). I’ve been doing really well with this and have completely eliminated soda from my diet and have been drinking tea, coffee, and water.
  • Pay attention to portions: Again, I have been doing really well with this and plan to stick with it.
  • Get physicals done at least twice this year: Already scheduled my first physical of the year.
  • Get a cleaning at the dentist at least twice this year: Also just scheduled my first cleaning of the year.
  • Keep up with blood work to keep OBGYN/Oncologist off my back Yeah….I should probably do that….
  • Whiten teeth regularly: About to do my second round of whitening (four/year)
  • Don’t drink soda: Mission accomplished!

Finances

  • Pay off all of 2010′s medical bills by year’s end
  • Put money into savings after each pay period: Starting to do this.
  • Pay off last credit card
  • Start retirement fund and put money in it monthly: Yeah…haven’t done this yet.
  • Make monthly budgets and stick to them: Getting good with this one.

Social (ness? ability?)

  • Update blog every week day: I need to get better about this, but have already blogged more than I did all of last year.
  • Write a letter to any friend at least once a month: Done!
  • Initiate conversations with your friends (I kinda suck at that): Doing a lot better with this.
  • Call mom and dad at least once a week: I was doing really well with this until my new schedule at work started. Will have to get back on the ball.
  • Visit Florida for at least a week: Done! And trying to see if I can’t make another trip.
  • Visit with Nikita more often: Done. And I think I’ve already seen her more this past few months than I did all last year :<

Projects

  • Do/make at least 1 thing a month (outside of sprite stitch challenge): I have not been doing this at all…
  • Document (photograph) everything that I make: Will do if I make anything.
  • Don’t over-commit: Mission accomplished!
  • Do monthly sprite stitch challenges Scratched off the list because I just don’t have the time to do them.
  • Hand make presents more often than buy them: Done this a few times already :D

Organization

  • Find a way to organize mail and bills: Done. Getting a mail organizer once we move.
  • Donate clothes I don’t wear at least twice a year: I have four bags of clothes that I need to drop off to the donation center.
  • Donate books I know I won’t re-read: I also have a box of books to drop off…
  • Find a way to organize badges, closet, make up, shoes and accessories that won’t drive the bf crazy or look tacky: Will be looking more into this once we make the move. I am leaning toward framing them.

Knowledge

  • Go through electronics textbook
  • Get a cert
  • Do something that’s mentally challenging and not mentally challenged

Misc.

  • Read at least two books a month: Up to about 4 books a month now, so I would say that this has no problem being met.
  • Stick with the ISBC throughout the year: So far, so good!
  • Do something good for yourself just because at least once a month: I kind of have been doing this. I skipped last month, though, since I spent time with family (even though that can arguable be considered a good thing for me).
  • Have at least a monthly date night with the bf: Done!

Stressing over travel

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I leave for Florida next week (Thursday) and will be there until the following Friday. I am both excited beyond all belief as well as apprehensive. I am excited to go to Florida and see my friends and family. The Sunday after arrival, I will be able to go to my goddaughter’s birthday party (picture of the cutie below) which will be a first for about 3 years. It is also the first non-conference vacation that I have taken since surgery and the first vacation that M and I are taking together. All of which are good, but kind of stressful things.

So, first thing’s first. About a week before visiting home, I dodge people’s calls (mostly momma’s since she calls me the most) because I am in the process of driving myself batty over preparing for the trip and am kinda irritable. But I don’t want to be short with people, it’s just something that invariably happens before every trip because I’m stressing myself out. So I avoid phone calls that make me think about the trip because it’s additional things for me to worry myself about.

One of the things that probably make my vacation prep stressful is how I pack and plan for packing for a trip. I make a preliminary packing list a few weeks (usually 2) in advance. And then I usually plan out what I think I want to wear during the trip a week in advance and then I edit the packing list accordingly. Then a day or two before, I go through and re-create the packing list from scratch so that I can make sure that I have everything that I think I need. I pack everything that I won’t use in a carry on two days before re-check the stuff I packed the night before, and then panic the day of as I try to gather everything for my carry on.

I know that it’s extremely inefficient and stressful. But I do it. Every. Single. Time. I don’t know why I do it like this. I just do it because I think that making all those lists are helping me-and the process of making the list does help make things seem less chaotic-but I also am starting to think that it may not be the best (healthiest?) way to go about things. Recently, my Internet-based friend Bill Brenner (I hope he doesn’t mind my referring to him as that….) posted how he used to prepare for trips and how he now goes about it. He has some pretty good tips in there (only checking the bags twice and dressing for comfort) that I will try to incorporate along with keeping up doing what my other friend posted (Joe’s Rules of Air Travel).

I know that I am probably making it harder on myself than I should be, but I can’t seem to help myself. And it’s starting to kind of stress me out. So much so that it’s starting to manifest itself physically. I haven’t started nail biting again-yet-thankfully, but I’m starting to get stress headaches, increased blood pressure upset stomach and picking at my cuticles again (which is a stupid habit that I’ve done since elementary school whenever I get anxious).

So if anyone has some tips for prepping for a trip, packing, etc. (or heck, something that they do to help relieve anxiety) I am all ears and would greatly appreciate it.

February recap and March goals

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So, here we are at the end of another month. It seemed to have flown by pretty quickly and I was kind of lax about getting stuff done, unfortunately. I didn’t do the Sprite Stitch Challenge, even though I had two months to complete it. I just didn’t have the creative juices flowing on what I wanted to make and then once I figured out what I wanted to do, I just didn’t have the time to do it. I also have no excuse for not writing on here every day or for not doing the letter to a friend this month. I did, however, buy some stationary so the letters going out from now on won’t be on lined notebook paper, which is nice.

  • Read this month’s ISBC book
  • Read 3+ other books (listed them in yesterday’s post)
  • Put money in savings
  • Book rental car for vacation
  • Do the Sprite Stitch Challenge
  • Make a budget for the month
  • Write letter to a different friend
  • Write blog posts every week day (failed already yesterday….)
  • Arrange for shuttle pick up/drop off for next month’s vacation
  • Get an average of 70,000 steps a week on the fitbit (been averaging at 40,000. I think it is because we didn’t go hiking for two weeks and then last week I got hit with a bad allergy attack)
  • Stick with the 100 push up challenge

The month of March is going to be a little different because I am also including stuff I want to do/see while in Florida (not going to mention people in particular because I don’t want to hurt people’s feelings if I don’t see them or if they aren’t included on the list).

  • Read this month’s ISBC book
  • Read 4+ other books
  • Put money in savings
  • Keep up with blog posts while on vacation
  • Get an average of 50,000 steps a week on the fitbit
  • Finish the 100 push up challenge
  • Go to Dinosaur World
  • Go on an airboat tour of the Everglades
  • Go on a haunted tour of downtown St. Petersburg with friends
  • Eat the best Cuban sandwich I can find
  • Do something with Nikita for her birthday
  • Go to goddaughter’s birthday part
  • Do something special with goddaughter for her birthday
  • Make Easter baskets for the godkids and leave them with their momma
  • Prep hard drive for cousin
  • Prep laptop for little sister

 

tottenmom

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The first thing I did when I woke up this morning was text my mom “happy birthday” (despite a full bladder–YOU’RE WELCOME MOM. I love you more than my bladder/kidneys/etc <3).

How can you not love that face more than going to the bathroom when you first wake up?

I got to talk with her last night and will probably give her a call later on in the day to see how her day went. I even let her open her birthday present from me last night while we were on the phone together so that she wouldn’t have to wait until I called her later this afternoon (got her a dry case for the kindle/iPad so that she can take them to the beach/read in the tub without worrying about dropping it in the water).

Mom *loves* that technological shit. Even if it can’t turn into a cloud…

So, I just wanted to post a happy birthday message to my mom: I love you mom, even if you can be a charming, hilarious person on the phone, across the country and then drive me insane when we are in the same room together. I don’t give you nearly enough credit as you deserve and want to thank you for everything that you’ve given and done for me, even when I was (am) convinced that you’re gunning to ruin my life (to random people reading this: don’t judge. I was/can be a bit over-dramatic. And other times I’m not, don’t let that sweet face of hers fool you, momma was hella strict). Happy birthday, mom, I hope dad gets you something shiny and you enjoy your birthday dinner/cake. <3

What once was lost is (un?)fortunately now found

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Last year, while planning for Nikita’s baby shower for DEF CON, I had asked my dad for some pictures from when I was a baby for one of the games (that didn’t end up happening, but that is neither here nor there) that involve looking at baby pictures and then figuring out who it belonged to. He responded immediately that he would look around for it and then (a while later), said that he could only find a single picture and that there were entire albums missing. Let me repeat this: albums. Plural. They weren’t in the same place as some of the other albums and the ones that were missing had pictures of me from being as small as a tumor on my mom and as old as 7 as well as pictures of my little sister from the same tumor stage to the age of 5 or so. A lot of them featured pictures from when we lived overseas because my dad was stationed there. I was devastated. I wanted those pictures to scan and keep forever and ever. Amen. But they were gone.

That is, they were gone until last month when mom and dad cleaned the shed in the backyard and found the albums in tact and with no visible damage (yay!). How did I find this out? Well, mom decided to post this on the Twitters:

Sooooooooo not cool, mom. I will give her this though: she didn’t make a Christmas card with the pictures. It’s not that the picture is embarrassing at all, it just passes the statute of limitations for pictures that can be used as Christmas cards. But, like a lot of crazy-ass ideas she has at the spur of the moment, she forgot about it and I figured it would be the last talk of childhood pictures until I go down to visit and can scan them all so that I have a copy. But I was wrong.

Fast forward to Thanksgiving. I make the grave mistake of using FaceTime to make the obligatory “Happy Thanksgiving” call so that I can also see my cousins and Aunt Anne. I got to see everyone, including the cousin’s and aunt’s little dog (which was a surprise considering my dad refuses to have any fuzzy and can’t poop in the toilet in the house), but they were all busy doing something.  So, mom decided that we were going to go to the backyard. With the photo albums. ALL of them.

I will take a break here to say that if I were there physically, I’m sure that it would be fun/lovely to look through the albums with her. Really. There isn’t a shred of sarcasm there, it would be a lot of fun. Especially if there was a hot beverage involved. But that isn’t what happened. What happened was my mom took the albums to the wood swing in the backyard and then proceeded to hold up almost every picture up to the phone (shakily, I might add. A cinematographer my mother is not) and with every picture, tell me what the picture was of and then ask me if I remembered it. Every. Single. Picture. Well, almost every one. I will give her props for stopping herself when she got to a picture of her while she was pregnant of me. After about 30 minutes or so of this, she finally stopped (not from a lack of albums, mind you) and decided to try and make it so my little sister couldn’t keep trying to sleep.

Oh, as a bonus for having read the whole post (or just scrolling to the bottom, you sneaky bastards), here is the photo that mom wanted to use for the Christmas card. It is the last picture that we have of the two of us together in the same picture like this. I feel bad that she had to wear that dress. Then I remembered I wore it first and now I feel a lot less bad about her having to wear it. Even if it does clash with her pretty red hair…

 

UPDATE: Turns out I was wrong. The picture above is not the last picture that we have that has Autumn and I in that kind of sisterly pose. But this one below with the terrible picture quality that was taken around 2005 is. My bad.