Post vacation recap-ish...

Today was a snow day.  Even though the snow came down on Saturday...and Sunday.  Then, the wind picked up and the temperature dropped and we feared for our safety.  Exposure to temperatures such as 15 below zero with a windchill of 35-50 degrees below zero can cause frostbite in a matter of minutes.  At least, that's what Facebook told me and I felt no need to test to see if that was a correct statement.

Some things you may not think about when you don't live in this type of climate, or have had a good span of mild winters, is that salt doesn't melt ice at this temperature.  So, all the salt trucks in the world are not going to do much good on your roads.  Be careful!

Tomorrow is already called, we'll have another snow day.  BUT! Things are looking up.  By Friday, we should have temps in the 30's with more snow to add.  It's always fun to not see your yard, when you are in your car parked in the driveway because the shoveled drifts are so high they are now an effective snow wall to keep out only the most determined of trespassers.

And that is winter.  There are roughly 71 more days until spring.  We'll get there.

In other news, today was my first day back to work after having taken the last two weeks off.  It was not easy to get up by 6:30 which is sad since I need to be up before 5 when I need to head into the office.  Needless to say, this transition will be a little rough.

We did a number of things this vacation.  We had family here.  We cooked, we cleaned, we shopped, we ate out, we went roller skating and made it to the city a few times.

Last Friday, the girls and I met up with my brother and dropped by Navy Pier and the Children's Museum.  First, we had lunch at Bubba Gump Shrimp, mostly because I've seen that restaurant for the past 15 years or so and always wanted to try it - but never had.  It was fun, and they quizzed us on Forrest trivia.  This was the highlight for me, being a trivia junkie.

My brother adored the Children's Museum, and the girls had a blast too.  They may have been more excited about the Garrett's popcorn for the way home, and the gift shops, but I'll take what I can get.  I thoroughly enjoyed the 1.5 hour to journey home through rush hour traffic with a chorus of snoring girls in the back of the car.  'Cause it's not like I was tired too or anything.

The girls were climbing around, playing with water, building things, playing in tree forts, pretend cooking, and playing in gardens like they were butterflies.  It was a blast and gave me a chance to practice with my non-phone camera.

Happy Monday Snow Day Everyone!

2013 in review...

Guess what?  I started the new year off with a dumb cold and have been on the couch for the past two days.  Ugh. Oh well - it's time to pick myself up and get started on the year.

First things first.  This post may ramble.  I'm sorry for that.  There is so much I want to tell you or write about that, it may come out in a jumbled heap that no amount of editing could fix.  If it does, I'm sorry and I'll do my best to make this coherent.

Ok.  When I opened up this blog earlier this week and wrote about my goals for 2014, I saw when I had last posted, and I was surprised.  I honestly thought that I had posted between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I've had so many thoughts swirling and whirling in my head, I could have sworn that some of it came out into my blog.  I was upset to find out that the mystery post was missing.  Why am I telling you all about this?  Mostly so you don't think I just abandoned you.  Apparently I'm so addle-brained lately that I dreamed about a post, and didn't notice it was all a dream.

I also noticed that while I told you about my goals for 2014, I failed to mention some of the things that I accomplished in 2013.  Thinking back on this year, it's been a little crazy.  The year went by so fast, that I look back and am surprised by all that has happened.

1. I started looking for a new position early in 2013 and was able to grab a new position in April.  It was a step up, and I have been rewarded with doing a job that challenges me, my writing, my people skills, my organization abilities.  This job is making me consider again finishing my Master's Degree and also I am looking for ways to learn how to code.  I am very fortunate and am enjoying my new position.
2. We added a new member to our family - Mr. Joe Cocker Spaniel.  He generally goes by Jojo or Jodgi Podgi (Joe-gee Poe-gee).  He's had some problems with marking in our house, and showing his separation anxiety by peeing in the house.  It's gotten better, although it hasn't stopped yet.  He has become a more of a member of the family, and we look forward to another year with our crazy stinky Jojo.
   
3. We also lost a member of our little family this year.  Mr. Mackles McChunky, our cat had to be put down in June.  Mack was our sweet cat, our adventurous cuddler.  He has been sorely missed.
   
4. My grandfather passed away early in the year.  He has been missed.  We have not been back to Kansas since the funeral.
5. I learned that weight loss is about the foods you put in your mouth.  I hit a plateau this year, and have had to try many different things to re-find what works to lose weight.  I learned that exercise is great, but if I don't watch what goes into my body, and eat healthy, then I work out for little loss.
6. Speaking of working out, I did my first two 5K's this year.  One virtually and one in outdoors with lots of people.  I started running in January, trying to hit 15 minutes.  I have trained from just running 1 mile, or 15 minutes to doing 4 miles at a time, which (on the treadmill) takes about 54 minutes.  
   

 

For running in the Ditka Dash, I got aviator sunglasses and fake mustaches, which the entire family rocked.

So far this year, on my goals, I have created an FB page for my blog.  Feel free to go like it, here.  Just a warning, I'm still trying to figure out exactly what to do with that page.  Also, I was able to run 2 miles today, only 498 left to go this year.  I will be looking to put a tally on the side bar of the blog for the miles total.  And, I have been trying to take a picture every day to join up with one of the 365 picture project blog memes.  I am very determined to make these goals a reality (well, at least so far this year).

What our drive home looked like yesterday.

Goals...

With 2014 literally a day or two away, I have been thinking about goals and resolutions.  I worry about writing goals.  Why?  I mean, the mythical "they" people love to tell you that writing down goals will help you to achieve your goals.  Then others believe this and start forcing you to come up with and write goals at work.  It's generally a pretty uncomfortable thing for me since I have still resisted acknowledging that this job is a career.  Really, I just need to accept being in my mid thirties (gasp) and being a grown up.

I digress.  I wanted to talk about writing down goals.  I have had the opposite experience.  Almost every time I write a goal, it doesn't happen.  For me, when I write something, I generally start forgetting about what I wrote.  But, I keep trying.  I'm going to write down my goals for this next year and possibly fail at them in a public way.

1. My fitness goal - I follow Greta of Gfunkified and absolutely love reading about her life, her kids and her fitness.  Greta set a goal to run 500 miles in 2013, and blew way past it - well into the 600 mile zone for the year!  I really was impressed with that goal, and decided to give that a try for myself.  My goal for 2014 will be to run 500 miles.
2. My weight loss goal - I have been on Weight Watchers for a little over 2 years.  I have lost 77 lbs. so far.  My ultimate goal has been to hit 105 pounds gone and I have hit a plateau and started having trouble this year.  I only lost about 12 pounds the entire year.  This is not bad and I am happy about the 12 pounds.  In 2014, however, my goal is to hit my overall goal (which may change to 100, not 105 pounds lost).  This means that I will have to train myself this year to watch what I eat even more and will have to learn how to control my night time eating.
3. My blog goal - this blog was started a little over 5 years ago, just before my baby was born.  It was meant to be a way to keep up with family that is all over the country.  The blog has evolved to being about what is going on in my life as a mom, a woman, a wife, a person.  My goal this year is to write at least once a week (hopefully more), to better myself as a photographer and photo editor, and to try new things - like project 365 or to get in more pictures myself.  I also will make it a point to read more blogs and comment on them.  I may also create a Facebook page for this blog as well.
4. My mom goal - I have two intelligent, beautiful, independent daughters.  My mom goal this year is to make sure that they are hugged and kissed every day.  I will tell them every day how much I love them.  I will go outside of my comfort zone and cuddle with them as much as possible, and try not to let them press my buttons as much.
5. My personal goal - I need to go back to school to finish my Master's Degree.  I have been putting this off and my goal is to set a time to actually go back.  My goal is to just get myself started on this again.

What are your goals or resolutions this year?