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.