New Year, New Goals

2010 came and went quicker than I could have imagined, but I made surprising progress on my goals. I began 2010 with a total of 12 goals to work towards. They ranged from riding my bike 500 miles, cooking 60 new recipes, exercising, and watching every Star Trek movie. Some of the goals quickly became unmanageable because of all of my health issues that arose over the year, but I continued diligently working through the year on the others.

In the end, I was able to complete 7 of my 12 goals. I am quite proud of how I did. Although I could have done better, I will not let that overshadow what I was able to complete. My completed goals are as follows: exercise 130 hours, cook 60 new recipes, bake 30 new recipes, blog 30 times, read 5 books, reformat my laptop and watch all of the Star Trek movies.

Since I enjoyed working towards a set list of goals last year, I have made a new set of goals for 2011. Nearly all of the goals are the same, but have been modified based on how I did on the goal the previous year. This means that if I could easily complete the goal, I simply expanded it and made it more difficult, and for goals that I could not complete, I simplified them to allow for the possibility of completion this year.

Here's to hoping that 2011 is even more enjoyable than 2010, and that I can make even more progress on my goals. Happy New Years to all! :-)

Final Goals Update

As the year comes to an end, I am at the final days to progress through my goals. Obviously I cannot write how many I completed because I still have 8 days left to work like a mad woman.

Although, it is apparent that there are some goals I just cannot finish. There is no way that I can ride 491 miles in the next 8 days, so unfortunately my bicycle goal will not be met. But this is exactly why I made goals rather than resolutions. A resolution leads to regret and resent towards yourself if you do not do it whereas goals only leave room for progress and pride in the things you did achieve.

It is looking like I will be able to reach just over half of my goals. Although not ideal (finishing all of them....like that will ever happen), I am nonetheless proud of myself. It has been a tough year with many trips to the emergency room, doctor's appointments and just an overall feeling of being sick. In addition to that I finally reached my wits end at the bakery and had to quit for my own sanity. So even with these changes in my life I tried to remain focused on my goals.

I am proud of myself right now and I will be proud of myself everyday regardless of how many goals I complete. In the end I know I am a good person and nothing can change that.

Here's to hoping that the next 8 days keep me busy with my goals list, and come January 1st I will be able to start all over with a new goal sheet. How wonderful it is to have a focus throughout the year. :-)

Fall Semester is Over :-(

This semester of school has officially been the most enjoyable. I have never been so sad when school ended ever.

Let's recap the past few months:
August 30 I headed to West Valley College for my first day of classes in court reporting. I was quite nervous since I did not know if I would enjoy it or not. I was concerned that I would hate it and then have no idea what I would do with my life.

Class started at 11am and there were about 30 of us sitting in a room not really sure about what was going to happen. Our teacher explained to us how a steno keyboard is laid out and then we went into the computer lab to start doing the theory lessons. I could not have imagined how much I was going to enjoy it. I ended up working on lessons and drills for about 3 hours. I was just having so much fun.

The semester continued on and by the middle of October I had finished almost all of the 40 lessons for the theory class. I began testing ahead because the pace of the class was just too slow. I ended up completed all of the tests for Theory I and Theory II on the last day of classes.

In addition, towards the end of the quarter I began sitting in on the first speed building class which is 80 wpm. To my surprise I actually passed two of the three tests for the class (Literary and Q & A). Once I pass the jury charge test I will be moving onto 100 wpm. Although it all seems a little scary, I look forward to improving and learning much more as I continue through the court reporting program.

So now that my first semester of court reporting is over I am quite sad. I enjoyed my days sitting in a room practicing on my steno machine for hours. Thankfully I return to school on January 4th.

Here's to hoping that I continue to love court reporting and that we all continue to find our passion in life :-)

Thanksgiving

Well I am a little behind on posting....but better late than never.

So, as I wrote before, Kevin and I celebrated our thanksgiving together the Saturday before because we were not going to be together on thanksgiving. It was an eventful meal for us. It was an adjustment learning to work in a new kitchen and use a gas oven and stove, but in the end we did have a delicious thanksgiving meal.

Kevin and I with our awesome meal; Saturday before thanksgiving :-)

On Thanksgiving day while Kevin's family drove up to northern California I was on a plane headed to southern California. I landed around 11am and was able to enjoy thanksgiving with my family and family friends for the first time in 6 years. It was great seeing everybody. Promptly after our early dinner Adrienne and I headed up to Port Hueneme to go to Rendezvous. We helped out with setup on Thursday night and settled in to get some rest before an eventful weekend. I was head judge of knots for competition on Saturday and Sunday. Overall it was wonderful to be able to go to Rendezvous, but it was also strange to see how much has changed in the 7 years since I competed. There were far less competitors and the field events were empty for hours. I guess the economy has impacted everything including scouting.

I was clearly excited to be done with judging :-)

In the end it was great to be able to see everyone that I hadn't seen in years and it was fun to reminisce about my years in scouting, but I forgot how tiring sea scout competitions could be. I was dead tired by Sunday morning and with a late flight on Sunday, needless to say it was quite difficult to go to the school the next day.

Although a non-traditional way to spend thanksgiving, it was nice to change up the routine Kevin and I had had for the past few years.

Here's to hoping that next thanksgiving is just as fun :-)

Pre-Thanksgiving

For the past two years, Kevin and I have created the tradition of cooking an entire thanksgiving meal. We would start cooking around 10am and race to the finish line and try to have everything on the table ready to eat at 2pm.

It is great fun to try to get all of the dishes done at the same time. In the end we have celebrated that last two thanksgivings together with a spread of food large enough for about 10 people.

This year will be different. Unfortunately I will not be at home during thanksgiving; instead, I will be down in southern California to attend Rendezvous with Adrienne. Kevin and I did not want to abandon our tradition because of this little situation, so we will be making our thanksgiving extravaganza tomorrow (Saturday). We will still have our finish line to cross and will celebrate the day as if it is actually thanksgiving.

I will post pictures of our expansive meal and report back on any and all funny things that happen.

Here's to hoping that our crazy tradition carries on and that we can all be thankful for all of the wonderful things in our lives. :-)

5 years

This past Friday October 22 marked 5 years of dating for Kevin and me. It has been an interesting 5 years....we have had our ups and downs, but in the end they have been the 5 most wonderful years and I look forward to many many more years together. :-)

2005 - The first picture of us....after about 3 weeks of dating

2006 - second picture of us together....we were so cute back then

2007 - Dave and Ruth's Wedding.....we were so skinny back then

2008 - finding an apartment to move to together after college

2009 - the day we got engaged....my big screen TV is so beautiful

2010 - 5th anniversary - 10/22/10 - exactly 1 year until the wedding

......and we are home owners :-D

Wednesday October 13, 2010 we got the keys to our condo that we now officially own. It was most definitely exciting and we had a lovely dinner to celebrate and ate ice cream in the middle of the empty dining room.

We own a home and here it is:






Here's to hoping that we make many wonderful memories in our new condo and that we all enjoy every moment of life :-)