Ying to the Yang

On the bright side (!) and after the last Debbie-Downer, dose-of-reality posting:

-In the midst of starting to realize all the things i'll need to get my arse in gear to prepare for Shorty's arrival - some INCREDIBLE friends are starting to plan baby showers! The busier our lives get (and the more we've all been on the other side of coordinating and prioritizing to host a party for friend)... the more I appreciate the offer and the effort. I really goes make me feel loved. --sorry it that sounds cheesy. but it's true, so deal.

-I scored two backstage and two VIP tickets to ACL! Sweet action. we went with the cousins (sans their trio of shorties) and had an excellent time! They already had Saturday tickets and we had already talked about going together if we got Sat tickets... but it was SOOOO much fun to get to 'upgrade' them =) Shorty loved DMB and I was proud to have made it there and back (in spite of the rain and mud) - i consider that exercise and maybe this will start a new trend for me!

-As of this past week, you can feel Shorty kick from the outside!! It's Mr. Price's new favorite past time. And it is SO hard to not keep my hand on my belly non-stop so that I can catch that little elbow, kick or head bump whenever he decides to flip around and wiggle - which is pretty often as it turns out.

-We got a TON accomplished on the house yesterday (my closet is full of drawers and hanging bars, now) and we even have access to all our attic storage now. Furthermore: I put some real thought/consideration into what the nursery may look like (after receiving many detailed questions about what I wanted...) so am starting to not feel quite so overwhelmed. yay.


-oh - and the new pool pump has been installed and is working like a champ! the pool water swirls around like i ain't never seen. and with another few more gallons of chemicals and hours of Mr. Price's precious time - the pool should be good as new.

too busy for words

words on the blog that is. this is kind of ridiculous: blogging takes next-to-no-time to do, I enjoy doing it but my number of posts has totally tanked lately. this is bull.

another thing i love and has totally gone the way of the dodo: my THING is to decorate the day after thanksgiving. i love it. Friday morning and i'm blasting Burl Ives through the house and am decking the halls. anything that doesn't move gets holly, ornaments or those cute little PB cranberry wreaths. not this year. not yet this year, either.

it's like i'm in some weird kind of twilight zone where thanksgiving has already passed, Christmas-y things are going on and i'm not cursing them for being too early... but there is no sign of the event hitting my home.

sure we were out of town on for turkey day- but we came home that night and had entirely too much wine at my brother's house.... which left me extremely useless the next day.

while i'm griping about my own shortcomings: my midyear's resolutions... may as well get it this all out and over with now:
junk in the...

1. ...inbox: unopened emails has ballooned from 3,020 to 4,679. no credit on that one.
2. ...trunk: haven't worked out.
3. ...attic: haven't made any progress there, either
4. ...fridge: um..... (searching for something to qualify here....) i did clean out the fridge! but that wasn't the issue, it was being more organized about menus and i started the effort, but nope. no credit. big red "X."

So i guess i'm glad i don't 'do' new year's resolutions, because i clearly bombed my mid-year attempt.

In closing, I make this commitment: Tomorrow night, Me, a cup of hot chocolate (spiked with peppermint schnapps), and a ridonkulous amount of decorations.

It's on.

Mid-year resolutions, revisited

Thanks to Mimi for her clever input, my goals have been renamed for tracking purposes. Feel free to ask me 'So! How you doin with all that...

1. junk in the inbox (f/k/a 'email shortcomings ')
2. junk in the trunk
3. junk in the attic
4. junk in the fridge (f/k/a 'menus')
...anyway?"

Encouragement (or chastising, however you work best...) is appreciated!

Mid-Years' Resolutions

I never really make New Years' Resolutions, but I feel like a lot is going on right now and we're making some substantial changes in our day-to-day life so maybe this is the ideal time to institute some changes for the better.

1. email shortcomings
At this moment have exactly 3,020 unopened emails in my gmail account (yikes). To be sure, this is not something I'm particularly proud of. But where does one start at this point? I hate that there are email trails just hanging out there that I essentially killed by not being on top of my email. A quite clever friend started titling emails with things like "URGENT, Life or Death, HOT COFFEE!!!" to get attention in my inbox. Nice approach.

I totally remember a time when I was on totally on top of my emails and couldn't understand when people weren't. Note, I wrote "remember" because it is certainly not anything of recent history.

My goal is to get better at immediately organizing/filing/deleting emails as necessary and logging into my personal account on a more regular basis. Granted I've got some things working against me on that last part (gmail blocked from work) but nonetheless- I want to log to email at least 3 times a week AND respond to the emails I read/open... not just save them for later.

2. junk in the trunk
That's right - sister's derriere is, um, growing disproporiate to the rest of my frame -shall we say? I recognize that I lead a sedentary life and for quite some time now I had simply accepted that fact. Again, nothing I was particularly proud of-- it just is what it is.

Well, my plan is to start *gasp* horror of horrors... start ...exercising. Yep. Pam, my incredible physical therapist, has recommended several different activities for me and I want to start excercising 3 times a week. Or maybe 2 to start out with. They are all low impact of course and my back feels so much better the next day, not to mention the seemingly endless benefits.

Benefits such as my heart's health or saving the embarassment of gasping for breath after simply walking up a flight of stairs at work or the avoidance of being called lovingly referred to as 'thunda thighs' (or equivalent junior high slur) during sunday night family dinner.

3. junk in the attic
For the longest time, I postponed cleaning out all our junk and extra boxes "until the remodel was finished" Wouldn't you know, all the extra junk and boxes have actually played a part in postponing the completion of the remodel.

My goal is to get rid of a boat load of old clothes I never wear, books I'll never read and papers that simply collect dust.

This one is gonna be a tough one because clearly I come by the "pack rat" gene honestly (if you've ever been to my parents' or grandparents' houses - I KNOW you've got my back on this one). So this will be a true paradigm shift for me.

So dear friends, I call on you for help. Anyone who is particularly good at purging 'stuff' ...I will bake you a cake, organize your blog links, format recipe cards for you, (geez, my list of things to offer is pretty pathetic here) ...be forever indebted and share a few glasses of wine (bingo!) if you would be so kind to help me out on this one. I don't really know where to start.


4. menus
I haven't done it in over a year.... but when I did make a weekly 'menu' --or a couple weeks at a time-- it was INCREDIBLE how much effort and energy it saved. Yes, that's right. Between each night trying to figure out what to eat, if have the stuff for it, yada yada... or making trips to the grocery store and aimlessly wandering the isles with a general list in hand... it adds up.

When I would take the 20 minutes to sit down and write out a meal a night for a week (with maybe even some leftovers for lunch the next day)... it would save me 10-15 minutes per night. If you do the math... it's quite the time saver. Goal is to start this back up again.



I think I will stop here because i already feel a bit like a wet cat and wondering how the hell I'm gonna tackle all these things. One day at a time, right? Keep me on track.

And you? Any mid-year resolutions?