Resolutions?

So, who actually does resolutions still? I considered it this year. But, the things I need to change for this year are the normal things...lose weight, correct eating habits, get my backside in gear at school, etc etc etc. Nothing exciting there. And I thought, why do a resolution? I always break them anyway. lol Resolutions have become this routine thing that everyone talks about around new years eve, then on new years day, they have already forgotten it, thanks to the drunken stupor from the night before. lol I still have those resolution type things on my list to do, but not in the same area of my brain. I want to give them more weight, so to speak. lol My neurologist wants me to lose weight. How much weight? Well, that is relative. Based on my BMI, I should get down to 135. I am currently about 195. However!, I was at 135 before, and I didn't like it. I was way too thin. So, in my mind, I think 160 is the number to shoot for. It's comfortable, healthy, and very realistic. I read in the newspaper today that X-weighted is starting a 26 week challenge starting this weekend. You can participate as you wish, and you can either weigh in at the national weight in day, or on your own. I'll probably do it on my own, because it's not an easy place for me to get to from where we live.

So, 26 weeks. That's not so bad. It's a realistic time period for weight loss. So, I input my weight, height and measurements. Their program on their website has decided I should lose 31 pounds in 6 months. That seems like a decent enough number. The fun part is actually doing the work that is required to lose that weight. For me, I have a problem of being able to keep up with it. I find if I get to busy, with school or whatever, that I drop the workouts. I think I need to retrain myself on that one., because I do find that when I workout I feel better. I just have to be cautious to not overdo it. I was told that overdoing it is just as bad for me as doing nothing. So, time to find that balance. I'm also hoping that with the exercise and portion control and stuff, that I will be able to better control my sugars. The exercise alone can help a lot with that. Bring on the challenge!!

And the year has begun

Even though New Years was last year, this is our first week of actually living in 2010. lol We were sick and exhausted for the first few days. Now, we are back to classes and getting back into the swing of things. Right now I am trying to get my brain to engage back into studying. Classes started 2 days ago, and being back to the normal routine in Greek, we most likely have a quiz tomorrow on some vocabulary. I am just trying to get my brain to remember it. lol For now, I'll leave it and work on assembling my sweater. I find that if I work on something for too long I just get tired, and irritated. My brain just works better when I work on it for a bit, then go back to it in a little while.

I actually took the time to make lasagna for supper. I hope it turns out well. It looked pretty good in the pan. hehe I only have to wait about another 6 minutes for it to be done, then I just have to cool it for a little bit. Well, maybe not. I get impatient and dig in right away. lol I made my first lasagna with ricotta a few months ago. I absolutely loved it! I don't normally have ricotta cheese in the lasagna, so that was a real treat. Now every lasagna I make has it. :D

My 365 project is on hold already. *sigh* But, I can't do it unless I have a camera to take pictures with. Well, I have a camera I can use, but I can't get the pictures off. So, that defeats the purpose. We have the camera on order, but it could be a couple weeks before it arrives. I settled on the Nikon Coolpix P90. It's not great, but it's not crappy either. It's a middle of the road camera. Many of the reviews said that if you want better quality go to an SLR. Well, since I didn't want to invest in an SLR right now, that seems like it should be a fine camera for what I need. Although one review said not to use it to take pictures of kids or animals. What? There is no reason why it shouldn't be better than what we have now. We are going from a 4 megapixel to a 12 megapixel. That in itself will be an improvement for me. Please, you can't tell me that you can't take a decent picture of pets and kids. Maybe not with the 24X zoom fully out, but duh...that zoom is never going to have great quality. Not for the price of the camera. I'm sure I'll rarely use the 24X zoom. I figure it will be good to have about a 10X zoom to get up tighter on something. But, I don't necessarily want a full zoom like that anyway. This just happens to come with it. lol Once I have it and have used it for a bit, I'll do my own review on it.

2010 already!

Wow! I can't believe that 2009 is gone. Here we sit at the beginning of 2010, and it seems like 2009 shouldn't be done already. I feel so incomplete. lol Either way, I sit here in 2010 looking forward at the year ahead of me. I'm not really a big resolution person, but I do like to set goals and such. Now to plan out the goals.

1) The highest priority on my list is being able to spend time each day in prayer, contemplation, etc. I think it's very important for me to be able to devote time each day to God. I have been very slack in doing that, and that is something that needs to change.

2) Another thing on my list is organization. I am terribly unorganized, which drives me insane. Something that needs to be done is to be able to arrange my day, without being anal about timing on things, but to be able to make sure I allow time for house cleaning, school work, cooking, etc. Right now, time seems to slip by and I have accomplished nothing.

3) A new project that I have taken on is the 365 project. Although first I need a camera. lol The 365 project is a blog project to take picture every day to document a year of your life. I think that is a great project to do. I think it will be fun to document various things.

Those are the main things on my list right now. hehe Although that is subject to change.

Today's Small Successes:
1) I managed to conquer cleaning the kitchen. Everything is totally disinfected, and organized. Even some of the utensils were organized, thanks to some help from my DH.

2) I have finished knitting most of my sweater. Today I finally remembered to pin it together and place it under a damp cloth to shape it.

3) Today the diet started. My portions have been shrunk to a more realistic size. Also, I have drank more water today than most other days.

4) Finally managed to sort the two bookshelves that have been irritating me for weeks. :D They look so much better!

Christmas Vacation!!

Well, we are now officially on Christmas vacation. We took the cats to the kennel this afternoon. Now we are tidying and packing. Hopefully our plane will get off tomorrow without too much trouble. We are getting hit with snow here in Halifax, but it doesn't seem to be that much. The airport has stayed open during the height of the storm, so I'm not too worried about it. The big fun will be getting into Dulles. Right now they are busting their behinds to get everything reopened. As of 6:30est, they had 2 out of 4 runways open. Since we don't land until 4:00 tomorrow afternoon, and since flights have been able to land at Dulles today, we should be fine.

I felt bad taking the cats to the kennel. Mavy was not impressed. Daisy cried the whole way there. Of course, it was a 30 minute drive, so that was fun. lol The room isn't all that big, but it's better than some of the ones I've seen where they are in a cage. They have a window, and a couple ledges to go up on to look out. Hopefully the lady in charge will take them out to play with and things. Luckily we aren't gone for too awfully long. A few times we've gone for 18 days to VA. This time is only 10. We are hoping that we will have some time when we get back to do some work on the kitchen cabinets. I'll be looking forward to picking up the kitties on the 1st. :D

Projects

I have been working on a bunch of knitting projects lately, and I'm really enjoying it. I made myself an afghan, almost finished a cable knit sweater, have made some shawls, and bunch of other stuff. I want to keep going with the knitting and crocheting, but of course I have one hurdle. What do I do with everything I make?

So, I came up with 2 ideas. Idea 1 is that I will make a bunch of afghans and towels, etc, and sell them at a craft fair. Idea 2 is that I will try to also make baby blankets, baby hats and mitts, and donate them to the local hospital. That way, I can keep on knitting and things, and have a purpose behind them. It seems better that way. I hate to spend my time doing this stuff, only to feel like it is frivolous.

Once I get finished with the items for Christmas, I have to finish Joe's blanket that I promised him, finish my sweater, and then I am good to go on the new projects. :D

What a week!

Goodness, this has been one terrible week. lol It all started last Tuesday, when I fell on the stairs. I didn't fall down the stairs, but it was bad enough. I banged up my right leg a fair bit, hurt my right wrist, and hurt my tail bone and spine. My leg is healing, but my wrist is taking a while. It helps support so much of my weight at times, that it's hard for it to heal. I didn't realize just how bad my back was, until I went for my massage yesterday. My spine hurts to have anything touching it. And sitting, as you can imagine, is an interesting premise. It's easier to say I put my back out, but it's not quite that. In some ways, it is like my muscles are pulling on my spine, but it's more that my spine actually just hurts. It feels bruised. Sleeping last night was terrible. My back is so cramped and sore that my stomach and legs are cramped and sore. Blech! I kept dreaming last night, and every dream involved my sore back. *sigh*

So, I'm home from school again today. Thank goodness we are at the end of the semester, and only doing review for Greek. I am going to do my own review here at home, to see how I do. If I get really confused or have anything I'm just not getting, I can always send off an email to the Prof. He's awesome about that.

Other than boatloads of studying, I am still trying to pump out the stuff for Mom and Dad's Christmas presents. I don't think they read this blog, but I will hold off saying what I'm doing, in case they do read it. hehe Let's just say, I have a lot to do before I get this sent off. I decided on what to get them for Christmas, a bit late in the game. hehe I did manage to get Grammie's present finished though. Yay! We gave that to her on Sunday. Luckily I enjoy what I am doing, so that helps. :D Well, on that note, I should get back to it. hehe