(2) Guitar Lessons & (79) Flossing

I started guitar lessons with Mike yesterday and love it so far! Having learned piano at a very young age and after playing flute for the past 18 years, it was such a weird concept to have to relearn music from a different perspective. New hand placement, different method of reading music...it was such a great feeling. I'll keep you guys updated as I learn more...

And I've decided to pick this month to start flossing every day. It's something I need to do anyway, but I really need to make it a habit. There are some people that can get away with not flossing as often, but I've come to learn that my teeth are so tightly packed together in some areas that I need to do it. Period. I think my dental bills last year speak for themselves and I don't need to go through all that again anytime soon. 3 days down, 27 to go! :)

Tons of Updates

2) Guitar lessons - I scheduled guitar lessons in April so I'm really looking forward to that. I have a basic Yamaha acoustic guitar so it will be a decent start.

19) Write a will - I get a nice discount through a financial service I use for a will, a living will and a spouse's will - ~$35, give or take. We'll look at doing that in the next few weeks, I expect.

23) Start a garden - Spring is here, time to pick out some herbs, veggies and maybe fruits from a local nursery. I made the mistake of trying seeds last year; I just don't have the discipline for it so I need to make things easier and buy the plant. :) Give me a week or two to buy them and post some pictures. :)

24) Start a budget - Chris and I are going to Dave Ramsey's Money Makeover Live event in Dallas next weekend. From there, we'll be making some big changes to our spending habits and starting a solid budget and savings plan. I'm looking forward to it! We've already closed and cut up a few store credit cards that were recently paid off. It feels so good and we're ready for more. :)

42) Join a community band - It's been over 2 months since I joined Band of the Hills and I love it! We had our first concert of the semester a couple weeks ago and it was a blast. I forgot how amazing it can sound on a stage in a well-designed space, sound-wise. We were invited to play at the Association of Concert Bands Convention in Houston on April 15th so we (including Chris) are going to hop on a bus that morning, perform in Houston and then head back to Austin late that night. It should be fun, considering the people in the band are from all different ages and backgrounds.

45) Habitat for Humanity - After doing some searching, I think I'm going to change this one to a general volunteer gig. There are so many causes and projects to volunteer with, I don't want to limit myself to just one. I was reading a magazine that had a few 100+ year old people give advice and one of them said to volunteer because it takes your mind off your own problems for a little bit. I definitely need to explore that avenue and stop dwelling on, what I think are, problems.

46) New glasses - My contacts are definitely not up to par anymore, prescription-wise, so I think I'll be scheduling an eye exam within the next month. Then, I'll look at getting glasses and contacts and recycling my old glasses. I love that frame, but they're just too old now. I think I got more than I could have out of those things. Time to let someone else benefit from them.

73) Farmer's Market - We haven't been in a few months so we're definitely overdue. We ARE picking strawberries this weekend, but that doesn't quite count in my book. Maybe we can go to one in April; there should be some good food to pick from now that spring is here.

84) 365-Day Photo Project - After a failed attempt to start on Jan 1st, we're going to try to restart this one on April 1st (no joke!). Here we go...again. :)

88) See Broadway musical - Tickets bought for Avenue Q on April 16th! I can't wait!!

96) Go camping - It's getting too warm too fast (why am I not used to that yet??), but maybe we can find a weekend in April to go camping one night. If not, we'll just have to wait until the fall. Ugh.

Ok, those are my quick updates for now... With Chris working an earlier shift than before, I'm hoping we can get back in the routine of watching 2-3 movies/week so we can start knocking off more IMDB movies. We've been behind on so much lately. Ok, until next time!!

Thanks for reading...

Random updates

Some quick updates that are serving more as a reminder for me. :)

Started the 100 push-up challenge last night and decided to be realistic and do wimpy girl/knee push-ups instead of regular ones... After I finish that challenge, I'll do it again, but with regular push-ups instead.

Found the recycle bin buried in the garage and will be starting the pile tonight. After glancing into the full trash can this past weekend, I realized just how many bottles and cans we throw away so I'm really excited to get that pile going.

Made a spreadsheet of the top 100 IMDB movies and notated which ones either I or a friend has so that we can get started on those. Then we'll probably join Netflix (might be available through the Xbox 360 by then!) to watch the rest.

I'll be making a copy of my dad's yoga dvd he got last week. It might be more hardcore than I need, but it's a start. If it's too advanced for a beginner like myself, I'll look for basic videos online and start there.

Think I'll mail something to PostSecret within the next week. That's an easy one...

I have a friend who teaches guitar lessons so hopefully we can work out a deal or something. Not too worried about that one.

For the public speaking class, I was informed of a very supportive group called Toastmasters. For a small membership fee, you meet once/week and have self-paced speaking exercises. I think I'll look into meeting places/times and at least sit through one to see if it floats my boat.

Same kind of deal for Habitat for Humanity. There are opportunities every weekend in Austin so that shouldn't be too difficult to do. I think I'll wait until fall or winter to do this though. :)

I'll be going through the pantry to get rid of any canned and dry goods that we've kept for months and either make something with it or just collect it to give to a food bank nearby. We can't even step into the pantry because there are so many boxes and random bags on the floor from when we moved in (2 yrs ago!) so yeah. I'll definitely get a before/after pic for that one.

Oh, to clarify, I'll be getting an eye exam and new glasses first and then will find out if I can even get Lasik at this point. My current contact prescription doesn't seem as good as it was so I'm sure I'll need a stronger prescription first.

And OMG, I found out Avenue Q is coming to Austin next April so that'll be my Broadway show (there aren't many others that I'm dying to see). So, yay! :)

Ok, I wrote way more than I intended so that's all for now. :)