Broadway, Goodfellas, Flossing, Garage, Veggies

So many things to update! I've had this post in my drafts folder for a while so it's about time I finish it and post it already.

I've been wanting to see the Broadway musical "Avenue Q" for over 4 years so I think I hyped this up too much so I didn't enjoy it as much as I could have. Also, because I scored a great deal on the tickets, we sat in the 2nd to last row and had to rely on binoculars to see the details. I was extremely happy that there was nobody sitting to my right though because I had some room to stretch out a bit. And the girl in front of me was short so that made it easier to see. :) Anyway, as for the musical, it was cute, but I think almost too cute for me. In a nutshell, the characters are both puppets and humans, just out of college, dealing with the hardships that come with the real world. My favorite characters were the Bad Idea Bears - they would give...well, bad ideas. For example, they'd suggest buying a case of beer instead of just a couple because you know, buying in bulk saves money in the long run! That's my kind of thinking, haha. It was definitely worth the tickets and I look forward to checking out other musicals as they come through town. The following video has a lot of the same actors we saw.



GoodFellas

I finally watched "Goodfellas"! I had seen parts here and there so some parts were more familiar than others, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. It essentially narrates the coming of a boy in a troubled neighborhood who gets involved with the Mob and moves his way up the ladder into bigger and badder things. It shows the highs and lows of the life and how it can affect the people around you. I was already a big fan of Ray Liotta so his performance in this was very believable and enthralling. If you don't mind the occasional gangster/mob movie, I'd definitely recommend this! The cast is phenomenal, the story is touching and it's mindblowing to think this is based on a true story. I feel young when I watch this. :)

After we had to deal with filing a hail-damage claim on our car, we decided to get in gear and clean out the garage enough to at least fit one car. We spent a full day in April and took as much out as we can and sorted through a ton. Aside from being a little windy, it was a beautiful day so it wasn't as bad as we anticipated. Here's a picture of during the cleanup:


We ended up with a car FULL of things to donate to Goodwill and barely enough room to fit the car for another storm that had hail potential. It felt so good to be able to close the garage and see the car safely sheltered from the elements. I will say though, that we recently bought a hot tub and a piano from a garage sale and now both items are pretty much taking up all the space. I still consider a goal done, but we're anxious to get the car back in the garage soon.



Moving on... I flossed every day in the month of April! I've had a few cavities pop up lately and I've had some sensitive teeth so I really needed to be careful and floss regularly so that motivated me to get through the month. It amazed me how quickly it became a habit and I didn't feel the need or urge to make excuses not to do it. I'm proud of myself and really hope I don't make it seem like such a chore anymore. I value my teeth and really need to start taking care of them better so I hope this will stick with me. Oh, and this is my floss of choice. It's thin enough to fit between my tightly packed teeth...and it's quite cheap! :)

In regards to the 365 day photo project, we had some camera issues in April so we weren't able to consistently take pictures, but we will definitely be starting again on June 1st.

We're halfway through the month and I'm still going strong with the vegetarian gig. There were a couple times I had to catch myself before picking off a piece of sausage off a pizza I was cooking or eating a small bit of ham while making Chris' sandwich. I've really learned to appreciate and rely on Morningstar and Gardenburger to get my protein. I also picked up a 12-pack of frozen single-serving edamame bowls from Costco. It's somewhat of a pain to have to pop them out of the pods, but they were super cheap and it's convenient so it's well worth the light hassle.

Well, I'm sure I had a few more things to update, but I just don't have the time right now and I'd rather get at least some post up than wait yet another week or however long it'll take to get back to this.

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...

Quick random updates

Very quick update so I can feel like I actually made a real post...

Take welding class - I have a friend who can probably teach me so hopefully I can make some time for lessons. It'll definitely be sometime this year.

Read one book/month - I've maybe missed a month, but have been trying really hard to keep motivated to read a book every month. Some of the books were short or in comic form so that's kind of cheating, but each book still requires some level of commitment so that's a big step for me. I need to get the exact titles together so I can actually post up everything I've read. :) The book I hope to start soon is "The Witches of Eastwick" - I feel a little ashamed of the fact that the recent death of the author made me consider this book. I wouldn't have given it a second glance otherwise.

Join a community band - I joined the Band of the Hills and went to my first rehearsal on January 8. I got sick that week so I had to skip the next week's practice, but I've been going consistently since and look forward to our concert in Austin and Houston. I may even stay longer than 6 months, but we'll see where things are by then.

Buy a new bed - I think I more meant to buy a new bed mattress, but this is a step in the right direction. We bought a new MALM platform bed frame from IKEA, which enabled us to get rid of the box spring. I'm so happy about that! Hopefully we can look at a new mattress later this year or early next year.

Visit 5 of USA's top 41 wonders - saw the following during our trip to NY/NJ last month: New York Skyline View, Statue of Liberty, American Museum of Natural History and Times Square at Night. That leaves one more to go! I'll admit that list is a little weird and non-conventional. The Alamo should definitely be on that list, but it's not. Oh well, I picked it so I will have to just go visit other places. :)

See a broadway musical - I just bought tickets to "Avenue Q" on April 16th! I've been trying to see that musical for a while and when I found out it's coming to Austin and tickets are only $20, I had to jump on it. The seats are horrible, but that's alright. :)

Ok, time to get back to my regularly scheduled life... stay tuned!

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. :)