I'm back!

A lot has happened since the last post. I really hope I can gather up the time and patience to put something together. In the meantime, I've created another blog for the newest "project" in my life that might help me attain another goal (and make me a much happier person). Check it out and hopefully I'll have more to update here very soon.

Also, I have restarted the 365 Day Photo Project and really hope I can stick with it this time, especially after starting my other new project. I'll definitely want to see how I've changed over the next year. :)

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.

(84) 365 Day Photo Project

Happy April Fools!!

I've started a new 365-Day Photo Project today that will be uploaded to the flickr photo set in the right sidebar. Enjoy!

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...

Where'd I go?

Yeah, I'm not really sure where I went. I was physically here, but mentally, I've been anywhere but. Anyway, I have SO many things to post about, but I'll just make a quick list of things to remind me to make longer posts later (and to make sure everyone knew I was still alive and well and at least trying to keep up)...

Movies I've seen and still need to post about:

- The Professional
- Amelie
- Fight Club

There are at least 10 movies on the DVR (I love my AT&T Uverse!) and probably 20+ in our collection that we need to start watching. We had a solid groove of watching 2-3/week a couple months ago, but who knew we'd be busy as the holidays crept closer? :)

Let's see...I also completed the following:

- Vote in the '08 election
- Participate in a 5k
- Read one book every month (x2)
- New recipe every month (x2)
- Attend a UT football game

Things I just can't seem to do on a regular basis:

- Ride bike once/month
- Yoga once/week
- Meditate once/month
- Detail CR-V interior once/month

I feel like I've failed the ones above, but I need to remind myself that I'm really bad about starting routines, but once I repeat it a few times, I'm set. I need to actually schedule it in and make no excuses. They really don't take that much time so I'll see if I can put more effort into these and at least do it for a majority of the 1001 days. :)

Things I've started, never finished and will have to restart again:

- 100-Push-up challenge
- 365 Days Photo project (will start again on Jan 1st to make it easier to track)

And finally, things that I'd like to finish (that are more than feasible) before the end of the year:

- Clear/organize garage to be able to fit one car
- Buy new washer/dryer (if Sears or Home Depot will give me a good deal on Black Friday)
- Mail a secret to PostSecret
- Clean off work desk to minimize clutter
- Visit 5 places in USA's top 41 wonders (going to NYC in a month!)
- Pay for the person behind me in a drive-through
- Finish laser hair removal treatments (I may need one more appt in '09, but we'll see)

Ok, after listing everything out like that, I don't feel so bad about the things I haven't done and have at least given myself a renewed burst of motivation to get back to it. Hopefully I can post some pictures and movie reviews soon...

(84) 365 Photos - Update

Quick update. Rather than post pictures here periodically, I went ahead and inserted a flash Flickr album on the right side showing the ones recently added to my "365days" folder. I only have 4 right now so there will be repeats, but not for long. :)

(73) Farmer's Market, (77) Life Insurance, (84) 365 Photos, (51) Yoga

Went to the Farmer's Market this past weekend. I didn't get that many pictures because it was too hot for my brain to fully function, but I did manage to get a few pictures (in B/W because I forgot to change it to color):

Market from across the street:

A piece of sausage rolled off my plate and the nearby pigeon(s) had some issues trying to eat it:


In other news, we signed the papers for life insurance today! Nothing special... just a 15-year policy for now. Because I like to document things with pictures, here you go:


I also officially started my Flickr 365-day self portrait project. I'll be taking a picture of myself every day for the next year and uploading to my album on Flickr. The first few have been the typical face/head shots, but I'll be getting more creative and goofy as I go, so enjoy! I may post pictures on here, but not sure yet.

And last but not least, I finally started doing yoga on Sunday, although it's not as involved as I expected. My parents gave me a couple dvd's, but I happened to have a beginner dvd that I bought over a year ago so I started with that. I'll definitely do it on the weekends, but since each routine (separate AM and PM ones) is only 20 min, I can at least do the PM one during the week.

(51) Yoga, (73) Farmers Market, (84) 365-Self Portrait

Ack! So I still haven't actually taken the time to learn some basic yoga and start doing it. I'll find a quick youtube video or something and at least do 10 minutes tomorrow morning to start.

We're also going to the farmer's market tomorrow so that'll be my once-every-three-months visit. It's so far away so I didn't want to push it and set a goal for once/month, but I'd like to go that frequently if we can.

Oh, Chris and I will be starting the 365 day self-portrait challenge very soon so stay tuned! I expect I'll update once/week on that with 7 thumbnails of that week's pictures.