Goodbye 2013!

As the evening has progressed, I've been seeing a lot of posts on Facebook about how 2013 was a great year or was the best one yet.  I can't say that I share those same feelings for 2013.  Over the past few weeks all I've been thinking is that I can't wait for 2013 to be over.  The year was ok, not stellar, but ok and I think the end of September was really the turning point that sent the rest of the year spiraling downward.  I wasn't even in the mood to put up any of my holiday decorations for 3 of my favorite holidays - Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas!  Without going into too much detail, there have been some struggles both at work and at home.  Just about every day that I tried to take off during the last 3 months, I ended up working part or all of the day due to issues that dragged me in.  There have been a lot of changes at my job that have been putting a lot of strain on my department.  I was never really able to get into the mindset to get my eating and fitness in order.  I've been putting off researching and starting the preparations for our upcoming deployment.  My Aunt and Grandmother passed away in September and October.  Freddy had 2 cousins pass away in August and November.  Freddy had to miss Marshall's birthday for the 2nd year in a row and missed his first Halloween trick or treating due to a 3 week training for his deployment.  The week before Christmas we had to say goodbye to our Hadley way too early and Marshall's fish died while we were away for the holidays.

Needless to say I'm pretty happy to close the door on 2013.

I will be spending a lot of tomorrow just trying to come up with a game plan for 2014.  I have some ideas and I am eager to make 2014 about me.  I have never really focused on me on a large scale before but that's what I'm going to do.  My motto for 2014 is going to be "About Me in 2014" and I can't wait.

But, until then I hope you enjoy the last 20 minutes of 2013… at least on the East Coast :)  Whether you had a great 2013 or can't wait for it to end, I hope you have a happy and healthy 2014!

~AKO

The Date is Set

The deployment date has been set so now starts the countdown.  Being that we're dealing with the Army, I know things could change tomorrow, but at least we have a general date to work towards and plan around.  We still have a few months, but with the holidays around the corner I know it will go fast and deployment day will be here before we know it.

I've been trying to get us to do as much stuff as a family as we can before he leaves that I am exhausted!  I told Freddy that he was going to have so much family fun and activities crammed down his throat over the next few months that his head would be spinning :)

I think job #1 is making a list of the items that we have to get done before he leaves... like getting the gutters cleaned and covered... an electrician needs to come in and look at the light in the garage... things like that.  I think I'll need to put my project manager hat on for the next few months and try not to drive everyone else crazy!

Family fun will continue tomorrow when we have to go out and shovel the driveway and sidewalks from all the snow we got today!

~AKO

Changes...

It has actually been longer then I thought since I've posted anything.  The truth of the matter is that I just didn't feel like doing much online over the past few months.  I went through (and probably still trying to get out of) a little down period in my life.

I haven't really posted it much anywhere and have really only told a few people, but Freddy is scheduled to deploy early next year.  I'm still trying to wrap my head around it.  We dodged the last deployment bullet that was supposed to happen last year but I have a feeling we won't be dodging this one.  The longest that Freddy has been gone since we've been together is 6 weeks back in 2011.  But this time we're talking up to 9 months out of the country.  Marshall turns 4 next year and, by then, Freddy will have missed 3 of his 4 birthdays because of some kind of Army obligation.  Freddy was gone for 3 weeks in October, and Marshall had a really hard time with it.  He is at the age where he knows daddy is gone but he doesn't understand why.  What I have gotten him to understand is that daddy is away with the Army.

So I've been trying to figure out what I need to do to get through this.  I know one thing is this blog.  I feel like I will need to get my thoughts and feelings out some way and now sound like I'm whining on Facebook!  I know I won't be doing one of those counting up things that some mil spouses do because I KNOW I won't be able to commit to blog every day.  BUT, what I'm thinking is, at the very least, doing a monthly deployment recap or something like that.  I am a little concerned with trying to hold down the home front with 4 cats, a toddler, and a high stress full time job.  I know others have done it before me but I just hope that it won't take us long to get into our new normal.

I'm not sure what they do for Active Duty personnel and their families who are getting ready to deploy, but for the National Guard, they hold what is called a Yellow Ribbon event.  It is an all day event that provides A LOT of information on the services and resources that will be available to us while our service member is deployed.  Most of us do not live near a base so we don't receive this type of information regularly.  Our Yellow Ribbon event was yesterday.  I ended up with 2 tote bags full of pamphlets and papers to read through!  I think I'm going to have to create a couple file folders dedicated specifically to this deployment in our filing cabinet.  Throughout a full 8 hours of briefings and information, one thing stuck in my head.  It was during the 20 minutes or so that our FRG leaders had to talk to us with the service members out of the room.  Our FRG leader just had her husband deploy for the 4th time 4 days ago.  We are the only unit that she is responsible for that is also deploying around the same time but one of the things that she mentioned was about self improvement.  She said to focus on at least one task of self improvement during the deployment.  So here I am…

I will be working to get myself organized over the next few months.  Heck, I may even take the full week that Freddy leaves off from work!  But, one of the things that I had set up a couple months ago for fun and haven't really given much thought about until now is the Day Zero Project.  I actually got the idea from the blog She Follows The Sun.  Basically it is a list of 100 things that you want to do in 1001 days.  The site keeps track of your start and end date and also allows you to keep a "Someday" list.  So, here we go… I have my list of 100 things that I want to do in 1001 days.  I definitely plan to write some blog posts when I do finish any of them.  1001 is about 2 1/2 years.  Plenty of time to get some stuff done right??  You can follow my progress HERE.

So that's about it for now…  Look for some redesign coming to this blog in the coming weeks so I apologize in advance for any broken pictures or links.

~AKO

1st Time at the Dentist

Today marked Marshall's 1st dentist visit.  Since Marshall is kind of hit and miss with new people I knew I wanted to find someone who had a good track record with children.  So I hit Google to see what our options were.  As luck would have it, there was a pediatric dentist about 2 miles away from our house.  I read their reviews and followed their Facebook page for a few weeks and saw nothing but positive feedback for the dentists and their staff so I went ahead and made an appointment.

When we first walked in, the first thing you see is a white board where they welcome their new patients.  I thought that was a nice touch.


Of course, what is a children's doctor's office without a play area?  As soon as Marshall saw that, all hesitation about walking into the room went right out the door.

Once we got inside the exam room, Marshall got nervous again with both the dentist and the assistant in the room.  So Freddy got in the chair and let Marshall sit on his lap.  Somehow, with Marshall almost clenching his teeth, the dentist was able to clean his teeth and do an exam.  All the while Marshall was yelling "I don't want to brush my teeth!"  
The diagnosis:  No cavities and four 2-year molars breaking through.
Once the cleaning and exam were done, Marshall was all smiles as soon as he heard "Do you want to pick a prize?"  He even gave the assistant a high-five.  Overall, the whole experience went 100 times better then I expected.
Afterwards, we treated Marshall to lunch at Old McDonald's (aka McDonald's!).


~AKO

Street Fair Fun

Today we ran into (literally) the All About Downtown street fair in Jersey City.  Marshall had his Gymboree class this morning and the street fair was happening right outside so after class we went over to check it out.


There were some nice vendors from the area that we had no idea existed so it was interesting to see the different products displayed.  Marshall, of course, enjoyed the kids area with the bounce houses and slides.


Before we left we stopped by to see the girls at the Gymboree table and Marsh played a few games of beanbag toss.

After our busy day at the street fair, Marshall slept the entire way home :)
~AKO

Milestones

On February 14th, 2011, we dropped Marshall off at his new day care as I had to go back to work 2 days later.  I selected his "1st day of day care" outfit carefully.

When we dropped him off, he had his own crib and cubby for his supplies.  They let us take some pictures of the area.

Of course, as any mommy dropping their baby off at day care for the first time I was a wreck.  And to top it off we had to go to a funeral that day for one of Freddy's Army buddies who had recently passed away.  Anyway, Marshall was perfectly fine when we picked him up...

Fastforward 2 1/2 quick years later and Marshall has finished up his last day at day care.  Friday was his last day and Monday he starts pre-school.  His teachers were kind enough to take some photos of his last day and got pictures of Marshall with all of the teachers that he's had over the past couple of years.

 
They even brought in some munchkins for the kids for his last day.  We couldn't have asked for a better day care experience then what we've had over the past 2 1/2 years.  It is a little bittersweet as Marshall moves on to the next milestone tomorrow for his 1st day of pre-school.
~AKO

Through the Eyes of a Child

So, Marshall, being the crafty 2 year that he is, knows how to use the camera feature on my phone.  Well, a couple weeks ago, he got a hold of it without my knowledge and snapped a few shots.



We're thinking of getting Marshall his own little camera to document what he sees at his level.
What do your little ones see?
~AKO

My Story

I was recently invited to my first Origami Owl jewelry bar hosted by April Slipsager.  I had heard of Origami Owl before and had browsed their products and options in the past but had never purchased anything. Whenever one of my friends invites me to one of their parties, no mater what it is for, I always try to purchase something.  I would like to think that should I ever decide to host something that all of these purchases will invite some purchases in return :)

Orgami Owl's main slogan is "Tell Your Story" so I spent 2 hours looking through each of their lockets, charms, tags, and chains to find the perfect combination to tell my story.  My finished locket arrived in the mail yesterday and I couldn't be more happy with the final results.

And here it is!  I had to take the photo without the flash so it looks much darker than it really is.  The chain and locket are silver in color and the back plate is rose in color.


I chose the "Family" back plate because, to me, nothing is more important than family.  I've recently had to reevaluate a close relationship in my live and am now very focused on my family.  Marshall and Freddy are number 1 and everyone else comes after.  The dangling "O" charm is for our family name.
In the locket I have the following charms:
Birthstones:  It is hard to see in the picture, but I have 1 birthstone charm each for me (June), Freddy (November), and Marshall (October).  Marshall was 5 days away from being born on the same day of the month as me and Freddy as well as our anniversary :)  The good thing is should we add to our family, I can add another birthstone.
Cat Paw:  I'm sure this is pretty self explanatory :)  This is to represent our 4 fur babies who are just as much a part of our family as anyone.
Faith:  I have recently been exploring my own personal faith and how it relates to my family and how we will overcome our struggles in the future.
Yellow Ribbon:  I may not always support the "Why" but I will always support our troops.
American Flag:  Anyone who knows me knows that I am very proud to be an American.  I was raised to love my country and be proud of my roots no matter what.  That's what happens when you grow up on the back of a Harley in the Midwest :)
I also received the Postcard charm that says "I Love You" on it.  I plan to include that one in the locket whenever Freddy is gone.  I love that the locket opens and you can switch out charms whenever you want.
In the near future I may also purchase some of the holiday charms to switch out.
How would you tell your story?
~AKO

Wordless Wednesday: What About Us, Dad?

~AKO

#5Things4Me

Semper Fi Momma has been hosting a weekly link up to focus on the one thing that mommies seem to not be able to do... themselves. And I am probably up there at the top of the guilty list. So, I'm going to join her and others to try and do five things for me each week. They don't have to be big.... just for me.

Every Monday I will try to post what I want to do just for me and report on what I was able to do :)

For this week, I thought I would give myself an easy list to complete since we're heading into a holiday weekend.

1.  Clean off the dining room table.  Now I know what you're thinking... this seems like work!  Not for me!  I love decorating my house and, unfortunately, our dining room table has become a catch all of junk.  I have a nice centerpiece and table cloth that I want to use and can't until the blasted thing is cleaned off.

2.  Organize the Tupperware.  Again, you might be thinking this is work.  No way!  For some reason my husband can seem to properly stack our tupperware in the tupperware cabinet and just shoves stuff in there.  In addition, he has started a tupperware tower on our dining room table.  It is driving me crazy!

3.  Organize Pictures.  I recently (yesterday) discovered that I had over 300 pictures hanging out on my SLR camera.  I'm sure I have just as many on my little purse camera.  In addition, now that I have a MacBook, it will be easy to download and organize the pictures from my iPhone and iPad so I can keep the space free on those devices.  Plus, it will make it easier for me to catch up with my 365 Project for 2013 :)

4.  Print & Complete Picture Collage Frame.  I bought this giant picture collage type frame last year from Target that is still sitting empty in our basement.  I know where I want to put it, but I've got to get the pictures in it.

5.  Unpack 1 box.  So we moved into our house last September and we still have unpacked boxes in the basement, our bedroom, and Marshall's bedroom.  Just 1 box....

Look for how I did next week!

~AKO

Family Camp-A-Thon 2013!

Every year during the month of August (sometimes July), my mom's side of the family gets together for what we call the Sargent Family Camp-A-Thon.  We always plan our summer trip home to Michigan to coincide with the camping trip.  You see, I grew up camping and love it... Freddy not so much so I'm working on converting him.  We try to go to a different campground every year and, no matter where we go, have a lot of fun.

Last year was the first year that all of us cousins showed up with our own kids so we decided to go to Jellystone Park this year since it has a lot of activities for kids.  This was Marshall's 3rd year camping so we were all pretty excited to go.  The only sucky part was that Freddy had his Annual Training with the Guard during this week so he missed out on all the fun :(

Day 1

All packed up and ready to go!


And the trek has started.  And don't worry... this was taken before we left.  Marsh was secured in his car seat before we actually pulled out :)


After 2 1/2 hours, and a few wrong turns by Grandma we finally made it!

Day 2
The 2nd day was filled with wagon rides, playgrounds, arts & crafts, swimming and campfires.  Marshall was super excited to decorate his own cowboy hat.  I might add the theme for the weekend was "Wet & Wild West".  Marshall loved riding on the big kids bikes too.  Of course, with some help from Aunt Andrea and Cousin Jacob.

We also went swimming.  They had a little 1 foot deep kiddie pool that was perfect for Marshall.  He LOVES being in the water.  Did I mention he loves being in the water???

 

And, of course, the day ended with a cozy campfire.

 

Day 3

On day 3, we actually did something that I've never done before.  We went on a dune buggy tour.  The campground is near the Silver Lake Sand Dunes, which are between Silver Lake and Lake Michigan.  So we all decided to hit up one of the dune buggy tours.  To be honest, I almost didn't go, but then thought, when will Marsh have the chance to do this again so we tagged along!  The wait was around 45 minutes and every time they called out the last names of the parties to board the dune buggy, Marshall would yell "What about Marshall??"  Since we put the reservation under my brother's last name, which is Marshall, when they did finally call it out, Marsh got so excited because they called him to his dune buggy :)

As we were going over the dunes, Marshall kept raising his hands up like he was on a roller coaster ride.  I see visits to Cedar Point in our future!

 
And what would a trip be without a picture of Marshall running around like a crazy person :)  The picture on the right is a good visual of how high the sand dunes are.  The brown trees that you see poking through the top of the dunes are actually around 50 feet high.  Silver Lake loses 3 - 5 feet every year because of the dunes that are blown in from Lake Michigan.  They have already covered 14 homes and a farm!  We saw one cottage that was already half covered with sand.

During the tour they stopped and let us get out to walk along Lake Michigan for a few minutes.  It was very calm and relaxing.

And this was our failed attempt at getting a decent picture of the two of us sitting by the campfire :)

Day 4
We were scheduled to leave after 3 fun-filled days of family and craziness.  Marshall helped Cousin JR tear down his tent.

And the ride home seemed to take forever, but we finally made it.  Marshall helped Grandma back the truck and camper into the driveway.

I mentioned this was Marshall's 3rd camping trip with the Sargent family.  Look for some posts for Flashback Friday on both trips as they were fairly eventful :)

~AKO

Not Done...

So I didn't get the post done about our camping trip today because I'm still working on getting the pictures uploaded and organized!  Turns out I had approximately 350 pictures hanging out on my camera spanning the past 8 months!  Talking about crazy mommy photographer fail!!

In addition, I recently purchased one of these bad boys:


I've never owned an Apple before so I'm suffering through a HUGE learning curve.  So add that on top of over 300 photos to sift through and organize needless to say I didn't get my post done.  Here's hoping for tomorrow!
~AKO

Caught in Between

I've been reading Military Spouse magazine off and on for the past couple of years.  The articles and columns are usually geared toward spouses of Active and Deployed service members.  Every once in awhile I will find something interesting or that pertains to our situation.

Starting with last month's issue, they started a regular column that focuses on Reserve and Guard families.  The first article was about the difference in send off between Active and Reserve/Guard service members by a spouse who has done both.  It hit a little close to home as we are currently preparing for a deployment starting in February.

This month's column was titled "Welcome to the Civilitary."  It really put into words what I've been struggling with over the past 2 years and gave us a title.  When I say "us" I mean those connected to the Reserves and the Guard.  I never thought about it this way before, but one of the spouses interviewed (an Army National Guard spouse) put it best when she called it "Civilitary."  And she is 100% correct.  We don't really fit into the civilian world and we don't really fit into the military world.

Freddy was supposed to deploy last October for 11 months.  About 4 weeks before they were supposed to report, they scaled back from 48 guys to 15 and he wasn't selected.  BUT, we spent the summer preparing for this deployment.  Freddy and I have been together since 2005 and married since 2008, but it wasn't until I attended a Yellow Ribbon Event last August that I found out about a lot of military services and opportunities that were available to us.  As a National Guard family, we just aren't regularly exposed to a lot of information unless we seek it out.

In addition, there isn't the same support structure.  None of my nearby friends or co-workers are military.  I even had one of my close friends comment that I'm not the same as an Active duty spouse and why would I think otherwise.  Sure... we don't have the same struggles, but we still have struggles related to the military.  We have to balance our civilian responsibilities with our military responsibilities.  I work a fairly high stress IT job so when Freddy is gone, the stress is even higher keeping up with my work as the Director of a Project Management department (which involves evening and weekend implementations) along with double duty at home completing both Freddy's chores and my chores.  There are many nights I'm taking out the trash at 2:00AM because I couldn't get to it before then.  I am fairly lucky in that my boss is pretty flexible with me when Freddy is gone.  As long as I'm getting my job done I can telecommute a couple days a week if I need to.

I would love to be able to take advantage of the PX or the Commissary more often, but we live almost 2 hours away from the nearest military base.  I'm probably going to have to take a day off work just to get in there to get my ID renewed since they aren't open on weekends and only open until 4pm during the week.

Marshall starts pre-school in 2 weeks and I can guarantee he will be one of very few, if any, military kids in his class.  He is now getting to the age where he knows when daddy is gone but doesn't understand why.  What do you tell a 2 year old who lays in bed crying "I miss my daddy!" :(

And can we talk about my cats?  For some reason all 4 turn into holy terrors the second Freddy leaves!

But seriously, as I sit here thinking about the new deployment that is a definite for February and what needs to be completed before he leaves, I'm wondering if we'll be able to hold it together.  What I can say is the online Military spouse community has been priceless in the amount of information I've been able to absorb from them.  But the reality of the situation is we are caught in between the civilian world and the military world and expected to function full time in both.

All we can do is what any family does... power through!

~AKO

Wake Up and Be Awesome!

That is going to be my new motto from now on...  "Wake Up and Be Awesome!"

As you can probably see I have not done anything with my blog since January :(  Make that I haven't really done much of anything with anything since January.  I went through a bit of a funk that took a loooooooong time to start climbing out of.  I still have a ways to go to get everything in order, but I seem to be on the right track.  This little gem that I got at the last National Guard Yellow Ribbon event we attend has been coming in handy :)  Seriously... a stress ball in the shape of a grenade??  Genius!!


For those of you who have been following my blog for awhile, you know I have always struggled with my weight and, as a result, self esteem.  Back in April, I found Adventure Health and Fitness along with fitness instructors Mike & Laura.  They focus on small group training for women, most of who are busy moms with crazy schedules.  I was a little apprehensive since I had never really done small group or one on one training and, of course, didn't want to look silly while exercising or *gasp* not be able to finish a session.  In addition, I had hurt my heel last year when I started training for a 5K and hadn't done any exercise since.  I finally got up the nerve to go in for my introductory session.  What I found during my first class was what I needed to start moving forward again.  Mike was fantastic.  There are women of all fitness levels in the classes and because there are no more than 6 - 8 in a class, it gives the trainers the opportunity to work with people to ensure our form is right and we're doing what we're supposed to be doing.  As I had suspected, I couldn't finish the class :(  But, I did get through about 75% before I had to stop and take a break.  But, I felt good enough to continue!  By class #4, I was able to get through the entire 40 minute class without the need to take a break other then the water breaks.  On July 29th, 3 months later, I did 5 real push-ups (NOT on the knees) and a 20 second plank (NOT on the knees)!  First time ever in my life to do this.  Oh, and by the way, be a part of one of Laura's classes is a little like working out with Jillian Michaels... except without the yelling :)  BTW... my new motto came from a Facebook post from AHF!


Another change that I've made is regarding my eating habits.  In January, I tried the Sonoma diet for a couple of weeks.  The food was great, but it was A LOT of prep and cooking.  Most nights we wouldn't eat dinner until after 8:00 PM since we usually don't get home in the evenings until almost 6:30 PM.  So it didn't really work with our lifestyle.  We need something that can be thrown together in 30 minutes or less.  I gave Weight Watchers another go, but this time online since it has been difficult to get to the meetings.  Not enough accountability for me and too many choices.  In March, I tried Jenny Craig for 30 days.  Now this was something I could do since most things were prepackaged so I didn't really have to think about what to make.  And a lot of it was pretty good.  In 30 days I lost 8 lbs so it definitely works.  The only problem is that it is so expensive.  You still have to buy your veggies and stuff to go with the meals.

Towards the end of June, one of my co-workers introduced me to Isagenix, which is a nutritional cleanse program.  It cuts out caffeine, sugar, gluten, and loads of other toxins that you put into your body everyday.  I was intrigued since I needed to do something to get myself back on track.  So, being who I am, I did a bunch of research.  A lot of the stuff they had in the program, my trainers also recommended.  So, Freddy and I decided to give the 30 day cleanse program a go.  We started on July 7th.  The program consisted of 5 days of 2 shakes, 2 snacks, and a meal and then 2 deep cleanse days where you are drinking a cleansing liquid 4 times during the day.  No food on the cleans days except for some small wafers in between drinks.  The cleanse days were surprisingly easy and I ended up losing 10 lbs on the program.  Freddy also ended up losing some weight as well.  We also ate much healthier for our dinners since we had a list of foods to choose from.  In addition, we started shopping at our Whole Foods store and ate more organic foods.  It is a little more expensive, but the combination of Isagenix AND my training classes was the same price as 30 days of Jenny Craig so I figure it all evens out in the end.  We are starting another 30 day cleanse tomorrow so I'm looking forward to reporting our progress.


AND, with all this motivation, I finally start moving forward on our house and making it a home.  We moved in last September, and then Superstorm Sandy happened, and then my motivation was gone.  Over the past 2 months, I've been making steps to get things organized and put together. I have big plans for our front yard next summer!


Oh yeah... this little guy is my main driving force for getting my behind in gear...


So... for the rest of 2013 I'm going to strive to wake up in the morning and BE AWESOME!

~AKO

Marshall's First New Year's Eve

When I say his first New Year's Eve, I really mean the first New Year's Eve where Marsh was semi-aware that something was happening.  I never followed up on how our New Year's Eve celebration went after our lovely day at the ER!  We had decided to let Marshall stay up as long as he could.  I was surprised he actually made it to midnight!  Since my roast plans were a bust, we just ordered a couple pizza and ate the chips and salsa for snacks.

We ended up watching a mixture of Nick Jr. and the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit marathon most of the evening.  I know... wild and crazy!!  At 10:00pm we turned it over to Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve and had many conversations about the fact that we had no idea who most of the people were.  I guess that's a sign we're getting old!  Although I thought it was a great touch to have MC Hammer out on stage for us oldies.  I wish I would have had my video camera out because Marshall went crazy during the Gangham Style performance.

A few shots from the evening....

You can obviously see in the background of every shot why we call Marshall "destructor"!  When we got close to midnight, Marshall helped us count down from 10 and shouted "Happy New Year!"

~AKO

TGIF!

Happy first Friday of 2013!  Freddy  has reserve duty so it is just Marsh and me to tear it up this weekend!

What are your weekend plans?

~AKO

2013 Goals

I hope everyone is recovering nicely from your New Year's Eve festivities!  We are trying to get back on our regular schedule tonight.  Marsh has been home from daycare the past two days so, of course, his schedule is all messed up.  But, more importantly, I am going back into our office in Manhattan tomorrow!  Yes, our office has finally reopened since Hurricane Sandy went through. 

We drove through the area on Sunday and it definitely isn't the same.  A lot of stores and restaurants are still boarded up.  There are a lot of generators and commercial dryers still in use.  The PATH trains are still not running between Hoboken and World Trade Center.  There is still a lot of recovery left but things are moving forward.  I'm a little torn about our return to the office tomorrow.  While I cannot wait to get back into an office environment, I'm not thrilled about commuting into the city again.  I've gotten used to being able to sleep in until 6:30 - 7 :00 everyday.  If I need to run an errand, I can do so on my lunch hour and be done in 15 minutes.  Starting tomorrow it is back up at 5:30 for the 1 - 1.5 hour commute into the city...

Today was kind of a lazy day for us.  I didn't take my pain killer last night until after midnight and, as a result, ended up sleeping until almost 10:00 am this morning!  I made a crock pot egg brunch breakfast from a recipe on Pinterest that cooked all night, so all we had to do was spoon it into a bowl and eat.  The recipe was ok, not great, but it was nice to not really have to cook this morning :)  Then I got everything finished up and in the crock pot for the roast that we were supposed to have last night.  I figure I had all the ingredients for it we might as well get it all cooked up!

I did get some organizing and laundry done today, but we pretty much didn't even get our of our pajamas!

I managed to get a shot of Marsh lounging on his new Batman bed from his Aunt Chelle.  He actually fell asleep on it and napped for 2 hours today!  It was the first time we've really been able to get him to nap at home in weeks.

This shot actually turned out ok...  Marsh was running around like a crazy person this evening and I just snapped the photo.  You can't even tell he is running towards me!

Anyway, it is time for all those New Year's resolutions to be posted!  I think I mentioned this last year, but I don't necessarily like call them resolutions.  I like to think of them as goals that are more likely to be completed.  So here is what I'm looking to accomplish in 2013...

1.  Read the bible in its entirety.  I've found a plan on the Internet that helps you read a little bit each week in order to complete the entire book by the end of the year.  I've been wanting to get involved in our local church for a while now and I'm hoping that by starting this goal is a good start for the year.

2.  Project 365.  So I've finally decided to take the plunge and do a Project 365.  You'll be able to see my progress on my Project 365 blog.

3.  Smash Book Journal.  I posted about this a couple days ago.  I recently ready about the Smash Book and thought it would be a fun way to document our year.  I plan for each page to cover 1 week in our lives at a glance.  As I complete pages I'll post them up for everyone to see.  If anyone else is doing or has done a smash book I'd love to see your results!

4.  Complete at least 1 Pinterest project each month.  I discovered the other day that I have pinned over 100 things to my boards on Pinterest.  It is about time I started doing some of them!  A project could consist of something crafty, or might just be a new recipe that we tried.  Either way I'm excited to do some new things!

5.  Get Healthy!  One of my best friends is turning 40 this year and booked us for a cruise to Bermuda for June.  Ahhhhh!!!  That is only 6 months away!!!  So, that being said, I would like to continue my quest to get healthy and active this year.  I've decided to target losing at least 5 lbs per month, which I think is doable.  It wouldn't get me to my goal weight by June, but it would put me in a place where I was comfortable with myself for a cruise.

So there you have it!  I think 5 goals for the year is not too daunting and everything is obtainable.

Have you made any goals for 2013?

~AKO