Goals

Perhaps you have heard of the 101 in 1001 phenomenon sweeping the net? Well, thousands of people across the world have embarked on goal setting projects- the idea being to complete 101 separate goals in 1001 days. Read more about it here.

I really love the concept of setting goals and doing things that you have always wanted to do, but unfortunately, I have too small of an attention span to set goals lasting for 2.75 years. So, I am going to work on a smaller scale. Introducing the 30 in 30 days plan! I am going to set goals I can complete in roughly a month- some simple, daunting chores I have been putting off.. some conceptual goals. The thing is, we all have "I'll do that later" lists. But later never comes.. and life always gets in the way. I hope to start a new list every 30 days and maybe even work up to a 1001 plan.

Here's my first list. I start tomorrow! Goals can be completed in any order.

1. wash my car
2. clean out my car
3. workout three days a week- every single week
4. make dinner at home Monday-Friday (cereal counts!)
5. refrain from eating fast food of any kind
6. take all of my meds/ vitamins everyday
7. go through my closet and make a donation pile (and then donate the pile!)
8. do my hair (for real) at least once a week
9. get my oil changed
10. read a book on my list
11. revamp one piece of furniture
12. finish sewing the kitchen curtains
13. have coffee with a friend
14. call extended members of my family just to chit chat
15. do something outside at least twice
16. carve a pumpkin
17. be more positive about a certain situation in my life
18. finish upholstering the ottoman
19. work out a savings plan
20. shoot at least one roll of film in my SLR
21. learn a new song on the guitar (all the way through!!)
22. drink at least 64 ounces of water daily
23. go to bed earlier (10:30- no tv) during the week
24. update my blog at least once a week
25. wash my puppies twice
26. organize the piles of mail and create a filing system
27. pack my lunch everyday
28. make a list for the next 30 days
29. create a savings jar
30. have some actual savings in it by the end of the month :)

I'll come back and check them off as I go. Wish me luck!

<3 Sarah

Engaged? Know someone who is??

My lovey friend Katie is having a fabulous letterpress wedding invitation suite giveaway! Her work is beautiful, so get on over there and enter. All you need to do is leave a comment! Good luck! :)

http://www.majoiepress.com/blog/?p=1003

Blogging Hiatus

Well hello there, stranger. Sorry about the blogging hiatus. So much has happened; where to begin?

I'll just brief you on a couple highlights:

A few weekends ago, my mother came into town to visit for her 60th birthday. We went to the spa for the day which was a glorious experience. We saunaed, steam roomed, whirlpooled, swam, and finished the day off with lovely spa pedicures. I was a grand time.

Recently, things have been spinning out of control for me. I've been super busy at work and was in the hospital this week. I had emergency gall bladder surgery on Monday which was no fun at all. I've been home resting since Tuesday evening and am beginning to feel a little better. I sleep a lot- I mean.. a lot. I'm awake for about 2 hours for every 5 that I sleep- but they say rest is the best medicine, so we'll see. Other than that- no news is good new I suppose. I'll write a longer update in a few days.

Take care,

Sarah

Halfway House

Folks, I've been living in a halfway house. Half painted, half decorated, half furnished, and most of the time- let's be honest- half clean. Well, times they are a changing. I have composed the following list of to-do items to finish out our lovely home. The goal is to do at least one item a week.. 

Weekly House Project List

calk the bathtub

paint the living room..

dining room...

bedroom (s)

hang my diploma

hang kitchen curtain rod

sew kitchen/ dining room curtains

.. sew bedroom curtains and hang them

finish upholstering the ottoman 

find a coffee table 

Hang art in the bedroom

steam clean the carpet

You may have noticed that a few of the items are crossed out. Last

weekend, I painted our bedroom light blue. I also cheated a bit and

bought curtains to hang in the bedroom. In the pictures, the curtains 

are tacked to the wall (classy, I know), because I didn't have a drill to 

hang the curtain rod with. The situation has since been corrected.

Luna was nice enough to pose for most of the photos. :)

The wood carving was a gift made by my lovely friend Katie

I'm not ashamed (OK, maybe a little ashamed) to admit that I'm an infomercial 

addict. I watch them all and actually own sham wows and the slap chop (yes, it's

really that amazing). For all of my DIY friends out there, you'll be happy to hear

of my most recent infomercial success. This weekend, I steam cleaned my carpets

with a rented Rug Doctor, and let me tell you, it worked!! I really wanted to post a

before and after shot, but I'm too embarrassed to show how much dirt it actually

lifted. It's that good. But, let me just say, I have two puppies and a Stephen, so

I'm pretty sure the Rug Doc can work its magic on anything.

I'm super happy to be heading in the right direction with my house projects. I had

a rough week and was out sick for a couple of days. Feeling much better now. Hope

you had a fabulous weekend. 

Sarah

P.S. I'm super excited about the Bachelorette finale

tomorrow night!!!

Midsummer Meltdown

So, things didn't go exactly as planned. In fact, NOTHING went as planned. I'm sad to say that this was probably one of the worst 4th of Julys I've had. Let me explain:

It all started Friday night when Stephen began feeling less than stellar. This slowly progressed into extreme nausea, followed by vomiting, and turned into coughing up blood by Sunday evening. Nice. Steve was a trooper about the whole thing and even volunteered to go to the parade and festival, but it was ultimately too hot to do anything anyway regardless of his illness. So, we went to the movies and saw Public Enemies which was good. But it was no parade. It was no festival. 

We did go over to his grandma's house for about an hour. After, we decided to catch the fireworks in a last ditch effort to do something celebratory...Us and all of San Antonio. Since there is a burn ban in effect, everyone was going to see the city's fireworks display. The traffic was atrocious and we ended up spending an hour and a half in the car missing the entire show. Bummer. 

Sunday, Stephen was so sick he was sent home from work. He had a fever of 102 and was in pretty bad shape. I stayed up most of the night feeding him cough syrup and ibuprofen and taking his temperature. Today, I took him to the doc and luckily he only has a bad sinus infection. He's taking antibiotics and was told to take a few days off. He should be in tip top shape in no time. I'm really glad. He had me pretty worried last night. 

I am so sick and tired of this horrible Texas heat. It seems like it's a lot worse than last year, and frankly I refuse to spend another summer in it. I love the outdoors, parades, festivals, and the like, and I refuse to miss anymore because of the sweltering temperature. So, I'm going to seriously and whole heartedly consider moving. Of course, this will not be for a long while. There are many places to consider and lots of money to save. So far we're thinking Colorado, but who knows where the future will take us. 

Hope you had a better weekend than we did. 

- Sarah 

Big Plans

This Thursdate, Stephen outdid himself. It must be said that Stephen is a kind soul with a genuine, good heart. He really does go above and beyond for me. Stephen started packing my lunches in the evening because I am usually too tired to do it after work and too lazy to get up earlier than I absolutely have to. On Thursday, I noticed that my lunch was a little bit heavier than normal. After further inspection, I found a copy of the new Wilco album inside. It was such a fun surprise. I loves it. And I loves him. 

I usually sit in my car at the park and eat my lunch to escape from the office for a little while. Thursday, Stephen surprised me by packing his lunch and trucking up to work to eat with me. He's a sweetie like that. Then, in the evening, we went to see My Sister's Keeper which was rather sad. I would compare it to getting punched in the stomach repeatedly for 2 hours. Skip this one. Nonetheless, it was an amazing Thursdate. 

Today, I had the day off. It's the most glorious thing- a federal vacation day. In light of my new found free time, I planned many activities spanning the whole the day that I normally don't get a chance to do. I was going to run to the grocery store, bake a cake, visit the mysterious gardening pagoda that I drive by on the way to work, make my favorite breakfast pizza for tomorrow morning, and work on my tan out by the pool. And then I fell asleep. For four hours. Oops. 

Luckily, I was able to get some of my to do list items checked off. I baked my Aunt Amy's famous breakfast pizza for tomorrow. For some reason, I always feel like cooking to celebrate a holiday. So, Stephen and I will start out the fabulous 4th with this tasty treat. 

I started a new initiative for the month of July. This month I am going to resist eating ANY fast food. That's right- NO FAST FOOD AT ALL. So far so good. I'm also going to only eat out on Thursdates. Additionally, I am going to refrain from shopping or purchasing any item that is not absolutely necessary. I have made an exception for activities such as movies or bowling, etc. I have been reading Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology which is a rather interesting book. It's about this man and his wife, two graduate students at MIT who partake in an experiment that cuts off their us of technology. They move to an Amish-esque farm where they grow their own food, have zero electricity or motorized appliances/equipment, and no running water or plumbing. I'm not trying to be extreme here, I just want to see if I can abstain from excess. I really do have everything I need. 

That being said, today was a rather tempting day. On my way to the grocery store (where I used my new canvas shopping bags) I couldn't help but notice that Old Navy was having a 60% off Summer sale.

I had a heated temptation (literally, it was 100 degrees today!) to go in and see if they had any sun dresses or shorts. They didn't, but I found the most fabulous pair of yoga pants. I allowed myself to try them on when the following conversation ensued in my head:

Me: These are the most fabulous yoga pants. So comfortable. I really really want them. 

ME: You don't need these pants. You don't even do yoga. 

Me: True, but I could do yoga. I've always wanted to try. These could be the pants that start a fitness revolution for myself. 

ME: But we both know you will never do yoga. You have 100 pairs of comfy pants already. Hang them back up and let's go. 

And go I did.. right on over to Bath and Body Works. I take baths almost every evening because they are relaxing and I enjoy them. I recently ran out of bubble bath, and after an incident yesterday, Stephen encouraged me to purchase more regardless of my monthly mission. Without getting too personal, here's what happened. After the movies yesterday, Stephen and I took a bath. He noticed that the bubbles were rather low and that there didn't seem to be any bath foam near by. Then he saw the open bottle of Head and Shoulders near the faucet. "Is that my head and.. ARE WE BATHING IN HEAD AND SHOULDERS??!?" The answer was of course, yes. 

Tomorrow is the Fourth of July, and we have a full day planned. We're going to wake up and go to the Fourth of July Parade at Woodlawn Park in San Antonio at around 11:30. Then, we are going to check out Freedom Fest in the Market Square downtown. I scheduled in a nap for the mid afternoon for Steve; then, we are going to go over to his grandma's house to celebrate with his family. I baked yellow cupcakes with chocolate frosting and red/white/blue sprinkles for the occasion. After, we are going to the park to watch the city shoot off fireworks. It's going to be a fun filled day. 

Hope you have a happy holiday and restful weekend!! 

Sarah 

After much resistance

I have finally decided to "go green." Well, my version of going green at least. I decided today that while I may not be totally sold on all of the widely accepted ideas about our planet, there is no harm in doing my part. I mean, what do I really have to lose by driving a little less and reusing a little more? If nothing else, I'll save some cash, so I'm choosing to see it as a win/win situation. 

Today, I bought a Brita water filter. This is great for a multitude of reasons. One being that I have a nasty habit of leaving my almost full/half empty/completely empty water bottles all over my house. I was starting to worry that my house was being polluted just as much as the planet by these pesky bottles. So, trash rounds no more. Secondly, you never run out of filtered water with a Brita. No more, "this is the last of the water bottles- we need to run to HEB." Woo hoo.. I am highly excited about this as I abhor grocery store trips. And finally, the obvious monetary savings are a perk to the system. 

I am going to commit myself to using canvas grocery bags. I noticed today while doing my weekly grocery shopping that almost every check out line was flooded with stacks of green canvas shopping bags. I thought perhaps that these bags were on sale today or maybe even part of some promotion. I asked the friendly, middle aged lady in front of me in line which isle she found the bags on. She promptly replied that she had brought them from home. "Had them for a while.." she said. As a twenty something, educated, technologically savvy, member of the progressive- hip generation, I couldn't help but feel embarrassed. I was behind. Apparently everyone had already adopted this practice as standard. I guess it's better late than never. Anyhow, these are my new "green" practices. Feel free to suggest others, and I'll add more as I figure this whole movement out. 

Friday, Stephen and I went to the movies. We saw Away We Go. It was so completely wonderful. I absolutely loved every minute of it. Highly recommended. Saturday, my dad and Jamie came into town to celebrate a belated Father's Day. We had a great time. We all went to lunch at Five Guys, sipped a few beers at Los Cucos, went to the movies (more on that later), and wrapped up with a tasty dinner at Celito Lindo- our fav. Their chicken mole enchiladas are to die for. It's nice to have family around. I miss that aspect of life here in San Antonio. I truly enjoy having my family over though sometimes it's surreal to think that I'm having my family over to my home. When did I grow up enough to have a home? 

So, as previously mentioned, we all went to the movies on Saturday afternoon to escape the ghastly heat. Stephen and I, being the geniuses that we are, decided that it would be just lovely to take my parents to see The Hangover. If you have seen this film, you are probably falling over laughing while reading this. Stephen and I saw this movie a few thursdates ago, and honestly forgot much of the film beyond the main plot points. We just remembered that the film was funny and that we liked it. Well, as the story unfolded on the screen, we shot each other a few worried glances, as we remembered scenes to come. And then it happened. One train wreck of a vulgar joke after the other. Each much worse than the one before. I. Wanted. To. Die. My dad and Jamie could not have been more gracious about the whole ordeal. This was definitely a Father's Day for the books. 

This is going to be an exciting week with the 4th of July festivities. Stephen and I are going to try to find something celebratory to do that ends with fireworks. It shouldn't be hard as there is never a lack of family events in San Antonio. I'm also really excited because this is a 4 day work week for me! Anyhow, I hope you have a wonderful week. 

- Sarah