Since most of us use readers to read blogs, I just thought I’d share that I’ve put some new music downloads on my sidebar for the month of January. I’ll try and post a little something when I change it around so none of you miss out.
Since finishing my first marathon, I have been running a total of three times. And two of those times were for races. Three times in three months…nice. With an injury, work, school, applications, interviewing, traveling, holidays, volunteering and my social life (yes, my social life beats exercise hands down…which is why I am so happy when I can combine the two), running got put on the back burner.
I decided to not be too hard on myself and told myself that I would get back into it once the tonsils had healed (which they are not entirely, but I’m clear to exercise as it’s been two weeks). So that is what I did today. Yesterday, I decided to ease my way back into things with a little Hip Hop Abs action (one of the great benefits of living alone…I can do workout videos anytime I want with no fear of mocking!)
Anyway, I’m in training for my next race, the Canyonlands Half Marathon, and I have every intention of PR-ing (I love forming my own gerunds) and if that’s what I want to accomplish, I have got to get my arse in gear. And today was the day to start. Thank goodness for treadmills.
I packed my bag this morning, and then realized that I had forgotten part of the Nike+. That was almost enough to make me not go running. I wanted my run recorded in my iPod. But, somehow I managed to get over that, and off to the gym I went right after work!
For anyone who has been through the cycle of working out, not working out, and working out again, you know just how not fun and not easy the “working out again” part of the cycle is. The excuses are endless. Discouragement and hope seem to fight it out in your head daily. Just under three months ago I ran 26.2 miles…and today? Well, 3.3 miles almost killed me. This is the battle of my life, and it’s a battle I intend to keep fighting. So I was a snail today, and every part of me hurt, and I thought my lungs were going to collapse and my heart was going to explode. I survived, and the next run will be better!
Onward and upward, right?
So, this isn’t really a New Year’s resolution post, as I don’t really believe in them. This is about me and money. I have a problem. I love to spend money! And not just on me. I love to buy gifts for people. I love to go out to eat. I love to have people over for dinner. I love to travel. I love to go to concerts. I love to buy books, as opposed to checking them out at the library. It’s not that I love money, as much as it is that I love what I can buy/do with it.
I have been in a very difficult situation, financially, since moving away from Arizona. Recently, though, some of my stress has been relieved and I can now see the light at the end of the tunnel. But it is still at the end of a tunnel that is relatively long.
The other night, I was having a conversation with my cousin, Anne, at our grandma’s house. Somehow we got on the topic of cash and I mentioned that I rarely carry cash. And then Anne told me that all she ever uses is cash. She said that on payday, she just goes to the bank, takes out a certain amount and that’s her money until the next pay day. Interestingly, even though the conversation had nothing to do with my money spending issues, this was exactly the advice I was looking for.
I got to thinking about it, and I’ve decided that this is my going to be my new way of budgeting (as opposed to the old way in which my only concern was that my bills got paid on time). Initially, I was going to base my budget on how much I needed to leave in the bank to cover my monthly bills. Then I realized that will keep me in the “paycheck to paycheck” mode I am currently in and from which I am desperately trying to escape. After much reflection, I have decided how much cash I need each week (food and gas, basically…and I am being a little bit generous as this is going to be new and very, very difficult for me) and I will pull twice that out of the bank every two weeks, on my payday, and that will be that. My goal is to use only that money for non-bill items, meaning if I want to got out to dinner and a movie, I basically have to plan my week around that, and probably not go during a week when I need gas (thankfully, I only have to fill my tank about once every other week).
For right now, I think this is a good place to start. I’m hoping that, by the time I start grad school, I will have cut the budget down by about 1/3 and be completely out of debt. I think it can be done. And if any of you out there have any other suggestions (especially about non-necessity spending), let me know. I’d love to hear them.
I’m not going to bore you all with the details of my Christmas. It was absolutely fantastic, minus the tonsillectomy recovery part (although…I must say that it was totally worth it). We had a fabulous time at a condo in Park City with the entire family in tow.
T. loves “big boys” and was quite attached to Grandpa during the trip. He also loved playing with his cousin, J., who is so good with him. I wish I’d gotten a picture of them together.
My dad brought this tree up from P-town and my brother brought the lights. Bows were courtesy of Wal-Mart. Not bad, considering we weren’t at home!
T. was the only child there on Christmas itself and he definitely made out. Trains, trains and more trains.
Kind of a random picture while waiting for our table to be ready, but I wanted to throw it in because I think B. looks so cute in it. 
The process of trying to get all of the kiddies in one picture. Good times had by all…and with my lack of auto-focus, well…you can see that they are great pictures.
I love hanging out with my fam, especially the nieces and nephews. One of my favorite things is to do things with them that my mom would have done, if she were still alive. So this year, we baked sugar cookies and decorated them, the way she would have. Homemade dough, homemade frosting (which, incidentally, was not that good…I didn’t take the time to find the real recipe), and decorating with pastry bags, frosting tips, and sprinkles.
B. with her 3-D angel. We bought new cookie cutters (or as my dad corrected me, “dough cutters”) that create three dimensional cookies. Unfortunately, the moving to the cookie sheet and rising in the oven made it so only a few actually worked. But the ones that did looked great!
J. decorated this amazing tree! It was quite the masterpiece of frosting. I love that, even at 13, he will still hang out with us (sometimes).
B. with her cookies…putting the head back on her decapitated snowman.
I also finally felt good enough to play in the snow on Sunday, so we had a great time sledding and building a snowman (my dad is so good at getting the details taken care of…he was all ready with the eyes, nose, mouth, and hat, which even had hat pins, or nails) before all of the troops headed home. The good news is that some extended family is still in town, so I didn’t get too depressed once the house emptied out. It’s funny how that happens. I am such a homebody sometimes!
My grandma’s beautiful tree, with large lights. This is what it has always looked like and I love the tradition.
And here’s my own little self-portrait a little late (I think the ornament one was weeks ago).
Thank you, Sarah, for the new banner to match the new background that I found at American Greetings. I’m still tweaking the colors for fonts and such, but the background and banner are done!
existential dilemmas 