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Write Christmas letter...check
Send out Christmas card....check
Feed, walk and play with Skeletor everyday....check
Max out part-time hours at the Hallmark store...check
Buy all Christmas presents...check
Mail all Christmas presents...check
Update blog...
Oh crap.
I'm really embarrassed that this is only my 4th post for December. Yeah, it's been a busy month, but that's not really an excuse. My problem is that I really want to keep my blog updated, but I don't really want to do the updating. This writing part is hard for me. I love looking back and reading what I've written, even if it's not always perfect. I get really frustrated writing, though. My thoughts don't really come out in a logical stream. I'll start in one direction and then jump to the end or go off in another direction entirely.
I'm trying to just accept that that's the way it is, and stop avoiding it. I've found recently that lots of things that I dislike doing are the things that end up giving me the most satisfaction. It's like running. It's tough while I'm doing it, but that's why it feels so good to have finished it.
Considering that this is generally the time of year for making resolutions, I suppose I should now declare my intention to dedicate myself to tackling more tasks that I don't really like in the new year. Here a few related intentions and goals for 2010:
- continue to blog (shoot for at least 2x per week)
- tackle some big projects around the house (like cleaning out the garage or extra bedrooms)
- keep in touch with people (log on to facebook once in awhile, etc.)
- continue job search
- keep a positive attitude (How can I ask for more when I've already been given so much?)
- get credit card balance under control
- take a trip back to DC
- ADOPT A NEW PUPPY!
Can you tell I'm excited about that last one? The breeder where we got Skeletor is no longer in business, so we don't really know where to start, but there are plenty of puppies in need of good homes out there. I'm sure we'll be able to find one that fits into our little family OK.
I think I'm going to try to work on a couple scrapbook pages before I head to bed, so I'll leave it here for tonight. I'll try to take some pictures of pages tomorrow before work. I'm struggling to come up with a new/better way of organizing my pictures on my computer, but I'm kind of stuck because I print all of my pictures at home and so I have to work with it's organizing software at least to some extent. Sigh.
Yup. I finally saw it. :) I liked it more than the first movie, which is interesting because I didn't like the book as much. It was actually my least favorite of the books. Even James, who said his friends at work were all making fun of him when he said he was taking me, ended up saying it was very entertaining. The awkward teen moments are absolutely my favorite part. It put me in the mood to start rereading the book tonight (I just finished Atonement - amazing), but I can't find my copy amidst the unpacked book boxes in our "office." :( Both the books and the movies are absolutely the definition of "guilty pleasures." You know while you're reading/watching that they're cheesy/corny/melodramatic, but you can't help but be drawn in.
In other news, I totally s-ed the b at the post office today. I forgot to bring Adam's address with me, and I knew I was going to use flat rate boxes there, but I didn't bring anything to pad the items I was shipping. Now I just have to go back tomorrow. And again at least one more time (probably several) to ship out the rest of my Christmas presents. I'm setting myself an absolute deadline of next Monday to have everything I'm shipping taken care of. I might need more time for my mom's gift, but since I'm taking it with me, I don't have to have that finished until the last minute.
I did have an awesome score today, though. I had to pick up a few things at Wal-Mart after the post office. While I was there, I decided that our money was looking OK for the rest of the month and that I could use some Christmas money from Adam's mom to buy a set of punches I've been wanting for awhile. They're $20, but that's a pretty good deal. Except when I went to the register they rang up as $2 instead. Ummm....I went right back and picked up another one for that price! I don't know if it was because they're going to clear them out or if it was just a register glitch, but I know that I was very lucky today! I took them home and started playing and I LOVE the look. They'll both get a LOT of use.
Speaking of scrapbooking goodness, I do have a couple pages I did yesterday to share. The light was not quite so perfect today, but I think we've officially moved past the shameful indoor nighttime pictures.
There's not much to say about them. They're good but not great, but overall, I'm pleased. I used the button they gave Adam when he tried out on the American Idol page and I found a photo of the Power Rangers logo to use as my title for that page. That was definitely the best character picture we got all week, and we didn't have to wait in any line.
Yay! I didn't have to go in to work yesterday until the afternoon so I remembered to take some pictures of my latest scrapbook pages with actual daylight. They turned out MUCH better. I made two more tonight, so I'll have to make sure get them photographed tomorrow in my (way too) short window of daylight.
This page I actually laid out awhile ago and just hadn't glued it all together. I like the simplicity, and that it doesn't look boring because of the patterned background. The picture is our last day in our Park Bethesda apartment in 2007. I can't believe that was just two years ago.
This one is really simple, too. I guess there may be a pattern/style emerging. I love the way the title looks and that was really just making do with the letters that I had left in that alphabet. And you've just got to love that picture of my Mr. Strong. :)
I don't think there's much else going on to share. I've been watching football and getting Christmas presents ready for most of the day. My fantasy team is getting beaten badly right now, and I'm sulking. I still have hope since my quarterback and #1 running back are playing tomorrow night, but right now it's ugly. I'm going (hopefully) to see New Moon tomorrow as long as I can get a hold of my friend James. I've been able to guilt him in to taking me since Adam's not here. Also, it's been COLD here (as in my car was iced up last night when I left work). WTF? This is not what I moved to Florida for. I think the weatherman said that it would get a little warmer tomorrow, but we'll see.
Sigh. I still have to finish my Christmas letter tonight so I can start mailing those tomorrow. Can't I just slip in a note to come visit my blog instead?
I think last week fell into a black hole somewhere. There's really no other explanation for how it could be Saturday already. And Christmas less than 3 weeks away? Not possible. Overall, I get the feeling of running around but not really getting anywhere. That's why posting to this blog helps. It makes me step back and take stock and to realize that I HAVE accomplished quite a few things.
I have a plan for my Christmas spending and an idea of what to get most people on my list. Now it's just a matter of executing that plan. I have my Christmas travel plans under control (as much as I can control them). And though I don't have any of my Christmas decorations out yet, I do have a fairly clean house and time off tomorrow and Sunday to tackle that task. I just have to hope that next week doesn't get swallowed up by the same black hole.
I did manage to squeeze a few crafty things out of the black hole last week. BUT, part of my whirlwind of activity was buying 2 new albums and organizing my piles of pages, so a couple of the things I made got swept up and into the new albums before I took pictures. I might go back and find them, take them out and get good pictures. But probably not. I'm not very interested in disturbing the impressively tidy row of albums now on my bookshelf. I also worked on my first photo-less project with my scrapbooking supplies, but I can't share that either. It's going to be a Christmas present for someone who might check this blog before then, and I don't want to ruin the surprise. I'm really proud of it, though, so I'll take a picture before I wrap it up and try to remember to post it after the holidays. I do have a couple things from last week to share, so it's not a total loss.
I knew I had a lot of good pictures from the Kilimanjaro Safari at the Animal Kingdom, so I decided to go with a two-pager to get more on there. I used a page in a special issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine (that my mom generously got for me while she was visiting) for an outline of the design and then I found some zoo/safari stickers I had laying around and it came together really quickly after that. Obviously, my photo of the page is horrible, but I've already apologized about that several times.
I'm so glad my dad took these family pictures of me, Adam and Skeletor. I didn't have much to say about the photo, so I kept it pretty simple. I should have cropped the photo a little closer, but oh well.
Right now I think it's time for some lunch and then some work on my Christmas cards. I'm considering still farming out the writing of our yearly letter to Adam since he seems to have so much free time on his hands. I'll write him an email and see what he thinks about that. :)
