Bring on the New Year!

Okay so we are in New Year mode! It’s time to start again and bring in the new. So here we go! We are coming with a positive attitude and a new outlook. The kids did their dandiest to stay up for the New Year ball drop, but it wasn’t going to happen. 10 pm rolled around and Maya was falling asleep on the couch. Nikolai was still awake but he was getting to the “I’m going to crash any moment” mode, so I put him to bed. Lehna said she could go on for hours and quite honestly I wasn’t planning on putting her to bed yet, but when I laid Maya down she went in her bed too and we all went to bed. Lehna had stayed up late the night before watching Glee her new favorite show. She really likes the singing and dancing and she of course can name all the characters. I can say I have only seen one episode and it was okay. The dancing was good and signing of course. I don’t think it’s too bad, at least I hope not b/c she has seen all of the episodes on Netflix.

We ate like fools on New Years. We got a few new recipes to try and we ate and ate and ate. We started cooking about 4 pm and didn’t stop eating until 10 pm when we went to bed. So we were FULL. Lehna said that she wasn’t going to the entire day, the next day, b/c she had eaten so much. It was so much fun cooking with Tait. We cooked together for Christmas and for New Years and it was really a lot of fun. We both take turns making things and cooking things at the same time. We made stuffed mushrooms, fried mozzarella, pizza dip, crab dip, and chipped beef cheese ball. The mushrooms were really good, they were just a little dry so next time we are going to revamp our recipe a little. Tait made the fried mozzarella all by himself; I said more power to him for trying it. They were really good, he got a little frustrated when they started to spread out on the pan, but heck he did a good job getting them all covered in bread crumbs. Oh we also made chocolate and peanut butter popcorn. It was soooo yummy. It was really rich but super super yummy.

Than yesterday after eating like a crazy person I started my training for the 10k. I run on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday’s and Tait is going to run on Monday, Wednesday, and Sundays. I want to do something in between like Pilates or something like that, but I’m going to give this 10k my full attention for now. I mean if I WAY over to it to begin with than I have to keep adding more and more. My focus this year is not to lose weight, but to get in running shape again. I truly like having a goal and I think this 10K is just the ticket for me. I would LOVE to lose weight in the process, and I’m sure some will come off just because. But not my entire focus as it has been in the past. I am recording what I’m eating b/c I want to just to take note of what I’m eating and than just change as I’m morphing into a healthier life style. Just trying to change my approach this time around, you know seeing if this helps.

So another positive thing we are doing as a family is a Happiness Jar. We have created a jar in which every day we write down one thing that has made as happy, big or small whatever. The girls have really gotten into this and they remind us every night to do it. My goal is at the end of the year to compile our “Happiness Jar” into a book. We can go back and read the little slips of paper at any time, so if we are feeling down we can go and have the memory of the happiness remind us of why we are happy. I think it will be a lot of fun and I’m hoping that we can keep it up for 365 days. We started early so hopefully we will be able to have the majority of the days this year, and we have extras in case we forget. We forgot last night so we have to put two in today! That’s why we started on the 26th of December b/c it just might happen more than once. I have always wanted to do something like this and I think it will be fun.

Let me see what else.

This past weekend we did go to Chuckie Cheese. Maya LOVES this place. We had talked about going to Action Territory (kind of an older version for the girls) but the issue is it is an older place and well Nikolai just doesn’t have as much fun there compared to Chuckie Cheese. We went there at 11 am and I thought it was going to be really busy but it was surprisingly calm, it was starting to get busy by the time we left, so we timed it perfect. The girls but a bunch of crap for their tickets they earned, but what else is new.

Yesterday I left to pay rent and that was the only daylight I saw. It was just a nice relaxing time with the family this weekend. We didn’t have to go anywhere or do anything; it makes me want to have more weekends like that. We watched some good family movies like Despicable Me, National Lampoons Christmas Vacation (my FAVORITE movie and Maya’s now), and the latest Tinkerbelle movie. Very low key but it was just really nice. We only saw our neighbor’s child twice and both times was a very short amount of time. They were out of town for the majority of the time… and on New Year’s Eve the girls got into some kind of tiff where she left b/c they were saying the word “mushroom” I don’t know what it was all about but it worked out.

I read my horoscope for this year and it says that my career is getting ready to TAKE OFF! Isn’t that exciting? I don’t know what it means… but I guess time will tell. It said that all your hard work is getting ready to pay off and for the next two years just hang on b/c Saturn is in its prime… On the job front news I have some interesting news actually. I have a second interview with the city tomorrow. It’s my first face to face. I know that they are going to make a decision VERY QUICKLY as to who they are going to hire. But last week I also found out from my BIG boss in my department that come the new year I will have more opportunities at my current position, such as being hired on, b/c the lady I’m filling in for is officially retiring, they are in negotiations with her as we speak. So maybe it means some options are coming my way. Tait will be over the moon if my pay increases soon. It’s all about laying the ground work, that’s all I have to say. So I’ll keep you posted on the status of all of that. So come on Saturn and bring the sunshine.

That is life as we know it for now. So some exciting times, so changes are coming I feel them.