snapshots of our life.

Being sick pretty much sucks.
Craig passed his cold down to me.
I spent most of the weekend in bed.
But when I wasn’t in bed resting or complaining about how bad I felt…
I met my mom and grandmother at Steak & Shake for lunch.
Then to the movie theater to see The Bucket List.
(which I loved and reminded me of my own bucket list I made a few years back!)
Later that night Craig and I met my dad and stepmom for dinner at Boudreuax.
(Except I know I butchered it and didn’t spell it right.)
The place was packed having been in the paper the night before but it was worth the wait.
I love when Craig finds other Georgians who used to be Louisianians.
There is this instant bond.
The owner used to live right down the street from where Craig grew up.
It’s funny how they can detect other Louisianians.
I don’t know that any other state can do that with it’s own.
I mean, if I was in Louisiana I definitely couldn’t seek out others from Georgia.
I spent most of today in bed trying to get well before the week started, re-reading P.S. I Love You, and working on homework. 
Looking forward to getting rid of this nasty cold this week.
I’m a baby when I’m sick. 

So I’m pretty sure this is going to make me sound like a big geek…but…I love accounting.  I look forward to my Thursday night classes because I have Business Communication and Accounting.  And my accounting professor reminds me of Martin Sheen in how he looks and talks.  He has his J.D., MBA, MPA, MofTx, and a PhD in something else, and he says he’d love to go to medical school.  I think I could just be in a room with him and his intelligence could rub off on me with all the schooling that man has had. 

My new favorite song right now is by Flo Rida with T-Pain.  It’s called “Low” and guess what movie it’s in?  Yep, Step Up 2. Ha.  Anyways, I like searching for dance routines through You Tube (yes I am admitting to this on my blog) and I found this video of this little girl:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhe6EcRlE-Q  How freakin cute is she?  And she’s like nine and she’s that good. 

I know everyone and their brother took pictures of their dogs in the snow this past week.   But Sadie and Duke LOVED it.  I was down at school when it started coming down.  So I had to walk to my car in my heels and business suit that I had to wear for our field trip that night that we were suppose to go on but ended up canceling and fight my way home in the nasty weather and traffic.  When I got home Craig and I went on the back deck and watched Sadie scoot her butt around in the snow. She’d just crouch down real low and scoot.   She loved it.  Craig said it took her back to her German roots.  Ha.  Hopefully we’ll get to do that again this weekend.  Excuse my attire in these pictures.  When I walk in the door no matter what time of day I go straight to my room for my comfy pants.

‘Cause who doesn’t want to come home to this?

This is her scootin’ around on the back porch.  She was so excited. 

I love Sadie’s face in this one…

We are a couple that fully believes in the art of the self-portrait. 

And here are a couple from my mom’s birthday dinner with the family.  My grandmother, aunt, uncle, Craig, mom, and I all went out to celebrate with her.

To my mama! 
Love you so much!

Well, in six hours I will have completed my first week of school.  It’s been somewhat of an adjustment.  I’m struggling with getting into a new routine and not working 40 hours a week doesn’t feel normal.  This semester is definitely going to be a challenging one.   Two of my teachers have thick accents and I’m learning how to understand them.  And the classes in general are tough.  But I’m ready for the challenge.  (And still hoping to make all A’s this semester.)  It can be done. 

I had my interview at the hospital on Wednesday.  I think it went pretty well.  There are areas I know I struggled with and there are areas I think I did well in.  It was a panel of 7 people interviewing me, and talk about intimidating.  I was sent over to the main hospital to do my drug test and they are sending off for a background test.  So it looks promising.  They said it should take about five to seven business days, so fingers crossed I hear something soon.  In the meantime I’ve been working with my mom while Tammy is out for her ASL surgery.  So it worked out perfectly. 

One of the things I am really struggling with is adjusting to the changes is not contributing as much financially.  It is nothing that Craig has made me feel- he’s been nothing but supportive.  It’s in my own head and I guess I’m just going to have to learn to come to terms with it.  I realize that our marriage isn’t about how much money you contribute each week.  But I don’t ever want to feel like I’m not pulling my weight with something, marriage or anything else.  In the end, I know these changes are going to benefit us- it’s just the time in between now and then that I am having a hard time with.  

Must go to my next to classes.  Yay for the first week being down!

• Learning The Crawdad Hole song first from Craig, and then numerous YouTube videos.  I guess not growing up in Louisiana has it’s disadvantages. 
• Getting my school bag together for tomorrow’s first day of class.  So exciting! 
• Going to church today for the first time in a very long time.
• Seeing the Step Up 2 trailer.  I think in my next life I’m going to be a Hip Hop dancer.  There are two kinds of movies I love–the Disney sports underdog-coming-from-behind kind (The Rookie, Remember the Titans, Coach Carter, Invinsible) and the hip hop dancing movies (Save the Last Dance, You Got Served, Stomp the Yard).  Yeah, I’m a winner!
• Bowling with Greg and Katie on Saturday night.
• Craig teaching me how to two step in our living room to our favorite George Strait song.

I always feel incredibley corny every year when I got to write my New Year’s Resolutions.  Main reason being because I am NOTORIOUS for not following through with them.  Goes along with the whole might not follow through with the plan but there WILL be a plan theme from a few posts ago. 

Something feels really different this year though.  I think a large part of it has to do with the fact that I feel like my life hit a fork in the road where I was forced to make tough decisions which would lead to life further down the road and more forks that I’m sure I will come across.  (Did that make any sense?)  I feel happy and content right now because I’m not just sitting around talking about something, I’m finally following through with things.  I feel like I’ve done a whole lot of soul searching the past few months and I’m at a good place right now.  And after a few months of struggling and not feeling content and not feeling grateful (which I don’t feel like I have been lately, I feel like I’ve taken a lot of things for granted), I’m so ready to move forward and start fresh.  Which I guess is why this new year feels different. 

So with that said as a preface to this post, my goals for 2008 are:
1. Find something I am grateful for everyday.  Craig and I have started a journal to each other that we are going to be writing in the next year.  Once a week we will both write something that we appreciated of the other person or that put a smile on our face.  We’ve already done it this week and it put a smile on my face.  I think it is so easy to get caught up in the everyday and forget what is important.  And at least after a year we’ll have it all in writing to look back on when we’re old and gray with grandchildren.
2. Finally lose the weight.  I’m not setting an amount on it (although I have that goal in my head even though I “say” I’m not setting it), I just want to feel healthy.  I’m off to a good start, I’ve been working out the past 3 days.  Once I get past the first week where I grudgingly get on the treadmill it starts to get easier each day. 
3. Blog/journal more.  I stopped blogging as much for a few reason, none of which are important now.  But I started to feel a little boring once the house was completed and I didn’t have any remodeling updates and things started settling down into the ordinary life.  I had this idea that no one would care to read it.  The other night I went back to October, November, and December 2004—when Craig and I first met and read it all over again.  There were a few things here and there that I had forgotten about and I had so much fun rereading all of it.  So while I know that my business is out there for everyone out there to read and I don’t share too much personal information–I started this blog for me to look back on.  So I’m going to try to do a little better with it. 
4.  Shoot for all A’s my first semester in school.  I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am about school.  If money wasn’t on the top of my list of concerns I would probably be even more excited about it.  Change makes me nervous.  That is pretty much a given if you know me.  I tend to panic.  But I’m not so much with this.  It’s a different feeling when you’re going to school because you want to and not because you feel like it’s what you are suppose to be doing.  I want this. 
5. Debt. Get out of it.  Enough said.  So I can stop worrying about money and stop paying on a credit card that I have NO CLUE where the money went on it.  Blah. 

There are many other small ones mixed in.  But those are the five I’m looking forward to getting “checked off” the most. 

So excited about a new year. 
A new start. 
New goals.
New beginnings.
New changes.
Scary but exciting changes.
I’m looking forward to it. 

We spent New Year’s Eve with our friends Greg and Katie. 
Just a chilled out kind of night with Auburn/Clemson football and pizza. 
Good times with good friends. 

Happy New Year!