The 30 Day Challenge

This week at work we were presented with a challenge. We were directed to TED.com -- where we were to watch a video about a computer engineer turned life experimenter. The idea behind all this is based on engaging in a 30 day challenge to make a positive impact in your life and/or the lives of others.

We were told the challenge did not have to be work related. But since this will be tracked at work via our manager, it behooves me to make this work related. Yes? Great, sign me up!

Now, being the over-achiever that I am, I decided to also have a personal 30 day challenge. I mean if I am going to do this I am going to go at it with everything I have. Pretty strong words for something that may not match the actual activity I chose. You'll see what I mean, read on:

I won't bore you with the details of my work challenge but I will say it's a pretty ambitious goal. However, I am up for it and I just know I will be victorious!

When it came to selecting my personal challenge I knew immediately what it should be. Back in January I begged my Sweetheart to buy me a treadmill; enter the Livestrong 13.0:

I was adamant about needing it immediately because I was going to jump on it every single night! Fast forward six months. My Sweetheart recently told me that our dog, Naboo, uses it more than I do. Really? I walked over to it and saw some puppy paw prints on it. Apparently it's easier for her to climb over it than go around it. Crap.

So my challenge is to get on the treadmill every single day in the month of July. Since I wanted to make this a challenge that I could actually achieve, I didn't really get specific with details on length of time on/miles walked. It's more that I am hoping that the result of this 30 day challenge will be a habit formed. Simply for the reason that up until now, the Livestrong 13.0 has become my nemesis.

Come on July 1st, I'm ready for you! I got this!!!

My Menu Board

Every day around 11am and 3pm and again at 4:30 pm, I get an email from my Sweetheart.  "What's for dinner" he asks.  Every single day.  So, I decided to post a menu on the fridge so he could check it any time he wanted.  At first I thought it would go un-noticed but I realized he really looked forward to reading the menu and either loving the menu selection or asking for a replacement.  Ha! 

I had been printing a menu every week but a couple of weekends ago my printer ran out of ink so I didn't post the menu.  As a result, the emails resumed:  "what's for dinner" he wants to know.  This was my solution to the ink-less printer dilemma:  

I used the frame with the burlap background as my "menu board".  Although, not an original idea, I felt it pretty clever of me to use this as our menu board.  I just wrote on the glass with a dry erase marker.  Easy to write on, easy to wipe off.  And the Sweetheart is very pleased that he knows what's on the menu! 

I think it's a pretty cute idea!

I think I'll keep doing this.  I'll change out the background every now and then to change things up.  

Boston!

I want to post about trip to Boston a couple of weeks ago. We had the best time ever. I just haven't had time to post. We have about 1,000 pictures that we took during our week there. I can't wait to download the pictures and post them. In the meantime, a quick summary of our trip as I described it to my BFF:


Hello Friend, 

Yeah, we were only gone for 6 days. I could have stayed longer, we had the best time ever. Did I tell you we went to NYC? Alex, M and I felt like two small town kids. We took the train from Boston to Penn Station. We walked up the steps from the subway and onto this great big, busy, dirty, amazing city! We were in AWE. It sounds silly, but I was overwhelmed with it all! M grabbed my hand and told me not to let go and to stay close. The streets were filled with people! We went to see Lady Liberty (I had been wanting to visit her since I was 7 years old and I saw a picture of her in a book) -- it was a breathtaking site. We had authentic NYC pizza at a local pizzeria. We were turned down by a cab driver – he didn’t want to take us all the way mid town so he said “no thanks” and drove off as we were getting ready to open the car door! It was classic! Oh, and we went to the Hard Rock Café in mid-town.

And Boston was equally remarkable! M and I are hard core tourists – and this time, we didn’t rent a car – we decided we were going to ride the subway while there. And we did. And we mastered it! We stayed in the heart of Boston so we had a subway station just ½ a block from the hotel. We took the subway to: Chinatown, Harvard University, Fenway Park, the USS Constitution, etc. We were subway riding fools! We even had to transfer a couple of times. Bostonians are not the most polite people on the planet either. By the end of the visit, we were shoving and pushing our way on and off just like them!

We took a tour of Fenway Park and then stayed for the game. That was really amazing. We had the best seafood (that I am not a fan of but ate it to soak up the moment), M enjoyed every minute of that. We did the Freedom Trail by foot -- saw Paul Revere’s house, the cemetery where they are buried, the first school and library in the US, the school where Ben Franklin attended, the site of the Boston Massacre, etc. We went to the top of the Prudential Building where they have a skywalk and a grand view of the entire city.

We have a TON of pictures that we haven’t downloaded yet. We slept an average of 5 hours a night because we were up early and in late. Our feet hurt, our legs were sore and it was hot and humid. We didn’t care because we had an INCREDIBLE time!

This will have to do until I can get some good pictures up!

The one with nothing to blog about

These days, my most accomplished task is cleaning the house, doing the laundry and getting the grocery shopping done.   We have had so many family and work commitments that the house duties end up being low on the priority list.  

This past weekend was a weekend free of any commitment.  So I took full advantage of it by not doing anything.  At all.  Granted, I could have taken on one of many tasks on my to do list, instead I chose to relax after my chores were done.  I did get the house cleaned, the laundry done and the groceries, but not more than that.  

There was one tiny change in the living room  See the plants in the picture below?  They used to be in the corner to the right (on the other side of the sliding glass window).  Sweetheart mentioned to me that with the heat of summer around the corner we should probably move the two plants to give them some relief from the heat.  I agreed so I moved them.  They look a lot better in the new spot.  The ficus actually loved the change, it immediately took to the new area.   Oh, the lights on the ficus tree, they are from Christmas.  About 5 years ago.  I never took the lights off the tree....

p.s.  those plants were Sweetheart's from his bachelor days.  The pots are old and crusty and do not match.  If you look close enough, you can see the saucer doesn't match the pot.   Replacement is very low on the "to do" list so they will have to be for now:

And in random news, this is what I see when I get home from work most nights.  All three of them on the couch, relaxing.  Naboo (the newest addition) really never got permission to sit on the chair...she just did it one day and I guess we never made a fuss so now she thinks that's her chair.   I'm totally serious.

Have a happy week!!

Productive Saturday

Well, hello again!   I had such a productive weekend.  As I took all my Easter decorations down, I was left with an empty space on the wall between the kitchen and the dining room.  It's a small space that holds a small shelf.  I usually replace everything on it with holiday decor, so it's forever changing.

On Saturday, as I was cleaning and rearranging, I decided I wanted something fresh in that area.  For whatever reason, I couldn't remember what I had up there before the holidays -- which would have been between Independence Day and Halloween.  So I dug through my stuff.  I found some burlap in my craft room so I decided to use it as the background.  Before I found the burlap I was digging through my scrapbook paper looking for some paper to put in the frame when I found some clear stickers with love quotes on them.

I placed the burlap in the frame, then placed the sticker on the frame.  Initially because I was trying to find something to put in the frame.  But then I figured it didn't look too bad for something that is temporary and will be switched out in another month or so.

I added a silver tea light holder, some Spring flowers and my DIY chalkboard frame and added a quick message (this happens to be the only thing on my mind these days).  :)

The it was on to the dining table.  Ever struggle with what to use as a center piece?  I always do.  I decided to use some faux green apples in a wooden dish.  Simple, but it works:

I had a similar experience with the entrance way table that also gets changed out with each holiday.  It took me forever to get this put together and when I asked Sweetheart what he thought he cheerfully said "looks nice, what's different?"

p.s. the roses are holding up well:

Have a great week!

Happy Anniversary

My Sweetheart and I will celebrate six years tomorrow.   It has been an amazing six years -- the best of my life.  My Sweetheart is my best friend.  He is always there to encourage me, support me, love me and take care of me.  I am so very blessed to have him in my life.  He is a very special person and I thank God everyday that He brought him into my life.  

I love you Sweetheart with all my heart and soul!  

Because we will be taking a vacation at the end of May, we decided to hold off on exchanging gifts now.  So I was very surprised when I got this at work today:

Isn't he adorable?  Roses, a HUGE teddy bear and candy.  What a sweetheart!

The card that was attached was very touching and special:

Although my Sweetheart is very sweet every day, today was extra special and I loved every minute of it.


Oh, and here's the teddy bear and roses in transit....

 

Is it the end of April already?

My last post was on February 20, 2012. I've been absent from blog world for far too long! I don't know why I am finding it so difficult to be more active. Well, more active in updating my blog. I check on my favorite blogs daily at work. It's one of my guilty pleasures. Every morning before starting my work day, I check the blogs and then work life can commence. :)

Once again, here I am giving a quick update of everything I didn't blog about:

• Lent
• Lenten sacrifices
• My Sweetheart's birthday!
• My Sweetheart's birthday parties
• Easter house decor
• Easter celebration with Family (my favorite of holidays)
• Season ticket renewal -- Arizona Cardinals
• Planning our trip to Boston
  
  

It's been a busy last couple of months. I keep saying I don't know where all the time has gone but I know. It's the television. The television keeps me from doing a lot of things lately. I am HOOKED on a few shows:

• Smash on NBC
• Dance Moms on Lifetime
• Dance Moms Miami on Lifetime
• Army Wives on Lifetime
• Project Runway Allstars on Lifetime (now over but boy was I into it)
• Alcatraz -- Sweetheart and I watch this one together.
  
  

For a while I had Jersey Shore on auto record along with the King of Queens. I know, strange but I LOVE the King of Queens. I would watch at least 3 shows per night to keep up with all of the shows that were auto recording. I really need to just stop all of the shows I record because there's so much more that I should be doing. Well all except for Smash. And Army Wives. And Dance Moms. And Alcatraz. See where I'm going with this? It's an addiction.

And because I hate posting sans pictures, I posted the only pictures that I took during my the three months that I didn't post anything.....