Discipline

I've been thinking about the word "discipline" for awhile. Sometimes I think I could use more discipline in many different areas of my life. When I listed them all off to Adam the other day (we were talking about New Years Resolutions" he said that I should probably just pick one or two and not EVERY single thing :-0. I have already been more disciplined at exercise and eating-check.

One thing that I absolutely STINK at is just tackling the dishes in the kitchen. I will let them pile up for a long time before I do them. It stresses me out and when I actually just go for it they don't take too long so I don't know what the huge mental block is.

I am not making one big grandiose resolution this year but I plan on making some changes- almost all of them revolving around the word discipline. I plan to focus on this word in different areas of my life as needed, and hopefully it will become more natural to me :-)

Step 1: For 1 month I am promising to myself to clean the kitchen of dishes/load dishwasher every night sometime before I go to bed. I'm hoping after 1 month of this it becomes an easy habit.

So that's it! Stay tuned for more updates....

Birthday Month

January is my birthday month. My favorite thing about this is all the things you get from various stores/restaurants that give you a discount or free-something during your birthday month. Sometimes when I am at stores I like and I see that sign-up card I think about forging my birthday to a closer month so that I can get a discount right away. (I don't).
Last year by far the best was a free day at Disneyland! Adam skipped work and we went together. It was so fun (and shocking) to see how many fellow Southern Californians shared my birthday! I love Disneyland and am sad that they did not continue this special offer for 2010...boo hoo!
PS- it took me a minute to realize that I was not making the "peace" sign in the picture above. I believe its "23" but it looks like "32" in the picture!

Still feeding the squirrels??

For Christmas my Dad's brother gave him a bird feeder that prevents squirrels from accessing the bird food. Later, he apparently asked my dad if he was still feeding the squirrels or not. My dad took this picture in his backyard and emailed it back as the answer to the question. It looks like the resident squirrels are doing JUST FINE!!! (it IS cold season you know, they need their vitamin C!!)...

Pssstt!!

I'll let you in on some Amy secrets once in awhile. Well, not really secrets...just random little things about me.
1. I do not like having 1 sock on, 1 sock off...or 1 sock 1/2 off....these things really aggravate me and must be remedied when they occur.
2. I shamelessly (okay, well maybe there is a little shame there) enjoy most reality tv. I am thankful for Tivo since now I can record random stupid reality T.V shows and then watch them commercial free while doing dirty housework (laundry, cooking, cleaning etc!). Even a couple weeks ago I watched my first Keeping up with the Kardashian episode...I must admit I think I like it since we live near Calabasas. I find it intriguing. Plus I like Bruce Jenner. I also have some compulsion to watch every single season of The Bachelor/Bachelorette. I will continue to do this until the show gets canceled. . .
3. I am not sure if cancelled is spelled canceled or cancelled....I thought it was the latter but it always gets spell checked.
4. I prefer carbs to sweets....but I will probably take either if they are offered.
5. I name all our blankets in the house and we ALWAYS refer to them that way: "whitey", "purple", "yellow"...they are almost my friends.

that's it for now! . . . stay tuned for more shocking, scandalous revelations!!!

a perfect day

I dont know when it started but every since we started dating we have always enjoyed car rides together. Maybe it was because our first date included a 40 minute car ride. Who knows. I love our talks on car rides. And our car rides always include listening to music. Good music- of all types. Country, smooth jazz, rock, worship, rap, hip hop, dance, classical....its all good and its all fair game in our car.
On Sunday morning on our early morning walk to Coffee Bean to get some coffee (yes, I'm addicted) Adam said "hey, do you want to drive to Big Bear today for a day trip?. The answer, of course, was yes! We had never been there together and it was an absolutely gorgeous day. We are talking bright blue skies with streaks of white clouds. We had some good music, a new car, and open minds so off on our way we went. *yes, we played hookie from church* The day was great. Big Bear was beautiful. But my favorite part??? You guessed it. The DRIVE :-)

Eggs

I love my husband very much. He knows this. But he especially knows it when I make him breakfast in the morning....a hot breakfast of scrambled eggs. You see, to me, scrambled eggs are a luxury; a saturday morning feast if you will. I usually have something small like yogurt, cottage cheese, pb on toast, or oatmeal, etc. Sometimes just a nonfat latte will do the trick. But Adam likes very few of these options (1/4 actually) and also requires something that "sticks to the bones" more. Eggs seem to do the trick. I don't know why I don't make them for him everyday...but I should start doing it more often than I do. Last week I got it all together and made him eggs I think every morning before work (thank goodness it was a short week). This week I am 0 for 2. Today I purchased more eggs and will get back to doing it for him. Because I love him and he works very hard for us. (Evidenced by the fact that he got up at 5am to do devotions and get to work, worked all day, drove 2 hours total, and came home to do graduate work.)Now he is asleep on the couch- I don't blame him, that financial text book he is reading is BOOOORRRRING. I will not wake him up quite yet...I think he needs the rest. Maybe if I'd have made him eggs this morning he would have more energy to stay awake. :-0

A-Musing

Well, I think I am back to the blogging world. I have always wondered if it was really lame to blog when you don't have a family to blog about...but hey, I like it! I love reading other people's blogs and I hope that at some point in my blogging career people like to read mine too! I have noticed other people in my same life-stage blogging too so I figure...why not! Even if no one reads mine I can imagine that they do...and it is like some sort of a journal.
Some people who blog are extremely open and make themselves vulnerable. I love reading those blogs but I am not sure that I am quite there yet... maybe in some ways but not others. I also am not very talented in the art of designing the blog...uploading pictures, fancy links, and backgrounds...I hope to get better at this too! Maybe with just a little more effort...

SO! here's to my 2nd (or 3rd....or something) attempt at being a "blogger"... we'll see!
-AMES