Good Bye 2011!!!

     Christmas has come and gone, back to work for a few days and then a New Year to begin. There are still a few days left of this oh so wonderful year of 2011. It's been one hell of a year if I do say so myself. Valentine's Night and Superman brought me to the ER to find out that I needed to have my Gal Bladder removed and was in the hospital for 4 days. Met up with family at the Grand Canyon-borderline blizzard conditions. First MAJOR teenage girl drama (which I am SO over) during the summer break. Beginning of Autumn we had a family scare/emergency and I had to fly out to Kansas for 2 weeks-could just strangle my baby sister for scaring us-but glad she is back to herself. I broke my ankle on 9-10-11 (happy that I just had a boot and not a cast). And with the recent holiday-my daughter has decided to move back to Kansas with her father. So, without any reservations, I can honestly say....2011 sucked. Plain and simple.

     Every year that comes in, brings the painstaking task of coming up with a resolution that I can actually stick to. In the years that have passed, I have never actually made the main resolution to lose weight. Well, I think it's about time. I want to set a goal to better myself physically. With that, I am certain that emotional and mental health will do nothing but improve.

     I'm not going to tell you that I have tried every fad diet out there...I haven't. I not going to tell you that I've tried all the exercise videos...I haven't. I have-however-done one thing....become lazy. Plain and simple. I'm not going to blame my health and weight on anything other than me. I know I have time to squeeze in SOME type of exercise....somewhere. Like a majority of women today-I have a family to raise and take care of while working a full time (out of the home) job. {Don't get me wrong, I give credit to those stay at home moms that work-it's tough to balance it all. I would have loved the opportunity to do that while my babies were little.} My day starts at 3:30 a.m. with the ritual wake-up shower. Getting to the office at 5:00 working for 12 hours-I then head home to feed Superman and the boy-clean up-laundry-miscellaneous chores around the house and I'm spent-head to bed at 9:00 p.m. and pray that Mr. Sandman will not only sprinkle-but whack me upside the head with his bag of sand and knock me out for a solid 6. So maybe I should revisit my resolution and say this, "I will make time for myself on a more regular basis to take better care of me". I think that might be a more obtainable goal than to "lose the weight".

     Feeling better and getting over this nasty head cold that has attempted to kick me around and keep me down for over a week is my main objective right now. Superman's birthday is coming up at the end of the week and I had so much planned as a surprise. Well, last night, he informed me that he would LOVE to go to the lake this weekend....crap.

btw...my little for the day....a nice box of soft Puffs tissues!!

    

Testing the waters........

So I think I have personally discovered where gray hair comes from. Life. Plain and simple. It's the everyday wear and tear on a person that keeps the world of Cosmetology in such high demand! Don't get me wrong....I love doing what I am doing. It gives me such joy to know that I can make my children and my Superman happy with a meal that took 5 hours of prep or something as simple as a cupcake. But sometimes, I get to the point where my plate is piled up so high, it reminds me of that feeling during the Holiday feasts-you just don't know where to start. With my children getting older-and not needing mommy to do so much for them (they're generally happy with me just feeding them), I have found a lot of time on my hands to do other things. Things that I WANT to do. I have interests, found hobbies and things that I truly enjoy doing. Holy cow, this means that dusting has purposely been ignored by me for a month (only to see if anyone else would actually notice) in order for me to find time to do something I want to do. I actually mentioned it to the son and Superman last night-"didn't even notice" was their reply. Seriously? Staring at the huge TV and Gaming system every day-you never noticed? And then I felt it.....another strand of my hair-gray....total sad face.


At the start of December, I and my co-workers drew names for the yearly Secret Santa 12 days of Winter Gift Exchange. I was so excited to get started on all the ideas that I had spinning in my brain. I wanted to make each idea come to life. I wanted to see the joy on my recipients face when she saw each day what I had made for her. It was such joy for me, to hear the compliments-no one knowing who had placed the special little gifts out. Some made me feel kinda bad about going "over the top". I don't think those people know that I spent so little money on the gifts. This was one of my favorites. I spent 33 cents per tile at the local hardware store. I set my mind on having all of them drawn and painted in one Sunday afternoon. To my surprise, they turned out so much better than I envisioned! And the look on her face when she showed them off was....priceless. She is a HUGE Wizard of Oz fan and I tried to find something special for that last "reveal" day in stores. Nothing could even come close to this set of coasters. Who knew that something so small, could make a smile so big?



I decided to dip my toes in the "blogging-waters" to see if it is something that I would want to do. Maybe share my thoughts on life, children, relationships. Everyone has a story, everyone has their own battles they are fighting. And everyone has their own little things that make them smile. What's your little?