Monday, December 31, 2012

2012 in review and pictures... in no particular order.

January.... snow. 12 hour days... more snow...
 
February... giant gummy worms and gummy bears, nuff said...
 
Will have to add pictures later, I want to get this done before the year is up... lol
 
 
March: Blake Shelton AND Lady Antebellum (And Hunger Games!)
 
April: Pretty Sunset... good times at Easter in Oregon
 
May: VEGAS baby, with my best gal pal, Treeeeeee-na
 
June: Father's Day in Oregon
 
July: Hall of Fame day for the Mariners: Randy Johnson and Dan Wilson
 
August: Edmonton!
 
September: Puyallup Fair- Tim McGraw & annual local favorites: The Konzelman Family Band! (and announcing my new niece: Carleen Isabel Yolanda Minker, so grateful for sister friends that don't mind if you adopt their baby for your own... lol)
 
October: Successfully managed to avoid soda for the month.
 
November: Successfully completed my first NaNoWriMo... 3rd attempt...
 
December: Disneyland! & Pentatonix concert!!
 
 
 
Also... managed to not spend money at work in machines or snack room... but had to use the savings in July ... so did not manage to actually hold on to that $10 a month. Lost 15 pounds this year and currently sit at 220 for the first time in a long time... that's 10 pounds less than my weight watchers adventure several years ago. 2012 was great, I have no regrets at all.
 
 
 

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Oh dear....

It's already november!

Yikes!

Not only is it november, it's november 10th and I'm almost 15 K into this year's NaNoWriMo attempt.  And I've failed miserably at trying to blog this year.

A lot has been going on... a trip or two .... novel writing attempt in progress.

far too much work needed for a work party at the end of the week.

the last twilight saga movie...

losing weight, gaining weight, losing or not losing it again.

Disneyland trip for my birthday.

What has not at all occured this year for me is a date. Here's to hoping we can get one in the last month and a half left...

Monday, May 28, 2012

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

oh... man, it didn't work...

grr....

I had a beautiful Easter post that I thought - oh... I can pre-schedule it to post.

Nope...

No post... *pout*

Guess I'll have to work on that a bit more...

In the mean time, enjoy a picture... lol


The Space Needle is celebrating 50 years!  Still looks great!

Sunday, January 29, 2012

done... so very done...




This was only the beginning... this was the snow that was falling on Sunday or Monday... I suspect Monday because Sunday was pretty dry and starting to warm.


Tuesday... it snowed all day...


Wednesday... it snowed all day...


Thursday - it was freezing rain into ice overnight and then it snowed all day and I stayed in a hotel that my job put me up at... thank goodness for toiletries and spare clothes in the emergency kits they had us make up in October... Oh, and by 4 pm, we were on mandatory 12 hour shifts due to the major power outages that the ice storm gifted us with.


Friday... walked to work early, frustrated that I didn't get to start early because apparently my supervisor didn't understand what I wanted to do... found a ride home that night... 12 hours.


saturday... 12 hour shift...


sunday... 12 hour shift...


monday... 12 hour shift... this was day 4 of 630 to 630... I'd been getting up at 4 all last week and boy... i was so tired. almost killed a co-worker five times in the last five days... lol


tuesday... 12 hour shift but 730 start... early release got me off at 7...


wednesday ... 12 hour shift...


thursday... 12 hour shift BUT ... early release got me off at lunch and so I only worked 5 hours and was paid for 8...


friday - return of 8 hour shift!!! yay!!!!


all i really have to say is thank god for overtime... they paid me as much as my last bonus check on this paycheck and will still be paying me for a few more hours...


done with snow, let me tell you... sick to death of it..

Saturday, January 7, 2012

2012 goals ...

**Gratuitous Cupcake Shrine picture because all posts need a photo of some sort... LOL**

It is that time of year again... time to set some goals to try and stick to and accomplish this year. I think I'm going to be able to do it and look forward to seeing the final outcome at the end of the year.

‎2012 goal 1: The principle seems quite honestly to be a "yeah, duh" moment but I struggle with it most of the time. EAT WHAT YOU HAVE... Which will involve menu planning and grocery shopping on Sundays. Sub goal "A" is to only spend $35 or less on groceries a week.

‎2012 goal 2: Revisiting again the goal of not putting any money into the vendng machines at work. That would be a minimum $10 into my spending money fund for vacations... (and works with my completion of goal one... if I didn't buy it while I was out shopping for the week then I don't need it , most likely... lol)

‎2012 goal 3: Me time... working on keeping goal 1 and 2 should help significantly with improving my diet and helping me lose weight. Making sure to take time for me will include exercise time, time to be creative with food or crafts ... reading time... writing time... and the all important monthly pedicures and massage... lol

‎2012 goal 4: Make at least 1 recipe a week from "the" cookbook of choice. I have a huge collection of cookbooks because I cannot resist them but rarely actually cook from them. and "the" cookbook of choice is.... 100 Recipes Every Woman Should Know....

‎2012 goal 5 : Last goal to work on... REGRET NOTHING! Spend the time I want to spend with people or travel or doing what I want to do... Wisely spend money on things I want to spend it on... Learn something every day - on occasion this will be learning from a mistake made the day before and not repeating it... all in all though... at the end of the year, I want to be happy with my choices and decisions and not have any regrets that I didn't cherish the precious moments or memories or didn't get to do something...


Week one wrap up... Wow... already the end of the first week of the year. Time flies. lol.

Well... I ended the week with $3 left of my grocery money and avoided the machines and things at work. I have decided that I am going to save the money in my savings accounts and then at the end of the year, figure out what to do with all that money that I should have in my account. so one account for grocery money left over and the other for the $10 a week from not spending money at work. balances: $3 and $10

Photo's and recipes from goal 4 will be on my other blog - On the Menu as well as posted to facebook.

Friday, January 6, 2012

Remembering those we miss...

Remembering those that were second mothers...

Her birthday was today and that is probably why I've been thinking about her a bit more this week. Well, and also my recent trip to Disneyland was punctuated by thoughts of her as my parents and I would remember times spent waiting in line and talking about different memories of our family trips together with them.

I think some of my favorite memories of Janet were on those trips. camping trips... Disneyland... Trips halfway across the country to visit friends.

It was often the most fun being the only girl out of the 6 of us because that meant that there were often spaces where people enjoyed having a girl for a while. lol... that meant with one family, I was the only one special enough to play with the vintage Barbie ... and oh, what a Barbie that was... it was so nice to play with her when the boys were off doing who knows what...

and it meant with another family that when I tired of always being princess leia or "julie - the A-team chick" or daisy or whatever token female appeared in the show we were playing ... or simply that I didn't want to climb the apple tree up into the shelf in the back shed... I got to go in and make cookies or brownies. I have amazingly awesome memories of baking with Janet on one of those anniversary weekends or overnighters when I was tired of hanging with the boys...

My heart aches that she did not get to have baking sessions with her granddaughters or chances to cuddle with her grandson when he tires of being the only boy at things. :) And I just know that she would have been loving those chances.

In all this extra wisdom that comes with getting older, I regret that I did not fully realize what opportunities were there to say thank you to her for her impact in my life... She helped to foster along that love of baking and maintaining interest in playing piano. I should have realized that you have to say thank you to people when you have the chance, one of my uncles passed away when I was in high school. I just never imagined that we would lose her and that time would steal away opportunities due to distance... college and such.

So I'll say it now.

Thank you Janet for those memories I have...

I appreciate the way you always allowed me to come inside and bake with you...

and for when you'd put my hair up and I'd look suspiciously like the dog for a while ... until you realized that the ponytail should be lower and would fix it... but that was okay... you didn't have a little girl and the only ponytails you usually made were on the top of Muffin's head...

And for making me remember you when I see mice and most things Disney or old vacation photos.

Oh the memories of old vacation photos.

Well, would you look at that ... :) ... You, Johnstons always put such a united front out on the first day at the park... matching shirts and sweatshirts. :) I remember those trips every time I'm looking around and seeing a batch of matching shirts in line with me...

Your family is perfectly lovely and I know that you would adore all your granddaughters and your grandson... (Steve, Emily, Dave and Talia - you've all done a fantastic job with that side of things, those kids are all wonderful and I can't wait until we can get together this year!)

So again... in memory... and thank you for those that shared her with me...