Our Entry Way...it's like a museum of us!

We've hung pictures in our entry way, and I love them! It reminds me that we live here.

We didn't plan out our pictures first and just took a more creative approach, and started in the middle, and moved towards the ends of the hallway. The really nice thing about not buying additional things to decorate our new space is that all of  our belongings are on remix! At our house the color frames were in one room, the black frames in the hallway, and the "Keep Calm and Carry On" canvas was in my office at work; now they all go together and I am really happy about the result. Many of the pictures are from our wedding, trips and travels, and good friends--it makes me really happy to see everything on a daily basis again.

It was kinda hard to shoot the long narrow hallway, but here are my best attempts. Let me know what you think, I love comments :)

This birdie has a new lease on life!

A couple of summers ago my mom got me pretty ceramic mushrooms, the biggest with a little birdie sitting on top. Well after a few year in the ground, the largest garden ornament lost it's stake and the bottom of the mushrooms broke too. I kept them because I thought they were pretty and didn't want to get rid of them, but I didn't exactly know what to do with them either. Well, Hubby found a cool piece of wood in our backyard, and an idea was born!

I had Hubby drill some large holes in the cool looking log, and I dripped some epoxy in the drilled holes and around the base of the mushrooms, and ta-DA!! I'm really liking the way it all turned out and that these gifts got a new life on my garden table.

Heading to Arizona!!

And we're off on our 3rd annual spring visit to Arizona to see my little brother. This time we are hoping to see the Grand Canyon and Montezuma's Castle and a lot of sunshine!! I brought 2 pairs of sunglasses, if that tells you how excited I am to have the sun shining on my face. I'm going to try to make daily blog updates, so if you're interested, stay tuned!!

New Year Resolutions: Health, Wealth & Happiness

So it's 1-1-11, what else would I be writing about but my New Year's resolutions! I don't think my resolutions are much different than millions of Americans and billions of people of throughout the world. BUT I have thought a good deal about it, and specific ways to achieve it. Hopefully, being specific, telling anyone who will read it my plan, and then reporting back through blogging after the fact will allow me to accomplish all I am setting out to do. So let's get started...


HEALTH


Eat Better

• Drink more water. Huge problem for me for some reason, not sure why. But in an effort to help, my water drinking habits,  I am resolving to not drinking any non-diet soda, no more than one can of diet soda per day, AND no soda when I eat out. Water, water, water!
• Go grocery shopping regularly. I really seem to do best with my eating habits when there's food in the house, thus, I need to keep good healthy food in the house. 
• Up the fiber, cut back the sugar. I love desert--who doesn't?--but I need to get my sugar quantities under control. I'd also like to get some more high fiber foods in my diet. 

Exercise

• Cardio! 30 minutes, 3 times a week, minimum. Now I know that as a standard, that truly is the minimum for cardio...but I'll come clean, that would be 90 more minutes a week than what I'm getting now. So its a start!
• Take the stairs. Yes, it's true. I take the elevator in my 3-story work building daily (sometimes, several times daily). I will resolve that will take the stairs this year...unless, I'm carrying something heavy!
• Play with the dog daily. That mutt really wears me out!

Be Outside

• Canoe, canoe, canoe! I would really like to get out and paddle more this canoe season than last--the record shouldn't be hard to break, I think we only got out twice. I would like to get out at least once a month April through September. 
• We were generously given a lot of camping gear for the holidays. We need to get out and camp this year. I'm really not down for winter camping, and would love to go more often than this, but I resolve that we will go once a month June through August. 

WEALTH

Financials in Order

• Save, save, save. I feel like we really need to get serious about saving. Spend less to save more. 
• Check in my credit score, at least twice over the year. Make any corrections and raise score, if possible. 

Alternative Sources of Money

• I have lots of vintage plates, dishes, and doodads...I think it would be cool to sell them. I am unsure if I'd like to try to sell on-line or in an antique store. Nothing that is gonna make me rich by any means, but a great way for me to unclutter and make a little money...that will of course go into savings. 

Strive for Simplicity

• So a great way to spend less, and save more...be more simple. In a consumer driven world, this can be hard to do, but I have my hubby, my animals, and my family and friends...what outside of that truly matters?

HAPPINESS

Be More Social

• I'm starting a book & movie club. I've thought about it for a while, and decided I will do it. A very nice way to be social if I do say so myself. 
• See my family more...I live so close to most of them, its a shame we don't get together more. I would like to make it a point to see everyone more. 
• See my friends more...Same thing, I have lots of awesome friends I barely see. Shame, shame. I resolve to make an effort to see my friends more often!

Volunteer

• I would like to get more involved with the camp I grew up at. I love that place, and believe it to be one of the best places in the world. I would like to commit to helping it stay that way. 
• I would like to find a local place to volunteer a couple times a month. Stay tuned for that. 

Randoms

• I resolve to wear a dress/skirt to work twice a month. 
• Watch less TV I'm not interested in...sometimes, I will watch TV I am not interested in, just because it is what's on. I am not anti-TV, not at all, but if there is nothing on I'd rather find something better or turn it off. 
• Put away clean clothes. I put this one for my hubby, who hates that I don't put away my clean clothes...really, baby, 2011 will be the year!

Okay, so I know that is a lot of New Year's resolutions, but they are all things I'd like to do...let's see what I can accomplish. Good luck to me, right. 

Did you set any resolutions this year?

In Memory of my Sweet Papa and Nana

"If there ever comes a day when we can't be together keep me in your heart, I'll stay there forever." ~A. A. Milne

Day Two in Arizona

Day two in Arizona was Saturday. First stop was picking up baby brother and heading to the Dewey-Humboldt Library to get him an email account. Apparently, however, he is too young so we abandoned that idea and went sight-seeing. First thing we did was drive up the big hill in Dewey-Humboldt, to take in the view and doing a little walking around. Beautiful!

Next we went to Peddlers' Pass Flea Market and Farmer's Market, but there wasn't too much to see. I found a few good treasures there last year, but nada on Saturday. The weather was a little cool, so maybe they didn't have all of their regular "peddlers". My baby brother found something though...a bb gun. I wasn't so happy about that, but whatcha gonna do? From there we went to Fain Park to look at a "waterfall" (it was actually a spill way), climb on rocks and play near the creek, or in my case in the creek. While playing hope from stone to stone to cross the creek, I decide to run from rock to rock...I did pretty good across most of it until, SPLASH, one sock and shoe soaked.

After the park, we headed off to some birthday party fun with baby brother, his friend, baby brother's brother and his wife. We played mini-golf (where I tied for first with baby brother and friend), played arcade games, and ate pizza (again) and drank coke floats. After several hours of torture, I mean fun, the boys went back to have a sleepover and Hubby and I went back to our hotel to chill, read, nap and change my soggy sock. Ahhh, vacation.

Road Trip

I always love planning a great road trip!! On this road trip my husband I are going from the Chicago Area to Little Rock via St. Louis and Mountain Home (Arkansas).

Here are some of the planned highlights:

St. Louis--

Going up in the Arch www.gatewayarch.com

Anheuser Busch Brewery Tour http://www.budweisertours.com/toursSTL.htm

Mountain Home--

My Papa's 90th Birthday Party (Shhh, it's a surprise!)

Top O' The Ozarks http://www.topotheozarks.net/

Little Rock--

Visiting with Family, which always makes me happy

On the way home--

Lambert's http://www.throwedrolls.com/shopcontent.asp?type=Sikeston

All told it will be about 1,450 miles in a little over 4 days, but it will be great to spend time with my husband, see family and some fun sights along the way.