MOTIVATED

Today I am motivated.

I've gotten my to-do list done, which included organizing my records to get my taxes done!!

I'm balanced the check book, paid bills (and suprisingly not been scared).

Last night Sam and I had a good "planning" talk.

I'm feeling good. Now, if Sam would just answer his phone and report similar news.

Oh, and I'm in a throwing away mood. And an organizing mood. Too bad I'm not at home with the garage right now!!

Being Productive

Yesterday I got this sent to me, apparently she did the whole driveway by herself while Sam scraped the truck.

The first day I was gone she asked me to come home, the second day she said she would share her goldfish crackers if I came home, yesterday she threatened to punch me if I didn't come home.... luckily today I get to tell her that when she wakes up in the morning I will be there.

My sweet little three-year-old dosen't understand why I have to be at work for so long, even if her and Dad are having a lot of fun, eating way too much junk food and buying wayyyy too many toys. :)

I've tried to make the most of my time here. Yesterday I finished my 32 page literature review for my thesis proposal. Today I need to start piecing together the actual proposal and maybe, with a lot of luck and hard work, get it sent off.....

This morning I woke up and immediately smiled, for me it's one more day till I get home. A long day, but still one day. I won't sleep in that hotel bed again..... I loaded my stuff on the bus and the clothes I have on my back are the ones that will be there when I walk through the door at home.

I immediately looked out the window, clear skies.... not TOTALLY clear, but I can see blue!! Not totally clouds either!! I think we might be in business folks.

It took 10.5 hours to get here. The crazy bus driver said it will take 8 to get home if we have good roads..... pray for good roads.

We get out of here as soon as we are done racing, probably around three.... which puts us at the school at 11 and me home by midnight!! EEk!! I almost squeal out loud just saying that!!

Hopefully the little one is in bed, or at least asleep so we can put her in bed.... Of course I miss her TONS; but I'm thinking a good kiss on the head and a reunion in the morning sounds delightful. I want Sam all to myself tonight. :)

Thesis...

I'm in Montana.

I spent 8 hours in a ski lodge today. I worked on my thesis proposal the ENTIRE time.

Oh wait, I went to the bathroom. Twice.

We got back to the hotel. I took a long needed break and went to window shopping for two hours. The mountain air felt nice on my lungs.

Now I'm back in my hotel room, just checked email and just pulled out my books, articles and notecards. I swear to you they are still warm from my touch all day.

Uggh, I want this thing DONE.

Nose to the grindstone.

Rock on....

It's January 21st, always a hard day.

One of the hardest things in my life occured five years ago today (rockonjaxon.com). I still think about it often, still wear a memorial of it on my right hand, will forever hold it in my heart.

Before light broke this morning I loaded a bus for a trecherous 10.5 hour bus ride to Montana, to a cute little ski town that I should be excited to explore.

Instead I've been brough to tears when my phone regains service and I get voicemails from a little high pitched voice telling me she misses me and that I should come home from Montana, quickly followed my a sexy low voice telling me he didn't mean to make me sad, but they do miss me and to "have fun" and hurry home.

You know, I used to LOVE traveling with teams. I loved exploring and seeing different corners of the country....

But now, not having my exploring partner with me makes it hard. It dosen't hold the same appeal. It's awfully hard to be alone in a cold bed in an old hotel room.

But I'm doing something that I'm supposed to "love", something I've "loved" for a long time....

Will I get used to it? Is it time for a change?? My tears say it possibly is.

This morning I added some bath salts to my suitcase. Sam got them for me for Christmas and I thought it would make things a bit easier while I'm gone. Remind me of him and bring a little comfort.

Wow, I'm being a complete baby about this.... but hey, we haven't been apart for a single day since we met... its hitting me harder than I expected.

I'm off to take a bath, and get on another long awaited phone call home. I miss them.....

(sorry for the Journal post.... but it feels good to get it out.)

On a good note, I will get to have dinner with my best friend from high school while I'm up here.... and hopefully meet her new little one. :)

Till later, Good Night from Red Lodge, Montana.

3 year old girl x 2 = CRAZY!!

Here is a picture from dinner with my parents last night. Olivia and my niece, Nona. They are five months apart and CRAZY together!

They are a handful now, yet I shutter to think what it will be like in 12 years. Wow.....

Ice Skating

We went to Skate with Santa.... now she LOVES to ice skate.


We have gone skating every time we have had her since... now she is enrolled in skating lessons.

She will be skating circles around us soon... the thought of that makes her giggle already.

I see long days at the rink in our future. I need a cute coat and a good book. Oh, and the camera. :)

2009 TAG!!

1. What did you do in 2009 that you'd never done before? opened my life to someone else, completely

2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I kept a lot of them! Already made new ones... see previous post :)

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? I had quite a few friends give birth, including a set of twins (congrats, Amy!)

4. Did anyone close to you die? unfortunately yes, I still miss her cards every holiday

5. What countries did you visit? France and Morocco!!!

6. What did you get really, really, really, really excited about? my hot boyfriend. Oh, and anything Morocco

7. What do you wish you'd done more of? being active, although I did a lot of it!

8. What was the best book you read? the only book I've read other than text books.... The Lost Symbol, by Dan Brown. It was great!

9. What is something you wanted but didn't get? to never ever every plateau or fall out of this weight loss journey

10. What kept you sane? my hottub and chatting to my awesome girlfriends, they have heard a lot of bitching and tears..... but a lot of laughter, too. :)

11. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009? lacking. Between my clothes being too big and not really wanting to buy new clothes till I get down to the weight.... I'm struggling. Luckily Sam keeps buying me awesome things here and there.

12. What valuable life lesson did you learn in 2009? take care of myself... yet love deeply and make sure they know it

I'M TAGGING...... Mom, Abby, Zannah, Erica Lassen, Angie and Becky.

Your turn.... share and then tag... ;)

Christmas update... better late than never.

We had multiple "Christmas Day's" in our family this year.... Christmas with my family before we left for Idaho, Christmas with Sam's family in Idaho and then Christmas at home with the baby girl when we got back.

This is what we came home to!! (Thanks Steph for helping us with that and thanks Mom and Pops for watching the dogs so they didn't eat anything!) :)

Olivia was spoiled rotten, but she got really excited over her "round sprite"

The dogs (Max and Porter) "gave" her this HUGE stuffed puppy. She sleeps with this thing now, literally sleeps on top of it. I'm not sure why she even has pillows on her bed anymore. It's so soft and cuddly! When it's time for a nap or bedtime she wants her blanket, pink milk in her sippy (gotta love strawberry quik) and this huge dog.

She got all the workings of a grown up purse... wallet, princess cell phone, flashlight, chapstick and keys. She takes it everywhere and always wants to swipe her credit cards.

We wrapped all the stuff seperately and when she opened the keys first she looked at them, then looked at Sam and I and said, "You got me a car for Christmas?!?!?" Yeah, she's three. hahaha.

Sam finally got his afaghan. He would look longingly at the one I was making for his Mom everytime I worked on it. I gave in and now this thing never leaves his side. He even calls it his woobie. I'm starting to get jealous, it gets more snuggle time than I do.

The baby girl also got a chest full of dress up clothes. Ladies and Gentleman, I now present to you...... SNOW WHITE.

Merry Christmas..... we had a great time. I hope you all did as well, Love you!

Out in the Snow!!

Yesterday Sam and I went out and used my new snowshoes.

He got me snowshoes for Christmas and I was eager to try them out! I've never done it before!

We took Max (the dog) with us for some much needed running and we all had a great time.

It was chilly! It sure is a wierd feeling to be working hard and sweating, but yet you are bundled up and not at all cold! It's different from snowboarding because when you are snowboarding you still get cold from time to time (especially during that rest period on the lift) but honestly, when on the snowshoes I never got cold! Not once! When we got back to the truck and stripped down to our underlayers to ride home we were both SOAKED in sweat!!

Great workout! It was gorgeous and we had a great time!!

Sam did a great job picking out my snowshoes. He told me when I opened them on Christmas that they were the luxury edition and that I would be spoiled right off the bat. I don't have anything else to compare them to, but I can tell you they are awesome! They are simple to get on and off, plus they are so comfortable!! Did I also mention they are super cute?? You can't go wrong with purple snowshoes!

The trail we found was a lot of fun, it wound around a little creek, had some small hills for a little bit of a challenge, went around an old barn and had a few other fun exploration activities. I didn't realize how deep the snow was until we came across some moose tracks, they easily went down two feet into the snow! Showshoes really are awesome things, keeping you right up there on top of the snow..... super cool.

We found out quickly that I spray a lot of snow behind me. Sam kept trying to teach me how to drag the back of my snowshoes so that I wouldn't flick snow so much, but I never really got the hang of it. He always made sure he was in the lead so he didn't get so much spray. There were times when I would hit myself in the back of the head with snow!! My pockets filled up with snow by the time we were half way through our hour long outing.

I kept teasing him saying that he got must have gotten me the special "snow flicker" snowshoes and that I was trying to not flick snow, but it was like fighting against the machine. He would just laugh, roll his eyes and make sure he was far enough in front of me to not be caught in the flying snow.

Max was hilarious, running and diving through the snow. Constantly trying to eat it, falling into weak spots in the crust and coming to a screaching halt in the deep trenches he would fall into. He had a great time and was hilarious to watch.

Porter had a good time too, when we got home he was crashed out on top of the heating pad and afaghan on the couch.....

A good time was had by all. :)

Mr. Beaudry

Last night Sam and I needed to get out of the house, we went to the mall to spend our Christmas money. We have both needed good sunglasses for quite some time and we decided enough was enough. A sunglasses Christmas for us.

While we were at the mall Sam took me to dinner at The Cheesecake Factory.

WOW.

I had never been there before... boy did he introduce me to one of my new favorite things ever!

We both were more than impressed. Amazingly delicious.

The bill came, both of us completely satisifed AND stuffed. I had a to-go box and both of us had cheesecake to take home (we didn't even attempt to eat it there).

He pays with the credit card (with my name on it)....

The waiter comes back. Thinking he is being attentive and sly he lays down the check and says, "Thank you, Mr. Beaudry. Have a great night."

He walks away, we look at eachother over the dimly lit table and chuckle.

Mr. Beaudry. hahahahhahaha.

He then says, "Mr. Beaudry, huh? I guess I'm taking your name, Sweetie."

We both chuckle some more, then grab our food and head out the door hand in hand.

Mr. Beaudry. Classic.

;)

Here comes 2010

I've been looking over goals, planning what I want to do next year and assessing the priorities I've put on everything.

I have nine areas of my life I've set goals in for 2010: my relationship, school, financial, health, social, family, career, spiritual and our house.

I've struggled with what order to put them in, just because one is listed lower does it mean that it's actually less important to me? I would say no, maybe it's just that I feel I'm more stable in that area, not sure, but it's been on my mind.

Some of these goals I would do without listing, but I felt listing them would help me focus more.

Either way, I'm excited for the new year. It isn't that I feel everything changes because it's January.... but it give me a good starting off point. A time to "renew my vows" so to speak.

So, this year..... in a vague summary of the actual goals listed.

• keep working on this wonderful relationship with my truly incredible partner.
• finish my masters thesis
• settle some things financially
• continue my path of healthy weight management/nutrition
• be social
• be a supporting factor in my family
• broaden my career
• maintain my spirituality
• work on this cute house of ours

Dosen't sound too hard, right??!??!??

Twenty Ten.

It has a ring to it.