Happy New Year!

In this time of happiness and celebration, many people gather together with their families.  Whether you're rich or poor, fat or skinny, messy or neat, you can't help but look forward to the new year with optimism.  It's like a deep feeling, welling up inside you, that maybe this year, things will change.  Maybe this year, you'll finally get a better job, maybe this year, you'll finally lose some weight, maybe this year, you'll finally start keeping up with the household.

It's those maybes that spawn what we like to call "New Year's Resolutions."  It's the (usually incorrect) assumption that, just because the calendar says 2011 instead of 2010, that somehow it will make us able to do what we haven't been able to do for the last [insert random number] years.

I've always secretly mocked people who make New Year's Resolutions.  I've always thought of them as being stupid and pointless (the resolutions, not the people.... mostly).  It's not that I think I'm better than [most] of them, it's just that I see people making these resolutions, and then nothing ever changes.  What is it about a day on a calendar that makes us suddenly think we can unlearn what has become sometimes years upon years of bad behavior?  You can't suddenly get that job you wanted simply because it's one year later than it was the last time you said you were going to get that job you wanted.

Nothing is going to change unless YOU change it.  I guess that's what irritates me so much.  The New Year doesn't imbue you with magical powers to deal with stuff you haven't dealt with yet in your life.  You are the only one who can change the way you act and live your life, and no particular day of the year is going to help.  It could be August 15th, and you could change your life starting that day.

So, remember, if you decide to make a New Year's Resolution, it's up to YOU and no one else to see it through.  You have to make some serious life changes in order to pull off what you want to pull off, and you're the only one who can make those changes.

But don't let that discourage you from trying.  Even if you only get halfway to your goal, you're still farther than you were before, and every step in the right direction is a step away from your old behaviors.

Good luck in the New Year, and I'll see you on the flip-side.

Merry Christmas and all that!

RAWWRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!! 

Now that I've got your attention, how was your Christmas?!?  Mine was better than expected.  I usually have a series of mishaps that occur RIGHT before Christmas, and this year was no different.  We broke both axles on our car.  Yes, BOTH.  At the same time.  I have no idea how.  We're just driving along, and all of a sudden, we hear this clanking noise, and we're like "UH-OH, THAT'S BAD!"  So we pull over and look under the car, thinking something might be falling off of it (highly likely) but we don't see anything, so we go home.  The next day Husband takes the car to the repair shop, and the guy is like "U BROKED BOTH AXLEZ.  U IZ DUM."  Or something.  I wasn't there to hear what he actually said.  So yeah.  Yaaaaay Christmas!

We went to Husband's parents' house for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and the day after Christmas as well (they just live about 20 minutes away).  His sister, her husband, and their son were in town, which was nice since we don't usually get to see them.  Their son (Aven) is 5 years old.  Remember that.

So on Christmas morning, we're all gathered in the family room, ready to open presents.  It was decided that Aven should be the one to hand out everyone's presents, and he was more than willing to do so.  Everything went more or less fine, until about halfway through, Aven came across a present for Husband's grandmother, who is severely disabled.  He tried to hand it to her, but she couldn't take it from him, so someone said "Help her unwrap it."  Remember what I said in the last paragraph?

So, Aven, being the awesome little 5-year-old that he is, unwraps the present for her, and it's a box.  He flips it over, looking for a way to open the box, and the next thing you know.........

Broken glass all over the floor.  Poor Aven was traumatized.  The box had some kind of glass ornament in it, and when he flipped it over, it opened and the ornament shattered all over the floor.

So yeah, he cried for like 10 minutes, and refused to wear the Santa hat he had been wearing all morning.  I feel sorry for my sister-in-law, who probably spent a lot of money on what must have been a really nice ornament (it had a certificate of authenticity and everything), and I feel sorry for Aven, who will probably never be able to open another Christmas present again (I'm kidding, he's fine really), but man... I have to admit, it was funny.  XD  Maybe I'm demented, but I caught the whole thing on video, and I went back and watched that part again, and it was just so funny, the CRASH of glass on tile, then Aven's face of "OMFG WHAT DID I JUST DO?!?!"  Lol I'm laughing just thinking about it.  I'm so screwed up.

Holy FRAK I am out of shape! And photos of me as a kid. O_o;

Just did 2 whole minutes of cardio.  HELL YEAH!!!!

Now I feel like I'm going to die.

*headdesk*

I do really want to lose weight, though.  I've been overweight for about 10 years, and while I haven't gained any major weight in two or three years, I haven't lost any major weight either.  I fluctuate between about 201 and 205, which would be okay if I was taller, but I'm pretty short, so it's more of a problem.

I know cardio can be a problem for people of any weight, if you're out of shape.  Even skinny people have a hard time running any distance if their hearts are used to being at a resting pace.

I would like to be skinnier, but mostly I would just like to be healthier.  I would like to NOT get out of breath from doing 2 minutes of cardio, or from carrying desktop computers up and down ladders at work.  I don't necessarily want to be a size 6 (although that would be awesome if I could pull it off), I just want to be in good enough shape that I can do the basic things that are required of me on a daily basis without feeling like a fat tub of lard.  I always feel so ashamed that I get out of breath from carrying a laptop down a ladder, or from carrying a printer up to the register for a customer.  I just feel like they're going to judge me for being fat and out of shape.  I don't know why their opinions matter so much to me, as most of them I will never see again.  I guess it's more my opinion of myself that I'm superimposing on other people.

I used to be super skinny as a kid.

[2-hour gap here, where I got side-tracked looking through old photos, then restoring the following ones to post here.]

 This is me in a brand new birthday dress, around age 6 or 7.  My mom used to hand-make all my dresses; I didn't appreciate them when I was little, but I hope to give some of my dresses to my own daughter someday.

 This is me at a Christmas play when I was around 9 or 10, I think.  I didn't want to be in it because I was super shy, but I remember liking it in the long run.

 

 I think in this one I was also about 7 years old.  This was taken at Mount Desert Island in Maine, which is a park that we used to have a timeshare at.  We used to go for about a week or two out of every year, and I loved it.  Huge cliffs right down to the ocean, great cross-country skiing, tons of bike trails in the summer, great stuff.  If you've never been, go there.

 Me and my brother reading the Saturday comics.  This was how our Saturdays typically went... we got to sleep in, and woke up to Saturday morning cartoons (pretty much the only day of the week that cartoons aired... stupid spoiled-rotten kids these days with their Cartoon Network and their Nickelodeon), then we either had soup or PB&J sandwiches while reading the comics.

If you notice the window, you can barely make out the next door neighbor's shed in all the snow.  :)

Even in middle school I was still pretty thin.  I think this was my 8th grade photo.  Middle school was horrible, in ways you couldn't possibly imagine, and I was so glad to get out of there.  But if I could go back and do it again, I would do it in a heartbeat, to be a better friend to one particular person.  I know she appreciated the friendship we had, but I know I could have done a better job.

Okay, I promise I'm done posting old photos.  :)

Got Tangled... Cut Hair.

Husband and I went to see "Tangled" yesterday, and it was AMAZING!!!  If you haven't gone to see it yet, go see it.  I can just about guarantee you won't regret it.  It was such a good movie, and Rapunzel is my new favorite Disney princess.  :)  I've been doing sketches of her all afternoon.  XD  My favorite parts are the dance sequence in town (OMFG AWESOME BRAID) and the part toward the end with Maximus "how fast can you run??"  *sigh*  I need to see this movie again.  :D

It's funny because up until now, "The Little Mermaid" was my all-time favorite Disney princess movie, and now it's "Tangled."  I say it's funny because Ariel and Rapunzel were designed by the same guy, Glen Keane.  :)  I didn't find that out until after I'd seen the movie, but I think I would have been 10 times more excited to go see it if I had known that beforehand.

And then today I went and chopped all my hair off.  I'm sure the two things aren't related.  >.>

I'm still alive, and flooding is awesome

Yes it's true, I'm still alive.  No, I didn't forget about this blog (for all my one reader who may or may not have been wondering), but I've been SICK SICK SICK and busy too.  Lots of work, lots of cold medication, and I just haven't felt like posting.

But I'm back!  And I have to say, although this might sound weird, I LOVE it when it rains so much that creeks overflow.  I do.  I don't know why.  But whenever I see a creek or a river flooding, I'm like "OMG THAT'S SO COOL!"

There's this creek by my house, and it's usually really boring.  It's practically stagnant, kinda lame... kinda like this:

The creek is kinda like "Meh... I'm a creek... I think.  I might just be a urine stream..."  But then we had two whole days of torrential downpours, and all the water ran down out of the mountains, and pretty much all of it ran into this one stupid little boring creek.  So now it kinda looks like this...

It totally flooded all over the freaking place, and it's currently about 1200000% wider than it was three days ago.  Approximately.

There is also a golf course near my house that usually has 3 small ponds.  It usually looks like this...

But right now it kind of looks like this...

So yeah, all the bodies of water near my house are totally roid raging right now.  Since no one has really been hurt by this (people who attempt to golf may drown...) I think it's totally freaking awesome.

So that's what's been going on around these parts.  I will probably post again in a few days.  Til then, see ya!