30 in 30?

So, I suck at resolutions.

So far I have not followed through with a single one of them.

Being more healthy? Nope. I will say I've done more exercising but nada on the eating better.

29 Gifts? I've had to start and stop so many times it is ridiculous, however I am more aware of what I am doing and am better at going out of my way to help others.

Running? Not even once. I'm going to blame this on the weather.

Volunteer? Not yet, but I'm working on it.

Masters? Haven't even started that yet. I need to go take the GRE first.

Long story short-I fail. I think that while I haven't done a great job at being consistent, I'm making more of an effort than before.

I've been following a new blog lately http://www.kendieveryday.blogspot.com/ and one of the things she does is the 30 in 30 challenge. Basically, you vow to not shop and pick 30 items of clothing and remix them for 30 days. I'm a compulsive shopper and always feel like I have to have something new for every occasion. I've been looking at my closet lately and am not happy with what I see. So I've decided to kind of take this challenge. I'm not sure I'm going to make a full 30 in 30 but I'm going to give it my best shot. I'll start on Feb. 1st with everyone else that is taking this challenge and see how I do. It has been interesting feat to try to find 30 things I like enough and feel confident enough to mix and match. So far I've only found 20 items.

I'm leaving you with some pictures of the snowfall we've had here at home. I got 7.5" here at my house. Needless to say shoveling this was a bear. Enjoy!

29 Gifts Day 1 Do-over

I haven't been very successful in my resolution to give 29 Gifts in 29 days. Part of the 29 Gifts movement is to intentionally give a gift each day for 29 days in succession. I missed some days so I'm starting over.

Yesterday, I made a recommittment. I went to freerice.com, an awesome site! Freerice.com has many different games you play and every time you get an answer right, they donate 10 grains of rice to help end hunger. I donated over 1,000 grains yesterday in just a very short amount of time.

After reading more about freerice.com, I found that they have donated to places like Uganda, Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan, Cambodia, and Bangladesh. Each person receives 400 grams of rice a day (there are about 48 grains of rice in each gram). This is enough for them to have two good meals.

Please go to freerice.com....I have a couple of links on the side of the blog...have fun and do some good!

29 Gifts-Day 1-Nothing But Nets

I read the book 29 Gifts quite a while ago. It was written by a woman named Cami Walker, who in the midst of her own debilitating illness, was perscribed a month of giving by one of her spiritual teachers. Mbali, the spiritual teacher, assured Cami that remembering that she is part of a greater universe will help heal her. Cami finally accepted this challenge and it changed her world. While some of the book is difficult (and irritating) to read, it was definitely something that has left an impression on me.

So, after attempting to take on this challenge myself a few times, I am committing to do this as a NY Resolution.

Day one did not start off the way I planned. I had this wonderful idea to give my first gift to my mom. She visits my grandma, who has Alzheimer's, almost daily and I know it takes a toll on her. My mom retired from teaching last year so that she could spend more time with my grandma and now often helps take care of my dog as well. One thing she has said she wants more than anything is to spend the day in her pj's and not have to go anywhere. Well, I planned to do this for my mom today, however my grandma was pretty sick over the weekend and my mom didn't want to not visit her.

My family with my grandma.

Plans revised, I have chosen to donate to nothingbutnets.net instead. Nothingbutnets.net raises awareness and accquires funding to combat malaria. With a $10 donation, a net is sent to a family in Africa and saves lives. According to the net-o-meter they have sent 3,537,008 nets. As soon as I clicked that last button to finish my donation, I felt a little sense of happiness. I may not have much money, but my measley $10 is helping to ensure that a little kid in Africa survives.

Please consider making a donation to http://www.nothingbutnets.net/ and saving a life with me.

I wonder what day 2 will bring...

New Year, New Me

As I'm sure most bloggers are doing I'm evaluating the last year of my life and making resolutions for the new year. I've decided to not reflect on the past and look to the future.

Here are my resolutions for 2011:

1. Truly embrace the 29 Gifts movement and spend my January focusing on others and not myself. I read 29 Gifts quite a while ago and attempted to try it and failed. My aim is to blog everyday about each of the gifts I give so that I hold myself accountable and share what I'm doing with others to inspire them.

2. Get healthy. I refuse to say lose weight. I truly hope that getting healthy means that I lose weight (at least 40 lbs), but I really want to make sure that I'm focusing on the right thing here. I went to the chiropractor about 3 months ago and have promptly NOT followed most of his advice for me. I'm going to resolve to follow the Page Diet and get myself together. Finally.

3. Run at least one more half-marathon. And by run, I actually mean run one and not walk most of it. I'm looking at either the Go! STL (April-which means I better get my buns out there and run!!!) or the Rock'n'Roll in October (better but means I have to run in the dreaded hot summer months).

4. Get into school and start my MLS degree!

5. Volunteer more. I love to volunteer, but have found my lack of time, motivation, or a cause that is near and dear to me keeping me from doing it more often. So, I vow to find time, motivation, and a cause and get busy.

I feel like all of these resolutions are definitely doable.

Cheers to the New Year and keeping resolutions!

Break It Down

I'm currently enjoying my Christmas break from my couch. I believe this is the laziest I've been in a long, long time. No complaining here.

Christmas has come and gone and it was fantastic. The best part of the holiday was spending time with my family. We had a great time with my dad's side of the family-exchanging white elephant gifts and playing Minute to Win It. Christmas day was spent with my immediate family including my sweet future sister-in-law.

I can't complain about my gifts either. We surpised my dad with a signed Stan Musial jersey that he loves. My mom liked her Glee game but I was kind of outshown when she unwrapped her Kindle. I also got a Kindle (and a new laptop which allows me to blog from the couch!). I've already read two books and am starting a third.

One of the books I read was awesome. I'll be posting about it later.

Ok, off to figure out my outfit for the Wild, Wild West NYE party and continue watching Toddlers and Tiaras!

Christmas Time is Here!

And I can't believe it! Seriously, Christmas already? In about 10 days?!

I'm totally behind in my gift shopping too. I started off great with getting my dad's present in November! I have half of my mom's present down...shh..don't tell her but I bought her the Glee Wii game!

I hope she likes it!

I still have to purchase gifts for my brother and his fiancee. I believe my brother is getting clothes or some Cardinals stuff and Cara is going to get either some bling from Anthro or a gift card. I love that place. I wish I could afford to shop there more often.

I'll let you know what I end up with!

Love It/Hate It

Since I suck at blogging I thought perhaps I'd be forgiven if I did a little love/hate list. I'll list some things I hate (well, that is a strong word, let's just call it dislike) and then follow up with some things I'm love, love, loving right now.....Here goes:

Right now I'm disliking:

*cold weather-Perhaps if I lived in this huge house, I would like snow and cold weather a little bit more...ok, maybe not. I'm not enjoying this cold at all and we are getting snow this weekend and I'm so not liking it at all.

*inconsiderate people at work who print off a bunch of stuff and then never pick it up and have therefore wasted a huge amount of paper

*bread and sweets. Okay, I lie. I LOVE breads and sweets, but I shouldn't eat them and they just won't leave me alone!

*pretty much any song by Katy Perry right now. Overplayed and getting on my nerves.

*Pink. Not the color, the singer. She just irks me for some reason.

*people who go to Wal-Mart. It is like they have never been to or in a store before when they go there.

*celebrities that buy utterly ridiculous things for each other. Beyonce bought Jay-Z a car that is supposedly the fastest car available. First, I highly doubt he drives himself anywhere and secondly why does he need to go anywhere that fast? I feel like that is just wasteful. Donate the hundreds of thousands of dollars to some charity and help people instead of buying something so useless.

*finally, no list of stuff I dislike would be complete without.....KEVIN BACON! New commercial for Logitech? CREEPY!!

See how little I had to make it? That's in order to keep people from being creeped out.

I LoVe:

*Christmas-baby Jesus, cheery songs, the hunt for just the right gift, sweaters, overall jollyness (or is it jolliness, or is that even a word? Who knows? Who cares? Everyone is hap, hap, happy!)

*St. Louis magzine, the Post-Dispatch, and the Nate Berkus Show for highlighting an incredible person-my lovely and amazingly talented friend JOI!http://daveandjoi.blogspot.com/

*scarves-can't get enough of them!

*Gap's Really Skinny Premium Black Pants-I need to order like 8 pair of them right now. That is how much I love them. Like leggings only a little more structure, but comfy and classy looking. Go find them now.

*Keri Hilson's new song as well as Cee Lo Green's song (you know the one with the f word in it)


*friends and family-I'm so excited to see some great friends this weekend and catch up with another friend tonight. I think the older I get, the more I truly appreciate my family and my friends. I'm blessed to have such supportive people in my life!


Ok, must get back to work....later!