I only run on the treadmill, it’s a little cold outside right now. As it gets warmer I will run on the running/bike path that’s near our house. I can do 3.2 miles in about 40 minutes. Which isn’t bad, but, it’s going to be so different in a race situation. I don’t want to win, I just want to finish without passing out or puking. I know I will finish, hopefully not the last one though!

They have a shirt for everyone that is in the 5K and commemorative awards for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. Maybe next year I will run the half-marathon.

The race is the 18th of April, in the morning. I’m very nervous, but, I know that I can do this! I’ve been running for over 2 years now, it’s time to test myself.

I really miss the interaction that we used to have before MySpace/Twitter/Facebook came around. Don’t get me wrong, I really like those things, although I’m on FB more than MySpace, it’s dead, isn’t it? And I try to post on Twitter when I can.

Cell phones definitely changed the way we live our daily lives. I have lived 80% or so of my life without a cell phone. I now carry one with me every day for business and personal use. I post on Twitter, FB and sometimes here using my phone.

Mike was one of the first people I met while using Cafe Log’s – b2. He’s been helping Matt for years develop WP and everything that we love about it. Back in the day there was a lot of coding going on!! I also think that for users, WP is the best it’s ever been!

I learned how to code HTML raw on my own, back in 1999 or maybe even earlier. I still have the book, HTML III I think it was. After learning HTML. I started to try to do changes with Grey Matter and Moveable Type, but, with b2, it became clear that I could figure it out and make something do what I wanted. I created themes for my blog, first through tables, then through .CSS. I started to break away from the usual layouts. I really liked the one I did with 2 sidebars on one side. I will have to bring that back one day. I played with graphics, .CSS, broke my blog numerous times and asked for help. I learned while I was doing it. I can now physically install WP in 5 minutes on a domain. I have a business site totally run with WP. Some people think that it’s set up like a blog throughout the site. So what, that’s the easiest for people to read and it’s working as my business is growing, isn’t it?!? I have a client viewable only blog for previews of photos as I like that WP can protect posts. That’s why it works for me. It’s flexible and bends to my commands! *LOL*

Thank you for reading for the past 9 years. I cannot believe it’s been that long. I started blogging to vent about family members and I ended up loving it and sharing my life. I have 9 years worth of archives on a DVD or two. I used to blog about everything, now, not really. I try to blog monthly, sometimes it’s weekly, sometimes more often.

I’ve been keeping as busy as possible. I reworked my business site. I love it! It’s more or less still bloggy looking, but, I added and removed some things. I’m going to see if I can get a Flickr Feed on the site splash page. I’ve also been doing some things behind the scenes. Right now I have a potential client meeting tomorrow evening and then on Saturday two potential client meetings. I hope they will all be clients. The one tomorrow night is a gal that will be graduating this year and wants to get her photos done. One of the girls that I photographed already, gave her my card. The two on Saturday are both Juniors! I photograph Juniors differently. I usually do a Spring session, then a Fall and Spring when they are Seniors. Kids change so much over the summer. Besides, they can hand out their referral cards in the Spring and Summer.

On Monday we hunted at the local furniture warehouse and found a couch! It’s a sectional. It was supposed to have been delivered tomorrow, but, the snow made it impossible. Hopefully it will be here on Wednesday. I’m so tired of things being pushed back with this furniture! We decided to wait to get tables, we want to see how everything fits into the room. We’re moving the piano to the other wall and then a bookcase will go between the windows.

I’m going to try to get some work done, then, heading out with hubby later on for some groceries and maybe some dinner as well. I have to make him a Valentine’s Day card also. Have a great weekend with your honey!

It’s pushed back a lot of things, not having access to the store, clients, school, work. I think that he has to try to get to work tomorrow, good thing he’s got a big vehicle. I had to push my clients back to next Saturday, so I have one on Friday night and two on Saturday. Let’s just hope that all the snow will be over and gone soon. Bring on Spring!!

We painted the living room last month and ordered furniture. So excited!! Then. Then the call came that the couch wouldn’t be available until March 1st. What? I don’t think so. We got a refund for all of it. So, now, we’re at square one again. I’m hopefully shopping at a few places this week locally. I found some stuff online that we like, maybe in the area I can actually try them out. I don’t want some stiff furniture in our living room. We plan on being in there daily.

Hubby and I both started our Roth IRA’s this month! This is very cool to us as we’ve never had the income to have extra. Ever. Now we can build for the future and not have to worry.

We have ordered furniture! It will be here February 4th and I cannot wait. The room is dark green, Chives by Olympic in Lowe’s if you are really that interested! We have ugly carpet, but we’re going to re-do the floors one of these days. Anyhow, the furniture is a cinnamon color, which will look great with the walls. We are not afraid of color!

I am now a Vegan. I was really close to being one last year, just needed to cross over. I started a couple of weeks ago. I feel a lot better morally and well, physically. I’m also drinking MonaVie (Mon-A-Vee) each day and taking vitamins.I will probably do a tasting party in March. I have a lot of friends in the area that will benefit from drinking it. I drink 2 oz. in the morning of Active and 2 oz. in the evening of Pulse.

I’ve been going to church each Sunday. This past week I attended a membership class after church. I met a few new people that sit near me, but we’ve never talked.  I will be joining the church next weekend. I’ve been going there since July 2009 and I really like the service. The people are great, very welcoming. I’ve become closer to God and I’ve been doing the New Testament challenge along with a lot of the church. I read a chapter each weekday in the NT. I’ve been reading ahead, love the Book.

I’ve paid off one of my credit cards already!

I’m taking our tax stuff + the business stuff, to an accountant tomorrow. It’s way too complicated for me to do with the house, business and some other things. Anyhow, I don’t mind paying if it’s done right! Less that I have to worry about.

TTFN!

The grand-daughter is getting a kitchen for Christmas! This is destined to be a hit as she loves helping in the kitchen. I still remember when we gave her mom her first kitchen, oh wow, I’m so old! Anyhow, that’s her big gift this year, I’m sure there will be photos after Christmas of her using it and making some great food!

I’m so looking forward to the New Year, 2010. Wow, that sounds so cool! There’s a bunch of things on my goal list for next year, both personally and professionally. So, we’ll see what happens. Hopefully I will be sitting here next year typing out the things that I’ve accomplished and the next year’s list.

Personal List

1. Lose that last 15 pounds. This is something that I’ve slacked off on big time. Now that I will have more time for ME I hope to accomplish this before the Spring.
2. Camping. We have NEVER done this with our kids! So, to be able to take our youngest and our grand-daughter camping will be great! I’m looking forward to sleeping in a cabin in the great outdoors and hiking, doing outdoor things. It’s only for a weekend, but in the Spring, we’ll be doing this.
3. Start a Roth IRA. Hubby and I just visited with our financial planner last month. We have enough left over to start our IRA’s in 2010 and keep them going for years. He did an analysis of our finances and we’re not exactly on target, but we’re pretty close. Even though we’re getting a late start, we’re still going to be okay.
4. Save $1K for Christmas 2010. I need to do this and I’ve opened up a separate savings account in a bank that’s out of the way. I plan on dropping a deposit in there once or twice a month to meet this as my minimum goal. I think we spent about that much this year on Christmas, but, I would like to shop earlier than November.  I will probably go to the outlet stores in October 2010 and get everything done then that I can. Everything else will be bought online as it’s been done in years past.
5. Pay off most of my personal credit cards. this goes along with the trend of #3 and #4. I have one of them paid off at the beginning of January. I just don’t use them any longer and they are just getting a little old for my taste. Little balances, not anything huge, I just have a few of them! We also will be paying off hubby’s Ducati in a few months, yay! More money for our savings!
6. I want to get some sort of furniture in our living room. Right now everything to be hung on the wall is leaning against the walls and we have a piano in there. That’s it. It will be two years since we moved in next month and while we have the room painted, I want it darker. We had it painted in August and it’s a very pale green. Over the past few months I’ve decided that I want forest green or at least something darker than baby green in there. So, we’re either going to repaint it ourselves or hire a company to do it. I hesitate at re-hiring the company that did it in the first place. The guy is a great person, but he’s very conservative with color and we really aren’t. It’s not a good match. He did a pale blue for our dining room as an estimate and we really want something bright, like orange. I guess we’ll do it ourselves.

Professional list

1. Gain 3 new clients. This hopefully will happen through the Chamber, word-of-mouth and advertising next year.
2. Buy a MacProBook. I’ve been craving a Mac for a while, I want a laptop though, so I’m debating which one to get. I’ve heard that the air doesn’t have a CD burner or player, so that’s not really an option for me.
3. Buy a new camera. I’ve been eyeing the D700 since the day it hit the street. I think I will have to buy some new lenses for it, so that will be tricky. I want to keep the lenses I have, although I will probably sell one of my D200’s to help with some of the funds.
4. Have all my current clients repeat sessions with me. This shouldn’t be too hard, although there are some that will not repeat due to moving out of the area and other factors.
5. Order a couple of really nice logo shirts for me to wear. Sometimes I’m in an environment with other professionals and they are wearing their logo shirts and I have nothing but a name tag. A silly goal, but something I want to change.
6. Create and order a 16 x 20 collage to show clients at print delivery. I have everything, just need to make it and print it! I hope to do this soon, in 2009 I have one or two more print orders I can tag this onto.

Have a great Christmas and Happy New Year!

We’ve been watching the little one for so long at night, that it will be weird to not have to watch her once the semester is over. She’s going to take EMS training so she can get nationally certified, that’s only twice a week. January through May 2010.

Hubby and I have a few parties going on this month. Two with his work and one for my annual cookie exchange. It’s only the second year in this house, but, I think it’s the 3rd or 4th year total.

Not much else really going on. Hubby goes back on the 23rd for a follow up appt. He’s pretty much back to 100% with his sense of smell. The youngest is going to the cardiologist on the 14th for an appointment. Hopefully it’s nothing, but I have a feeling it’s something.

Have a good rest of the weekend and I will try to post later in the week!

We have a lot of natural light that comes through our bathroom windows, in early morning. We want to sleep late on the weekends, so we were looking for a solution.

I set up an appointment with a custom blinds person a couple of weeks ago.

I pulled into the parking lot and there is no one here. I was about 10 minutes early. I called to see if anyone is here, no one answered the phone, so I left a message.

I’m waiting a few more minutes, then I’m heading out to finish the rest of my errands.

I’m early to most things. Appointments with clients is something I’m always about 10-15 minutes early for! This is so frustrating to me!

We’ll just look at other options I guess, how disappointing!

Things here have been busy, but good!

My birthday was fun, I had a few friends over for a great dinner and some laughs. Hubby did an awesome job cooking steaks and well potatoes kinda cook themselves, don’t they? Anyhow, I received a bunch of roses from one of my friends and a beautiful fall flower bouquet from my scrapping friends. I cropped on the day after my birthday, for the first time doing an all day crop, and it was fun, fun! I can’t wait to do that again! Last year I only did half of CropTober Fest. I did get a lot of things accomplished. I’ve been trying to crop each month. My hubby bought me the Pandora cupcake for my necklace and a colored (red) bead for my bracelet. The oldest gave me some awesome Bath and Body Works Sweet Pea stuff. It’s my favorite scent! She stopped by on my birthday on her way to see her boyfriend.

We ordered a new washer and dryer that arrived right after my birthday. I’m so glad we bought these. They are front loaders, which I wasn’t sure if I wanted them or not, but I love them. We bought the Kenmore Elites. The base had the prices for the ones that they didn’t have in stock, so we were upgraded for the price, which was great. They are white, have white pedestals and I love the drawer space! No more kicking and moving baskets around in the laundry room!

His surgery went well. He’s back at work and last Monday was the first time that he’s exercised since before the surgery. They didn’t want his blood pressure to go up, so no running at all, or any working out. He goes back for another follow up in a few weeks.

I’ve been trying to keep busy with the photo business. I just did a few headshots on the 6th. I had reserved two Friday’s for this, but, there wasn’t enough people signed up, so I’m rescheduling it for January. One of my local photo buddies has a studio that I can rent out for this, so that will save some dollars! I’m setting up initial appointments to meet the uprising high school seniors this month, for February. Then, the sessions will be in March. I’m also set to do pet portraits on the 28th of this month. A local pet groomer took a chance on me! I think that it will work out and hopefully I will be back in a few months to do it again.

I’m seriously considering going to Guatemala on a Missions trip with some of the people in my church. The information meeting is the 22nd of this month. It’s a week in March that I would be gone, I have until January to decide and put down the deposit. I did have some of my questions answered, like for housing and food. I do have a passport and I’ve never used it. It will not be the first time that I’ve seen poverty, we saw it back on a port stop with a cruise we did as a family. And I have seen in here in the USA as well. I think that the thing I’m most worried about is bringing something disease wise home. I also have a big heart for children and seeing anyone suffering especially children makes me cry. So, there’s that too. I think that I will be okay after the first day and I think that will not only change the way I see things in my life and world, but it will change me inside, forever. They need people to just play with the kids and some other things. I’ve never done anything like this before.

Hubby and I went to the outlet stores this past Saturday. We are almost complete with our Christmas shopping. I just have a few things to buy for him and he for me and something for the little girlie and we’re done.