2009

I've been thinking about 2009 and whether or not I'm going to make any resolutions. I've realized that I made 10 goals for the year I am 30, so I thought maybe I should still stick with those goals instead of adding new ones. So, I'm going to update to see how I'm doing and what ones I need to focus on more.

1. Run 30 miles each month - I'm doing great on this one. I've pretty much exceeded this goal. I usually run anywhere between 40-50 miles a month. I guess you can say I'm hooked on running and can't stop my feet from moving. I just need to keep up on my running from now until then, but I don't think it will be a problem.

2. Run a 10K faster than my last one - I already did this one. I ran my last 10K at the end of September and ran it about 7 minutes faster than my one in May. YAY!

3. Run a half marathon - Starting next week I'll begin my training for this. I am pretty nervous about this because I am just not sure about 13.1 miles, but I'm going to try to push myself. If I don't enjoy it then I just won't do it again, but I never thought I would enjoy running and now I do. So maybe I'll like this distance. Many people tell me that Half Marathons are fun. I haven't signed up yet, but I'm looking at doing on in Fort Collins in April. However, Colorado can still be really cold in April. Otherwise my options are at the end of May, which is pretty crazy for me with the school year finishing up. We will see though.

4. Lose 30 pounds - I've lost 10, so I'm about 1/3 of the way there. I'm hoping this Half Marathon training will help me lose 20 more. It certainly can't hurt!

5. Climb a 14er - Talked to my friend Karin about it and I think we are going to do it at the beginning of August. Now isn't a good time to climb a 14er in Colorado. Much too snowy. :)

6. Read 30 books - I've read 9 books so far, so I'm a little behind but I tend to catch up during vacations. I'm on my 3rd book this break so I'm working on it, but I may have picked too big of a number of books to read.

7. Watch 30 minutes less of TV each week - I've far exceeded this too. Trying to fit all of the other things in has forced me to watch less TV. That's a good problem!

8. Pay off one of my student loans - This hasn't been happening because I've had a lot of extra expenses on my car. As long as my car doesn't have any more problems I should be back on track with that. I've also started picking up more babysitting jobs and tutoring jobs, so that should help me to reach that goal again. I just have to keep myself focused on it so I can get it payed off. This will probably be the hardest goal to meet, but I'm really going to try and do it still.

9. Save $50/month - I've done this, but unfortunately all my savings has gone to car repairs. So, it doesn't seem like I have done it, but I have. I just had to already spend it. :(

10. Call a friend each month - This is something I have done and I have loved it. I got to talk to my friend Mara who lives in Idaho and I hadn't talked to her in over a year. I also talked to my friend Chelsea who I hadn't talked to in a year either. The other months I talked to other friends too, but those were the 2 I got in touch with that I hadn't talked to in a long time.

So, that is the update. I guess one more thing I'm going to look into doing is recycling more. My mom does that and it really makes a huge difference, so hopefully I'll get that going in the next month. Hope you all have a Happy New Year!

Thoughts on Christmas

Some of you know that my family is doing something a little different for Christmas this year. Per my brother we drew names and we were required to make our gifts. At first I wasn't very excited about this. I like getting presents for people and thought I wouldn't like getting just one present. I also wasn't sure about making a gift because the end of the year is crazy at school and I was afraid I wouldn't have enough time to get something made. I have to say that I had a change of heart about the whole thing. What I have realized is that by making a gift for just one person I was really able to focus on that specific person. I also realized that making a gift requires a lot of thought, which makes it more special and meaningful. This also caused me to focus on things that are important about Christmas: the true meaning of Christmas, family, spending time with people, etc., instead of getting stressed out about finding the perfect gift and thinking about things that I want to get from people. Also, at church on Sunday they were talking about how much is spent on Christmas every year ($450 billion). That really shocked me! I had no idea the people spent that much each year. They also talked about how much it would cost for the entire world to have clean water ($10 million). So, basically if people cut down on the amount of money they spent on things that people don't need or want we could do a lot more for people who need something that we take for granted. Another thing that really surprised me was that for $40 an organization in Denver can feed a family of 4 for a week! $40?? Seriously?? So, since my family cut down on Christmas I am going to find a way to give to something or someone who really needs something like food, or clean water, or books for school, or a desk to sit in at school. The list is really endless. I'll attach the link below if that touches any of you to do the same thing. I hope that you all have a Merry Christmas and focus on things that really matter to you. Oh, and thanks Matt for making us cut down this year. It helped me to put things into a little better perspective.

http://store.sechristian.org/Missions-Marketplace-C1.aspx

Sophie Loves the Christmas Trees

I had decided that I wasn't going to decorate for Christmas because I'm only going to be here for about 2 1/2 more weeks and then I'll come back after New Years. Another reason was because I wasn't sure how my cat would do with new things around the house. She hasn't destroyed anything lately, but I'm not so sure she's totally out of her war kitten phase. I was looking for a white elephant gift for my Christmas party last night and was digging through my decorations and that gave me the motivation to actually decorate. I thought "surely she'll leave the decorations alone." WRONG!! I got home last night and all of the ornaments were off of the 3 trees and strewn about my living room. Then I awoke to a crashing sound at 6:00AM. It was my cat pulling down all 3 of the small trees. She seemed very proud of herself until she realized that I was not pleased about being woken up or by the trees being on the ground. She's been walking over to the trees all day long and batting at the ornaments. At least I can yell at her and she stops. She looks so innocent lying here on the couch now. I guess she is tired out from all her work late last night and early this morning.