2019 goals

Since it's almost March, it's probably time to write down my goals for the year. LOL.

1. Eat at least one vegetarian dinner every week. 
While we certainly have been eating less red meat with Weight Watchers, we are eating a lot of chicken. I would like to lessen my environmental impact this year.

2. Lose 25 pounds this year. 

I'm happy with the 25 that I lost last year and would like to lose 25 more to get down to my 

wedding weight.

3. Work out for at least 30 minutes at least three times a week. 

I have started strong so far this year, mostly with 21 Day Fix workouts. I am looking forward 

to Shaun T's new program when it comes out in March and when the weather gets nicer I 

will be spending time running outside.

4. Continue monthly dates with CP.

5. Get our credit card balance to $0 this year.

Recent news stories have me worried about whether we are going to owe taxes this year 

instead of getting a refund....that will certainly hinder our ability to meet this goal but I 

hate throwing money away each month.

6. Get a new job. 

I spent a lot of last year doing informational interviews and working on crafting a good 

resume. I have also spent a lot of time figuring out what exactly I would like to do and what

I have a passion for outside my current job. I have two paths that I am pursing and I would 

like to make 2019 my year to make the jump.

7. Continue to be politically active whether it is writing postcards to voters, contacting my

elected officials about things that are important to me, or participating in marches.

8. Run in at least three races this year including the Soldier Field 10 miler.

I have always wanted to do the Soldier Field 10 miler and I have some other friends on 

board to run this race with me. It's in May so I have some time to prepare.

9. Run one race with Izzy this year.

I need to find a 1 mile race to do with Izzy this year. I think that she would love it!

There we go! Now I have 10.5 months to get these done!

Wrap up on 2018 goals

Since it is February, it's a good time to see how I did on my 2018 goals. LOL.

1. Continue our part vegetarian lifestyle through the year. 

We did great on this for the first half of the year and then fell off the second half. 

We certainly continued to eat less red meat but still ate chicken, turkey, and fish. 

2. Continue to send paper cards to friends for their birthdays. 

Success!

I hear from my friends that they love getting a paper card, so I will definitely continue this.

3. The usual lose weight goal.

Success! 

I got down below 200 before my birthday. I didn't lose any more weight due to the holidays, 
but I at least hit my goal for the year.

4. Be more consistent with working out.

Success!

I really like Beachbody on Demand because whenever I have time I head down to the 
basement to work out. I certainly can't and don't work out every day but would say that I 
work out 3-4 times a week.

5. Continue monthly dates with CP.

Success! 

I think we maybe missed one month all year? The trip to FL for a long weekend without 
the kids was sooooo great as well.

6. Pay down our credit card debt.

Still working on this.

Christmas didn't help....and then being furloughed made it worse....but thankfully I have 
gotten paid again and we are back to working on paying it down. 

7. Continue to be politically active and contact my elected officials when necessary.

Success!

My elected officials have heard from me on lots of different subjects this year. :-)

8. Create a better and more consistent bedtime routine.

Mixed success.

This is certainly tough to do on a consistent basis.

9. Run in at least two races this year.

Success!

I ended up running in three races this year after battling plantar fasciitis most of the year. 
The 5k that I do with coworkers, the 5k that runs right by my house, and a Thanksgiving 
5k that is in another local neighborhood.

Overall, I was much more successful this year in my goals than I have been in the past. I 
believe this was due to making manageable goals and checking in with them quarterly so that
I don't forget about them.

2019 goals in my next post.

Furloughed

Monday I went back to work for the first time since December 21. The first two weeks of being a furloughed federal employee were not too bad. I had planned on taking off the week of Christmas anyway so that CP and I could get some house projects done while the kids were at school. We did some touch-up painting, hung some shelves, hung a coat rack, cleaned the house after the holidays, etc. 

The following week also was not too bad with New Years Eve falling during the work week. CP and the kids were home for two days so I kept busy with them.

However, once the holidays were over the stark reality of being furloughed-banned from working and not getting a paycheck- set in. I deep cleaned the house. I made Weight Watcher-friendly meals to freeze (but not too many because we didn’t want to spend too much on groceries). I worked out almost every day (21 Day Fix). I took the kids sledding a few times. I did a purge of the kid toys and clothes. I listened to 10 million podcasts and read a few books. I texted with my employees and friends, venting and commiserating with them. I kept checking in with the news to see if there were any talks between the two sides, but no, there seemed to be no sense of urgency to end what became the longest shutdown in government history.

It was near impossible to find a part time job that didn't require any training, didn't violate any ethics rules, and one that I could drop on a day's notice. I thought about doing Uber or Lyft but didn't want to take out the car seats every day just to put them back in again before morning dropoff. My parents offered me a job at their law office and so I spent two weeks working for them, helping to clean out their files. It was humbling to say the least. 

 

I know this sounds like a nice, relaxing way to spend 5 weeks off from work but I can assure you it was anything but. The uncertainty of when I would be back to work and the uncertainty of when I would next have a paycheck hitting my bank account was super stressful. Not to mention all of the big meetings and events I had planned that needed to be cancelled. Five weeks lost of time I could have been working, making a difference with my job. I was stressed for not only myself, but for fellow employees, contractors, the small businesses that rely on federal employees, and the people that we serve. 

And of course we have had terrible weather this week. Monday we had a two hour delay due to snow. Yesterday and today it was -50 outside with the wind chill so we had to close the office and work from home (except my kids were also home so it made doing work more challenging). Not to mention it's hard to get back up and running knowing that all of this could happen again on February 15th. *sigh*

Catching up

I swear that I am not going to start every blog post with something similar to "I've been meaning to blog but..." Then again, it has been a month since I last posted so it's definitely time for a quick catch-up post!

1. Nine days ago on December 10th I turned 40. Basically the entire year leading up to the big 4-0 I was anxious and upset about it. Thankfully a few weeks before my birthday I simply said "F**k it" as it was coming either way! The first week in November CP and I had a great time to Key Largo, FL with some friends and NO KIDS to celebrate my upcoming birthday. 

Our beach view

Yes, that is a dolphin getting some serious air

I also rented a room in a nearby bar for a party on Saturday, December 8th so that I could celebrate with local friends. CP made a delicious dinner beforehand and my parents took the kids to Michigan for the night so that we could sleep off our hangover. :-) Now that I'm 40 I (of course) don't feel any different than when I was 39.

2. A few weeks ago on November 29th Izzy turned 5! She had a fun birthday party with her best friend (who also has a November birthday) at a local pottery painting place. It was a bit of a stressful party to make sure that 23 kids (including Wes) didn't break their pottery, but it all went well. We also had a family party for Izzy the weekend after Thanksgiving in Michigan.

Birthday balloons in MI

3. Thanksgiving went well this year. We had a small group as it was just my parents that joined us, so it was fairly low key. CP sous vide'd the turkey which turned out great.

4. We finally got the call that Wes had a spot to move over to Izzy's daycare so he started December 10th. It is SO NICE to finally do one drop off again and so far, he is doing great. I love that the kids see each other during the day and I think that it is super helpful for Wes that I drop both kids off in the same room in the morning. On his third day the school had a winter concert and he was one of the only kids that sang some words and he didn't freak out despite only knowing the teachers for 3 days!

5. The kids saw Santa last weekend and thankfully Wes didn't cry but he did give an amazing side eye and grab the side of the couch like he was ready to jump away at a moment's notice- lol. Progress!

6. Halloween went well this year. Izzy went as Wonder Woman, Wes went as Lightning McQueen.

7. Per usual, CP and I bought a tree that is too big. This year it is too wide and super duper heavy. It should be fun to try to get out the door in January....

Alright, that's enough for now. Here's hoping I can get another post in before January!

One year later

Facebook's "memory" feature is usually great. Seeing pictures of the kids when they were younger, seeing pictures of various trips, and fun memories with friends is a great trip down memory lane. However, I knew that a tough memory was coming up soon once I started to see pictures of my time in Texas to help Hurricane Harvey survivors last year. I just wasn't totally prepared to see it today.  

One year ago today we had to put Buster down. Re-reading my post made me sob today and I really can't believe that it has already been a year. Yesterday as we shopped for Christmas decorations we saw a puppy Berner in the store and my heart felt so sad as I was petting the dog (his name was Bodie). I "liked" the place where we adopted the cats and every time I see a dog adoption picture on their page I get jealous. I know that a dog is not exactly conducive to our lifestyle right now, but man I miss having a dog. As frustrating as Buster was with his quirks, he was my quirky dog.

😢

My new BFFs- Michelle and Oprah

I'm so behind on updating the blog! I am going to try to put together short posts to get caught up.

Since it is already on my mind, last night I was seriously lucky enough to get tickets to Michelle Obama's first book tour event in Chicago. It was billed an "intimate conversation" which was pretty funny because the United Center holds 23,000+ people. 

Oprah hosted and interviewed the event which was pretty cool. She looks like she has been rocking her Weight Watchers plan.

The event started with a long video of Michelle- her upbringing, her time in the White House, different appearances on shows like Jimmy Fallon or Dave Letterman. Then Oprah came out to talk for a few minutes before introducing Mrs. Obama. Their conversation lasted about two hours and it was really interesting. I haven't really seen any interviews this past week because life has been crazy so she may have talked about some of these things already....

The stage was pretty far away so at times it was easier to watch on the large monitors

One of the more interesting things Michelle talked about was how it felt like she was the "mom" of the country and Barack was the "dad." So while she is happy to be open about IVF, going through marriage counseling, etc. now she didn't really think that it was appropriate to talk about it while she was in the White House. There were so many other things going on at the time, she didn't want to be a distraction.

She also spent a lot of time talking about her experience in being the only woman or the only minority in the room with powerful men. Basically she spoke about how women and minorities' voices are important so we need to make sure to speak up. Also, there were tons of powerful men in these rooms but they weren't necessarily smart. :-) I'm butchering what she was saying, but it was powerful and true.

Anyway, I'm super happy that I was able to snag tickets for this hot event! I NEVER seem to get the hot tickets so the fact that I was able to get three (my mom and sister went with me) is amazing. Now excuse me as I have to call my new BFFs Michelle and Oprah. :-)

Good and the Bad

Let’s start with the GOOD because it is Friday.

GOOD

I ran my second 5k of the year last Sunday and averaged 10:33/mile for a time of 32:41 (this is the race that runs right by my house). According to Nike+ this is the fastest 5k I have ever run since I started tracking in May 2008 (prior to this my fastest 5k was 33:02). Woo hoo! I was up part of the night before with stomach cramps/diarrhea so I was pretty excited about my time. As I ran by my house a second time I asked Izzy if she wanted to finish with me (she was in her pajamas) and she ran with me for the last .25 or so. She loved it!

The other good is that over the month of September I was able to reverse the weight I gained in August (4 lbs) and now I am thisclose to my first goal of being under 200 pounds again. On Wednesday I weighed in at 200.5 so I am crossing my fingers I will see a number that starts with 1 next Wednesday. My goal was to be under 200 by my birthday in December so if I can do it two months in advance (despite almost getting there *ahem* two months ago and the backsliding) then I'm happy. 

BAD

The bad news is that there is something going on with my IUD. I hadn’t checked for the strings recently but did so the other day in the shower. It basically felt like the strings had embedded into cervical tissue as I could feel them but couldn’t move them. Today I had my doctor check them out and the good news is that she can see the end of the strings so they didn’t perforate my uterus but she can’t move them. The next step is to have an ultrasound to see if the IUD has moved. If it has moved and is no longer in place I am looking at a surgery (GRRRR) to get it removed and then I would have to get a different kind of birth control as it wouldn’t be recommended to get an IUD again. If it is in the right place my doctor recommends to remove the current one and replace it with one with longer strings. Obviously I am hoping for the latter because the no period thing with an IUD is super nice and I don't want to have yet ANOTHER surgery.

It’s a rainy, dreary day in Chicago and overall it has been a really hard two weeks with the Ford/Kavanaugh hearings bringing out a lot of emotions in me that I didn’t realize were bottled up. I hope everyone else out there is doing okay.