My goals for the coming year!

Do you make resolutions? I heard today on the news that only 14% of people are sticking with their resolutions after only 3 weeks. Wow!! I decided I don't need to make a resolution, that odds are I am not going to be sticing with in 3 weeks. I did decide that I am going to list my goals that I hope to accomplish this year.

School related:
1. Graduate in May!!
2. Study and pass my CRC exam on April 28. (This one scares me to death.)

Family:
Take a summer vacation, school has been a bugger the last couple years and we have put off major family trips. Okay gas prices didn't help either.

Spend more time, just enjoying them. Taking walks, riding bike doing whatever, just enjoying the time I have left with each of them. (Heck Megs will be a senior next year and Jerad right behind her as a Sophmore.)

Craft Related: (this will be long)
Get ORGANIZED, I really need to do this in my scrapbooking and quilting areas. Figure out what I have and get it all organized.

Do Mike's WWII scrapbook. I already sorted the pictures, but really want to get the entire album done documenting that time in history.

Scrapbook all my old photos. Get them all put into albums and done so that I can scrapbook in a proactive way rather than reactive way. I sorted all the photos into groups the last couple days, and now I just need to get tons of pages done.

Quilting, I want to get Megan's quilt done (started it last week), do a quilt for Jerad and one for Sam and I.

Those are my basic goals. Oppss forgot the most important one.......ME!!! I want to really work on becoming healtier, I am not going to say loose weight because I think by becoming healthier that will be part of it. I really want to just enjoy life more and become healthier. I really worry about Sam's health and so maybe by the two of us working together we can do it.

Okay they kind of sound like resolutions, but they really are my goals for the year.

Merry Christmas to all!!

Hope everyone is having a great Christmas. Ours is very mellow, just the way we like it around here. We do most of the cooking on Christmas Eve, so we can spend today just munching and hanging out together. We splept in, opened all our presents and are just hanging out playing with them. The kids are playing with the new ipods, and Jerad is jamming to his Guitar hero PS2 game.

Sam is watching football, I am scrapbooking and just trying to go through some old pictures. I am working on a heritage album from the Marman/Geiger history. Here are two layouts I have done today.

Happy Holidays

So I can't believe it is already December 20th. On this day I take a moment to think of what life would have been like had Jesse grown up. She would have turned 21 in October. Oh wow the drinking and partying. She only lived just over 2 short years. She was killed in a car accident on icy roads. My friend Ellen was driving that day. She had her girls in their seatbelts and Jesse in her car seat, but when she hit ice there was not much she could do. Ellen and Jesse both lost their lives that day, and Maria went through some major surgeries and has come out an amazing woman because of it. Beth was not seriously hurt that day. Jess and Ellen will forever be in my prayers.

Saddness is such a powerful thing, I try to understand it but not wallow in it too long because it could suck one into a deep dark hole. So movin on to happier thoughts. There are only 5 more days till Christmas? WHAT?? Say it isn't so. What ever am I going to do. I have most of my presents purchased, but I am still working hard on finishing Amanda's present. I decided to whip out my sewing machine that hasn't been used in probably 3 or 4 years and put it to work. I am making her a quilt. The amazing thing is besides buying the batting for the lining, I am using material that I have had for the last 4 or5 years sitting in boxes. I moved the family room around and set up myself a little sewing place in the corner in the back. It is kind of nice because I can sit and watch tv in there and just hang out with my family while I am working on her quilt. I have the top almost done and than I will be busy putting it all together in the coming days. I am going to really work hard to get a lot of it done tonight.

Seeing Red

 

This was a fun layout I did this mornig of Sam. He use to have these one piece long john pajamas that he would put on and we would all get a chuckle out of how he looked in them. Seriously if he had a santa hat and beard he could pass for him. I had to srap them in a funny way because when I look at the pictures I still laugh. 

Love

 

This is a layout I did of Sam and I with a picture that the kids took a couple years ago. It is one of my favorite pictures of us. 

Simple Pleasures

Okay here is a fun layout I was working on tonight. I am going to try to get better about posting my layouts here. The last week or so, I have really been pushing myself to get a lot of layouts done and just try to get caught up on some of my old pictures. I have so many of them laying around I need to get them scrapped and out of the boxes. I am also on a mission to redo my scrapbook room so it is modern and up to date. I want to take full advantage of my storage and redo my paper storage system. I have started investing in the target cubes but I am going to also try to get my husband to build me some boxes to hold the cropper hopper verticle storage so I can get it all together.

Oh the holiday fun.

Thanksgiving is over. I loved having a 4 day weekend. It was so relaxing just hanging out with the family on Thanksgiving. Gotta love Sam, he cooked dinner and had it all in the oven going when I finally decided to emerge from the bedroom a little after 10 am. I never use to be one to sleep in, must be my getting older that makes it easier for me to sleep in lately, or the fact I didn't go to bed till almost 2 am that morning. I get downstairs in my scrapbook room and I just don't want to leave. Good thing I don't stay home, I would be a hermit in that room.

So anyway we had a nice meal, Amanda came over and we all visited and played games. The kids dug out all the holiday decorations and set the tree up and got it all decorated. One of my favorite things about putting up our tree is watching them dig out their ornaments from over the years and put them on the tree. They love telling about where it came from or when they made it. We always laugh and have fun. Whenever we use to travel to someplace I would pick up ornaments, like yellowstone park or glacier. It was kind of the fun part of the trip to look for an ornament on our summer vacation. We also have kept some that the kids made when they were little. Just fun time for all of us. They usually end up fighting over whose turn it was to put on the star on top, but this year their dad tricked them and had them looking for something while he put it on.

Thanksgiving afternoon, we decided to drive to Billings and get a hotel room so we could all swim and relax in a hot tub. Was kind of nice just being away from home. I had to laugh because late that night we decided to go to Walmart in hopes no one would be there since it was night and a holiday to boot. No one was there (best time to shop) but across the street at the closed Best Buy we had to laugh at all the people already camped out around the outside of the store for the sale on Friday morning. People are seriously nuts.

The rest of the weekend I spent in my scrapbook room. I got tons of layouts completed and things done and ready for the holidays. I am on a mission to get most of my old pictures scrapbooked and into albums.

Happy Turkey Day

Yeah tomorrow is Thanksgiving and in this new job that I am so loving I get Friday off as a paid holiday also. We are having dinner tomorrow at home. Just a quiet family meal with the kids. Friday we are all going to Billings to go shopping and have some fun. Maybe get a motel and do some swimming if we want. Nothing like a relaxing weekend with the family.
Happy Thanksgiving all.

David Berg in the Morning

There is a morning radio talk show that is on the radio. I finally had to turn it off this morning because this guy is so one sided, opinionated. Boy the republicans should have mixed feelings about him. He is so republican but yet so closed mined that he scares me. I hope not all republicans are that way. This guy literally made me vote democrate this year. Seriously I was listening to him before the election because it is him or Deery Brownfield, take your pick. (Someone shoot me now.) Yestereday he was talking about how over half of Montanan's should be ashamed of how they voted for John Tester. He said they were dooped and lied to and it was 18 month campaign to smear and lie about Conrad Burns. Okay let me see over 1/2 of the voters voted for Tester, shouldn't he be proud that people got out and voted. I mean the numbers were like 2/3 of voters voted in this non-presidential election. I say way to go Montana, you let your vote count and be heard.

I will be honest, I don't know how I feel about John Tester. I keep hearing all the ney sayers saying how our State is doomed and this or that will be gone, but I guess I wonder how they know all these bad things will happen when this guy hasn't been a Senator in Washington DC before. I hope he will do a good job. I really went back and forth on how to vote. Conrad Burns has been there for years, and do we give up that senority and his ability to pork barrel for our State for change and someone new that won't have that senority? I went with the side of change. I think there should be limitations on the length a person can serve. I will be honest, I think Conrad Burns was bought by Jack Abromoff. Come on if someone gave me $150K in contributions just days before I voted on issues that affect him, would you vote in his favor? Conrad did, I am sure I would too because why shoot a donor in the foot. He says he did nothing wrong, I say the vote doesn't matter, it is the fact that he voted at all after taking the money. He should have either not taken the donations, or not voted. But not do both, that is a shame as David Berg said. Montana voted, and people like David Berg should respect that vote. They shouldn't be using their talk show to discredit Montana voters by saying things like shame on you 9 times in just several minutes. They should be saying things like way to go Montana, you voted and you were heard.

Life is flying by

I remember when I was a child and adults use to say, enjoy each day because when your older they go by so much faster. Well I am not sure I consider myself old (just yet) I mean after all I am not even 40 yet!! But boy do the days just seem to fly by. I almost feel like I need to take more time and enjoy each day. Just get out and walk in it and marvel in the fact that it is today. The last three years I have put all my energy into doing this Master's program. The degree means so much to me. Being the first person in my family to have a BA and MA will be an amazing thing. It has just been something I have always wanted. I would like to go on and get my PhD. but I really just need to work on making sure the student loans for this degree get paid off. It is hard to believe that next week will Thanksgiving already. I have been so busy getting ready for a craft show that my friend Jill and I did last weekend. It was a huge hit and great money maker for us. Things went so well. I have osme of the canvas left over from it posted on ebay (luvnmontana) and than I am going to post the frames and clocks that we have left over too.

Back to homework, I am so looking forward to this semester being over and than graduation in May. Boy I have so much to do before May. I have to finish up my internship and than study for my CRC exam and be turning information in for my LCPC, so much work so little time.