I don’t like New Years Resolutions. I think that if you want to do something, you should do it – regardless of what the date is. However, I do like goal setting and think it’s an imporant step in becoming happy and sucessful in life.

My goals for 2011 are fairly simple. I’m really hoping I can acheive all of them!

Personal:
1. Drink at least 8 glasses of water every day. I always forget to drink, and can go all day long without a single beverage – which is not good! This one is going to be tough but I NEED to do it!
2. Avoid “bad foods/drinks”. I have a history of kidney stones and there are certain foods and beverages I should avoid to reduce my chances of getting them again.
3. Do some form of exercise for at least 30 minutes every day. This could be a workout DVD, going for a walk or running up and down the stairs 50 times. I just need to be more active!
4. Be in bed by 11pm every night. I really need to buckle down on this one. I always think that I will stay up for just a few more minutes to read something, and those few minutes turn into an hour and then next thing you know it’s midnight. When I get enough sleep I feel rejuvenated and am energized during the day, so this is an important goal for me.
5. Manage my time better. I’m pretty organized when it comes to everything.. except my time – but I’m getting better! I plan to start writing a series on how to better organize your time, so stay tuned for that! I will share what has been working for me so far.

Family:
1. Be more active with the dogs. Going for walks, throwing the ball and chasing them around in the backyard – whatever. My poor dogs just lay around all day and I feel so guilty. I really need to do this for them.
2. Be more active with Elliott. As he gets older, he really likes to run around and I imagine that the older he gets, the more active things he will want to do. Once the warmer weather comes, we’ll be outside playing alot more.
3. Read more with Elliott. We haven’t done much reading with him because he was never really interested, but lately he has been showing us that he wants us to read to him. He’ll bring over a book and sit down beside us. Adorbs! We plan to read to him at least a little bit every single day this year.

Financial:
1. Contribute maximum amount to RRSP. We didn’t do so hot last year when it comes to our RRSP so we are eager to put more money away in 2011. I’m not sure if we’ll be able to contribute the max amount (we won’t know what that is until we do our taxes in 2 months or so), but that’s the goal.
2. Save at least $25,000 in the house fund. As long as Richard doesn’t miss out on any bonuses at work, I think this goal can easily be reached. Ideally, we’d like to save more than $25,000 in the house fund this year – but we don’t want to put a large amount for a goal and then be dissapointed if we don’t reach it. That’s why we think this number is a little bit more reasonable.

What are your goals for 2011?

Christmas 2010 was great. It was so much fun to hang out with our family and give away the gifts that we have purchased throughout the year. We were fortunate enough to receive many large bonuses from Richard’s work this year and we took $1400 out of one of them to buy Dyson vacuums for my mom, my dad and Richard’s mom. They all needed new vacuums badly and we wanted to buy them only the best. They were all extremely happy and shocked!

Last year we spent Christmas Day running around like chicken’s with our heads cut off. We went to FIVE houses to visit family and it was just way too much. We really wanted to simplify our Christmas this year so we decided to visit my mom/sister/brother on Christmas Eve and then my dad Christmas morning and Richard’s family on Christmas evening. It worked out really well and we will probably do the same thing next year.

We got to my mom’s house around 4pm on Christmas Eve. Momma made dinner and I made apple pie. The first apple pie I’ve ever made that actually turned out (thanks to my free Pillsbury pie crust!).

I snapped some cute shots of Richard and Elliott hugging it out:

After dinner we opened presents and took some photos:

Christmas morning was spent in our PJs eating pancakes and letting Elliott open his presents. We only bought him a few necessities this year including a blanket, pajamas, shirts and some socks. We did get him one toy though – a TOY Dyson! Adorable!

After opening presents, we loaded up the van and headed out to my dad’s house. We made him open his presents right away because we were so excited for him to open the Dyson.

We spent a few hours at my dad’s, watching Shrek and playing around on the computer. Then we left to go visit Richard’s family.

Just like at my dad’s we wanted Richard’s mom to open her gifts right away so we all sat around and did the whole gift exchange thing:

Richard’s mom made the most delicious Christmas dinner and we totally stuffed ourselves. Yum! Here’s Elliott with his great-uncle and great-grandma (and Richard!):

We left to go home around 8pm. We would have stayed longer, but Elliott was getting cranky and the poor dogs had been in their cages at home for 8 or 9 hours at that point so we needed to let them out.

It was such a fantastic Christmas! We had so much fun! Spending time with family is one of my favourite things to do.

Ahhhh, Florida. It was a grand ol’ time. We had so much fun on our first ever family vacation. We did so many fun things and I can’t wait to go back. Disneyland? Yeah, it really is the happiest place on earth. For realz.

Elliott did fairly well on the airplane. It took us so much effort to keep him occupied for 3 hours but we did it. No screaming fits! I’m so glad those TVs were there or we may not have made it!

We went to the rental car joint to pick up our ride and then headed to the resort:

We spent the rest of the evening strolling around the resort and watching some late night TV. We also stopped at Walmart to pick up some groceries for the week.

First thing Monday morning we made our way over to Magic Kingdom (BEST PARK EVER – that I’ve been to, anyway). That park is MASSIVE. So many things to do! Our first stop was the Dumbo ride, as I was told this line gets very long very fast. Richard stayed off to the side with the stroller so he could take pictures. Elliott and I stayed in line for 45 MINUTES. O.M.G. At least the ride was fun. After that it was Richard’s turn to stand in line for the carousel. He was in line for 5 minutes. NO FAIR. We also went on the “It’s A Small World” ride, which was pretty neat.

The buildings are so neat looking at Magic Kingdom. I want to live in all of them.

And of course, the best building of all:

We packed our own lunch and went to a shady area to eat. After lunch, we indulged in the BEST EVER cinnamon bun from Main Street Bakery.

After our delicious dessert, we did some walking around. Visited Mickey’s house, a playground and then found a spot by the side of the road so we could watch the 3pm parade.

The parade was freakin’ awesome!

After the parade we headed back to the resort where I cooked us a nice dinner.

Tuesday was a lazy day and we spent most of the time walking around and swimming in the pool. We also stopped by an outlet mall which was crazy boring, but I did pick up a pretty sweet Converse t-shirt for $2.50! We also went on a swan boat ride that our resort had, but Elliott was not much a fan of the life jacket he had to wear so that was 5 minutes of screaming. Finally, we stopped in at Target to see if there were any good deals and deals there were! I bought a shirt for me, some socks and pajamas for Elliott and a few other things. Love that store.

On Wednesday we went to check out Downtown Disney. I love that place. It’s free and also has free parking. You just walk around and browse the shops. We checked out a few stores, and also hit up the LEGO store which was so cool. Elliott had a good time playing with all of the LEGO pieces!

We posed in front of some Halloween decor while a nice man took our picture.

We had lunch at Earl of Sandwich and it was phenomenal. I had the BLT and Richard had the Italian. If you see this place – EAT THERE! It was SO GOOD and cheap! $6 or so for a sandwhich which is ridiculously underpriced for Disney! They had lots of other food items as well, but we just had the sandwiches.

After spending the day at Downtown Disney, we went to Sweet Tomatoes for dinner. I forgot to take a photo of the place (whoops!), but basically it is an all you can eat buffet for people who want to eat healthy. I think it’s mainly geared toward vegetarians because there was no meat in the entire place (except for the chicken strips you could order for your salad – at an extra cost, no thanks!). It was $9.99 each and we loaded up on salad (they have a huge salad bar as soon as you walk in and the stuff is super fresh and delicious) and had a lava cake with ice cream for dessert. They had other things as well like baked potatoes (I had one of those, it was yummy but would have been better with bacon bits!), mac n’ cheese, many different soups, breads and some other stuff. I mainly stuck with the salad and baked potato. It’s an awesome restaraunt and I absolutely recommend it!

Thursday was our beach day. We drove an hour and a half to clearwater beach and it was just so beautiful. It also wasn’t crowded at all, which was nice. I imagine it’s pretty busy on the weekends though! Elliott LOVED running around in the sand. He loves feeling different things under his feet and I really think sand is his favourite. This beach had alot of little seashells in the sand and every time I turned my head for just a second, Elliott would try to stick one of them in his mouth. Gross. He loved the water and I would have loved it too if Richard hadn’t watched Shark Week a few months ago and completely freaked me out. Dammit.

We had Giordano’s pizza for dinner and OMG, you guys. FAN-FREAKIN-TASTIC. You have GOT to try this pizza if there’s a location near you. It’s a stuffed pizza and my, oh, my is it ever stuffed! Just look at this thing:

We spent the rest of the evening at the resort relaxing.

Friday was Animal Kingdom day. YAYYYY! I was so pumped. I get to see animals, woot woot! I really missed my kitties and puppies at this point so I was eager to see some animals.

We went on a “ride” where we drove around the reserve and saw lots of animals like elephants, birds and rhinos. And lots of other animals I didn’t get great photos of.

We had a quick and very non-tasty lunch at a park fast food place and then did some more walking.

As you can see, Elliott was having the time of his life:

We also visited the petting zoo, which was pretty fun. Elliott was chasing all the goats around, trying to pet them. I think he thought they were Buddy and Maggie. Which, I guess they look pretty similar – and they smell just as gross!

Animal Kingdom was pretty fun, but there definetely isn’t much to do there if you have a little one. We ended up going back to the resort around 2:30pm. Elliott napped and then we went to dinner at Sweet Tomatoes again. Yummy!

We wanted Saturday, our last full day in Florida, to be laid back so we just did alot of lounging around. We went to visit Celebration which is basically just a little town that looks super cool.

Look at how cute the houses are (they all look similar to this one):

We had lunch at the Main Street Cafe. We both had breakfast for lunch. Mmmmm!

After lunch we went back to the resort, went in the pool for a bit and then went back to Downtown Disney because they were having FREE trick or treating!!! Free candy? I’m there! The place was packed and it was hard to find a parking spot but we did it! We went around to a bunch of stores and got a little goody bag full of treats for Elliott (errr.. us). It was alot of fun. For dinner we went to Portobello (in Downtown Disney). The food was pretty good (I had giant ravioli with cheese and spinach) but way overpriced in my opinion.

After dinner, we went back to the resort, got Elliott ready for bed and started cleaning up and packing our suitcases. We left the next morning for the airport and got home in the evening around 5pm.

I had such an amazing time on this vacation. Our first ever family vacation was a huge success! We had so much fun. I think Elliott really enjoyed himself and I know we did as well. I’m really going to miss it!

And now I will leave you with some photos of some very famous people that we ran into while we were away:

A reader asked me to post my cleaning schedule. I admit it, I hate cleaning. Don’t we all? I really wish I didn’t have to do it, but it needs to be done so I tackle all of those stinkin’ jobs. Here is my cheaning schedule:

Monday:
- Clean All Bathrooms
- Sweep Kitchen Floor
- Empty Kitchen Garbage
- Wash & Put Away Dishes
- Clean Cat Litter

Tuesday:
- Clean Surfaces In Dining Room (dust, windex, etc.)
- Sweep Front & Back Porch
- Clean Front & Back Door
- Sweep Kitchen Floor
- Empty Kitchen Garbage
- Wash & Put Away Dishes
- Clean Cat Litter

Wednesday:
- Clean Surfaces In Elliott’s Room
- Wash Elliott’s Clothing & Bedding
- Clip & File Coupons
- Clean Stove
- Wipe Kitchen Cupboards
- Clean Small Appliances
- Sweep Kitchen Floor
- Empty Kitchen Garbage
- Wash & Put Away Dishes
- Clean Cat Litter

Thursday:
- Make Menu Plan, Pull Coupons & Flyers
- Clean Kitchen Floor
- Clean Dishwasher
- Clean Garbage Cans
- Sweep Kitchen Floor
- Empty Kitchen Garbage
- Wash & Put Away Dishes
- Clean Cat Litter

Friday:
- Clean Computer & Desk
- Buy Groceries
- Clean Surfaces In Office
- Wash My Clothing
- Vacuum Furniture
- Sweep Kitchen Floor
- Empty Kitchen Garbage
- Wash & Put Away Dishes
- Clean Cat Litter

Saturday:
- Clean Out Vehicles
- Clean Surfaces In Vehicles
- Organize Something
- Sweep Kitchen Floor
- Empty Kitchen Garbage
- Wash & Put Away Dishes
- Clean Cat Litter

Sunday:
- Wash Bedding
- Wash Towels & Rags
- Clean Surfaces In Bedroom
- Clean Surfaces In Living Room
- Sweep Kitchen Floor
- Empty Kitchen Garbage
- Wash & Put Away Dishes
- Clean Cat Litter

My schedule is not perfect and there are days when things get missed. There are actually alot of those days. Sometimes I really just don’t feel like doing anything and skip the whole day all together.

The important thing is that I have everything written down that I need to accomplish in a week. If it doesn’t get done, big deal. I just can’t let it go longer than a week or I start to feel really dirty. I think I’m becoming a germaphobe. Oh no! I really hope I don’t turn into Howie Mandell. That would be awful.

What’s your cleaning schedule like?

I just have to get this out there because it is FREAKING ME OUT. I am terrified of getting kidney stones. Like, so scared I can’t even think straight. I woke up this morning and felt pain in my left side and ever since then I have been FREAKIN’. For those of you that don’t know, I have had kidney stones multiple times in my life and the last time was when i was 7 weeks pregnant with Elliott. It’s the worst pain I have ever felt in my entire life, for real. I would rather be in labout for a week straight and have to push out a 50 pound baby withought drugs then deal with the pain of kidney stones. I am serious. You think I’m kidding, but I’m not. I would do it.

The last time I had stones I had to lay on the bathroom floor for hours, periodically getting up to puke in the toilet next to me. I would scream and cry almost all day long. I couldn’t move. One day my mom had to leave work to come and take care of me (Richard couldn’t leave). When Richard finally came home he took me to the hospital. They hooked me up to all sorts of crap but all I remember is the morphine. At least I think that’s what it was. It was amazing. I was pain free. The only bad thing was that I had to stay hooked up to the drugs all day and all night, and also had fluids going in an out of my body like crazy. I didn’t sleep much at all that night.

Ever since that last time I have been terrified of getting stones again. I know how often people who had had stones in the past get them again. It’s pretty much a guarantee. The worst part is not knowing when it will happen. Of course it would happen at the worst time possible. All I know is that I am freakin’ terrified. I was almost in tears this morning just THINKING about getting them again.

I have some pretty bad enemies and I HATE THEM SO MUCH but I would never wish the pain of kidney stones on them. It is unbearable. For women that have children that have never had kidney stones, the pain is worse than childbirth. WORSE THAN CHILDBIRTH. For those who don’t have kids, well, IT FEELS LIKE SOMEONE IS STABBING YOU IN THE GROIN NON-STOP. I don’t even know why I’m trying to explain the pain of kidney stones. I can’t. There’s no way. The only way to truely be able to sympathize with someone with kidney stones is to have had them once yourself. That’s the only way you will know exactly what they are going through.

Ahhhhh, why can’t I stop thinking about this?! It’s frustrating. But mostly – scary. I am scared shitless. I want to hide under my covers and scream. I want to beg the kidney stones to be nice to me and not come back. I will love them if they please just don’t come back. I make promises to them. If they don’t come back, I will work out EVERY SINGLE DAY and never eat chocolate again. If they never come back, I will volunteer to clean the highway of garbage. If they never come back, I will DO ANYTHING THEY WANT, JUST PLEASE DON’T COME BACK!

Now, if you’ll excuse me I need to go drink a gallon or 2 of water and cry myself to sleep.

Forgive me for not posting yesterday. This was a long weekend filled with alot of food and I was just plain EXHAUSTED.

We went to visit Richard’s mom and sister on Sunday for Thanksgiving and had a nice turkey dinner and the most delicious apple pie on the planet. Elliott had his first taste of both apple AND pumpkin pie and he loved them both. We stayed to watch the Amazing Race and then headed home and passed out almost immediately. There’s something about turkey that just makes me feel like sleeping for a week straight.

Yesterday we went to the pumpkin patch. It was my first time going to one (I don’t remember ever going when I was a kid!) and loved it. They had SO MANY good pumpkins! You know when you go to the grocery store to buy a pumpkin and they have maybe 2 or 3 good ones out of like 100? Well, this place had hundreds and there were dozens and dozens of good pumpkins! It was pretty easy for us to pick out our big pumpkin. We also bought 3 of the little tiny pumpkins just because they are adorbs and I couldn’t resist.

They had lots of gourds and squash and the like as well. It was pretty cool looking but we didn’t buy any:

They had a cute little store that sold homemade jams, sauces, breads, pastries and some souvenir type stuff as well. It was fun to look around but there’s no way I would have purchased anything, it was all extremely overpriced.

This pumpkin patch had a neat little area in the back that had hay rides, a petting zoo and other neat stuff but it was $11 per person to get in! Um… no thanks! Maybe next year when Elliott can actually walk around on his own and know what’s going on.

We played in the pumpkins for a little bit before heading home:

It was a fun morning! I can’t wait to carve our pumpkin!

PS. Here’s a great allergist austin!

This past Sunday was the 2010 Kidney Foundation walk. Richard’s dad died because of bad kidney’s so he did this walk to honour his pops. He raised over $800 for the cause and was #3 in the list of top earners! Me so proud.

So we get to the walk and he registers and gets his giant t-shirt:

Then he poses for pictures with his sis, mom and aunty (and Elliott of course!):

And then I make him pose for me on his own:

Finally, we’re off!

And then finally, we’re done!

It was such a beautiful day and the walk was so nice. I wish I could have participated more than just walking half of the way, but I didn’t want to push it, as I was sick – didn’t want to make it worse!

I’m looking forward to doing the walk next year. I hope the weather is just as nice, but what I really hope is that I’m not sick. Please and thanks!

Sometime on Tuesday I came down with some type of sickness, although at the time I thought it was just a sore throat. I could hardly sleep at all on Tuesday night because I had to wake up every 5 seconds to SWALLOW and if I didn’t, my throat would feel like it was on fire. The stupid thing is that it hurts to swallow, but it also hurts to NOT swallow. WHAT THE FREAKIN’ HELL?! It was alot worse by yesterday evening so after eating a painful dinner, I went over to see the doctor where he told me I have Tonsillitis. Sexy.

So far I have only taken 2 of the 500 million pills he prescribed to me. I am hoping that the pain starts to decrease soon. All I want to do is lay around and watch TV and all Elliott wants to do is run around and DO STUFF. It’s really too bad that I haven’t yet taught him how to clean the house and make dinner. Shucks.

So I apologize if I don’t post too much over the next few days, though I will do my very best! I want to try and get as much rest as possible because we have a very busy weekend coming up and I do NOT WANT TO MISS IT.