Update: Operation Finance

Yeah... so I was a little premature with Operation Finance...I was good for about 2 months, but then I moved, bought a new car, and then Christmas hit, and, well, things kind of feel apart. But I'm kicking things into high gear for 2011. Plus, I'm scheduled to get a little bit of a raise at the end of January/beginning of February, so that should help too, although with the pay freeze and higher insurance rates, I'm not sure how much help it will be...

My 2011 financial resolutions/goals:

1) Pay off the main credit card by January 2012 using whatever means necessary. Balance will be ZERO by 1/1/2012.

2) In order to accomplish #1, I will limit my frivolous spending to CASH only. This includes, eating out, movies, shopping, etc. I will take out a certain amount after every pay day and once it's gone, it's gone...until next pay day.

3) In order to accomplish #1 and #2, I need to stop buying stupid shit.

And that's pretty much it... for finances anyway. Really, if I can do those three things, I should be in pretty good shape (HA!).


My 2011 non-financial resolutions/goals:

1) Run a 5K by June 2011. I've run/walked a few 5Ks, but this is the year to run the whole thing... says the girl that hates to run. This should be interesting...

2) No more fast food. Exceptions: Papa Murphy's take-n-bake, the fresco menu at T-Bell, Taco Truck (so not fast food), and the occasional ice cream treat. McD's french fries are allowed on the very, very rare occasion.

3) Get bikini ready - this ties into #1.

4) Travel as much as I can.

5) Bowl a 200 game. My highest game ever happened 2 weeks ago... a 198. Whoot whoot!! This is the year.

6) Make an honest effort to talk/text my mom more often.

I'd say these are fairly reasonable goals... except for maybe #6. That one's gonna be hard...

slr

Christmas in the Northwest is a gift God wrapped in green...

So someone must've been looking out for me, because I got to Seattle and back without any weather glitches. Oh, there were plenty of flights canceled while I was home due to freezing fog in WW, so I was almost obsessive about checking the weather, but I lucked out. I just missed the fog... I must have great flying karma because I've never had an issue getting in or out of the WW airport. *knock on wood* Let's hope it lasts!

Unfortunately I forgot my camera in WW, so I don't have many photos to post (says the self-proclaimed picturaholic. I must be losing my touch), but the trip home was great. I flew in on Sunday, and after picking up some longjohns (forgot mine on the couch when packing. Grrr) we headed downtown for my very first Seahawks game!! The game was poorly played (although I was sure the Seahawks were going to get spanked worse than they did, so that was a plus), but we had great seats and just being there was a lot of fun. Leland was nice enough to give up his own season ticket to join me in the endzone with my friends Tarin and Patrick. We had a great time.

Then, thanks to Tarin for letting me borrow her car, I headed up to Mt. V for a surprise visit to the Cook family and friends. Unfortunately my surprise was spoiled by the gang at Good Winds, but it was still a great visit. Worked on my football spiral, got some Charlie lovin, some yummy spaghetti pie (Mmmmm...), and an almost visible winter solstice lunar eclipse. :)

The rest of the week consisted of me sleeping in, jumping on trampolines, eating way too many Christmas cookies, driving Tarin to work, shopping, and seeing family and friends. I got to catch up with an old high school friend that I haven't seen in years too. I wish I could've seen everyone on my list, but there just wasn't enough time. And with Christmas on Saturday, it just didn't work out.

But my Christmas was pretty awesome. Low key is what I like. Did breakfast at my sister's place with my mom, then headed out to the movies. We saw "How Do You Know." I don't recommend it... It was painfully slow, and so not funny. I even fell asleep during part of it. But after that we picked up dinner (Chinese, please) and headed back to my sister's to watch a better movie... Inception. :) Loved it! So good. Definitely a buyer. Then I did second dinner at Tarin's house. It was a good day.

But as we drove home from a weenerific, authentic German Christmas Eve dinner, we came across the best "Griswalds" display of Christmas lights I've ever seen, with a little something extra:

 

Obviously it's not the gawdy display of flourescence that makes this spectacle so fantastic... :)

Oh, and if you've never heard the song of which this blog entry is named after, it is the most fantastically sappy Christmas original I've ever heard. I love it. It's playing in my head right now as a matter of fact... And yes, I still have the album I bought back in Jr. High when Ernst still inhabited the Sunset Blvd location in Renton. :)

And so, I leave you with the best electronic Christmas card I've ever received...

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

S

holey moley...

The backyard of the new house I moved into just 2 weeks ago either has an infestation of a cracked out mole the size of a small car or.... Bandit has taken up digging. My mom and sister warned me that he was a digger, but at my old place, the worst trouble he got into was eating my flipflop... and I didn't even really like them anyway, so he did me a favor. Anyway, I thought he'd grown out of the whole digging thing. Wrong!! Now that he's an outdoor dog during the day, he's taken to entertaining himself in this extremely annoying fashion... I wish I had a picture of what he looked like on Friday. Covered, head to toe, with dried mud. Today he wasn't nearly as bad, although he dug twice as many holes... At least he doesn't fight me anymore when I tell him to get in the tub. He just hops right in. But I promise to take a picture next time, because as much as I hate filling in the holes and bathing the pup every night, he's so proud of himself and his holey accomplishments that I just can't help but laugh. The only thing I can say about the situation now is I'm thankful grass seed is cheap. :)

Speaking of the new house, the decor isn't finished, neither are we fully unpacked, so once the roommie and I have it all spiffed up for the holidays, I'll take some pictures and post. Don't give up on me. I get around to it eventually...

In other new, I am now a brunette of sorts. Well the color is more a dark reddish purple with some black thrown in. Every fall I always do something really drastic and then go back to normal in the spring. With the shorter days and the chillier weather, I get bored really fast. So... I cut and dye my hair to keep me entertained. I think this is the best I've done in a long time. :) And sometimes I forget that it looks so different, because obviously I've gotten used to it, so when people start to stare and look at me weird, it just makes my day.

The before:

And the after: (I even wore the same WSU zipup for dramatic effect)

Waaaaay different, but I like it. We even had to dye my eyebrows a little because it looked like I didn't have any! I texted my mom after getting it done and she totally freaked. :) Speaking of family, I'm getting really excited to come home for Christmas. I'm taking an entire week off, and luckily enough, so is my sister. So I'm excited to get some quality hang time with everyone at home. And I'm staying with my bestie and going to my first ever Seahawks game, so it's going to be a fun week. All that's left is a safe, speedy, on-schedule flight from WW to Seattle on the 19th. That's all I ask, is that I actually make it to Seattle on time. So far the forecast looks promising (no snow or fog, reasonable temps), so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Only two more weeks!!! Whoot whoot!

S