January goal update

So, it's the end of January. Time to update you on my progress to reaching the goals I set for myself.

Goals:

1. Do a pull-up or handstand without help - I have made it to the gym seven times this month and have gone through a workout video twice. I even had a handstand practice session with Jason. This month I was trying to limit my soda intake, so I have only had a small amount on the weekends. That has gotten me weaned off my soda dependancy, but now I am drinking tea and juice, which still has a lot of sugar in it. And, sadly, I am still going to bed late. I only made it to bed by 10 PM twice this month.

2. Clean out the garage - I met my goal of cleaning one box in the garage! Yay!

3. Challenge my creativity and imagination - I've been doing a lot lately. I finished an afghan for Grandma and I made one for Jason. We made Lauren's valentine box, went to an art museum and found the first geocache of the year. Fun stuff!

4. Maintain a conscious spending plan - Coupons: We went grocery shopping today and I found a coupon for something that was my list sitting right next to it on the store shelf. It was a better coupon than the coupon I was going to use for said item. So I took it and used it, and I'm not gonna lie, it kinda made my day. I was excited about a coupon. Does that make me a nerd? We've had a couple of good shopping trips, saving up to $6 on one. It's a little frustrating that I can't find a store that doubles coupons in town, but I don't think it'll be worth driving time and fuel money to go into Blue Springs for that specific reason. Another side note, there seems to be a lot of coupons for products we don't use. Why is that?

5. Be aware of our environmental impact - Agh! I was ashamed when I saw our trash this month. We had eaten out a couple times, so we had styrafoam cups and paper trash and plastic. We're still at our usual one bag per week (although it's often less), so I'm not worried there. I read an article that encourages people to bring reusable utensils with them to use instead of plastic-wrapped plasticware and glass or plastic containers to take home your food instead of styrafoam to-go containers. I think we may try to do that.

How are you doing on your goals or New Year's resolutions?

Getting out of the house

Lauren's visit this weekend prompted us to go the Plaza. Jason and I hung around Barnes and Noble while Lauren met her friend Aimee and shopped the Plaza. Then we girls left Jason to study at B&N, and we headed to the art museum.

Then we got Jason and dropped Aimee off at her car. Before we went home, we stopped in to do a little exploring at Union Station. We saw the Canstruction display and the Harvey House. But, we got a little adventurous and ended up at Crown Center, visiting the Crayola shop and eating at a Streetcar Named Desire.

Lauren's valentine box

For Valentine's Day, Lauren has to make a valentine box for her sorority's holiday party. She was not excited, and I couldn't figure out why. I thought it would be awesome to make it look like a farmer's field, incorporating the aggie-ness of her sorority, and to make the animals out of heart shapes, symbolizing the meaning of the holiday. And so we did...while watching Everything is Illuminated and Equals 3. By the time we were done, it was well after midnight and our farm now contained an exotic section made up of a "Love" crab and elephant.

Spring is coming!

And I hope very soon! In the meantime, I'll content myself with these tulips from Jason.

Help plan a trip to France

Jason and I are planning a trip to France. We hope to journey there this summer, but we're having a bit of trouble organizing it. You see, I've been to France before, but Jason hasn't. (He's been to Germany, though. Lucky.) I've been the one looking into this trip so far, and I've boiled it down to two options: roadtrip or lounge. Both trips have their own draw.

Roadtrip
If we were to roadtrip, we could hit some high points in Paris, enough to make sure Jason got in his culture but not repeat everything I've already done, and hit the road. I see this road trip heading west to the beaches of Normandy, the American cemetery, Mont St. Michel and a strange tapestry that seems to be quite the thing to see. From there, I would imagine we would head southeast-ish to the Loire Valley and stop to visit a few castles along the road. There seems to be a trail through there that would be a nice hike. I would have liked to continue to the Riviera, but I'm not sure we will have enough time. (Right now I'm hoping for seven to 10 days.) From there, I'd like to hit Reims in the Champagne region to see the Pommery again and the Reims basilica before going back to Paris.
Benefits with this plan:
1) We'll get a more complete view of France, at least tourism-wise.
2) We aren't "stuck" in the same place.
Problems with this plan:
1) Securing transport and lodging throughout the whole trip - Ugh! Sounds like a lot of work.
2) Staying on schedule at different locations; we might like one stop longer or get delayed due to transportation issues.

Lounge
If we lounge, we could rent an apartment for the week and live like real Parisians. We could go to one or two farmers markets that I've been investigating and check out all the specialty shops in our neighborhood, soaking up the flavor of Paris as well as visiting the major sites in Paris: le Tour Eiffel, l'Arc de Triomphe, le Sacre Coeur, le Palais de Versailles. We may have time for one day trip to a small village and ISAB (the French ag school I attended) or maybe out to Reims for some champagne.
Benefits with this plan:
1) More time: I can drag Jason out of bed to stake out sunrise photos at the Eiffel Tour and keep him out late to photograph Paris at night.
2) We can see some really neat things that I missed the first time and I (kind of) already know my way around.
Problems with this plan:
1) We are missing out on the wide variety of opportunities open to us in the rest of the country.
2) I've seen some of this stuff before, and I kinda want this to be a discover-it-together kind of experience.

So, what do you think? Given our time constraints (7-10 days) and trying to remain somewhat frugal (We haven't set our budget yet, but this is the long-awaited honeymoon, two years in the making.) would you choose to roadtrip or lounge? Why?

7 days and 7 ways to help

It's been one week since the magnitude 7.0 quake rocked Haiti. I can't even begin to imagine experiencing such a traumatic event, but it's been really inspirational how everyone has rallied to help all those affected. I've been keeping up with what is going on in the news and through firsthand accounts at The Livesay [Haiti] Weblog and Melonnie in Haiti. If you want to help, here are a few places your money can be used:

1. Red Cross - Click on the link to donate or text "Haiti" to 90999 to send a $10 donation.
2. Save the Children - Save the Children has been working in Haiti since 1978 and has about 200 staff there. In Port-au-Prince, they are helping to provide food, water, shelter and child-friendly spaces. You can donate $10 by texting "Save" to 20222.
3. Northwest Haiti Christian Mission - According to their Web site, "Northwest Haiti Christian Mission is an Independent Christian Church organization dedicated to establishing and partnering with indigenous churches to help bring people in Northwest Haiti out of spiritual, physical and social poverty to demonstrate God’s love for all." They have programs that include schools, orphanages, medical clinics and agricultural development. You can send $5 by texting "support NWHCM" to 20222.
4. Craft Hope for Haiti - An Etsy shop was set up by volunteers for crafters to donate their products for purchase. The money raised is approaching $10,000, and donations for crafts to sell will be accepted until the evening of Jan. 20. So, donate your crafts or see what is available to buy. Money raised will go to Doctors Without Borders in Haiti.
5. Clinton Bush Haiti Fund - Presidents Clinton and Bush have been asked by President Obama to help raise money for immediate relief and long-term recovery efforts. You can send $10 by texting "Quake" to 20222.
6. StillerStrong.org - Ben Stiller is working with Save the Children to raise money to expand school in Haiti, dig a well for drinking water and plant sustainable crops. In light of recent events, money raised now will temporarily go toward the relief effort.
7. Heifer International - Not typically who you would think of after a tragedy, but the organization has been in Haiti for 10 years and has numerous projects in place already that affect more than 16,000 families.

“Heifer is by no means a traditional first responder,” said Steve Denne, chief operating officer of the global hunger and poverty organization, “but we have projects and partner families in Haiti who likely have lost everything, and now, with this devastation, the need is even greater than before. This appeal will help us help our current families begin to rebuild their lives, and provide the chance to help even more families recover from this devastating blow.”

Friday

Jason got home a little bit early from his office's holiday party. They exchanged gag gifts, but he got a surprisingly fitting one. He is a spreadsheet wizard and loves his coffee. Kudos to the person who picked it out!





For dinner, I was craving some homecooked goodness, so I whipped up some potato casserole and meatloaf. Then Jason and I settled in to watch The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

Sigh. My mom's meatloaf recipe is the best. Check it out:

• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1/2 c. rolled oats
• 2 tsp. minced onion flakes
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. pepper
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/2 c. tomato juice/sauce

Preheat oven to 350. Mix well and place in loaf pan. Mix 1/4 c. ketchup and 1/4 c. brown sugar to form topping. Cover top of meatloaf with topping and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes before slicing.

Mmm...definitely my go-to for comfort food. What's your favorite comfort food?

Lunch with John

John was in the neighborhood and stopped to eat lunch with me. It was nice to get to chat with my little brother. Come again soon!

Love blanket in the works

It's approaching the two-year mark of our marriage and that means gift-giving time! We're trying to be creative and stick with those silly anniversary gift guidelines. You know, the ones that say the first year is paper, second year is cotton and so on...Well, once upon a time, they were practical. Like when letter-writing was common, it made sense to splurge and get new stationery with your married name on it the first year or get some towels or bed linens for cotton during the second year. Thankfully, we were blessed with family and friends who got us very nice bed linens, and we don't need towels because we're still using the mismatched ones we had when we lived apart. (Why not? They're still good!) So, what to get each other (not that we really have to, it's just fun) has been on our minds. I thought it would be fun to crochet us a blanket that we could snuggle together under. I wonder what Jason's come up with...

Frances' Ripple Afghan

During a visit with Grandma Schad, she mentioned that her friend Frances, who had died several years ago, had started crocheting a ripple afghan before her death. Grandma gave me the unfinished afghan and asked if I thought I could complete it with the skeins of yarn that were with it. I agreed to try. I guessed at the gauge, counted the stitches and tried to imagine the pattern in completion. I think I did a pretty good job, if I do say so myself, and it was an honor to complete a piece for such a good friend and accomplished crocheter.

Meneely Christmas 2009 in 2010

Meneely Christmas! We got together at Auny Marilyn and Uncle John's house. Unfortunately, many members of Uncle David's family were unable to attend. Fortunately, Justin, the cool one, was not one of the missing members. After a lovely dinner, the "kids" went downstairs to play Wii. We were met with disappointment when we discovered the Wii was broken, but we rallied to play pool. Justin taught us how to play nine-ball. Lauren provided a playlist of tunes on her laptop. John avoided the game playing, deciding instead to invest his time reading Uncle John's gun magazines. Afterward, we adjourned upstairs to the Christmas tree. Because Justin didn't bring a white elephant gift to exchange, it was decided and agreed upon that he would receive all gifts. He got some KC Royals gear, a set of eight Coca-Cola glasses, some toilet paper, a bottle opener and, what I'm willing to bet was his favorite present, a LisaFrank activity set. Justin and Jason set to work straight away making sand necklaces for each other. Later, Justin practiced his photo-bombing skills, as illustrated by the quality bomb on our classic sister pose. Fun times!

New Year's Resolutions

I'm not really one for New Year's Resolutions. I remember making them up for roll call in 4-H or half-heartedly writing something about them in English class. But this year, while I'm not calling them resolutions, I am making goals. I am identifying things that I want to accomplish this year. Most are just small things, little differences now that I think will add up to big differences down the road. And while some are not easily measureable, which is apparently a bad thing when you are making goals, I have decided to use this blog to hold me publically accountable for my goals, which is apparently a good thing to do when you are setting goals. I hope to relay my progress once a month.
Goals:
1. Do a pull-up or handstand without help - I was always very self-conscious in gym class when it came to anything with upper body strength. I couldn't climb a rope or a pole or do a pull-up or chin-up. I'm also afraid to kick up into a handstand. So my plan is to get Jason to help me with my handstands in short practice sessions. As far as the pull-ups go, I know I need to be more intentional in watching what I eat and working out. One of my mini goals with this is to get back to my Soda on Saturdays routine, where it's a treat to drink soda once a week, if at all, and not a daily occurrence. So more water it is. I also think that, in general, it's a good idea to get a good amount of sleep, so I'm going to try to get back in the habit of going to bed by 10 p.m.
2. Clean out the garage - When I moved to Oak Grove, I knew the move was coming. And yet, I procrastinated. I put off packing until the very end; it was too late to sort and pack. Everything had to come here and to help Jason just started putting things in boxes. So, I'm going to tackle at least one box a month in an attempt to pare down sort through everything. Here's hoping our move back is a little less stressful!
3. Challenge my creativity and imagination - When I moved to Oak Grove, I'm pretty sure I got depressed. I wasn't clinically diagnosed or anything, but I wasn't myself. I lived here for at least five months before I picked up a crochet hook or read one of my favorite novels. So, I am challenging myself to stay creative and imaginative by keeping up with my hobbies: photography, reading, crocheting, sewing, geocaching, whatever. Sure beats watching TV on Hulu.com all the time.
4. Maintain a conscious spending plan - Note that I didn't say budget. In my opinion, Jason and I have been doing ok saving money so far. I just want to maintain that success and build on it in the coming year. My goal is to cut spending where it doesn't matter to us so we have more money to spend where it does. One of the things I think will help in this area is to make meal plans and shop accordingly. And, while I don't want to fritter my time away hunting and clipping coupons, I do want to recognize coupons as a tool to help save money.
5. Be aware of our environmental impact - Whether global warming is real or not, I feel like there is no reason to misuse and abuse resources available to us. Among other things, Jason and I shop with reusable bags, use power strips to take care of phantom loads and recycle as much as possible. This year, I want to shop more locally, consciously choose products with less or recyclable packaging and look into switching to less toxic cleaners-maybe even make our own.

An eveing with the Maurers and friends

New Year's Eve was super-fun this year, thanks to Brian and Kathleen. They helped host a party, along with Brian's dad and brother Brandon, in Blue Springs. I'm glad it was close because we've had a bit of snow, and I wasn't looking forward to a long drive anywhere.

Jason and I arrived fashionably late to find the party in full-swing. Video games on the TV, board games at the kitchen table and a cut-throat game of Jenga on the counter with easy access to the food. The monkey bread and meatballs I had made were well-received, as were the hot pizzas Brian kept bringing fresh from the upstairs kitchen.

Jason mingled with the gamers around the TV, and I filled in for Brian at Jenga while he performed host duties. Then I got in on a little Mario action. Upon realizing I was a complete and total video-gaming failure, I broke out the afghan (I'm such a nerd, I know), which I had brought to hopefully make a little more progress. I crocheted on the couch and listened to critiques of movie directors. The critiques turned to a trivia game with which I had moderate success.

At about 11:55, the gaming TV was turned to the ball drop in New York. Of course we counted down to midnight, and all the couples kissed. Then Jason and I were introduced to the strange New Year's tradition of bare-chested chopping. Apparently, Brian, Brandon & Friends used to wrestle at this party years ago. After they grew too large, and the house and its exquisite decorations became vulnerable to destruction by such violence, they abbreviated the tradition to taking hits to the chest. We elected not to participate.

Before we left, Kathleen and I played a couple rounds of Dr. Mario. She showed me a trick, but she still beat my pants off. I bow to your greatness, Kathleen.

Happy New Year, everyone! Cheers!