Goals Update - Several at Once!

Take a bath - Not much to report here, I guess. It was a bath. In a hotel. With super hot water. In a huge tub. With bath salts. And I loved it. And coveted the bathtub. Good times.

Create a recipe binder - Again, done. It's very helpful. It's nice to be able to page through recipe cards rather than sort through stacks when I'm looking for something particular. It's nice that they're covered in plastic while in the page protectors. I am an extremely messy cook. The plastic helps. My problem? I have a TON of recipes. So I don't have every recipe in my book - even every recipe category right now. I had to cut myself off due to the sheer amount of money I was laying out for page protectors. But it's working well and it's a work in progress and I think it was a good plan.

Garden by the front yard light pole - Done. I did it and thought it was done, and then things didn't grow back. But this year, I didn't plant anything new and everything ended up growing and thriving. Ideally I'd like to do something a little more elaborate and pretty, but this is fine for now. I'm not interested in laying out more money to expand the garden in that particular area of the lawn.

Get pregnant or do ivf - Did the ivf. There's so much more to say about this, but it would take up too much space. I'm taking a pass on elaborating on this one and just saying "Done."

Get off Zoloft - I did this just after Christmas. Granted, I'm considering going back on - lol - but I did get off it and have been off it for about 7 months. Around Christmas, I had been periodically forgetting my pills. I do that sometimes, normally when I'm overwhelmed by the number of supplements I'm taking. Anyway, we went away for a few days and I had both forgotten to take my Zoloft for several days and had forgotten to bring my pills with me. So I just decided to go from there. I called my doctor to let him know my plan, which was fine with him. Then I proceded. Basically, my plan was to stretch out the interval between pills as long as possible. However, if I noticed a withdrawal symptom (for me, usually head rushes, nausea, and stuff like that), I took a pill right away. Like, within ten minutes if at all possible. As the length of time between pills began to increase, I started cutting the pills in half - and eventually in quarters. One day, I just realized I hadn't taken anything for a while and felt fine. It was good. This is the part I like about Zoloft - it didn't work that well for me this time around, but I knew it probably wouldn't be horrid to quit. It's still a chore and feels a bit risky and uncertain, but it's not horrific like it can be with some versions.

200 Blog Posts - I've definitely done this. I haven't kept precise count, but I'm nearly positive I'm closer to 300, not just 200.

That's it for now. I can see I may need to reassess a few other goals. But I'll save that for another day - maybe when I'm 75% done?

Almost Halfway Point - Reassessments

So I'm almost half-way through this project and haven't made very good progress! lol In examining my list, I've realized that some of my originally-established goals are either not possible or are things that aren't that important to me after all. Go figure. So I've decided to adjust my list of goals slightly. These are the goals I'm removing:

• Places to Visit #2 and #10 - These are basically the same goal, so I'm combining them into one
• Places to Visit #3 - After we went downtown for a different festival and there was a shooting outside the bar we were in, I vowed I would never go downtown for such an event again unless I thought my life would end if I didn't go. Summerfest doesn't fall in this category. I'm removing this goal.
• Household Stuff #6 - I looked into moving the peonies, but what I read said that basically peonies are immovable. I've decided to leave them where they are.
• Household Stuff #7 - Given the fact that we turned half our backyard into an actual garden, I have no remaining space in which to try square foot gardening. I'm removing this goal.
• Volunteerism #1 - This is basically the same goal as Finances #5. I'm combining these goals.
• Content to Consume #1, #2, and #5 - I really don't care about these anymore. I'll be replacing these.
• Business Category - I'm removing all three of these. It's not that I don't want to accomplish these goals; it's more that I'm not sure where I want to go professionally, and I certainly know I won't be arriving at my destination in the next 500 days. I'll be replacing these.

So by my count, I'm eliminating 11 goals. So I need to come up with 11 more. I used Amanda's blog for some inspirations (and I almost directly stole a few ideas from her because they sounded perfect)! :)

Yikes!

1. Cut my hair short
2. Do another "no spend" month
3. Don't eat out for one month
4. Get rid of non-sentimental baby clothes
5. Get a tattoo
6. Take the train to Chicago
7. Take Gabe on an "adventure" everyday for a month
8. Decide what I want to do professionally... or when I grow up ;)
9. Have a picnic lunch or dinner at a local park
10. Try 5 new non-chain restaurants
11. Start a journal of some of my favorite childhood memories

Three more goals

I achieved 3 more goals this week. It started in disaster but ended up to be a lot of fun.

Thursday was my birthday, and it didn't go very well. Tahd stayed late at work, I got hurt and offended, and we basically tolerated each other over dinner and went our separate ways afterward. Of course, this spilled into Friday. Tahd thought he did nothing wrong. I felt devastated.

A fairly terse argument ensued via im, and I told him I didn't know if I wanted to go out on our scheduled date that evening. When he came home and started playing wii, I decided I couldn't take it anymore and left.

I planned to go do our date on my own, but the thought of going to the Melting Pot by myself sounded particularly boring, so I went to the movies instead. By myself. For the first time. And it wasn't bad. I watched Bride Wars and thought it was really cute. Tahd did track me down via text message and showed up with about 50 minutes of the movie left, but I'm still counting it as a completed goal because I basically did it and he showed up completely unsolicited.

After that, we went to the Melting Pot where we continued our argument in a less terse fashion. And then when everything was okay between us, I decided I'd go for my "drunk" goal, too. I got a bit tipsy, but I honestly felt like if I had any more alcohol I was going to start throwing up. However, I could still stand up, walk, carry on a full conversation - and because Tahd asked, I found out I could also still stand on one foot and walk a straight line.

All that to say I sort of doubt whether or not I made it all the way to drunk. But I decided it's fine with me and I got close enough because if I have to puke to get drunk I don't want to do it anymore. I puked enough in January. *giggle*

More complete

I really have been working on things even though I haven't been posting about them. Here are my updates of the things I've been accomplishing!

1. Have a bra fitting - my sisters, mother and I all went to a little undergarment shop downtown a few months ago. I didn't actually agree with what they sized me at, but it got me close enough to decide what size made me most comfortable.
2. Grow my hair out so it reaches the middle of my back - I did it! I just recently got it trimmed (and recolored) and I'm glad. It definitely needed the trim. I haven't decided what I'm going to do to it next, but I am glad this most recent trim included an addition of bangs!
3. I made Christmas cookies this year. YUM! We did it for our reindeer party and it was a lot of fun - well, both the cookies and the party were a lot of fun! I see so many beautiful cookie designs and I'd like to try that sometime, but when you have to make 12 dozen cookies, just getting them done is sufficient!
4. Make homemade salsa - Late this summer I made homemade salsa out of veggies from our garden, no less! It was delicious, although not as sweet as store-bought salsa. Something to get used to!
5. Bake a cake for someone who has hurt me - Done. It was an interesting experience. I had to really focus on not doing it sloppily, and to really put myself in it. I can't say I had the best attitude through the whole experience, but I can say I did it and it was a valuable experience for me.
6. Have family photos done - we did this as part of Mom's Christmas present. The results are adorable, and it's nice to have them updated!
7. Take a yoga class - I attended a Kripalu yoga class with a yoga teacher in Racine. It was okay. They really lobbied hard to get me to commit to coming back. But I much prefer some sort of hatha yoga, and I don't want to be locked into anything. It was a lot of fun, but definitely not my thing.
8. Buy a beautiful bra in my correct size - done. Nuff said.
   

The Queen

We watched The Queen tonight. I was quite impressed - I thought it was a great movie! Of course, I am a Diana junkie and really enjoy hearing about the royal family. Tahd wasn't quite as impressed as I was. But since the Olympics ended, I had to think of something else to do with my time, and this movie seemed like a good substitution!

More goals met!

I've done a few more goals! And I've realized that I think I'm going to have to be a lot more purposeful about meeting these goals if I'm going to complete them! Especially the reading ones. I think I picked too many books!

We recently watched Michael Clayton. It was good! I enjoyed it! And I have rented The Queen to take with us on the trip we're taking this week. I've wanted to watch it for a while now and haven't gotten around to it.

We also picked a bed for ds. It was a black metal bed from Crate and Barrel. The price was right, and when I saw it in person, I really liked it! He was none to impressed with the fact that we were changing things around, but he is settling in, even though he still says he doesn't like it when asked. We haven't quite finished his room yet, but we're working on it!

Finally, I'm crossing off the one about investigating why my spotting doesn't stop. I think we may have found the answer!!! When I had my annual exam earlier this summer, I talked about it to my obgyn, and he suggested that we do an exploratory hysteroscopy to see if I had any uterine polyps. We scheduled the surgery for late July, and at that time he found that I did, in fact have some polyps. Those are removed now, and I have already noticed a difference. Hopefully it sticks around!

Quick update - a few more goals!

So I went to Woodman's on Monday and did my grocery shopping. On my other blog, I'm working on a 21 Days of Nothing challenge where we are strictly limited on our spending. The good news is that I ended up getting all my groceries for $36! Shocking! And I feel like we have everything we need and a bit we want. I'm thrilled! I like Woodman's. It's confusing, but I think that's mostly because I've never shopped there before. The layout is a bit different. But with the low prices, I think I need to get used to it!

Also, I had my ob/gyn appointment on Monday, and I talked to my doctor about my ongoing spotting. We have decided to pursue a minor surgery - a hysteroscopy - to see if there are any polyps in my uterus. Hopefully we'll get some information from that! I'm not crossing it off until I've had the hysteroscopy and we get the information from that. I'm a little bit nervous because it will involve a general anesthetic, which I've never had before. Hopefully it'll go well!