Cause I Made Myself Promises

At the beginning of 2011 I originally promised myself some easy things I thought I could follow through on. Then, a month later, I followed up on those promises... Then I dropped it. I kept the promises in the back of my mind but never really showed any progress.

So a year and a few months later, here it is and where I stand.

1. Get back down to 150 - I got down to a very happy 153 and then I shot back up to 163. I couldn't figure out how in the heck I was eating healthy and exercising (yeah, I gave in and started) and I gained weight! Then I did a few calculations and realized I was eating almost 3,000 calories a day. More than my husband when he was training for his triathlons. Oops. I go to Zumba once a week but they might cancel my classes. I am sad because I doubt I'll find another class as amazing as this one. The classes are small, we all laugh as we go and we can pick the songs we want to do for the day. If they do, my sister's will get gym memberships with me and we'll hold each other accountable, so either way, I'll benefit.

2. Make our wedding album - I am currently doing the final touches on our wedding albums. I am taking advantage of an amazing deal and am going to get free shipping and three $90 books for less than $30. Score!!!!

3. Make my sister's wedding album - If I finish in time, I'd like to do a similar deal for my sister's wedding albums, too. If not, then I will save up and get it done. She deserves to be able to flip through and see all her beautiful pictures. She looked mag that day and totally should be able to see it.

4. Scrapbook my loose pictures - Um... Yeah. It takes a lot of work and a lot of fighting with Chunko to pull out my scrap booking tubs and get started on it. I rarely have enough peace to shower, eat my own dinner or watch a TV show, so I'm not putting this on the top of my priority list. On top of that I realized I have to scan Fart Bone's baby pictures before I cut them up and glue them somewhere because I need to share those with others. Buuuutttt... I'm going to just claim I ran out of double sided sticky tape and I can't go forward until I remember to buy more. That's my story.

5. Showering my love with love - I am going to vote this as a fail. We've had a tough time adjusting to a very attention greedy and busy baby, along with all of our everyday chores and responsibilities. We've fought quite a bit because of short tempers and lack of sleep. It has really sucked but in it we have developed a new friendship with each other. We talk a lot and we are learning to talk out the issues before it grows into a fight. I've learned I am madly in love with my husband and have fallen in love with him as a good friend, too.

6. Working through our debt - We had an amazing plan that would have solved all the monetary problems within 3 years and then one of the debtors was a dick and made ridiculous demands (Um, no, you cannot have free access to our bank accounts). I am going to admit, painfully, that we have filed for bankruptcy and are in a five year plan to pay back our debts. It's hard to say to people and embarrassing to share but I feel better knowing we could have done it on our own before the debtor fought with us. We had no choice, we really didn't. We worked for three years to not have to choose this path but we were making no head way. We didn't even dent the interest accumulated. Now, we have a set goal and are actually better off than we were on our own. I have to say it was one of the better decisions we have ever made. We have 4 years, 5 months and 9 days before our final payment (there's an app for that!!).

7. Clean our garage - I have done this many, many times over. My love doesn't park in it and has no shown no real desire to do so in the future. Our garage isn't as neat as I would like it but is far neater than most garages and I can easily step out and find what I need. It will have to do until I can design the cabinets and shelves I want and buy the dream tool box. *Sigh* organizing is so hot.

8. Quit obsessing - I don't know what to call this. I'm not bombing but I'm not passing with flying colors. Something happened around Christmas time and things got awkward between us and the ex/ OSD. I don't know if it was stress or if we effed things up but it just felt... weird. We tried so many times to talk to OSD and we have tried to be accommodating for his ex but we can't seem to please anybody over there. I really wish things could be completely opposite of how it is. I do over think it and I tend to look through rose tinted glasses but it is so frickin aggravating!!! So yeah, fine, it's a fail. I am still obsessing. I want things to be nice and fair and I am not getting ANY cooperation.

9. Mending broken fences - I have tried to move on from the past with certain people in my life and I have extended my hand to others. Both haven't worked. It's all just being ignored. I've realized that I cannot control other people and that as long as I live considerately and in peace with myself, then that's all I can do. I am always open to be nice to anybody who wants to talk but I am going to step back and try to let them live as they choose. I may think they are miserable without me in their life (cause I'm awesome) but they very well maybe be happy without me, my husband or my kids. I cannot make them talk to me, so I will just be open if they change their mind.

10. Sending special occasion cards - Yup, I suck. I'm going to set this aside for some time. I was sending them late and then not at all. I really want to be that person that remembers to send cards for everything but I really suck. I barely remember what I wore yesterday. I did find this great daily planner/ journal book. I suck so far (we already went over this) but I am making it my goal to write at least 2 sentences for every day. We did a service for a woman who had a daily journal entry for every day for 76 years!!! She recorded her wedding day and all of her children's births. It was awe-inspiring. See? My ADD took over and I've already forgotten what I was writing.

We'll see where this year takes us and where we're at in another year...