Post Graduation: Day 274

Another year come and gone.  Another year.  I must say, while I had many beautiful moments during 2014, it has definitely been a year of tremendous growth and some difficulties.  After an amazing 2013, I hope that 2015 will be a much more positive and positive year.  We have spent six months trying to grow our family, nearly succeeding, and now back to the drawing board again which has been very trying, especially for those who are lacking in patience.  This time has truly strengthened the bond with my husband and our marriage.  For that, I am grateful, I am blessed to have the most kind, understanding, patient, and supportive partner.  He has gotten me through this year.

I have not had a physical day planner in awhile, since iPhones can accommodate most of my calendar needs, but I thought this year I should revert back to this:

I have so much coming up in 2015, I love writing out daily to-do lists and making daily goals for myself to stay active and organized.  I have two major auditions coming up which will require a lot of preparation.  With so many possible changes coming, I need to stay focused.  For the first time in forever, I will be starting the New Year in the same place (geographically) as I will end it.  This is our home now, and I am so excited for what lies ahead!

Week 8 - Day 4

So I thought I'd take this opportunity to get back to part of the reason I started this blog, to hold myself accountable for achieving a few goals while my husband is working on his own at Basic Training.  And these were the goals I had wanted to accomplish during his first phase of training:

1)      Work out, work out!!

2)      Write to Adam every day

3)      Learn one new aria

4)      Audition for local community theater

5)      Lose 8 lbs.

6)      Finish decorating the apartment

7)      Reorganize

8)      Finish sorting through wedding stuff

9)      Complete Christmas Bucket List

10)   Finish EMS Continuing Credits

11)    Finish designing this blog

I actually did lose the weight that I wanted to lose but I gained most of it back so it's not really counted as a fulfilled goal, plus, while I occasionally worked out, I don't believe I reached my goal.  So, 7/11 isn't too terrible is it?  I felt very busy and fulfilled during the first phase of his training, now I need to reboot and set some new goals for myself.

1) Work out, 2.0

I am going to make this more achievable and set some weekly goals for myself regarding exercise.

2) Lose 8 lbs

Most of this will involve keeping with the exercise and improving my diet a little bit.  More to come on this.

3) Audition for local community theater

While I may have blown off one or two auditions last year, I think part of the problem was finding something that I really wanted to do.  I did audition for my choir which I was accepted in but I definitely need to find some theater to do.

4) Get re-certified for CPR

This is a little short term but I need to get this done and I need to be accountable for it.  I'm schedule for a class on 3/12.

5) Do something new every week

Pretty self explanatory, I will try to keep it interesting I promise!

6) Finish book about Grandmother

Several years ago I bought this book for my Mom's mother.  She is an amazing woman with an amazing life and I thought it would be fun and historically necessary to interview her and write this book for her and our family.  Note, this was purchased... oh boy I just checked my e-mails, FOUR years ago.  Part of the problem was I used to live far away so getting together was difficult to complete this task.  Also, the original version of this book was destroyed in hurricane Sandy, it was sitting in my car that got flooded, so that was a bit of a set-back.  Now. I have ZERO excuse not to finish this.  Time is a precious thing when it comes to grandparents, and I am going to try and finish this before my solider returns.  Procrastinators need deadlines.  They may not complete the task before the deadline, or even by the deadline, but it will get done.

That's all I have so far, I'm planning on coming up with more goals.  Do you have any suggestions?  What are some goals you have for yourself?

Week 5 - Day 1

This rainy Monday is very apt in reflecting my current mood.  After two blissful weeks of holiday joy and having my soldier home with me, he left to continue his journey with basic training.  I got extremely lucky and even had an extra day with him due to a cancelled flight from weather, but the whole thing still feels like crap.  For lack of a better word.  In retrospect, I feel very blessed that the timing worked as such that I even got to see him in the middle of his training.  Typically, he would go straight through for 10+ weeks, so I'm so happy I got this time with him.

It was hard saying goodbye, we eased back in to our life so quickly, our separation almost felt like a dream.  Now, our time together feels a bit imaginary... 

It's so icky this morning, I'm very cranky.  To add fuel to this, last night at midnight-thirty, the fire alarms went off in my building prompting me to have to get out of bed, and wait outside in the drizzling, disgusting rain, until the fire department showed up to alert us that it was, in fact, a false alarm.  Which means there was probably some flooding due to the rain on top of snow.  This is the second time since we moved in to this building that this has happened.  Sucks.  Especially for someone who is now having a little bit of a harder time sleeping.

I feel like this half of the time apart will be the most difficult since it's longer and I don't have the holidays to distract me.  No fun holiday bucket list of joyful things... just the looming responsibility of having to take down all of my Christmas decorations, plus, I have to finish changing my name, get a military ID.  Ugh, so much ick.  I'm pretty terrified of my mail 

On the positive side of distractions, I have three auditions coming up, one for a prestigious choral group in my area and two for local musicals.  I'm excited and nervous, I have a lot of prep to do before these auditions.

Much to do... naps to take... *yawn*