Saturday, January 5, 2008

Christmas 2007

Christmas was a success, as usual. It went by to fast, as usual. And in a way I am glad life is somewhat back to normal, as usual. Not that I don't love the season, but it can throw such a cramp in daily living and it is hard to get back into the swing of things. I have officially decided that I am going to prepare for next Christmas starting now. Budget for it, get some shopping done early so that I don't have to step into a retail store after Thanksgiving unless I absolutely have to. Doesn't that sound wonderful?

My mom and dad were here for the holidays, which was great. We love having them here. We played lots of games and went to lots of parties and made lots of treats. Here are some highlights from our Christmas.

The New Year

2008 is officially here and with the new year, comes the ill-termed "New Year Resolutions." There is something about that phrase that just screams failure to me. Mostly because it goes along with weight loss and other goals that are not attainable unless they become life time changes, not just goals for this year. So goals is a better word, I believe.So I have a few goals I want to work on this year.

First off, Carl and I are going to sit down and set out a budget so that we can better track our expenses and know exactly where our money is going. I took a finance class in college and should be able to make up a spreadsheet pretty easily. We just need to be better at setting limits for certain things we like to do, like eating out, shopping, even groceries can get out of hand sometime.

Second off, and along with our finances, we want to do some rennovating in our home. I want to gut the bathroom completely and Carl wants to finish the garage and get some shelving in there. The kitchen floor is also severely in need of a makeover. The entire basement could use an overhaul as well, but that will happen down the road sometime. We don't use it enough right now for it to be worth it.

This bathroom, although it may not look it in the pictures, is dreadful. It hasn't been redone since the house was built in the late seventies. Gross. It will be a total remodel. It's pretty small so it shouldn't break our bank. Hey maybe we can go on one of those remodeling shows on HGTV???? Anything they can do would make it look better than it does now. Anyone know how to apply.





This floor is so terrible. The previous owners put stick down lanoleum tiles on top of two other layers of lanoleum. So not does it only look awful (they have all shifted), but it's going to betorture trying to pull all those layers of lanoleum up to get some new tile down. The whole kitchen in fact needs a makeover, but the floor is the worst part. We can live with it for a while. At least it is functional.