Baby Steps

So here is what I have been doing to help acheive my goals.

- SAVE MONEY!! I need to buy a house. I did some calculations and I can still make the goal of purchasing for 30 birthday present but I need to stay on track and focused.

Goal: Transfer 75% of paycheck to savings account (the one that I cannot access with ATM or online and have to be in the bank to withdraw from. Love my credit union for having these options. :) )

I have resisted the urge to go shopping but have yet to transfer the funds.  Big plans for the weekend...

But hope is not lost becuase..


- LOSE WEIGHT I am unhappy with my looks and only I have control over it. It is time to shape up. Starting with small goals (again) and working out 3x a week. No more Dr Pepper (WORST PART EVER!!) and taking lunch to work.

Goal: Lose 20lbs by July 4th.

I have dropped drinking soad by 98%.  Ok I don't know if that is the exact percentage but I have kicked the daily Dr Pepper habit.  Hopefully I can continue with momentum.  Also I have been talking to ladies at work and we will be starting a 3 month boot camp at the begining of July.  Mon/Wed/Thu will be the days.  Hopefully I can surive. 


- GET ORGANIZED I have so many projects half completed and unidentified boxes around that I need to determine what I have, need, and should get rid of. Maybe have a garage sale and help build up the house fund.

Goal: Go through 1 box a week.

Well I haven't gone through any boxes but I have gone through my office drawers and my car.  I have the sapce needed to carry items from the donation pile to DI.

- BLOG MORE When I used to write at work, I found myself more relaxed and happier. While I am unable to blog at work (TOO BUSY!!) I still have options from my cell phone and at home.

Goal: Blog at least every Saturday morning.

WOOHOO!!  Blogging a day early. 

The beginning

This Memorial Day weekend, I took a road trip with Dad to go visit Gma Dalley.  Because I had a 5 day weekend, I decided to make pit stops along the way.  Dad originally was not going to come with me but that is how it worked out. He made the trip so much better. 

First start was Craters of the Moon.  It was WINDY!

Second stop was ERB-I in Arco, ID. 

3rd stop was Idaho Falls for dinner at Scottys and gas.

Final stop befor Gma's was a campground in Swan Valley.  It was still closed due to snow!!

Leading Lady

I was watching The Holiday (which I love Kate Winslet..she is great) the other night.  I love the Kate Winslet story and fast forward through most. I feel like she is playing me in the begining.  Anyway, in my semi-conscience state I caught this line:

"You're supposed to be the leading lady of your own life, for god's sake! Arthur, I've been going to a therapist for three years, and she's never explained anything to me that well. That was brilliant. Brutal, but brilliant."

You can read the full exchange here.


But I thought that is my problem.  I don't treat myself like the leading lady.  I think I am the best friend!!  But no more.  This is the year for me.  I was speaking to a sister and she said this will be my year.  And for the first time in a long time I actually agree.  Normally I would just brush that off but I said "I think so too!!"  Postitive step!!  I am improving in my.....mental image..or believing in oppurtunities.  I guess I am just becoming more positive about myself.

YEAH!! 

When a decision is necessary, I have removed the factor of "What will my family think".  I value their opinion but it will no longer be THE deciding factor of what I do.  I have a car. It's paid off.  But as soon as I have enough, I am going to trade in the car and get my SUV.  I love my car but every time I drive it I keep wishing for the SUV.  I even looked up the trade in/resell value of my car.  $3000 trade in and $5000 resell. I think I am just going to trade in and save hassell of trying to resell it and then find a SUV after it has sold.  I can already hear what my parents will say but that is ok.  I am made the decision and I am ok with that. 

Plus school is in the works.  I just need to get in my transcripts and then register for class!! Thankfully I have adjusted to saving money rather than spend it so my savings is larger than I excepted!!  I can pay for class without financial aide!!  But to be honest, I have gone on some shopping sprees but have kept what I spent less than what I had budgetted for. 

I have decided to go on a road trip over Memorial Day weekend.  I have a 5 day weekend.  I may just drive to eastern Idaho to visit Grandma but I will be taking the scenic route. I may swing up to Sun Valley and then over.  Who knows.  I am just ready for a small adventure. 

To make it even more exciting, I get to go to Atlanta, GA for a week, June 13-18. I won a contest at work and it is an expenses paid trip!!  We land in Atlanta around 2pm and get the afternoon/evening to ourselves.  Tues/Wed/Thurs we are visiting corporate offices and seeing how they operate. Thursday we even get to go to a Atlanta Braves and New York Mets baseball game!!  WOOHOO!!  Plus they are trying to work in a nice dinner with VP's and possibly the president!!  How exciting will that be!! 

For the first time in a long time, I am happy to be me!!

a few random things..

Last weekend I was driving to my parents house when I saw the power lines doubled in size. I wondered what it was and discovered they were BIRDS! (Insert collage of scenes of the movie here) Kinda scary huh?

On another random note, my car passed 90,000 miles!! Last car that had that many miles was when I was 18 (about 6 years ago) and it was a Mitsubishi Galant that I bought!! At 19 I bought the Sonata and then the Saturn 3 years ago. WOW!! I feel conflicted. Sad that they car has that many miles but happy becuase it is still running great (said with fingers crossed). Of course being the random me, I just had to document it!!

Not another one!!

This afternoon I was backing out during lunch, going to grab a bite to eat. I am have way out of the parking spaces when SSCREECH!! I quickly stop and pull forward. I get out and turn behind me and there is a coworker doing the exact same thing. Our bumper kissed. Thankfully it was nothing more than a transfer of paint so we both said forgot it. No need to call insurance becasue we aren't going to get it fixed. Our boss was standing nearby and saw it all. She said we both looked and were clear.

With this incident that brings the tally up to 5 in my lifetime. Driving for ten years that aint bad.

1. back in high school. Driving my parents manual station wagon on icy roads. I was going downhill and just barely touched the breaks. That caused me to swear and ended up on sideways across the road. I was only blocking righthand land and front half of car was overhanging (the side was a small but steep embankment headed down to the ditch). Thankfully the neighboors were able to pull it back onto the road. No damage done to the car.

2. In the same station wagon about 2 years later, I was applying for a job at the Western Idaho Fair. I was backing up and didnt see the lampost. (it was a level with the bottom edge of the glass and blended in with the rest of the concrete parking lot). I had to call Mom (who was across the street at Fred Meyers) because the car wouldn't start (it has a switch that automatically kills the fuel pump in accidents to prevent an even bigger catasophy). We then had to call sister in Nampa to come pick us up. The bumper was smashed in but Dad was able to repait that.

3. I was home sleeping (at this time live in an apartment above a garage in downtown Boise off of Harrison. To get to my apartment you have to walk up an alley and go through someone's back yard, enter the garage, and go up a flight of stairs.) and at 2am I get a knock on my door. I initially think of Dad needing to drop something off before work but than I see the clock and freak. Again not easy to figure out where I was. I throw on the rob and crack open the door, Mace in hidden hand. There is a police officer so I begin to panic even more. He says my car has been in an accident and to please come out. I throw on some close and grab a jacket and head out. There is a gold Mercedez Benz front bumper kissing my back bumper of my silver Hyundai Sonata. My back tires have jumped the 6 in curb and are sitting on top of someones' plant. At this apartment, it is on street parking. I nearly cried but told myself to handle this professionally and I started to cry. I ran back into my apartment and grabbed my camera. A guy was stupid and driving drunk. He first ditched the car and tried to get away on foot but police caught him. Drunk tried to say he was being cashed which was a lie. I than called parents to let them know. When they were loading my car onto the wrecker the back tire just fell off. The bolts had been shreaed when jumped the curb. Thankfully parents have extra cars so they drove in and dropped it off. That day I was up from 2 til 10. I still made it to work but it was a hellish day. To make matters worse, stupid insurance of the Mercedez didnt want to get me a rental because they were disputing the liablity. They were claiming it was stolen!! WHATEVER! They finally got me my rental but my car was totalled. Thankfully I had it paid off (just two months prior). This all happened in April 2007.

my tire as it fell when the loded the car onto the wrecker.

view from passangre side

View from drivers side

3. After the car was totaled in April I was really wanting to get an SUV. However it was crazy to find a good SUV within my price ranger. I finally settled on a black Saturn L200. It has the necessary sunroof but I upgraded to leather seats, seat warmers, 6 cd changer, and alarm (Sonata only had 1 cd, cloth seats, and I had to use the key to unlock). It took me three months to settle on the Saturn. It only took three weeks of ownership because it was in a wreck. I was driving down Fairview on July 2 or 3rd 2008 and I was passing in front of the West Coast Car Co. All of a sudden my car is pushed into the left hand lane. I swear back over to the right and turn into the West Coast Car Co. (Yes I called the police because I got freaked out). So I am there in the parking lot and I get out to see what happened. This guy comes over and asks if I am ok. He said he was stopped in the parkign lot but than breaks just failed and he shot out into traffic (YEAH RIGHT I still say). I call Dad (thankfully this happened around 1630) and he says he will meet me there. So this silver BMW apparantely had been in their shop to get the brakes fixed and they were taking it out for a test drive. (about 6 months later West Coast Car Co was shut down in federal sting over taxes!). Learning the lesson from April, we make the other driver call his insurance company and start the proceedings so their wont be an issue with rentals. My car was still undrivable because of the front side panel was hanging on the ground and my wheel was screwed up. Into the shop my car of only three weeks went. Finally three weeks later, I finally got it back (than another three weeks of repeated visit to fine tune things they missed like the door alignment and even some silver paint on the back bumper!).

Side panel broken.

See the silver paint, that trail continues down the entire side of the car.

4. Coming back from a miserable camping trip. Spent the last 2 hours in a car with an annoying drunk who needed to get home. (Drunk is bro in laws uncle). After dropping of the drunk, I was backing out and backed into a car parked on the street. The owners weren't around and I left contact info with the guy who was in their house. There were two dings in the front side panel above the tire but it bent back the mudflap bar. (This all after I dumped Dad's fourwheeler on it's side at the sand dunes and broke his mirror). This has basically been resolved because they never call back. It happened in May 2009.

5. Happend this afternoon.

I gotta new attitude!!

I am been in a perpetual state of grateful lately. I am not complaining, I am just suprised at myself. I have been looking around and thinking I am so blessed. I am really loved by Heavenly Father.

What really set it off today was work. I actually got up on time and didn't dilly dally getting ready (Again I did make up and everything. That is 4 business days in a row wearing make up to work. I had the attitude the people I work with weren't important enought to do my makeup. To do makeup requires getting up even earlier and losing precious minutes of sleep. How backwards my thinking was. This may sound warped but by using that excuse, I wasn't thinking about me. I was thinking about the sleep. I was thinking about coworkers. But I wasn't considering how I would feel. Why should I ever get ready for someone else? Shouldn't my first consideration be me and how I would feel? So now I am important enough to get ready for.)

I make it out the door a few minutes early and didnt hit the start of traffic like I usually do. I didn't end up saying "stupid $%&#*%%^%^&!@*#$ drivers". I didn't start the day full of rage. It was a pleasant exprience.

Work is going well so far. Very thankful for the window. Today has been so lovely. The sky is varying shades of gray. You hear the rain drops and occassionally feel the rain. The bark on the trees are a deep brown..nearly black. What a great constrast to the happy yellow of the leaves. They remind me of mixture of orange juice and lemonade. Just a happy color. The combonation of the three is truly remarkable. There is no way this all (earth, seasons, life, etc) all happend by a happy accident in the universe and we all crawled from ooze. (Speaking of I am not triggered to a happy childhood memory. Do you remembe the Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles the movies? I actually own them on DVD. I think I will have to go watch one when I get home).

I am so glad that I live where and when I do. I know I complain alot but I do love living here. To see the change in the seasons and to be near my family is the greatest things. To play in the leaves with my niece/nephews and to take TJ for a walk in the sunshine is wonderful. We are truly blessed to live here.

I am just hoping the weather stays like it does all day. I would love to go home and open the blinds and windows and let the fresh air roll into my home. To curl up with fleece blanket and TJ and read a good book or watch a movie. How lovely that sounds!

Talented Ms Megan

This morning, I went to get gas. I paid in cash but didn't need as much fuel as I purchase. So I run back into the store to get my change. When I come back out, I go to open my door and it is locked. Locked and running. I make a quick call to my boss because I am sure I will be late to work. Thankfully a clerk was by the pay phone (cell in car) and I asked if he know a taxi's phone number.

He was waiting on a taxi and agreed to split it with me. So I go to Caitlyn's house to use my spare house key she has to get my spare car key at home. Caitlyn was such a nice sister that she even drove me back to my car.

I get to work at 8am (just a half hour late).

quick high lights

There hasn't been a post in a while so I thought I would do quick update.....

I AM LEAVING FOR SEATTLE TOMORROW!! WOOT WOOT!! (Can you tell that I am excited?) Just need to get through work today and tomorrow than I am free til Sunday. Sam will
pick me up from the airport. I will be wondering the streets of Seattle on Thurs/Fri by myself
because Sam has to work but lets keep our fingers cross that Clint doesn't. Even if he does, thats ok. I survived New York City at 19yrs old with a naive 20 yr old, I can survive Seattle at 25 by myself.

Saturday, Dad, Caitly, Emma, and I headed up to Silver City for a picnic (or as Emma says pic-e-nic..it is the cutest thing). We got a there arnound 1000 and have a fun time just walking around. The campgrounds there were full with Boy Scouts. One leader was an ahole because he parked in the middel of an intersection that blocked the path to the restroom! To get to the bathroom now, you have to walked around the Suburban in waist high weeds!! JERK!! Other than that it was fun to see Emma jump in mud puddles and pick up rocks and put them in her back pack. She was always very insistant on carrying the back pack herself.

I have been to Silver City MANY times but never went to the cemetery. I finally went to the cemetery. It was heart breaking though. There were so many chidlren, some just a few days old and some just a few years. The headstones were beautiful and the fences around some of the graves had such pretty details. I nearly cried there but I was able to hold it is so I wasn't such a bawl baby!!

Saturday night was a fun time. After compeleting some errands (running to the store, giving Tj a bath because he was DUSTY, etc) it was time for a nacho bar with the family and the BSU vs BGSU game. Nachos were awesome because they were loaded. Nacho cheese (the good stuff) and seasoned meat and tomatos (the best because home grown) and olives and green onions and sour cream!! Terrible but DELICIOUS!! To make them even better BSU stomped BGSU. I hate Mark Johnson from KTVB being the announcer. He is retard!! Much prefer ESPN but I will take what I can get.

Sunday wasn't our day for football though. Seattle lost at home. 25 to 19-congrats Bears. Sunday was productive though. My dad taught me how to change my oil. Dad said I woulnd't want to do it regularly and he was right. However I feel better knowing I know how to do it.

After changing the oil, I cooked dinner and it was really good. It was fried potatoes and grilled pork chops. I am getting the hang of grilling which makes me feel even better. Everything was cooked through and not burnt (which is my norm on the grill so there is improvement). The
potatoes were nice and crunchy.

Once dinner was done it was time to play with Wyatt. He was such a boy playing with the cars and wanting to kill the bad guy. I can't believe how big he is getting!! He is 3 years old and the cutest thing ever. He had a blast playing monster.

After playing with Wyatt the Amazing Race premiered. It was great. For the first time, a team was eliminated at the starting line. It was a husband wife team of yoga instructors. They annoyed me from the begining so I am glad they are gone. There is a team of poker players who I hate already. They told everyone they were social workers so everyone thought the poker players were noble. Well the cat is out of the bag and the poker players ticked everyone off and the other teams are vowing not to help them. If I were the other teams, I wouldn't help them either if I learned they had lied to me. So the race is one and cant wait til next week.

Speaking of teams, Survivor was crazy too. The drama was off the charts and evil Russell found the hidden immunity idol WITH NO CLUES!! I hate this guy because he is so slimey but it sounds like his tribe makes are on to him so hopefully he goes quickly. There are ways even if he has the hidden immunity idol.

I didnt watch Supernatural this week because I was at my parents house. It is being saved on Tivo at my sisters house. It is sitting there next Vamp Diaries. Hopefully I will be able to watch them before next Thursday but it isn't looking to good. Maybe I will try to watch them on Hulu...
Busy at work training a new girl which is limiting my time to post. Just getting ready for Seattle!! Tomorrow I fly away. Just need to finish packing, get TJ's things together so he can stay at my parents house, clean the house, and get my mp3 ready for the flight. Plust I need to remember to pack the small stuff like battery charges, camera, pillow, etc.