It's that time of year again! You know the time of year where we all make some New Years Resolutions and a few of us stick to them all year around and the rest of us abandon them at some point. Some sooner than others!
I'm usually pretty good about sticking to mine for at least half of the year.......some times longer. But I'm typically not one, any more, to resolve to lose weight. I might resolve to work out more, or to eat better, or maybe even take up a new cardio as a hobby...........but rarely is it the end result of losing weight.
It's been an eventful past year, with lots of changes and huge adventures. This past year I got married, moved half way across the world, and gave up my career (for a while). I'd say that's a lot of changes for one year!
And I can honestly say that most of it has been pretty great, but not to say that it hasn't had its ups and downs. The moving part has been a bit difficult at times. It's not just moving to another part of the U.S., it's moving to a different part of the world where the culture is even different, and settling in takes on a whole new meaning. Then add to it the common things to overcome like not knowing anyone and having no family near by. But we've managed, like I knew we would and we've had a very adventurous first year of marriage.
So what to resolve for 2010? I've been thinking about it, trying to come up with reasonable, yet challenging resolutions. After all, that's the point right.........something that is possible but yet a challenge. Cause lets face it, if it were easy we would have already done it, right?
So here it is...........my resolutions for 2010......................
I workout pretty regularly and I am pretty happy with where I maintain my weight at....most of the time. However, I've struggled to try and get off an extra 10 pounds that I've wanted to get off this past year. So that's my resolutions this year.........to continue to keep up my workout routine because it's good for the body, mind and soul and to get off that extra 10 pounds that I've wanted to get off for the past year.
Second resolution is to get pretty serious about adoption. There are a lot of places that wouldn't even consider us until we had been married for at least a year. So since we are fast approaching our one year anniversary, I've decided it's time to get serious about what road we want to pursue for adoption. We won't be able to do much until we return to the states but I would at least like to have a plan by then and have the wheels in motion. It's been hard trying to figure out which direction to go and what would be the best option for us. But we talk about it a lot and we know we want to be parents. So it's something to pursue this year and get started!
And my last resolution, which is always one of my resolutions................to travel! Even if it's just down the road, around the corner or in a far away place.........travel and see things I've never seen before. I think we have a good head start on this one. We already have a trip to Ireland planned in March and it looks like from the polls that most think Italy should be the next big vacation after that. I've been looking at Cruises that visit several places in Italy. I think that would be good for us and allow us to see several places that are kind of spread out across Italy. As always, I think this resolution will be an easy one to keep and probably the most fun!
So what's your 2010 resolutions? And what's your average for keeping your resolutions? Or are you one of those few and rare folks that "resolve to have no resolutions"? :)
Growing up Christmas was always something truly to look forward to in our house. My mom use to put together the best Christmas' ever! Whether it was a big to do or a low key event, my mom always made it special and each year was always unique in one way or another.
I was very fortunate growing up that our house was almost always full on Christmas day and there was a sea of presents under the tree. And every other year we would travel to Georgia to see family on Christmas day and my mom would load up all our presents and take them with us. Often, on the 12 hour trip to Georgia we BEGGED to open a present early. Usually by the time we had reached Alabama we had wore her down. :)
And the traditions we had yearly were something that we might not have always appreciated fully at the time, but certainly looking back on it, it's traditions I would love to pass on to my kids one day.
Our traditions were things like smores on Christmas eve. And we usually got to open one present on Christmas eve. As teens and adults we got to open most of our presents on Christmas eve, and got stockings and one big present on Christmas day.
And the Christmas trees......wow........my mom could pick out a tree and make it one of the most beautiful trees you had ever seen! We use to always get flocked trees each year and they were colored in one particular color, usually different each year. One year it might be a flock tree with all red ornaments and garland on it. The next year it might be flocked with all gold ornaments and garland. Like I said, it was always a beautiful tree!
So a lot of those traditions I've tried to carry on. I especially look forward to having children one day and sharing all the fun Christmas traditions that my mom always did for us to make it special. Jeff loves Christmas, it's his favorite time of year and though we try and make it special even now...........we are particularly looking forward to when we have a family of our own to do those special Christmas' for.
I hope each of you have had a wonderful holiday season so far and not only enjoy the time of year, the family and friends.........but remember the reason for the season! We are all blessed in one way or another and while it seems that Christmas is hectic and things are busy.........try and take a moment to reflect on your life and find those particular things to be thankful for and see the blessings in your life.
Merry Christmas!
Today is Winter Solstice, also known as the shortest day of the year. And here, in Scotland it effects us more than we were use to in Texas. In Texas.....it was just another day and rarely could one tell the difference between it and any other winter day.
So what does it mean? Basically it's the day we all look forward too, here as the turning of the days getting longer. Read about it........
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_solstice
I must admit though, I thought it would be way more dramatic than it has been. In the summer when we had summer solstice it was very noticeable. Back in the summer it wouldn't get dark until around midnight and by 2:30am the sun was coming up again. It was torturous for a person trying to get sleep and unable to sleep when it was daylight outside.
We were told the very opposite would happen in the winter. So I was expecting there to be days that we only had about 3 hours of daylight. Thankfully that didn't really happen.
Today the sun came up around 8:30 or 9:00 and it won't get dark until around 3:30 or 4:00 tonight. So that's not to terribly bad really.
The other thing was that for some reason I was expecting the darkness at night to come earlier and earlier and just the opposite happened.........the mornings came later and later.
But Winter Solstice will be behind us tomorrow and so the days will start getting longer again. I for one am looking forward to it. The one thing I did discover through this was that my body refused to get up before 8:00am each morning without a huge effort on my part to actually wake up and get out of bed. That is late for me.........as I am typically an early riser to be up by 7:00am on a morning I am sleeping in.
And though Winter Solstice is almost behind us.............there is still snow on the ground and I have a feeling the worst of it has yet to come.
Well, it's official, we got our first snow since moving to Scotland! Jeff had came home last night telling me it was suppose to snow today, but I didn't believe it. I just figured that it would rain, as usual, and just be cold.......the norm! But to my surprise we woke up this morning and as Jeff was getting ready to leave I looked outside and there it was, snow coming down! In big flakes too! The biggest flakes I have ever seen! It was coming down so fast and in such big flakes it took just minutes for it to cover the car and cover the ground. So pretty, especially in such a small dose and so close to Christmas.
It was coming down fast and hard!
Within minutes this was the amount of snow on the car!
Had to get the car warmed up, get the snow off the windshield so Jeff could go to work.
It has snowed on and off today, but it's already started to melt and turn to slush because between the snowing, it's drizzling. I just hope it doesn't turn to a sheet of ice tonight!
Enjoy the pictures!
After the snow stopped.........the bridge in front of the house
The roadway and drive from the front door
The front of the house.......with a little snow on the roof!
Another shot of the front yard
The slope behind the house
I am SO excited! We are going to spend St. Patrick's Day in Ireland this year!
I was doing a little research for our next big trip and came upon some inexpensive flights to Dublin. So I got to thinking that I would look and see what it would cost to go to Dublin for a few days during St. Patrick's Day. To my surprise it was still very reasonable. So then I started looking at hotels to see what the cost would be and if there was still availability. Then after Jeff and I had decided that it would be fun to go, I spoke to a friend that lived in Ireland at one time and got the skinny on the festivities during St. Patrick's Day there and the St. Patrick's Day Festival. We slept on it one night and decided it would be a grand experience to spend one St. Patrick's Day in Ireland. Might as well, right?
We are staying in town centre and a lot of things will be within walking distance! And I've looked into things like the Guinness Storehouse tour! So we are super excited and now have something to look forward to in the spring! It will be sort of an anniversary trip as well!
Okay but that's still not our next big trip that the poll to the left is for. So keep on voting...........I'm doing the homework on all the places and looking forward to seeing which place wins the polls!
I still can't believe Texas got snow before us!!! You know the saying, "that will happen when pigs fly"..............well my friends..........pigs must fly! I would have NEVER guessed that Texas would see snow before us and much less in December! But it's awesome, I am only sad we missed it! I am sure we will get snow soon enough and I am also sure that it will become very old very quick, unlike Texas where you can enjoy it for the day and by the next day it's melted away and things are back to normal.
I seen a lot of great pictures of it from friends and family! How awesome! Kind of made it feel more like Christmas for a change, didn't it?!?!
So it's chilly here, not getting above the 40's and often in the 30's in the evening. And all the leaves have fallen off the trees. The landscape around us has changed dramatically. I can see things that use to be covered by trees now. So before it was almost as if we were isolated, even though we aren't and now we can see all the houses around us through the bare trees. It's really quite different looking than in the summer and spring.
So all this cold weather has me thinking it's time to plan our next holiday (vacation). Jeff and I have talked multiple times about going to Italy for our one year anniversary. But I've discovered in my research that if we wait until around May to go then we can take a nice long cruise and see a lot of Italy (many cities). Which is probably more desirable than just seeing Rome or Venice, as we would like to see both! So we are trying to decide if we should wait and go in the spring or go in February or March and only see one of the cities?!?! Then there is Dubai, which we would love to visit as well. And there is also Egypt where we could see the Great Pyramids! That would be awesome as well! And of course it's a must for me to see London before I leave the UK. I can't imagine living here and having not visited London, at least once! So I'm torn what to do. Go to Italy earlier or visit one of these other places and go to Italy in the spring. What do you think? I've posted a poll off to the left and would love to get feed back! So let me know!
I'll try and get out and take some pictures soon. I know many of you want to see the pictures but we've just not been many places lately that I can take pictures of. I figure you wouldn't want to see pictures of just roads and buildings on our way to the grocery store or to run errands! But I'll try and get some shoots soon and post on some interesting site we've seen!
We had a fantastic time back in Texas for the Thanksgiving holiday. Unfortunately it wasn't long enough, but the short time we had was fun and we were happy to see everyone we got to see and just enjoy home for a bit.
We managed to see several of our families while we were there and even have dinner with some friends as well!
We got to visit the Marriott, where we got married and have breakfast in the very room we had our reception in. It was the first time we'd been back since our wedding day. So that was nice to kind of "remember" the evening.
And the Christmas lights were all up in The Woodlands. We took a walk after having some awesome sushi at Uni's and checked out the ice skaters at the ice rink they put up each year in The Woodlands.
I also got to see New Moon while I was there, and I bared Best Buy on black Friday..........but waited until around 11:00am to go! ;) It wasn't to bad, but still pretty crazy.
For all of those that we got to see............we were so happy to get to see you all and you were a cure for a little homesickness we were having. For those of you that we didn't get to see...........we are so sorry and hope that next time we visit we'll get to visit a little longer and see you all then. Just not enough hours in the day when you are home for such a short period of time.
So we are back in Scotland............trying to get over jet lag. It's hard when it gets so dark so early in the day, but we are hoping we are over it today.
And we are excited to get a Christmas tree and get that set up this week. We brought back some Christmas presents from family and plan to put them under the tree. But we got a Wii and well..............we don't exactly plan to put that under the tree. Wii Sports is pretty fun! LOL
Oh and when we left Houston on Sunday it was in the 70's and when we got back to Scotland on Monday, around 10:30am, it was 36 degrees!!!! And we woke up to ice on the ground yesterday morning. Talk about drastic change in weather!
So as soon as we get the tree up and get the house ready for Christmas, I'll snap a few pictures and post them.
Oh and just for the record............for those inquiring minds...............you bet I brought back some cans of pumpkin! ;)
