Chase the Rain

#9 - Clutter

2010-11-17T05:08:00.000-08:00

I've finished yet another - I've managed to declutter every room in the house. I just finished going through Anna's baby clothes (I can't believe how small she was!!) and giving away those that we never used and will never use. It feels great to have our house clutter free. I hope to keep it that way. It's really a big stress off my back as we go into this holiday season!

Thinking Ahead - Christmas Cards

2010-11-13T07:46:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking for a few weeks about Christmas cards and was wondering what I should do this year. Now that we have our new addition to our home, I decided I would print calendars for each set of grandparents for Christmas. What a great gift for them! I'm really excited to get them in the mail!! I also just found out that they do birthday cards. I wish I had known about that for Anna's first birthday. Maybe next year will be our year to use that feature! I wanted to do a photo card. I've never done a photo card before but I use Shutterfly to print photos and make photo books like this one...

and I knew that Shutterfly always did a great job getting my printing needs met. So, I thought I would take a peek and see what they had. They've got some great designs this year and I'm really excited to get our Christmas cards now! They make it really easy to just put a few cute pictures from the year into your card. Some of the cards even have the feature of adding your Christmas letter right into the inside of the card. How easy is that?! I know that around the holidays I run out of time and don't seem to have enough time to put a letter together. I also know that Shutterfly gives you the option of having them mail your cards for you. You wouldn't even get them sent to your home. I can't possibly imagine a better time saver! To add icing onto the cake, I came across this opportunity that Shutterfly had a great opportunity for bloggers to get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly...sign up! Here are a few of my favorite card ideas.

Joy Magic Story Christmas is such a cute design! I love that it shows the montage of pictures and still brings out joy and magic, which are the highlights of our Christmas this year. We can't wait to see the magic of Christmas through our daughter's eyes! This will be her second Christmas, but she was so young last year that she slept through most of it!

Family Wall Noir Christmas is very simple and straight to the point. It allows you to highlight many pictures from the year on the cover but is still very classy and sophisticated. It has a very clean, neat cut to it.

Many Memories Trees Christmas is also a little more basic but trendy. I like how it says "Merry Christmas" right in the middle of the card. I think I would have to use black and white photos on mine too so that it would bring out that "Merry Christmas" greeting.

This is also one of my favorites. It's called "Most Wonderful Story". I like that it is focused on just one picture with the red stripe around it. It's almost as though that picture is a present. That is how I feel about Anna. I feel that she is God's gift to us. I think maybe for that reason I would have to pick this card.

I'm not sure which one I'll pick. But, I know that in the end it won't matter. I will have a great Christmas card that I was able to make stress free! Take a peek and see what you find. Maybe you'll find a card that will work great for your family this year!

It's Been a While

2010-11-13T07:23:00.000-08:00

I'm still here and I'm still working on my list. I just haven't been blogging about it. Sorry! I think that life got in the way. Anywho...here are somethings that I've accomplished.

#21 - We purchased a new steam cleaner and have cleaned our carpets. They were very, very dirty!

#23 - I've made the decision to put teaching on hold. I'm not ready to be a teacher and would like to focus on devoting time to my family right now. I did get the information from Martin Luther College that I was looking for.

#37 - In an effort to get my baby weight off, I've been putting off eating dessert for a long time. I think it's working. I'm only 7 lbs. away from my pre-baby weight!

#73 - New windows for the kitchen are on order and will arrive the second week in December. We couldn't be more thrilled!

#82 - I've purchased cloth bags and only use them when I shop. I love that the handles don't break when a lot is packed into the bags. I also love that the bags don't tip over in the trunk when I take a sharp corner!

#95 - Thanks to my new stylist - Nicole at Sandy's Family Hair Designers in Menomonee Falls 251-1889 - I've been getting my hair trimmed on a regular basis. She is fantastic and I LOVE her! Give her a try if you are looking for a new stylist!

That's all for now. I just realized that I have a year to go so I had better step it up and get things going so that I can finish this list in time!

I'm still here!

2010-01-29T10:16:00.000-08:00

I have been mighty busy completing one of the tasks from my list...#27 start a family. Miss Anna Mackenzie came into our world on November 8th, 2009. Now that I feel like a normal person again, I can get back to completing some more items from my list. While away from my blog, I did complete a few more items. Here they are:

#13 Rinse dirty dishes - Our dishwasher broke so we have been washing dishes by hand. While this may be cheating - we have been washing and rinsing every day so keep up with our dishes.

#20 Buy a fireproof safe - While it may also be cheating - we have accomplished this goal. Mathew had a fireproof safe but lost his key. While we were decluttering the basement (another goal that's almost accomplished) we found the key! Yeah for not having to buy another safe!

#26 Visit Jenny's classroom - I have wanted to see my sister in action for quite some time. I took advantage of my maternity leave and went in the morning. Her students presented their Powerpoint slide show on what they learned about the Holocoust. It was fun to be in the school setting again. I would like to go back some day!

#72 Update states scrapbook - I have a scrapbook of the 50 states. Our goal is to visit each one of the 50 states. Mathew is collecting shot glasses and I am doing a page in the scrapbook to go along with his collection. We are really enjoying ourselves!

#76 Fix bathroom fan - Mathew climed into the attic and duck tapped the bathroom fan so that the steam will go outside and not directly into the attic. Duck tape can do anything!

#77 Update chimney issue - Our chimney was old and falling apart. We decided to tear it down so that we wouldn't need to maintain it. It it nice to have a major project checked off from our list!

Museum

2009-07-17T11:27:00.000-07:00

I completed another on my list...Go to the Milwaukee Public Museum. One of our college friends, Tim, came down from Racine to go to the Museum. We had quite the exciting outing. Little did we realize at the same time we planned to go to the Museum the Great Circus Parade would be in town too. So, we decided to cut our visit a little short so that we could beat some crazy traffic. I must say, though, my attention span was not what I expected it to be...I think I may have a little ADD. I wanted to go from one exhibit to the next and just look at it...I wasn't too interested in reading or learning. I kept imagining the exhibits would come alive, like in that one museum movie that I can't remember the name of. Afterwards we headed over to Applebees for dinner. I could always go for a good ice cream shake and Applebees food!

I'm working on it...

2009-06-30T10:45:00.001-07:00

I went to the dentist yesterday. I got yelled at because I stopped wearing my mouth guard a while ago. You see, I need to wear my mouth guard because I grind and clench my teeth in my sleep...not a good thing if I want to keep these teeth of mine around for a while! So, I went home last night, dug out my mouth guard, and finally, once again, wore it to bed. My teeth did feel better in the morning, I must admit!

A few weeks ago Mathew and I decided to go to the coffee house and get smoothies. We took a wonderful walk down by the Menomonee Falls waterway and had excellent conversation. It was nice to step out of our normal routine for a few smoothies and some great talk!

On a side note: We are going to see the new Johnny Depp movie on Thursday. I am pretty excited. That's the movie that was filmed in Wisconsin. It will be nice to see some areas that I am familiar with on the big screen! That's all for now. Have a happy fourth of July!

I can make my bed!

2009-05-28T10:01:00.000-07:00

I have completed another TWO tasks on my list! I have made my bed for 30 days and I cleaned out my spice cabinet. What have I learned by completing these two tasks?

1. It is much nicer to come home with a bed made than without!
2. I love going to bed with the bed nicely made. It seems warmer and more cozy.
3. There are spices in my cabinet that expired in 2006 - yuck! What a waste of space.
4. I found a seasoning bottle to make pesto pizza that I forgot about - yum!

It feels wondeful, as little as these things are, to be productive and feel like I am accomplishing certain things that I have put my mind to!

Another One Bites the Dust

2009-05-04T10:06:00.000-07:00

It may seem like I'm not keeping up with my list. I have been a bit slow on the posting of my progress. However, this list is on my mind often and I am working at this list little by little. I have another checked off the list "Take my vitamin twice a day." This one was pretty easy to accomplish. Now that Baby Schweiger is on the way in November, I have been diligent in taking my prenatal vitamins twice a day. Baby has to have proper nutrition! Another that I am sure isn't far off is eating my vegetables. I am certainly more diligent in my vegetable quest knowing that this little one needs the nutrition from the vegetables!

Along with this, however, comes the slowing down of accomplishing other goals. For example, I can hardly have a glass of wine with dinner right now. That will have to wait quite some time. I also am not going to take a bubble bath anytime soon. I don't want to boil the baby! Also, I am not in a hurry to risk my life and jump out of an airplane now that I know another little life will be so dependant on me. It will happen! I just don't know how soon. This is what life is all about, though. You make goals and tweek them here and there to adjust to the little changes that life brings along the way.

Clean, clean, clean

2009-04-01T08:47:00.001-07:00

I am sure managing to check a lot of my cleaning goals off my list! Last week I changed the candles in our master bedroom. I am always in for a good change of scenery! I also went around and dusted and vaccumed the whole house. I am not always good at keeping up with this. But, it sure is nice not to walk down a hallway to a dusty living room end table!

This is list is nice. I am finding the longer that I stick with the list, the more I get accomplished. I am also seeing that I am not necessarly going to keep to everything on the list. Shaving my legs every other day, for example. Not the easiest thing to do - I just don't feel like it! However, I can honestly say that it has made me more aware that I need to do this more often than I was previous to the list. That awareness has pushed me foward to keep doing the things that I just don't feel like doing. I would say I am at pace to shave twice a week. Previous to the list it was only - well, let's just say it was not as often.

A successful weekend...kinda!

2009-03-23T11:13:00.000-07:00

I had off from work this weekend. I knew this would be a perfect time to get some things accomplished that I wanted from my list. I didn't do as much as I had intended. However, I did completely declutter our office. I used three shredders full of papers that I got rid of from our file cabinet and old check stubs that weren't needed anymore. Wow does it feel good to have that done. I didn't think it would take me so long, though. I actually worked on that for three hours. When I was done, I decided that I had enough and proceeded to watch two movies, go to dinner and a third movie with Mathew's parents and grandma, and got nothing further accomplished. That's okay, though - it was nice to have time to spend with family too.

We saw "Duplicity." It was okay. I think that the movie "Lucky Number Sleven" was similar and was better than "Duplicity." (which is another check off my see 100 movies checklist too - whoohoo!)

Why do we have nails?

2009-03-18T08:36:00.001-07:00

A common thought is that nails simply protect our nail bed. However, doctors have found that those who lose their nails develop a stronger nail bed than those with nails. A more common thought is that nails exist simply as a useful function - scratching, peeling, opening things, untying knots, etc....

So, there you have it. An answer to a question I have wondered for a while. I've finally taken the time to look up the answer. I'm a little disappointed. I guess I was hoping for a more scientific answer that the one that I found. Oh well!

Another One Bites the Dust

2009-03-10T10:24:00.000-07:00

It's yet another boring check on the list...clean out email inbox. I have a junk email address to sign up for coupons and interesting articles that I might want to read here and there. I've finally cleaned out the junk (all 275 emails of junk) and have made sure to unsubscribe to those emails that I could care less about. It feels nice to get rid of more clutter from my life! Who has time to read all of those email anyway?

Another Movie Watched!

2009-03-03T08:40:00.000-08:00

Yet another movie down! If you haven't seen "Kite Runner" yet, it is a must see. It is one of the most touching and thought-provoking movies I have seen in a while. It moved me to tears (and not because it was a chick-flick - it wasn't!). Just a warning...if you don't do subtitles, you may not enjoy it as much as I did. A good portion of the movie uses subtitles.

#6 and #8 down!

2009-02-27T08:37:00.000-08:00

I am really enjoying this list! I think it has made me more of a productive person. Rather than just sitting around thinking to myself that I should actually do these things, I am actually doing them!

Mathew and I cleaned out out closet and dresser last night. We decluttered and got rid of all of the clothes that didn't fit us anymore. I had a pair of pants that I found from before I lost weight. I could actually fit both of my legs into one pants leg - go figure! Mathew also found a pair of pants from before we were married. He tried them on and they were huge on him. I should have gotten a picture of that. It was a pretty funny sight to see! It was a great way to see how far we've come in taking care of ourselves. When we finished we went right to the gym and got our workout on. Once we see how much progress we have made in making wise decisions about our health, who's to stop us now?

Two down!

2009-02-23T15:01:00.000-08:00

You may notice two of my 101 things in orange. I've finished two of the things from the list. Mathew's mom came over and helped me hem our bedroom curtains. They were too long and were covering our heating vent. We used paper clips to shorten them...not too appealing! I didn't know how to sew. She had fun teaching me!

The other was to research new doctors. My old obgyn moved to another state. I LOVED her. That's hard to find in a doctor. But, I've researched and I'm ready to try a new doctor. We'll see how it goes. I may have to jump from doctor to doctor until I find another that I like.

I've also watched another movie..."License to Wed" with Robin Williams. It was actually pretty funny. My expectations weren't very high. But, I found myself laughing quite a few times.

For any of you out there who bite their lips...wear chapstick. It actually works! I've been using it every day and don't bite my lips nearly as much. And, perk...they aren't dry anymore...imagine that!

Help?!

2009-02-17T09:07:00.000-08:00

In my trek to accomplish #55 and #58 I need your help! How can you help?

Suggest a movie that you think I should see. Believe me when I tell you I have a long way to go in this area. You may notice I've already scratched two off my list! Don't be shocked when I tell you that my first movie to watch was 88 minutes and the second was Sisterhoood of the Traveling Pants part 2...don't laugh! I enjoy my "girlie" moments every once and again. Most movies that you will suggest for me to put on the "must see list" I probably have not seen.

Also, help me finish my 50 states coin book. Here's a list of the states I still need. Keep an eye on those quarters!
Delaware
New Jersey
Mississippi
Alabama
Michigan
Iowa
Colorado
Utah
Oklahoma
New Mexico
Alaska
Hawaii

Journey into the unknown

2009-02-16T11:26:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was the big day! I began my 1001 days journey into the unknown. I'm pretty excited for it. We had a bang of a weekend to start it off...Mathew and I went to a marriage retreat. No problems in the marriage or anything like that, more of a preventative measure. It's easy for things to go badly unless measures are taken to make us stronger to prevent any problems. Anywho, this was a great way to get going on my goal to pray once a day and do weekly devotions as a married couple. We've decided since the retreat that once a week doesn't seem nearly enough...duh! But, we'll start at that and make ourselves stronger as we go.

I also began my trek to shave every other day. Pretty boring goal, you say? I say no way! I became pretty lax with doing that and it's important to do things for myself. I want to feel strong and beautiful inside and out. How can I do that if I don't even take care of the nasty hair on my legs on a regular basis? I think I'll accomplish this one!

The only goal I forgot to start yesterday was wearing chap stick every stinking day. Sounds like another weird goal...yeah, I know! But, I have a nasty habit of biting my lips. I am hoping that a regular use of chapstick will help me to break this ugly habit of mine. I've started today since I forgot yesterday to put it on. This one will be difficult to remember, but I'll do it as often as I can.

Until next time...

Time!

2009-02-08T15:36:00.000-08:00

February 15, 2009 through November 13, 2011

1001 days
143 weeks
33 months

Wish me luck and cheer me on! Here I go to achieve my goals!

Bandwagon

2009-02-05T16:23:00.000-08:00

I am jumping on the bandwagon. I have made a list of 101 things to accomplish in 1001 days.
The Mission: Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days.

The Criteria: Tasks must be specific (i.e. no ambiguity in the wording) with a result that is either measurable or clearly defined. Tasks must be realistic and stretching (i.e. represent some amount of work on my part).

Why 1001 Days? Many people have created lists in the past - frequently simple goals such as New Year's resolutions. The key to beating procrastination is to set a deadline that is realistic. 1001 days (about 2.75 years) is a better period of time than a year, becaue it allows you several seasons to complete the tasks, which is better for organizing and timing some tasks such as overseas trips or outdoor activities.

Common Goal Setting Tips:
-Be decisive. Know exactly what you want, why you want it, and how you plan to achieve it.
-Stay focused. Constantly evaluate your progress.
-Welcome failure. Very little is learned from a venture that didn't experience failure in some form. Failure presents the opportunity to learn and makes the success more worthy.
-Write down your goals. It clarifies your thinking and reinforces your committment (hence, this blog).
-Keep your goals in sight. Review them frequently and ensure that they are always at the forefront of your thinking.