Knock-Knock!

Who's there?

Nat's blog!

Nat's blog who?

Exactly!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Yeah, I know that it's not a joke.  My kids like to tell knock-knock, um, "jokes".  And they sound a lot like the "joke" I just told.  For instance: Troy: Knock knock!  Me: Who's there?  Troy: Um, apple.  Me: Apple who?  Troy: Apple that is yummy.  Me: {fake laughter that's really not convincing}

I have GOT to go online and find some good knock-knock jokes.  The only ones I know are the boo/boo who/why are you crying, and the one where you say banana over and over, and then finally orange/orange who/orange you glad I didn't say banana again?

ANYWAY, I've been wanting to blog, really I have.  But I've been busy being busy, and busy with relaxing, and busy potty training.  And one of these days I'll write the adventures that we've been having around here.  But first thing, I want to write my New Year's resolutions.

Before I get to that, here is the post for my 2010 resolutions.  Let me reflect a little on how I did last year:

Learn to make freezer meals.  Um, not so much.  However, I've been doing a lot of crock pot meals, about once a week, and it ROCKS.  Throw everything in a big pot and let it cook itself?  Why can't every meal be that easy?  I'll write more on this later, in a future blog post.

Scan scrapbooks.  Nope, still haven't done that.  I keep thinking about it, and yes, it's one of my new resolutions.  I did get an external hard drive to store things that I will scan, though, so that's a step forward.

Potty train Ivy.  Yes!  I started not in March, like I had originally wanted, but she wasn't ready one bit at that time.  However, she was ready for it end of December.  Again, I'll write more on this in a future post.

Digitally scrapbook 2008-2009.  I worked on this a little bit.  On the 2011 resolution list.  I just need to set aside some time every week to work on it.

Read Book of Mormon with my family every night.  Yep!  We don't do very many verses each night, but we're in Alma, and are reading about Ammon.  I know my kids aren't absorbing a ton right now, but eventually they will, and eventually we can read more, and they will be able to read along as well.  Someday.

Getting up before my kids.  On and off for this one.  Mostly off.  It's back on the new resolution list.  Getting up early is definitely one of my weaknesses.

Build up food storage.  I've been working on this.  It helps that I've been more aware of sales, and things like Case Lot.  The last couple of months I've been a little hit and miss with couponing, too.  Just...super busy.  I haven't had the time to research, and run around to five different stores.  Maybe this summer it will be a different story.  And I went Tuesday night, and got free Halls cough drops and free yogurt!  I went to Case Lot at Smiths in September and got a bunch of canned goods, and they're having Case Lot again this week-I'm planning to go tomorrow, actually.  So that's been good to help build up our food storage.

In summary, I did...fair on my resolutions last year.  Which is better than nothing, right?

This year, I decided that my motto is going to be "I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul!"  From this.  And because of this. 

So without further ado, my 2011 resolutions:

Attend the temple every month.  This was one of my goals last year, too, and I think I went twice, which is pathetic.  I love going; the babysitting arranging is what's hard for me.  I just need to be more proactive, and get 'er done.

Earn my honor bee.  This is the next step in the Young Women's Personal Progress program.  You read the Book of Mormon again, and serve for 40 hours.  This will help pull me out of my comfort zone a little bit.  And yeah, I serve my children almost nonstop, but I need to reach outside of my own life and family, because I know I can help others.  Also, even though I'm great at reading scriptures with my family, my own scripture study is irregular.  So reading through again (and again and again) is a good thing for me to be doing.

Be more financially fit.  I'm embarrassed to say, we have more debt than I would like.  Ideally, I would love to be completely debt-free, but at this point in life it's not necessarily possible.  The debt I'm okay with having (for now) is our mortgage, our car payment, and our student loans.  And all three of those are at really low rates, so even though it sucks to have them at all, someday they'll get paid off, and they aren't the worst thing in the universe right now.  However, we had an expensive summer/fall, which we weren't financially ready for.  Which is so dumb, because hi-I graduated in finance, for crying out loud!  So a few days ago, I hid our credit cards, and today....drum roll please....I paid off Pete's hospital bills!  YAY!  We also should be getting a decent tax return, so that should help get rid of some debt.

In college, we did mock investing in one of my classes.  And I LOVED it.  It was so interesting to me.  And in my class of 40 students, I was the 2nd or 3rd highest earner (it changed back and forth, depending on the day/market).  Of course, when I was taking that class the stock market was bubbling, so it may not be as fun in today's market, or with real money.  Still, though, I think it would be fun to try for real.

Also, I want to get a bunch of money in the bank.  Paying off the debt will help with this goal, obviously.

Get my eyes lasered.  No, not getting burning eye beam things like Superman.  I'm talking about getting laser eye surgery.  Where I would be able to see first thing in the morning, instead of having my alarm clock 8 inches from my face in order for it to be clear enough for me to see the time.  It's an expensive procedure, but oh!-life without glasses or contacts!  I got glasses in 2nd grade, my friends.  I've been blind for way too long.  So I'll need to save for a long time to get this, but I'm hoping that I can get this done this year.

Exercise.  Pete and I have been sporadic with exercising this year.  We'll do really great for a while, then miss, and then fall out of habit.  Then get really good again...and the cycle continues.  We're back out of the habit.  So Tuesday night while at the store I got a jump rope, and a yoga tape that has 20-minute workouts.  Pete and I were doing P90X, which I love, but every session is an hour or so, except for ab ripper, which is still, like 30 minutes or something.  20 minutes in the morning, though?  I can handle that.  Or jump rope for 20 minutes.  Just...something.  I don't want to lose weight, but I care about having a healthy heart.

Lastly, I want to learn to play a new instrument.  I've always been drawn to the violin, the guitar, the harp, and the cello.  I might wait until the summer or fall to do this one.  And I'm not sure if it is even conceivable while I teach piano because of time constraints, but I don't want to quit teaching...hmmm.  So maybe the summer would be best, since I don't teach piano during the summer.  But that's if I can find a class or a teacher willing to do summer, and have me drag my kids along with me.  All good questions and/or challenges.

Oh, and the digital scrapbook thing and the getting up early thing that I continually try to accomplish.

So there you have it.

And I really will try to be better at regular blogging.  Just as soon as I learn some knock-knock jokes...