2009 New Years Goals

1. Reduce credit card debt by at least 50% by the end of 2009.

2. Pay off our wedding bands.

3. Build savings up to cover 3 months worth of expenses (mortgage, utilities, and other bills).

4. Get a REAL job, hopefully teaching science. ( This needs to happen if I am going to meet goals 1, 2 & 3).

5. Start taking classes for nursing.

6. Get healthy. Start exercising, at the very least 10 sit-ups every single day.

7. Take advantage of our gardens by learning how to put food by (ie, canning, freezing...).

2008 New Years Goals Revisited

.............we made it another year. First let's see how I did on the goals I had set for 2008, here they are:
Anyways, my goals for 2008 are:

1. Get my butt in gear planning the wedding and make it happen no later then October 2008.X
Goal met, thank God. We were married September 21st. 2. Reduce my current credit card debt by 50% (I'm not giving an actual figure because it is embarrassing) by the end of 2008.
Didn't exactly meet this goal. I paid down about15% of my credit card debt, paid off all of my medical bills, and my car loan. I would have liked to pay more, but we had lots of extra expenses in 2008 due to the wedding.

3. Refinance our house.
I thought that we had to refinance in 2008 because we have an adjustable rate mortgage, but came to find out that it does not adjust until next year......this one makes me nervous.

4. Build our saving up to at least $1000 (30% there now). X
We met this goal and have continued to build our savings. While it is not huge by any means, it would cover one months mortgage if an emergency came up.

5. Get some type of flooring down in the living room (sooner than later).X
Check! Armstrong resilient vinyl flooring in American Walnut. Inexpensive, easy to put down, 100% waterproof. We are very happy with it. 6. Finish the 2 classes I need for teaching.X
Finished both classes. My first graduate level courses, a special ed course titled Exceptional Learners in the Regular Classroom and Curriculum and Constructs of Secondary Life Sciences. Received an A in both classes. All that is left is student teaching....

7. Apply to nursing school.
I sort of met this goal.... I sent my application in, but never got my college and high school transcripts to them. This wasn't so bad because I really needed to finish my education courses first. I still want to go to nursing school, but certainly cannot do it full time. I think I will be signing up for an Anatomy class this spring.


Overall, I would say I did pretty good with my goals for 2008.

It Snowed.......

ALOT

O Tree

Isn't it pretty!!

We cut our tree down from the backyard again this year; found a pretty good this time. Our ornaments are lamo cheep plastic nonbreakable balls from Walfart...... the cats knock 2 or 3 of them off the tree every day.
Tony helped decorate.....

Then there were two

We have three roosters. Three is too many.......Three was too many.......
The Silver Laced Wyandotte was the roughest with our hens.....

Rooster before:

Rooster after:
I would have preferred finding him a new home, but Tony had other ideas. I came home from work yesterday to a giant pot of boiling water, and when I asked what it was for, his reply was 'you don't want to know'. You could say I was less than excited about eating my dinner last night, but I had to try it........I will be sticking with supermarket bought organic chicken. It was not bad, the texture was different, kind of soft/mushy. The dark meat was the darkest I have ever seen (gross) and Tony said it was a little tough.There was also a little bit of furry feather things sticking out........ I have read that you should let it sit in the fridge for a day or two to make it less tough. The leftovers should be good for soup, with negative temps tonight a warm bowl of soup should be good.
We have two roosters left, Tony talks about taking one more down. I refuse to go along with this plan.....

Living Room

Here is a quick pic of our no longer concrete living room floor. The pictures make the seams look a little funky, it looks really good in person.

A very close family friend was involved in a bad accident this past Monday. We don't know much other than she is still in critical condition. I figured it could only help to ask anyone who reads this to say a prayer for her or to keep her in your thoughts.

Woman Injured In Waterford Crash

Published on 10/28/2008

Waterford - A 59-year-old woman was taken to Hartford Hospital via Life Star helicopter Monday morning following a multi-car accident on Boston Post Road. Police at 6:21 a.m. received a report of a three-car accident on Boston Post Road in the area of Mallard Lane. Police said that two vehicles traveling in opposite directions collided in a “side-to-side” manner at which time the eastbound Chevrolet Silverado driven by James , 23, , continued further into the westbound lane and struck a third vehicle, a Subaru Forester, driven by Margot, 59, of , New London. The first driver in the westbound lane, Carolyn, 66, , was not injured in the accident. She was driving a Jeep Liberty. Margot was taken by Life Star helicopter to Hartford Hospital, where she is listed in critical condition. James was taken to Lawrence & Memorial Hospital for non-life threatening injuries. Boston Post Road was closed for about two hours while police processed the scene. The accident remains under investigation.

But you can't pick your......

Today Tony, Denise and I went apple picking. The weather was perfect for it an although, I am not a big apple eater, I was excited to go. The three of us split a little over a bushel of a few different types of apple, but who the hell knows what kind they are because there were no signs or labels there. While we went a bit late in the season, there were still tons of fruit on the trees and they still tasted great. In fact I can honestly say that I ate more apples today than I have eaten total in the last 2 years.

Playing Catch Up

I will be adding more wedding pictures soon, still waiting to get them all from our photographer. Will also post a bit about the wedding when I get them as well. It was all better than I could have ever thought up.
Last weekend Tony and I did the quintessential opening of fall activity and went to the Fryeburg Fair. It was a perfect autumn morning, cold enough for 2 blankets, pjs and sweatshirts in the morning and hot coffee consumed in front of the heater.
We checked out the sheep and the goats, llamas, mini donkeys, giant cows, alpacas, chickens, and bunnies as well as the fiber barn as well as the other vendor boths. All in all I woud have to say it was a bit of a let down this year. I left the fiber barn empty handed which stunk because i was really excited to pick up some new stuff. the chickens and bunnies were less than impressive, any of our critters would have taken the blue ribbons compared what was there. My favorite livestock section, the alpaca barn, was so overcrowded with people that i had to get out after spening only a couple minutes looking around. I was impressed by the size of some of the cows there. The pygmy goats were pretty awesome and I have to say I am growing a strange fondness for donkeys thanks to a blog I have been reading, On the Way to Critter Farm....

KKK sheep below

9.21.08 Married!

Weather Stalking

Our wedding date has finally reached it's spot on the 10 day weather forecast. Yesterday it said 95% chance of rain. Today it says 5% chance of rain. Guess I am going to have to let the day get a little closer to be sure. Rain would be horrible, but I really want our pictures done outdoors.....

Harvest

The gardens are starting to put out lots of good stuff. Freezer is filling up, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, green beans, yellow beans, purple beans, summer squash soup. Mom picked me up a book on preserving and canning. Need to get brave and try to can some stuff. We are about a week away from a major on slaught of tomatos and are going to have to jar lots of sauces, salsas, etc....

Busy Summer

Wow, I have been awful about posting this summer. I'm really dissapointed about this because I really wanted to keep up with the blog, last summer I did pretty good with this. It has just been so busy around here. Anyways, I have lots of photos from the last month or so that I will try to get up here sometime. The strawberries that grow wild by the pond were really prolific this year. They are tiny little things but taste really great. I picked a bunch planning to make jam, but a month later have not gotten to it. They are waiting in the freezer. The wild blueberries are just about at their peak, so hopefully we will have some blueberry jam as well. Then in about 3 more weeks the blackerries should be ripe. We have tons of those this year as well.

Strawberries and wild flowers (picture from June 23rd)

Coming Up for Air

All of my work for my Special Ed graduate class was due tonight. From this past Wednesday to tonight (monday) I wrote three 2-3 page reading reviews, on 8 page cumulative paper on disabilities in the media, one 21 page website review paper, and one 24 page IEP Case Study paper. 62 pages worth of Special Education papers written in 5 days. My brain is fried. Time for bed.

Still trying to figure out wedding ideas