A New Post, A Birthday And Spring Oh My!

What better way to jump back into blogging then a post about my birthday and Spring?

I am so ready for Spring!! This winter was brutal. Not weather wise like the East Coast has suffered, but emotionally brutal. I may really have S.A.D.S. because this may have been the most depressive winter of my life! And it didn't help that a series of bad things happened to compound those down emotions. :(

But SPRING is HERE!!!

One of things that I like about my birthday besides the gifts lol is that (this year) it is one day before Spring starts. Spring for me this year is hope and new beginnings.

Hope for a better year

Hope for an exciting career.

and Hope for a better life.

I'm just so ready to shed the dark cloud of

bad feelings and down emotions like a winter coat.

Depression really does skew your view of life. Everything becomes all bad.

--
For a Wednesday my birthday was not bad. I'm off work so I was really able to enjoy the day. I decided last year that I will take my birthday off for the rest of my life. As it turns out, that's a GREAT decision. It really is terrible to work on your birthday.(unless you love your job) It's YOUR day and it is there for you to be celebrated. I must remember that.

The gifts are still coming in... but I bought a Huetiful Hair Steamer for myself. I've read such great things about how it helps to extra condition your hair to promote healthier hair and growth -- so we shall see.

I saw a tweet on Twitter about a Nate Berkus for Target gold stapler and I LOVE Nate! So I had to go see. Of course I fell in love as soon as I saw the stapler and had to buy it. So gift number 2 for me. I think I need gold staples too!

Clearly from the blog change you can see that I LIKE gold. Bling!

The person I was with felt like I needed a shower wrap and head wrap to go with my steamer. Believe me, I do not stop people from buying me things on my birthday ;) and the delicious Ikat print is AMAZE! It will definitely be a spa like experience when I wear them.

The rest of my day was completed with dinner and a movie. I was finally able to see the Ice Cube and Kevin Hart flick Ride Along and it was funny! I think Kevin Hart is hilarious and his star is shining!

So this concludes my first post in 2014! :)

Ooops I almost forgot... My BIRTHDAY SONG!!!
This year I took it all the way back with some Tupac!

If at first you don't succeed...GOALS 12 - 2010 Update/WRAP UP!

As 2010 comes to a close here is my late wrap-up of my goals for the month of Dec.

1. Exercise 3 days per week. Which includes walking 4 miles on Saturday 4x this month, using the Total Gym 2x per week. And I'm starting the 100 push up challenge/squat, I read about on Nerd Girl's blog
Hmmm Let's see I was fired up at the beginning of the month. It was very cold and rainy so I did a bit of treadmill walking instead of walking the trail about 2 days per week. I started the push-up challenge and promptly stopped. LOL! to be con'td in January.

2. Spend more time in prayer and continue to look for a church, and visit churches!
I went to the most amazing revival for 3 nights. The minister was a really anointed/gifted speaker. It was wonderful and just what I needed for my soul.  I had a wonderful time in the Lord the first night. I let myself be distracted the 2nd night because my old church came. Hmph!! I was vexed! But the 3rd night was back on point for me. Just a blessing! I miss going to church regularly so much! However, being amongst my old church members reconfirmed THAT IS NOT THE CHURCH FOR ME! I hate those people! Pray for me! I really have to get this church thing together. I prayed a few times, but I  clearly need to pray much more. How you gon be hatin church folks?? LOL!  I feel like such a holy ghost pumpkin!

3. Keep applying for jobs with better pay.
I have applied for some really good paying jobs. With this economy the competition is fierce! I recently took a test for a county job with nice pay. There were about 90 people at this test! I passed the test and received a letter for the interview on 12/29. Hmm how should I say this the interview was interesting. It was a panel interview with about 5 very bored with life individuals. Maybe due too the many interviews that day! The creator of the test let's call him L.A.M (little asian man) was a part of the interview. He said I had an interesting view on management. I said Thank you. Somehow I don't think it was a compliment. Anywhooooo I put my best foot forward. I was confident I was nervous as heck and I was understated fly . We shall see. But, I am more optimistic. If it's not this position then God must have something super amazing in store for me!

4. Cook and eat healthy meals more days per week, cutting out fast food and high sodium meals.
I ate fast food four times. Almost five, but the food was old at W.endy's so I returned it and got my money back. I did eat a salad at Jack's.Box.  O_o So does that count as three times?? It was the holidays pish posh on the sodium I cooked and it was good!

5. Ooops!!! O_o Bwhahahaha! Thanks Jameil!

6. Continue to be frugal with my spending and use coupons when shopping for everything.
I did shop sales and all the online shopping I did included percentages off with free shipping! SCORE!

7. Drink 64 oz of water a day, and cut back on C.oke.
What do you think??? LOLOL! I did include water most days of the week. There were four (yes four) 2 liters consumed by the end of December.

8. Re-line cabinets and drawers in kitchen. Get rid of old storage containers. Rearrange pots and pans. Buy new flatware. Clean oven.
Oven cleaned!! I received new cookware for Christmas so the rearranging continues. I still have not purchased the new flatware I wanted these from Target but the reviews are so horrible. I have some smoke black glasses, and these fab plates and that flatware would go just nicely.

9. Go to the library and check out a book and read it!
I passed the library six times and did not want to go in. O_o! I did start re-reading The Purpose Driven Life.

10. Take pictures of my shoes and tape to shoe boxes and/or purchase clear see through shoe boxes.
Many of my shoes are back in the boxes and neatly arranged on the floor. I still need to take the pictures which is why the boxes are on the floor and not in the closet on the shelf. The clear boxes still need to be purchased for the shoes with damaged boxes. I forgot Christmas was coming when I added this goal I used the money to buy gifts.

11. Color coordinate my closet.
Nope not done.  I Really need this to happen!

12. Buy storage bins for misc. items in bags in storage area.
Nope not done.

If at first you don't succeed...........GOALS 11.1.10 UPDATE

1. Exercise 3 days per week. Which includes walking 3-4 miles a day using the Total Gym 2x per week. I want to log in 12 miles per week!
Umm yeah that'll be a NO. I worked out between 1-2x per week this month. However. I am including the continuing deep fall cleaning as exercise I got rid of a LOT of stuff. My back was hurting.

2. Spend more time in prayer and continue to look for a church! I plan to visit 2 different churches this month and possibly visit the one I liked last month again. I've been logging onto T.D. Jake's Potters House site on Sunday mornings http://www.thepottershouse.org/ So I'm getting some word! I will try to start reading my Bible again this month too.
I really need to pray more! I feel the difference. I have to get my pray life more consistent. I did pray, but not as long or deep or as intense. Just real superficial to me. I did not visit a new church or go back to the other one. I was suppose to go to the Anniversary service at my old church with a friend but it stormed hard that night and I was not motivated to go. :(  I remember when I was like a postman and not even the rain would stop me.  :(
I read the Bible to get verses for Sunday but that was it. I watched a few series on T.D. J.akes site. But not on Sunday. I watched Joel Os.teen but I didn't make it to his conference this month. Boo! He is coming to SF in 2011.  That's much closer so I have no excuse not to make it. Overall my lack of consistency with all things God is finally bothering me! I need a church, I need to fellowship regularly. I miss it. It took me a looong time to get back to this place.

3. Keep applying for jobs with better pay.
Still doing this! I had one phone interview. That disappointed me! I expected more calls. I still have not heard from the other jobs which is odd. Two positions were cancelled. Of course the two I liked. I worked with a specialist to revise my resume AGAIN!  I met with an old contact and she has some promising leads.  One MAIN problem is that I am TIRED of people seeing my resume, being impressed, making promises and then NOT following through with the so called help they offered. BOOO! I'm really frustrated with this!!!!!!! Don't act like you're about to do something and talk about all who you know, and what you can do for me and then I don't hear from you!! I will acknowledge that you got sick, but this is me being hella selfish do your job! You didn't die.

4. Donate the clothes/shoes that I have bagged and boxed to charity. These need to be out of here before Thanksgiving!
I was all set to get these things OUT 11/22 but my license plates getting stolen deterred that plan! I did manage to move them out of the living room and pile them neatly in the laundry room.  So they were out of the way for Thanksgiving. And if you saw them why are you in there being nosey??? The plan is to get them gone today 11/30 meeting this goal! Wish me luck.

5.Cook and eat healthy meals more days per week, cutting out fast food and high sodium meals. I really do not want to eat fast food at all this month. I'm trying to cut back on sugar and salt leading up to Thanksgiving.
Yeah that worked for about a week and a half. Then I bought some egg nog. LOL! I ate some sandwiches out. I LOVE SANDWICHES!! I ate fast food 2x! Much better than last month. I cooked but the meals weren't that healthy, but I managed to add a vegetable to the meals! I am  still so bloated from T-day that a detox is needed!

6. Continue to use coupons when shopping for groceries. I am not going to lie. I'm going to get my SHOP on the day after Thanksgiving! and the days leading up to it. I need a new camera and I have to decorate for Thanksgiving.
I used coupons for my shopping for T day! I really did well. But, I was deflated I did not Black Friday shop nor Cyber Monday!  I looked at all this stuff and didn't get anything!!! WTH??? That's not even me! The theft messed me up and I wasn't sure how expensive it would be to replace everything. Turns out not that much! I did decorate for T day. It was pretty.

7. Drink 64 oz of water a day, and cut back on C.oke.
I did this all the way up until 11/21 Then me and C.oke really hooked up. I'm noticing a pattern. If something bad happens I am drinking lots of C.oke!

8. Do a deep cleaning of my kitchen. Washing cabinets and floor. Re-line cabinets and drawers. Get rid of old storage containers. Rearrange pots and pans. Buy new flatware. I have no idea where my forks and spoons went??
I washed the cabinets and scrubbed the floor. I got rid a few old containers. I still have a few to go through. I did NOT re-line cabinets and drawers, rearrange the pots and pans or buy new flatware. I did look but I didn't like what I saw except for one set of really expensive flatware o_O

9. Re-hang the curtains in the living room. I saw some clips I want to add so they will hang better, and I want to change the curtain rods.
I did this!!! It looks lovely.

10. VOTE November 2, 2010
OF COURSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well that's the update. I'll post next month's goals shortly. I hope you all had a successful productive month! What progress did you make?