A message for 2010 ...

2010 In Review

2010 In Review - The Top Random 10 Things that happened that I think rocks.

10. Watching my best-friend rediscover herself, ridding herself of some serious dead weight.

9. Learning how to play Brain Stew on bass, although I forgot now. Oops.

8. Spending a week in isolation with Rockstar and Seamus. Average of 24 degrees heat, tv in the bedroom.... Paradise!

7. Putting on hold my party planning biz. Sure the extra money was fabulous, but I was no longer willing to dedicate any spare energy into something that didn't make my heart full.

6. Giving up the internet for a full week. I need to do that again this year.

5. Winning a trip to Thailand!  Coolest thing ever!!

4. Getting yoga certified. Now, come practice with me already!

3. Going back to the IT world, only to leave it 2 months later. Awesome!!

2. Adopting Seamus, the cutest darn puppy alive!

1. Finally fulfilling my life long dream of being a unicorn

Cute bow ear warmer

When I saw this post by Princess Lasertron, I knew I needed a bow ear warmer ASAP!

So, I ordered this on etsy by Yes Jess to go with my new winter coat.

Now that I'm a knitter (meaning I started yesterday and already messed up my ugly scarf), maybe come next winter I will be able to make some of my own to add to my cool ear warmer collection!

Christmas Reindeer

Let's review the 2010 game plan

I was just rereading my game plan for 2010, and boy did I fail!

Let's review the plan:

1.The year of the DIY house. Boy wonder and I will be tackling many house projects this year including: renovating our laundry/utility room, planting and maintaining a garden, getting to decorate our bedroom and living room/dining room. Yes, I plan to blog all the gory details.

Ummm ya. From this list we did 25% of the garden, and 75% of our bedroom. That. is. it. One thing I did discover is my lack of interest to decorate. I thought maybe I'd get the bug, but that did not happen. I'm OK with that though. Means spending less right?

2. Find a creative way to make income. I need to make sure I work enough hours walking dogs to be able to claim EI. You know, for that one day when I hopefully need it. However, walking dogs isn't enough money to pay the mortgage, bills and save/invest. So, in addition to teaching dance and yoga, I need to find another way to bring in some additional cash flow without overwhelming myself. 

Well, this also did not happen. I actually found less ways to make money since closing down my party planning biz. However, I am on fulltime at the dog daycare so really, with the dance/yoga money, I have enough to pay my bills, save and invest without any debt (aside from the mortgage).

3. Greenify our ways of living. I still want to get a rain barrel, and actually use our compost effectively. Hubby wants to start growing our own vegetables as well. In addition to doing our part of live in a healthy/green way, it will help us with saving cash-o-la which we desperately need. 

Well, rockstar did plant his garden, but only harvested once. Yes, lot of veggies went bad in our back yard. OK, so we sucked at this. The End.

4. Get involved with the community. Our community holds a monthly meeting which I have yet to attend. Starting this upcoming Tuesday, I will start attending the meetings. If hubby and I plan to stay here long term, I want to be in the know of what's going in the hood. 

You'll be shocked to learn that I have still yet to go to a single meeting.  I want to, but it never was a priority. Perhaps with our new mayor in place, now is the perfect time to get involved.

I haven't started thinking about my 2011 game plan, but based on this year's results, I need to choose tasks that I'm actually interested in accomplishing.

What about you? Did you nail all the 2010 milestones you wanted to achieve?

Turbo Jam

Ahhh Turbo Jam. We've all seen those commercials with Chalene Johnson and her white teeth and buff bod kicking her way to some bad 90's music. I was talking to my friend at work about Turbo Jam and how I used to be quite dedicated to the exercise (with incredible results), when she begged me to lend her a video. Let's just say that 4 days later we were meeting at work at 730am to start our journey to buffness.

My side hurts. It hurt to get dressed. Ah the sign of being out of shape with some butt kicking workouts tossed in the mix.

Someone asked me if I was going to track my journey on my blog. My response "only if I stick to it and see results". A couple of times I was all "I'm so going to get in shape and share my adventure with you" but then you never saw another post mentioning it. Instead, I started a private journal to track my progress, from the changes I'm making to my day-to-day routine to my emotional reaction, and may publish it for the interweb to analyze/criticize. Maybe.

Until then, I'm relying on my friend Jordyn to say me "T-Jam at 7am right? Cause I'll be here" daily to ensure I get my lazy butt up and in pursuit of a healthier me.

Why my dog goes to day care

Before I started working at Dog Pawsitive Inc, I thought people were NUTS for sending their dog(s) to daycare. Toss in a doggy sweater and you had me on the floor laughing.

Today, I am proud to say that not only does Seamus go to daycare (twice a week to two different daycares: The Dog Pad and Dog Pawsitive Inc.) he also has a walker come in weekly for group walks AND wears a winter coat.

Imagine you were locked up in a cage for 8+ hours a day, with no food, water or access to a bathroom. Perhaps you are lucky enough to be able to roam within your house, still without access to the outdoors, bathroom and without the ability to work a remote control. Or worse yet, being left to listen to jazz all day, every day. Sounds crappy huh? Sort of sounds like jail right?

Well, since we deserve better than the lifestyle mentioned above, so does your dog. Because of his walker and trips to daycare, Seamus is H-A-P-P-Y!!! He's is in great shape, is incredibly social (with animals and people) and is mentally stimulated. He also has many dogs to teach him how to be a respectful dog. Something only another dog can teach him.

Now, just because Seamus has these activities, doesn't make us lazy owners. Rockstar, Rockstar's Brother and I also share the additional morning and evening adventures. Leaving all the walking up to someone else leaves no room for us to bond with Seamus nor earn his respect as his pack leaders. Not only that, but I want to make sure that he has great recall with his walkers and the only way to ensure this is to work with him daily.

Sure doggy daycare/group walks is an added cost many people don't want to invest in as part of owning a dog, but let me tell you, it's worth it. After a day at daycare, Seamus is out cold, dreaming about his awesome friends. Worth every penny to have a super happy and healthy puppy.

babies vs me ... "me" wins in 2011

Everyone in the whole world seems to be having babies .. except me of course. OK, maybe not everyone, but a lot of ya'll are!!

I've never dreamt about being a mom. It's not like I don't want children, it's just that I don't want one right now. Don't get me wrong, I know I would be an awesome mom and rockstar would be an equally awesome dad, but right now we're good with 2 cats and a dog. And now that we have a Thailand trip in the horizon, we're looking at least a year until we even think about trying for children. Key word there ... "think".

Now, before I go into my kids may never be for me rant, I'm going to shift gears... me!

I'm ready to focus 2011 on giving back to me. I've talked about 352 times about getting back into shape, but this time I mean it. Sure I want to look smokin' hot in my Thailand pics, but I also want be able to say "I was in great shape .. then you came along" to any maybe-babies.

I want to look so smokin' hot that Greg Tjepkema can take WICKED yoga pics of me to add to his fabulous dancer portfolio AND not be forced to photoshop all of my flab.

I want to step up my yoga practice from none to lots, and be able to accomplish all the poses I can't execute due to lack of practice and lots of "love" (aka fat).

So day 1 starts tomorrow where I plan to:

1. Eat better - I like meat, so no vegan-lifestyle (Robin) ... just less crap
2. Running - I talked to my boss at Dog Pawsitive about learning how to run with one of our pups 3 times a week. Maybe one day I'll be able to run without crying!! This starts Monday 
3. Turbo Jam - I love this workout!! Anyone else try it? Last time I did this I got immediate results and even tossed around the idea about becoming certified. This starts tomorrow targeting 3 times a week
4. Yoga - not only for my practice but to keep up on material for the classes I teach. This starts Sunday with a target of 2 times a week (plus 2 - 3 teaching classs each week)

Yep, 2011 is all about me, so consider yourself warned!!