2014 Wrap Up

It's the last day of 2014. I guess it's time to visit last years goals.

First of I am very proud to say that we did get rid of our credit card debt, we did end up using our savings. but that is a huge weight gone. And we are saving hundreds in interest charges. I also think I may have forgotten my credit card number... hahaha. 

For the coming year I would like to regrow our savings, and continue to pay of our credit cards each month. 

The fitness was a fail. I think I just need to stop making fitness goals. I think that I may even weigh more than I did at the beginning of the year. Sad. Maybe my goal will be to track 450 miles on my fitness app. That's a little less than 9 miles a week. That sounds totally doable. Another healthy thing I have been working on is a gallon of water a day. I slipped up the last week, but before Christmas I was doing really good on getting almost a whole gallon a day. I would like to continue this. I am really bad about drinking water and have had some issues with it the last year. 

We did travel quite a bit, we got back east to see family, we got to the south west quite a few times to see family. We didn't get much travel done beyond that, but we have been busy. 

I didn't get much photography done. In fact I think it's safe to say I took less than half the pictures I did in 2013. But I got a video camera for Christmas, so I hope to work on both still photography and videography in the next year. 

I'm not really too worried about blog growth anymore. I am here to have fun and share my wisdom, silly stories, and photographs. 

My final goal for 2014 was to minimize. We did get rid of the big bed frame and the big entertainment center when we got here. We also got rid of the couch before we moved, and now we just have a love-seat. We still have some work to do, but I think we made great progress getting rid of stuff and lightening the load before we got here. I hope to unload some more stuff in the coming months and prepare for spring. 

Some new things for next year, I would really like to be more active with Evey. I feel like we have spent a good part of the last few months watching TV. Or rather her watching TV while I do school work, or screw around on the computer. 

I don't just want to work on my walking, but I would like to get her out, walking, playing, just getting exercise and being social. 

I hope to maintain my grades, and continue on with school. Keep on top of my work, and avoid waiting until 2 hours before something is due to do it.

Oh and spend more time at the beach.

Love my little family 

Do you have goals? do you do resolutions? Share 'em!

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Golden Vlog

Woah! Two blogs today! But only because I found this Vlog and I want to join up and it ends tomorrow.

(click on the little youtube icon on the video to view in youtube!)

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A day at the beach

I've lived here a month now and only been to the beach twice, and once I only got out of the car to take a picture. I think I need to remedy that, and go to the beach again. 

Evey loved it, she loved the sand, the cool water, the sunshine. 

We went over memorial day weekend, while my parents were here. We didn't bring swim suits, we only went so we could say we had gone, and to let Evey have a little beachy experience. 

High Altitude Corned Beef & Cabbage

I loved Corned Beef and cabbage, no matter what the holiday. It's one of my favorite meals. I like to buy a couple right after St. Patricks day and freeze them for later in the year. I am a bit sad that this year I will not be able to stock up because we are getting ready to move. 

We were well above sea level when we moved to Montana, but only the last year that we have lived in Butte, have we been "High - Altitude". We about 6500 feet in the hills above the city. I have found cooking has become quite the pain in the ass. Everything takes longer, and most everything is dry. I don't think I have made a successful roast since we moved here. Even in the crock pot things dry out faster because the air is thinner up here. 

A couple corned beefs ago I did a brown sugar/mustard dry rub and it was amazing. I modified it a little this year because I don't have any mustard in my fridge, only dry mustard. 

(all ingredients are estimates, you can do more or less depending on the size of your corned beef)

3 1/2 pound pre-packaged corned beef

rub-

1/4 cup of brown sugar

1 tbsp pepper

1/2 tbsp dry mustard powder

dash of celery salt

packet of stuff that came with your corned beef

mix all the above ingredients in a bowl.

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees

Place corned beef in a baking dish fat side up

squeeze about 2-3 tbsp of honey on the fat side of your corned beef and then sprinkle your rub on top of this, and then pat it down. You want to cover almost all the fatty tissue with your rub, you can go over the edges if you want, I didn't. 

after 2 hours I reduced the temperature to 300

cover your dish with lid or foil and place in oven for 3 1/2- 4 hours.

at 3 hours I added some small potatoes and raised the heat back to 325.

at 4 hours I added come cabbage wedges and placed back in the oven until they were soft (about 15-20 minutes)

Travel update.

Happy Easter! 

We have ween out of Montana for an little more than 10 days now. Traveled to Arizona, New Mexico, and now Virginia. We have settled for about the next week plus, and then we will go back, and head to California. Driving cross country with a toddler is no fun, but we found ways to cope. Once we get settled in Cali I'll write up a bit on it with our tricks. I really hope the trip back is less eventful than the one over here though. We got a flat on the freeway and then the next day Evey and I both had tummy troubles that required multiple stops. But we made it. And now we are relaxing at Granny's house. Evey is napping while mommy lays with her, catching up on YouTube, Facebook, and now blogging. 

I want to say thank you to my sister for watching my animals while We are traveling, she has got her hands full. 

She has her own Boston terrier, and her own two cats, and she is also watching my 2 Boston's and my cat. 

Puppy party!!!

I hope you are having a great Easter holiday, and I'll try to keep updating as frequently as time allows. 

I apologize for any weird spacing or photo sizes, I'm writing from the iPad, don't feel like charging the laptop. 

2014 is just around the corner!

Well the new year is upon us. For lots of people that means making new goals and hoping to find the strength to follow through. 

My one real big goal is to get out of credit card debt. We don't have a lot of debt, but we have enough. We could easily pay it all off with our savings, but that is all in an account where we get punished for removing money. I don't carry the card with me anymore so now I just need to forget the CC number (dang online shopping!) This may require me to obtain additional income, so I may be looking for a job with very flexible hours when we get to California. 

As a family we also have the typical personal fitness goal, but with my newest endeavor with Shakeology and Focus T25 that is coming along, slowly but surely. I am about 8 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight so that puts me about 28 pounds from my ultimate goal weight. But not even thinking about numbers, this weekend I wore jeans that I haven't fit into since before Evelyn was born. Huge accomplishment in my book!

So Cal (maybe even Camp Pendleton?)
img source

I would really like to do some traveling, we have plans to visit family and friends on the east coast in April, before our move to California. But I would also like to do some traveling in California, besides the weekend road trips I am sure we will have lots of. I am thinking Yosemite, and maybe some camping, Just some fun outdoors. I've only ever been to Cali a handful of times, and besides visiting 29 Palms, when Paul and I were dating, they were all when I was much younger and I don't really remember. 

American Village, Okinawa, Japan 2010

I would like to work on honing my Photography skills. I love taking pictures of scenery, and wildlife. I love capturing the feeling of a place. I love to look at my pictures and have them make me feel something. I want to get to the point where my pictures make other people feel something too. 

I would like to grow my blog. I am actually participating in a facebook group thing that is aimed at growing your blog in 2014. I hope I can keep up with it better than I kept up with everything else this year. 

this is the only picture I can find of my entertainment center, and it only shows about 1/3 of it, the pic is from Okinawa and we were getting ready to move so the house is a disaster, and I am a terrible housekeeper. 

And finally I want to minimize my belongings.

When we got to Okinawa, we were still sort of newlyweds, and we had all this money saved up for furniture since we were living off futons and Ikea stuff before we moved. When we bought stuff we went big, real big. At the time we were thinking of the investment, having a nice piece of furniture that will stand the test of time. Well I still think our stuff is beautiful, but it's HUGE. Our entertainment center is 5 giant pieces that fit together, and the three main pieces are nearly impossible to move. For someone who likes to re-arrange every few months, this makes my life difficult.

So my goal is to get to California and have the movers unpack just about all the furniture pieces into the garage, and then have a big huge yard sale and sell all our crap to someone who really wants it. 

Do you have any big goals for 2014? 

Share them with me, or link up your 2014 goals below! 

Not a lot of pictures in this post so here is one of the dogs, this is in Okinawa on the beach by our house. When I told the dogs we were moving to the beach again they were so excited they almost exploded. 

They love the beach.

Happy Holidays

Christmas 2013 

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday! 

Evey had a wonderful first Thanksgiving. 

Happy Halloween!

Happy Fathers Day!!

Evelyn would like to wish you and your family a Happy Fathers Day. 

With a special shout out to all the first time daddies.

- Alana

Happy Easter

*and the outtakes*

We got lucky

Evelyn lucky in the daddy department. Paul is such a great dad. He is so attentive, and he has been from day one, there was no more "new parent" adjustment period for him than there was me.  Through my whole labor he was by my side, and as soon as Evelyn came out he rushed to be by her side, to be sure she was okay. 

 When he was finally given the opportunity (after she was fed) he held her with such care, and gave her so much love. 

Upon arriving home, he would get up and take her after I fed her. Then he would watch cartoons, or play video games with her so I could sleep in a little bit longer.

A few days ago we started cloth diapering during the day. This is a trial and error thing for us. But he is very good at getting the diaper on, even though it doesn't fit. 

He even asked if he could wear her in the Moby while making dinner the other night. 

He is so great with her, and she loves him so much. 

Even now that he has gone back to work, when he comes home he does the dishes, and then cuddles up with her (and the playstation) as I prepare dinner.  Or they nap like today. 

- Alana