January. WHOA.

I can't believe it's January already.  Let's just forget that it's freaking TWENTYTWELVE already.  Dang.  We were out in the car last night driving around and I just kept thinking to myself, "It doesn't feel like New Year's Eve!!!"  So bizarre how time simultaneously passes so fast and so slow.

My mother in law is here visiting.  If you've been wondering where I've been the past week, that's where.  I think most people know that when you have houseguests coming, you clean your house really well, but when it's your husband's mom, you clean it REALLY well.  Not that she'd say anything; it's more for my own peace of mind.

Of course these days my method is to do one thing, sit on the couch and rest for an hour, get up and do another thing, sit on the couch for another hour and rest, etc.  Hence a week to clean my house.  UGH.

Since we knew Grandma was coming to visit, we saved all the presents she sent and the ones we bought her for Saturday morning.  This meant we got to have Christmas round Two!  I hope the boy doesn't think we're doing it again next weekend.  He'll be sorely disappointed!

Grandma got him this awesome Strider Pre-Bike.  My friend Lindsay posted about these on Facebook a few weeks ago, so I checked out their videos on YouTube and knew this would  be awesome for Bubba too.  When she asked for ideas for his gift, this was a no brainer.

Let's just say it was a winner!

When he got on it for the first time, he could barely stand straddled over it without losing his balance and almost falling.  Within thirty minutes, he was out in the back yard chasing after his father at full speed.  He hasn't figured out to pick up his feet to coast yet, but that will be coming soon, no doubt.  What an awesome thing for a little boy with way too much energy to burn!

Of course, it's a New Year, and I can't let that slide by without addressing resolutions, right?  Well, here's what I've decided.  Once again, instead of making resolutions, I'm setting goals.  Also, because it's so easy to set a goal for the year, then give up halfway in, I want to work on Monthly goals instead.  My thought is that I don't want to focus on the bad parts of me, but rather, to focus on how I can be better.  I prefer to be positive!  

Here, for January, are my goals.

1.  Take better care of myself.

This means showering and doing my hair even if I have nowhere to go.  This means putting on makeup because it's true - when you look good, you feel good.  This means taking time to pamper myself with nice smelling soap and pretty lotions like I used to do.  This means shaving my legs more often than twice a month.  (gross, I know, but I wear pants all the time!)  This means no chipped polish on my fingers or toes.  It doesn't take that long to remove it, even if I can't get around to painting a new color right away.

2.  Floss EVERY DAY.

I posted about this before, and I was doing really well with it too.  Then I got sick, and the last thing I wanted to do were all those little self care tasks.  The new habit I was working toward was lost and I never started up again.  I want to be sure to floss, brush, and use the whitening mouth rinse every night before bed.

3.  Take off my eye makeup before bed.

I think everyone universally agrees that it is so bad to go to bed with eye makeup on, yet I do it ALL THE TIME.  Once I'm sleepy, I just want to go to bed.  I don't want to stop and take time to do anything else.  I'm getting older though, and I need to start taking better care of my skin.  The first step toward this would be to just take off my dang eye makeup before bed.

4.  Get organized!!!

I know this sounds odd, coming from me, but things have gone to pot around here.  If I don't keep up on things, my husband (who is not naturally organized) starts to let things slide.  My beautiful pantry is a mess, under the bathroom cabinets is full of random mystery crap, my accessory closet is a disaster, my beauty products were all over... UGH.

Well, then last week my husband was playing with his new XBox and happened to come across the YouTube function.  He was scrolling through the top videos when one caught my eye.  It was by this girl who's videos I used to watch before, but had stopped for whatever reason.  She has posted a video of her makeup organization and vanity.

HOLY MOLY!  Even though I don't have nearly as much stuff as she does, I was totally inspired to clean up my stuff.  I had it in a little train case, but the case isn't big enough to hold everything so there was random stuff stashed here and there around my bathroom.  With her method, everything is together in a central location.  I quickly Googled the vanity that she has and my organized makeup fantasies began to die a quick death; that thing was over $2000!!!  Kinda not in my budget.

But then I started thinking...

Ikea is in my budget... sorta.  I looked on their site and figured out how I could recreate her piece on a budget.  I'd have to buy a little at a time, but when all was done, I'd be able to do something similar for about a tenth of the price.  So, to start out, I bought one bookcase:

Bubba helped his father put it together for me, and now it houses the majority of my stuff.  I made a pilgrimage to North Scottsdale with my friends to visit the Container store and picked up a few organizational items, and also got some containers while I was at Ikea.  I still would like to get a second one to house nail and hair stuff, as well as other girly things like soaps and candles, but this is an awesome start.

5.  Eat more stuff that's good for me.

I started to write "eat less crap" for this one, but that's not very positive, is it?  Also, I like eating junk food.  Oreos make me happy.  Cheetos before bed are one of the great joys in life.  Don't even think about asking me to give up ice cream.

What I'd like to do instead is to try and incorporate more foods that are good for me into my diet.  If I'm filling up on fruits and veggies, then by default I'll have less room for the junk, right?  I don't have to cut it out completely.  So, instead of saying NO to junk, I'm saying YES to more healthy food, and that's a great start for anyone.

So, that's what I've been up to and what my goals for the new year are.  Thank you to everyone who dropped me an email to ask where the heck I've been and to be sure I'm okay.  It really means so much to me to know that people care!  :)