2009: A Year in Review

For the past couple of years (2007, 2008), I've been reviewing goal success on my blog. Here's the review for 2009!


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2009 goal: Don't go into hermithood because of baby.

Result: I think that we've done fairly well on this. We have been out socially a lot. We have missed seeing a lot of movies in theaters, but that is more due to work hermithood, I think. We have also done some traveling, not letting Gulliver slow us down!!

2010 goal: Don't go into hermithood because of work. In fact, establish very clear boundaries. Like no working on weekends and holidays.

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2009 goal: Have a baby. Like, really really soon.

Result: Done! And he is awesome.

2010 goal: Work out insurance solution so that we can have another baby. Get pregnant as soon as insurance solution is worked out.

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2009 goal:  Get down to undisclosed goal weight, five pounds at a time. (So I'll focus on this goal monthly rather than setting a large goal for the whole year.) Hopefully I will kick-start this weight-loss with at least a 15-pound jump! A friend said she actually weighed less after delivering her baby than she did when she got pregnant because of her gestational diabetes, so here's hoping.......

Result: Lost baby weight and more. Got down to Kick-A weight within a month of having Gulliver. And then started putting it all on again in diabetes-free carb splurges that lasted almost the whole year. Went off sugar at the end of the year, which went really well up until my birthday.

2010 goal: Don't set a goal weight at all. Simply make a chart that helps me to focus on correct behaviors and reward those behaviors with points. I will focus on one behavior a month that will give me triple points!

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2009 goal: Read 15 books, at least 5 of which should be baby/family related.

Result: I have no idea how many books I have read, because it's probably under 5. But I have at least read lots of parts of different books, including baby/parenting books. 

2010 goal: Read at least three books for leisure. And others for personal improvement and business stuff.

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2009 goal: Set up proper website, market myself, and design some baby announcements and Christmas card templates before September 2009 so that I can get in the game.

Result: Website, check. Marketing, check. Design baby and card templates, sortof check (although I've decided that filling orders like this isn't really what I want to do with my time).

2010 goal: Start to learn Web Design so that I can increase my marketability. Increase my rates to hopefully maintain what I make, but in half the time.

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2009 goal: Read the Sunday School and Relief Society lessons each week, even though I will be teaching some other primary class that I don't know about yet.

Result: I was not so much good at this. But at least I didn't have a primary calling!! Yay! 

2010 goal: Same. I still really want to read these lessons each week, and that should be easy with my iPhone app. I can find time to do this while I watch Gulliver take baths, for example.

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2009 goal: Shower, brush my teeth, and do my makeup at least 5 days out of 7.

Result: I don't want to talk about it.

2010 goal: Shower, brush my teeth, and do my makeup at least 5 days out of 7. (Good thing today is still 2009...) (ed. note: most of this post was written yesterday, Dec 31)

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2009 goal: Focus on work that frees me up (like templates vs. custom work).

Result: Ideally our online classes and textbooks should do a lot of this. Now if only we could finish those... 

2010 goal: Sit down with Murray and aggressively plan our time and projects for the new year. Make sure that we're focusing on what matters most. Plan projects that will be less time-intensive to maintain and work out new, more efficient systems.

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New 2010 goals, not based on goals of previous years:

Meal planning! Plan meals weekly so that we make efficient use of our groceries and don't waste money to spoiled food.

Budget, budget, budget! Set a budget and actually stick to it. (To kick start this, we are doing a January spend-freeze where we will not make any purchases [other than a modest birthday present for Gulliver] other than groceries for the month of January. This includes eating out, entertainment, and clothing purchases---which is a biggie, considering that I'm going to a design conference this month and would normally buy all new outfits for such a thing.)

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Other tidbits:

Accomplishments:
* Had a baby.
* Had two foot surgeries.
* Did some traveling (see below).
* Helped to plan and host an Art Weekend.
* Taught legitimate classes in San Francisco and people paid to learn from us.
* Went to a couple of business-related conferences, perhaps beginning a conference addiction that some of my friends (that's you, Ali) suffer from.
* Wrote a whole book. (Just working on laying it out now.)
* Recorded all the content for an online course. (Just needing to submit the files now.)
* Grew my own business enough that I'm too busy. That's a good thing, sortof.
* Sold art at Beehive Bazaar.
* Have product sold in Target.
* Have product sold at Deseret Book.


Places traveled:
Maryland
St. George
San Francisco
Maryland again (incl. Pennsylvania)
Disneyland

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How we did on our 2009 other plans of note:

Learn how to be good parents.--Check! We are awesome. (Except for this.)
Take lots of pictures of us and our activities and our baby.--Check!
Use lots of cool and different cameras.--Needs Improvement.
See Wicked in Salt Lake?--Nope! Way too much $$.
See Love in Vegas?--Nope. Deferred to 2010!
Go to San Francisco.--Yep! It was awesome and I can't wait to go back!
Make a new calendar for 2010.--Yep! And it's awesome!
Set up business properly and legally.--Yep! I just need to buy a business license, but I'm waiting till Monday to do so.
Make lots of art just for us.--We did make SOME art just for us. Yay!


Here are our 2010 other plans of note: 

* Go on a cruise?
* Get online classes and textbooks launched!
* Do three more Art Weekends in fun cities.
* Do the Purging of a Decade, and really really pare everything we own down to the essentials. (I have already given away two beloved coats, lots of high quality wonderful fabric, and we actually sold some clothing to Plato's Closet before donating the rest to DI.)
* Go see Love in Vegas. Seriously this time. (Maybe for Murray's bday?)
* Go snowshoeing. (Switchback? Do you hear me?)
* Go camping. (Ali? Jenny? Want to come?)
* Learn to use our camera better.

And finally, for a big moment of schmoopiness, in 2009 I am extremely grateful for my wonderful, perfect, doting husband. Sometimes I spare you the schmoop because I'm aware that some people are resentful that I used to be a single blogger, blogging from the trenches of singlehood, and now I blog about my perfect life with my perfect husband and my perfect baby. But in all likelihood, those readers who were legitimately bugged by my finding True Love aren't reading my blog anymore anyway. So here goes. Marriage to Murray just keeps getting better every year. He is my best friend and the one I want to tell everything to. He makes me laugh every day, dances for me whenever I ask him to, accepts me as I am, and is the best dad ever. (And in return, all he asks is that I buy him Muppets for Christmas.) Since being married to him (stop reading if you're still single...) my life has been happier, richer, fuller, and not even remotely bitter. Murray, I am absolutely in love with you. Thank you for a wonderful year and for our wonderful perfect baby boy, who lights up our lives. (And who has played happily all morning by himself, allowing me to finish this blog post and even read a little bit of a magazine, which I haven't been able to do forever.) (And Nicole, if you're reading this, I PROMISE that in addition to doing a bit of relaxing today, we will be hitting our courses again hard as soon as Gulliver goes down for the night, and I promise that we have legitimately been working on them as hard as we can every moment we can spare!!)

Call for Help, Part 2

Okay. Here's another question. Does anyone out there have a baby gate that they're done using? I thought that there would be an abundance of used baby gates, but I've tried looking at Kid to Kid in Provo, DI, Craigslist, and KSL and I'm not coming up with anything. Weird, right? Anyway, we could go the Walmart route or the Babies R Us route, but I'd rather not spend $40 on a baby gate right now.

We don't want one that installs on the wall. For us, the type that would work the best is a pressure gate that you can squeeze a button near the handle to release it.

Gulliver LOVES climbing stairs, as of about a week ago, so please! Help us out if you can! (And are local!) (We're willing to pay about $15 for a used one.)

******UPDATE:

We went to Azùcar's to pick up hers and installed it, and it's perfect for keeping Gulliver off the stairs.

And then, last night, Murray walked downstairs in an half-asleep daze and fell over it, jacking up our wall and jacking up the gate. And jacking up his leg. It's like I'm sacrificing one baby's safety for the other's...

Call for Help?

Hello, readers. I have a question for you. In fact, I know that I have a couple of questions, but the other is another biggy and will have to wait for another day, because you'll all get so distracted by it that you won't answer my CURRENT question, which is:

I think that I can be a lot more profitable if I learn web design. Currently I know enough HTML to tweak blogger templates pretty well. But I would like to take an actual class on web design so that I can learn to build basic sites from scratch, and so that I can learn to make wordpress blogs because right now I have no idea.

I am not really open to learning on my own through web tutorials or what-not, so don't suggest any of those. I want an actual, local, paying-for class that I can take. (I'm too busy to learn on my own because something else will always come up that's "more important" but if I have a commitment and a schedule, I'll adhere to it.)

So what classes are there, and through what schools, in the area? I was thinking about the CHUM class at BYU that covers web stuff, but I don't know if I'll learn what I need/want to in that class. Any feedback? I'm happy to take a class at any of the local schools as long as it fits my needs. And the cost I'll be able to justify for the amount of work it will open me up to in the future, so suggest anything!

My baby! My precious baby!

Last night, Murray and I left Gulliver in the care of my parents (staying at my brother's house) in SLC so that Murray and I could have a work day today. (I'm taking a SUPER QUICK break to document this!) When we left, my mom had gone down for an evening nap. I kept waiting for her to call so that I could give her my instructions for caring for my firstborn, but she never called.

Finally at about 10:30 I called my dad to ask how things were going. My mom never woke up, so her nap essentially turned into a really early bedtime.

Anyway, Gulliver was awake when I called. He was being cared for by my dad and my brother Richie, visiting from Canada. This is a faithful transcription of all that was said:

Dad: Where is the diaper bag?

Me: The diapers are at the changing station in Bean's room. Same with the wipes.

Dad: Well that's a problem. [because Bean was asleep]

Me: Well, is he dirty? I usually don't change him in the middle of the night because he's asleep. I don't wake him up to change him. Is he awake?

Dad: Yep. He's awake. He's right here with me and Richie.

Me: I don't hear him.

Dad: He's right here.

Me: Is he stinky?

Dad: I think he stinks. How do I know?

Me: You smell his butt.

Dad: Well, I can't tell.

Me: He's probably not dirty then.

Dad: Well how do I know?

Me: Peek in his diaper.

Dad: He's wearing a onesie. I can't peek in.

Me: Take off his pants, pull the diaper away from his butt at the leg hole.

Dad: I don't see anything in there.

Me: Then he doesn't need changing. He's good to go.

Dad: Where are his pajamas? [He fell asleep early, too, so he was still wearing his regular clothes.]

Me: I put them in a stack on your dresser. Find his footed pajamas.

Dad: There's a pair of blue pants here. Is that it?

Me: No. You're looking for footed pajamas. They'll have feet on them. It's at the bottom of the pile.

Dad: Okay. Now how do I do this?

Me: Keep his long-sleeved onesie on. Then put his feet in the pajamas, put his arms in the pajamas, and zip it up.

Murray, to me: He's not going to like it.

Me: He may not like it.

Dad: Okay. That's done.

Me: I still haven't heard a peep from him.

Dad: Well, he's just being very quiet. Now what?

Me: Well, you'll have to put him down to sleep again. At this time of night, he'll probably cry about 30 seconds. But he'll cry. You can't be in the room or he'll keep crying. So he should either be in Richie's bedroom, and Richie can sleep on the couch, or bring the crib out into the main area outside your room and Richie can sleep in the bedroom. But then his crying might wake up the kids upstairs.

Dad: How long will he be crying that we need to be concerned?

Me: If it's more than 30 minutes. But it will more than likely be about 30 seconds.

So we wrapped up the conversation, and I was never fully convinced that my baby was even there since I didn't hear him at all. But as soon as I was done the conversation, I saw that my dad had sent me these photos. So I knew my baby was all cared for.

Welcome to Hamelot!

Last week I bought a 10-lb spiral cut ham, because I assumed that all spiral cut hams were supposed to be delicious goodness. Turns out, you're supposed to pay big bucks to get the good ones. Oh well. What this meant was that after one dinner of mediocre ham, I knew I'd have to make some navy bean soup. I've heretofore been a split pea soup person, but Murray has converted me to the navy bean soup camp. And I have converted him to the carrots-in-your-navy-bean-soup camp, since 1) the recipe I found calls for them and 2) I feel it my duty as a mother and wife to sneak vegetables into our meals. The first time I tried the recipe I put a package of carrot strips into the soup, which I enjoyed even though I'm not a huge carrot fan. But Murray felt it spoiled it. So tonight I begged him to give me one more chance, and this time I chopped up the carrots really finely in my nut chopper. And he approves. Phew! Deliciousness and nutritiousness for all!

But the point is that my whole HOUSE smells like ham, and I don't know when it will stop smelling like ham! I put the ham on the stove first thing this morning and just let it boil all morning. Then I cut it all up before church. I washed every dish and put the cut-up ham and broth into a sealed bowl in the fridge. (We have enough ham for at least three batches of this soup.) But it still smells like ham here...

Oh well. We had Murray's parents over for dinner. Usually we go over there on Sundays, but since our house accommodates four nicely (Steve and Cici are in Texas for the holidays) and since I was the chef of the night, dinner was here! It was really nice to have company!

So any tips on getting rid of food smells?