Sunday, January 04, 2009

Letting go of the old and moving on to the new

Welcome to 2009.

2008 was quite a year for us. So many exciting things happened, there are things that I haven't even written about yet. Yikes!

I was planning on reviewing 2008 and see how I did on the old list of New Years Resolutions...yeah...resolutions. Did I publish those? Apparently not. So, for the sake of tradition, it looks to me like I accomplished everything I set out to do! Go Me!

Tomorrow starts the beginning of the long haul to Memorial Day. My next official office is closed holiday. Yowza. Does that make 5 full months of no time off? On the bright side, think of all the PTO I'll be hoarding.

OhCountess and I have been making lists for 2009. Our family seems to be really hitting it's stride. We share with the kids a love of travel and exploring. That's leading the list right now. Got any good vacation ideas? It's nothing personal, but Virginia is out. Our last two family vacations have been there. It's time for something NEW!

Debt reduction and elimination is our other main focus this year. This is the continuation of a work that has been in progress for a few years. We done a pretty fabulous job of getting rid of credit card addiction. It's that other debt we are looking at now: student loans, home equity line of credit...mortgage. I seriously doubt we can be debt free by the end of '09, but have you seen mortgage rates lately? If you have a traditional mortgage and haven't shopped around lately, you might be surprised to find mortgage rates are now back in the 4 and 5% range.

On a more personal note, I plan to keep up with the getting healthy progress I started in 2008. I'm down 20 pounds and would really like to lose another 40. I have no idea if it's realistic to even shoot for that much in just 12 months, but I'm gonna see what happens. For me, making and attaining goals is about set realistic and quantitatively attainable benchmarks. What does this mean? It means for this goal, I'm charting my weight and the goal is to keep a downward slope to that graph for 12 months. What the slope of that line is, I don't know and don't really care just as long as it trends lower continually.

My plans for this blog are simple and hopefully enjoyable to everyone involved (think you AND me). I enjoy writing and I need to do it more often. Over the last year I've noticed that I seem obsessed with writing something long and wordy...but I don't always enjoy long and wordy. Twitter has opened my mind up to thinking 140 characters or less. Not that I hope to post every day, but my goal for 2009 is to post more often, sometimes even something short and sweet. Let's see what this turns into. Hopefully, even you enjoy it. Got things on your mind? Let me know. Looking for an opinion? I got plenty! Heck, we might even get more pictures this year. I got REALLY cute kids :)

Yep, this was vague. Hardly a hard target in the group. There should be absolutely no reason I can't just finagle my way into rationalizing these one year from now. I'm really looking forward to 2009. I turn 40 this year. The 30's have been fantastic. Probably the best years ever. I have no intention of turning into cry baby at the loss of the 3, but I love the idea of being 40 and feeling like a 20 something.

So, rather that keep going and babbling on and on and on. Here's a toast to 2009!

Cheers!

7 comments:

WeaselMomma said...

These sounds reasonable and attainable. I especially like the 'posting more often'. good luck!

Heather said...

It's not cheap, but my husband and I got married in St. Thomas USVI and spent several days there and on the island of St. John. We plan to take our kids there as soon as we can. If your kids love to swim and snorkel, it's a great place because you don't have to take any excursions to do it-the reefs are right off the shore. We refinanced and rolled our student loans and home equity loans into our primary mortgage. It didn't make us debt free, but with the low interest rate it allowed us to make higher payments. And the student loan interest became tax deductible which it wasn't before. That only worked for us because we were able to maintain 80% equity. Good luck with your goals!

Mitchell Cogert said...

Happy New Year!

Losing 20 pounds is great-congrats!

40 pounds may be aggressive--like your poker game, right?

nonna said...

Tennessee is a great state to visit for vacation (yes, i'm prejudiced) There are 2 state parks close by me that have beautiful cabins to rent or campgrounds for campers or tents.

Rock Island St. Park is about 5-10 minutes from me and has the newest cabins. they are really 2 story houses with hard-wood floors and tons of beds.

Fall Creek Falls St. Park is about an hour away from me and is home to the highest waterfall in TN. they have landside cabins, fisherman cabins, and an Inn also. I recommend the fisherman cabins. they are also two story and have back porches over the lake.

You can check them both out online. Hope you choose TN so i can stop by and show you around. We also have the 2nd largest cave, Cumberland Caverns, right here in my town too.

Mike said...

I like how you "mysteriously" not have last years resolutions. Suspicious....

Just in case we'll save this post for next year, OK.

Happy New year.

Kat said...

My suggestion for a vacation is Charleston, SC. or the islands and resorts near there Beaches, historical attractions, and plenty of excellent food. Oh and I am originally from there and I think it is the most beautiful city in the world, not that I am biased or anything.

http://www.follybeach.com/

http://www.kiawahresort.com/

http://www.hiltonheadisland.org/

Anonymous said...

Well that was a bit limp wasn't it?

Nothing there to tickle your fancy or get your juices flowing.

Don't you want to bunjee jump something or sail singlehanded round Antartica?

Some people have no sense of adventure!