Inspiration

I'm a creature of habit - my intial gut reaction is to do things the same way I've been doing them for years. While I think that makes me very good at my job - it is what I strive to change in my personal life. I believe that I will not grow as an individual if I do continue to push myself to learn and try new things. Fortunately, I have a great network of girlfriends who are always trying new things and encouraging me to try it with them.

Check out what they encouraged me to try or improve in 2007:

Pole dancing as a workout
Running a 10k in 1 hour and 6 minutes - this year I want to run it FASTER
Starting to create scrapbook pages for myself - not just as gifts
Blogging
Taking better pictures
Enjoying life - taking time to enjoy my girlfriends

I know there are many other things that they have encouraged me to try or improve through invitations, words or simply being there for me. I'm thankful that I have such a wonderful group of girlfriends who encourage me, support me, challenge me and inspire me. Wonder what they will inspire me to do in 2008?

Let it Go

Every year I make a resolution and every year it lasts about a month - tops. Last year, a friend of mine picked a phrase that was her mantra of sorts for 2007. I thought it was an interesting alternative to a New Year's resolution and she was able to refer back to it throughout the year while dealing with all the of issues that were thrown at her in 2007.
So for 2008 I've decided I will follow her lead (albeit, a year behind her) and pick a phrase to be my mantra. I've been thinking about it for about 2 weeks now and decided that my phrase for 2008 will be - "Let it Go". For me, I think these words will be good words to live by and refer back to for 2008 - professionally and personally. Here's to letting it go!

Need I say more?

Don't think anything else needs to be said - except maybe - GO SKINS!

www.redskins.com/gameday/default.jsp?gameId=91

This picture best depicts the last month

EXHAUSTING!

So much to post and catch up on...

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season.

The road to Christmas - Week 1

Last year was the first year that Andrew really understood Christmas and all the activities that lead up to the big day. So, this year we planned a flurry of activities beginning the weekend after Thanksgiving and leading right up to Christmas Eve. Of course, I forgot to factor in time for Mommy to get ready for Christmas! Guess that's my lesson learned for next year! Here's a quick look at the holiday fun we had:

The first weekend in December was filled with alot of activities. Saturday morning Andrew and I did a Candy Cane Hunt and Lunch with Santa with TAG and Olivia.

Andrew did not find many candy canes, but Olivia was nice enough to share several of the "winning" candy canes with Andrew so he could get a holiday tatoo and a little gift.

We headed home to decorate our gingerbread train. We've been decorating a train since Andrew was 2 and this year Andrew added a bit of his own decoration - several GI Joe figures were seated in the train with all the frosting and candy!

Saturday afternoon we headed over to Pump It Up in Leesburg to celebrate Hannah's birthday. Everyone had such a great time - kids and adults - someone mentioned that adults should rent out the place for adults only. I think that would be a great parent's night out!

After Hannah's birthday party, we headed into downtown Leesburg for the Christmas parade. We watched the parade last year and the kids loved it, so we made it an annual event. This year we had a special reason for going. Andrew, Olivia, Alexa and Samuel's teacher, Ms Katelyn, was in the parade with her dance troupe. So the kids had fun watching for Ms Katelyn and gathering up the candy that was thrown from the floats.

Sunday we were supposed to attend the annual Wolf Trap Christmas sing along with the Green's and the Satterpellaton's, but it was cold and rainy/sleety so we all opted for staying home - inside with a fire. We put up the Christmas tree and put the lights on it. I love putting up the Christmas tree, but HATE putting the lights on...next year we'll be purchasing an artificial tree WITH lights already on it!