Progress Report

This was a long week. Workwise. Familywise. And emotionally. Most of which it doesn't feel like my place to share. I had a hellacious day Wednesday. Day job was busy. Side gig was busy and had issues that required a redo. Thursday was much the same without the redo. BLAH. I finally caught up Friday with the day job so hopefully this next week will be more manageable.

The Main Habits I'm Tracking:

    1) Morning Affirmations -- 7 of 7 days.

    2) 20 Minutes Walking -- I haven't done a concentrated walk. It's still a goal though so I'm leaving it up here. However, I have started tracking the days I at least met my step goal per my pedometer and that was a wonderful 5 of 7 days this week.

    3) 20 Minutes Reading -- 7 of 7 days. I failed to read a non-fiction book in February so my goal is to read/listen to two this month. I actually started one yesterday and have another I need to transfer from my email to my ereader. It's been forever since I had an epub book I had to charge and restart my poor Nook! 

    4) Work Writing -- 3 of 7 days. This was a major miss week due aforementioned long week.

    5) Name 3 Gratitudes -- 7of 7 days. I ended up writing a page of my frustrations out Wednesday but that was expected. I struggled to come up with 3 things I was grateful for Wednesday and Thursday but did manage it.

    6) Drink 4 "bottles" of water -- 3 of 7 days. I get three in pretty easily most days but that final one it hard if I don't get it drunk before I get home from work. (I mean, who wants to be up multiple times a night? LOL)

I'm feeling the financial pinch since the first payday in March is always small due to the short pay period at the end of February. Definitely tightening the belt. Hopefully, the other contributors to the monthly expenses step up to the plate. 

Hello 2023

I'm going to dust this ol' blog off so I can have some accountability, even if no one reads it, I'm at least putting it out in the world.

Here we are at the end of another year. Resolutions. Goals. Intentions. However you want to label it, we all seem to attempt it. I'm no different. I've been in a kind of limbo since 2020 and COVID and I really need to get back on the horse so to speak.

There are a number of areas I want to focus on this year. So, in no particular order:

1) I intend to read/listen to12 non-fiction books this year. I already have the first one queued up on Audible. I figure one book a month is very doable

2) I intend to be more active. Pre-COVID I was walking 2 miles a day. With my kid taxi schedule I won't be able to attempt that for a bit. To start, I am committing to walking outside for 20 minutes a day as soon as I get home from work. 

3) I want to have a more positive attitude. I'm committing to 5 minutes of affirmations each morning as soon as I wake up (instead of scrolling through emails or social media) and naming 3 things I'm grateful for each night before bed. I plan to keep a notebook to track my feelings and progress.

4) I've been putting off getting a mole removed. I will schedule an appointment with my primary care doctor so I can get that referral. Hopefully, I can have this resolved by summer. (I would also like to get in to the dentist -- funds permitting -- for a full cleaning/filling type appointment by the end of the year.)

5) I will finish my photo organization and back-up project by summer. It's one of those things that is easily derailed by other things.

6) I intend to reduce my debt by at least half (excluding my car loan that I'm starting over with but that's a story for another day, or not) by the end of the year. I will schedule no spend months like no buying books in January. Using the snowball method, I should be able to be debt free in 18 months (excluding my car loan). 

7) I want to take a real vacation. Not that visiting family isn't great or a priority, but I want to go somewhere I've never been before. If I can't make this work for 2023 due to funds (see that whole debt thing above) I want to at least have something planned for 2024 and saving toward it.

8) I want to work on my writing more. As Joely Sue Burkhart said, it could be a good side income. That means working my craft and actually completing something! I have a project I've been working on and my goal is to have it drafted, and hopefully edited, by July. (Dare I link this to Joely?!)

9) I will finish my scan and shred project by the end of the year. No. More. Paper. Like the photo project above, this is easily derailed by other things.

10) I always seem to lose some of my PTO at work. I will schedule mental health days and take at least one day off every other month for no reason other than me time.

Well, look at that...I ended up with a Top 10 List.

Okay, for the accountability aspect of this whole thing, I will post my results weekly. Since this is publishing on a Saturday, I'll stick with that. 

On the off chance someone reads this, what are your intentions for 2023? 

Happy New Year! I hope 2023 is an amazing year for all of us.

The Road Home

The road home from our annual vacation to see family in Oregon was paved in hell, LOL

We were cruising along, making decent time, when Mark noticed a noise. He didn't even have time to identify it before this...

He was able to get us safely to the side of the road. Thankfully, no one was hurt and no accidents occurred.

Loaded for the trip home, getting to our jack was not easy, LOL. Because we have just the standard factory jack we figured we'd have to unload the majority of the van to use it safely thus elected to call on AAA. The rain helped decide it :)

Waiting for AAA to show up...

Then the decision: continue on to the next city and hope we can find a tire store open or turn around and hope to find a tire store open at the previous city.

Did I forget to mention it was Sunday afternoon when this happened? Sorry.

We continued on figuring worst case scenario we'd have better luck finding a hotel for the night. We squeaked in by the skin of our emergency spare tire -- why don't they put full-sized spares on vehicles anymore? -- into the Eugene Sears service bay 15 minutes to closing. (Huge shout out of thanks guys in Sears Automotive! You saved our bacon.)

Trying not to completely waste the stop we went to dinner. All this put us 3 hours behind schedule and we ended up driving through Death Valley in the heat of the day.

Did I mention we were loaded down? We had to turn off the A/C a couple times while driving through Death Valley to make sure the poor van didn't over heat. (Yeah, that would have been the icing on the cake of the trip.)

After four years of making this trip I guess we were due but boy was this the neverending trip.

We had a challenge on the way up too, you can read about that here, but that one ended up being kinda cool :)

What trip from hell have you experienced?

Me Time

While on vacation, I made sure to get me time. (Don't worry. Mark got some guy time and long overdue family time with his parents.)

• It came in the form of dinner and a movie with BFF.

• Getting a pedicure with Debbie...a long overdue pedi! Is it my imagination or is this color the same as my avatar? Oh well, the pedicures were a few years apart.

• Going to the Highland Games. Of course one of the best parts of going to the games was spending time with Debbie and Helena!

While at the games, niece Helena, found this shop and bought one of these hair do-dads. Is this not gorgeous? Yeah, I was whining about my lost hair. I've got the business card :) and a reason to grow out my hair again, LOL

Heavy Athletics

Is there anything more delicious than a man in a kilt?

Not in my book :grin:

Kilt, n. - a costume sometimes worn by Scotsmen in America and Americans in Scotland. ~ Ambrose Bierce

The Portland Stone -- okay this event is unique to the Portland Highland Games. These guys are "tossing" a 96 pound stone over 9 feet. Now, that would be like me, well maybe Mark, tossing Cam!

This was actually the judge of the competition proving he still has it!

Caber Toss -- the tossing of a telephone pole, LOL. The Caber is 19-20 feet long and weighs about 150 pounds. The goal is to toss it so the Caber pivots on its top and to fall in a straight line from the athlete in the 12 o'clock position.

I remember the time I took a friend to the games, we were at one end of a football field and the Caber finalists were at the other end -- she was worried that we'd get hit, LOL. It's a telephone pole, it won't go far!

Weight for Height -- this is like the high jump but with a 56 pound weight. The athlete gets three chances to clear the bar. If successful her can move on to the next height.

Highland Dancing

There's a wee part of me that wishes my parents had encouraged Debbie and I to take up dancing -- not the bit of ballet I have vague memories of but the highland stuff -- but in their defense there may not have been anything in the Bay Area where we grew up. One of my cousins took the highland dance and demonstrated at one or more of our reunions. Sigh.

And Coquitlam, BC must have one hell of a dance studio because the majority of the winners were out of Coquitlam. Wonder if that's where my cousin went?

During one of the competitions we saw...

THIS!

Is this little sweetheart not the cutest thing you've ever seen? She was mimicking the dancers...doing a pretty good job of it too!

I just wish I could have gotten in behind her so I could take a picture with her in the foreground and the competitive dancers on the stage in the background. It would have been the coolest picture.

Pipes, Drums, and Bands Oh My!

I think the music is one of the things I miss most about not going to the Portland Highland Games for so many years. My CD's from previous years only take me so far.

Mark thinks I'm crazy. Maybe it's just my Scottish blood. But whatever it is, there is nothing like the sound of bagpipes to me. I get chills, in a good way, my blood starts pumping, and sitting still is impossible. I want to dance a Highland Fling -- of course, I'd need to learn how first -- or at the very least tap my foot.

I love the music. Not just the pipes and marching bands people associate with the Highland Games but the traditional Celtic sound.

One of the specialized music acts was Men of Worth. Below is a sample of their sound. I'm kinda kicking myself now that I didn't pick up one of their CDs at the Games.

Opening Ceremonies

I used to be a card carrying member of the PHGA and volunteered at many games. I've yet to make it to the Vegas version. You can imagine my joy that our vacation coincided with the Portland Highland Games. On the statistically warmest/driest day of the year Oregon gave us rain, LOL

Regimental Drum Major Inspection & Decorum

The Prince Charles Pipe Band

Color Guard: 2nd Battalion 162nd Infantry IBCT

NW Scots Guard

Parade of the Clans

Alma Lynn McDowell singing the
UK, Canadian, and US national anthems.
Behind her are:
Chieftains of the Day Colin & Bonnie MacKenzie,
and PHGA president Marianna MacKenzie Day.



Jori Chisholm preforming the lament.

Rev. Christopher Grewe giving the invocation.

The Kilted Mile Race

The fastest time: 5'40.08
However, 73 year old Patrick Feser broke a record with 7'06.11!

A Day Out at the Park

We had a couple "what's with the weather" moments on this trip. Hello? Oregon, have you heard of the season commonly known as Summer?

Sigh.

After a damp morning, we took the boys out to a park to run off some of their energy. Yes, that is a running theme of our life, LOL

I don't know what this thing is but I want one for our backyard!

Ian, impressing us with his monkey bar talent.

I love this picture...

Because I usually get this!

Robbie giving the monkey bars the ol' collage try.

Train Time

No trip to my parents would be complete without running the trains! I think we ran them all but one or two nights while there.

The boys got their hands dirty this time as Grandpa needed to clean the tracks before they could get the trains out. I think Ian found a new love of the trains this trip.

Alex always has some hand in running the trains. This trip, Alex showed Ian the ropes.

I love it when the boys discover new interests.

~*~

Ian also was able to spend quality time with Daniel (who you may remember from other posts as the little boy who lives in the lower level of my parents home with our long-time friends) even getting to go out to the Children's Museum with him. Sadly, I didn't get any pictures of the two together but these boys have a special connection.

The Things I Come Home To

Sometimes, they really are too cute for words :)