New Year's Resolutions, working on the house, and so on and so forth...

We rang in the New Year the way we spend most 11:59 P.M.'s.....snoring peacefully away.

There was a time a few years ago that we would have been partying, or having some neighbors over, or watching the ball drop, but those days are temporarily on hold.  Our kids are usually in bed by 8 o'clock.  That means 4 long hours of trying to stay awake to welcome 2012.  Just wasn't gonna happen this year.

We did however, have a weekend that  pretty much summed up our entire year.   We worked on the addition. We painted, sanded drywall, promised ourselves that "this time next year we will be enjoying this space in our house and will have forgotten how many hours we worked on it".....it seems like we have said that before.

But we did make good progress. I finally picked out a paint color for our new bathroom. I know that doesn't sound impressive but it really was quite the accomplishment. Did you know there are approximately 64,000 shades of green at Home Depot and Lowe's?  I know because I have bought a sample of each one of them, painted a test patch on my wall, primed over it and gone back to the store for more.  I finally chose a color that I really don't like, in fact it almost makes my want to throw up a little in my mouth, but I made a decision, so that it good.

We finally broke down and hired "Professionals" to tile the bathroom.  Something about being almost 3 years into a 6 month project just wasn't setting well with us.  The are supposed to start the tile this week, that is the main reason we were motivated to work hard vs sitting around drinking champagne.  Although, had we heard a 'pop' in the distance we would have gladly set down our paint brushes and followed the bubbly.

Since I put "New Year's Resolutions" in the title I should probably address that subject, as distasteful as it may be.  Basically, I'm still working on those, I kind of allow myself the whole month of January to let the resolutions fully develop.  I do know what #1 is.

#!.  Finish the dang-blasted addition project.

That resolution has actually been number one for the past few years, but this year I switched it up a little and added the "dang-blasted".  I hate to jinx anything but I'm feeling good about this one.

I usually have about ten resolutions and this year I'm really trying to have better resolutions and stay away from all the standard ones you hear about.  I used to always resolve to 1. lose weight  2. drink less alcohol  3. drink more water  4. improve relationships with various people, etc., etc., etc.  My failure rate was high, thus my happiness and confidence was low.  So, I took charge of the situation and resolved to make better resolutions, resolve to not do certain things throughout the year.  "I resolve to: 1. not get addicted to nicotine  2. not rob a bank  3. not gain more than 20 pounds (unless pregnant)  4. not get drunk before 5pm (except on weekends or holidays).  Things like that, you get the picture.  I can honestly say my success rate has been high.  But this year I'm really trying to raise the bar a little.  So bear with me as I cogitate a bit.  If I come up with more resolutions that are sharable then by all means, I will do so.

Happy New Year!  Bring it on 2012!

'til next time...