Oscar Watch

I have always been a huge fan of the Oscars. Last year, I set a goal to watch all of the movies that have won best picture. I made a list and there are 71 movies on the list. The award started in 1927 and I must say that some of the early ones are tough to watch. I am developing a new appreciation for film. I've been able to mark 40 movies off the list, so I'm more than halfway there. I've seen 5 of the 10 nominations for this year's best picture and out of those, I am rooting for Black Swan. I can't wait to see who brings it home this year! I really wish that I had people interested in dressing up and watching the Oscars. I really think that would be fun. Will you be watching?

Book List

I realized the other day that I have more than 20 books that I have bought over the years that I have yet to read. Therefore, I have formed a list and vowed not to buy anymore until I dwindle down this list. I really plan to read about 1 book a month over the year, hopefully more, just depending on how many times we go to the beach this summer. Kent just finished up the trilogy with Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and has convinced me that it's a must read. I've started the first one, so we will see how different our tastes really are.

I also have 2 books by Kristin Hannah-True Colors and Winter Garden. I've never read anything by her, but they were buy 2 get one free several months back at BAM.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett, they are making a movie based on this book, so it's on the must list!

I also have several by Jodi Picoult. I know that I have liked several books of hers, so hopefully these will be easy reads.

These are the ones on the top of my list. We will see how this all turns out by the end of the year.

Changes Ahead

Over the past couple of weeks, Kent and I have been talking about moving. We have lived in Shelby County for the past 6 years, and we have decided it's time for a change. I loathe the traffic! We truly have to plan our days around it. If I'm out shopping or running errands around town, I have to be on the interstate and through the junction before 4pm if I don't want to sit forever. It is truly just a hassle. So, a couple of weeks ago, we were out after church one Sunday afternoon and Kent had taken me to Homewood to see some of his customers houses, when he says, "would you like to live here?" I say of course and that's when the ball started rolling. Our plan is to have the house on the market by the first of June so this weekend we started taking care of some cosmetic things around the house that need to be done. We started the humongous task of cleaning out our garage. This is HUGE! We still have a ways to go, but we did throw away a ridiculous amount of things and started a garage sale pile. We plan to have one in April and whatever we don't sell, take straight to the thrift store in Alabaster. Kent finally patched the hole in our kitchen ceiling from the directv man stepping through about 5 yr ago, and he also finished staining and glossing a new front door. There is still work to be done on it, but it is at least hanging. I started better organizing all of my craft stuff so that our front bedroom can be turned into a bedroom instead of a storage facility that looks like Hobby Lobby threw up in. So if you know anyone that is interested in buying a house in Calera, send them my way!!

Day in Auburn

My older sis turned 30 last week, so Kali Aubrey and I traveled to Auburn to take her out to lunch on Saturday. I'm awful and didn't take any pics of all of us. I did however, ride in the backseat with Aubrey on the way home from lunch and played photographer for her. She was instructing me on what to take a picture of. It mostly consisted of her holding all of her items: Here she is with her puppy whose name was Roxy on the way to Auburn and Sparkles on the way home:

This is her holding her DVD, little TV (her dad's iTouch), her my little pony, Roxy, her leapster, and her new pom poms:Here is "us"and lastly, here is Roxy wearing Aubrey's new pom poms as bracelets:She is just so much fun! We watched the first 10 minutes of Mary Poppins about 3 times since she has to restart the movie each time she gets in the car. She loved the fact that I knew all of the songs and could sing them to her. We had a really great day that included a stop at Gigi's cupcakes, lunch at an Irish pub, browsing through some bookstores, and just chatting at Ashley's. It was a great all girl day celebrating Ashley's 30th.

Great Break!

Every year, our church starts out with 21 days of prayer and fasting. Each year I try to fast from something different. This year I chose to fast from all social media and carbonated beverages. I did social media last year, and I must say I think that it was a good choice to do that every year! I admit, I become way too consumed with what is going on around me even with people that I don't really know and it's great to take a step back and focus on what is really important! Facebook, twitter, and blogs are not what makes the world go round, even though sometimes I act like it. I had several prayer focuses for the 21 days and I am already seeing results and having peace about many things that are going on in our lives. Hopefully soon I will be able to share more, but please continue to stand in prayer with me over direction and peace for what is to come in 2011. And before you start asking, NO-I'm not preggo:)
Hopefully this week, I will be able to start blogging on a regular basis. I've decided I really want this to be more a journal for what is going on in our lives. Just because I don't have pics doesn't mean I can't blog. It may be boring, but really, that's my life. After a certain point, it's just another day.

Goals

I've never really been a fan of "resolutions." I think that its really the word, it seems easier for me to come up with some goals for the year, and that's my time frame-1 year. So here we go:
1. Read at least 12 books this year. So that's one a month and hopefully I will be able to do more. We will see. I'm almost finished with my first one, Water for Elephants, and I am LOVING it! I just downloaded 7 free books on my kindle iphone app, so I have plenty ready for me to sit.

2. Go to prayer every day that I am not at work. Next week starts my church's 21 days of prayer and fasting. There are some personal things that I will be focusing on as far as my prayer goes and for the fasting, I am choosing to give up several things. I'm giving up all social media. That means, no facebook, twitter, blogs, anything. I've been slowly weaning myself from all of these so I won't go completely crazy when I cut it all out.

3. Use a planner and stay more organized. I always buy a calendar every year in hopes of keeping up with it, but it seems that I really only keep it up for about 2-3 months then I just stop keeping it. There's really no reason, I just go lax on it.

4. Build my savings account up by $5000. This should be a simple task since both of our cars are paid off. It should be more than this, but of course we are already starting to plan our vacations for the year.

5. Go visit my extended family in Cullman once a month. My grandmother is in her 90s and I am going to make it a point to go and see her and my great aunt and uncle. My grandmother is hilarious! My Aunt Lee and Uncle Pat are both two of the absolute sweetest people you will ever meet in your life. I haven't seen either of them in several months and they are not in the best of health, so I want to go and spend some time with them.

So hopefully in December, I will be able to make a list and say that all of these goals have been met!

Holiday

Happy New Year everyone, if anyone is reading... Hope all of you had a great holiday and enjoyed some great time with family! I was completely exhausted after all of our tours and we enjoyed some nice down time at the beach last week. It started mid December with my family traveling to Disney. I rode with my older sis and we finally got to the Coronado Springs at 3am. We then got up and ready around 7am and headed to Hollywood Studios. We spent the full day there and Ashley and I headed to Epcot for their fireworks display. Loved it! I was totally bummed the next day when I found out I had missed the fireworks at the Magic Kingdom. Apparently they don't have those every night:( Oh well, the vacation went on... The next day we spent an entire day at the Magic Kingdom and went to Downtown Disney and ate a Planet Hollywood for dinner. I spent a lot of time getting an autograph book signed for Loni's kids, so I have tons of pics of me with characters. It's quite funny. Friday we spent half of the day at Animal Kingdom and the other half at Epcot. Kali and I got to spend some time together that night when her hubs took Aubrey back to the hotel to play. We ended up catching the bus and heading to Hollywood Studios to ride the Rockin' Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror again since those are our favorites. We went back to Planet Hollywood for dinner and ordered the two most expensive things on the menu since it was our last meal to eat on our dining plan. She had an entire slab of ribs and I had a steak that we maybe ate about 1/3 of. Saturday, we went back to ride our two favorite rides as a send off and it started raining. We went to Downtown Disney to finish our souveneir shopping and headed home. I got home around 10pm to my sick little puppy. Lucy had scratched her eye and had a severe infection, so she was on 3 different eye ointments and a pain med twice a day. There was even some talk about her possibly going blind and losing her eye. Thank you Lord it never came to that! She's fine now, she will always have a small scar right in the center of her eye, but you wouldn't know it if you haven't heard about it. The following Monday started my work week back and was Christmas week so that was a definite whirlwind of get togethers and lack of sleep.