I'm baaaaaaaack....

Baby ain't it somethin,'
How we lasted this long?
You and me,
Provin' everyone wrong.
Don't think we'll ever
Get our differences patched;
Don't really matter
'Cause we're perfectly matched.
- "Opposites Attract," Paula Abdul

Wow, the month is almost over. I've had major computer issues, and while I used to be able to blog from my work computer during lunch or before work, I have been SO busy this month (a co-worker is out on medical leave), that if I am sitting in front of my computer, I'm doing work. Frantically. End of story. Anyway, I traded in my old computer (I know, again) and bought a super cheap refurbished laptop on BestBuy.com. Doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles, but I'm out of school obviously, and just need it for internet and photo uploading. So now I can continue blogging regularly!

Even though I only have a week left of this month's resolutions, I'll go over what I put in my introduction post. And while I haven't been blogging, I have been trying to still work with my resolutions. So, since it's bee weeks since my last post, a refresher: Proofs of Love; Forget the Past; Love, as Is; Talk, Share, Explain.

- Proofs of Love: Matt and I don't get to see each other very often, and so I think we have to work harder at our relationship than a lot of couples because we only have two days a week to see each other, spend time together, and the rest of the week's communication is solely through talking on the phone and texting. And we're both on a limited budget, but I wanted to start doing small "proofs of love"...where I show that I care in small ways that still mean a lot. One Sunday, he left early for work, and before I left that evening, I made his bed, put away all his clean laundry, picked up his room, and left a paper that said "I love you!" sitting on his computer keyboard, where he was sure to see it when he came home. Of course, when he came home later that week, he had two friends with him that made fun of him as soon as they saw the note, but he made sure to tell me on the phone that night how much it had meant to him and he still has it. =) This past weekend, I was out of town all weekend...the night before I left, I fixed a pasta bake for him to have in the fridge all weekend so he'd have something to eat. Just little small things, but that meant a lot to him.

- Forget the Past: The biggest one I struggle with. I was planning on having a long "story of us" post, which I would still like to do, but probably will not come until next week. Reader's Digest Version: this is the second half of our relationship and the first half wasn't great. He broke my heart last year, we went through a lot, then got back together right before the new year. This year, he's completely different. Such an amazing, wonderful boyfriend that sometimes it's hard to believe he's the same person (even he thinks that)...but the fact is, he is the same person (literally, not figureatively like now), and sometimes I struggle with the hurt from last year that I sometimes cannot seem to shake off. More on that later, because I have been reading a lot of "zen" stuff lately on forgiveness that I want to share.

- Love, as Is: Kind of jokingly, I made this month's theme song "Opposites Attract" by Paula Abdul. Funnily enough, the lyrics are exactly us. He's loud, I can be more quiet. He's messy, I'm clean. He loves movies, I'm addicted to TV series. In person though, before you get to all that stuff, we are very different. He has a lip ring, has a mohawk off and on, wears gamer shirts and DC skater shoes. I'm more preppy and wear suits to work. The differences don't bother me and I rarely notice them until they're pointed out to me. We have different opinions a lot of the time because of how we were raised and the things we've experienced in life, and different interests that cause us to want to spend our time differently. We frustrate each other to no end, and sometimes I ask him to change his shirt before going to a family function, or ask if he'll do something a certain way, etc. At the end of the day though, I still love him, and wearing a zombie t-shirt to Easter isn't going to change that.

- Talk, Share, Explain: Even though I'm a girl, I suck at the communicating thing. When I'm upset or angry, I just shut down and shut people out. One of the ways I've been trying to work on our relationship is actually talking about issues, sharing what I'm upset about, and explain why I feel a certain way.

A conversation a few weeks ago...

"You're being mean." - Matt
"So?" - me
"I thought this month was about me!" - Matt
"Shut up." - me

But when we get together, it just all works out...

October: LOVE
Theme Song: "Opposites Attract" - Paula Abdul

- Proofs of love
- Forget the past
- Love, as is.
- Talk, share, explain.

More on those resolutions this weekend. =P

September Wrap-Up

My computer froze and then wouldn't re-boot last night, RIGHT in the middle of my September recap post. Work has been way too busy this week to try to blog on my lunch hour, so here's a short recap a day late:

Theme: Energize

• Organize: This was a resolution I did very well at! I knocked out my to-do list, got my entire room at the new place unpacked and organized, gave myself 3-5 small tasks to finish each day, and managed to get all my boxes of "give away/sell" stuff out of the closet at my parents' house and it is in my Oma's garage sale this weekend!
• Blog: This was a big frustration. I originally planned on blogging daily, but between getting sick, having computer malfunctions, and the pressure of having to blog daily, I wasn't able to. I think I am going to make this resolution a little flexible for the rest of the project and only blog a few times a week when I really want to, that way I'm not just posting fluff. And if I'm unable to because of technical reasons, then I won't be stressing out that I can't.
• Healthy Body: I haven't actually weighed myself, but I've made a lot of progress in trying to eat healthier. I'm eating less processed foods and cooking a lot more. I usually eat vegetarian during the week, and then eat meat on the weekends when I'm eating with Matt or my family. Working out wise, I did the 1-week trial at Gold's Gym and loved it. I can get pretty cheap monthly discounts at my local gyms, but I haven't committed to anything yet, because I worry about locking myself into a 1-year contract. I need to try to see if anyone offers month-to-month contracts.

Overall, it wasn't a perfect first month, but I did feel a lot more organized and I'm learning more in the kitchen, reading labels at the grocery store, and looking forward to the next year of resolutions!

Crossing fingers and toes!

I'm hoping that the shenenigans with my home computer are over. For now, at least. *crosses fingers* It seems to be working now.

I like being able to bring home a small to-do list every night of stuff I want to get done. It's much more manageable than having a huge, long to-do list staring at you every day. So each day during work, I write 3-5 tasks on a Post-It and cross them off during the evening. I try to get them done before I get settled on my bed with a book or in front of a TV. Especially stuff like laundry - throw it in immediately when I get home from work, that way I can get it dried and hung up before bedtime.

My college roommate and I had a long (almost 2 hour!) talk last night, just catching up. We discussed how we're both trying to eat more "whole foods"...as in, no processed stuff. Or if you buy something in the store, it's ingredient list is short and you actually can tell what the words are. I told her how I try to cook more now and we're both lucky that we have boyfriends who don't really care what we put in front of them. As long as Matt doesn't have to cook it, he's fine with whatever is served. I slowly have been trying new recipes and subbing healthier options in for things I used to eat. When I made Matt his birthday French toast breakfast, I used whole grain eco-friendly bread with natural peanut butter, and only drizzled a small amount of the sugar-free syrup we got. (I could have gotten the pure maple syrup, but that stuff has about 40-50 grams of sugar tablespoon. Since I'm sensitive to sugar, I decided it was best to go with the fake stuff in this instance, haha.)

Pretty soon, I'll be posting about next month's resolutions and goals and I will also be doing a reflective look back on the past month.

They say it's your birthday...

Today is Matt's birthday, so the weekend has been full of plans. Did his annual birthday trip to BD's Mongolian BBQ, then actually skipped out on the movie. We took my baby sister to the local gamer shop, where they played some kind of board game while I caught up with friends. Today I fixed French toast for his birthday breakfast (even after he smashed my foot with a computer chair)...Texas toast and syrup for him, and whole grain bread with peanut butter for me...then my parents had him over for a big birthday dinner. He did good on the presents haul, haha, and then when we dropped a load of garage sale stuff at my grandma's, she gave him a printer!

This next week will be my last week of "Energize" month, and then we'll be heading into new October resolutions! =)

Thank George It's Friday!

I'm really tired of my home computer not working 3/4 of every month. And for some reason, it's just me. Whenever I take it to my boyfriend to look at, or even my friend's boyfriend to look at...it's fine. They think I'm making up these problems. So Matt may actually buy mine off me which would give me enough money to buy a small refurbished Netbook. So with my computer not working the past week, and being too busy at work to blog beforehand, I've fallen behind in blog-ville. Cue the tiny violins...

I managed to eat pretty healthy this week though and have been trying to be active. I've been majorly working on my to-do list, and hope to get some more accomplished this weekend - we are having a garage sale the first weekend of October, so I have to pull all my piles from my old closet at my parents house and mark them for the sale. Hopefully will get some dolla dollar bills y'all!

I'm not dead!

"I found that every single successful person I've ever spoken to had a turning point and the turning point was where they made a clear, specific, unequivocal decision that they were not going to live like this anymore. Some people make that decision at 15 and some people make it at 50 and most never make it at all."

- Brian Tracy

(I am, once again, experiencing technical difficulties. My home computer is being funky and I haven't been able to boot it up all week, hence the lack of blogging.)