2012 Year in Review

I know all three of my readers are on the edge of their seats to hear how my 2012 goals panned out...right?  Well, do not fret, I'm finally posting how horrible I did...
(To read my explanations as to why I wanted to achieve these goals, click here.)

1.  Give my blog a makeover.  Well, if you've been reading this blog for the past year, you are well aware that with the exception of some added bucket list items, things pretty much look the same around here.  One day I did spend about an hour trying to change things up a bit, but it has been so long since I've done anything to the layout that instead I got a headache and said, "forget it"!

2.  Drink more water.  I do think that I am drinking much more water than I was a year ago.  Case in point:  I'm at the office, it's 2:50 P.M. and I just finished the last swing of water from my 24 oz. bottle.  That's good, right?!

3.  Read 10 books. Well.....this one is kind of iffy.  I did read ten books, but I believe I specifically wrote in my explanatory statement that I needed to read ten books that were on my bookshelf.  Here's the list of books I read in 2012:

1.      * Snow Angels…Fern Michaels

2.      *Fairy Tale Weddings …Debbie Macomber

3.      *Hotel Vendome…Danielle Steel

4.      *Southern Lights…Danielle Steel

5.      *The Ghost…Danielle Steel

6.      50 Shades of Gray….E.L. James

7.      50 Shades Darker…E.L. James

8.      50 Shades Free….E.L. James

9.      *Heaven is for Real….Todd Burpo

10.   Water for Elephants….Sara Gruen

11.   The Help…Kathryn Stockett

12.   *Leap of Faith…Danielle Steel

13.   *L.A. Candy…Lauren Conrad

14.   *The Little Prince…Antoine De Saint-Exupery

* Books that were on my bookshelf.
You be the judge!

4.  Get caught up on Parker's baby book.  I am ashamed to say I haven't even cracked the thing open.  Epic fail!
 
5.  Have a tan.  Score!  I totally did this this year, tan lines and all!  Granted, now they are almost invisible, but I think this summer I will tan a little quicker now that I have a base tan started!  Please keep in mind, I tan very responsibly, with SPF 30!

6.  Take Parker on a fun outing every other month.  Check!  I'm pretty sure I did this!
February-A car ride trip to Colorado!  He got to play with some of his "play group" buddies!
March-A trip to the circus!
April-His 2nd Birthday Party!
June-A trip to the bounce house!
July-A trip to the OKC zoo!
September-A trip to the park!
October-A trip to the pumpkin patch!
December-He was in our community Christmas parade!  We took him to his first movie at a theatre!

Not to mention all the times we went to the beach, had visitors stay with us, went to family members houses for various holidays, etc.!

7.  To only eat out 75 times the entire year.  Lets just say I quit counting some time in March.

8.  Refurbish Parker's rocking chair.  I haven't done this and I'm totally going to blame Greg!  One day I was all pumped up and ready and even hunted down the wood filler.  I asked Greg if he thought the wood filler would be enough to fix it, but after his inspection he said that it needed a whole wooden piece added at the top.  (I'm sure this would make much more sense if I had a photograph to reference too, and if I knew the names of the parts of a rocking chair!).  Needless to say, making a rocking chair that "works" look pretty is not on the top of Greg's priority list.  And, since he does so much for our family, I haven't pressured him about it, either.

9.  Personalize my home-office space. I have started this!  The main thing I want to do is re-furbish the chair that I use at the desk.  It's an antique and I've had many people gripe at me when I tell them what I want to do to it.  So, a guilty conscience has kept me from having fun with the chair!  I also want to get cuter organization items to place on the desk.  So, what did I do?  Remember this? 

10.  Learn how to make fork jewelry.  To get started I will need Greg's help....which means it hasn't happened!  Also, I haven't bought any materials yet.  Maybe one of these days...

11.  Learn how to crack an egg with one hand.  I seemed to forget that I hate to get my hands dirty.  After a few attempts I gave up.  Perhaps I should have watched a youtube video to see how to actually do it!

12.  Exercise at least four times a week.  Ha, ha, ha!  I did buy a hula-hoop and used it a lot in January.  Now it just takes up space in my house.
 
13.  Contribute to our family financially.  Yay!  I actually did this!  Granted, real estate did not pick up as much as I had hoped it would, but at least I contributed!  I also signed up to do BPO's (Broker Price Opinions) which was an option when I sold real estate in OKC but never tapped into it.  All of the BPO's I did did not add up to much, but something is better than nothing!
 
14.  Find a church to attend regularly.  I think this would be easier if I lived in a bigger city.  I would love to find a non-denominational church that has a great youth chapter, but I have yet to find one.  I visited a few different churches, but the services either lasted too long (1.5 to 2 hours!) or they were too far away (45 minutes one way).

15.  Take a wild guess.  If you remember what I was talking about, you could probably take another wild guess and say that I didn't accomplish this goal.  You would be correct!  However, I am still pushing forward!  I worked on two of my photo albums this year, and have labeled every single picture I ordered last year!  It's just a matter of the beginning meeting up in the middle with the end!  And yes, I am still the person who actually orders pictures, I don't just keep them on my laptop.  It's probably safe to say I ordered at least 500 pictures last year alone.

16.  Write a will.  Finally!  I can cross an item off the list!  Granted, we just did this the last week in December.  And the fact that we went on vacation, sans Parker, last week was the real motivation.  However, now that Greg and I both have wills, I think that what we really need is a trust.  But, I'm not really sure.  Being a responsible adult is complicated!

17.  Open a Savings Account for Parker.  Oh!  I did this, too!  Funny story:  Parker LOVES suckers!  Our bank usually has suckers that they will hand out.  Well, one of Parker's great Aunt's sent him $20 for Christmas.  I told him if we went to the bank, they would trade him his $20 for a sucker, and he said, OK!  Obviously, as he gets older, I know it will be harder to convince him that he needs to put money in the bank versus purchasing a toy.

18.  Go to a concert. Concerts are expensive and we are trying to live within our means.  Blah!  Luckily, we will be making up for the lack of concert-going this weekend!  I received two free tickets to the Toby Keith concert for this Saturday night.  Granted, I'm not really a big fan, but I'm looking forward to a fun evening with my husband!

19.  Begin working on my Brokers license.  I did not do this, however, I did look into it.  Unfortunately, since my license was in-active for several years, my license has to remain active for another two years before I can begin taking Broker's classes.  With that being said, now I'm not sure if I will ever do it.  If I were still selling real estate in OKC the decision would be a no-brainer.  However, I'm not enjoying selling real estate in this sleepy lake town as much as I enjoyed the fast-paced sales in OKC.  Getting a brokers license in Oklahoma involves a 90 hour course (none of which are provided near-by, so I would have to do this on-line, which I am not excited about), the course is obviously not free, then you have to pay to take the state test.  I have heard rumors that the hours for the brokerage course are about to increase, which does not excite me either.  Basically, I'm not sure I want to invest the time and money into this added credential when I'm not making much money selling real estate in the first place.

20.  Become active in the community.  I'm really hoping that driving around our neighborhood every night in our ranger counts.  Otherwise, this was another goal that I did not achieve.

21.  Learn CPR.  What really irks me is that this is the last item on my list, and yet again, it's something I did not do.  However, I just discovered last month that they offer CPR training classes in Durant, which is a city that is about 45 minutes from where I live.  This is still a life-saving skill I would like to learn, especially as a mother who lives walking distance to a lake.

There you have it!  Don't worry, I'll be posting my goals for 2013 soon.  I have a feeling there will not be as many!