My New Year's Resolutions

 I've been thinking about my new year's resolutions a lot lately, more than I normally do.  I guess there's just so much purpose to my life right now, and I feel like I need to be productive NOW, rather than later.

Here's what I've got in mind for 2010!

• Lose weight.  I know, cliche, but I really need to, and this is the best time...everybody else is trying to lose weight, so there's a lot of motivation and group accountability.  I want to lose 15 pounds by May...I don't think that's anything too extreme!  I am TERRIBLE at dieting, so I'm not even going to try that.  If I can portion control, limit sweets, and actually work out (I have a gym membership I haven't used since like July), I think I can do it.
  

• Keep my house clean.  Since starting my job, I have been really bad about cleaning during the week.  It's hard to come home after chasing 6 year olds all day and clean!  So, I've been reading a lot of flylady's stuff lately and I think that is the best approach - but I am changing it a little bit for my style.  I am going to clean/declutter for 15 minutes a day, not matter what.  Then, I'll have a "zone" for every day (read flylady for more info).  She does a zone a week, but my house would be disgusting if I only cleaned a room once a month.  If I have it figured out right, it shouldn't take me more than 30 minutes a day, and my house won't be an absolute mess by Friday afternoon now!
  

• Get back in church.  I'll be the first to admit, we have been really bad about going to church lately.  Part of it is the fact that we've been traveling a lot lately, part of it is my laziness when the weekend comes around.  Not an excuse, just a reason.  I'd like to start going every Sunday (I think that's a reasonable goal), and maybe even get involved in a Sunday School class...it's something we've been meaning to do for awhile now!

• Start living entirely off of Noah's income.   We have been, for the most part, but there are still times that we have to rely on mine for something that really isn't even that necessary (trips out of town, eating at restaurants).  I'd like for my income to go totally toward debt/savings, and his to pay the bills.  We'll see how that works out! :)

I've got a couple more that I don't want to share just yet, but you'll find out eventually...I promise! :)

It's going to be a great 2010!

PS - I updated my Q and A post from yesterday with a new question...check it out!

Question Wrap Up

I had a few questions in the past few days that I haven't answered yet...since it's kind of a boring day, I thought I'd answer them!

Do you feel inundated with all the blogs sometimes or do you love having this extra hobby?

The truth?  Yes and yes. :)

There are definitely times that I feel overwhelmed by blog design.  When you work a full time job, then come home to 2-3 hours of extra work, it can be tough sometimes.  But it is also SUCH a great outlet for me.  Once I actually get started at night doing it, it's almost this feeling of accomplishment that I'm able to handle a full-time job AND this.  It's also fun to have such a great creative outlet (which I needed VERY badly).  Plus - the extra money doesn't hurt one bit! :)  So, while there are times where I feel like I can't handle it, it's great to prove to myself that I can handle it!

How do you arrange your deep freezer so that you can find anything?

This question actually inspired me to organize my fridge and freezer...haha!

We just got a chest freezer for Christmas, and it has helped SO much with organizing everything.  I've now got it like this:

The only two things in this freezer are frozen bagged veggies and frozen meats.  I figured this would be easiest because these are things I'm least likely to pull out of the freezer and need immediately.

In the other freezer/fridge:

 

(Please note the overflowing trash can, where I threw away the junk in my fridge before I took this picture.)

I have boxed veggies in the top of the freezer, bagged meals in the middle, snacks on the bottom shelf, and desserts in the door.  In the fridge, I have dairy on the top, current meals on the middle shelf, drinks on the bottom, cheeses in the top drawer, perishables in the middle drawer, and other drinks in the bottom drawer.  My condiments/jellies are in the door.

And just so it doesn't look like I'm all together, here are the expired things I threw away in the process of cleaning for this picture:

:)

What do you use to make your header?

I use a combination of Paint Shop Pro Photo (graphics editor) and MANY different talented graphic designers' kits to put together my headers.  I have always stood by the fact that I am NOT a graphic designer...I'm just able to use graphics designers' work to put together a pretty website through knowing how to use a graphics editor and html code!  You can see my suggested designers on my design site (and I'm updating them as soon as I finish this post!)

If I missed your question, or you have one that you haven't asked yet, put it in a comment on this post...I LOVE answering these!  I think it's a great way for readers to get to know me.  If I have a few tonight, I'll make another post and answer them (if not, I'll just add them to this post!).

________________________________

I've been working on several cute blogs today.  They aren't finished yet, but here are the headers!

 

 

Groceries - December 28th

I went LATE last night to get groceries...we were just getting back in town, but I couldn't pass up that penny item! (More on that later.)

 I didn't buy a ton this week...to be honest, most of the sales weren't that great, and I said last week that I was taking this week off (you knew I couldn't do that though).  Still did pretty well - I bought a lot of high-value items for not a lot of high-value price!

2 Big Boxes TGI Friday's Snacks - Normally $8.99 each, on sale for $4.49 each, had 2 $2/1 coupons - $5 total for both boxes

3 Boxes Phillips Crab Cakes - Normally $8.99 each, on sale for $4.49 each, had 3 55 cents/1 coupons (Publix coupons) and 3 $2/1 coupons (manufacturer) - $5.85 for 3 boxes

2 Bags Fresh Express Salad Mix - Normally $3.99 each, on sale for $1.99 each, had 2 55 cents/1 coupons (manufacturer) and 1 $1/2 coupon (Publix coupon) - $1.90 for 2 bags

Publix White Grape Juice - Normally $2.99, penny item this week (***Sidenote:  If you are in Tuscaloosa, my Publix has made me start showing the penny item coupon that comes in the Sunday paper.  They used to just give the discount, but there was some kind of accounting issue and they won't anymore!***)

So for $55.89 worth of groceries, I paid $12.73 (pretax) this week - that's a 77% savings!

Next week isn't looking too great either, so I'll probably go buy the really good deals too next week.  The fact that we had to get a deep freezer for Christmas supports my fact that I need to take a break for a few weeks. :)

Want to see my previous grocery deals??  Click Here!

Not Me! Monday

Yay...it's been awhile since I was on the Not Me! bandwagon!  Let me give this another go...

So this past week, I have not eaten everything in sight.  I didn't pig out on dressing, gravy, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, ham (LOTS of ham), soft drinks, Cajun food, and grits...with lots of butter.  I am fully aware that this would make it that much harder to go on the diet I'm not planning next week.

My husband and I have not become Scrabble addicted.  Since we've had a lot of downtime in cars over the past few days, we surely didn't discover that words like qi, zep, betook, and riata are actual, English-language words.

Furthermore, I didn't discover last night that my darling, dear husband has been cheating at scrabble over the past few days.  He hasn't gotten the best word he could before we started playing a game.  He wouldn't do that, because he's not a CHEATER! :)

I certainly have not become obsessed with the hair poof this week.  I used to make fun of those girls with the ridiculous bump on the back of their heads...I wouldn't even try this!  When my husband went to Wal-Mart last night, the only thing I asked him to get wasn't hair spray

and I certainly didn't brag about my new-found poof by putting pictures on twitter.

That's weird.

And finally, I didn't leave my house an absolute, hot, stanky mess before we came to my in-laws on Christmas day.  There isn't grease from the ham still spackled on the stove.  There isn't clean, unfolded laundry in the dryer.  And, most definitely, I wouldn't still have week-old food in the refrigerator.  (Wouldn't it be nice if this was actually true around, oh say, the time I get home today?)

Thanks for stopping by...happy Not Me-ing!

Extreme Makeover...Times Two

I've experienced two extreme makeovers today!

 

First, well...look around you! :)  I did a complete makeover on the blog and on my twitter page.  It was time to put the Christmas decorations away for the year, and I wanted an updated look.  What do you think?

I also updated my button...here's the new one if you want it (updated:  if you want to put this on your page, just copy the code in the box below and paste it in a "html/javascript" widget on your blog's layout page!):

<a href="http://www.lambertslately.com"><img border="0" width="200px" src="http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww307/LeslieFLambert/Blog%20Items/llmodbutton.png" target="blank">

The second extreme makeover...so we are still in Hattiesburg, and we actually got to see the new Extreme Home Makeover house - pretty cool!  I would have gotten a picture, but there is a sign in the front yard that says no pictures, autographs, or videos...so boo, no picture.  It was REALLY pretty though.

We've actually been going all day.  We went to Crescent City Grill for lunch and got this masterpiece.

It was a seafood crepe, filled with cream cheese and covered with seafood and Cajun sauce.  Oh. My. Lord.

 Besides that, we've been looking for sales all afternoon (which there weren't a lot of, by the way), and spending time with this side of the family...that we don't get to see all that often!  It's been a fun weekend!

PS - How about Urban Meyer??  I had a theory he would leave if we beat them in the SEC championship, but I never thought it would be something like this.  Crazy!

Christmas in Dixie

We were so lucky to get to see all of our immediate family this Christmas.  In the past, we had talked about spending the entire holiday with one side of the family one year, the other side the next. We are slowly realizing that it's just not going to work, so we're going to try to traveling approach to Christmas!  It worked out really well this year.

The Tuscaloosa side of the family:

Hardy and his Mimi, Christmas morning.

 

 

 

Christmas evening...me, my two brothers, and our grandmother.

This is a friend of Noah's (affectionately called Big E)...he spent Christmas with us this year!  My grandmother LOVED him - it was cute. :)

Parents, brothers, me, hubby.

 

My brothers got matching National Championship hoodies...we thought they were super cute all dressed together. A rare picture of them smiling and not killing each other.

That's usually what they look like though.

Christmas evening, we headed to Hattiesburg.  The drive wasn't that bad, and we made great time!

 

We did have one tired beagle on our hands though!

My sister in law and brothers in law.

Hardy's favorite cousin, Abby.  She's a Weimaranar, and she's absolutely beautiful!

A great way to end the night...my brother in law's present to his brothers was a genius invention called the "Danger Bag" - it basically had everything that can get you in trouble in it (including fireworks and a blow gun).  If you knew his brother, you would so get this.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas...I know we did!  I will admit though, this is the first Christmas where I wasn't completely bummed when it was over.  I guess I just know what a great year 2010 is going to be for us, and I'm excited to get it started!

The True Meaning of Christmas

Merry Christmas to my wonderful readers!  In light of this miraculous holiday, I thought I'd present the best representation of the true meaning of Christmas I have ever found in any song/movie/show.

Luke 2:14

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Why Beagles and Reindeer Antlers Don't Mix

So I thought it would be a cute idea to get some pictures of Hardy all dressed up for Christmas yesterday.

WRONG.

Get ready for a long stream of blurry pictures.  Because my dog WOULDN'T SIT STILL.

Attempt 1:

 

 

Attempt 2:

 

 

Attempt 3 (Also known as: maybe lights will distract him):

 

 

 

 

(This is when I gave up and changed my camera lens.)

Attempt 4 (Notice how he's looking up in every picture?  There was bribery involved.):

 

(Note my foot holding him still.)

 

And this is what he did to the antlers after I was done.

Moral of the story?  Don't dress your dogs up for Christmas.

Merry Christmas Eve everyone!

Boycott Build-A-Bear?

Updated:  I feel that I need to include this fact, in preface: I have no problem with (and often participate in) activities that will make this world a cleaner, better place. My husband and I use low-watt bulbs and energy star appliances throughout our house, conserve water and power in every way we can, and recycle aluminum and plastic. In my opinion, there's a difference in being green and creating mass hysteria over a very unfounded scientific opinion. For my further opinion on this, read the comment section. :)

I just found this link online.  Apparently, this is a video that's shown when you log onto the Build-A-Bear interactive website.

I don't really address politics on here, and there's a reason for that.  I have my own (rather strong) convictions, due in part to a husband that is extremely interested in politics and was a Political Science major in college...I just don't feel that my blog is the place for them.  However - I will share something - I think it is DISGUSTING to force convictions (of any kind) on children.

In my line of work, I am very careful to keep everything I do politically and religiously neutral.  This might sound strange, considering how solid I am in my beliefs, but I think my principal put it best when she was explaining the separation in church and state.  She told us that, even though she has extremely strong beliefs, she wouldn't want someone else teaching her children a different set of beliefs without her knowledge.  I am the same way - which is why I don't feel it is my place to introduce those topics in the classroom.

Ok, I made that point to make this point - children are extremely impressionable little people.  The first political viewpoint they hear is usually the one they will stick to.  To tell children that Global Warming is going to cancel Christmas makes me sick.

A lot of you know that I am really interested in weather.  I thought about going to school for meteorology, but the only program was at an out-of-state school.  But, I still follow it.  In everything I have found about global warming, there is absolutely not a shred of proof that everything is going to melt because of a man-made cause.  There are cyclical changes in weather that occur about every 50 years - and everything points towards the fact that this is one of them.  Combine that with the fact that many of the "big-wig" global warming supporters are getting paid tons of money for their role in promoting it, and I just honestly think it's a bunch of bull.  And I'm not the only one - many very well-respected meteorologists in America and abroad have signed a petition that they feel there is no scientific basis for it.

Ok, off that tangent (can you tell I get on tangents when I'm mad?).  No matter what you believe, don't brainwash children into believing that the North Pole is going to melt tomorrow (literally) and that Global Warming is going to cancel Christmas.  I'm not saying to completely shelter them from anything negative or controversial in this world, but don't sensationalize it...give them basic facts (not hysteria), and let them judge.  Let them enjoy those few precious years where they don't have to care about grown-up things like Global Warming, health care reform, and war.  They will never get them back.

I've heard of a boycott of Build-A-Bear because of this.  I don't personally shop there (obviously), so I can't participate.  However, I feel that being this destructive of impressionable young minds means that they obviously don't care about the fragility of childhood.  If I had children, I certainly wouldn't support that.

Christmas, Lambert Style

So we went on Christmas tour 2009 this past weekend.  We had to be in Clanton, AL by 2 Saturday, stayed there until Sunday morning, went to Uriah, AL (southern Alabama) Sunday afternoon, and we were home by Sunday night at 8.  Needless to say, we didn't have a weekend.

We had fun though!  I love Noah's family...we always have a blast at their get-togethers.  Here are a few pictures I got.

 

(Noah's cousin's son.)

 

Noah's other cousin's daughter.  (Noah has a lot of cousins, by the way.)

 

Anybody else's heart melted yet?

Another cousin's (remember - lots of cousins) son.  This is the best picture I got of him because he was CONSTANTLY moving.  He's a mess!  (And Noah's mom said he was just like this when he was little.  I'm in trouble if she's right!)

He had this hat on all night, by the way.  And lost his pants several times.  Seriously - hilarious.

He was doing this a good bit of the time.  Did I mention I'm in trouble?

Me, my sister in law, and my cousin in law (I think that's what she is?).

My brother in law got a Snuggie - he was pretty pumped.

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As of today, I am out of school until January 5th!  I'm so excited - I don't think I could get a better Christmas present this year but a little rest.  It's been a crazy year!

Have a great Tuesday night!