Remember Those Goals from January?

Hello Again, Friends :)

  While I have your attention,  I should probably update you on the 2012 Goals I listed here back in January. It's June, after all, we're approximately halfway through the year and it's about time for a Progress Report on the tasks I set up for myself for 2012: I'm actually doing reasonably well, better than I thought I would do, honestly :)

   So, here we go :)

Goal#1: Pay for Our Portion of Our Wedding Without Accruing Any New Debt: WIN! We're about three months out from the wedding and so far we have been able to pay for our portion of the wedding expenses using savings and existing credit cards. We have not opened any new bank accounts, new credit cards, or taken out any loans. Some of this is in part to extreme generosity on the part of our family and friends, and some of it has to do with our own dedication to not going deeper into debt. We do not want to start our married life together under a cloud of debt. There are more expenses coming, but thus far we've done very well :)

Goal#2 (as an extension of Goal#1): No New Books: WIN! No one is more shocked than me at this one, but I swear to you, hand on heart, that I have not bought one single new book yet this year. I have borrowed books from the library, I have borrowed books from friends, I have received books as gifts, but I have not purchased one.single.book. As a self-professed bibliophile, I can barely believe it, but I'm DOING IT and, frankly, I'm rather proud of myself :) (Full Disclosure, this particular goal ends after our wedding, which I also specified in my January post, as of 9/23/12, I am allowed to buy books again as budget allows)

Goal#3 (also an extension to Goal#1): No New Clothes: WIN! With the exception of one pair of boots that I really did need (I had no boots that were waterproof and I was tired of soaking wet feet), I have not bought any new clothes yet this year. Any *new* clothes have been thrifted, handed down from friends, or borrowed. In my January post, I made an exception for my Wedding Gown, and, as further full disclosure, I will be buying wedding shoes, possibly a veil and other such bride accouterments. But, those were expected expenses, and those wedding-type things are what I'm trying to save money for. So, wedding related clothing and accessories are not counted in my *no new clothes* tally. With that caveat, I am meeting this goal :)

Goal#4 (also an extension of Goal#1): Eat Out Maximum of Twice Per Week: DRAW. We're up and down with this one. Some weeks we don't go out to eat at all. Other weeks we eat out a few times or stop for coffee, etc. It all seems to equal out in the end....we're not doing as well as we could on this particular goal, but we're also doing way better than we could be, and we've by no means flung it out the window or anything. So, in short, we're doing....*okay* on this one, not great, not awful.

Goal#5: Love My Body Again: DRAW.  I would love to tell you that this particular goal is going really well, that I've made a real connection to my body again and I've learned to love it just the way it is while still seeking to get healthier and improve. My progress on this one has been uneven. I go in fits and starts, some days are good, some days are not good. There have been some bright spots, definitely. My wedding dress has come in, and it looks lovely on me and it is TOO BIG, which is always a great feeling. I looked lovely at my two Bridal Showers, and every once in awhile I'll catch my reflection in a window or a full-length mirror (we don't have one at home) and think *Hey, not bad, I actually look nice today*. Those days are good :) Unfortunately, there are still not enough of them, and I spent far too many days unhappy with how I look. I'm very frustrated with my weight and the fact that I don't seem to have the willpower to stick with any kind of regimen for very long. I lose a few pounds, I gain them back, blah blah blah, you've heard it before. I have to do something, for the life of me I don't know what it is, what the key is to unlock dedication to health and self-love and weight loss and all that, but I'm sure it's out there somewhere. Anyone want to help me find it?

  So, all in all, the goals I've set for myself this year are going well :) Did you set any goals for yourself this year? How are they going? I'm all ears :)

Love,
Lynnie

Technical Difficulties

  Two of my dear friends who were kept away from blogging lately due to various life interference  have posted an *I'm Still Here!!! Gonna do my best to get back into Blogging!* type post today. So, I decided to make it a hat trick and do one of my own.You may have noticed my disappearance from both this blog and my food blog:

Let me tell you a story:

  Back in January of this year, my fiance and I moved into an apartment together (yay!) We each brought with us a laptop. Less than a month after moving in together, both of our laptops were dead (I ranted about this a few months ago). My laptop (which was secondhand when I got it and, if I'm honest, never worked perfectly to begin with) got caught in a system repair loop and eventually froze up completely. Within days of that, Michael tripped and fell while carrying his laptop and it literally broke in half. He managed to put it back together, but the computer no longer recognized itself, so that one was basically a doorstop too. So, we were computerless for awhile, and, with no home Internet and no free time, I was not able to blog with any frequency.


  In late February, our very generous brother and sister-in-law loaned us their old laptop, and we were back online :) We were still ridiculously busy and I had very little computer time, but I did manage to participate in the April A-Z Blogging Challenge here on this blog and put up a food blog post or two. Then, in mid/late May, the fun started again. One day for no reason at all, the laptop would not turn on. It had been working perfectly the night before. Mikey fiddled with it and managed to get it to turn back on, and for a few days everything seemed fine. The the screen started to malfunction, and, one morning we got up and, again, the laptop would not turn on. For a few days it did not work at all. Then, randomly, it turned itself back on, but it had uninstalled its operating system. We managed to reinstall the operating system, but later that same day, the computer froze, shut itself off, and when we turned it back on, it had, once again, uninstalled its operating system (*this happened about four times before we threw in the towel*).

  This past weekend, we brought the laptop back to my bro and sis in-law for troubleshooting, and it was decided that really the only thing that would do much towards fixing the laptop would be a new hard drive. Seeing as how the laptop is about 10 years old, we decided against this. We categorically cannot afford a new computer of any kind right now. So, we're going to tough it out for the summer and hopefully buy a new computer this fall after the wedding. It's only about three more months. (Wow! We're getting married!!! Can't wait!!!)

  Now, in the grand scheme of things, I know that having no home computer is a relatively small problem, especially when we can both get on the Internet at work if we need to do online banking, check e-mails, etc. However, this year so far has been an extreme test of what Michael and I can learn to live without, and no home computer has been has been a BIG portion of that test. We have no computer, no cable (not even basic cable), we do not have smart phones, iPads, Kindles or anything devices of that type. Sometimes it sucks and it's massively inconvenient. Sometimes it's peaceful and awesome.

  So, here we are, at basically the same place we were back in January. Ridiculously busy and no home computer to blog with. But you know what? I really, REALLY miss blogging. There's got to be a way for me to blog fairly regularly even with these stumbling blocks in place. I don't know what it is, but its got to be out there somewhere.....

 In other news, we are healthy and happy (tired, very stressed, but happy and ridiculously in love ;). The wedding planning is coming along, slowly but surely, and we can't wait to get married :) I very much look forward to the day when I can give my blogs the time they deserve, hopefully that day will be sooner rather than later. If anyone has any tips on how to blog despite no computer and no time, please toss them my way, I'd really appreciate them :)

  I will endeavor to update as often as I can, stick with me folks, I'm here, I swear :)

*love!*
Lynnie