2013 Resolutions:)

There are various areas of my life in which I'd like to do things a little differently. I know that January 1 is just a date but there is something about the start of the new year that is motivating. Here are some of the things I'd like to do differently/change:

1. Weight Loss/Exercise - Obviously, while I am pregnant, there won't be any weight loss, but after the baby is born, I want to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight as soon as possible. Hopefully, I can be back to that weight by the end of summer, if not before. Instead of trying to do some unreasonable exercise plan, I think it is best if I just shoot to get some kind of exercise in twice a week, whether it's an exercise class, a video, walking on the treadmill, or just taking a walk. I'd like to focus on getting some movement in rather than what that movement is.

2. Reading - Last year, I read A LOT, but it was all mostly books for fun, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. This year, I want to expand a little, so I'm hoping to read at least 16 books for fun, at least 2 books that are music/music therapy related (last year I only read one), and at least 2 nonfiction books about a topic I'm interested in, such as home organization, living simply, parenting, couponing, etc. This is a total of 20 books and last year I read 32, so hopefully I can make this happen. Now that I have a kindle, I have been downloading a ton of nonfiction books for free so I think there will be plenty to choose from for nonfiction. I also have some music-related books picked out, and I have a long, long list of fiction including finishing the Tudor series by Philippa Gregory, starting The Cousin's War series by the same author, maybe attempting to finish the Harry Potter series (not my favorite but okay once I get about halfway into the books), the Divergent series, the Delirium series (both young adult dystopian trilogies), and I've heard good things about the Game of Thrones series, so I may look into that as well.

3. Writing - This is the area that always gets pushed aside for some reason. This year, my goal is to just write something at least once a week. This could be a blog post (for my personal or professional blog), a writing exercise from one of my many books, or working on a creative writing project (poem, story, etc.).

4. My Business Goals - There are a couple of things I want to add this year:
     A. Write at least 10 blog posts (last year I wrote like 2 of them).
     B. Offer my Music and Wellness course in the 5-week format as well as at least one shorter mini-workshop about using music for relaxation. I have already started on getting this set up but still have to work on the details.
     C. Add at least 1 more stable contract. I may also add a few more piano students.

5. House Projects - There are also several areas under this category as well:
     A. Keeping the house clean - This past year, we hired someone to help with the housecleaning every other week. Now that I am not working as much, I have taken back all of those responsibilities. I know that people say the housework will be there tomorrow (and there is some truth to that), but keeping a clean and somewhat organized house has always been important to me, so I am going to do my best to keep up with the cleaning schedule I've given myself every week and to recognize that some weeks, I may have to postpone the cleaning if things come up.
     B. Paint the fence - This may be a long shot with having two kids to take care of this year, but it definitely needs to be done.
     C. Wash the windows - Somehow this didn't happen this year, so I know they need it.
     D. Organization - This is a never-ending battle because it seems as soon as I organize something, it becomes organized. I have some ebooks about this very topic, so I'm hoping they will help make this task a little simpler this year.

6. Finances - Now that I am working less and we will have another child in 3 short months, I want to be better about our finances. We have dropped to part time daycare and have made a few other minor changes to soften the blow a little.
    A. Eating Out - We spend so much money eating out that I don't even want to know how much it actually ends up being. We have agreed on an amount that we would like to stay under each week/weekend. I know this won't always happen when things come up (unexpected power outages, birthdays, etc.), but I'd like to at least be more mindful of what we spend eating out. We plan to bring Anya's food with us more often (she hardly ever eats much of anything we order her anyway) and rely more on coupons, groupons, and other deals to cut down on cost so we can still enjoy some dinners out.
    B.Yard Sale - Our neighborhood has a yard sale each spring and we are hoping to take part in that this year. After being here for 4 years, we have replaced enough things and accumulated enough stuff that we are ready to part with some of it and hopefully make a little cash. We also have some bigger items (2 comforter sets, a girl comforter set along with a lamp, wall decals, etc., a ceiling fan, etc.,) that we are hoping we can sell on craigslist, as these are a bigger items that we might be able to make a little more by selling.
     C. Saving Money - We typically save a fair amount of money each year to spend on things around the house, trips, bigger purchases, etc. I would like to continue doing this, thought we may not be able to save as fast as before with my workload being smaller. However, I would still like to be able to set aside a fair amount so that we can still enjoy these things.

7. Baby-Related Goals - These are all things that will obviously need to happen sooner rather than later!
     A. Make a final decision about circumcision.
     B. Get Baby Brother's nursery finished.
     C. Schedule his baptism at our church.
     D. Make casseroles, soups, etc., to freeze for after he is born.

There is no doubt that 2013 will be a busy one, with or without all the above. We have at least 4 weddings and lots of showers to attend coming up. We also hope to take a smaller vacation as a family either over my maternity leave or sometime in the summer. We're not sure where, though we are thinking maybe Gatlinburg/Asheville/Chattanooga. It definitely won't be as big of a trip as our European trip in May, but we want to do something. We will probably do our annual weekend anniversary trip and maybe one or two other weekend trips just to get away. Our plans are to stay in the US in 2013 but hopefully we can do something a little more adventurous in 2014!

These are just a few things on my mind regarding resolutions, though I'm sure they will have to be adjusted as I go. I just like to use this time to reflect on the past year and where I would like to be at this time next year.

Books Read in 2012:)

The nerd in me compels me to post this every year....this was the year of the trilogies and the series. I ended up reading a ton of them.

Books Read in 2012

1. The Historian	Elizabeth Kostova
2. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo	Stieg Larsson
3. The Hunger Games	Suzanne Collins
4 .The Girl Who Played With Fire	Stieg Larsson
5. Catching Fire	Suzanne Collins
6. Mockingjay	Suzanne Collins
7. Rescue	Anita Shreve
8. Keeping Faith	Jodi Picoult
9. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest	Stieg Larsson
10. Heaven Is For Real	Todd Burpo
11. Something Borrowed	Emily Giffin
12. Reclaiming Paris	Fabiola
13. Fifty Shades of Grey	E. L. James
14. Fifty Shades Darker	E. L. James
15. Fifty Shades Freed	E. L. James
16. House Rules	Jodi Picoult
17. The Strain	Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan
18. The Other Boleyn Girl	Philippa Gregory
19. Something Blue	Emily Giffin
20. The Fall	Guilldermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan
21. Baby Proof	Emily Giffin
22. Manage Your Stress and Pain Through Music	Suzanne Hanser and Susan Mandel
23. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone	J.K. Rowling
24. The Night Eternal	Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan
25. The Constant Princess	Philippa Gregory
26. The Maze Runner	James Dashner
27. The Scorch Trials	James Dashner
28. The Boleyn Inheritance	Philippa Gregory
29. The Death Cure	James Dashner
30. The Queen's Fool	Philippa Gregory
31. The Lost Girls	Jennifer Baggett, Holly C. Corbett, and Amanda Pressner
32. The Kill Order	James Dashner

How'd I Do?

Now that we are nearing the end of 2012, I have started to look back at the resolutions I made at this time last year to see how I did.

1. Maintain my weight - I felt like I did really well with this up until I got pregnant over the summer. It has been a struggle coming to terms with gaining weight, even though I know it is necessary for a healthy pregnancy.

2. Exercise more regularly - I was hoping to be able to exercise 3 or 4 times a week, even for short amounts of time, but I did discover some new things with regards to exercise. Eric and I started going to power yoga once a week in April and we loved it. I have had to take some time away from it since then because of the heat involved in power yoga (not good for pregnancy!), but I am looking forward to starting back up again next year. I also tried Jazzercise after I got a groupon to try it. It's not bad, though I think I still prefer Zumba.

3. Make music for myself.

a. Start every day with music - This happened some of the time....

b. Be more comfortable playing the guitar - After putting guitar lessons off, I finally started them in December. I plan to take lessons every other week for a couple more months until the baby is born and hopefully that will help increase my guitar skills.

c. Write more songs - Time really got away with me on this one. I wrote one song this year, as opposed to the minimum of 3 I was hoping for. There's always next year!

4. Continue to read more - I far surpassed my goal on this one! I was hoping to read 12 to 15 books but actually read 32 as of right now. I read several different series this year including the Hunger Games trilogy, the Mazerunner trilogy and prequel, the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series. I am also currently in the middle of the Harry Potter books and the Tudor series written by Philippa Gregory that chronicles court life during the times of the Tudor reign in England. 

5. Write more - This was a total fail on my part and I just couldn't keep up....

6. Have more deep, in-depth discussions in my life - Same for this one, though the posts on FB were interesting to read when I did actually do it.

7. Develop my Music Therapy business

a. Get my website up and running - This I kind of met halfway. I wrote one blog post on my website, which is more than I did before but it still needs a lot more work.

b. Finish designing my Music for Wellness and Self-Discovery course and teach at least one section of this course this year - I finished designing the course and actually offered it at St. Mary's Women's Wellness Center but did not get enough participants to actually teach the course. I have plans to offer it again in 2013 at a different time that might work better for people.

c. Present at conference - This one actually happened! I applied in March to present about interventions with children and adolescents in inpatient psychiatric facilities. I designed it to be an interactive presentation because they tend to be more popular. I was chosen to give my presentation and it went really well. I had over 100 people in attendance (I know because I ran out of handouts) and people were sitting on the floor and out the door.

8. House projects

a. Install new carpet in the other 3 bedrooms. We are hoping to do this in January/February - Check!
b. Install new kitchen counter - Check!
c. Install new kitchen floor - Check!
d. Organize closets and drawers - I got a lot of this done but not everything...
e. Paint the barn - Check!
f. Paint the fence - Didn't happen but I'm sure it'll be back on the list for a later date....

9. Things to look forward to - All of these things happened:)
a. Our 3rd trip to Europe
b. A weekend trip to Cincinnati to go to the zoo
c. More than likely a weekend trip in October to celebrate our 6th anniversary
d. American Music Therapy Association conference again this year

So yeah...not everything happened but I still feel like I improved in a lot of areas, so I'm calling it a success! If anything, it has made me more mindful about things.

Stay tuned for my 2013 resolutions!

2012 Recap

1. What did you do in 2012 that you'd never done before? Gave a presentation at the AMTA national conference, took a small child on a European vacation

2. Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I would rather look at my resolutions more as goals. I kept some from last year and will probably come up with some new ones for next year.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? My nephew was born in November and my good friend Holly had her daughter in October.

4. Did anyone close to you die? The world lost way too many great people this year. I was not necessarily close to anyone who died but I was close with people who lost their loved ones. Hopefully 2013 will be better…

5. What countries did you visit? Spain, Hungary, Austria, Slovakia, and Germany

6. What would you like to have in 2013 that you lacked in 2012? More free time, to have a healthy baby, more music therapy contracts, more time to spend with my family

7. What date(s) from 2012 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

January 20-21: Marriage retreat in New Harmony       

April 20-21: Drumming CMTE and SMWC Alumnae Reunion

May 2 – 18: European Vacation

June 2: Anya’s birthday party

June 4: Anya’s 2^nd birthday

July 14: The day we found out we were expecting another baby

August 24-26: Weekend in Cincinnati

September 13: The day we found out we were having a boy

September 23: Gender Reveal Party

October 11-14: American Music Therapy Association national conference

October 13: Gave a presentation at the national conference

October 20-21: 6^th Anniversary spent in Indianapolis

November 14: The last day of any sort of regular schedule working at Crosspointe

November 16: The day our nephew was born

December 8: Anya’s first Suzuki violin performance at Barnes and Nobles

December 12: My 31^st birthday

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Giving a presentation at the AMTA national conference, taking a toddler to Europe and back with everyone still in one piece and sanity intact

9. What was your biggest failure? Not getting as many more music therapy contracts as I had hoped

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? I sprained my ankle in Bratislavia and it was bad enough that I had to go to PT for several weeks.

11. What was the best thing you bought? My plane tickets to Europe and all the great food we bought while we were there!

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? All the people who have made it a priority to spend time with me and make things special.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Can’t really think of anyone off the top of my head. There are always people whose choices make me cringe, but I guess it’s really none of my concern.

14. Where did most of your money go? Our European vacation, carpet, kitchen countertop, and new tile

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Our 3^rd European tripJ

16. What song(s) will always remind you of 2012? In My Arms by Plumb

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

i. happier or sadder? Happier

ii. thinner or fatter? “Fatter,” thanks to this pregnancy

iii. richer or poorer? Probably about the same, though I’m about to get poorer because I’m not working as much

18. What do you wish you'd done more of? relaxing and just enjoying life (same as every year)

19. What do you wish you'd done less of? Worrying (same as every year)

20. How did you spend Christmas? We are planning to spend the Saturday before Christmas with my family and the Sunday before Christmas with Eric’s mom’s family. We will probably do our own family Christmas on Christmas Eve morning and then spend that evening with my mom’s family. Christmas Day will be spent with my dad’s family over lunch and then with Eric’s family later that evening.

21. Did you fall in love in 2012? Already there!

23. What was your favorite TV program? American Horror Story (though I’m not sure how much more I can take!), New Girl, Whitney, Modern Family, Parks and Recreation, Private Practice, Grey's Anatomy, The Office, Revolution

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? No

25. What was the best book you read? The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, The Hunger Games trilogy, part of the Tudor series by Philippa Gregory

26. What was your greatest musical discovery? The ukulele, Mumford and Songs, Trace Bundy

27. What did you want and get? To go to Europe, new carpet, new tile, new kitchen counter, to be pregnant

28. What did you want and not get? more time to relax, the fence painted

29. What was your favorite film of this year? The Hunger Games (though I didn’t really get to see too many movies)

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I celebrated with family a few days before; we got strombolis from Pizza King and had my mom’s cherry cheesecake. I had to work on my actual birthday, but that evening we had a quick dinner at Qdoba and then came home to eat ice cream cake. I turned 31J

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? more relaxation, less worrying

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 201? Started out the year wearing “skinny” clothes and am now in maternity

33. What kept you sane? Not really sure…

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? I’m not even sure…

35. What political issue stirred you the most? The election – I hope we can get through the next four years without things falling apart even further…

36. Who did you miss? Friends that I don’t get to see often

37. Who was the best new person you met? Lauren, Sarah

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2012. There were so many that I wouldn’t even know where to begin. One of them is that you can’t put a price on the time spent with your kids when they’re young. Also, life is short, so don’t leave things undone.

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year. “Your baby blues, so full of wonder/Your curly cues, your contagious smile/And as I watch, you start to grow up/All I can do is hold you tight” (In My Arms – Plumb)

13 Week Picture

I have been really bad about taking pictures this time around. It looks like I'm starting to get a small bump at 13 weeks, 1 day. Either that or I'm just really bloated!

Don't forget that you only have a day and a half to vote for boy or girl!!

Boy or Girl?

At 12 weeks and 1 day, we were able to find out the sex of our baby. How is that possible? Well, there is a brand new blood test that can be done as early as 10 weeks. The purpose of it is really to tell what the baby's blood type is, which is especially important for women who are Rh-, which happens to be me. However, because they can get to the DNA this way, they can see the chromosomes and determine the baby's sex with high accuracy.

We received our results this past Thursday. I had previously called the doctor's office and asked them to just notify me when the results were in instead of calling me with the results, because I wanted us to find out together. I picked up the results and dropped them off at Pinch of Sugar (if you haven't had their cakes yet, you should try them because the one we got was amazing!) and had a small 2 layer 6 inch cake made. They were able to make the color of the icing to correspond with the sex of the baby. Later that night, we had our own little "reveal" with the three of us. So we know whether the baby is a boy or girl, but we will not be revealing this information until next Sunday after we share it with our immediate family and close friends. You have about a week to cast your vote on whether you think it is a boy or girl:)

Of course, the baby's blood type is Rh+, so I will be getting the Rhogam this time around as well:(

I realize I am a little behind with this news (since we have already told friends and family and made a Facebook announcement), but Anya is going to be a big sister at the end of March! We are really excited about Baby #2!

This is my nonexistent baby bump at 5 weeks and 3 days:

 

I will hopefully post more up-to-date pictures soon!