This Was Suppose To Start Sooner

So I declared that effective March 1st I was going to really concentrate on getting my shit together.  I restarted tracking my expenses in order to effectively budget my money.  I also need to recommit to being healthier too.  Notice how one of these is 'I've restarted' and the other is 'I need'...  Opps!

The last time I blogged I spoke of the fact that so much of my life was in limbo.  Well, within 24 hours or so 2 of the areas of my life was no longer in the limbo it was at the time I blogged.  The move at work is done for the most part and should be finished as of now.  I've sort of settled my office...just need to get some work done and move a few cabinets, but I have to wait to get to that this coming week, because we all know I'm not moving those cabinets by myself!  Ha!

In other news, I did not get approved high enough for a mortgage to get a house I would be happy with.  I sort of expected this thanks to all of those student loans I'm hauling around on my credit reports.  I could get a house, but not something that is going to make me happy so I've decided to wait.  There was some discussion between my aunt and I about me renting a house, because this place is just too small for the munchkin and I and her moving in here still.  As of yesterday that decision was tabled.  Instead my auntie and I are going to rent a storage unit together so I feel less stuffed into this place and since she is going from a 4 bedroom home to a 1 or 2 bedroom apartment, she will need it too.  And we are going to paint my house to make it feel fresh for me and make it easier to stay here in the coming months as I continue to work on getting my debt further under control (see the tracking of expenses & budgeting discussed earlier!), so I can buy a house in the future...one that I'll be happy with!

We are only early into March and I feel like this is going to be a really good month for me.  So even though I was suppose to be blogging about getting my shit together effective March 1 on March 1 it is better late than never!!

Just Like In High School Or Maybe It Is OCD?!?

I spent today getting my crap together. I was definitely in a place that I needed to get my stuff done so I can move forward with my studying for The Bar. It may sound strange, but I've always been this way. I can remember being in high school unable to do any homework or studying until my room was completely clean and organized. Guess that hasn't went away just yet...

I definitely feel better now that I have a handle on my stuff and got so much done. Maybe it is a sign that this new year is going to be my year.

Back to reality tomorrow...in more ways than one. Yikes! I truly hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season. Even with all the craziness of it I sure did!

Consider it done: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 27, 30, 31, 32

Just getting started: 34, 35

Needs attention: 8, 10, 21, 25, 26, 28, 29, 33

Thinking About The Future...

Okay folks...I need to start looking at reordering my planner that will start July 1st for the next year. As this year is going to change quite a bit for me I'm in a dilemma to see which I should order. In the recent years I've been using a planner like this...

*Courtesy of FranklinCovey (http://store.franklinplanner.com/store/category/prod2660038/US-Weekly/Metropolitan-Wire-bound-Weekly-Planner?skuId=35540)

This allowed me to carry a smaller and lighter planner with everything else I carry for school and work.

A long time ago though I carried a planner that accommodated these type of planner pages...

*Courtesy of FranklinCovey (http://store.franklinplanner.com/store/category/prod2020046/US-All-Planners-%26-Refills/Classic-Julie-Morgenstern-Balanced-Life-Ring-bound-Daily-Planner-Refill)

If my next year goes according to plan, by July 1st I will be almost done with my only summer class, getting ready to take the MPRE in August, and preparing for my final semester in law school. My goal for that final semester is to take an externship at the defender's office, 2 additional classes, plus working my regular job (minus a few hours here and there for my externship). God willing my man will be coming home in December plus I'll be preparing to take the bar in February and hopefully finding a job as a real lawyer!

So I ask y'all...which do you think will be more useful to me as my life takes these dramatic twists and turns?

Consider it done: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24

Just getting started: 25, 26

Needs attention: 4, 11, 15

A Little Organizing Going On From Time To Time

In the last couple of months, I've continued what I started here. In an effort to clean out and organize a few areas in my life and home I organized and cleaned out two more areas. My panties drawer and under the master bath sink. Both of these areas came to my attention by way of chance.

Several weeks ago while doing laundry and putting my clothes away I came to discover that I couldn't stick any more underwear in my drawer! Crazy, isn't it?! When I did my bi-annual shopping trip last October, I picked up some new panties. Not only because it was fun, but because I was in serious need of smaller ones! (Yay! If only I could say I could use smaller ones again would I be super happy!) I opted to purchase them a couple sizes smaller than the pants I bought, but I failed to throw out any of my old ones at that time. So when I couldn't fit all of them in the drawer, I decided it was time to throw some underwear out! I ended up throwing out 29 pairs of underwear! Yes, I said that correctly~~29!!! I left myself 13 pairs. Who the heck needs 42 pairs of underwear at one time??? Needless to say, I definitely needed to clean this drawer out. It was like its own little country or fire hazard!

Next came a few weeks later when looking for something in the bathroom. One minute I'm looking for something, the next minute my mom is ridiculing me for having hair dye that is older than my munchkin (he'll be 8 in June!) under my sink! Before I knew it, I was cleaning out and reorganizing the area under my master bath sink! Six boxes of hair dye were tossed out and eight cosmetic bags were removed and relocated to be used for future gifts. Apparently every time my makeup brand has a sale that includes that "free" bag with little goodies in it I am in need of makeup and am a sucker and get that "free" bag for $29.95!

Can anyone guess what the chicks in my family are getting for Christmas this year?! LOL

Consider it done: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 29, 30

Just getting started: 8, 25, 27, 28

Needs attention: 9, 10, 15, 21, 24, 26*

*~~Obviously this is not the organizing I need to do to stop feeling all out of sorts lately! Go figure!

Getting Some Things Done

It has certainly been a crazy weekend so far. Not what I expected at all, but that isn't a surprise! I swear it has snowed here every day, a lot. Especially Friday. Of course, because I'm completely nuts, I still decided to drive and see my honey Friday night after work. I probably shouldn't have, especially after witnessing several cars in various ditches on my way to work at 7:30am and I spent the rest of the day watching it continue to snow, but I did. I left my office at 4:30pm and what normally takes me normally an hour and 15 minutes took me over 2 hours to drive. I was there for less than 2 hours and then back on the road. I didn't get home until 11pm Friday night to realize that out of the last 6.5 hours I had spent 4 of them driving...

This morning I had to get up crazy early since my Direct TV service call was "scheduled" for anytime between 8am and 12pm. In my delusional mind I was hoping that he (or she) would get here in the 8 o'clock hour so I could go to the bank, post office, the munchkin's doctor's office to pick up his prescription, the pharmacy, and the gym so I could come home get some stuff done, do some homework and then head out to the munchkin's Blue & Gold Banquet for Cub Scouts in order to immediately return home and do more homework. Ha! This so didn't happen. The service guy didn't show up until 10:40am and didn't finish until around noon. The only thing that I had accomplished by the time I was finally able to do my running around was starting the laundry.

I met up with the munchkin and my aunt to attend his banquet for 3pm. That was a different experience to say the least. Talk about unorganized...not enough tables or paper plates. The kids were crazy and again the thought of having everyone eat before the ceremony was attempted. The first time I experienced such a thing was here and that too was a total bust. I've never understood the decision to do this. Is this something new or are just the crazies in my life trying to make this work?

While taking pictures during the ceremony I realized that a chunk of my camera was broken off. Ugh... Of course I had just finished complaining to my aunt about the pictures that it was taking. She thinks that maybe the camera didn't like my dissing of it so it told me off by a chunk of it falling off! LOL She mentioned that maybe we should go and look for a new camera after the ceremony ended. This has been something I've been wanting for some time. Every time I would see someone take out their nice camera I would immediately experience total jealously. So I treated myself tonight to a new camera, a Canon Power Shot SX20 IS Digital Camera. I haven't even taken it out of the box yet...I'm still in awe! This time I promise not to lose my cord so I can upload pictures here much quicker. I'm so excited to use it, but afraid that I will squander the remainder of my weekend away playing with my new toy.

One unexpected thing I did accomplish tonight though was reorganizing my freezers. I couldn't take it anymore!! Things were just haphazardly tossed in to fit it all in and get the doors closed. Plus I didn't cut my grocery or dining out expenses enough in February, so I thought maybe if I could see more of what we have in the freezer I'd be less apt to do what I did today~~eat fast food all frickin' day, because I couldn't think of anything to make. Of course after accomplishing this task I discovered about 8 things in my freezer that I could have made quickly at home, which would have saved me money and more importantly loads of calories. Just another step in what I started several weeks ago with this!

Consider it done: 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10, 11, 16, 18, 22

Just getting started: 7, 12, 13, 17

Needs Attention: 5, 6, 14, 15, 19, 20, 21

Reflecting on My Progress

As we enter month number two of the New Year, I want to take a moment and reflect on how I'm doing with my New Year's Resolutions:

Get healthier

~~continue to lose weight: Well, with the exception of this past week, I have continued to lose weight and since my net weight loss is 3.6lbs for the month of January I think I've been fairly successful with this one...

~~eat better/healthier: I've been eating out less, cooking more, and definitely eating more fruits and veggies. I could be doing better, but overall I give myself high props on this one too...

~~workout more: Failure here! I've made it to the gym once this year and it was only for 20 minutes. Yikes!

~~drink more water: I've been pretty darn successful with this one! :)

~~test my blood sugar more regularly: I've rocked this! Woo-hoo! I've only missed checking my numbers one night when I feel asleep too early... Yay me!!

~~get my skin under control: Slowly but surely my skin is getting better and better. :)

~~get more sleep with a better sleep pattern/schedule: Failure, again! If only I could get my stuff together maybe I could do better here.

Get my finances together

~~make a budget & stick to it: This one has been pretty slow to come around, but each day I'm doing better with this!

~~reduce my debt: I haven't made too much progress here, but I've made all my payments on time, so that is always good!

~~stop use of all credit cards: I've used my credit cards twice and that was at the beginning of January for books for school and one meal. Outside of these two things, I've been very successful here! :)

~~pay off BarBri & Kaplan: Failure. No payments made, yet.

Get more organized

~~at work: I have tons of piles and tons of stuff to do, but I'm organized. LOL

~~at/for school: Organized, but behind...go figure!

~~at home: I've been doing great here. Better than expected, so success is mine!

~~use better time management: Failure here. I need to stop letting things distract me or better yet, stop looking for things to distract me.

~~get things done: Slowly, but surely I'm getting things done. Hell, just check out my Friday To-Do list accomplishments! :)

~~stop putting things off till tomorrow (or next week): See above!

~~set a schedule and stick to it: Ups & downs here, but I keep aiming for total success here!

Communicate more...

~~with family, friends, my munchkin, my man, my blog & my blogging buddies: Doing better, but this is always a struggle for me

Enjoy life

~~laugh, cry, dance, and sing more: This has been hard to do in the last month as I've been very stressed, but I'm hopeful that as the days progress I'll have more time to work on this.

~~be a better mom: Oh, this is such a struggle...I try my hardest, but doing the hardest job in the world is tough

Organizing~~Starting Small

Maybe it is a chick thing, but I carry a lot of crap. Most mornings I exit the house with my school bag, my work bag, my lunch bag, and my purse. Some mornings I add the gym bag to my load. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen as often as I would like. In an effort to reduce my heavy load I decided to go through some of my bags and clean out what I really don't need.

The first thing I decided to clean out was my pencil case for school. Why am I carrying all of this stuff?

Writing instruments:

4 Pilot blue gel pens (2)

2 Pilot blue rolling ball pens

1 Sharpie blue permanent pen

1 Sharpie black permanent pen

1 Sharpie black ultra fine point permanent marker

1 Sharpie metallic silver permanent marker

1 Pilot pencil (plus I added one)

2 Sharpie Accent yellow highlighters

Post-It Flags-Nondurable:

1 Yellow (unopened)

1 Purple (unopened)

1 Lime Green (unopened)

1 Pink (opened)

2 Blue (one opened, one unopened)

Post-It Flags-Durable:

1 White/Red Stripe (opened)

1 Pink, Green, Orange Striped set of 3 (opened)

1 Pink, Green, Orange set of 3 (unopened)

1 Red, Yellow, Blue set of 3 (unopened)

Miscellaneous:

A poney tail holder

The small plug piece for my laptop

The tiny plastic cover for my laptop charger

A rubber finger to flip through pages

A set of pink ear plugs (mainly used for final exams)

Earbuds for my ipod

Staple remover

Seriously, do I need all of this crap?! Time to get organized and clean it out. What did I keep you ask? Look above...it is bolded. You would think it wouldn't make a difference, but it certainly does! Next time I'll clean out my work bag, which at times can weigh about 35lbs. YIKES!!

Consider it done: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9*, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22

Just getting started: 10, 15, 21

*~~I didn't finish this until almost 2:00am last night, but it is done regardless! Woo-hoo! Can you believe just three things left on my list to do this week? I frickin' rock! LOL

Happy New Year!

As we all embark on this New Year and New Decade, many of us will set New Year's Resolutions. Some will call them goals and others will go with the traditional title of resolutions. Most will break them, but others will be able to keep them. There are the usual ones of lose weight, stop smoking and then some people have more unusual ones such as have less sexual relations with random women*. Some people will make one and others will make multiple resolutions.

I am fairly traditional with many things in my life so I make several traditional and some non-traditional New Year's Resolutions and without further ado...

j'lynn's new year's resolutions:

• Get healthier
• ~~continue to lose weight
• ~~eat better/healthier
• ~~workout more
• ~~drink more water
• ~~test my blood sugar more regularly
• ~~get my skin under control
• ~~get more sleep with a better sleep pattern/schedule
• Get my finances together
• ~~make a budget & stick to it
• ~~reduce my debt
• ~~stop use of all credit cards
• ~~pay off BarBri & Kaplan
• Get more organized
• ~~at work
• ~~at/for school
• ~~at home
• ~~use better time management
• ~~get things done
• ~~stop putting things off till tomorrow (or next week)
• ~~set a schedule and stick to it
• Communicate more in person, via email, calls, texts & letters
• ~~with family
• ~~with friends
• ~~with my munchkin
• ~~with my man
• ~~with my blog & my blogging buddies
• Enjoy life
• ~~laugh more
• ~~cry more
• ~~dance more
• ~~sing more
• ~~be a better mom

*~~courtesy of a caller into the radio station yesterday while I was driving to see my guy