Day 1 Down

Huzzah! 2010 is off to a banner start!

I journaled for the first time since Dec. 15. Yes, I used some flex points, which is embarrassing as I get 32/day for nursing, but I only used 6 and I had an ice cream sundae and appetizers before dinner. I also completed Day 1 of Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred.

The idea of the Shred is awesome and intimidating. 30 Days straight of 20-minute intense workouts. My plan is to spend 10 days on each of the three levels. Oddly, the pushups and the anterior raises kick my butt harder than then lower body exercises. Weird. I took some "before" pictures which I will post to compare to my progress after 10 days. Be warned - Just me in my sports bra and shorts. Hot stuff I tell ya.

I worked some on my stitch tonight. A TON of blended threads, which is causing the project to take a little longer out of the gate. It also took me longer than expected to find my start point. This is by far the biggest project I've ever attempted. I'm looking forward to working on it.

The Emergency Fund...this is stressing me out a little bit. We're going to actually have to tap INTO it a little bit to pay off some medical bills. Stupid Blue Cross denying my claims. Brad's insurance sucks too, and they decided he exceeded his limit on dental work this year so we're paying $100 out of pocket for his recent cleaning. So all in all we're having to shell out about $330 for medical/dental bills. That's annoying. I know we need to refine our budget a bit to cut down on the random spending - dinner out here and there mostly. December really kicked our butts too between dental bills (again....), paying a speeding ticket (oops) and personal property taxes on the cars, not to mention gas and me going on a mini shopping spree at Walmart one day. Ugh. Stress stress stress. We'll get there I know. I just need to get these bills paid off then really see what we can do to get that puppy funded again. Oh, and did I mention I need MORE work done to my car? I think, though, we might take that money out of the money we've been putting aside for a new car. Not sure yet though. Probably. I think between the new car fund and the money we received for Christmas we can get my car taken care of without touching the emergency fund.

I'm really glad I have this operation to occupy my mind. January is always a depressing month for me coming down from the holidays and whatnot. The last two years I've been able to put off the winter depression because I had Institute to look forward to...but that's been yanked away thanks to the miraculous powers that be. So in the meantime I'll just use this as my focus to get me through the winter.