Goals

Goals.  It's what's for life.  
Since the "Great Depression of 2008,"  I've become more convinced than ever that goals are an essential component to a well-lived life.  It's important and highly satisfying to wake up each morning and know why you're about to do the things you're about to do.  So here are my goals, short-, mid- & long-term.  Keep me to them!


Short-term:

• Lose 10 lbs. of post-baby weight.  I plan to do this with combination of: more walking (one of my favorite pasttimes), a hula-hoop (most of the 10 lbs is around the tummy), and Wii Active (bec/ I spent $50 on it and don't want to waste the money...plus, it's a good program!).
• Get moved into the new house.  This will require: agreeing with the contractor & structural engineer on $$, putting on my developer hat and sweet-talking my way through an over-the-counter approval at the City of Anaheim Build Dept., completing construction on the loft addition and inspections, calling carpet people and scheduling the second floor carpet replacement (note to self: need to decide on a color first), calling the floor people and getting them to come out on the first floor, getting the moving company quote and MOVE!  Oh wait...there's packing up this place and renting it out too...  Hmmm...think we'll make it buy the end of the year???  
• Tangent: Since we have more than one property now (well, actually, the condo is ours and the house is Vera's, given to her by her maternal great-grandmother)...Mike and I have decided to take the ultra-pretentious move of naming them.  This condo, because of its hilltop location and views,  strikes us as a "pavilion" - not in the circus sense, but rather, the scenic "pavilions" that Asian gentlefolk used to build in their massive gardens to view nature and meditate.  We've considered calling it the Butterfly Pavilion, since we had Vera while here (I designed her nursery are a butterfly garden - the butterfly representing 'new life' in Christian symbolism).  Alternatively, we've considered calling it "the Seat of the Butterfly Throne."  This is more a commentary on V's personality (ah hem).  For short, we usually refer to this place as "The Treehouse."  The new house is less of a garden flat and actually features some contemporary southwestern architecture (not just random tacked-on exterior detail, but actual architecture and space-planning!...which I was very pleasantly surprised by, considering it is builder product)...so we've got to have a "Casa de...something"  but what?  Maybe we'll figure it out when we get there...
• V's first birthday bash.  What to do?  Maybe I'll look at parenting.com or parents.com for ideas and tips.  Maybe I'll paste her photo on the wall and write adjectives about her like the Supernanny makes some of the parents do.  Hopefully, I'll have a revelation (hey, it's happens...esp. with regard to this little one!).  One thing is for sure, there will be babies galore there.  

...and fade out 2009...


Mid-range Goals:

• Get an advanced degree of some kind.  I find it odd that the same people who wanted me to go for a PhD of some kind are now saying..."why do you need one of those?  have more babies!!!"  I like school; I always have.  I love learning.  I like being goal-oriented.  So I'll go back for something...teaching credential?  div school/seminary?  MFA?
  
• Maintain my business contacts.  Hey, I worked hard and made it far in six years!  Then I got sick, had a baby and probably disappeared off the face of the earth to all my wonderful colleagues.  My Crackberry is jammed full of numbers, and I'm not afraid to use them!
• Get the house set up.  My favorite part?  Half of the 2.5 car garage is going to be my studio!  Move over, Man Cave!  Mama's getting some space!  How much time I'll get in there?  That's another question.
  
• Get the Young Families Bible Study going for our church members (this is all predicated on getting moved into the house, which is predicated on the work getting done first.  hopefully, we get to start before 2009 ends).  Mike and I had this idea while sitting with V in the cry room - that all these families would be able to have regular fellowship and Bible study if their kids were invited to come along with them and play while we studied.  Leadership liked it and so we have a green light...just need to get started!
  
• Agree wholeheartedly with God in all (or as "all" as I can get) areas of my life.  It's one thing to agree with what I hear, and agree with what I tell other people.  It's another thing altogether to do the agreeing with my life and actions.
• Have another baby?  (Oh Lord, have mercy!) Or at least resolve the adopt/not adopt issue with Mike and both sides of the family (yes, we care about harmony within our extended family).  Whichever way it goes, I would love to give Vera someone to walk through life with.  I definitely do not want her to be an only child like my mom and I were...it's tough as a kid...it's tough as an adult caring for aging parents...it's just lonely and tough.
• Get to know even more dimensions of my husband.  After all, he is the one of which the Lord said to me, "Follow him, and you'll learn to love."  Not joking.  That's what happened when I was praying over whether to marry the man!  (Is that because he is a particular challenge...or because he's particularly good at loving himself...I wonder...)
  

Long-range Goals:

• Go to Heaven.  This is also no joke.  After experiencing the torment of severe depression, there is now way in HELL, I am going to Hell.  And when this life proves less the satisfying, what can we look forward to?  What did the slaves look forward to?  How have all the afflicted throughout history gotten by without committing suicide and killing each other?  They look beyond to the time with the Lord Himself will wipe away their tears.  This is why, other than the fact the He is AWESOME, I am NEVER (by His grace) forsaking my God.  He's all I've got when it comes down to it, and I'm not letting go of that rope!  (in fact, did you know that the Hebrew word translated "hope" actually means "a cord"?  The "I Want to Go to There" of this blog is there...here...there...you know what I mean.
  
• Ok...let's back it up.  I'd love to celebrate a 50th wedding anniversary with my husband.  If my calculations are correct, I get a diamond that year, right?  I'm just joking (I'm not a fan of diamonds...neither from a human rights perspective nor aesthetically).  I just want to make it and thrive with my man!  Well, guess I'd better start with my short-term goal of losing 10 lbs :)
  
• Release two (or more) God-loving well-adjusted-but-still-love-on-their-mama adults into the world. 
• Do the stuff on my bucket list (the art/writing thing, Artic, Serengeti, New Zealand etc.).

It's as simple...or as complicated...as that :)  Yeah...I think I have enough stuff to do...will let you know how it goes!