Thursday, October 3, 2013

Goals - October 2013

Goals – October 2013

I apologize for being MIA lately. Life is crazy for me right now.

I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting over the past few weeks and one of the things that has been bugging me has been my goals. I set goals every month, but really, my goals have been my to-do list. I am not ok with that anymore. My goals should be more than just a to-do list. And I should set some long-term goals too. I’m not sure I’m ready to set those today, but I am going to be less “to-do list” and more “big picture” in my goal setting moving forward. I also think you’ll see goals repeat themselves, for good reason, as the months go on.

That said, I’ll update you on how September went before moving on to my new style of goals.

Professional Goals - September 2013
Finish fall mailer. – Nope. Not done yet. Hoping for end of next week.
Finish Annual Report. – Nope. If this goes out in November, I’ll be happy. And surprised. It’s out of my hands now.
Finish analysis of 12-13. – Done. Many learning curves with a new staff member helping me with this.
Present at the Advancement committee meeting this month. – Done. 
Calendar plan winter and spring (fall is done). – Yes.
Reach out to MS and LS principals about Grandparent Day. – Yes. 
Start website overhaul. – Nope. This HAS to be done in the next few weeks before we launch our campaign.
Finalize volunteers. Not quite. 
Get art work and my diplomas up on the wall in my new office. Art work = check. Diplomas = still somewhere in our garage storage.

Personal Goals - September 2013
Workout three days a week. I was until two weeks ago. I haven’t done anything but walk Winnie since.
Yoga once a week. I’ve gone twice in the past week. It is amazing what yoga does for my mind, body, and soul. 
Figure out our plan to redoing the basement. That’s on hiatus.
Have a puppy play date with our neighbors. Yes.
Goggle hangout with my besties so we can “meet” Kristen’s daughter. Yes, this was Oct 2 but I’m still counting it! 
Take Winnie on at least one long walk (i.e., around a lake) every week. We do long walks every day now. I love that time together. 
Finish one item from my summer to-do list: “B” cork project, selling some wedding stuff on Craig’s list, or sorting through pictures and music on my phone and computer. Nope, nope, and nope. I did finally get started on the B project; just not finished. 
Stain our deck. Yes. I didn’t do anything on this project so it really should not have been on my list. But good for Michael for getting it done!
Clean out our flower boxes and get yard ready for fall. Not yet. If the weather cooperates on an upcoming weekend (this weekend is supposed to be total crap), then I can do this.
Change out my closet from spring/summer to fall/winter. I’ve taken my spring clothes out, but haven’t brought my fall/winter stuff upstairs yet.
Go shopping for fall clothes. Nope.
Host my annual Miss America party. Yes, always a good time.
Girls Night sometime this month. Canceled. Hoping for one in late October.
Read 3 books. Yes, I’ve been doing a ton of reading lately.
Menu plan each week and stick to it. Nope. We’ve been really bad about this lately.
Blog three times a week.  Hahaha…
Do another “life planning” session with Michael. While not as formal, I would say we’ve done a few of them.
Plan our travel calendar for the next year. Not quite, though we did book our plane tickets for skiing over new year’s with Michael’s fam.
Go out on a date, just Michael and me. Yes. It was so nice. And needed.
Enjoy our one year anniversary! Of course.

Professional goals

  1. Re-read my notes from Lean In, take one thing from my notes, and implement in my career.
  2. Answer the following questions: What skills have I learned from my jobs? What skills do I want to learn? If I cannot get those skills from this job, how can I learn them? 
  3. Answer the following questions: What do I bring to the table in my job? What should I be bringing to the table?
  4. Read at least one business/leadership book. 
  5. Implement new volunteer management plan.
  6. Take at least one parent volunteer to coffee to build relationships with my volunteers.
  7. Become a more active volunteer for my local professional organization. I have been on a committee for three months, but have yet to make a meeting. 


Personal Goals

  1. Commit to yoga at least once a week. Commit to running two days a week. Do them both because they reduce stress, calm anxiety, and make me feel good.
  2. Relax and go with the flow. Be more spontaneous. Everything does not have to be planned.
  3. Work on my listening skills.
  4. Go on at least 2 dates with Michael this month: dinner, apple-picking, hiking, bike riding, etc.
  5. Start the Michael and Jenni Reading Club – read a book at the same time and discuss. 
  6. Take more pictures of me and Michael.
  7. Reconnect with my girlfriends. 
  8. Eat better. Cut down on sugar. 
  9. With Michael, finalize a budget plan.
  10. Walk with Winnie and Michael every day. We’ve been doing a lot of Winnie and Jenni or Winnie and Michael walks lately. We need family walks.
  11. Stop letting Winnie keeping me from things I want/need to do. She can stay in the kitchen if she’s going nuts/getting in my way. Stop making excuses and get stuff done.
  12. Tell Michael how I love, support, and cherish him every day. 

Friday, September 20, 2013

Sunshines and Creeps


Creep to a bad week.

Creep to sleeping horribly and getting sick this week.

Creep to not being able to find my sunglasses. I have no idea where they are, and I am afraid I lost them :-(

Creep to having to cancel girls night. At least I just saw everyone last weekend at my Miss America party, which is definitely Sunshine-worthy.

Sunshine to the Miss America program for crowning it's first Asian-American Miss America. Though she wasn't my pick (I was pulling for OK or MN), I think she will be an excellent Miss America.

Sunshine to the tent sale at Hoigaards tonight. I'm only looking for one thing, but I'm sure we'll walk away with more. Maybe some new sunglasses...

Sunshine to Winnie for being such a good girl yesterday when we left her out of her kennel. Michael went home at lunch and decided to see how it would go if he left her out. I got home four hours later and she had been a doll - no accidents and nothing was destroyed! Yay Winnie!

But Creep to 10 minutes later, when she pooped on my bedroom floor. Bad Winnie...

Sunshine to Winnie being such a good little walker lately. We walked four miles yesterday.

Sunshine to The Mindy Project. If you don't watch that show, you should. It's hilarious!

Sunshine to this adorable photo I took of Winnie and Michael snuggling last night.


Friday, September 13, 2013

Sunshines and Creeps


Sunshine to lots of family visiting visiting this weekend: parents, Jessi, grandma and aunt Maria from Austria.

Creep that Michael is out of town when everyone is visiting. He's going to Seattle for a concert with friends.

Sunshine to the Hoigaard's (local sporting good store) yearly "Tent Sale" being next weekend. I thought it was this weekend and since Michael is gone, I wasn't planning to go. But since it's next weekend, we can! They have amazing markdowns on last year's stuff and I got my skis there last year.

Sunshine to getting my ring fixed this week.

Sunshine to yummy Indian food this week. I love Indian food!

Sunshine to Winnie's playdate with our neighbor's 95 lbs golden retriever. Creep  hat he might be moving soon. They had so much fun!

Creep to Winnie peeing on the couch last night. I was literally 6 inches from her while we were playing and she just squatted. Little rascal!

Sunshine to all the wedding anniversaries this week: Ours on the 8th; Jami and Chris on the 11th; and Chad and Michelle today.

Sunshine to the BOGO sale at Lund's and Byerly's this week. My favorite dessert indulgence was BOGO. YUM!

Sunshine to getting Winnie a new kennel. I think (and hope) she will love it once we get it set up.

Creep to lots of late nights for Michael this week. I feel like I hardly got to see him.

Sunshine to my annual Miss America party on Sunday. My Girls Night friends and their hubbys/soon-to-be-hubbies are coming over for it. I appreciate that they humor me in my obsession every year.

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Happy Anniversary to me!

I meant to post this on Sunday, but being out of town and without Internet access made that kind of difficult.

Sunday marked Michael and my one year anniversary. I cannot believe it's been a year already. It seems like our wedding was only yesterday, and yet, it also feels like we have been married for 10 years (in a good way).

There is no one else in the world I'd rather be with than my amazing husband, Michael. He means the world to me and I am one lucky lady!

We had an amazing first year of marriage, with lots of highs every month.

September
We got married!
I bought my first pair of skis.
We went apple and pumpkin picking with our friends.

October
We went to a NU football game.
We went on our honeymoon. SO AMAZING!
November
We cut down our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving, our yearly tradition.
And put up our Christmas lights on Thanksgiving Day.
December
We did our Advent calendar again.
We went to Hollidazzle.
We enjoyed Christmas at our house and our parents' homes.
We went to the cabin with the S family for New Years.
January
We made bolognese for the first time.

We celebrated Michael's birthday.
We painted our bathroom.
February

We went to a show.
We became obsessed with our Nespresso machine and breakfast cookbook.
March

We went on Ski Trip with Jami and Chris.
We framed our wedding photos.
Jessi came to visit.
April

We celebrated my 30th birthday in wine country in CA.
We had a lot of snow!
May

We planted our garden.
We went to our first Twins game of the season.
We went to the cabin and "opened" it for the summer.
June

We went to Chicago twice: once for a wedding...
...and once for Amy's graduation.
We got Winnie!!!
July
We spent the 4th of July at the cabin.
Winnie started puppy kindergarten.
We competed in and completed our first triathlon.
The S family came to the cabin for a weekend.
We went to Minot for my cousin's wedding.
August

Winnie graduated from puppy kindergarten.
We had our first Couples Weekend at the cabin.

We spent Labor Day weekend at the cabin.
For our anniversary, we went exactly where you think we did: the cabin. We couldn't think of a place we'd rather be than there on our anniversary, since it was the place where we got married. We celebrated Saturday and Sunday: we opened our wine box and read our love letters to each other, then replaced those with new wine and love letters; we looked at our photo album and watched our wedding video; we ate our wedding cake (new from our baker; no freezer cake for us!); and we just relished our day, knowing that it was the first of many anniversaries we will celebrate together.

I am looking forward to another exciting year of marriage. We have several trips planned or in the planning process (Europe, Los Angeles, Ski Trip, skiing with M's family, maybe another trip to wine country), we're contemplating life changes (professionally and personally), and we just know what it's like to be partners in our life now. I am so happy to call myself Jenni Beadle, and I'm finally used to calling myself that and writing Beadle (the transition from a to d has been hard for me!). Here's to many more anniversaries to come!!!

Friday, September 6, 2013

Sunshines and Creeps


Creep to one of my diamonds falling out of my wedding band. I've been wearing for only a year. I know we'll get it fixed but I'm still sad about this...

Creep to my horrible headache this week. I think it's finally gone.

Creep to running in the rain this morning. It wasn't horrible but it wasn't fun either.

Sunshine to Winnie's last puppy visit to the vet. But Creep to the cost AND scheduling her spaying date, which will be another few hundred dollars. I love my girl but she is expensive!

Sunshine to not having to run Reunion Weekend this year. Creep that it is this weekend. At least I only have to work tonight and not the whole weekend.

Creep to not attending my friend Lara's bridal shower tomorrow because I'll be out of town.

And now on to some really great Sunshines!

Sunshine to going to the cabin this weekend to celebrate where it all happened one year ago :-)

Sunshine to a free 10" anniversary cake from our wedding day cake vendor to celebrate this weekend!

Sunshine to Sunday - it's our one year anniversary! It seems like yesterday and yet, it also feels like forever ago. Happy anniversary to us! Here are some of my favorite photos from our wedding day.

















We get to open the wine box this weekend!