Welcome To MagnusonHouse

What if… Mark’s two favorite words. If you know anything about Strengths Quest you will understand when I say Mark is high end “Deliberative” He makes me a little crazy sometimes and I’m deliberative as well, but I don’t think I hit as high on the scale as he does.

Tomorrow my baby turns 13. It’s hard to believe. I’ve been uploading my pictures to flickr and have been working on 2000 and 2001.  He was just a bright eyed boy that was quick to smile and laugh. Today he’s still bright eyed though he’s generally quick with the smart comment. Then again, he’s 13. He is a good kid, he has a tender heart, but he’s also opinionated and isn’t afraid to say what he thinks. Sometimes I wish he wouldn’t always say what he’s thinking, but in the long run he’ll probably be a better person because of it. Too often I don’t say what I think when I should.

Not only do I have the excitement of my baby’s 13th birthday, but Tuesday I leave for Las Vegas for the American Society of Training and Development conference. It should be a good conference and getting away for a few days is nice.  I’ll admit it I’m looking forward to it.  I’ll be posting my learnings on the training blog rather than my personal.  Any after conference antics will be posted here. But as we know what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas!!!

When Mark was first born he had a low body temperature and so here they have him laying on a heating pad trying to warm him up. He also was born with an irregular heartbeat. That disappeared for awhile and reappeared at 6 months and stuck around for about 3 years. Now all seems to be good.

This week has been pretty uneventful. I went back to work on Tuesday which was nice though I really didn’t have a lot of motivation to work.  But I did get some things accomplished  had I nice time at the Spiritual Emphasis Day at APU.

My goals for January are pretty simple.

1. Stick with the Bible 360 website.  It’s been fun I’ve had 3 or 4 people who have been activity commenting and it’s getting several hits. I’ve got post through the 14th ready to go.
2. Read at least 4 books – I’ve already read 2 this weeks.
3. Get my budget established – I’ve been working on this but trying to remember all the stupid stuff I spend money.
4. Get my checkbook updated on my phone so I can track my finances.  
5. Reduce the amount of soda I drink.

I only made it to the gym 3 times this week.  But tomorrow is the start of a new week and another chance to get it right.

No great Mark stories this week. The only story is the stunt he pulled on Friday. I asked on Thursday night if his homework was done, to which he responds “yes.” Friday morning at 7:32, we try to leave at 7:30 but I digress… at 7:32 he comes to me and says “Can you type something for me since you type faster?” It was a page and half document for history that was due on that day!  I could have killed him! But since it affected 2 others I typed it. UGH

I did do something fun Tuesday, I went to the APU Women’s Basketball game and took pictures. I had a blast and we won! Here’s one of my favorite from the night. 

To see the other pictures that were posted on the APU Web site click here

Here I am in Carlsbad, though this year we are staying in the EconoLodge instead of the Rodeway Inn. The EconoLodge had only a slightly higher rate with a full breakfast. The really interesting part is the boys and I stayed at this facility a few years ago, before it was owned by the Choice hotels, it was called the Travel Lodge and to say it was a skanky pit would be polite. I was curious and hoped I wasn’t making a mistake. Oh my, I did NOT make a mistake! Choice has done an amazing job fixing this place up. The room is beautiful! One of the larger rooms we’ve had in a motel, flat screen TV. It’s just an incredible transformation from the skanky, no a/c hole that I could only spend a few hours in (we actually left in the middle of the night because it was too hot to sleep)  Here’s the picture I took with my phone.

Anyway, as I look at my goals that I wrote this time last year, I did fairly well.

Goal 1 – Read the Old Test chronologically. Check! It was great to read the OT that way. It helped me understand the interplay between the history books and the prophets. The Thomas Nelson Chronological Study Bible was a great tool. They told a lot of the history as well.

Goal 2 – An average of 4 work outs a week. I did fairly well with this, but did have lapses. Part of it was due to the tendonitis in my foot other times it was my depression and not caring about life.

Goal 3 – Read 50 books. CHECK! Finished #50 this afternoon. Read a lot of good books.

Goal 4 – Blogging… didn’t do as well at that as I should.  No real excuse… just didn’t get it done.

Other accomplishments this year:

• I finished my Master’s Degree!!!!
• Mark and I took an amazing road trip vacation to northern California and back.
• I started shooting Women’s Soccer, Women’s Volleyball as well as football.

There might be more, but those are the ones that come to mind.

  As I look forward to 2012 I’m not sure what major things I want to accomplish. But here are some things that I know I want to do:

1. See Bible 360 to completion, check it out at: mybible360.blogspot.com
2. Read 50 books
3. Create a budget (novel I know)
4. Manage my checkbook (yes, I know NOVEL)
5. Exercise an average of 4 times a week.
6. Build the followers of Favorite Christian Books website.
7. Be off blood pressure medicine by next New Year’s Eve!!! Which means a lot of work, but hopefully I’ll be up for the challenge.

Tomorrow I’ll post my goals for January. I like the idea of monthly goals that hopefully feed into the goals for the year.

There are changes happening this year. A little scary but I have to trust that all will work out for the best.

Happy New Year!