Thing #6- Update

Well, I signed up another adviser with Lia Sophia. Her starter party is tomorrow! She seems really excited so I am glad. This means that I am closer to promoting to Unit Manager.

Thing #6-Completed

I booked my 4 parties. In fact, I have already done 3 parties and have about 6 left on the schedule. At each party I have given I have booked more parties. So, I think I am doing well. Last night, I made $300 in about an hour and a half. And really, that was just for going to a party. I guess you could call me Paris Hilton..... or not.

New Thing #6

I guess I will stick with the Lia Sophia theme and designate my next thing #6 as "Promote to Unit manager". This took my manager about 6 months. So it is more a long term goal. That is good because I can work on some of my other things.

New Things #6 & #7

New Thing #6 - Book first 4 Lia Sophia parties

So.  I have to decided to sign up with Lia Sophia just make some extra money.  I like the feeling of being in direct control of how much I make so that is what draws me to selling things.  I don't however, like the selling part!  I am not the greatest salesperson.  So there is always this conflict in me about starting.  

To sign up, I have to have 4 parties booked so that I have a good foundation for selling the jewelry in the future.  I have two parties booked already so I just need to find two more.  So, this is my new thing 6.  

New Thing #7 - Find a TESOL class online

I need to find a class where I can get a certification in TESOL.  It will help me in many ways.  But I want to find one online so I can do it at my own pace or something.  Dunno if there is something that meets all those requirements, but if there is, I will find it!

Thing #6 & #7- Completed!

Ok, so it has taken me awhile to update this.  But I am happy because I have finally completed some things on my list!  First,  I drank 8 glasses of water every day for two weeks.  I pretty much just went to the bathroom more.  Other than that, I haven't noticed any miraculous differences in  my skin or energy level.  But maybe I was expecting too much.  :]  

Secondly, Jason and I made a budget.  Also, it was kind of a fun project because Jason found a budgeting application for our iphones.  So I entered all of our expected expenses per month and also our income.  Then, every time one of us spends any money, we just enter it into our phone and we can see a little bar that shows us how much money we have left in the section.  

It is pretty nice.

 

2001 A Space Odd-isee

I just finished watching 2001: A Space Odyssey for one of my long term goals, which is to watch all 100 of AFI's best movies of all time.  This movie is high up on the list.  I believe it is in the top 25.  HONESTLY!  This should be number 1 on the "Most overrated, BORING, long winded, pointless, disturbing movies of all time" list.  

First of all, I think it is a bad idea to make a movie set less than 35 years in the future.  Your movie will seem ridiculous after 30 years because nothing that you predicted came true. 

Secondly, there were about 100 lines of dialogue and the movie was 2.5 hours long.  This movie almost made me give up my long term goal all together.  There were shots that were about 10 minutes long where nothing happened but stars and galaxies were flying past (and this was filmed in 1968, the galaxies weren't that cool) underscored by creepy chanting music. I guess Stanley Kubrick thought we would want to stare that long at such amazing special effects.  There were many shots where we would watch the astronaut just eat for 2 minutes.

The one thing I can say about the film is that it was meant to be disturbing and it was.  But mostly because of the soundtrack and the syrupy sweet voice of the evil computer.  

At the end of the movie, I had to look at this site to figure out what the heck I just watched.  I couldn't understand the plot or who or why things were happening.  Believe me when I say that I was totally dumfounded when the movie ended with a starchild staring down at Earth still in its amniotic sac.  I had never seen this starchild before!  Where did it come from and why and what the...?  Why did he think that would be a great last shot?  It didn't explain anything. 

I have been thinking about how this movie could have been nominated for 4 Academy Awards, and I think I have it figured out.  The academy members who went to see it thought, "Holy cow, I don't get it.  That must mean I am not smart.  I can't let anyone know that I am not smart!  I better vote for this movie!"  Then as they walked out of the theater, they casually mention to their neighbor how groundbreaking and deep this movie was.  The neighbor, not wanting to look stupid, agreed.  Then when someone wanted to sound intellectual, they mentioned this movie and how much they enjoyed this sketch of the true nature of humans.  Therefore, the popularity of the movie was spread by word of mouth, with no one wanting to say that they didn't get it.  And voila`! A classic movie was born!

Thing #6-almost done!

So if I had kept up with my water drinking over the weekends, I would be done by now.  BUT, I didn't so I still have a few more days to go.  I figure I will go until Friday and then call this thing completed.  So far, I haven't noticed much of a difference except that I have to go to the bathroom all the time now.   Inconvenient.....

Things #6 & #9-update

So I have been drinking about 8-10 glasses of water for about 5 days now!  Today I didn't meet my quota though.  I will just have to add a day to the end of my 2 weeks.  It is hard to get enough to drink here at home because I don't like the water very much.  But at work the water is nice because it comes in the big water dispensers.  Anyway, I am doing well drinking water at work! 

Also, I have been working on getting the part in a play.  I have been to two auditions this week.  So I think that adding more things to my list was a good move.  It helped me have more to choose from and now I don't feel so bad about not doing anything...  :]

New Things

Well, I am not posting because I have completed something but because I have added a few more things to my list.  I find that I need a wider variety of things to complete so that I can work on something that is determined by my mood.  And whoever said that I could only 5 things?  No one.  Who's blog is this?  Mine.  I can do whatever I want!  :]

Thing #6- Drink Enough Water

I am chronically bad at drinking enough water.  This goal to me means, drink 8 glasses of water per day for 2 weeks.  

Thing #7- Make a Budget

I can hardly believe that we haven't yet made a budget!  I kept saying that I would do it when I was getting a consistent paycheck.  I have been getting a consistent paycheck for over a year now but am having too much fun spending money.  I think it is about time.  

Thing #8- Get a New Headshot

A headshot is a picture of a performer that helps the people casting the performance to remember or become interested in a person.  They are supposed to be updated every 6 months.  It has been about 9 months since Jason took the snapshot that I have been using.  Now, my friend Crystal has agreed to take my headshots for me.  We just need to do it!

Thing #9- Get Cast as a Lead or Featured in a Play

I miss acting.  It has been almost two years since I was last in a play...  I miss it.  I want to not only audition for a play but get cast as a lead character or a featured (supporting) character in the play.  

Thing #10- Clean Out iPhoto and iMovie

We have been going crazy with our iMac.  We have tons of pictures and videos on here.  We have all our pictures from our honeymoon and since that we haven't gone through.  I want to go through them and delete the pictures that are blurry or otherwise things not to be proud of.  We also have some videos that I have been working on for other people that is clogging up our memory.  I want to finish that and delete all the old videos that don't deserve to see the light of day.  

Well, that is my updated list and I'm stickin' to it.

Thing #5- drawing finished

I am finished drawing the picture of my niece. Now all I have to do is start painting. Phew! Reawakening my creative side after it has lay dormant for so long is hard work! I will keep updating you on its progress!

I'm Still Going

I just want to let you all know that I am still plugging away at my goals.

• I have started researching how to transfer my Hi8 Italy video to my computer. It looks like it is easiest to find a special Digital 8 camera to do it.
  
• I have done a little bit more on Rosetta Stone but I think I probably should have put this as a long term goal.
  
• I didn't finish the painting in time..... I haven't started working on it again.... I will let you know when I do.
• I haven't started ab rolling... I wanted to start on the 1st of a month but now that just seems silly. Maybe I will start tomorrow.
  
• I got 2 picture rejected from istock..... I need to get organized a try again...
  
• I have watched a few more of my top 100 movie list.
• The biggest thing is keeping my year long photo journal updated. I haven't missed a picture yet although I am still catching up on some posts. I am VERY proud of this.
  

That is basically it. I will try to get things done faster so that I can update this more. Thanks for dropping by!

Thing #5-update

I wish I could say that I had completed this thing.  However, I can  just give you an update on its progress.  I have almost half finished the drawing portion of it....  argh!  This is the worst part!  I am horrible at perspective and proportions. I wish I could say that I was good at but I really have a tough time.  I am not sure how I will finish in time to take it to Michigan with me, seeing as we are leaving this Friday.  Maybe I will finish it while I am there......

New Thing #3

Well, I decided to do a new thing #3.  Not because I don't think it is important, but because I haven't been doing it lately.  Silly excuse right?  Since I can't really say that I completed this one, I want to take it off.  I will continue to train Mosey in my irregular pattern. 

My new thing 3 is:  Use my ab roller everyday for 1 month.  

This will really be hard for me.  I will provide you before and after measurements I plan on rolling until exhaustion everyday as opposed to a set amount of rolls.  Alright, wish me luck!  

I have also added the long term goal of writing my childhood autobiography.  This is a doozy....

Thing #3-Completed!

Ok, so Mosey's teeth have been brushed every night for the last two weeks!  Here they are in all their shining glory....  

Hey, I had to work really hard to even get this shot, so don't judge me....

My new Thing 3 is....... Train Mosey for 15 minutes every night until we leave for my brother and mother's graduation this summer.  That gives me oh.... about 3.5 weeks or so.  Why am I doing this?  Well, because in Mosey's beginner class, he was the star.  In fact, at graduation he was the only dog that did everything on the first try.  Now that he is in intermediate class, his performance has gone downhill.  He is the worst behaved dog in the whole class.  Some of it may be that the competition has been weeded out but also I have been slacking in my discipline.  I just don't feel like training him to heel and get on his bed and all that.  So it is mostly my fault.  So I am going to train him for 15 minutes every night.  Sigh... I am not going to enjoy this very much...

Updates

Sorry there hasn't been much action on the blog lately.  I haven't been totally slacking though!  First, I picked up my first share of organic produce but forgot to take a picture for you before I washed and put it all away.  But here is a picture of what I made with the organic strawberries I got!  Extremely delectable.  

Also, I have been plugging away on my German.  I am about to start lesson 4.  I think I have the photo of Emma picked out.  Oh!  Only one day left of brushing Mosey's teeth and then I can write a new 'thing' up here.  Can't wait!

As far as my long term goals go, I have been very faithfully uploading to my daily photo journal.  That takes a lot of my time right there.  Which reminds me I need to find something to take a picture of.  Hmmmmm.  Also, I have watched 2 more movies on the 100 Best Movies list.  So I am pretty proud.  See you tomorrow!

Things #5 and #1- Update

So I took my first baby step to completing my thing #5.  I bought a canvas.  

Small but steady steps toward my goal right?  Just so you know, I have been doing very well brushing Mosey's teeth.  Mosey is actually liking having his teeth brushed less and less.....  Why oh why......  I have only missed one night because I got home so late that Mosey and Jason were already asleep.  I will just have to add a day on the end.  That is right, no cheating.  

Thing #1-Completed!

Today I joined the Inland Empire's Organic Produce Co-op through meetup.com.  This means that every Saturday morning that I have prepaid, I can go meet the group and take home my share of organic produce.  I have never been into organic produce but I am sure it is a good thing and I really want to eat more fruit and vegetables.  Also, I hate buying them at the grocery stores.  Produce just isn't as good as it used to be.  When I go pick up the produce, I will take a picture for you to see what I got.  This is a picture of a share from a couple weeks ago.  

 For now, I will just add a new Thing 1 to my list....

New Thing 1:  Finish each Rosetta Stone lesson with 100%

For my birthday, some of Jason's family pitched in and bought me the Rosetta Stone language learning software, German level 2.  I have finished the 1st lesson and am half way through number two.  There are a total of about 16 lessons.  I want to do each lesson over and over until I get 100% on each section.  That is hard because it includes things like pronunciation and grammar.  I have an especially hard time with the grammar.  Anyway, I will let you know when I finish it! 

Thing #3-Starting

I started brushing Mosey's teeth last night.  Two weeks from now I will cross this one off the list!  Yay!

Thing #3-Completed!

I finished writing my thank you cards.  I still need two addresses but the rest are sitting in the mailbox waiting for the mailman to take them tomorrow.  Yay!  Here are the finished cards!

My new thing 3 is..... Brush Mosey's teeth everyday for 2 weeks.  You may think this is weird.  But that is your problem.  :]  I have brushed his teeth an average of once a week so far but he hates it so much that I hate it too.  I have to suck it up and be strong.  After two weeks, if he isn't used to it by then, I may just leave it up to rawhide.....

What and Why

What is this blog? And why did I start writing it? Well, I guess the easiest way to explain is to show you what exactly inspired me to start this blog. I received this in an email from my mother-in-law.

The Daffodil Principle
By: Jaroldeen Asplund Edwards

Several times my daughter had telephoned to say, 'Mother, you must come to see the daffodils before they are over.' I wanted to go, but it was a two hour drive from Laguna to Lake Arrowhead. 'I will go next Tuesday', I promised a little reluctantly on her third call.

Next Tuesday dawned cold and rainy. Still, I had promised, and reluctantly I drove there. When I finally walked into Carolyn's house, I was welcomed by the joyful sounds of happy children. I delightedly hugged and greeted my grandchildren.

'Forget the daffodils Carolyn! The roads are invisible in these clouds and fog, and there is nothing in the world except you and these children that I want to see badly enough to drive another inch!'

My daughter smiled calmly and said, 'We drive in this all the time mother.'

'Well, you won't get me back on the road until it clears, and then I am heading for home!' I assured her.

'But first we are going to see the daffodils. It's just a few blocks,' Carolyn said. 'I'll drive. I'm used to this.'

'Carolyn,' I said sternly, "Please turn around.'

After about twenty minutes, we turned onto a small gravel road and I saw a small church. On the far side of the church, I saw a hand lettered sign with an arrow that read, 'Daffodil Garden'.

We got out of the car, each took a child's hand, and I followed Carolyn down the path. Then, as we turned the corner, I looked up and gasped. Before me lay the most glorious sight.

It looked as though someone had taken a great vat of gold and poured it over the mountain peak and its surrounding slopes. The flowers were planted in majestic, swirling patterns, great ribbons and swaths of deep orange, creamy white, lemon yellow, salmon pink, saffron and butter yellow. Each different colored variety was planted in large groups so that it swirled and flowed like its own river with its own unique hue. There were five acres of flowers.

'Who did this?' I asked Carolyn.

'Just one woman,' Carolyn answered. 'She lives on the property. That's her home.' Carolyn pointed to a well kept A-frame house, small and modestly sitting in the midst of all that glory. We walked up to the house.

On the patio, we saw a poster.

'Answers to Questions I Know You are Asking

50,000 bulbs.

One at a time, by one woman. Two hands, two feet, one brain.

Began in 1958'

For me, that was a life changing experience. I thought of this woman I had never met, who, more than forty years before, had begun, one bulb at a time, to bring her vision of beauty and joy to an obscure mountain top. Planting one bulb at a time, year after year, this unknown woman had forever changed the world in which she lived.

One day at a time, she had created something of extraordinary magnificence, beauty, and inspiration. The principle her daffodil garden taught is one of the greatest principles of celebration.

That is, learning to move toward our goals and desires one baby step at a time and learning to love the doing, learning to love the accumulation of time. When we multiply tiny pieces of time with small increments of daily effort, we too will find that we can accomplish magnificent things. We can change the world....

'It makes me sad in a way,' I admitted to Carolyn. 'What might I have accomplished if I had thought of a wonderful goal thirty-five or forty years ago and had worked away at it 'one bulb at a time' through all those years? Just think of what I might have able to achieve!'

My daughter summed up the message of the day in her usual direct manner. 'Start tomorrow,' she said.

She was right. It's pointless to think of the lost hours of yesterdays. The only way to make learning a lesson of celebration instead of a cause for regret is to only ask, 'How can I put this to use today?'

Use the Daffodil Principle. Stop waiting......

Until your car or home is paid off
Until you get a new car or home
Until your kids leave the house
Until you go back to school
Until you finish school
Until you clean the house
Until you organize the garage
Until you clean off your desk
Until you lose 10 lbs
Until you gain 10 lbs
Until you get married
Until you get a divorce
Until you have kids
Until the kids go to school
Until you retire
Until summer
Until spring
Until winter
Until fall
Until you die....

So that is what prompted me to write this blog.  I want a place where I can record my efforts to take baby steps toward my goals and dreams.  To be completely honest, I was prompted to start writing this blog by this email forward but I got the idea to start a blog from Adam's (a college friend) "next five blog".  He has a network of people who are working on their next five things that will make their lives into journeys instead of goals.  You can find links to his network on his page.  

If you would like to start a blog like mine or his, I would love company!  I think that knowing someone was checking up on me would motivate me to keep going.  

If you notice, the is a list of the next 5 things I want to accomplish on the left hand side of this page.  There is also a longer term list.  I will talk about those now.  

Thing #1- Join a meetup.com group

I was told about meetup.com by my good friend Danelle.  Basically it is a website where you can find different clubs and groups that meet in your area.  For example, just in my area there are such groups as an Italian conversation group, a paranormal hunter group (with 77 members!  Yikes!), a scrapbooking addicts club, an organic produce co-op, a vintage and thrift shopper group and hundreds more!  I really should get involved in my hobbies and meet new people and I think this would be a fun way to do it.  

Thing #2- Edit and upload 50 more photos to iStockphoto.com

A couple years back, Jason and I joined an online stock photo community.  They sell our stock pictures and we get some profit for each time they download one of our pictures.  I haven't kept up with it and have only make $160 over the years.  Jason however has uploaded a whole bunch of new photos and now pulls in about $5/day.  Not bad for doing nothin' much.  So I want to edit and add about 50 more pictures to my site so I can earn more moolah.  

Thing #3- Write thank you cards for my birthday presents

I want to be a more gracious and thoughtful person.  One of the best ways is to just start making a habit of it.  So.  I want to write thank you cards for my presents instead of just shooting off a myspace thank you comment.  Lame!  My birthday was on the 18th so I had better hurry!

Thing #4- Make and distribute Italy DVD

I shot a lot of video footage during my year in Italy.  I want to convert it to a digital format, edit it, and make a DVD.  I also want to send it to everyone who was in it or might appreciate a copy.  *Which don't include my mom or husband.  They get so motion sick watching my movies they have to lie down after 5 minutes of watching them.  Boo....*

Thing #5- Paint my eldest niece's picture for her birthday 

My husband's brother and his wife are great photographers.  Every time I see certain pictures of their kids, I think that it would make a great oil painting.  So, I decided to pick an occasion to paint it so I would have a deadline.  Her birthday is June 5.  I had better get cracking!  I haven't painted since my freshman year of college.  

Long term Thing

I heard an idea once about keeping a photo journal for a year.  I am not sure exactly how.  But I am basically just taking a picture everyday of something and posting it on my old blog.  I started taking pictures on my birthday, April 18, 2008 and I will take the last picture on my 26th birthday, April 18, 2009.  There is a link to the blog on the side bar.  

Once I complete one thing, I will replace it with another.  I will keep you updated with pictures along the way.  Thanks for reading!