Happy New Year 2009!

It's already a new year! Wow! 2008 has come and gone. It was a year full of goals and I met quite a few of them. Unfortunately, I didn't meet two or three of my largest goals, but I'm confident that I will do so by the middle of 2009. In fact, now I don't make yearly goals. I make six month goal charts and they are set up similar to the categories that are listed in Provident Living...though I started them long before that website ever existed. My parents taught us about this concept long ago and I just kind of held on to it.

Perhaps I should put the goals here, but that means this post will most likely remain in draft mode seen only by me. Most of them will remain private, but some are obvious - lose weight, eat healthy, max the 401k, pay down debt, rent out my condo, read more scriptures and good books, serve more, love better, work smarter, act on ideas, and enjoy life.

Today we went to a movie (Benjamin Button - sad, meaningful, and thought provoking come to mind) and one of my friends said something a few people have said this past week - "I'm so glad 2008 is over. 2009 is going to be a great year."

Yes, 2009 will be a great year! Thank goodness that we have year cycles. It gives us a legitimate excuse with society to start over, change, and improve upon the past. January is the one time of year where it seems ok to share this fact with everyone.

Good luck to you this year. Let's hope that we all make it the best and if we haven't met all of our goals in the next 12 months, at least we have comfort in knowing that 2010 will come with another chance.

Happy New Year and New Resolve in 2009!

Riff-Raff - characters at Kings Dominion

Ok, we needed a break from all the work stress this past week and drove south to spend a few hours on roller coasters at Kings Dominion. I can only handle so much of these things and I find myself praying an awful lot just to make sure that I'm not part of some tragic accident.

However, perhaps I should have been praying for all the characters that were walking around. Good-ness! I guess this was a good dose of reality compared to the northern Virginia bubble! Some of these people forgot that they weren't sitting at home in their personal jacuzzi and/or didn't realize that hemp tattoos might not be a bad idea when you are tempted to plaster your entire body with graffiti. It's one thing when you are a legitimate Polynesian chief, but it's an entirely different story when all skin is covered with skulls/crossbones, your ex-girlfriend's first name, logo of your place of employment or a map. Yes, a map...and not for treasure.

The amazing thing was that parents already had their 5-6 year olds talking, walking, dressing and acting like themselves. That's great if you are a profound person, but what I described isn't sounding that way, aye?

It was a mixture of entertainment and sadness. Sadness because I caught a glimpse of how each person really passes on the good and the bad to the next generation.

After some rides, some nausea, some junk food and some four hours later - we decided the entertainment was enough. After all, if you stick around...you might start thinking this is normal behavior. No thank you. For now, I will return to the bubble.

Graham Crackers Anonymous - 2 hours clean!

So, my Cookies Anonymous has been really successful over the last month and a half. However, I figured I'd buy graham crackers to fill the cookie void. Yikes. It didn't work. I just ate a whole box with a couple of glasses of milk in far less than 24 hours. So, here we go on another personal support group.

I have given up peanut M&Ms which happened to be my first crutch after giving up the cookies.


However, it is looking like the root cause is milk. I thought it might be in a prior blog entry - http://rebeckeronline.blogspot.com/2008/04/cookies-anonymous-over-31-days-clean.html and so this is further confirmation of a deeper problem.

Milk Anonymous is next.

Cookies Anonymous - over 31 days clean!

Ok, I've left cookies alone for a while and don't suspect that I'll have to keep up the posting about them.

I have allowed myself some animal crackers and graham crackers in the past week, but this is primarily because the word "crackers" replaces the word "cookies." However, they may be next to go because there is a certain dangerous-ness with combining these types of crackers with large glasses of milk. After all, cookies were far more tempting to me when a glass of milk was accessible. I have a similiar addiction with cereal.

Hmmm! I'm not sure which direction to go with this - should I give up milk or crackers, cookies, and cereal?