Tag Archives: Goals

11.30.17
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Getting Personal #96: November Goals Recap

Mathnasium

Image Credit: Mathnasium

November felt like a long month, but it was full of excitement!

Here’s the link to my November Goals post:

Ready?

Here we go!

  1. Celebrate our second wedding anniversary! — Accomplished!
  2. Keep our kitchen table clean. — Did not accomplish.
  3. Write some snail mail! — Did not accomplish.
  4. Start organizing my “Lady Lounge.” — Accomplished!
  5. Enjoy Thanksgiving! — Accomplished!

Here’s the breakdown!

Celebrate our second wedding anniversary! — Accomplished!

  • We celebrated our anniversary with a wonderful dinner at River Stone Chophouse in Suffolk. Al had their biggest steak, and I enjoyed their Colorado Lamb Chops. Everything we ate was fabulous. We didn’t have room for dessert, but we will be returning. They just started brunch service on Sundays, too!

Keep our kitchen table clean. — Did not accomplish.

  • I de-cluttered some of our old mail, but I don’t feel satisfied with my progress.

Write some snail mail! — Did not accomplish.

  • This didn’t happen. I even forgot to mail several birthday cards!

Start organizing my “Lady Lounge.” — Accomplished!

  • Every weekend, piece by piece, I’ve hauled boxes from the garage and started organizing. My biggest success has been my bookshelf. I’ve already filled three boxes of books and DVDs to donate to the local library!

Enjoy Thanksgiving! — Accomplished!

  • We took nearly a week off of work, and headed to the farm. Al’s mom fed us so well every single day!
  • We spent Thanksgiving Day with about 40 members of the Chambers family (Al’s mom side). We drove about 2 1/2 hours toward the mountains. There were four tables full of food, and one full table of desserts. Delicious!
  • When we weren’t eating, we relaxed. We went on several drives through the countryside, built a bonfire, and saw the International Space Station fly by!
  • We saw Justice League with Al’s dad. It was a good movie!
  • We also went bowling, and played about 20 rounds of UNO over two different nights.
  • It was so nice to get away!

Final Thoughts:

  • I was able to put Accomplished next to three out of five goals: Yippee!
  • The two goals that I did not accomplish: It was slightly disappointing, but I just need to dedicate more time and effort to these.

What about you? Did you have any goals for the month of November?

Come back tomorrow to see my December Goals!

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂

11.29.17
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Writing Prompt #86: “52 Weeks of Gratitude Challenge” (Week 48)

52-weeks-of-gratitude-challenge

First found on Life Lessons Around The Dinner Table.

Week #48: Your Job.

I’m incredibly thankful that I was given the opportunity to come on board at Riverside five years ago. I’ve learned so much in a different field over the years. I use my Communication Studies degree nearly every day. It’s not journalism, but I’m happy to be challenged in the field of healthcare. It’s also contributed to my paralegal studies, which are almost finished.

I also enjoy the people I work with, and the people I’ve met through Riverside as an organization. I’m grateful for all the connections I’ve made so far, and I’m sure there will be many more!

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂

 

11.22.17
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Writing Prompt #85: “52 Weeks of Gratitude Challenge” (Week 47)

52-weeks-of-gratitude-challenge

First found on Life Lessons Around The Dinner Table.

Week #47: Opportunities You’ve Been Given.

I’m grateful that so many people have come into my life, helping me open doors that I didn’t think were possible.

It’s funny, I write this post as I’m reflecting on the going-away party that we attended on Friday night for Emily and Phil. Thanks to my mother, Emily came into my life in 2010 and helped give me one of the most important opportunities of my life – The internship I needed to graduate from Longwood!

Sadly, Emily and Phil are getting ready to officially move to Texas. But, I have a feeling there will be many opportunities to go visit them!

—

Thinking back, I can list many opportunities that I’ve been given:

  • Learning different instruments – Piano, then viola
  • Traveling abroad – Two cruises in the 1990s, British Columbia (1998), Russia (2001), Europe (2005), Paris (2008)
  • Participating in the IB program in high school
  • Being a blood donor since 2005
  • Going to Longwood for my college career
  • Writing for and being on staff with Longwood’s student newspaper
  • Holding a variety of jobs since college
  • Gaining valuable experience through work and volunteering
  • Being accepted into several different organizations – Alpha Sigma Tau, PEO, etc.
  • Working toward a paralegal degree
  • Becoming a Certified Professional Coder
  • Participating in National Novel Writing Month three times, so far
  • Improving this little blog of mine over the last several years

—

For me, I think of every new day as a new opportunity to make a difference. It doesn’t have to be anything big. Think random acts of kindness. I’ve participated in a few drive-thru “pay it forward” chains before, as well as holding doors for people, thanking those in uniform for their service, and just being kind. I haven’t read the book or seen the movie yet, but I think of Wonder and I think “choose kind.”

I look forward to future opportunities, and I’m grateful for every one.

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂

11.15.17
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Writing Prompt #84: “52 Weeks of Gratitude Challenge” (Week 46)

52-weeks-of-gratitude-challenge

First found on Life Lessons Around The Dinner Table.

Week #46: Technology.

I’m grateful for technology, for the most part. It’s changed my life in multiple ways.

When we first got Internet at my parents’ house, it was the mid-1990s. It was revolutionary! It’s amazing how far things have come in just the last 20 years.

However, I find myself looking to escape technology as well. Since I work on a computer all day for my job, there are many days where I come home and I don’t want to look at any screens! It’s a hard thing to balance.

What about you? Are you grateful for technology?

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂

11.08.17
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Writing Prompt #83: “52 Weeks of Gratitude Challenge” (Week 45)

52-weeks-of-gratitude-challenge

First found on Life Lessons Around The Dinner Table.

Week #45: What You Do For Fun.

I could go on for a long time about what I like to do for fun.

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Bikes

June 2017 – Al took this photo before we hopped on. We love riding around our neighborhood – Very safe and quiet. We certainly work up a good sweat! The only change we’ll make is better bike seats!

Nevada Preps

Image Credit: Nevada Preps

I’m grateful that I’m physically able to ride my bike and play softball. Al just bought lights for our bikes so we can ride them in the evenings – Yay! I would love to get back into softball – I played on a church team several years ago, and I miss it!

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Busch Gardens Williamsburg

Busch Gardens Williamsburg in Williamsburg, Virginia. Image Credit: Theme Park Review

Kings Dominion

Kings Dominion in Doswell, Virginia. Image Credit: Kings Dominion

In the same vein, I love visiting different amusement parks. Roller coasters are the best! I’m glad that I’m able to ride them. They definitely make my heart race and my voice hoarse. I’ve been fortunate to have been to Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Kings Dominion multiple times, along with Water Country USA. As a kid, I went to several in California, Florida, and Pennsylvania.

One of my big goals is to visit Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio. So many coasters! I also like the water rides. Plus, it’s a great way to spend time with friends and family.

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Big Fish Games

Gummy Drop is one of my favorites! Image Credit: Big Fish Games

RCTgo

Have you played any of the Roller Coaster Tycoon games? Image Credit: RCTgo

WITICS - Amazon

I had this! I wonder if my parents still have the game CDs! Image Credit: Amazon

I also enjoy playing games on my phone, iPad, and computer. Right now, I like several different match-3 games, but I also want to get all the Roller Coaster Tycoon and Carmen Sandiego games for my PC again. Those bring back so many childhood memories!

—

NYC Skyline - Youtube

Image Credit: YouTube

Traveling is another fun thing. We’re saving money for New York City right now!

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂

 

11.01.17
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Getting Personal #94: November Goals

November Goals - Jen Russum

Image Credit: Jen Russum

Welcome to November! It’s hard to believe we’re in the home stretch for 2017!

Here are my goals for the month of November:

  1. Celebrate our second wedding anniversary!
  2. Keep our kitchen table clean.
  3. Write some snail mail!
  4. Start organizing my “Lady Lounge.”
  5. Enjoy Thanksgiving!

Here’s the breakdown:

Celebrate our second wedding anniversary!

  • It’s hard to believe two years have gone by.
  • Since our anniversary falls on a Tuesday this year, we’re headed to a really nice chop house in Suffolk to celebrate!

Keep our kitchen table clean.

  • I’m so mad at myself from last month. I’m tired of the clutter. I’m committed to making this happen!

Write some snail mail!

  • I’m determined to mail out many cards and letters this month!

Start organizing my “Lady Lounge.”

  • With moving the rest of my things from Mom and Dad’s, our garage has many more boxes that need to be emptied!
  • I want to start with my bookshelf, and then my dolls.

Enjoy Thanksgiving!

  • We’re excited to take a few days off from work and spend the holiday with Al’s parents and some of their family!

Do you have any goals for the month of November?

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂

11.01.17
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Writing Prompt #82: “52 Weeks of Gratitude Challenge” (Week 44)

52-weeks-of-gratitude-challenge

First found on Life Lessons Around The Dinner Table.

Week #44: Your Favorite Holiday.

I’ve always loved Christmas. As I’ve mentioned before, most of my childhood Christmases were spent in Florida with my grandparents. However, I have fond memories of my church’s Christmas Eve services – I sang in the children’s choir for several years during the 5:00 p.m. service. The traditional 7:30 p.m. service has Christmas carols, and the last song has almost always been “Silent Night,” sung by candlelight as the sanctuary lights are turned out. It gives me chills now just thinking about it.

I’m not a fan of the commercialization, however, especially in the last few years. We’re already seeing Christmas commercials on TV. We walked into Lowe’s in Norfolk over the weekend, and we were blasted with Christmas decorations when we walked in! I try to remember the true reason for the season.

As we kick off November, I’m excited for lower temperatures and Thanksgiving. But, in about a month, my Christmas spirit will begin to kick in. I can’t wait to decorate our Christmas tree with Al, play festive music, and enjoy several parties and holiday activities.

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂

10.31.17
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Getting Personal #92: October Goals Recap

Vibe Shifting

Image Credit: Vibe Shifting

October was really busy, but fun and awesome. Fall has arrived!

Here’s the link to my October Goals post:

Ready?

Here we go!

  1. Donate blood. — Did not accomplish.
  2. Celebrate several birthdays! — Accomplished!
  3. Celebrate Mary Lauren & Jeremy’s wedding! — Accomplished!
  4. Celebrate Nick & Savy’s wedding!! — Accomplished!
  5. Write at least 400 new words for my 2012 NaNoWriMo attempt. — Did not accomplish.
  6. Write at least two blog posts on home improvements. — Semi-Achieved.
  7. Make / purchase photo canvases. — Did not accomplish.
  8. Attend Hampton Comicon! — Did not accomplish.
  9. Finally start moving items from my parents’ house to ours. — Accomplished!
  10. Keep our kitchen table clean! — Did not accomplish.
  11. Update my TBR. — Accomplished!
  12. Be a successful co-hostess for the October PEO meeting. — Accomplished!
  13. Write some snail mail! — Did not accomplish.
  14. Celebrate Halloween! — Accomplished!
  15. Enjoy Little (Lane) when she visits for a week! — Accomplished!
  16. Order the Desert Mist Diffuser, and more Savvy Minerals makeup! — Semi-Achieved.

Here’s the breakdown!

Donate blood. — Did not accomplish.

  • My iron level was just 0.1 away from qualifying. Needless to say, I’ve been taking my liquid iron supplement with breakfast every single day since!

Celebrate several birthdays! — Accomplished!

  • We celebrated my mom’s birthday at the beginning of the month with a big party – Dad, Al, me, Debbie D., Karen, Michaela, Kathy, Perry, and Lucy!
  • We pulled off the most epic surprise for Mia at Nick and Savy’s rehearsal dinner – She had no clue until we got halfway through singing “Happy Birthday.” It was awesome!

Celebrate Mary Lauren & Jeremy’s wedding! — Accomplished!

  • Mary Lauren and Jeremy tied the knot on Saturday, October 7th. It was a beautiful ceremony!

Celebrate Nick & Savy’s wedding!! — Accomplished!

Write at least 400 new words for my 2012 NaNoWriMo attempt. — Did not accomplish.

  • There were too many other things going on this month!

Write at least two blog posts on home improvements. — Semi-Achieved.

Make / purchase photo canvases. — Did not accomplish.

  • One of these days, hopefully before the end of the year, this will happen!

Attend Hampton Comicon! — Did not accomplish.

  • We decided not to go – We’re waiting for Tidewater Comicon 2018!

Finally start moving items from my parents’ house to ours. — Accomplished!

  • This finally happened on Saturday the 21st. My mom was so happy, she was dancing!

Keep our kitchen table clean! — Did not accomplish.

  • This just didn’t happen.

Update my TBR. — Accomplished!

Be a successful co-hostess for the October PEO meeting. — Accomplished!

  • I co-hosted the meeting at Susan’s house in Virginia Beach. The grapes I brought were the biggest hit!

Write some snail mail! — Did not accomplish.

  • Again, too many things going on this month.

Celebrate Halloween! — Accomplished!

  • We celebrated Halloween at Kathryn & Tim’s “Stranger things are coming” party on the 21st!
  • We’re passing out candy to the neighborhood kids tonight!

Enjoy Little (Lane) when she visits for a week! — Accomplished!

  • We thoroughly enjoyed the party at Tim’s house last Friday night. You can’t go wrong with good food, a roaring fire pit, and s’mores!
  • Last night, I went to a wooden door hanger painting party at Mrs. Cindy’s house. We had a blast! I didn’t get home until after 10:00 p.m. Mine is three pumpkins with fall leaves. The best part – I can paint a snowman on the reverse side later!

Order the Desert Mist Diffuser, and more Savvy Minerals makeup! — Semi-Achieved.

  • This is going in my November order. I can’t wait!

Final Thoughts:

  • I was able to put Accomplished next to eight out of 16 goals! Woohoo! Since this month was really busy, I’ll take it!
  • The two goals that were Semi-Achieved: I’m happy about these.
  • The six goals that I did not accomplish: This was slightly disappointing. But, I knew that I was being extremely ambitious with 16 goals! More to do in November!

What about you? Did you have any goals for the month of October?

Come back tomorrow to see my November Goals!

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂

10.25.17
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Writing Prompt #81: “52 Weeks of Gratitude Challenge” (Week 43)

52-weeks-of-gratitude-challenge

First found on Life Lessons Around The Dinner Table.

Week #43: A Mentor / Teacher.

Thinking about this week’s post, I remembered writing a different blog post about the wonderful math teacher I had for three years in high school, Mrs. Zwemer.

Here’s the link to that post, from September 2016:

I’ll let you read the original post, but I think of Mrs. Zwemer every single day. Sadly, the evil beast that is cancer took her from this world far too soon. I found the program from her funeral this past weekend at my parents’ house, and she’s been on my mind ever since. She made me appreciate math, and that’s a big feat in my eyes!

When I think of Buzz Lightyear, it reminds me of Mrs. Zwemer and her classroom. To infinity and beyond!

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂

10.20.17
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Getting Personal #90: Home Improvement, Part 1

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Image Credit: CNN Money

As promised, here’s an update on our home improvements!

It’s hard to believe that I published the post titled Getting Personal #23: Home Ownership in June 2016. Our house has come a long, long way since then!

While planning this post, I quickly realized that I didn’t take a lot of “Before” photos!

I think I mentioned in a previous blog post that most of our house was carpeted, but we knew there was hardwood floor underneath. Lucky for us, the hardwood was in great shape. It had been protected by the carpet, in a way.

The week before we officially moved in, we hired a local man and his company to refinish the floors in the living room, all four bedrooms, and the hallway that connected the bedrooms. They were fabulous. They got the job done in four days, and the floors still look amazing more than a year later!

Bathrooms

We have two bathrooms upstairs, and one half-bath downstairs. We replaced two of the toilets last year, and all three match now. Eventually, we want to repaint them, and get the blue carpet out of the guest bathroom. For now, we’re happy all of the plumbing works!

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We hardly did anything with the three bathrooms, at least for now. In two of them, we added these metal shelves. This is our guest bathroom – Stocked and ready for visitors!

Guest Room #1

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There was wood paneling on the outer walls in three of the four bedrooms. When we took the paneling down, there were secret messages behind them! It was like a treasure hunt. 

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This bubblegum pink wall was in the bedroom across from our master suite. It took us almost a full day to get all the lattice-style wood off the wall and patch all the nail holes!

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After we removed the blinds, the paneling, the wood, and the nails, this was before we painted it.

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The room is a bit of a mess at the moment, but we want this to be our game room. We painted the walls with “Monorail Silver.”

Guest Room #2

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This is the other guest room. The far wall had dark wood paneling. This was before we painted.

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We have my futon in there now, but we eventually want to put our current queen size mattress in there, once we get our king size bed for our room. We painted the walls with “Monorail Silver.”

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This was a project that we just finished. My parents found this chest of drawers on the street in their neighborhood. It was originally covered in black enamel paint. Al labored for a long time, stripping the paint and sanding it. After Al primed it. we picked a complimentary color to the walls, and Al did most of the work! The only other thing to do is to upgrade the hardware of the drawers.

Al’s Man Cave

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The far wall also had wood paneling. This is before we painted Al’s man cave.

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This is Al’s man cave now. He painted the walls with “Storm Cloud.”

Master Bedroom

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This is part of our master bedroom – I took the photo while standing in the doorway. This room used to have red shag carpet!

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This is our master suite at the moment – A little messy. We painted the walls with “Storm Cloud.” We’re hoping to get actual blinds for the windows this weekend!

Living Room

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This was how we initially set up our living room. This room had pink / mauve carpet, white walls, and massive valances on brackets above the windows. We painted three walls “Reflection Gray,” and left the far wall white (We are going to make that one the accent wall).

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This is our living room now. We moved the couch back a bit, added blinds to the windows, upgraded to an actual TV stand, moved Al’s nightstand upstairs, and added my end tables from my apartment. We want to get some curtains for the windows, and a larger area rug.

Laura Beth’s “Lady Lounge”

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I only have a “Before” photo. I’m excited to turn this space into my office, my library, and put my American Girl dolls on display! We painted these walls with “Reflection Gray.” This space will start to be transformed tomorrow!

That’s all I have right now. Look for Part 2, coming soon!

What have you done to improve your home?

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂