21 Days to a New Habit

Some literature say that it takes 21 days to form a new habit. At the start of this year I wanted to do a few things more consistently (blog, journal, scrap, read my Bible and pray, exercise, be more social, and read books). So how does one DO these things on a consistent basis? Well, I figured I needed to track my daily activities based on whether I've done these things or not. If I do these things 3-4 times per week, then it is considered consistent. So I put together a weekly activity tracker and printed it out. It looks something like this:

Then I put my activities that I want to track on the left side, and the dates on top. Then I can keep track to my hearts content each week. So far so good! I think I've officially developed new healthier habits for my physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual needs. Then, I did this layout to remind myself of all the things I love right now. They're not exactly all THINGS, more like experiences, activities, etc.

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Birthday Party for Barbara

Friday 1/18 was my friend Barbara's birthday. Our friends Denice and Shona put together a surprise party for Barbara. Last year Barbara was diagnosed with cancer on her birthday, so this year we had a party for her to more than "balance it out". Denice and Shona did a bang-up job decorating and pulling all the food together. Not only that, everyone was able to keep the surprise a SECRET! Barbara was truly surprised when she came into the room.

I made a card for Barbara. I wasn't sure how it would turn out since it's my first time making inked edges and putting glitter glue on, but I think it turned out alright!

Meera and I. You can't even tell Meera had a baby a couple months ago. She looks really great! Oh yea, the party was semi-formal, so we all got an opportunity to play dress-up.

I thought this punch fountain was absolutely beautifully lit-up.

These holiday trees were so beautiful, glowing like hope.

Denice MADE this cake! It was as delicious as it looked. I just loved the light blue color.

What can I say? I just really love taking pictures of the glowing decorations.

The woman of the hour, Barbara. She looked beautiful on the outside. But even more, she's so beautiful on the inside. So full of faith.

Meera & AJ strike a pose. They got their first night out since having baby Andon!

Me and Todd.

Jennifer and Steve.

Is it disco time? This little disco ball was so cute, as were the lights and snowflakes hanging from it.

Group picture. This was our church home fellowship from a few years ago. I'm so thankful for all the friendships that continued on from this group!

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There's always next year

The Chargers lost to the New England Patriots today! :( They were big underdogs and not many people gave them a chance to win, especially with all the injuries. But we were still disappointed. Hopefully they'll get even better next year. I never expected them to go this far this season, especially with the 1-3 start, so I am very satisfied with how far the Chargers went this season. It's just hard when they were so close to going to the Super Bowl. Yesterday we had a photo session with Melissa Koehler. She had asked for volunteers to do some creative shots and I volunteered myself and Todd. She was SO nice and so fun to work with! Here is the link to her blog that shows some of the photos she took. They're so colorful and the lighting is really cool. Here's a new page I did tonight. I'm still participating in the page a day challenge over at Big Picture Scrapbooking.

Photo above taken by Tara Whitney

Also yesterday, I ran 5 miles at Miramar Lake! I haven't run there for a few weeks, and I haven't run 5 miles in a long time. I was so happy and proud that I could still do it and it was actually pretty easy. I ran at a slower pace and was able to feel pretty easy-going the entire time.

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Rockin' in Austin

three and a half years ago, that is! I've been competing in a challenge to scrapbook one page a day. As you can imagine, it's not easy to come up with topics, pictures, and inspiration EVERY single day. So today I had to dig deep and go back to August 2004, when Todd toured with The Northstar Session to Austin, TX. I'm pretty happy with the end result, even though it took me a long time to figure out what I wanted to scrapbook about, and to find the right pictures and all the elements on the page.

Tonight we went to eat some Indian food at New Delhi Kitchen. I had a plate with Chicken Tikka Masala and Vegetable Korma. Todd had curried veggies and also Chicken Tikka Masala, all served with naan bread. Then we went to Target to buy a bunch of stuff: laundry detergent, crock pot, lots of stuff from the $1 bin in the front, including a yoga mat, Curious George valentine's chocolates, and scrapbooking stuff! Overall, a very fruitful trip, especially since I got to use one of my Christmas gift cards! After Target we headed over to Costco, where we used our Costco coupon and got Turbo Tax Deluxe for around $22. Good deal! We also got a box of Asian pears, some frozen pasta, and sticks of butter (for everyday popcorn eater Todd).

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The Buckeye Party

We had a party at our house last Monday night to watch the BCS National Championship Game between the OSU Buckeyes and the LSU Tigers. Todd cooked BBQ chicken sandwiches, carrot salad, lemon vinaigrette green beans, caramel popcorn, and orange zest blueberry lemon cupcakes. Unfortunately, the Buckeyes lost! :( But to look on the bright side, it's better to lose the National Championship than to lose to USC in the Rose Bowl, which we probably would have done had we gone to the Rose Bowl.

On the upside, the Chargers beat the Indianapolis Colts today to go on to the AFC Championship game next week against New England! Although, I'm not holding out much hope to win against New England, who is undefeated this season. Especially since Philip Rivers, LaDanian Tomlinson, and Antonio Gates are hurt! But it's so great that they won two playoff games and have gone this far!

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