Happy New Year!

I can't believe it's 2011! I barely stayed awake to watch the ball drop, but I rang in the new year with Janine and Jill. We enjoyed a lovely dinner of steak, salad, and potatoes and watched a few movies. One of the movies we watched was Going the Distance which is about a couple in a long distance relationship. I really liked the movie, but it hit really close to home. The airport scene where they parted was really tough to watch. I was really happy to spend the evening with great friends because it wasn't easy to spend New Year's Eve without my hubby, especially considering we got engaged four years ago on New Year's Eve at midnight, so it's a night with special meaning for us. Luckily, I had this guy to snuggle with...

 

 

he is wearing his doggy snuggie because it's COLD out!

I started the year out right by hitting the treadmill this morning at the gym followed by a pilates class. Luckily we went early enough so it wasn't super crowded yet, but I anticipate that the gym will be buzzing with all the people trying to start the new year by exercising and being healthier. I am happy that hitting the gym is part of my weekly routine regardless of the time of year and I don't have to make a resolution to be healthy--it's already a habit.

I always like to start the new year with some new goals, but before I make some new ones, let's take a look at what I set out to do in 2010....

1. Get in better shape-success! I'm feeling great, training for a half marathon, and have been exercising frequently in the past few weeks. This wasn't the case ALL year, but I am glad I made it through the holidays and ended the year on a good note!

2. Relax and go with the flow-success! I think I definitely got better at this in 2010 especially since moving back to the US and being away from Mr. Sneaker requires a pretty positive attitude.

3.Make a quilt-attempted but failed. I started my quilt in Germany with the help of Lucinda, but I have not done any work on it since I moved back to the US and don't see it getting finished any time soon....

4. Think more about others than myself-success! It's hard to really evaluate this and it's a work in progress, but I think I have made a good effort to do this, especially pertaining to my students' parents and my husband.

5. Read at least one book for pleasure each month-success! I had a few really busy months once I moved back in August, but I read 46 books this year for pleasure, so I am really happy with that. There were certain months that I read a ton, so those months definitely made up for the few months when I was extra busy. Help was probably the best book I read this year and I HIGHLY recommend it to anyone who has not read it yet! I also just read The Hunger Games which I also really liked!


New Goals for 2011

• Complete the half marathon in April! Tomorrow my training team is doing a 10 miler which will be the longest run I have ever done. I would also like to increase my speed during runs which I have been working on lately.
• Complete Core Paper and Specialty Paper for my doctoral program-these are both long papers that I need to write between now and the end of the school year. I will have present and defend both of them to my committee of faculty members and anyone else who comes to watch. They are huge milestones in the program and I have a LOT of work to do in order to catch up with the rest of my cohort since I missed most of last year when I was in Germany.
• Start my dissertation research-Hopefully I will be able to work on this a LOT this summer so that I can definitely complete by entire program in 2012! 
• Read at least 1 book for pleasure each month (I loved this goal last year!)
• Post on this blog more frequently! As I look back at posts from last year I realize how much more I was posting when I lived in Germany. I know that working part time and having a lot more free time has a lot to do with that, but I would like to get back into the habit of posting more. I know that blogs often change as life changes and I don't mind that sometimes I blog about stuff completely unrelated to teaching, but I would like to get back to the teacher talk and write more about what is going on in my classroom.

Did you make resolutions or set goals for the new year?

How did you celebrate last night?