HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
Sure do hope your New Year's Eve was safe and fun.
I must truly be getting old. I was completely reasonable this New Year's Eve.
Hmmm....possibly a hint of things to come? We'll see!

That's the pond in the back of our house this morning, New Years Day. As you can see, it's raining cats and dogs. The pond is one of the biggest reasons I love our home. I do believe we have one of the prettiest properties in our town. I now can't imagine ever not living on water of some kind or another. It's so ever-changing and the wildlife is so interesting to watch - pretty incredible as we live in the middle of a city.
Our ducks are back. They stay until the pond completely freezes over and always return as soon as even a little bit of it thaws. Most of the ducks we get are mallards - they nest in the spring around the pond and are generally here year-round unless, of course, the pond is frozen, which it was last week. Over the years we've spotted loons, brown ducks, common, hooded and red breasted mergansers, green-winged teal, and wood ducks during spring and fall migration but they never stay for any length of time. Of course the Canada geese like our pond, too, but we try to discourage them as they make such a horrid mess of the yard. Thankfully our dogs do a good job of keeping them in the water.

Enough already about our pond!

It's the first day of a new year - may it be everything you want it to be. I have officially challenged myself that on New Year's Eve 2008 I will be able to honestly write here that I have met my10 New Year's Eve 2007 resolutions........HELP ME!!!!

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xoabb

The End of Another Year (OH NO!!)

Here I am, once again at the end of another year.... Could it have possibly gone any faster? I think not! So many changes this past year, most good, some not so good, and all happening in record time it seems. As I've done every damn year since my teens (that was loooong ago), I've spent this last day of 2007 thinking about and making a list of all the deeds I most definitely will accomplish in 2008. (This, of course, includes most of the deeds I most definitely was going to accomplish in 2007.)

1. I will finally exercise religiously and regularly (stop laughing!!)

2. I will finally find a damn diet that actually works. Hmmm....I'm beginning to suspect that diets might actually work better if you follow them for longer than three days. I promise I will follow this new diet for every day of 2008.........I have never made that promise before......well, maybe I have......oh well......I'll be honest about my progress or lack thereof........I promise!!

3. I will pick up my clothes in my bedroom and put them where they belong EVERY NIGHT. My husband had the nerve to tell me today that the floor was not considered another closet.

4. I will find a pair of blue jeans that actually fit me and don't fall down. When you have no waist (because of age and weight, not preggers stuff, thank God!) it is very difficult to keep pants up. Of course if I fully embrace #'s 1 and 2, I could actually re-find my waist and then keeping up my pants won't be a problem.

5. I will pass my damn real estate test. And isn't it a brilliant time to do that?? The worst house market we've had in years and I want to get my damn real estate license. I have never claimed to be practical.

6. I will clean out my basement. Actually my husband and I have to do this as we're close to having our house declared a booby-trap hazard. How did it get so out of control???

7. I will start auctioning off all of our stuff from the booby-trap basement on eBay to get rid of it.

8. I will learn to record every episode of Brothers & Sisters, Men in Trees, The Biggest Loser and Private Practice. I will also learn what word has replaced the old fashioned "record".

9. I will teach my damn dog not to spend a way too big part of every damn day barking her damn head off.

10. I will keep this blog up and running and current.....I promise.

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xoabb