So, we obviously failed Project 365. The catch-up after our move completely threw us off. It became cumbersome. The pictures were the same every single day. Remi and Luna are cute, but not that cute (kidding). So we did what any logical person would do – quit… even though we only had 82 days to go. Haha.
We apologize for the absence. We received some exciting news at the beginning of December. Temoc got into his top choice dental school! He also received his fourth interview call, but thankfully (for our bank account) he was able to decline the three remaining interviews.
2011 was a trying year. We went through a lot of emotional ups and downs, but they were just experiences that grew us closer together (I can’t imagine having to go through any of it without his patience, support, strength and love).
We have several goals that we have to accomplish in 2012. All of the goals are centered upon moving to a (real) city (these are not dreaded new year’s resolutions – we likely won’t have a choice and will have to make them happen):
Learn how to downsize. Before and after our move, we donated a bunch of unnecessary items. However, we only lost 200 square feet in this house (but gained some of that square footage in the garage). We’ll be lucky if we only lose an additional 1000 square feet in the next move. And we won’t have a garage. Needless to say, in the next six months, we will have to make many decisions on what we can and cannot live without (and still end up parting with some “necessities”).
Spend less and save more. We’re pretty frugal, but we’re about to go through a major transition. We have steadily become more financially stable, but Temoc will no longer have any income beginning this summer (student loans will likely be less than half of his current income). We thought we were poor when we had furloughs, but nothing will compare to the next three years (unless I have a very high paying job). We have to begin the painstaking process of putting ourselves on a tight budget, so we can plan for the tough times that are ahead!
Spend time “working” on the dogs. Luna is toy-aggressive. We can live with her hyper-ness, but she becomes aggressive when she’s playing fetch and a dog tries to take her toy (she is only aggressive with Remi if we’re playing with a ball). We won’t be able to deal with this behavior in a city if we ever want to go to a dog park.
Which leads us to Remi. He has about 4.5 friends (4 Boston Terriers and Lucy – after being around her for a few days). That’s all. He wants to attack any other animal that comes into view. It’s a serious issue. I think the Dog Whisperer would partially blame me because I can’t let my guard down on walks, I really don’t enjoy taking him places where we might see dogs, and I might be guilty of babying him… He’s such a sweet dog at home, but has the completely opposite personality as soon as we leave the house. We need to work on him in a very serious way. We also have to schedule his second surgery, which we hope won’t affect any progress that we hope to make with his behavioral issues.
Work through an emotional “down” that we experienced in 2011. I won’t go into any detail with this one, but I’ve learned that phrase “patience is a virtue” couldn’t be more accurate.
We hope you had a happy holiday season! Here’s a picture of our sweet doggies (taken several weeks ago)…
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