Happy New Year, and Tales from the Grocery Store

I hope everyone has a safe, happy & fabulous New Year's Eve. I'm picking the boys up at the airport, and we'll have a little celebration at home, with appetizers, fancy drinks (sparkling lemonade for the kids, champagne for the adults) & some sort of a dance party or board games. Should be fun!

I made the final grocery trip of the year yesterday, and here's what we bought. I used to track our grocery spending often and found it a helpful tool, so I'll try to get back to that in 2015.

I spent a grand total of $134.06 (on the groceries. I also bought Sam a pair of Adidas pants for indoor soccer, but that went into another budget category).

• We spent $22.97 on ground beef
• $26.77 on canned goods, which included popcorn (to make at home), canned black beans, and olives
• $12.68 on dairy (eggs & milk)
• $4.99 on baguette bread for our appetizer tonight
• $66.65 on produce, including the following:
• Eight jumbo pomegranates
• Two bunches of bananas
• Six English cucumbers
• A bag of cauliflower
• A giant container of mushrooms
• A bag of broccoli
• A bag of carrots
• Pears
• One honeydew melon
• Organic celery hearts (meant to grab the plain ones, as these were not as fresh & more expensive. Drat)
• Cranberries
• Apples
• Roma tomatoes

Produce took up 50% of our spending, which is pretty much where we're usually at. How about you? How much do you typically spend per category at the grocery store? Any fun New Year's Eve plans? 

January Goals

I love this time of year! The goal setting, the fresh starts, the new spreadsheet trackers. . . I know, I know. I'm a little strange, but it's an extra dose of motivation, and who couldn't use some of that? ;-)

Here are my goals for the first month of the year:

Financial

• Set up meeting with financial planner
• Max out 2015 401K with bonus money
• Figure out boys college accounts (potentially the Utah 529 plan)
• Stick to our budget
• Fund our yearly budget categories with remaining bonus money
• Start gathering stuff for our accountant

Family

• Plan two fun family outings
• Figure out February week off. Looking at skiing.
• Get my youngest to try two new foods.

Fitness/health

• Lose 2 pounds
• Track my food/exercise
• Run 20 miles
• Complete 700 minutes of cardio
• Complete 8 strength workouts & 8 stretching workouts

Work/career

• Better consolidate my evening meetings
• Find 2 days/week that I can work out during the day

Giving back

• Look into volunteering at the school once in January
• Set up charitable contribution increase

House

• Sort through our three hall closets (aka, where junk goes to die). Declutter, organize, etc.

Personal/creative

• Plan/book date night with M
• Do something social with a friend. Maybe a hike.
• Read 5 books.
• Try a new recipe (with a focus on something that my youngest will actually eat)

What about you? What are you hoping to accomplish in January?

Menu Plan Monday

I'm back at home, and the kids are still enjoying the beach. I'm jealous!

Look at that gorgeous view! 

Here's the menu plan for the week (this is pretty abnormal eating for me/us). We have salads with every dinner, so I don't bother listing that.

• Monday - leftover Chipotle. I picked this up on my way home from the airport last night, and have enough for a second dinner. I'm trying to cut my calories after all of those holiday meals.
• Tuesday - I have a $5 Amex credit for McDonalds that will expire on Wednesday. I'd like to use it, and really don't eat there, so I will probably pick up a salad for dinner. 
• Wednesday - We'll be having a New Year's Eve party (just the four of us). I'll make goat cheese crostini, and may pick up a pizza. We'll also have champagne & sparkling lemonade. ;-)
• Thursday - We both have the day off, so M will make his famous Persian kebabs, tadiq (crusted rice) & a yogurt sauce. It's my favorite meal ever.
• Friday - I'm thinking of this tomato, chicken & gorgonzola soup, but substituting the gorgonzola for goat cheese. Potentially with crostini. 
• Saturday - Chicken marsala casserole
• Sunday - Homemade chicken risotto

That should generate enough leftovers for a crazy work week next week. What about you? What's on your menu for the week? 

Maxing out 401K with bonus

I've been thinking about how to spend my bonus that I'm receiving in January, and rather than splitting the money up as I'd originally planned, I'm planning on doing the following:

• Maxing out my 401K. This means that my full 2015 contribution will be invested in the market in January, giving me additional time in the market (that could be a blessing or a curse). I'll receive my full employer match in January as well. So, that will take care of $18,000 of the bonus.
• I'm not sure how the taxes will work, but I'll assume another $20,000 towards taxes.
• All of the rest, into savings. Approximately - $10,000.

I also feel like now is the time to confess that I did splurge a bit. I bought four lipglosses, and a wrinkle cream. Grand total of $60. I've been feeling kind of drab lately, so hopefully this helps. I love the new lip gloss, and it has SPF! Bonus, as my lips have been freckling quite a bit in the California sunshine.

It will take quite a bit of discipline to ensure that I'm saving the correct amount each month for our yearly categories. I'm excited to get the contribution out of the way early on. Has anyone else ever done this? Drawbacks? Advantages?

Looking at the 2015 budget

After finding out the size of our bonuses for 2015, I decided it was time to get a financial planner. I'm ready for us to take this step, and work with someone who can give us advice on best ways to maximize what we have, and plan for the future.

Here are the things we're currently thinking about:

• Reducing mortgage debt. Does this make sense, given the low interest rates? Evaluate the options of how this would impact our tax burden.
• Paying for the kids college. We want to fund some of this. What are the best strategies to do this? We have a bunch of money in a 529, but are considering a different vehicle & want recommendations. We're looking into the very well rated Utah 529 plan.
• Saving for/buying a house in California. We'd love to buy here, but we're now in a neighborhood that our kids love, they are at school, etc. Houses here are in the $2.5M range for what I'd loosely describe as a "fixer upper".  Even if we could afford to buy right now, it would pain me greatly to purchase a house like that, and continue to dump money into it. 
• Saving for retirement. We've maxed out our 401Ks for years, and have a sizable investment allocation. I assume we'll pass the $1M mark in the next 2-3 years. I feel like we're on track, but it would be good to get a check in on this. 

We've also been doing a bunch of thinking about our monthly & yearly cash expenditures.

We have a bit more money to work with (I'm getting a raise). I'm also dividing our budget into two groups of categories: monthly & yearly. Some expenses are just too irregular to track monthly.

Categories that are staying the same for 2015:

1. Rent in SFO. Or, so we hope. We renew our lease over the summer, so we'll know more then.
2. Insurance.
3. Vacation house mortgage
4. Seattle house mortgage
5. Dining out. We went over in 2014, but I allocated a bunch of vacation eating out to this category, & think I should start tracking it in Travel in 2015, to understand the full cost of our travel budget. 
6. Groceries. We went over slightly, but I think we can continue to look for improvements!
7. Cleaning service. This will stay the same. We'll continue to budget for a weekly cleaning service.
8. Gifts
9. Health
10. Personal. These are haircuts, and the like. None of us spend much money on this category.
11. Entertainment. As the boys got older, it made sense to add this category for the occasional movie/bowling trip, etc. We'll keep the budget as is for 2015.
12. Utilities. Across all three houses. We'd like to keep this even. It's still a substantial amount of money, so it's important to continue looking for opportunities to conserve.
13. Alcohol. This is wine & hard alcohol. We have most of our "happy hour/date nights" at home, and enjoy making mixed drinks every so often. We count this separately from our grocery bill, as it's something we can easily cut out, if we're over in other categories.
14. Taxes. All I can say is, we've hired an accountant. And, the amount we paid in taxes in 2014 is staggering. We tried our best to plan, but our income is a bit varied. *fingers crossed*

Categories that are going up for 2015:

1. Childcare. I didn't do a good job forecasting the cost of summer camps, and we opted to go with a nanny this fall, which is more than our previous option.
2. Boys activities. With two kids playing lots of soccer, it's expensive. We also want them to be able to try other sports. I'll just say this - the entire area is nuts with the cost of sports. 
3. Auto. Our cars are getting older, so we need to start allocating more money for repairs. The cost of auto renewals, etc in California is also higher than in Washington, which pushed our budget up last year.
4. Charitable contributions. We'd like to funnel more of our income to this, and have a plan to increase our monthly number.
5. Boys birthdays. We're likely going to continue our trend of skipping any local parties, but flying to see my family & doing a combined visit/birthday party. The cost is more, but the boys get another chance to see their cousins & my family. Maybe this should go under travel. 
6. Boys college. We're aiming to increase our savings for this category in 2015.
7. Travel. It's important for us to spend time with family and friends, and it's our 10th wedding anniversary in 2015. We will definitely have a fun trip planned. :-) 

Categories that are going down for 2015:

1. House. We spent quite a bit the year we moved, and significantly less last year. I think we have the ability to reduce this again, as I'm not envisioning any major expenses.
2. Christmas. We're moving the cost of attending to travel, and reducing our spending on gifts. Every year, we work to cut our budget on this, and have been pretty successful.
3. Gas. We are very close to our work, and we aren't driving a lot like we were in Seattle (skiing, driving to the Oregon coast, etc). Plus, the cost of gas has gone down. :-)
4. Clothing. We spent less on clothes for me, plus clothes for M. The boys clothing creeped up a bit, as we replaced things, purchased sports shoes & gear, etc. We're going to combine all clothing into one bucket, and reduce the total number (from mine/M's pool) to offset the increase in the boys spending.
5. Toiletries. We spent more than I thought. I pulled this out of our grocery spending a year or so ago, and it was eye opening to see how much we spend in this category. In positive news, we have an enormous stash of toiletries for 2015, and my goal is to really cut this down to size.
6. Dry cleaning. This was so small in 2014 that I'm not going to bother tracking it anymore. I'll fold it into "House".

For the revised 2015 budget, here are our monthly categories:

• Childcare
• Cleaning service
• Dining out
• Toiletries
• Entertainment
• Gas
• Groceries
• Insurance
• SFO rent
• Combined utilities
• Liquor
• Vacation house mortgage
• Seattle house mortgage

We'll also have the following yearly categories:

• Travel
• Boys activities/lessons
• House
• Taxes
• Boys (everything else)
• Auto
• Boys college
• Charitable contributions
• Clothing (all combined)
• Christmas
• Health
• Personal

So, how does that stack up, as compared to the 2014 budget & actual spending? Our 2015 is budgeted at about $3400 higher than our 2014 planned budget, but about $7100 less than we actually spent in 2014. Our goal was to make the budget more realistic, adjust for some of the more expensive budget items, and reduce the categories/spending that are less of a priority for us. All told, we want to spend more in some categories in 2015, but less overall! :-) Now, to make that happen. :-)

Phew! This was a long one. I often use my blog posts to jog my own memory about things, and find financial details to be very exciting. :-) How about you? What's your plan for the 2015 budget? Have you decided which categories to increase vs decrease?  

2014 Financial Summary - how did we spend our money?

I did a year end financial summary last year, and found it to be very helpful.

Here's a quick visual look at where our money is going:

Not all of the categories are visually captured, so here are the details (errors due to rounding)

• Rent in San Francisco was 25% of our spending. GASP!!!! INSANITY!!!
• Our Seattle mortgage is 24%, not counting our income on the rental, which I'll include under income.
• Our vacation house mortgage was the next highest, at 9.5%
• Our additional taxes (which included a sizable backpay due to an error in 2011) was 8.6%
• Travel - 7%. We, apparently, really enjoyed 2014. ;-) 
• Childcare - 5%
• Groceries - 3%
• Utilities - 2%
• Car - 2%
• Boys lessons - 1.7% (this shot up substantially, with both boys making it into a select soccer league. Yikes!)
• Dining out - 1.6%
• Gas - 1.1%
• Insurance - 1%
• All other categories - 7%

So, how does that compare with our spending in 2013?

• The rent is up, as we moved partway through 2013.
• The Seattle mortgage is now higher as well (up 3%), as we're aggressively paying it off.
• Our vacation house mortgage dropped from 14%, so down 4.5%.
• Our taxes went up .6%.
• Childcare dropped by 1%
• Other is now 2% higher (any category under $2,000 gets lumped in. We do track all of the categories separately throughout the year). It includes: Christmas, clothing, entertainment, gifts, and a variety of other small categories.
• Travel climbed 3%, as we had a major vacation (Hawaii) this year, as well as the last-minute trip to Napa. It's also just generally more expensive to visit family, now that we've moved.
• Groceries are down 1%.
• Our house category isn't even on the radar, and last year represented 4% of the total sum. 
• Auto (not including gas) is down 1%
• Insurance dropped by 1%
• Dining out dropped by .4%
• And, the boys lessons went up .7%
• Gas went down .9%
• Utilities were down 1%

Net/net, some of our smaller categories are down this year, but our biggest categories are up, which makes all of the difference, and not in a good way.

All told, our spending between 2014 & 2013 is up $29,000. Our mortgage on our Seattle house is not entirely covered by the rent (we hope to break even in the next few years) & our rent is astronomically more than our mortgage was. As noted, most of our other categories have gone down, as we try to cut back.

In good news, our income also went up - pretty drastically. Our income was up $93,000, which is an enormous jump, without including our rental income. The bonuses I mentioned a few posts ago won't be paid out until January, so we'll have that, as well as a 12% raise (for me). All good news, but I am worried about the absolutely staggering cost of living here, and the complete cost (meaning, time, my sanity, etc) of this area, and what it takes to generate this kind of income. It's definitely not sustainable for me in the long-term, which I think about every day.

Next up is how we plan to handle the additional money in 2015, and how we will continue to drive certain spending categories down. What about you? How did you do with your spending/income in 2014? 

(And, a few caveats. The numbers above don't include: retirement savings, charitable contributions, or health care, as those are deducted automatically from our checks, so we don't even think of them. ;-))

UPDATE: Based on the comment about splitting about the actual expenses for our rental property & adding in the income, I updated the pie chart. Here is the update:

2014 Goals, in Review

So, how about those 2014 goals? ;-) Well, I'm going to consider this year marginally successful. I rocked out my fitness goals for the first six months of the year, and then things fell apart the second half of the year. My work responsibilities increased dramatically, my stress increased, & I had less time to work out.

1. Lose 10 pounds, bringing my weight to 135. I've really struggled to lose at my current weight & activity level, so I need to spend some time considering what's necessary to drop these last (very stubborn) 10 pounds. After my doctor's appointment & prescription complication, this goal is more important than ever. Time to focus. - Well, I lost 8 pounds, and then gained it all back. :-( 
2. Continue tracking my food/exercise every day in My Fitness Pal. This has been tremendously helpful. - Yes!
3. Improve my fitness by doing the following:
1. Complete 11,000 minutes of cardio. - The year isn't over yet, but I'm at 9551. I'm clearly not going to make it. I'm going to bust my buns to hit 10,000, but it's going to be tricky. 
2. Complete 100 strength workouts. - I'm at 76. Shooting for 80 by the end of the year. 
3. Complete 75 stretching workouts. - I'm at 32. Aiming for 35 by ear end. 
4. Choose a half marathon to train for, and complete it! Sometime this spring. - YES!!! I DID IT! :-) 
5. Have one date night per month with M. - Yes!! 
6. Plan one social/friend activity per month. - Yes!!
7. Finalize will/guardianship. - This one was on the to yearly goals for multiple years, and I can finally check it off! :-) 
8. Save $50,000 towards a downpayment for a house in California. - No. We opted not to sell any of our stock, and had a bunch of tax drama to deal with. However, the money is still in our stock, ready for whatever we decide on the housing front. 
9. Put $5,000 in boys college accounts. - No. We haven't figured out how we're going to save (we likely are going to switch plans). We're going to meet with a financial planner in January, so we'll double up on our contributions in 2015. We did contribute $1200 before we decided to hold. 
10. Pay $30,000 towards our mortgage principal(s). - Oh, we crushed this! We paid off $50,900!!! 
11. Figure out a plan for vacation house. - We listed our house, and had it on the market for six months. We didn't get one offer. The market on the coast is still very unstable. We don't need the money, and it wouldn't have been a financially prudent idea to sell. We also love the house, so would prefer to hold & re-evaluate in a few years. 
12. Track our all of our spending, stick to our budget, and create monthly spending reports. - Well, not really. I'll get the financial part of our 2015 reporting. We're in good shape, but there were definitely areas that need improvement. :-) 
13. Plan an adult only vacation with M! - Yes! We did two long weekends. One to Napa, and the other to Las Vegas. It was exactly what we needed. :-) 
14. Likely most importantly, figure out the work/life balance, even if it means finding a new job. Money isn't worth the current schedule. - Enormous fail. The work got harder. The good news is, it's even more of a motivation to solve this in 2015! 

Okay, so that's a grand total of 8 successes, 4 partial wins, and 4 fails. That's about my standard mix of results - I like to aim high, even if it means that I have failures. What about you? How do you set up your goals? How did you do in 2014? 

Goals for 2015

Planning the year ahead & setting goals is one of my absolute favorite things to do!

I've come up with a few areas of focus this year, and some goals within them:

• Financial
• Meet with a financial advisor
• Save $50,000 towards a downpayment for a house in California
• Put $10,000 in the boys college accounts
• Pay $55,000 towards our mortgage principal(s)
• Save for our 2015 travel budget in advance
• Stick to our budget
• Re-plan our yearly budget categories
• Family
• Look for more opportunities to have fun with the family.
• Be more present with the kids.
• Come up with a five year plan that minimizes my need to work in my career (open to other work options).
• Fitness/health
• Lose 10 pounds, bringing my weight to 135. If this goal sounds similar to last year's, that's because it is. I managed to lose 8 lbs, and then gained it back during the second half of the year. Sigh.
• Run another half marathon.
• Track my food/exercise every day.
• Complete 10,000 minutes of cardio
• Complete 100 strength workouts.
• Complete 75 stretching workouts. 
• Work/career
• Keep better perspective at work/reduce stress.
• Reduce my hours.
• Giving back
• Figure out a way to volunteer. I'd like to volunteer at the boy's school, as it's important for me to be connected. But, the hours are terrible. I need to be a bit more creative about options.
• Increase our charitable giving by 25%
• House
• Declutter each room in the house
• Clean out the garage
• Personal/creative
• Have one date night with M per month
• Learn a new skill. I'm thinking of learning a new language, but would be fine with anything: sewing, knitting, expanding my baking, etc.
• Make time for my friends! Do something social at least once per month.
• Read 50 books. 

Being a balanced person is not easy, is it? ;-) Okay, those are my goals! I'm pretty excited about them. How about you? What are your goals for 2015?

The highs and lows

The first half of yesterday was a fantastic day. It didn't end that way, so I'll hit the highlights.

All of the good things about yesterday, because I'm having a hard time seeing the positives right now:

• We returned a requested party item for Nick's school party (they ended up not needing it), and I mentioned to the boys that they could share the money for their savings account. They've both been very interested in charity lately, so they chose to donate the money to a food bank.
• We also went through our pantry (at the boys request) & found a bunch of non-perishables to donate.
• We've been talking about doing good deeds a lot at home, so when we got the grocery store & saw two carts blocking the parking spots, the boys got out (unasked) and moved them. When we were returning to our car, both boys noticed that someone was then parked in one of the freed spots, and they were both happy that someone was having an easier day because of their nice deed.
• A remote controlled car (a new gift) ran over my holiday cardamom bread that I was double proofing, and it now has tire prints on it. (I had a towel over it, so there was no dirt transferred). I'm counting this as something good, because M & I laughed for quite a while over the bread and it's now very interesting shape. This is my only contribution to my family's holiday celebration (we also send money & pay for the festive drinks that M will make, but since we fly, it's hard to prep any other food) & it's now pretty funny. ;-)
• I also did yoga and felt amazing afterward.
• M made lemon drops, & they were just about the best drink I've ever had.
• M also made my favorite rice dish, to accompany some leftover beef kebabs we had.
• We ended up with two unexpected dinner guests (our neighbor girls), and giving their parents (both are super busy doctors) an unplanned couple of hours alone felt pretty great. The girls were very fun and loved the rice & kebabs.

And, just as the day was coming to a close, I had a bad feeling about my good friend. She's someone that I worked with for years, and she's about the most positive, upbeat person you could imagine. We used to travel together quite a bit for work, so we've spent lots of time together & she's like the brightest ray of light in the room. She also has lupus, so when I was first diagnosed,  she was the one giving me pep talks, cheering me up, talking to me about treatment options, etc.

Lupus increases the risk of (some types of) cancer, and she was diagnosed about six months ago. Last week, she found out that it was terminal. She's 42 years old, and my heart is broken for her. It's so unexplainably sad. A few friends are planning a little three day trip to celebrate her birthday in January, and I'm going to try & make it for one night. I would love to see her.

Life is too short. What a reminder to take each day as it comes, make the most of it, and focus on living in a way that makes you proud. 

Menu Plan Monday

We are heading to my parents house on the 23rd, so I'm going to do a "use it up" menu plan through the end of the year. Here's what we'll be having:

• Monday - 12/15. I have a work dinner, so M will feed the kids. Likely pizza. ;-) 
• Tuesday - 12/16. Burgers & pasta
• Wednesday - 12/17. Tilapia & rice.
• Thursday - 12/18. Tacos
• Friday - 12/19. chicken risotto (chicken/pasta for kids)
• Saturday - 12/20. 
• Sunday - 12/21. Homemade pizza.
• Monday - 12/22. Leftovers
• Tuesday - 12/23. Eating out with the family in Portland.
• Wednesday - 12/24. Christmas Eve. Not sure what's on the menu. I contribute money, & my mom/sister plan it all. ;-)
• Thursday - 12/25. A big ham dinner with the family. I contribute money, as we fly.
• Friday - 12/26. At the beach house. We'll probably throw together some things from the freezer (meatballs, pasta, etc).
• Saturday - 12/27. The family is reconvening back at the beach for a last hurrah before we head out. Pizza + salad & lots of festive drinks. :-)
• Sunday - 12/28. I'm flying home & will find something in the freezer. Michael + the boys will have chicken & pasta.
• Monday - 12/29. Hot dogs & burgers for the kids - I'll eat at work.
• Tuesday - 12/30. Leftovers for the kids/M - I'll eat at work.
• Wednesday - 12/31. New Year's Eve! We'll do festive appetizers, plus homemade pizza.

And, that should take us through the next couple of weeks. Lots of fun to be had between now & the end of the year! How about you? What's on your menu these next few weeks, as we close out the year? 

Planning for 2015

Wow - another year, almost gone! I love reflecting back on what I accomplished over the year & planning for the year ahead. Sadly, this year I really didn't accomplish as much as I'd hoped personally. I'll save the details for my full goal review, but work definitely got in the way of much of what I'd hoped to accomplish. Leading me to my planning for 2015! :-)

I'm thinking of a few themes for my 2015 goals:

1. Financial
2. Family
3. Fitness/health
4. Work/career
5. Giving back
6. House
7. Personal/creative

What about you? How are you planning for 2015? I also am excited to do our financial review, & determine how we're spending our money (in aggregate), and how we want to adjust our spending/savings in 2015.

In other news, this happened to our house in Seattle. It's certainly related to the state work near our house (they removed an enormous of dirt on our property, tore down a fence, etc). We've asked them to remove the tree, fix the fence, replace the landscaping that they've destroyed. . . so far, they do not think this is their responsibility. Ahhhhh, the government! Fun times ahead, for sure.

Hope you are all having a fantastic Sunday!

Preparing for the holidays, work bonus, & the rain

As usual, life is crazy. We got back from our amazing vacation, and we're now back to the grind. :-)

I'm spending time thinking about our goals for 2015, wrapping up our 2014 budget & goals, and working insane hours. Q4 is our busiest time of year, by far.

In super great news, I received my annual bonus & salary increase. I'm getting a roughly 12% salary increase (much more than expected) & a $48,000 bonus (also more than I expected). Wow. Almost makes all of those crazy hours worth it. ;-)

I'll receive the bonus in January, and my salary will also take effect at that time. I'm undecided on where to put the salary increase, but will probably direct it to the kids college savings. On the bonus, the plan is as follows:

• $24,000 - estimated tax & deductions. I aim high, but with all of the taxes, 50% is pretty close to what I see
• $15,000 - travel fund for 2015. This will include a few family visits to see my parents, flights back and forth to our vacation house, Christmas 2015 travels, and our 10 year anniversary in the fall! :-) 
• $9,000 - save for the emergency fund. I'd love the deductions to be less, so I can shove an even $10K in, but we'll see!

We have a bunch of holiday things happening this weekend, so here's our list of activities & things to get done:

1. Birthday party
2. Tea party
3. Holiday party (all parties are on Saturday! Phew!)
4. Send out Christmas cards
5. Put up last decorations (our tree is up, but we have a candle set & some other stuff that I need to put out.)
6. Exercise! It's been crazy rainy & stormy here, so I haven't been exercising as much as usual.
7. Cooking
8. Laundry
9. Packing for the holidays
10. Final wrapping & prep
11. Perhaps holiday baking, if I finish the first 10 items on the list.

That's it! What about you? Any festive plans this weekend? 

Hawaii is my favorite place

We are having an AMAZING time in Hawaii. We leave on Friday, so we're soaking up all of the fun.

This is what a Maui vacation looks like for us:

• We've spent a minimum of 6+ hours a day at the pool (the boys are pool obsessed), minus our two excursion days
• A trip to Haleakala to see the crater/volcano
• A snorkel cruise (Sam got super seasick, so that wasn't as fun as we'd hoped)
• Snorkeled off of the beach
• A trip for epic shave ice
• Played hotel bingo
• More rainbows than you can imagine
• Yoga by the beach (me :-))
• Total relaxing family time. 

I feel SO relaxed. My favorite part? All of that time without a schedule, without work or any work requirements. I do have a phone interview tomorrow, but I haven't done any work at all. It's been glorious! :-)

Here are a few photos of the fun:

This vacation has been far from inexpensive, but we've done what we could to keep the expenses in check. We've made all of our own meals, with a couple of exceptions - a breakfast buffet (free for everyone in our group except one), the epic shave ice, and a basket of fries by the pool. We'll also do Thanksgiving dinner out (I'm not cooking! :-)). We stocked up on groceries at Costco on our first day, and have been trying to keep the poolside drinks to a minimum.

I'm going to soak up all of the fun! I hope you are all having a great week!

What's your favorite vacation destination?

A lazy Sunday

Well, not really, but it's 8:30 and I haven't gotten much done yet. So, pretty lazy in my book. It's been glorious so far. :-)

M & I went to Napa for a couple of nights last weekend, & it was fabulous. It was so much fun to chat without worrying about the kids overhearing, reconnecting over a glass of wine, & just remembering why we're married. The lack of responsibility also helped! My parents were with the boys & had a great time as well. It was a very successful weekend all around.

A few shots from our favorite vineyards. It was also 80+ all weekend, and absolutely perfect weather for lazing around.

Nick has his last soccer game today, and a pizza party following. Should be fun. Other than that, I need to work out, and get ready for our trip to Hawaii on Wednesday! I'm *very* excited for some extended time off of work - I need the break mentally very much.

That's it for us! Hope you are having a great & lazy Sunday today.

October goals recap (hint: not very successful)

October was a very challenging month for me. As my workload increases in Q4, my stress level goes up, my personal time basically disappears, I stop working out & I start eating like crap. All in all, it's not healthy.

So, enough with the excuses. Here's how I did!

1. Fitness-related:
1. Lose 2 pounds - bringing my weight to 143. We're going to Hawaii in November, & I want to be feeling great! - Nope. I stayed exactly the same. Yellow (instead of red), as I didn't gain. ;-) 
2. Track my calories every day in MyFitnessPal - Yes! 
3. Complete 1000 minutes of cardio - No, definitely not. It was a very light workout month. I completed 695 minutes. 
4. Complete 8 strength workouts - I completed 5 strength workouts. The most since July, but still not at my goal. 
5. Complete 6 stretch workouts. This is critical. I'm really sore after spending all day at the office. - No, and this is critical. My lack of flexibility makes everything harder, & I'm not prioritizing this, and NEED TO! One piddly stretching workout.
6. Find & register for a 10K. Start training. - No. 
2. Finance-related:
1. Finish reworking our budget to take into account yearly categories (vs solely focusing on monthly numbers) - No, I'm about 80% of the way there, but have yet to finish.
2. Stick to our budget! - Definitely not. We overspent on a few categories, & came in $1K over our budget.
3. File all paperwork. - Nope! They are now in the filing cabinet, but unfiled. ;-) So, closer to their ultimate destination, but not organized.
3. Personal
1. Plan a getaway with M for the next few months. We need time alone together! - YES! We're going to Napa this weekend. Cannot wait!
2. Plan one social event with friends. - Yes! I did a hike with another mom a last weekend - a workout & social time! :-) 
3. At least one date night with M. - Yes! We went to dinner & had a fantastic evening. 
4. Continue to rework my work schedule to better accommodate evening meetings (consolidate them all into one evening to minimize disruption to my life). - This is very much a work in progress. Some weeks are better than others. 
5. Bake something fun with pumpkins! Even though it doesn't feel like fall here, I still want to bake something "fall-ish". - Yes! I made pumpkin muffins. 
6. Read 5 books. - Definitely! I've been reading a lot, especially now that the kids are avid readers. We like snuggling up together to read. 
7. Get my hair cut! It's been a full year, if you can believe it, since I got the awful mullet. My hair is now grown out, and needs to be trimmed. - Yes! It's pretty cute. Nothing too wild.
8. Every Sunday, review week ahead and do the following (this is critical to "during the work week" sanity!) - Yes! I've been doing this, & it's been tremendously helpful. :-) 
1. Menu plan
2. Organize pickup/drop off schedule
3. Coordinate after hours meeting
4. Consolidate meetings, etc. 
5. Organize any carpools

Okay, that's it for me. How did your October go? Any big wins, or goals you're still trying to wrap up? 

November Goals!

I'm very excited about this month. We're going on *two* vacations! M & I are doing an adult weekend/wedding celebration in Napa while my parents spend time with the boys, and we're also doing a family vacation in Hawaii over Thanksgiving. I really, really need the time off. I do not plan to work at all in Hawaii! :-)

1. Fitness-related:
1. Lose 2 pounds - bringing my weight to 143. I stayed exactly the same in October. My calories were decent, but I really didn't get enough exercise. I think I can do this, even with the traveling. I tend to exercise more on vacation (more free time!)
2. Track my calories every day in MyFitnessPal
3. Complete 1000 minutes of cardio
4. Complete 8 strength workouts
5. Complete 6 stretch workouts. This is critical. I'm really sore after spending all day at the office
6. Find a family race (likely a Turkey Trot). The boys loved their 5K in September. 
2. Finance-related:
1. Finish reworking our budget to take into account yearly categories (vs solely focusing on monthly numbers)
2. Stick to our budget!
3. File all paperwork.
4. Plan menus & shopping lists for Hawaii.
5. Talk to accountant about how to handle our stock vesting.
6. Finish all Christmas shopping!
3. Personal
1. Plan one social event with friends.
2. At least one date night with M.
3. Continue to rework my work schedule to better accommodate evening meetings (consolidate them all into one evening to minimize disruption to my life).
4. Read 8 books (should be easy, with the vacation!)
5. Every Sunday, review week ahead and do the following (this is critical to "during the work week" sanity!)
1. Menu plan
2. Organize pickup/drop off schedule
3. Coordinate after hours meeting
4. Consolidate meetings, etc. 
5. Organize any carpools

That should do it! What do you have planned for November goals? 

October budget numbers, plus net worth

October is finally over, and I just wrapped up our monthly budget.

Our budget was $17,098 & we spent $18,149. Big outliers/overspend categories this month included:

• Clothing & activities for the boys. Over by $1,000. Everything came due at the same time, including $500 of indoor soccer, $400 for basketball, & new shoes all around, plus new indoor soccer cleats.
• Gifts. I bought M a GoPro for our anniversary, and paid for my parents flights to come visit next weekend. Over by $940
• Clothing for me. I bought: new jeans, a jacket, & a pair of black flats. All very needed, but semi-unplanned. I have a small monthly budget & haven't bought much lately, so it likely averages out. Over by $200

November is going to be insanely expensive (we're going to Napa for a long weekend) & to Hawaii over Thanksgiving. Some of our November expenses will be smaller (childcare, cleaning lady, regular groceries), which I'll use to offset our travel budget. 

I also need to figure out how I did with my goals this month (not well, I'm afraid!) & get some November goals up & posted. 

I feel like life is moving out warp speed! I'm looking forward to Nick's last soccer game this afternoon, and enjoying M's kebabs for dinner tonight. Yum. :-)

A peek into our weekend

This was our first weekend without soccer in . . .forever. So, we took advantage & have had such a relaxing few days. The boys had practice on Friday, but no games.

Yesterday I went for a short run, and got my hair cut. It's been just over a year (remember the mullet?), so I've been too scared to get a trim. I'm happy to report that I got a perfectly normal hair cut. I went to an expensive salon, and it was $100. Much more than I'd regularly spend, but I needed to ease back into hair cuts, after the last disaster. Plus, I've clearly saved way more than $100 by not getting my hair cut over the last year. ;-)

It's been a very expensive month. Here's a look at some of our expenses in October. . . much of this is pre-booking, for things like winter activities for the kids, Christmas, etc.

• Tickets for my parents to come visit in November. We are celebrating our anniversary, and offered to buy my dad a ticket to come up & watch the boys. The price of his ticket will be roughly offset by not using our nanny over the long weekend (had we not opted to go out of town). We ended up buying my mom a ticket as well, as the ticket prices were the lowest I've ever seen - $150/each from Portland to San Jose. Total (with tax) - $312.
• Anniversary trip. We decided to go for it. We have to go out of town this weekend for a wedding anyway, and desperately needed a little time away. We will leave on Saturday, come back on Monday. We're going to Napa. :-) SO excited! Total deposit for the hotel - $478.
• Boys indoor soccer league - $500 ($250/each)
• Boys indoor soccer shoes - $75 (for both)
• Boys basketball sign ups - $460 ($230/each)
• Christmas gifts for the kids (almost done with our shopping) - $370

Phew. A crazy month of expenses. And, we're heading to Napa in two weeks, and Hawaii in four weeks. Just a little bit spoiled over the next few months. The Hawaii trip will be amazing, but won't have any time alone, so I'm looking for a little adult time with M. :-)

I crunched all of the October budget numbers, have been watching lots of magic tricks (my youngest has finally opened a magic set that friend got him a few months back), we used gift cards for pizza last night, and for lunch today. I went for a hike with a friend, and S went to a sleepover, so is currently very tired today. I think they stayed up late - maybe 11:00 or so? He's definitely feeling the effect.

On the work side, I'm still working 70+ hours/week, which is no good. I'm hoping for a large bonus in December, but we shall see. I have some rough ideas of what we might do with it, but nothing planned until it's actually real & in our accounts. We'll most likely apply it to our HELOC on our Seattle house. Paying off that loan is a big stretch goal of ours.

And now I need to plan our menu for the week. I have a late work dinner tomorrow, but here's what I'm thinking:

• Sunday - Chicken taquitos
• Monday - leftover pizza, for everyone but me
• Tuesday - Italian suasage hoagies
• Wednesday - home late from a work Halloween party, so leftover pasta
• Thursday - Leftover hoagies
• Friday - chicken risotto
• Saturday - soccer games, so something easy. Maybe leftovers
• Sunday - I'd love to roast a chicken. I've never done it before, but maybe I should look up some recipes. 

With that, I'm off. I hope you are all having a fantastic October! I've been in survival mode over the last few months, thanks to work. I'm trying hard to break out & get a bit of enjoyment out of each day, no matter what the schedule says. 

Today it's beautiful & 70 outside. What's the weather like where you are?

October goals - here they come!

I love goal-setting time! I feel like I'm a bit behind (already!) in October, as I missed the beginning of the month due to work travels, jet lag & being ill. That said, it's now or never! Here's what I have planned for the month. These looks remarkably similar to my September goals, but this time I'll need to actually achieve them. ;-)

1. Fitness-related:
1. Lose 2 pounds - bringing my weight to 143. We're going to Hawaii in November, & I want to be feeling great!
2. Track my calories every day in MyFitnessPal
3. Complete 1000 minutes of cardio
4. Complete 8 strength workouts
5. Complete 6 stretch workouts. This is critical. I'm really sore after spending all day at the office
6. Find & register for a 10K. Start training.
2. Finance-related:
1. Finish reworking our budget to take into account yearly categories (vs solely focusing on monthly numbers)
2. Stick to our budget!
3. File all paperwork.
3. Personal
1. Plan a getaway with M for the next few months. We need time alone together!
2. Plan one social event with friends.
3. At least one date night with M.
4. Continue to rework my work schedule to better accommodate evening meetings (consolidate them all into one evening to minimize disruption to my life).
5. Bake something fun with pumpkins! Even though it doesn't feel like fall here, I still want to bake something "fall-ish". 
6. Read 5 books.
7. Get my hair cut! It's been a full year, if you can believe it, since I got the awful mullet. My hair is now grown out, and needs to be trimmed. 
8. Every Sunday, review week ahead and do the following (this is critical to "during the work week" sanity!)
1. Menu plan
2. Organize pickup/drop off schedule
3. Coordinate after hours meeting
4. Consolidate meetings, etc. 
5. Organize any carpools

September Goal Review

Well, this is one of those months where you review your progress (or lack thereof), dust yourself off, & plan for the next month. ;-) Also, I realized that you might be able to identify personal info from the last post I put up, so I removed. Apologies to those of you who commented. The boys had a blast at the run, and have already asked me to sign them up for another 5K. They are crazy. ;-)

I'm forgiving myself for my paltry September results & focusing on having a strong October. As soon as I kick this cold/flu - right now, I just want soup & a nap!

1. Fitness-related:
1. Lose 2 pounds - bringing my weight to 143. We're going to Hawaii in November, & I want to be feeling great! - Nope. Maintained my weight. 
2. Track my calories every day in MyFitnessPal - Yes, although really had to make guesses when I was in Tokyo
3. Complete 1000 minutes of cardio - Sadly, August was my highest month ever (1340 minutes) & September was my lowest month ever (420). Yikes. No wonder I feel out of shape.
4. Complete 8 strength workouts - Nope, 2 strength workouts.
5. Complete 6 stretch workouts. This is critical. I'm really sore after spending all day at the office - 1 stretch workout.
6. Start/complete all half marathon training plan runs for the month. - I'll need to find another half, as I'm in no way ready to train. 
2. Finance-related:
1. Finish reworking our budget to take into account yearly categories (vs solely focusing on monthly numbers) - I'm 90% of the way there. 
2. Stick to our budget! - I think so. Haven't finished tallying the entire month.
3. File all paperwork. - No. :-( 
4. Rework childcare budget for 2015, with nanny & summer camps finalized. - Yes.
5. Finalize 2015 travel budget, schedule, price out trips, etc. - Yes!
3. Personal
1. Complete Tokyo with as minimal impact to my family as possible. - it was a huge pain for all involved, but i did what I could to keep it together.
2. Plan one social event with friends. - had dinner with a coworker. Does that count? ;-) 
3. At least one date night with M. - No, and this was much missed. We need to make this a top priority.
4. Continue to rework my work schedule to better accommodate evening meetings (consolidate them all into one evening to minimize disruption to my life). - I'm working on this. It's a huge work item, with ever changing demands. 
5. Use or freeze all fresh produce from the garden. - Yes!
6. Read 5 books. - More than that! I spent more than 30 hours traveling over the past week.
7. Every Sunday, review week ahead and do the following (this is critical to "during the work week" sanity!) - Yes!
1. Menu plan
2. Organize pickup/drop off schedule
3. Coordinate after hours meeting
4. Consolidate meetings, etc. 
5. Organize any carpools

Okay, off to get the budget finalized, & October planned. :-) How did your September go? Hopefully it was much better than mine. ;-) 

Happy (and belated) October!

I got home from Tokyo on Friday afternoon with a brutal cold/flu, and am just starting to recover. The  trip was very productive, but the jet lag was a challenge.

I couldn't get out of bed much yesterday, but I'm feeling a bit better today. On the agenda for today - two soccer games! I know, such a surprise. ;-) I also need to finish unpacking, catch up on laundry, and put the house back together after being gone.

I feel like I missed out on so much, being gone for a week! I have no idea where I am with my September budget, goals, etc and I'm not prepared for October - at all.

I'll be spending this week getting organized & back to business.  So happy to be home!

Here's my to do list for the week:

• Laundry
• Menu plan
• Grocery shopping
• Two soccer games
• September budget
• September goals (recap)
• October goals 
• Plan out work week (adjust meetings, etc)
• Pay bills
• Go for a walk
• Yoga (if I'm up to it)
• Sleep!!

That's it! Happy Sunday - hope you all have a great day planned. 

Happy Saturday

Things have been a bit of a whirlwind, with crazy times at my job, plus the start of fall soccer for two kids. Phew! Last Sunday we managed to get out to Half Moon Bay (my first time) & it was gorgeous! So happy that we made time to explore a bit.

We also finally managed to grow mini (Persian) cucumbers! We had to replant twice, but have success! This is Nick's favorite food, so he's delighted. ;-)

In other news, financial & otherwise:

• We received our refund from the IRS (our tax miscalculation based on not using the correct deduction for our rental expenses) arrived - $2700. :-)
• We are saving in earnest for the final part of our Hawaii trip (mostly the hotel - flights are paid for, we'll be cooking in the hotel for the majority of the meals, and aren't planning to do too many activities). 
• My first grant of stock will vest next week! I'm very excited for this milestone, but we won't be selling until next year for tax purposes. 
• I may be getting a bonus at work, which would be fantastic! I've heard rumors, but nothing is confirmed yet. *If* the bonus comes through, we'll use the money to fund our 2015 yearly expenses fund. I'm trying to get ahead of our irregular expenses (traveling, kids soccer, etc) which throw off our monthly expenses. We have a few big trips coming up, so would be great to get these saved for & use our salaries to cover day-to-day expenses.
• I haven't been spending much time on my own health & fitness, with our insane schedule, and we're leaving for Hawaii in 8 weeks. Time to get serious about the workouts & cleaning up my eating! 

I think that's about it. I have the normal list of errands today, and Nick had a friend sleepover last night, so my house is very loud with three little boys. :-) 

Hope you are all having a fabulous weekend!

401K rollover - finally!

One of the tasks that's been on my to do list for, *ahem*, quite some time now is rolling over my 401K. There are advantages to having all of the money grouped together (from a fee perspective), and it's also much easier for me to have one broker to deal with.

After lots of phone calls, paperwork, and research, I received a check yesterday for $349K. Woohoo! It's now on its way to my new brokerage firm, and I should have a fully merged 401K in no time. Also, I was a little caught off guard by the value - I typically look at our retirement savings in a spreadsheet where all assets are combined, and the money doesn't feel very "real". Receiving a check for $349,000 definitely made it feel more "real". I've worked pretty hard over the past 15 years, and aside from the other ways we've invested and spent our money, I'm proud of my focus on saving for retirement. M has his own sizable retirement portfolio (slightly larger than mine, as he's older), but what a nice feeling to open up that check! :-) I didn't get to enjoy it for long, but it was great to have a visual measure of progress.

What else is on the agenda for today?

• Sam has his first soccer game, and then a play date/movie with a friend. 
• I'm making pizza dough for our dinner tonight
• I need to plan the menu for the week
• 3 mile run
• Yoga (optimistically)
• I offered to bring snacks to Sam's soccer game, so need to get that all prepped
• Bake bread
• Clean the fridge
• Deal with all of the tomatoes that are about to go bad - my ongoing challenge of the summer ;-)
• Library to return books
• Costco for our weekly supplies

That's a pretty full day. What about you? What's on your Saturday "to do" list? 

September Goal Setting

I love the return of fall, back to school, and new schedules!

September is always a month of organizing & planning for us. Here's what I hope to accomplish.

1. Fitness-related:
1. Lose 2 pounds - bringing my weight to 143. We're going to Hawaii in November, & I want to be feeling great!
2. Track my calories every day in MyFitnessPal
3. Complete 1000 minutes of cardio
4. Complete 8 strength workouts
5. Complete 6 stretch workouts. This is critical. I'm really sore after spending all day at the office
6. Start/complete all half marathon training plan runs for the month.
2. Finance-related:
1. Finish reworking our budget to take into account yearly categories (vs solely focusing on monthly numbers)
2. Stick to our budget!
3. File all paperwork.
4. Rework childcare budget for 2015, with nanny & summer camps finalized.
5. Finalize 2015 travel budget, schedule, price out trips, etc.
3. Personal
1. Complete Tokyo with as minimal impact to my family as possible.
2. Plan one social event with friends.
3. At least one date night with M.
4. Continue to rework my work schedule to better accommodate evening meetings (consolidate them all into one evening to minimize disruption to my life).
5. Use or freeze all fresh produce from the garden.
6. Read 5 books.
7. Every Sunday, review week ahead and do the following (this is critical to "during the work week" sanity!)
1. Menu plan
2. Organize pickup/drop off schedule
3. Coordinate after hours meeting
4. Consolidate meetings, etc. 
5. Organize any carpools

That should do it! This is a month that's back to "normal". No personal travel plans until November, but I do have my work trip to Tokyo. I'm hoping to be able to get my $110 passport processing fee back. We shall see.

What about you? What are you hoping to accomplish for September? 

Menu plan Monday

We're making a concerted effort towards expanding our youngest son's eating choices. He likes a variety of food (he'll eat almost any fruit or vegetable), but he still doesn't like food mixed together (think of a casserole - pasta, meat, sauce, cheese). That's a no go for him, which makes menu planning very difficult. As a result, our meals have gotten pretty drab. We used to spend time making separate meals, and requiring everyone to have bites of the more "adult" meal, but I gave that up after I started my new job. Although I won't make separate meals, I will save him plain pasta on the side, but require him to try new things again.

I've slacked off on my parenting responsibilities, and need to get back to it! :-)

Everyone got to choose an item for the menu this week. Here goes!

Monday - M is making kebabs & Persian rice, as we all have the day off.
Tuesday - Tacos (one of the only meals that "everyone" eats!). I'll prep the meat on Monday
Wednesday - Leftover kebabs & rice
Thursday - Leftover tacos
Friday - Homemade pizza
Saturday - M will barbecue burgers + corn
Sunday - TBD

How about you? Do you have picky kids at home? What's your plan for getting them to eat? If Nick tries things he really doesn't want, he'll make it a huge deal, and then vomit at the table. It's very . . . unpleasant. Fingers crossed that we have enough patience to work with him as he outgrows his fear of branching out.

August goals - how did I do?

The month is over, and it was a mixed bag, in terms of progress against goals. I had my highest cardio & mileage month of the year (in fact, in a couple of years). I finished 103 miles (walking & running) in August. Woohoo!

1. Fitness-related:
1. Lose 1 pound - nope. I've gained a pound. :-( 
2. Track my calories every day in MyFitnessPal - Yes!
3. Complete 1000 minutes of cardio - Oh yes! I had 1,340. Lots of training for my relay.
4. Complete 8 strength workouts - No. :-( Only 2 strength workouts, and I can tell! I've lost muscle tone.
5. Complete 6 stretch workouts - 2 stretch workouts. I need to make this a focus, because my back is in misery with my lack of yoga. 
6. Run/finish my relay event - Yes, and it was awesome!!
2. Finance-related:
1. Finish reworking our budget to take into account yearly categories (vs solely focusing on monthly numbers) - I'm 90% of the way there, but have changed my approach a few times. Want to keep iterating on this in September. 
2. Stick to our budget! - I booked our holiday trip + paid for the boys soccer. See above, I wasn't doing a very good job of tracking yearly expenses for our monthly budget, which I need to change.
3. Stick to vacation budget on family trip to the Oregon coast. - Yes!
4. Sell 2 bikes on Craigslist, and put the money in the boys activity fund (help offset their expensive soccer club). - Sold the last one yesterday, so snuck in just under the wire. ;-) 
5. File all paperwork. - Ack. No.
6. Rework childcare budget for 2015, with nanny & summer camps finalized. - I started this, but it's not done. 
7. Finalize Hawaii trip details. - Mostly done. 
8. Start looking at plans for the holidays (flights, time off, etc) - Done. 
3. Personal
1. Get all back to school details sorted out, including nanny schedule + soccer schedule. - Done
2. Get sorted business trip sorted out, including passport & early entry program. - Done
3. Plan one social event with friends. - Done - August was a very social month.
4. At least one date night with M. - Done! Had a great dinner out this weekend.
5. Continue to rework my work schedule to better accommodate evening meetings (consolidate them all into one evening to minimize disruption to my life). - Well, I've made progress, but new meetings crop up all of the time, so it's a work in progress. 
6. Use or freeze all fresh produce from the garden. - I did well until we started traveling. I have a boatload of tomatoes in the fridge, and had to throw out a handful. 
7. Read 5 books. - Yes! All of the flights helped with this. :-) 

That's how I did in August - it's a busy month, full of travels & fun, and less about "getting things done". What about you? How did you do on your goals? 

A fun end to summer

We've had a great few weeks, but I'm exhausted, and spending the long weekend recovering! I was out of town two weekends in a row, and weekends are critical for my planning, organizing, etc. But, we had an amazing time.

We met my parents at the beach house (Oregon coast) for a week of family time, then flew back, got the boys started at school, and I flew back to Portland last Thursday for Hood to Coast (the largest relay in the world!) My family did the walking portion, and we had everyone from my 12 year old nephew to my mom, sister, best friend, etc. It was AWESOME. We had a fabulous time, and everyone is already signing up for next year.

Here are some of my favorite pictures! In the 4th picture, you can see my amazing flip flops. ;-) My shoes broke during the race (I always wear flip flops between my actual running legs, to avoid wearing sweaty sneakers for two days solid) & the only store in the Oregon mountains was a Wal-Mart. The shoes are two sizes two large, hot pink, & glorious. They cost $4. ;-) The little guy in the pictures is my amazing 12 year old nephew, who did an awesome job on his relay legs. He rocked! The sweaty picture with my sister is after our 10 miler. I'm not sure why she's so tan & I'm so white - I live in California, after all!

Now we're back to reality! And, the last few weeks reminded us that we really need to plan our 2015 trips, from a budget, time off, and calendar perspective. I spent about 5 hours on it, and I'm very close to a plan for 2015. I'm just waiting for my sister to confirm dates for our 2015 family trip. We'll celebrate our 10th anniversary next October, and I think we're going to go back to the Grand Wailea (where we got married) to celebrate. SO excited. :-)

We spent yesterday running errands (plus a date night!), have a barbecue to attend today, and we're going to Nick's "welcome to second grade" party tomorrow. In between all of that, I need to get our week planned (soccer, carpools, late meeting nights), meals planned & prepped, etc. 

I have lemon bread in the oven (bringing it to the barbecue) & it smells amazing. 

Hope you are all having a great weekend!

Sunday, again!

I love Sundays. I always create my to do list for the day while drinking my coffee. :-)

We have a lot of fun ahead in the next few weeks - can't wait! Tomorrow is a busy work day (8 am to 10 pm), and then on Tuesday, the boys & I fly to Portland. My sister will pick us up at the airport with my nephews, and we'll head straight to the beach & our vacation house. I'm looking forward to spending time with the family - relaxing, riding bikes, walking on the beach, & playing games! We fly back on Sunday, just in time to start school on Monday. :-)

I'm flying back to Portland on Thursday, for my relay event - Portland to Coast. I can't wait! We've been training & planning & it should be super fun. My fan consists of: my mom, my mom's best friend, my best friend, my twelve year old nephew, and my Uncle. My sister is the captain of our second van, and she's with a family friend, my two cousins, and my aunt. My sister has done this relay before, & I've done the more extended/running version, but everyone else is a novice. Should be awesome!

And, on to today! I need to use all of the tomatoes before we leave town, and . . . there are a lot!

I already made an awesome breakfast - Spicy Poached Eggs in Tomato Sauce . I've never made poached eggs before, but these were amazing. The sauce was incredible!

Here's what else I need to do today:

1. Wash all sheets/make beds. 
2. Make tomato soup for the freezer. 
3. Make roasted garlic tomato freezer jam.
4. If I *still* have more tomatoes left over, I'll make more of the tomato sauce from the poached egg recipe & freeze. 
5. Walk 8 miles, as training for my relay. The pace time is pretty fast, considering all of the hills - 13 minute miles.
6. Power yoga. My back has been killing me, & I really need to stretch. 
7. Return a couple of things to the mall.
8. Plan schedule for Monday
9. Finish cleaning fridge & freezer, to prepare for our vacation.
10. If time permits, get a pedicure

What about you? How are you spending the last few weeks of summer? What are you up to today?