Michael & Liz are Bloggable

Anyone who knows me, knows that I enjoy New Year's Resolutions. Now I will also say that I think they are dumb but I do think they important. Why are they dumb? I don't think it should take a new year for you to decide to change something about yourself. I think that should happen all the time and anytime that is necessary. Why are they important? Because it invokes the motivation to change in people who otherwise wouldn't do it.

Throughout the year I am constantly trying to change or improve in any way that I can. It doesn't take the new year for me to start a training program for a marathon or make an attempt at losing weight. But every year I take the opportunity to write down my New Year's Resolutions and because this is not my blog, it's the Fulton Family blog, both Liz and I will document what we are looking to achieve in the new year. And here they are:

Liz:
1. To go as long as possible without drinking a carbonated beverage (coke, sprite, diet sprite, etc...). We talked about it last night and Liz's record for the longest she has gone without a soda is 1.5 months and mine is 2 months. She is aiming to beat both those records in 2008.

2. There are two goals in this resolution because they go hand in hand. One is to not gain any weight and the other is to go to the gym AT LEAST twice a week. Back in May and June before the wedding, she was always going to the gym and doing cycling classes and lifting weights and she wants to get back into that routine. For a wife with a full time job this will not be easy, so this is an awfully lofty goal that we think she can achieve.

Michael:
1. My first goal is the same as Liz's, and that is to beat my record for the longest I have gone without a carbonated beverage (beer excluded).

2. To build at least 4 wood projects this year. Recently I have been working more in the garage on some wood projects. I wanted to include a couple pictures from the recent projects. The top one is the islands of Hawaii with pictures on the islands that we went to. The other one is a magazine rack I built for my brother-in-law for our Secret Santa Christmas exchange. I learned a valuable lesson, that glue does not stain the same color as wood does. Well, I want to improve my skills in woodworking and I already can tell you that the first project will be a coffee table for our "sweet room" and another project will be a woodworking work bench. The last project will be something made out of wood for my Secret Santa person next Christmas.

3. Teach Daisy 4 new tricks. The reason why 4 makes sense is that it gives me 1 trick and 1 wood project every 3 months. I think 6 would be too much and make it a chore rather than a goal. I want to have motivation to teach Daisy some commands so that she becomes better behaved. She is such a great dog and I don't want to be complacent.

4. The last resolution is to finish the projects that I started or intended to start around the house. They include finishing the deck, finishing the bead board around the blue bedroom upstairs and putting up peg board in the garage for better organization.

So what are your resolutions going to be?

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!