Comments (28)

By kilax, December 11, 2009 4:12 am

Tell me all about your holiday gift-giving! To whom to you give gifts? Do you make them or buy them (in stores or online)? Do you have any gift-giving traditions? Do you participate in gift exchanges? Do you share a holiday wishlist with friends and family? Does all of this STRESS YOU OUT?!

We usually buy* gifts (in stores and online) for all of our immediate family and grandparents. But we are cutting back this year. In my family, my three siblings and the three significant others all drew names. Steven is buying a gift for my older brother’s wife and I am buying a gift for my younger brother’s girlfriend. Then, we are only buying gifts for our parents and Steven’s brother. I thought I would feel sad about this, but actually, I feel RELIEVED and not stressed at all. Instead of buying a lot of gifts, I get to focus on the one specific person whose name I drew! Edited to add: Steven and I exchange gifts every year, but have not decided if we will this year or not. Not because we don’t want to, but to save money.

And I am ALL ABOUT the wishlists. I created two separate wishlists this year for me and Steven – one for my family and one for his. And we asked for them in return, especially for the people whose names we drew! I know some people think having a wishlist means you don’t get to be creative, but I just think it means you know what the person actually wants. If I am spending money, I want to make sure it’s well spent.

I am participating in Morning Runner’s gift exchange. I got paired with RunningLaur and am sending her gift off today! Here’s a sneak peak, Lauren! You’ll have to guess if you are getting the gray item or the pink item.

*I do LOVE to make people’s favorite treats and give them to them as well.

Comments (13)

By kilax, November 18, 2009 6:20 am

Do you ever read those lists that pop up on yahoo? Such as:

• America’s Prettiest Towns (the town we vacation in in Iowa is on the list!)
• 5 Signs You May Be a Bad Coworker (no comment!)
• 8 Toxic Personalities to Avoid (again, no comment, but I could write an entire post on that one!)

For some reason, those articles really draw me in. I guess their marketing is working on me!

One of the interesting ones I read a while ago was on “energy zappers” – regular habits you make partake in that zap your energy and leave you feeling drained. I thought the list was interesting. I’ll bold the items I think sometimes affect me:

• Being Addicted to E-mail
• Visual Clutter
• Being Bored
• Poor Posture
• Toxic Indoor Air
• Eating Too Much at Once
• Living in Artificial Light
• Listening to Negative Nellies
• Holding a Grudge

You can check out the article for a full description of how these items are draining and ideas for solutions. Do any of these apply to you? I really think being addicted to e-mail (and google reader) and being bored are the big ones for me. Just spending too much time with the computer is draining! I’ve been spending less time online the past few weekends and have felt pretty good Monday morning.

Side Note: Don’t forget to enter my Homemade Holiday Sweets Giveaway!

Also, Morning Runner is hosting a fun Blogger Holiday Gift Exchange on her blog! Check it out! The more people who enter, the more fun it will be!

Comments (20)

By kilax, June 13, 2009 8:40 am

My neighbor (Fritz) and I saw this HUGE turtle during our 5-mile run this morning!

When we were doing our warm-up walk we saw him hear the wooded “swamp” area, but when we were nearing the end, he had moved across the street to a tree in front of a house.

I’ve never seen a turtle that big in our neighborhood, so I was pretty excited. Does that make me a huge dork?

Scary half-asleep photo!

I got up at 5:45 today so I could met Fritz at 6:00 for our run. Steven’s parents are in town, and I wanted to get it done before everyone woke up so I wouldn’t have to disappear in the middle of the day to go running. I don’t want to miss out on the fun!

I LOVE running first thing in the morning. But wow, the night before a morning run, I cannot sleep AT ALL. I am too excited to get up and run, and I’ll actually have dreams about my morning run. And of course, last night, I was awake all night worrying about the rain (it stopped raining for one hour during our run – yay!).

I haven’t been getting quality sleep lately, at all. I keep waking up around 3:00 each night. And since I get up at 4:30, that is really messing with my sleep cycle during the week. Maybe I can fit a nap in this weekend!