Jump Start on Resolutions

Things that I realize:

1. It's now December. Meaning it has been far too long since I've written anything that wasn't for academic purposes, or texting... 

2. There is one lonely month left in 2011. And 26 days until I am in Ecuador [YES was my decision ;) ] Thanks to all who gave me their advice, which I gladly followed. I'm looking forward to this new journey!

3. You all are amazing, wonderful people who I'd really like to stay in contact with, so I'm really going to make the effort to keep blogging and keep this whole thing going. Thank you to everyone who's stuck through with my struggling, infrequent blogging, you all have a special place en mi corozón ♥. 

4. Knowing I'm going to Ecuador in less than a month, I should really brush up on my spanish. 

Hellooo December!

      It feels pretty good to get my words down on a post once again. Liberating almost, when I think of how they've been reserved for Five star and Mead, scribbling down notes in the lecture halls, and banged out at ridiculous hours of the night for midterm and final papers. The end of the semester is nearing, and I think I'm in decent standing--probably not as good as last semester, but I haven't been slacking too bad or anything, I'm hoping for A's and B's, preferably more A's. 

So, a crazy little bump in the road of this thing called life.. My dad fell down and broke his ankle. You're probably thinking "what's the big deal," but being a dairy farmer, if you can't walk and do work outside, you're really kind of screwed. My dad is self-employed, and pretty much runs the whole farm himself, along with my mom, a neighbor that does chores here and there throughout the week, and of course Tom, who comes as needed. Well, my dad certainly needs him now :P. This actually happened in the beginning of November, and everyone has been pitching in to help all month. I've been coming home whenever I can in between work and school to help Tom out, because he's stuck working alone all through the week usually. The majority of my Thanksgiving break was spent milking cows and pitch-forking manure. Real relaxing.. But honestly, I'm not really complaining. It did start to wear me down, but it was good spending the time with Tom, and feeling really useful to helping my family. I probably liked the milking the best. I always sort of knew how to do it, but Tom really upgraded my education, and together we made a pretty good team. Morning milkings were rough, it took a few days to get used to waking up at 5:30 a.m., but once we did, the day felt so much longer. Today my dad went back to the doctors to get his cast off, and now he should hopefully be able to do a little work outside, but he isn't supposed to rush right back into anything, it won't completely heal until April.. It's all just been sort of a lesson of how hard my dad has to work, and has taught me a little more about sacrifice the mornings I just really wanted to sleep in, but knew the cows needed to be taken care of.

Recent explorations: Sometime at the end of October or beginning of November before this whole thing with my dad, Tom and I went on a nice hike on a mountain called Sleeping Beauty. And yes, we brought supplies for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches ;).

 
 
                                                                ^^ Caught some great views of Mordor apparently, hahah.

ALRIGHTTT, now back to the title... Me, yes me, who sucks at updating my blog, and procrastinates like nobody's business, I am making my "new year" resolutions in DECEMBER.

This is mainly because I have been thinking about them already, and got the notion in my head of, "why wait?" Plus I will be in Ecuador for New Years Eve, and most likely unable to post--although I think there may be internet cafe's available certain days--but either way posting will not be easy. Also some of my resolutions involve getting ready for Ecuador, so it only makes sense to start now..so without further ado...

*  Become as close to fluent as possible in spanish. This pertains to Ecuador obviously, because even though I don't have much time to brush up (I know some things from highschool, but ), I'd still like to kind of understand what is being said around me, and to be able to communicate back. Eventually, I'd love to go to Spain with fluency. My contemporary Latin American film class is really getting me interested in the South American countries, and understanding the language. I'm thinking of getting my hands on a Pablo Neruda poetry book to accompany me in Ecuador.

* Start going to the gym regularly, not once every couple of weeks.. My target is 3x/week, or comparable alternative exercise when I'm home, since my gym is near my college. 3x a week will be my strict plan until I leave for Ecuador, starting tomorrow. I refuse to have my beach photos be embarrassing.. :P, Hopefully planting trees all morning will help to kick my ass while I'm there too.

* Start compiling a recipe/nutrition book for myself. I've expressed this before on here, I'm a total novice at cooking. Spending most of my dinners at Tom's house has helped me improve, but it isn't often that I complete a meal from start to finish.. So I would like to get better at that, take note of what dishes are really good, what works and speeds the processes along, and eventually maybe my own twists on recipes. I feel like it will be something useful throughout my life, a good reference to look back on if I have my own family, or decide to host get togethers when I have my own home.
 Another part of this goal includes cooking more for my family.
My mom is awesome, I love her to death, but I can't stand the way she eats. Let me tell you her daily lunch, which she eats pretty much every day: a microwaved hot dog and a glass of Pepsi. When I bring it up, she admits it's strange but she doesn't mind.. "it keeps her going." We never run out of soda..especially Pepsi. We will run out of milk before we ever don't have atleast 3 of the 2 liter bottles sitting in the pantry. She's not really interested in changing her ways, and personally hates cooking, much preferring the quick n' easy microwave method. In her defense, she spends a LOT of her day outside working on the farm, and from my contributions lately, I know it is not easy work. It's tiresome, and she doesn't enjoy cooking to begin with, so of course she's going to go for the processed, quick foods.. This is why I want to step up and make meals for them myself, so they get the chance to eat good food, and hopefully stray from their current eating habits. My dad's on board with me, he "wants real food," but he's also too busy and doesn't really know much about cooking..so he relies on my mom, who hates cooking. It's a vicious little cycle. I'm doing what I can to educate them, especially my dad since he cares more because his doctors are getting after him for his diet. Also I want to note that neither of my parents are obese...they do so much work that it's pretty much impossible, so I'm not worried about their appearances, just simply their health.

* Read regularly, blog OFTEN, be inspired and share what inspires me. 

There's definitely a lot I have missed out on telling you all, but that only means that I have plenty of more posts left to fill you all in. I'm back, and I think this time I really mean it--I mean it's a resolution! I never forget about Blogger, even when I'm not posting, I still can't help but to creep on everyone else, I like to try to stay somewhat up-to-date with you all, you're just all too interesting and inspiring for me not to!

Anyways, Happy December, I hope you all are doing well. I'll be playing some catch-up, starting now :).

Love,
Olivia