Thanks to Greg I now know I have one real job to do as a father.
Just one, hopefully I can get this one right…
baby
2010 Goals
Ok, so my 2009 goals were a bit lame despite my efforts. Here’s to a better set of goals for this year and therefor better results! Some of these stem from what I see as some personal failures in 2009, others are just brand new.
Join an activity group on a regular basis. this can be anywhere from Geocaching to Flickr meetups to the ADK club outings to toastmasters. The point is to do something on a regular basis in order to forge some new relationships. We’ve started with ADK but we didn’t keep up with the meetings.
Don’t hesitate when given an opportunity. If I want to do something, do it, if I don’t, likewise. This is something I really need to work on. I tend to flip flop and wait until the last minute to make decisions on things like this.
Run a profitable Photography business. Given my goals of last year this one almost seems comical. However my first income will be coming in 2010, and my planned expenses are minimal, just some equipment rental for said income. This probably won’t be hard to do.
Do 2 weddings. Along the same lines as above. I’ve got one booked already and I have another possibility. I’d like to start booking some more but if I can manage 2 this year, maybe I can double that next year and then really get something going. If you know someone looking for a Photographer please let me/them know!
Finish the work in the basement. this isn’t a real finishing job, it just means some cleaning (a LOT), implementing some better storage solutions, doing some wiring work and fixing the lighting situation. Still though, some things I’ve been dragging my feet on and just need to get done.
Buy a new house. We pretty much need a miracle for this to happen without selling our current home(which we don’t want to do). We need to though, we’re outgrowing our current home. Not so much the floor plan, but the yard and the storage. That along with a new member of the family coming soon pretty much necessitates a new, bigger house. which brings me to my next goal:
Do everything in my power to ensure the well-being of our new child. This is pretty self explanatory but something not everyone might think about is:
Lead by example. We can’t hope to have a child with healthy habits if we don’t first develop them ourselves. This applies to everything from sleeping properly to exercising regularly to only watching extremely minute amounts of television. This might seem too broad to be a goal, but the idea here is to simply be aware of my decisions and their implications on my own life and for the little one.
Lose 20lbs by May. Lose Another 20 by the end of the year. The first 20 I’ve done several times and isn’t really that difficult for me. the second 20… that will put me back to my junior year of college weight, and will be far more difficult to do. I don’t think keeping it off will be an issue since I’ll have done it by (re)developing better habits, NOT a diet.
Some carry-overs from last year:
- increase the size of our emergency fund (again!)
- complete the first floor of the house
- sell at least one photo
- EXPERIENCE one sunsets or sunrises a month. This means actually watching and enjoying it, not just noticing out a window.
2010 is going to be a really exciting year!
Three in the Family
Gotta say, we’re excited. We’ve got a little’n on the way.
Yep, a little baby Aldrich.
Rachel is about 4 months Pregnant right now. Naturally we’ve known for a while but we wanted to wait to share until we had something to share.
Yes we know what it is (maybe you can tell from the video) and yes we have the name picked out. However; you’ll have to wait and see. That’ll keep you reading though right?
Baby Aldrich @ 18 weeks:
And, the video of when we told my in-laws:
UPDATE: The video of my in-laws might need an explanation. We gave them a photo-book of our dogs. The first picture had a label on it “The Grandkids” and the last picture was of the pregnancy test.
Good stuff, Pumped.
Felix the Rabbit
Our yard seems to be a breeding ground this spring. We’ve had everything from baby robins to baby rabbits. The baby robins showed up last weekend (completely expected, their nest has been in our garage for a few weeks/months now). Had I noticed the nest getting built It wouldn’t have lasted long (birds cause a mess) but I didn’t so we were graced with the presence of at least 2 baby robins. Rachel and I saw them both make it out and into the wild. Our garage is now safe from the birds, thank god!
Thursday while trimming the grass around the various bushes Rachel found a nest of rabbits. They were all huddled in a hole in the grass around a young lilac bush she planted last year. All of the rabbits hopped away and hid under the bushes next to the house.
When I got home that night Rachel wanted to show me, so we went outside and found Felix. Rachel has a tendency to name random animals we see, like charlie the squirrel in the Grand Canyon and now Felix the baby rabbit. There have been countless others, but their names escape me.
All the rabbits were gone (read: hiding) except for Felix. In fact, he seemed quite friendly, and even allowed us to pick him up and hold him for a bit. I’ve had pet rabbits before and usually they fall into one of two categories:
- schizophrenic – running and hopping everywhere and generally trying to get away.
- terrified – huddled down and not moving, basically pretending to be a stone.
At first Felix seemed to fit into the second category. However; the longer we held him he seemed to become comfortable and even curious, sniffing and moving around a bit.
While it was fun to play with him a bit, we thought it best to get him back to his mother, so we put him under the bush next to the house (where we knew the rest of them including the mother had gone) and he hopped inside and disappeared.
We’ve seen baby rabbits every day since then, but we don’t think we’ve seen Felix again yet, all the markings have been different and the ones we’ve seen have run away as fast as you can see them.
Normally I wouldn’t like rabbits, but we only have a small flower garden to worry about so it’ll be fine. Also the bush that they’re calling home for now is scheduled for removal very shortly. I assume once it’s gone they’ll vacate the premises. Until then we’re happy to share our home with Felix the rabbit.
Randy Aldrich 