I wonder if being angry with the person you’re dating is a motivator for cleaning or if I’m just going crazy. I did more cleaning today. I put all of my computer related CD’s away and cleaned my in and out trays. I can see the majority of my desk! The weird part has been finding old photos, letters, and notes from my ex that seem to be hiding in all kinds of places in my room.

I also found a receipt for my wii remote that I had been looking for, but it doesn’t matter anymore now because I sent it to Nintendo to get it repaired. I bought a wii remote out of the package at this place called Luna Games down near where my boyfriend lives. The first one did not work. Stacey was over playing wii for the first time and the remote was acting all weird. We were playing baseball and the bat would just sit in one spot - we found that if we smacked it against the desk you could swing it once before you had to whack it again. I exchanged it for another remote, only to find that this one was upside down. To make the pointer go left, you had to point right, etc. And since I couldn’t find my receipt and I didn’t feel like going back there, I just sent it off to get repaired. Yay.

Anyway, here are some of my other discoveries from my cleaning: I have a library card for the Carlsbad Library (probably from when I used to work up there), my old expired license from 2003, ticket stubs for concerts I went to in 2003 (Flogging Molly and Jason Mraz), a basket full of pennies, a list of things to do if we got bored that my ex wrote when I went to visit him in Kansas, my old address book from when I was in junior high with phone numbers from plenty of people I never called with notes like “crank call?” and “bitch” - the back of it has a notes section and had my “Top 5 Hot Guys” for about 5 years in a row, plus a list of all of my Christmas presents from various years. Awesome.

I can already mark a few things off of my list! Woo hoo!

• Throw away/shred all of the mail or other papers I no longer need.
• Clean out my filing cabinet and properly file away important papers. *Half way done*
• Get rid of the old books and magazines on my desk and in my room that I no longer need and donate them.
• Put away all of my computer and cds discs
• Put everything else away where it belongs (such as the cookie cutters, the duct tape, the Harry Potter mug, the Crate and Barrell plates that I bought last year, etc. that are all still sitting on my desk)
• Put my old phone up for sale on eBay so it’s not on my desk anymore
• Recycle the cardboard boxes I no longer need
• Properly set up my in and out trays for things I need to shred, things I need to file, things I need to take care of

I also added something to my list, that I completed which was to clean out three of my drawers in my dresser. I can see way more of my desk now, but I still need to finish cleaning my filing cabinet so I can sort the rest of my papers. I’m done for now though and hopefully I’ll finish it bit by bit. Rainy days are good for projects like these.

My friend Amy is hosting an organization challenge over on her blog to get a space in your place cleaned up by February 29th. I think I can do this. I really need to do this. My desk is terrible. See:

Here’s my “to do” list:

• Throw away/shred all of the mail or other papers I no longer need.
• Clean out my filing cabinet and properly file away important papers.
• Get rid of the old books and magazines on my desk and in my room that I no longer need and donate them.
• Put away all of my computer and cds discs
• Put everything else away where it belongs (such as the cookie cutters, the duct tape, the Harry Potter mug, the Crate and Barrell plates that I bought last year, etc. that are all still sitting on my desk)
• Put my old phone up for sale on eBay so it’s not on my desk anymore
• Recycle the cardboard boxes I no longer need
• Properly set up my in and out trays for things I need to shred, things I need to file, things I need to take care of

Hoo boy. I hope I can do all of these things. It’s reasonable that I can, but I just have to put in the effort a little at a time! Thanks for the inspiration, Amy!

i’ve started out 2008 being a good little consumer and buying things. i got some fancy new shoes. a new fancy lg env cell phone. super mario galaxy (mm, star bits). and some mint mojito gum. really, i just like to say “mojito”. it’s a pretty cool word. i’m actually going out and about this weekend to a club to do a girly thing called “dancing”. maybe i will partake in a mojito then!

i’ve been slacking on the craft front lately, i think i got a little crafted out there with christmas and all the baking and stuff i did, but i’m sure i’ll crawl back out and bake up something new soon enough. back to getting star bits!

i made my last car payment today. tomorrow, i’m eligible to get a new cell phone on my new every two plan. my boyfriend ended up not being to work a club for new year’s and instead is coming out with me so i can get a midnight kiss. it’s the little things that make me happy and smile. reflecting on the past year has made me realize how lucky i am to have really awesome people in my life, to have a job i enjoy on a regular basis and to be able to learn from myself and everyone around me even though i’m starting to feel old and kind of adult like. hope you had a good year and the next one is even brighter.

My boyfriend invited me over to his house on Christmas and I knew I couldn’t show up empty handed, so I decided to make some cookies. My cookies of choice were these “Cowboy Cookies” (a chocolate chip-pecan-oatmeal kind of cookie). I also made a Peanut Butter Nanaimo Bar cookie for my own family to enjoy. The cowboy cookies I wrapped up in a pretty box and are ready to be taken down Christmas afternoon to be snacked on.

The Cowboy Cookies are actually from a “mix in a jar” recipe I used a few years ago that I found online and gave out as Christmas gifts to a few friends. Since mine wasn’t just being dumped in a jar, I took the time to cream the butter and sugars together, then adding in the egg and vanilla before mixing in the rest of the ingredients. I also only put in one cup of oats instead of the 1 and 1/3 cups called for and baked the cookies for about 12 minutes.

My other cookie, the Peanut Butter Nanaimo Bar I spotted on the FoodTV website. It reminded me a bit of one of my grandma’s recipes but I decided to try this one out. Mine didn’t turn out as fancy looking at the photo on their website (probably because I didn’t let my peanut butter layer chill long enough and the chocolate started to swirl a bit into it) but they’re still pretty tasty.

I am still planning on doing some chocolate dipped ritz bits mini peanut butter crackers (and the mini smores kind) but I had enough baking and standing around in the kitchen for one day. We’ll see how dedicated I feel about this other idea later.