got my roundup done for July!
What books and/or magazines did I read this month?
Waiter Rant: Thanks for the tip by The Waiter. A very interesting book but it has terrible language. You can read my full review here. And here’s a link to an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal about the book.
I also read a few issues of Family Fun Magazine .
What movies and/or tv shows did I watch this month?
I went to WALL-E but I didn’t like it at all. It’s been very popular and gotten good reviews so I
seem to be the only one who thought it was dreary and depressing.
I took my daughter to Kit Kittredge: An American Girl which we both loved. I thought it was a great movie!
We also went to see Mama Mia which is just a totally fun movie. Of course I’ve been an ABBA fan as long as I can remember. Hubby took me to the Broadway production of Mama Mia and I’m not sure anything could ever beat that experience, but the movie was pretty close!
We didn’t watch a lot of tv this month, especially since it was unhooked for a few weeks while we worked on our living room project. We did start watching “How it’s Made” on the Discovery Channel (it’s also on the Science Channel). It’s sort of like taking little field trips to factories to see how things are made. It usually is quite interesting.
What gifts did I give and/or receive?
July is one of the few months of the year where we have no family birthdays so it was nice to have a break from that. I did take dinner in to a friend who had been in the hospital.
We gave away our old couch to a family friend who happens to tutor our kids a few times a week. The same friend got married this month and we gave her a digital photo frame.
What illnesses or health concerns did I have?
I went to the Emergency Room for abdominal pain that still hasn’t been resolved. I’ve been doing the doctor runaround thing since then so I’ve had a lot of frustration with the medical field lately.
My daughter had a frenectomy done. It was a minor procedure but still fairly traumatic for her.
What fun things did I do with my friends and/or family?
We went boating with some friends on Utah Lake. My hubby and son went on a river trip in Moab while I had a girls weekend with my daughter. My daughter took a cooking class and a reading class. We have had a busy month!
What special or unusual purchases did I make?
We had a very unusual spending month. We spent money to have holes punched in our wall – LOL! It was so we could have wires run in the wall to reach above our fireplace so we could mount a tv there. It was a much more expensive project than we thought it would be. We also paid an electrician to remove our off center dining room light and put in 2 new lights instead. Then we paid the “Drywall Medic” a small fortune to come patch up all the holes.
Our carpets were really stretched out even though our house is only 4 years old so I paid to have them stretched and cleaned.
Our new couch, chairs and ottoman came in that we ordered back at the end of May so we paid the balance on those pieces. We have been saving up for this project though so it wasn’t too big of a burden.
I also bought an External Hard Drive for my computer which has been a great purchase.
What were my accomplishments this month?
I had a great month as a designer. I started selling at Natural Designs in Scrapbooking (NDISB) and rejoined A Cherry on Top’s digi shop (ACOT). I designed 9 new products (a record for me!) and found my creative mojo again.
I completed 9 digital layouts and took 130 pictures.
As weird as this may sound, Hubby and I both got wills done and we arranged for “estate planning” (sounds fancier than it is). This is something we’ve been meaning to do for years so I think it is a big accomplishment that we finally got it done.
I also have been very good about not eating as much and making healthier food choices. I’ve had a hard time eating a lot anyway so I’ve finally been able to shed a few pounds. I seem to lose weight at a snail’s pace so I’m trying not to focus on numbers but to think about how I feel and how my clothes are fitting.
