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Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Hard Work Pays.

Today I woke up, and I said to myself, "Claire, let's do something good today. Let's get a lot done while we still can before work starts up next week." So I got a lot done! :) I vacuumed the upstairs and downstairs and got the stairs as well, I did a lot of wash today, and cleaned both full baths! I wanted to get outside and garden a bit but I didn't get to that today. I also made a dinner..a chicken stir fry with balsalmic vinaigrette, a touch of karo corn syrup, a bit of soy sauce, fresh cracked salt, and fresh cracked pepper, a dash of oregano, garlic-olive oil fried tomatoes, lightly grazed orange bell pepper sliced, chopped onions, garlic, and sprigs of brocolli. It would have been cool if there was rice, but I ran out of time. It really comes together really fast!

That's all for now. I'll update about my goal list tomorrow.
note to self, check out gal. 2

Monday, May 24, 2010

Hit the Road…

Hey yall! I just set up my runnersworld profile..I haven't used it for a while, but it's a great tool to track mileage and map out routes!

check it out:


 

http://traininglog.runnersworld.com/profiles/c6abb7729161473da6cec763f1de1d4e

Sunday, May 23, 2010

So much to do…

There is so much to do, and so little time and energy in which to do it. That past few days have been really productive for the most part and I've been working on my list (The monster list project I've begun). So, I'll run through some of the stuff I've knocked out this week.

#8. At the moment I'm finishing up Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy. As others have said in the past it is truly a deeply saddening book. It is a book of crushed dreams and a broken life. Otherwise it is a well written book that I'm glad that I am reading. I'm at the part where Jude returns to MaryGreen after having failed at Christminster and returns to the place of his youth, his Great Aunt's house.

#24. I hung out with A and T the past two days which was so much fun! I saw 'Letters to Juliette' which is now one of my favourite movies. It is a fairytale, but nevertheless is excellent.

#17. I had the opportunity to volunteer at church today. What a blessing it is to reach out to others! In helping other people, it makes the helper happy and is consequently helped!

I'm slacking on #11! I made my friend, M a bday card but forgot to give it to her and I completely forgot to give L her graduation card! All will be well in a week when I see them again though. Hopefully I remember to give it to them then. I always make cards, and then fail to give it to its intended recipient.

#12. I've been reading in the book of Luke lately, and it has been really good. I'll have to share some of what I've been learning in my next post (I don't have my Bible beside me at the moment).

#3. I'm working on cleaning the house top to bottom and in upkeep of that I dusted the living room and vacuumed it. Unfortunately the sweeper I used did not have adequate attachments to vacuum the couch so I'll have to do that soon. I also need to do behind the couch which is atrocious with dust, cat hair, and etc.

#46. I've missed out on a couple of vitamin days, but have done good for the most part. On the days I haven't had a vitamin, I've had a nutritious smoothie with kale and other good things.

#19. I have been doing really bad at studying every day and hence will start studying again. I need to learn to persevere when it's easy so I can learn to persevere when it's hard.

#27. I only was able to give a few dollars in tithe, but I gave what I had on hand.


Our poppies are finally blooming! That's not a picture of our poppies, but still lovely nonetheless! I wrote my entire post on microsoft word in order to transfer it, but after finishing it I remembered that I couldn't copy and paste, which stinks. Oh well. In general I'm working on my goals pretty well. There is room for improvment in a couple departments, so I will keep it updated with my progress.
That's all.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Summer days. Day 1000. retitle 50/1001.


Yesterday evening was wonderful! M, L and myself hit up the olive garden for some delicious italian cuisine. I got the lasagna classico, and tiramisu for dessert with a side of coffee. MMM! What a delicacy! I love Italian cuisine! That was #24 btw :)




#8 is read a book/month. Last month I read Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. It was amazing! I highly reccomend it. The writing flowed, kept the reader captivated by the wash of emotions of the main character, and ended with a satisfying end.


At the moment for the month of may, I have recently begun Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy. It seems to be a good book so far, though I hear it is a very sad book. Jude has already made one "folley" in his life by falling for Arabella and wasting a good year and a half on someone who is not well matched for himself. It is good though, because for now he is back on track!




Here is the next 25 goals to bring the number of goals to 50:




#26: Donate something to a charitable organization at least every 6 months.




#27: Tithe regularly (once I start my job)




#28: If I don't get into grad school for micro or immuno and instead go on to education, take courses for second bachelors degree in Chem


#29: Join Key Club.


#30: Join Pre-Med Club.


#31: get real estate license.


#32: Do Research with a professor in upcoming school year (hopefully aimed toward micro/immuno.


#33: Get 3 reccomendations.


#34: Take Calc II and III


#35: Take Physics I and II with Calc


#36: Once I have a gym membership, swim at least once a week.


#37: Play in LU symphony orchestra


#38: (I'm probably repeating myself, but if for nothing else, reiteration) Study for GRE and Bio GRE.


#39: Take GRE and Bio GRE.


#40: Turn in application for employment with the University to HR.


#41: Get CPR/AED certified.


#42: Find a low hour job at school for during the school year.


#43: Master that one concerto that I forget the name of at the moment, by Bach. (concerto in D major?)


#44: Visit D.C. (Business District with Smithsonian Institutes)


#45: Maintain a positive state of mind.


#46: Take vitamins regularly.


#47: No fast food except on emergencies (on the road with other people and no other food options)


#48: Have devo at least 5 times a week.


#49: Memorize a memory verse per week.


#50: Pay off Parent plus loan, pay off citi loan.


Oh my word. This goal setting thing is hard! [that is, to create so many goals! I've probably already repeated myself in some capacity or another] Hence I am going to readjust this and call it 50/1001.


Today is just gorgious out there! I hear it is suppose to be dramatically warmer today and begin to feel a bit more like summer than the past couple of days. I just tried my french press for the first time and it is wonderful! My coffee tastes so clean and delicious! Today is going to be a busy day of organizing, finishing my lifegoal plan as outlined by the site i cited yesterday, and studying ( i switched my schedule around so now I have Organic Chem I w/lab, Micro w/lab, Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy w/ lab, Intro to probability and statistics, and Paleontology which totals 18 credits. The more head start on learning all of the material the better! Also I heard Comp. Anat is really hard, so I need to hit the books!
That's all for now.

101/1001 Day Zero Project

I just stumbled across one of the neatest ideas ever: Make 101 goals to accomplish in 1001 days and record major feats and progress via blog! I think I'm going to give it a try. As Yoda always said "Do or do not, there is no try." So I guess a better term for my goal of the "Day Zero Project" would be "I am going to do this!"
I first must formulate my goals, which may take a couple days, but I can start now.

Goal #1: Graduate undergrad.

#2: Make deans list.

#3: Clean the house top to bottom.

#4: Get our yard in proper order (weeded, edged, mulched, etc.)

#5: Run a Half Marathon.

#6: Run a Marathon.

#7: Build up a base savings of 1K.

#8: Read a book a month.

#9: Get my BMI to an adequate distribution of muscle:fat

#10: Practice violin at least 2 hours every week.

#11: Follow up with thank you, birthday, special occasion cards on time.

#12: Read through the Bible by 12/31/2010 and again by 12/31/2011

#13: Get accepted into teachers certificate program and masters program after undergrad

#14: Study and do awesome on my GRE and Biology GRE

#15: Grow out my hair

#16: Stop procrastinating (including doing something that needs done but using it to procrastinate something else)

#17: Volunteer 100+ hours in my community.

#18: Become a better time manager.

#19: Over summers study for at least one hour/day (this summer study organic chem and physics)

#20: Read the chapters for my classes before the classes.

#21: study at least 1hr/class every day during school semesters.

#22: Set up potential lessons for information sessions about bio and/or future potential curricula and activities for future lessons when I eventually teach

#23: Become more organized.

#24: Spend time with at least 5 friends every week.

#25: Stop eating ice cream (I'm part lactose intolerant i think, and it's bad for me)

I think that's good for now! This is a lot harder than I thought it would be. This gives me an idea to set up lifetime goals, but not today. I have to get started on working my A list at the moment. Maybe tomorrow will be the day I begin to formulate. I found this awesome site I want to check out though that I highly reccomend:
http://www.mindtools.com/page6.html
It talks about how to set up goals and life goals and how to break down life goals to the every day!

That's all.

Schools out for the summer!


So it has been just over a week since I finished my last final, and the relaxing days of summer are here for a moment. I am soaking in as much of it as I can, despite the chilly, grey weather. I have a huge to-do list which has all but gotten lost and nothing listed has been breached, for now. That is all about to change as soon as I finish this post! I am still in the process of unpacking all of my stuff, and still have more in my car, unfortunately. I have no idea where it will all go, but maybe this would be a good opportunity to sort through it and give some away.


Our lilac bush outside smelled delightful for weeks but its flowers are now faded. My sage plant/bush is flourishing beautifully with its purple flowers at the moment, and the rose bush surprisingly put out a few flowers too! Everything outside is alive, and fresh!


I need to go for a run. At the moment I'm training for a really tough 10k coming up fathers day weekend. It's in the mountains and is 4 miles uphill and about 2 downhill. The first four are killers, and the last two are killers of the shins because it's hard to break the impact of the momentum you gain running downhill for two miles straight! Despite all of that I'm excited. It will be good to get back in shape. I haven't had the chance to get to the gym for over a week now because I'm out of school. Hopefully my job will start soon so I can get a gym membership at golds asap! I want to give plasma too, but at the moment I'm on the deferral list because my hematocrit level was consistently too low. I'm hitting up the docs later to get it all checked out.


I think later on I'll study some Organic Chem to get ahead of the eight-ball (so to speak). I purchased the "organich chem I for dummies" book and workbook, so hopefully that will give me a little head start of the course so I'm not so bogged down with 18 credits and possibly one of the hardest/need for hard work classes of my undergrad.


That's all for now.