My Year of 24.....cutting to the chase!

so other than my procrastinated Christmas letter, I haven’t updated this blog since The Great Leaf Blowing Rant of August 27^th. and I haven’t acknowledged anything about my Year of 24 since the end of July (whose post was 12 days late). but you kind readers know me……you know I get somewhat obsessed about something and it kinda takes over my life……and therefore my time!

this is not going to be one of those insanely long “let’s tell them what they’ve missed posts”………just know that it was a lot and most of it starts off with “I woke up way to early and put on my running shoes.” perhaps during the bleak days of January I can tell you about all the fun you have missed!

instead, this will be an overall Year of 24 review so we can all see where I succeeded and where I failed……cuz wasn’t that the purpose of the whole thing? and, as a reminder…….somewhere along the way I realized that some of my goals changed.

24 scrapbook layouts

when I stopped counting in July, I was at 23 layouts for the year. I know that since then I haven’t attended any crops but I do know that I have 2 layouts on my table that are just waiting for journaling. so…….pretty darn close on this one! I’m going to call it good.

scrapbook purchasing versus usage was a subset of the layout count. I wanted to focus on using what I have and not buying more stuff. thankfully as I started focusing on other interests, I was smart enough to stop buying a bunch of crafty things. I picked up a few things for the card kit swap I was in but that is about it. unfortunately, I also stopped doing a lot of crafty stuff. so I am not sure I gained anything here.

24 cards for Operation Write Home

this one was aced pretty quickly in the year. by July, I had completed 63 cards and have continued to make a minimum of 3 cards per month for them. CHECK!

24 pounds lost

how bad is it that I stopped paying attention to this sometime around September? I still watched was I was eating and made sure to exercise but it seems to be more how I feel and look now…..and how well my body can handle everything I am throwing at it.

that being said……..you think I missed this one and am justifying it?!?!? oh, no! 32 pounds lost and never to be found again my friends! I expect another 10-15 to disappear during 2014 as I work towards not being the last person to finish the triathlons I have signed myself up for. (yes.......you read that right!)

24 Dolly walks

I know I was a bad puppy parent. Dolly did not get 24 walks from me per month. I did get the boys to step up and help out more by the end of the year than at the beginning so that alleviates some of my guilt. and since the secondary purpose of this goal was to get ME out for 24 walks per month, I think we can call it good, right?!?!?  

according to Endomondo, when I wrote this around the middle of December, Dolly and I together took 247 walks/runs and went 703 miles in 2013. I never used the program unless she was with me. our average distance was about 3 miles. not shabby!

I will also tell you here……..in case you haven’t actually spoken with me in real life because I have been telling just about everyone…….Dolly completed a half marathon in August! my dog rocks! she was a little pooped that afternoon, but she was a trooper through the entire run……often telling me in her adorable way that I was going to slow and to pick up the pace! (Dolly and I had just finished a 10K......she isn't even winded!)

24 blog posts

shocking…….not including THIS post, I had 32 posts in 2013! imagine what would have happened if I had continued to post on a regular basis?!?!? (bad blogger! bad bad blogger!)

if you remember……ha!.........I didn’t put a number on the books read. in fact, I commented that perhaps I needed to lay off the books a bit to accomplish the other goals I had set for myself. but since most of my book reading takes place on the train to and from work or at lunch, it wasn’t really impacted by my slight obsession with running. therefore it should come as no surprise that I read 66 books in 2013. and dang there were some good ones!! maybe I should do a review of a few sometime during those bleak days of January?!?!?

thanks for going along for the ride (did I tell you I even did a 30 mile bike ride in 2013??? probably should talk about that too, huh??). please feel free to harass me if you don’t hear from me or my blog in a timely manner during 2014. I’ve already started color coding my calendar to keep track of things so you know it is gonna be an adventure!

The Christmas Letter

so……..Christmas cards went out on Wednesday. If you didn’t get one it is either because we don’t have your snail mail address or you are the card whose address label printed funny and Jeff put aside to show me and now we don’t know where it is!

if so, this is what it looks like:

 

(don't mind that little yellow triangle in the middle of the photo.....that is the photo place trying to tell me the photo's resolution is crummy! it looks just fine people......chill out!)

here is a brief tour of what each photo is of……….more specifically than “here’s Ryan and David and Dolly”……..which really is all that one in the center is! above that is the photo of Jeff and I (with Dolly) at the Running with the Bears half marathon. you might remember reading about it HERE?!?!? this photo was post race. yes, we all three survived! to the right of that is boys in mud. no shocker except it was after a 5K obstacle race and the boys are a bit older than your average mud playing kiddo. in the bottom right is a photo taken at our 20^th anniversary dinner at a super swanky restaurant in town (The Kitchen......duh!). unbeknownst to us, or her, a friend who is an awesome professional photographer was on assignment there that night. not only did it provide for some fun conversation, but also resulted in a really nice photo of us! I guess once every 20 years?!?!? and last but not least, a family shot from the Red Shoe Crawl. who can resist an afternoon of walking around eating scrumptious tidbits? I might have mentioned it HERE.

as you can tell from the photos, 2013 was a pretty spectacular year for us Bergs. we ate good food, we went to fun events, and a few of us even got older (not me).  Ryan would like you to know he got his driver’s license……but I am pretty sure you heard me scream. Jeff has gotten more interested in bike riding and David has been dipping his toe into the world of running. sssshhh........the word “marathon” has even crossed his lips! as for me, I went from taking Dolly for 2 mile walks to completing 5 half marathons in 2013 and starting to prepare for a couple triathlons in 2014……all something I would have laughed at you about a year ago!

 

with all that and a kid graduating from high school, 2014 is looking pretty crazy too! (starting with a Polar Plunge on New Year's Day........at least what passes for one in California!) I hope 2014 brings you some equally fun adventures!  

p.s. because I KNOW you miss it SO MUCH.....I will be doing a Year of 24 wrap up.......more like clean up......before year end. sheesh! what a slacker, huh??