Thursday, January 14, 2010

Help Please

A family friend of ours for many years, Garth Abbott, has recently been diagnosed with that very aggressive form of breast cancer known as IBC, inflammatory breast cancer. He is a wonderful man and an example to all who know him as a dedicated father, grandfather, friend, and a humble servant to those around him. Sadly, he is uninsured and while he needs to start chemotherapy and radiation treatments immediately he is unable to show that he can pay for them and therefore cannot get the treatments he so desperately needs.

His daughter in law decided to try to get an auction going to try to raise some money for his treatments (they are going to cost over $100,000). MANY generous people have donated goods and services to be auctioned. There are 180 now I think.

NOW we need people to BID on these items! Please take a few minutes to check out the auction and see if there is something you are interested in purchasing. Many people have asked for a way to donate money directly to this wonderful man and so an account has been set up in his name...you will find the information for that on the blog as well.

http://www.thedailyabbott.blogspot.com

Thanks so much!

Sunday, January 3, 2010

My Goals for 2010

I always have a desire to set goals at the beginning of the year. I often make huge lists of things I want to work on, and then end up failing in almost all of them I think. I am not sure how to rectify this issue, and doing so is not necessarily one of my goals. I just have so many areas of my life that I want to improve upon and it is hard for me to just pick a few to focus on. Perhaps I am not the only one with this problem. But after my grandma passed away one of my sisters got her journals and has started typing them up and giving us copies. I have read the two volumes I have so far and I found that several times she would make lists of her goals for a year, about as long as mine end up being. But she didn't only make the lists, she would come back several times throughout the year and evaluate how she was doing at meeting her goals. I will try to do this and see if I am more successful. So, here are my goals, by area.

Spiritual
  • Spend time daily doing both personal and family religious study
  • Get 100% visiting teaching every month
  • Increase my understanding of the atonement through a more in depth study of the fall and the atonement
  • Pray for and ponder ways to bring two of my favorite people to full activity in the church
  • Have at least two of my friends take the discussions
  • Learn to do family history and start doing it
  • Catch up and keep up on my journal
  • Don't say anything that could be considered gossip and if others start to gossip around me ask them to stop

Mental

  • Become proficient in fMRI
  • Read, or listen to, at least 6 classics
  • Become more expert in autism and the aging brain (not that I am currently an expert in either, I just mean that I might not be considered an expert in either by the end of the year, I will just work on learning more about each)

Family and Home

  • Clean my house for real at least once a month (nope, I'm not a great housekeeper, and it is hard to motivate myself to clean when Ryan and I don't make much of a mess so you don't really see dirt)
  • Pick up my house daily, or at least every other day (don't want to commit to too much)
  • Call a sister at least every other week (this is a goal not because I have to motivate myself to talk to my sisters, but because I HATE making phone calls to anyone - Ryan is the only one I don't have to talk myself into calling - it's a challenge - can't really explain why)
  • Call my parents every week, or at least every other week (I can't always think of things to say on a weekly basis)
  • See Ryan's family at least once a month
  • Be better at recognizing Ryan's needs and desires and tyring to meet them, even if it means putting them above my own

Physical

  • Exercise at least 156 days of the year (that's just 3 times a week)
  • Eat more balanced and healthier (try to get all my food groups in every day in the proportions that I should)
  • Only eat sugar on holidays and mine and Ryan's birthdays
  • Drink at least 64 ounces of water a day - preferably 80 or more
  • Take my vitamins every day

Social

  • Do something with someone other than Ryan and people I work with at least twice a month, preferably once a week
  • Do at least one act of service, outside of service related to my church callings, once a week
  • Have friends to dinner at least once a month
  • Keep current on my blog

Talents, or lack there of

  • Practice the piano - at least an hour a week
  • Learn to be a better photographer

Well, that is all I can think of right now - seems like I thought of some other ones throughout the past few days, so I may update later.

What are your goals?