Back in the blogosphere at last!

Hey everyone!!!

First of all, I need to apologize for being M.I.A. the last few weeks. As my sister naggingly (er, lovingly?) pointed out, the last PBT entry was Dec. 11, 2013. Soon after that entry, my work life consumed me every single moment I touched my computer. Following that last entry, I bounced from Nebraska to Seattle, and within an hour of arriving home on Dec. 21, Mr. Cush and I were in the car and settled in for a 15-hour road trip adventure home to Illinois for Christmas with my family. Not long after hauling my suitcase into Mommabear and Ol' Rodney's home, I began to feel pretty under the weather. In all honesty, it was probably mostly exhaustion.  

Following a week with our families for Christmas, we made the trek back to Austin and ushered in 2014 with our best friends from Florida. It was a busy few days and before I knew it, today became Jan. 6.

L to R: At the Alamo Valero Bow in San Antonio on Dec. 30 before ringing in the new year in downtown Austin.

I'm not one to usually make resolutions, but my dear friend Thomas has inspired me to do so this year. He's the only person I've ever known that actually makes AND keeps his resolutions. To not entirely ruin my attempt in the first 10 days of the year, I decided to make some rather broad resolutions and see how those work out. Think the below resolutions are worthy of being attempted?

1. Watch the first four episodes of Downton Abbey to find out the allure of the show. If I get hooked, I can easily work it into my television repertoire now that Breaking Bad has ended and there's about 10 months until Homeland begins again.

2. Try Crossfit. There's a gym less than a mile away, and like Downton Abbey, I feel like I'm missing out on something quite popular.

3. Keep a food journal for a week. I hope that this leads to keeping a food journal for a month, and a month turns into long term. Between this and No. 2, I've covered that whole "lose 50 pounds" resolution without using those exact words.

4. Toss one item out of my closet for every item that I bring into it. My closet is completely and utterly out of space - it might burst if one more thing is wedged in there.

5. Sell unused and unworn items on eBay. Plenty of items in my closet haven't been worn (or in the case of handbags - used) in years  and are in perfectly fine shape for resale. (Can't believe I'm actually admitting this!) Since I spend so much time online, it'd be simple to photograph and auction said items away.

6. Keep my car clean. I actually resolved to do this last year, too, and it worked quite well for the first few months until I became pretty lackadaisical about it (<- fancy word for 'lazy'). Basically, I need to remove everything from my car at the end of each day. No more leaving shoes and coffee cups and old mail floating around the backseat. Having a tidy car eases my anxiety at the beginning of each day when I commute to work.

7. Clean out the pantry. Much like No. 5 above, we've collected a fair amount of items that are never used. Time to toss those.

8. Wear bold lipstick. I'm always afraid of trying bold colors because I feel like a clown with a really bright mouth … and that's never what I'm trying to achieve. Maybe practicing this will be better - like, wear a red lip to Target before I try it out around a group of friends? That might help me ease into it.