January Updates

There has been no picture taking this month, thus no real blog posts, so I thought I'd do an update.  Not necessarily for all of you, but for me. 

MARYBETH

• I'm doing great on my "2011 goals".  I've found it very beneficial to use Lilli's morning nap as my Bible reading time.  I've tried to do it first thing in the morning, but since I'm far from being a morning person, my eyes may read over the words, but I don't really get anything out of it.  I've already finished a book this month, The Pact by Jodi Picoult.  I had read it before but once again it was so wonderful.  Now I just need to get myself to the library or I'm going to seriously fail on that goal. 
• I still love Miss Lilliana to pieces.  She's almost 16 months and is as bright as can be.  We struggle most days to find stuff she'll eat, but she'll ask for "cackers" (crackers) all day long, only as long as I put peanut butter on them. 
• I'm headed to Portland, OR this weekend for a girl's weekend with my roommates (people I tell this to here are so confused because Marcel and I don't have roommates, but I can't get myself to say anything like "college roommates" or "old roommates"; they will always just be my roommates!)  They were all going to come visit me here, but in the end we decided it was cheaper and probably more fun for me to just go there.  I'll take pictures there and then can have a real blog post when I get back!

MARCEL

• He's been working with a new mentor teacher at Skyview High & South Middle.  He's enjoying it a lot (at least that's my impression).  He and Mr. Garner seem to be working really well together and Steve is full of advice and tips that Marcel is glad to be receiving. 
• He still volunteers for church's creative arts & worship teams, which is going to pick up A LOT as we're about to start a second church on the northside of Nampa, thus the name: CFC North.

THE BAILEY'S

• We're both doing great on our "not-a-diet-just-eating-healthier" goal.  We're really working on portion sizes, and having more fruit and vegetables.  We're still eating about the same type of dinners, but tweaking them just enough to get more produce in them. 
• We just enjoyed our January date.  It was a stay-at-home date.  We made our own pizza roll and watched The Social Network, which we both really enjoyed.  We do watch plenty of tv and movies together, but since it was date night, there were no computers on our laps while we watched.  It was truly a night to spend together!
• We're both counting down the days until Marcel graduates, which is only 130 days away!  Doesn't seem that far away when I think about the days, but to say graduation is June 4th, makes it seem like an eternity.  We're both beyond excited for no more school!  Marcel still has a lot of work to do between now and then, but of course, it will all get done.
• February is the month we've been told to start looking for teaching jobs, so that is exactly what we're going to do.  This is the area we've been praying about most.  We want to follow God's will for us, and feel that a BIG part of that is where we'll end up living.  We're not going to be very limited on where we look for jobs.  We know we'll find the perfect job where God wants us to be.
• After finally receiving Marcel's paycheck for being the Skyview Marching Band Assistant Director, our cruise fund is fully funded!  At least as far as we can tell now.  We're still living cheaply (I'd like to say frugally but truthfully, cheap is probably more accurate) and adding any extra money we find to it, just to make sure we have enough saved so it is 100% paid for WITH CASH!  The best part, however, is that we don't need any of our debt snowball money for the cruise (read Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover for more information on the debt snowball) so we are now able to still save a little each month for our cruise, but also resume paying down our debt, which makes me so happy!