"It Was Firm, It Was Adamant, It Was Resolved."

Well, I guess it's fairly fitting that it's a movie quote to start off the post about resolutions since that will play a part in one of them. I guess I'll just list and exposit as I go.

So, looking back at posts from 2007, I never really set forth an actual list, I was just trying to clear up the list from 2006. This year, I do have an actual list, I guess.

1. Get the new house in shape for both family and baby.
2. Drop another 30 or so lbs. and put a little definition back into the old (and getting older) body.
3. The 5/15/150 prospective.
4. Slowly carve out more time for each family memeber and their pursuits.
5. Try and remember that both children will be unique and a little over 4 years in age difference.

Number one is fairly self-explanatory. We just recently moved and in the midst of packing and moving, found out we were expecting. So, the room in the house where we moved all the extraneous things into is slated to be the nursery. It hasn't quite recovered yet and there are still things strewn about the house. It's slowly taking shape, but it will have to happen a lot quicker to accomodate a late June/early July delivery.

Number two should also be self-explanatory. I've been slowly climbing down back toward the number I have in my head and looking back over the past couple years, I've realized that I've gone down about 10 lbs. each the past two years so it's no longer 50 lbs., but 30. And, though I never had a six-pack set of abs, I'd like to be able to distinguish where the muscles are and my legs, which were, at one time, the body part that was most in shape, are now beginning to lose the tone that they used to have.

Number three deals with my healthy obsession with pop culture. The 150 represents the number of "new" movies that I'd like to view this year. I half-heartedly started this last year, but will be pursuing it a little more firmly this year. Movies only count if I haven't seen them before. That can be a first run release such as Sweeney Todd, National Treasure 2, or the Bucket List or it can be a movie that I wanted to catch, but didn't make the theater such as Waitress, Rush Hour 3, and Eastern Promises. The 15 represents the number of novels that I'd like to read this year. I didn't even come close last year and that was with re-reading 1-6 of the Potter series and adding the 7th. I have several books that I'd like to slot in, but this is the year that I'd like to read all 7 of the Dark Tower series. I'm severely lagging behind in that regard. Ten years ago, I'd be reading the book as I was walking out of the bookstore buying it, but time is hard to come by these days. The 5 is just a little qualifier I recently added after talking to Tom. Tom would have made it through the 150 movies if he could have counted television shows on dvd. So, the 5 is added to accomodate series television on dvd. With what I already own, but haven't seen, I can get almost 40% of the way there on the movies and have enough for the next 7 years tv-wise. As for the 15 novels, I'll talk about that further at the end of this post.

Number 4 is kind of an all overall goal that will only be accomplished by all of us kind of working in tandem. In order for Terri to have time to scrapbook or read or for me to watch movies or build puzzles or write or Gage to learn how to skate or learn how to read, we'll have to keep up with everything else going on in our lives. Cleaning and maintaining the household, looking after the new little one, making sure work doesn't intrude at home, and not falling into the rut of excuses will be main contributing factors toward realizing this goal.

Number 5 is my own personal goal to realize that Gage has been, what I consider to be, the model child in many ways. Yes, I'd love for him to not have my sleep habits, but that can't be helped. This new little one, be it boy or girl, may or may not follow the same paths, but regardless, they will be unconditionally loved and I just need not to project either my own visions of progress or measure against Gage's progress during the formative months and years that lay ahead.

So, there's 2008 in a very ambitious nutshell. And, being almost one week into it and not having even slivered off any of it, well...there's 51 more to go.

Now, as for the 15 novels. When we were moving, Susie seemed appalled at the number of books and said I should count them as I was getting them organized and put away. Well, I have that number. And, for the comments section, I'd like to see guesses on how many books the readers of my blog think I might have. I'll reveal the answer after I see how close or far some of the guesses are. Again, I hope your 2008 is happy, healthy, and productive.