8 Things I Want in 2008

I'm not all that big on resolutions, but I really want to make some changes this year. I thought I'd put together a list so that I can check back every now and then and see how I'm doing or at least if I'm headed in the right direction.

1. I'm going to spend the next year learning anything and everything I can about photography. I'm going to practice more and take a Photoshop class. Hopefully I'll be able to gain some knowledge and confidence, enough to help me start a business. I am REALLY hoping to get some private instruction from Maile at Relish Photography. I love her style and she'll fly anywhere in the U.S. It might take me all year to save up the money to do it, but I know it'll be worth it.

2. It's gut check time - and I mean that literally! I HAVE to start exercising. Aside from chasing after my kids, I don't do any sort of physical activity. I feel so crappy all the time and I am so weak. It's really pathetic.

3. I need to start saving money. I've moaned about money problems before on this blog, but this is the year my husband and I start digging ourselves out. The house is up for sale and hopefully we'll be able to sell. I put an empty jar in the kitchen and whatever I have left over in my pockets at the end of the day goes in there.

4. I want to spend more time with my husband. Things have been so hard for so long, I think it's time we really start to build up our marriage. I'm afraid that it'll crumble under all this stress if we don't start nurturing it now.

5. I hope this year will bring me out from under the new baby funk. I had it after Big J was born. I felt so beat down from the strain of motherhood that I didn't recognize myself. I was mean and cranky all the time and I didn't enjoy doing any of the things I used to. After Little J was born, the depression came back but it wasn't as overwhelming. I feel like the fog is starting to lift.

6. I want to take a big family vacation this year. We are actually going to Disney in March, but it'll be with my husband's sister and her family. We'll be there for Little J's first birthday though so it will be really special. Anyway, I want to go somewhere just the 4 of us. Now that I'm working I feel like we are never together as a family.

7. Speaking of vacations, I'd like to have a girls only one with my sister and my mom for her birthday in August. I mentioned it to my sister and she thought it was a good idea.

8. Last, but certainly not least, I'd like to make some new friends. Even with Big J in preschool, I still feel so isolated as a mom. Case in point - I've starting *talking* to the Internet and no one's even out there listening. Maybe it's time to make some real life friends. No offense to anyone who might actually read my blabbering on a regular basis.

What would be on your list of 8 things for 2008?