I’ve been getting outside a lot these days and have been trying to keep the garden going. There’s a LOT of weeding to be done (ugh). We found out this morning that apparently the deer are eating all of our veggies (double-ugh!)!! And they’re not even fully grown or ripe yet! At this rate all the veggies will be eaten before they get a chance to fully grown. So we ran out tonight and got some deer netting and tried to get the garden covered until we can get a better solution setup – a taller fence? But, the sun had already set and we were working almost blind. That was fun! We’ll see how well it worked tomorrow. Hopefully we don’t end up with some deer actually caught inside it… d’oh!

School’s progressing really well. I wanted to wait for my first assignment to be graded to move onto the second lesson of my first class. I started to get impatient waiting for the grade and feedback – but I received my grade today – 95! As long as I can keep that up, I’ll be very happy. And I’ll be able to get reimbursed 100% from my company – an even happier camper. I should be reading up my next lesson tomorrow, and hopefully have the assignment submitted by the end of the week.

Lately I’ve been motivated and in an “improvement” mode. Self improvement and general all-around improvement. Weeding / keeping up the flowers and misc. plants as well. Making progress (slowly) on the projects around the house. Fixing up some of the trees outside. Reorganizing junk and sorting through / getting rid of junk (physical and electronic – heh). I finally went to the gym tonight (only 12 minutes on the eliptical machine, but after 8 months of no gym, it’s a great start).

I’m moving along with school work – while maintaining my day job. I’m trying to keep it as a day job and leaving work at the office (mostly) instead of making it take over my life (that’s pretty hard actually). I’ve decided what I want to do in life / where I want to be. I’ve identified what I need to do or have in order to get there, and I’ve laid out a plan and some goals (no set deadlines yet though).

Completing school is one of them. I’m hoping to complete 1 class each month (give or take depending on the # of lessons). That would be ideal for both progress and my wallet since I payed for the classes up front on my credit card and need the reimbursements. hehehe Building up a portfolio is the other main goal / necessity which means finishing up some projects – finding the time for this will be the hardest part of all. I have plenty of projects lined up, I just have to sit down and do them. I’d also really like to get certified by Adobe (ACE, “Adobe Certified Expert“). The day I can put that logo on my business card and website, will be a very good day indeed.

I’m trying to keep my weight down (losing some would be even better – but not gaining is good too). Heck – I’ve even been working on toilet training the cats! No joke – they’re coming right along too – gimme a couple more weeks and we should *knock on wood* be a litter-free household!

So things are coming along rather well, as long as I can keep up the pace. I think I can. I’m pretty motivated. Talk to me again in a year and we’ll see how far along I am. =)