Baby it's COLD Outside

I hope you all enjoyed the Holiday's and had a great time with family and friends during your celebrations. We got our White Christmas, in fact not just on Christmas, but almost every day leading up to it and after it has snowed.

I did enjoy the Holiday's myself, I received some great gifts, a few of which are a the exact winter running outfits I had my eye on. (Thanks Mom and Dad!)

I'd like to give a quick update on my back. The Monday before Christmas my Doctor decided it was best (based on his best guess as to which was wrong) to just attack it with an aggressive bit of treatment.
What happened was, I was able to get around a little easier (thanks to great drugs) on Christmas and enjoy the day with my family with relatively low pain.

In the end, the treatment did not work, so he is sending me to a Specialist. I go in for a long series of tests and probably even an MRI on January 14th. (I hate how long it takes to get into specialists!) Meanwhile, I do have a few pills, which at times can slightly take away a little of the pain so I can function and get around.

So Yeah, I lead a very boring life right now. If I don't have to, I don't move around much or stand or sit too long since those things aggravate it.  Although, this week I am going to try to see if I can get a little walking in, we will see how much pain I can take to get a little exercise in!
I definitely hope the Specialist can find a solution quick, because frankly I can't live my life spending most of it in bed laying on my side, I am almost dying of boredom!

One of my favorite things about when it is snowing at night in the winter, is how bright it is outside. Before Christmas I took the above picture in the middle of the night, no flash or anything and look how beautiful and bright it was. This was the beginning of the storm, we had another 14 inches after this, LOL

Talk about cold. I participated in a Coke Naughty or Nice campaign during the holiday's, and they send me some Coke in the mail. But sadly, it was so cold outside (I think it was 4 degree's on this day) the Coke froze in the mailbox, and about half the liquid in the bottles sprayed out into the box and the rest turned to ice. Guess I didn't need the extra calories, and this was mother natures way of helping me out!

My sister who lives a little further up in the mountains from me, woke up to -18 below, and her kids had a blast boiling water and then going outside to throw it up in the air to watch it instantly turn to vapor gas.

So Yup, its been cold here. Although Sunday we warmed up to 22 degree's, it was like t-shirt weather, LOL LOL
In some ways, its probably okay I can't run or do much right now, because my neighborhood has not been snowplowed and streets are full of snow, and only half the neighbors have the decency to shovel their sidewalks. So I wouldn't be able to get out and run/walk in it much even if I wanted to.

Instead, I've gotten a little reading in. Just finished one of my now all time favorite book series (The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer) I absolutely loved this science fiction spin on some of the greatest fairytale characters! The final book even at 824 pages didn't disappoint! I just loved it, and could hardly pull my eyes from the pages. Even though, no I couldn't get through it all in one day, it took 3 days. But they were well worth the hours spent reading, that is for sure!

I've mentioned this on my first new post of the New Year, for the past 3 years. I don't believe in setting New Years Resolutions for myself.
Since only 8% of resolutions are even kept, I see no point in setting myself up with something that doesn't really work for far too many.
Instead as you all know, I am pretty goal oriented.
Last year I had a series of goals, several running/fitness related which lets be honest didn't happen beyond reasons out of my control. But I also had several goals that I did accomplish!

Though I may not create a resolution to keep, I do take the beginning of the year to reflect on where I am and where I want to be. I like to look over my goals and see where I am at on them, and contemplate what I am doing to achieve them.

There is one thing I haven't been doing very well on, so I am going to put a little more focus into it, in the coming weeks/months until it becomes second nature.  I really want to work on being a better listener.

I quite often will be talking to someone and accidentally interrupt or only half listen so I don't forget what I want to say next. (I know many others do it too, LOL) but it's something I have wanted to work on for a while now, and it's time I put more effort into it, and become a better listener!


So tell me, do you set Resolutions, Goals or Reflect this time of year too?
What is something you are working on being better at for self improvement?

I am linking up with HoHo Runs and Mississippididdlin today for their Weekly Wrap!