2015 Goals

In 2015 my biggest goal is the take the time to do what I enjoy. This includes spending much needed time with Zach, cooking dinners, journaling, art, blogging, etc. The last half of 2014 was so jam packed with school and work that I hardly had time to do anything that I wanted to. Now that I have some time off from having a job, I want to take full advantage!

I also want to be more obedient in reading the Bible. My prayer life is not so bad, but the only time I would have to read the Bible would be right before bed, and I wasn't very awake and focused at that time. I want to set a goal to read and study everyday after dinner during our relaxing time.

Journaling has always been something that I've really enjoyed doing, but I rarely stick with it for a good amount of time. It's something about new journals that I love that makes me somehow acquire about 15 half-used up ones! I'd like to work on actually filling a couple completely this year! 

As for living a healthier lifestyle, I want to exercise more (especially yoga) and be more aware of the things that I'm eating. I know that I won't be going to the gym everyday, and that's not my goal. But I'd like to set at least 2 days a week where I go and do yoga and workout. 

With Zach deploying soon, we are going to have A LOT of extra money coming in. All of his income is untaxed and he also gets a lot of bonuses for being deployed. I want to save this money up for our wedding that we can hopefully have soon after he gets back! I also want to have a bigger emergency fund.

Those are my goals for 2015! What are yours?

2014 Recap

2014 was such a busy year with a lot of exciting changes! I think I've grown up so much this year and think that Zach and I have grown together more than ever. 2014 was a great year and I hope that 2015 brings joy and many more adventures!

January:

January started off with a 2 day road trip from Virginia to Colorado with Zach and his dad. We spent the new year in our new townhouse on Fort Carson. We painted and decorated and quickly started to have a lot of friends over. Since I didn't have a car or a job we mostly had a lot of date nights and I spent a lot of time trying out new recipes and doing a lot of crafts! OH! And we got Avett!! :)

February: 

In Feb we celebrated our very first Valentine's day as a married couple, bought a new Honda, had a giant Super Bowl party, and went to Garden of the Gods for the first time.

March:

In March one of my best friends, Heather, from VA came to visit me. We went to Denver and did a lot of hiking. At the end of the month I also had my very first day at Bel-Rea! I'm so grateful for that school and so happy for the 2 wonderful friends that I made there, Allison and Anny!

April:

In April we took a big leap and decided to buy our first house! I'm so happy about that decision and love continuing to make this house a home. We also had our first married Easter and invited a lot of friends over for that.

May: 

In May we mostly did a lot of things around the house since it was starting to get warm outside. We made a fire pit outside, built shelves in the office, and painted the living room/kitchen.

June:

June was filled with adventure! We had a lot of get togethers at our house, went to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, I started a new job, and I got to go on a camping trip to Yellowstone!

July:

In July we celebrated the 4th at our house, and I went to the AVMA Convention with Allison and Anny in Denver. 

August:

In August Zach was gone for training most of the month. I turned 24! I ran the Color Run, went to a hot air balloon festival, and went apple picking.

September:

In September I went to the Rocky Mountain National Park, but other than that spent a lot of time on schoolwork and at my job at the animal clinic. 

October:

In October we had Zach's family visit us, carved pumpkins, spent a lot of weekends at the dog park, and had our 1 year marriage anniversary! We had professional pictures taken for us for our anniversary. At the end of the month Zach also had his Lasik eye surgery so he's eligible to fly helicopters!

(A Girl Named Leney)

(Fifth & Ephesians Photography)

November:

In November we hosted our very first Thanksgiving together for about 20 people! It also started snowing.. A LOT!

December:

In December I finished up my last quarter of school for the year. We went to our first Military Ball, and I also started a new tradition of 12 days of Christmas for Zach. We took a vacation and drove to Virginia to visit our friends and family for Christmas. We got to see Allison and her fiancé in Virginia and we all went ice skating together and out to dinner. We also had a big bonfire with a lot of friends and spent a lot of time with our family. We got to follow Clay along to see him fly an airplane, he's only a couple weeks away from getting his pilot's license! We caught up with some old friends, and I also got to go to my best friend, Stacey's, gender reveal party! We found out that she's having a BOY!  After our relaxing time off we had a long road trip back to Colorado. In December I also decided that one of my New Year's goals is to spend more time doing the things that I love. So with this thought in mind, and many other factors, including Zach's upcoming deployment, I decided to leave my job at the clinic. I was worried about it at first, but knew that it was the right thing to do, and I feel so relieved! I can now focus on school for a little while as well as spend all of my free time with Zach before he leaves for Kuwait!

Overall, 2014 was a wonderful year! I'm sad that most of 2015 will be spent away from this guy, but I know that we will still be able to talk a lot and work on our marriage as hard as we can. I'm excited for some of the adventures that are coming up with my friends and can't wait to see how God works in our lives this year! 

(Stacey Dinch Photography)

2015 Goals are coming up soon! :)

12 Days of Christmas

I came across the idea of 12 days of Christmas for my husband a while ago on this blog. I had totally forgot about it until I saw it again on pinterest this year. I decided this year would be perfect to start this new tradition. I loved shopping for his special gifts and seeing the look on his face when he found his first present. He looked forward to it everyday and I can tell it really made him feel loved. I highly suggest that you take the time to do this, or something like this, for your husband next Christmas. It was nice being able to give him something extra this year. :)

I'm sure all men have different tastes, but here's the list of what I got him:

Day 1: One really nice bottle of whiskey

Day 2: Two cigars

Day 3: Three packs of magic cards

Day 4: Four pack for the movies (2 tickets and 2 boxes of candy)

Day 5: $5 Starbucks giftcard

Day 6: Six pack of beer

Day 7: Seven lucky scratch tickets

Day 8: Eight pack of cookies

Day 9: Nine comic books

Day 10: $10 Google Play gift card

Day 11: Eleven back massage coupons

Day 12: Twelve whiskey stones. 

I wasn't able to snap a picture of all of the gifts because for some of them we were on our road trip to Virginia!

Military Ball

In December we attended our very first Military ball! 

It was so fun to get all dressed up with each other. It was at the Hilton in downtown Colorado Springs. The first portion was formal with speeches and dinner, and then went to dancing for the rest of the night! It was nice to hangout with some of our friends like that.