NEW BLOG

Now that I'm married, I've decided to start a new blog that will incorporate what we're up to as a married couple. I would LOVE for you guys to follow along there, and I will follow you lovelies again in return! :D

http://thenewyorks23.blogspot.com/

Birthday!

I am officially 23 today. Hopefully it's a good one at work! 

 

13 in 2013

With the new year, instead of doing resolutions, since that has never been my thing, I decided to do something else. My hope is that some of you will join in with me, as well. I have an idea of making more of a "bucket list" for the year. (Apparently "bucket list" is one of the words or phrases that was claimed overused in 2012, oh well, right?). Anyway, as we are now in 2013, I thought that it only made sense to do 13 things, right? So, without further ado, the 13 things I would like to do in 2013.

1. Continue to work our at least twice a week. (We got the Nike fitness "game" for the xbox kinect, and so far I am really enjoying it. It's a really good workout, though it will kick your butt!)

2. Find a new job. I guess I should say, find a new school to teach at, since I am keeping the same job. (which also means deciding if I want to move down to elementary school, move up to high school, or stay in middle school)

3. Begin my Master's degree. I have decided to get my Master's in English, so that I can teach college/university level once I have my degree.

4. Work on having a healthier diet. I know that it will still be a bit of time before we think about having kids, but I want to make sure I am healthy when we do make those decisions. I love fruits and vegetables, so I need to start making sure they are a major part of my diet.

5. Finding a new doctor. Enough said, it's just time. I just have to find one that I'm comfortable with, which is never an easy task.

6. Stick with Project Life for the WHOLE year. (I should be getting the seafoam edition anytime now, and then I will be able to start. So excited!)

7. Sew an apron using my new sewing machine. Maybe more than one, and I will use the others for gifts for family/friends.

8. Find new recipes to use, that I can make correctly and actually enjoy. I find we are eating a lot of the same things, so hopefully I can find some new recipes that we both enjoy.

9. FINALLY purchase the Writing Young Adult Fiction for Dummies book, and read and highlight what I need in order to finally begin doing some writing.

10. Look into starting to do some daily yoga on my own to deal with stress. I hear it's a good habit to begin even before you have kids, and that it's a great thing to do during pregnancy, so it seems like it would be a good habit to start now.

11. Cut back on my spending. I don't spend a lot at one time, but I have a habit of going out with my parents every weekend and shopping, and then it starts to add up.

12. Save up money for a honeymoon, and find someplace great that we will both enjoy. And then have a blast!

13. Take chances. If something seems like something I will enjoy, then try it for a change instead of getting scared.

Alright, that's it! Hopefully I can stick to them. I think it's best to make them small and manageable, that way it is possible to finish all 13 in the year. Now it's your turn! Go ahead and create your list and then link up below!






                                                                                         

Hello 2013

It's really hard to believe that another whole year has come and gone. It was definitely one for the books though (literally. I just printed most of our proposal/engagement/wedding pictures, and I think it's going to take longer to scrapbook everything than it took to plan the wedding!). It was definitely a great year, though!

In January I turned twenty-two, and Michael and I started our last semester of college, and were living apart. He was still on campus at school, and I was back home three hours away, living at home with my parents while I did my student teaching.

In May, we both graduated from college. From the same college, on the same day, during the same ceremony. It was wonderful getting to see all of our hard work pay off (even though Michael really did not want to walk the stage). It was an incredible feeling, graduating after four years. The four years went by very fast though!

In June, I had my bridal shower, which was a complete blast. Even though we were still a few months from the wedding, we were moving into an apartment before getting married and wanted everyone to be there without worrying about work (for my teaching friends, which is a lot of them!).

July/August was busy for us. We were out searching for apartments when Michael got the call saying that he had gotten the job that he has now, and we were thrilled. We knew that we would only be able to get an apartment if he got the job. We found one we loved that day. During that time span, I was also given my job, which was very exciting!

The week of the wedding was full of fun activities. I took off Thursday and Friday since I had friends coming into town and things like that. Our rehearsal was on Thursday night, and it went wonderfully, and then I have my bachelorette party Friday, with the wedding being on Sunday. It was all a wonderful whirlwind, a lot of which I can not remember now!

And of course, in December we celebrated our first marriage as a married couple, though it was actually our sixth Christmas together. It was great, between spending time with both of our families, and having time to ourselves. Christmas morning. It makes me excited for traditions to continue in the future.

So, here we are with 2013. Here's hoping for another great year! Happy New Year, everyone! :]

Christmas 2012

From our date night, on the 23rd

 
It's really hard for me to believe that Christmas has already come and gone. It was our first Christmas married, and I have to say that it was a great one, full of new and old traditions that I cannot wait to share with our children when we have them in the future. As of now, though, we are enjoying the holidays as our tiny family of two, before going over and spending time with our families. We used to have a tradition of celebrating "our" Christmas on the 23rd (since we do everything on the 23rd), but we decided to change things up a bit this year.

Aren't the lights amazing?

Since we knew we would wake up at home Christmas morning, we decided to keep up our date night on the 23rd, but wait to do our presents. Instead, that night we invited my brother and his fiance out for a double date night. We went to dinner and then went to a place called Prairie Lights, where they had about 4 million Christmas lights set up. It was incredibly, to say the least. It was definitely a night full of many laughs and great memories, and a tradition I hope to continue for awhile, maybe doing something different each year.

Our winning gingerbread house, we didn't plan the Christmas colored shirts!

For the past few years, we have had the tradition of doing Christmas with my parents on Christmas Eve. Since we were all getting married/in relationships, it seemed like the best time to do it because none of us ever had big plans that day. This year, was by far the best so far. We had fun games like a gingerbread house competition (which we won (look at that beauty!)) and a Christmas Song scramble (which we won). We dominated the games, coming away with $22 in scratch off lottery tickets! We spent some time coloring, went to church as a family, had a dinner of my mom's famous, incredible lasagna, and opened presents. It was a great day, and it went by incredibly fast. This year felt very much like Christmas!

We went to see the Nutcracker ballet the weekend after Thanksgiving.

 Christmas morning, we did "our" Christmas together. I put some cinnamon rules in the oven, and we did stockings and opened our presents to one another while we waited on breakfast to cook. It was a lot of fun just having the time together. I know that this time will be set aside for us from now on, which will make for wonderful Christmas mornings when we have children. Christmas day was spent with Michael's family, something we have been doing for several years as well. His grandpa lives with his mom now, and his aunt and uncle were in from Minnesota, so most of his mom's side of the family was there, which made for a fun day. We had a big Christmas lunch, watching some Christmas movies, did a gift exchange, had dinner together, and then opened some more gifts. It was a great day, and a great holiday season!

Now comes New Years, taking down the Christmas decorations, and starting in on semester number two of my first year teaching. Hoping everyone else had a Merry Christmas!