Wrap Up

It's already almost time to wrap up 2017. Such a crazy thought!

I like to take the time at the end of each year to reflect on the goals I set in the beginning of the year and to see how they went.

I feel like I'm still working on most of my goals! Balance and letting go of fears have been the two major themes of my life the past three years. I think both are just going to be a long process for me. I also wanted to exercise more than just once a week at Pilates, and I did that...for about two weeks! It's been hard to get back into a regular rhythm of exercise, even though I have daily reminders on my phone to do so! Having three jobs now is making it much harder to add extra things to my schedule.

I also wanted to connect more with people one on one. I'm still working on this as well. I've been spending some time the past two weeks trying to reevaluate my schedule and trying to include more time not working, as I don't really have a day "off" anymore. So I've been trying to come up with ways to be more intentional with taking time off and using that time to spend with others.

My other goal for this year was to continue to strive to look more like Jesus. Obviously this is always going to be an ongoing goal. I've been trying to spend more time in the Word and really focusing on who Jesus was on earth and on what He did while He was here.

I'll share more about my goals for 2018 in a later post. Now it's time for a little wrap up of this year.

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January was a month of celebrating birthdays! We celebrated our friends's son's birthday, my friend's birthday and my birthday!

February was full of celebrating our 9th anniversary, and I got to meet the founder of LuLaRoe!

March was full of events with amazing women! I celebrated one of my best friend's birthdays, attended our church's women's retreat and got to spend a lot of time with another of my best friends and her kiddos!

April was full of babies! One of my best friends had her third baby and one of my other best friends found out she was having a girl!

May was full of celebrations! We attended a fun birthday party, went to Disneyland (and spent time there with a friend and with Josh's dad) and attended our niece's preschool graduation!

June was hectic, but we found a few moments for fun!

July was fun and busy! We celebrated the 4th of July with family and friends, went to Disneyland and the d23 convention and I went to LuLaRoe's annual convention!

August was full of more celebrations! I helped throw a baby shower for one of my best friends and went wine tasting to celebrate the birthday of another friend!

September was full of so much goodness! We celebrated our niece's birthday, I went to CO to spend time with one of my best friends and her family and we got to meet my best friend's new baby!

October was full of lots of fun! I went to the Museum of Ice Cream, we went to our friend's Halloween party and went to a local corn maze!

November was crazy! We went wine tasting, Josh had a conference for work and we had our annual Friendsgiving, plus Thanksgiving festivities!

December has been fun and busy! We've had lots of Christmas fun, I celebrated a friend's birthday and we saw Star Wars! There's a lot more fun to be had in these few days of the year!

I'll be back later with the rest of my thoughts. 2017 is almost over!

Oh Ten. And Oh Eleven. Two Oh One Seven

No more apologizing. It's just late!

October and November were both busy months!

October was full of lots of crazy stuff! I did a lot of events with LuLaRoe. Josh went on a youth staff retreat.

I got to go to the Museum of Ice Cream! I found out about it on Instagram earlier in the year from someone I follow. It's one of those super hard places to get tickets for, but somehow I managed to get some! It was a super fun day and I loved every square inch of that place!

We also went to our friend S.W.'s annual Halloween party. It's always such a fun time! We had such a hard time deciding on our costumes this year but I think they turned out pretty amazing!

 

And we went to a corn maze with some friends. It's one of our favorite things to do in the fall and I'm so glad we were able to.

(It was SUPER windy that night!) 

Josh's dad had to have surgery in October (and thankfully everything went well and he's doing great!), so Josh was out of town a few days because of that. Josh's grandma also passed away, which was very sad. We both loved her a lot and miss her very much.

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November kind of came as a whirlwind after the crazyness of October.

Our friend S.W. took some amazing pictures of us at the beginning of November! We got to go to one of my favorite spots in California that I hadn't been to in years. It was a really fun afternoon!

(PC: Scot Woodman Photography)

I participated in a women's tea event at our church again. It's always fun to see how everyone decorates their tables! And the food is incredible! My friend L.B. and I have gone together the last two years and we had so much fun together!

We went wine tasting and had a great time! It's one of my favorite things to do with Josh, or with friends, because it's so relaxing and fun!

Josh had a conference for work, so he was gone for a few days for that. After he got back, we celebrated Thanksgiving early with my family! We had a really nice day! My mom made lasagna and it was delicious! I like doing non-traditional meals sometimes for the holidays.

We also had our annual Friendsgiving dinner with some friends. It's one of the things I look forward to so much every year.

I also signed up to be a Color Street Stylist! I know, I know, I'm a little crazy...but it's been super fun! I had a launch party and I participated in a couple of events for that in November!

And now it's already the middle of December and 2017 is almost over. I have so many more thoughts I want to share, but never enough time to do so! I hope to be back here soon!

Some December Thoughts

I am so behind on blog posts and feel like I'm behind on life in general these days.

I'm not sure when life kicked into this high of a gear, but I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed this week.

It's December 12th. Christmas is 13 days away. And yes, we got all of our Christmas shopping done. And yes, we've watched some Christmas movies and done some fun Christmas activities. And yes, our house is decorated (I'm staring at my lit up Christmas tree right now). And yes, the majority of our Christmas cards have been sent out or delivered to the people receiving them. But I still feel like something is missing.

There's so much talk of Christmas plans and where we are going when. My brain already hurts just thinking about it. I really just want a morning, or an afternoon, or some chunk of time over the Christmas weekend to have some time alone with Josh, so that we can do our own Christmas at home.

And I've been doing a lot of vendor events. I did 5 within the first week of December. I've got 1, possibly 2 more coming up this month.

I just feel tired. And like I'm whining. I'm really not meaning to, though. I really just want to take some time and think about why we celebrate Christmas. What does it all mean? Why do we spend all this time buying the perfect gifts and then wrapping them? Why does our calendar instantly fill up when December rolls around? Where does Jesus fit into all of it?

I love Christmas. Don't get me wrong. It's my absolute favorite holiday. It always has been. There's something about all the colorful lights everywhere and the songs and the joy of spending time with loved ones.

But I want it to be more than just a fun, busy month this year.

It's really easy to lose sight of Jesus. I've been doing it all month. I've been so worried about everything we've had on our calendar and all the things we've needed to buy, that I've kind of forgotten what all of it means. Or what all of it should mean.

I want to give gifts because it's a small reflection of the love I have for someone, and because Jesus gave us the ultimate gift by dying on the cross for our sins, not because I feel like I need to or have to. I want to do fun events with the people I care about because I enjoy their company and who they are in my life, not because it's just something we've always done or because I'm fulfilling an obligation. I want to watch Christmas movies and listen to certain Christmas songs because they make me feel happy and nostalgic, not because I want to make sure to check those off a list of things I've done this holiday season.

And so I've decided to take some time out this month to focus on the reason why this season is so special. I want to spend some time studying and reading the Word: the prophecies about Jesus's coming, His birth and what He brought to our world. I want to spend some time thinking about and expressing my appreciation and love for the people in my life. All too often we take people for granted or assume they know how we feel. And I want to spend some time examining my heart and my life to really figure out what this new year is going to look like for me. It's something I enjoy doing at the end of every year and I think it's really important for me. It helps me to be able to set my focus on some specific goals and helps me to keep myself accountable to them.

I'm also determined to make sure that Josh and I get to spend some time together as our little family of 2. I don't talk very often on this space anymore about our journey and where we've come from, but at this moment in time, we are both content and happy to be just the two of us. I know a lot of people (and it's not really anyone's fault, it's just kind of the way our society is) assume that we aren't a family because we don't have kids. But we are a family and our time together is just as important as it would be if we had 4 kids. We have been married for almost 10 years now and this will be our 13th Christmas together. We got engaged on Christmas Eve almost 11 years ago. This time of year is very important to both of us and I don't want this time to pass by without us getting to acknowledge all that it means to us as a couple and individually.

My hope is that all of us would be able to take some time out in the next two weeks and really reflect on this month, this year and our lives. Don't let the busyness or the obligations or whatever else it may be keep you from enjoying this time of year.

Oh Eight. And Oh Nine. Two Oh One Seven

And I'm two months behind again. Go figure, right?

I'm honestly not sure I'm going to keep blogging after this year. It's definitely something I needed in my life for a time, and I do like looking back on old posts to see what life was like "back then", but I just don't have the time (or, let's be honest, the motivation or inspiration most days) to take the time to write posts. My purpose of this blog was to be an encouragement to others, and it's become more of a glorified journal over the past few years. So I'm just not sure I'm going to keep it up after this year.

All that being said, let's talk about August!

August started off with lots of planning and fun for K.M. and V.M.'s co-ed baby shower! The shower turned out amazing and was so much fun! I'm so glad I was able to throw the shower with S.W. and bless our friends.

The next weekend, I went wine tasting with my wine tasting ladies to celebrate K.A.'s birthday! We had such an amazing time and I'm so glad I was able to go with them!

We spent some time with my family at my sister's house. It was a really fun day and I'm glad we were all able to be together.

And there was lots of other fun stuff mixed in there! The whole month was a busy blur but it was a good one!



And then September came out of left field! I honestly didn't even realize it was September until about the third week in. That's how crazy life felt!

We had a fun make your own pizza night with some of our friends. We tried some amazing different combos and ate way too much. It was such a fun night!

Our niece turned 6! We had a blast celebrating her birthday! I still can't believe she's already 6! Time really does fly by.

I went to CO to visit my bestie and her family (you can read more about that here).

And K.M. and V.M. brought their beautiful baby girl into the world! I'm in love already and can't wait for more baby snuggles!

September also had lots of other fun stuff mixed in! It was another super busy month, but what else is new at this point, right? Life just doesn't seem to be slowing down any time soon. But I don't think I'd have it any other way!

And now we are in October! My favorite time of year is starting and I'm so excited for what the next three months will bring!

Friendship Refreshes the Soul

I went to CO last month to see my bestie and her family!

I know I say this every time I get back, but I really have the best time with them. We have much needed, sometimes even really hard conversations, and I always leave feeling encouraged and refreshed.

I cried a lot on my final day there, knowing I had to get on a plane and come home. Em asked me in the car on our way to the airport what my favorite part of this trip was and I couldn't even answer her. I had to text her while I was waiting for my plane because I couldn't verbalize it through my tears. My favorite part was all of it, and I'm very much looking forward to the next time I get to be with them.

We went driving in the mountains to see the fall leaves, which was so beautiful. I feel like we often get a little ripped off where I live because sometimes the leaves haven't even had a chance to fully change before the wind and rain come in and strip the trees of their leaves. So it was amazing to see so many beautiful trees starting to get their fall best.

We went to a biergarten in the mountains as well, which was really fun. It was a place Em had been dying to try, so I'm glad I was able to go there with her. We also went to one of their favorite country bars while I was there, and had wings and lots of laughs.

We started and finished a 101 Dalmatians puzzle (the amazing Thomas Kinkade one) and played quite a few games with the kids.

We saw American Assassin in the theater and went out for drinks after at one of their favorite spots (that they took Josh and I to last year when we were there).

We also had a wonderful tea morning that turned into afternoon with Em's sister. She is such a sweetheart and I'm so thankful that I've gotten to know her a little better over the years.

And we spent a lot of time hanging out at their place with the kids. I love their little family so much and I love getting to spend time with them.

It was my longest amount of time spent there and yet time flew by as usual. I'm so thankful I was able to take this trip!