Moving Forward

It's taken me awhile to find the time to write this post.

I've been meaning to do it for a few weeks now but life has been very busy.

I've been writing this post every January for a few years now. I'm not one for New Year's resolutions but I like to share some goals and hopes I have for myself for the year.

I feel like I'm still working on some of my goals from the past two years: balance and letting go of fears. Both are getting easier and easier, but I still struggle with both daily. I'm trying to focus on how best to balance my two jobs and normal life stuff. I was exercising 5 times a week for awhile there but I haven't been doing that on a regular basis since October. I'm still going to Pilates every week but that's only one day a week. I know I feel so much better when I exercise on a regular basis so I need to find a way to get it back into my normal routine.

I also feel like I need to make more time to connect with people. Facebook has that On This Day feature that constantly reminds you of what you did on that day in different years. And I used to spend a lot more time with people one on one. My schedule is kind of hectic these days and I don't ever have a day "off" anymore unless I purposefully schedule one, so I have harder time finding the time to set up those one on one hang outs. But I miss them and I miss connecting with people that way. So that is one of my goals that goes along with balance.

One of my hopes for this year is to continue to strive to look more like Jesus. I feel like my faith has been stretched so much in the past few years and I've learned a lot and grown in ways I never expected to. I've had ups and downs, and I feel like I've gained a lot of wisdom, but I know I have so much more to learn. It's hard to describe all of it, but I really want to keep pursuing and keep striving and keep moving forward.

2016 was a good year. We had a lot of fun, we spent a lot of time with friends and family and we experienced a lot of changes. Life always has its ups and downs, but I'd say 2016 was a year of growth. I'm looking forward to the challenges and good times 2017 is going to bring.

12.16

December was another busy month for us!

Here are some of the highlights:

We had a little Christmas shindig at our house with a few friends. We ate a lot of food, played games (including a white elephant gift exchange) and laughed a lot. It was a good night.

We got together with some friends from out of state. Our friends C.H. and Y.H. were in town for the holidays, and we were able to see them twice while they were here. It's always so good to spend time with them.

We had a full two days of Christmas fun with family and friends. All of Josh's family members were in town, so we were able to spend quite a bit of time with them. We also spent time with my grandparents, my family, and some friends.

 (Josh and I got engaged 10 years ago on Christmas Eve!)

Some other things that happened this month:

We went to a baby dedication for our friends S.S. and A.S.'s new baby. He's so cute!

We went to our niece's preschool Christmas program. It's so fun to see the personalities that come out in these kinds of situations. Plus the kids are all super cute!

We saw Rogue One with some friends. It was really good! I liked it a lot.

It's still hard to believe that 2016 is over. As I was going through pictures from this year and putting together my year-end collage, I smiled a lot at the happy memories. It was such a great year full of many wonderful things, but it had its rough moments too. I'm looking forward to 2017 and all it will bring (I will share my full thoughts on 2017 in another post)!

Wrapping It Up

It's so funny to me that I felt the urge to write a blog post today.

I looked back on when I did this same post last year...and it was one day earlier last year! I think it has something to do with Christmas getting closer and with me realizing that the year is almost over.

I've been writing a post the last few years about what my hopes and dreams for the new year are. I will share mine for 2017 in a few weeks, but I wanted to go over the ones I had for 2016 to see how things measured up this year.

My first one was to figure out where I should be serving at church. After praying about it a lot, I was approached to be a part of women's ministry at my church. It's been such a huge blessing so far and I'm excited to continue diving into my role this next year.

My second one was to figure out a way to encourage women more. And that has been two-fold this year. Obviously, my new position in women's ministry is a huge part of that. The other has been selling LuLaRoe. I love being able to help women find clothing that makes them feel beautiful and confident, and I love encouraging them to step out and try new things.

I'm still working on balance and letting go of fears. Having two jobs has definitely been something I've had to learn (and am still learning) how to balance. I'm definitely having to learn how to carve out time for the things that I need to do, as well as things that I want to do.

And now a little recap of 2016 (so far):

We started off 2016 with a little New Year's Eve gathering at our house with a few friends.

I went out dancing with some friends to celebrate three January birthdays, and my friend S.W. and I had a combined Harry Potter birthday party!

We went to Disney on Ice with our niece, and I attended a baby shower for a dear friend.

We went to Disneyland again for our anniversary!

We went to a MuteMath concert, and I saw Wicked with two friends!

We did an escape room, and celebrated Easter with family.

We went on a weekend trip with some friends

We celebrated my sister's birthday, and did a wine stroll with a couple of friends

Josh and I had a spontaneous date day that involved wine tasting, a fun lunch, and a trip to a candy factory

We went dancing (and found out a friend was pregnant), and attended a gender reveal party for another set of friends

We attended a little girl's kindergarten graduation, and went blueberry picking

We went to a couple of graduation parties, and attended our niece's ballet recital

Our friends from CO were in town!

We went to a 4th of July party with some friends, and celebrated our nephew's birthday

We had a fun day out with some friends, and Josh took me on a special surprise date

I went wine tasting to celebrate a friend's birthday, and we attended a gender reveal party for some friends

We went indoor go-carting with some friends, and I went on a planning weekend with the women's ministry team

I went to karaoke for a friend's birthday, and we went to a Labor Day BBQ with some friends

We went on a cruise with some friends!

We celebrated our niece's birthday

We went on a fun trip to Disneyland and Universal Studios

We went on a train ride with my family, and we attended a co-ed baby shower for some friends

We went to a corn maze with some friends, and went to our friend's annual Halloween party

We went to a friend's birthday party, and had our 3rd annual Friendsgiving

We went to CO to see our friends

We took our niece to see Moana, and we went to our friends' baby dedication

I did a craft night with some of the females in Josh's family, and we had a little Christmas get together at our house

We have some other fun planned for this month! I'm excited for what the rest of 2016 holds.

11.16

November was another busy month for us!

Here are some of the highlights:

We went to our friend A.G.'s birthday party! It was a lot of fun!

We had our third annual Friendsgiving with our friends. It's always so fun to get together and share a Thanksgiving meal with each other. I'm so thankful we have such great friends to spend time with.

We also took a very fun trip to see our friends in CO. You can read more about that here.

I also hosted a Gilmore Girls premiere party on the day the new episodes were released on Netflix! We watched all four episodes back to back. I loved them (for the most part). I know they've been received both positively and negatively by fans, but I was pretty happy with most of it. It also was very emotional for me to watch and I cried a LOT.

Josh's birthday in November, so we had a couple of fun celebrations for that with family and friends. We also took one of our nieces to see Moana on his birthday, which was also a lot of fun.

Some other highlights from the month:

My BCBs and I decided we hated the book we were reading and stopped reading it. I rarely ever do that, because I like to know how things end, but it just got to be a really rough read for all of us. So we are working on finding a new book for us to read together.

I had quite a few LuLaRoe pop ups, which all went really well! I'm having so much fun helping women find clothes that make them feel beautiful and comfortable.

My appointments and Pilates classes are going great as well! I'm seeing new improvements all the time and my body is constantly changing. I'm so thankful for this treatment and for how much it's changing the way I live my day-to-day life.

We had a nice, relaxing Thanksgiving. We got up and watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and I made a blackberry cobbler. We spent the day with my family and had such a good time. We ended the day by watching Home Alone with a couple of friends. It's a tradition we have observed for many years now, as I remember Home Alone being on TV on Thanksgiving every year when I was growing up.

And now it's on to December and my favorite holiday!

The Best Things in Life Aren't Things

We got to take a really fun (and much needed) trip to CO to see our friends!

We always have the best time with them...but the time passes way too quickly! It's always so hard to say goodbye when we leave.

We took a drive up to Helen Hunt Falls while we were there. We went there on our very first trip to CO six years ago. It was totally different (but still very beautiful) to experience it in the snow!

(Have I mentioned how much I love their kiddos? This was only my second time getting to see their youngest and she is just so precious. Their oldest was born when they still lived in CA and she is just the sweetest)

We played a lot of games with John and Em, and with their kids. It always makes me so happy to play games, as I grew up playing a lot of games with my family.

We started watching Stranger Things while we were there! Quite a few people had told us we would probably love it but we just hadn't taken the time to watch it. We finished it after we got home, but it was really good! I'm really looking forward to the second season next year.

These two are so sweet to each other

We also went to a distillery while we were there, and went to a couple of fun places to get drinks. We also went to a few places to eat that we don't have here (or at least local to us).

And, we saw Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them with John and Em, and Em's sister and her husband! I was so excited when I realized it was coming out the same weekend we were gonna be there. My CO bestie discovered her love for all things HP about three years ago, soon after we started our BCB group, and her sister read and fell in love with the series shortly after that. I love being able to watch movies about the things I love so much with people who love those things just as much as I do!

We also had some really great conversations. We always do every time we go out there, but it's something I cherish so much. I always feel so encouraged and challenged after our conversations.

I wish with all my heart that we lived closer to each other again, but I'm so thankful for the time that we do get to spend together.