2009 Recap and 2010 Goals!

Well 2009 was quite a year, and I can say that it probably topped 2008 in eventfulness!

A little recap:

January-went to Florida with Ash Redman to visit a friend. Ran a 10K down there..got tan...avoided the negative 40 windchills that were happening back home!

April-Started Crossfit. The workout extraordinaire that has revolutionized both my husband and my bodies! (Now I can do at least 75 pull-ups...not in a row, but in a period of about 20-30 min, which means I can check "pull-up" off of my bucket list!)

May-Graduated from College and started my first "real" full time job at Northwestern Mutual as a Recruiter. Getting a paycheck and awesome benefits for working just as hard as you worked in college is GLORIOUS!

August-Went to Wisconsin with the work group to go skiing, boating, relax for a few days because Kev qualified for the "summer contest" at work

We also bought our house August, and we absolutely LOVE IT. It's perfect for us. This was a huge step! We were in a bidding war for it, and we definitely ended up spending more than we had planned. But it's one of those things that's worth it...and so much more!

October-Let's just say that RIGHT when you feel comfortable and like you know exactly what God is up to, you just might find out that he has another plan. Our church family has gone through a lot, with the result of two churches coming out of one. I think this is a good thing! The church Sacred City was born and has caused/allowed us a ton of room for spiritual growth as God prepares us for what is to come. Kev and I open our home for church on Sunday mornings now and it has been really exciting to see people grow and people come to church who would never have come with us before. There's been a LOT of growing pains/friendships that we aren't sure what's happening in/changes but God is faithful and we are confident that He will supply all our needs according to HIS glorious riches. (Phil 4:19)

Wow, so, but we'll leave it at that. Graduating from college, getting a house, the church (and maybe the pull-ups) are milestones in my life, and I don't want to forget to thank God for providing in abundance this last year! Whatever 2010 has to bring...we're ready!

2010 Goals to come...

What happened big for you in 09?? I'd love to know!!

What are you looking forward to the most?!

Okay besides Jesus coming back/Heaven, there are a few things that make my top 5 list of THINGS I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO THE MOST IN LIFE! hmm, the pictures do not give anything away. don't be fooled! haha.

Here it goes from the things I'm least-most excited about to the most-most excited ;):

1. I can't wait to see who all 3 of my siblings end up marrying! My two sisters and one lil bro are a few of my very favorite people, and I can't wait to see the wonderful people that marry them!

2. I can't wait until I accomplish all the things on my 100 things before I die list. (it's an earlier blog entry if you want to see)

3. I am SO looking forward to growing old on one pillow with my husband. He will be a handsome old man. :) (We talked in my marriage class today about how our culture views sex as a thing only for youth, but older married couples are often the ones who get to enjoy it the most because of their deep intimate love on so many levels for one another...I think our culture way underappreciates the elderly and the wisdom they have about life.)

4. WHOA, 25 days until I am offically a college graduate. Need I say more?

5. Finally, and the thing I have wanted since I was 7 years old, is BABIES. And this, my friends, is the reason this blog is being written. I called my dad today to tell him of the AMAZING thing that just happened (which is that Kevin's mom's friend wants to buy 500 coupon books, so we have 5,000 dollars toward our MISSION TRIP!!! It's paid for, and probably part of our Africa mission trip too...Praise JESUS!) and I said, "Dad, I have amazing news! Guess what it is?!" And he said, "I don't know, you had 12 people at your yoga class?" and i laughed and said, "way better...." at which point I told him my story. But, when I got off the phone, I thought about how AWESOME it would have felt to tell him that the good news was that he was going to be a grandpa. We want to wait a couple more years, and even though I'm in full support of that, the anticipation is totally eating me away! This is definitely as bad as I couldn't wait to get married, but I know waiting is the smart thing. Financially, emotionally, and domestically we will be much 'readier' in 2 years. I just lovve BABIES and cannot wait to see what our little ones will look like. We want twins ...and then more! I want to stay at home to raise them, and write books on the side. I also can't wait to become a published author...so these two combined make up my biggest GOALS in life! God, if you want to give us a surprise at any point...bring it on! ;)

What are your top 5?

Goals 2009...taking resolutions to a new level

Goals 2009...finally I found wireless.

The “Free Public Wi-Fi” is didn't come through for me when i wrote this! So this was my unofficial Microsoft Word blog—because I was ‘iced-in.’ (meaning my car defroster wouldn't get warm, so the inch-thick ice coating wouldn't budge, no matter how hard I scraped! This car I'm referring to seriously is the sourest lemon you’ve ever seen. We got straight up lied to…not only does the heat only work half the time, but it has more than 110,000 miles on it-acc. to carfax- but the dude sold it to us with an odometer reading of “88,000” miles on it. How does that work? I thought the days of rolling back odometers were before my time. Apparently though, nothing is too low for Mike Tuttle. WARNING: NEVER buy a car from Mike Tuttle from Tuttle Auto Body in East Moline, Illinois. You will get royally screwed.)

My blog is not dead! Why? Because I quit my job. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, but it had to be done. I really feel like God has been speaking to my heart about what he wants me to do, and it’s not sell commercials for channel 6. It’s not selling anything at all…which is crazy because I always thought “Sales” was what I wanted to go into. I feel like I’m called into writing/ministry. I want to be a Christian writer and speaker. It sounds crazy, but I have this burning passion to write and encourage and support people of faith. So as a creative outlet and idea backboard, I’m going to write on my blog AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE! That’s a goal and I’m writing it on my goals list! I will be reading my goals aloud every morning when I wake up and every night before bed…and you should too! Jack Canfield is amazing…if you follow his ‘success principles,’ it really will change your life (for the better.) One of his studies found that people who have specific goals, speak them aloud, and engrain them in their conscious and subconscious mind, will achieve them! If the goals are vague, however, the results will be vague.

“If you are bored with life, if you don’t get up every morning with a burning desire to do things- you don’t have enough goals.”

–LOU HOLTZ- The only coach in NCAA history to ever lead six different college teams to postseason bowl games, and a man who also won a national championship and “coach of the year” honors.

My goals: (more than just new year resolutions)

1. I will write a minimum of 7 pages-single spaced- per week.

2. I will write on my blog at least 3 times per week.

3. I will complete a rough draft version of my “Picking up the pieces” book for children of divorced parents by 11:00 PM December 30^th 2009.

4. I will run the St. Louis half marathon on April 19 2009 and the Memphis half marathon on December 6 2009.

5. I will start leading a weekly support group for kids (ages 8-18) of a divorced or broken family (“Picking Up the Pieces” [PUP]) by 8:00pm on Thursday April 2^nd 2009

6. Preach at KYC?

6. Memorize the book of Ephesians by December 15, 2009 at 10:00 PM.

7. Breakthrough goal 1: Kevin and I will have XX,000 dollars in savings by May 31^st, 2010.

8. Breakthrough goal 2: publish a book by December 31^st, 2012.