New Year, Big Goals!

Almost every NYE that we’ve been together, we have gotten dressed up, made a great dinner with friends, and sipped champs until the early morning hours. Is it ironic that the first year that we’re married we stayed in, wore our comfiest attire, and didn’t even open the bottle of Prosecco in the fridge? lol I have to say though, I would not have had it any other way this year. We had a rough couple of days traveling back from a friends wedding in Ohio (we got stuck and had to stay the night in Dallas) plus I have a pretty nasty cold, so by the time we made it back to Portland in the afternoon of NYE I couldn’t think of anything I wanted more than to stay in and have a relaxing night at home. We did muster up the strength to make a pretty epic oxtail ragu with pappardelle, and then we watched one of my favorite movies of all time, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood We fell asleep on the couch and woke up 5 minutes before the clock struck midnight and kept our eyes open just long enough for a kiss – then slumbered away for a much needed 9 hours.

New Years Eve is always bittersweet. In one way i’m sad the the holidays and celebrations have come to an end, but i’m also excited to reset, reflect on the year prior, and create goals for the new year. 2018 was an amazing year; We got married, we attended 5 other weddings, went to the Bahamas for my bachelorette party, visited Austin, TX for the first time for another Bach party, traveled to Bali for our honeymoon, and to the Dominican Republic for my work contest trip. On the career front, Thomas switched from helicopters to airplanes with the path to become a commercial airline pilot, I continued to grow in my role as a recruiter at my day job, I did my first two restaurant photography shoots, and I continued to grow this little blog of mine. I am so proud of everything we have accomplished together so far, and I can’t wait to see what 2019 has in store!

2019 goals!

personal:

Buy a home – I am constantly drooling over Pinterest and dreaming of a house. Our big goal for 2019 is buy a home where we are going to be for the next 5-10 years.

Saving – Saving money is a big part of buying a home, so I guess these two kind of go together. However, I overall want to be more conscience of what i’m spending my money on, like coffee for example. I have a perfectly good coffee maker at home and at my office, so there’s no reason to buy Starbucks! If I added up all the money i’ve spent on coffee out the last few years, would have a good chunk of money to put down on our house…no joke!

Spend less time watching TV – I’m a multi-tasker when watching a show, but i’m sure I would get a lot more done if I turned it off completely and had my full-focus on whatever i’m working on. I love a good show or movie on Netflix, but during the week my goal is to keep the TV off and focus on things for the blog, reading, or practicing Norwegian on Duolingo.

Play:

Kicking off our inaugural anniversary trip! – This is one that i’m really excited about. At my brother’s wedding we met a couple who for the last 5 or 6 years since they’ve been married have alternated planning a surprise anniversary trip! How fun is that?! It’s something to look forward to all year and will be amazing as well once we have kids and need a little vacay lol. I am kicking it off planning it for our 1st anniversary March 31st and Thomas will have no idea where we are going until we go to the airport (eh, or get in the car?) – stay tuned on where we go 🙂

Sticking to a weekly date night – I think connecting and being away from all social media/tv/the outside world is so important, whether it’s a cozy night at home playing board games or going our to a restaurant we’ve been dying to go to! I feel like we’re good about date night already, but I need to be better about ditching my phone!

Blogging/Business:

Read one blogging/business article a day – Constantly learning and staying up on new trends is so important and I definitely want to make this more of a focus.

Post consistently – I go through spells where I do 3-4 blog posts a week, then I’ll lose focus and only do a handful in a month’s time. I’ve already ordered my 2019 planner, so I am going to be proactive with planning content in advance and using my weekends and time off as efficiently as possible.

When it’s all said and done, the most important thing I want for this year and every year in the future is health and happiness for the people I love the most. Anything else is just a bonus 🙂

I hope you all have an amazing start to 2019!