2011

It's a new year with new possibilities, and I'm feeling good about 2011.

This year I want to be the year of accomplishment, a year of new beginnings for myself and our family. I haven't started out a year this optimistic in a while, so I'm hoping that this feeling in my gut is a sign of great things to come.

On my list of to-dos this year, along with the usual ones of eating healthier and getting my ever growing self to the gym, I have three main items that I would love to accomplish this year:

1. Our Home

My husband and I have been saving for the past two years for our first house. We currently own a town home and plan on renting it out once we find a house. With the housing market the way it is, selling the town home right now just isn't an option. So, we've been saving as much as we can. This year, we're hoping to make a leap and begin the process of renting out our town home and begin looking for our first house! I am so excited and scared at the same time! If any of you have any advise when it comes to renting out a place or buying a new one, please share!

2. My Career

I graduated with my MBA last October with the purpose of making a new career move. Like so many out there, I to am on a career hunt...here we go!

3. The Family Photo Project

As of this month it will be three years since we've been married and we still don't have a wedding album. Yep, I've been bad. When we hired our photographer she was still relatively new in the field and didn't offer a wedding album option. Since we loved her work so much, we hired her knowing that we would receive copies of all our photos and could make our own album down the road. Fast forward three years later and I still haven't gotten around to our album. I am determined to make our album this year, I'm obsessed with it. However, this little obsession has grown bigger than just our wedding album, thus I bring you...The Family Photo Project! ::Cue Music::

As a family, we are fabulous when it comes to taking pictures. We have loads of them on our computer, however when it comes to actually doing something with those photos we're horrible. I have more art around the house than family photos and in my mind, you need a nice combination of both if not I feel like I'm living in a model home. Plus the only photo album we physically have is from our honeymoon. So, I have decided to make one photo album for each year. Since it's only been three years, it should be relatively easy to catch up, a sort of year book if you will. Since we got back from our trip I've been going through every single picture we have in our computer getting them all organized, color corrected, and ready for our albums.

 Oh...I'm excited...yes I am.

Welcome 2011, it's going to be an interesting year!

*This image was take by my amazing sister who has the patience to wait until I am not bouncing off the walls to capture little moments like this*

Yey for Friday!

Happy Friday everyone!

I'm feeling good today, mainly because I reached my goal of exercising for at least an hour three different days this week. Before I got married, I used to exercise all the time, and for the past 2 years exercise just sort of fell by the wayside as I enjoyed marital bliss. I started feeling unhealthy and sluggish, so I decided to not only amp up my diet, but to start moving! So I am proud to say, I did it! Yey!

My goal is to keep it up for the next few months until our vacation in November. So wish me lots of exercise fairy dust!

This morning the hubs and I made a date to spend the evening on the beach watching the sunset with some sandwiches for dinner and a book. The rest of the weekend we're planning on dedicating some much needed attention to our very neglected backyard and I'm hoping to lure my husband into this movie with the promise of unlimited popcorn. Let's hope it works ;-)

Have a fabulous weekend!

Image via I Suwannee

New Year = Goals

Photo via Lady Janes Flickr Stream

So, it's a brand new year, which means the beginning of new happenings! It's the very moment to try new things...something I am all about. Okay, so here are my goals for the new year:

1. Save, Save, Save!
With this housing market, Mango and I have decided to start saving a little more every month than we already were with the goal of one day purchasing our first house. Right now we live in a town home, and although it's become our home, we are aching for something that doesn't share walls with a neighbor and a backyard.
2. Get Healthy
The holiday season put a serious damper on our weight loss goals...no will power around my dad-in-law's mac & cheese. Starting today, we are getting back on our Weight Watchers plan and this time we have a goal of exercising at least 30 minutes 3 times a week.
3. Organization
This one will take a little while, mainly because it's something that we need to do little by little. Since it's a new year, it's time to clean out old paperwork from the home office...which reminds me, I need to by a shredder. Mango's comment last night about how packed the closet is reminded me that it's time to weed out clothing that we no longer wear and create more space. Thanks to Hyper Homemaker's tip, I'm going to try to make a run through the house every night and make sure that it is clutter free, it should make cleaning a whole lot easier.
4. Friends
Since it was our first year of marriage, Mango and I became hermits, basically wanting to spend all of our time at home, just the two of us. Now it is time to walk out, blink at the sunlight, and start getting back into the social circle.
5. Our Home
Although we're going to start saving with a ferocity for a new home, we do know that it will take a while, and in the end, we need to make our current home as nice as possible for when it comes time to start selling. As it is, we really love how the townhouse is shaping up, slowly becoming more and more a part of us. This year, we hope to make some more improvements to the house.
6. My personal goal: School
It's time for me to finally make a decision as to my next move regarding my education. I know I need to go back, and it's time to get on the task of taking my entrance exams to grad school and start applying.

So, what are all of your goals for the year?