Goodbye 2014, Hello 2015!

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had an enjoyable New Year's Eve.  I spent my night ringing in the new year with these fine people...

This was my fortune from last night, but I don't see it coming true.

After hosting Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, this girl is partied out and ready to just relax!  I'm currently sitting at home with Remmie and his son.  Remmie is cheering on Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl, and R3 is playing Starcraft on the new laptop he got for Christmas.

Anywho, I thought I'd do a quick post about my goals for the new year.  But first, I want to see how I did with last year's goals...

2014 Intentions

*  Finish grad school.  Check!

*  Buy a house.  Check!

*  Track my finances better.  Ehhh....I did a little better, but there is still a lot of room for improvement.  I need to commit more time to sitting down on a regular basis to balance my checkbook, create and stick to a real budget, etc.  I'm meeting with a financial planner tomorrow, so hopefully that will get me on the right track!

*  Send cards and hand-written letters more often.  I did this mostly for birthdays, although I did send Jessica a care package when she came down with pharyngitis a couple months ago.  I could have done better in this area, too.  It's always fun getting "happy mail" instead of bills.

*  Start working out in the morning before work.  Fail!  I am not a morning person, no matter how hard I try.  I like to hit snooze.  Even if I put my alarm in another room, I still crawl back into bed after getting up to hit snooze.

*  Quit being judgmental, being negative, and holding grudges.  I think I've done pretty good at improving in this area.  I've had a much more positive outlook on things.

*  Travel more.  Check.  Check.  Check.  Check.  Check!

*  Strengthen my faith.  I've definitely improved in this area.  I even talked to my priest a while back about starting up a Bible Study group, so that's something I might work on this year.  I'd still like to go on a mission trip, too, if I can find one (my church doesn't do them, so I'll have to look around).

(Source)

Now on to the new year...

2015 Intentions

*  Strengthen my faith.  See above.

*  Manage my finances better.  See above.

*  Spend more time outdoors.  Remmie and his son both got some new fishing and camping equipment for Christmas, so I foresee a lot more weekend outings this summer.  I love being outdoors, so I'm looking forward to it!  I also want to play outside more with Athena and take her on lots of walks, maybe plant my own garden this Spring, unwind on my patio with some good books or a glass of wine, or just grill out more.

I think I'll stop there and keep it short and simple this year. Hopefully I'll do better this time around. Either way, I'm looking forward to all that 2015 has in store. I pray we all have a great year full of happy moments and good health.

Korie Robertson (yes, I'm a weirdo that follows all the Duck Dynasty people) posted this on Instagram earlier today, and I thought it pretty much summed up what I wanted to say. So, I'll end with this: "I've gotta admit, I loved 2014. I kind of hate to see it go, but oh what exciting things we have planned for 2015! The truth is, though, we don't know what tomorrow will bring. What we do know is that God is with us through it all. Through the calm and the storm, success and failure, good times and bad....For that I'm thankful and go into 2015 with full confidence, without fear, and with the greatest plan to love God and my neighbor more in 2015 than ever before."