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| Our first New Year's Eve together: 12.31.2007 |
Where did 2012 go? It's truly amazing how time flies when you're having fun. And we did have a lot of fun this year. Speaking of fun, I hope you had a great time ringing in the New Year last night doing whatever you were doing. We had a low key celebration with some friends this year, which was exactly what I wanted... I really started to feel my age in 2012 and my goal for the night was to NOT spend New Year's Day in bed with a champagne headache. Success!
On another note, the new year is a time for resolutions and fresh starts. Like I did last year, I wanted to share our goals for this new year ahead of us with you. My belief is that putting those goals out in the universe is the best way to make them come true-- and for you all to hold us accountable when they don't!
1. Run one more marathon (Alex's goal for his 30th birthday year).
2. Be more financially responsible by saving more aggressively for a house and keeping our credit card debt at a low/manageable level ALL year.
3. Read more books and watch less TV (one of my goals from last year that I didn't do so well with).
4. Stay organized, purge unnecessary stuff, and keep both my work and living spaces clutter free. (Anne. Although my hubby could stand to try this too. Ha)
5. Spend more time with friends and family-- near and far.
6. Cut more junk food out of our diet (like that nasty high fructose corn syrup), eat healthy, and make exercise more of a priority.
7. Stay employed at the same firm for the entire year and start plugging away at the ARE to become a licensed architect (Alex again).
8. Travel as much as we can on as little money as possible. A lofty goal, but I will try to make it work!
9. Explore the Chicago suburbs (since we hardly ever get out of the city) to get some clarity about where we'd like to move in the future.
10. Stress less, live in the moment, and enjoy life with each other.
And just for fun, here's a look at how we did with our goals for 2012...
1. Pay off our wedding-related debts. This is the greatest update ever. We have worked our butts off this year and-- student loans aside-- we are starting 2013 DEBT FREE. Hoping to end 2013 (and the next 50+ years) this way as well!
2. Save more money so that we can:
a. Buy a house. A work in progress. Happy to report though that we have buckled down and have almost doubled our savings since this time last year. We are still-- sadly-- probably years (yes, years) away from saving enough to buy a home in the Chicago area, but we are certainly much closer than we were at this time last year.
b. Get a dog. No dogs allowed here. Our future Fido will have to wait until we have a house.
c. Travel more. Domestically, of course. We need to be somewhat realistic with these goals. ;) We had some really fun adventures this year. We flew to Kennebunkport, ME and Keene, NH to attend a few weddings. And we visited my home state of Rhode Island, northern Michigan, Los Angeles, and New York City. It was so wonderful to catch up with old friends, spend some time relaxing, and to explore some new places together. I also had the chance to get to New York City (once by myself), Providence, Indianapolis, Orlando, and Sarasota for work... not quite the same as traveling for leisure with my hubby though!
3. Run another half marathon/possibly another marathon. (Alex) Alex signed up for a record 3 half marathons this year. He injured himself in the first so he never made it to the second. Happily though, he ran and finished strong in the LA Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon in October. His poor knee is still recovering.
4. Start running more. (Anne) This was a hysterical goal to begin with. Even funnier that I thought I would actually run more-- or at all-- this year.
5. Spend more time with our friends (both far and near). Though we didn't start out 2012 very strong on this note, we've made some serious progress on this goal. In addition to regular girls nights and double dates in Chicago we generally have more time for life now that the wedding is over and we saw a lot more of our friends this year. We got to spend time with lots of our best friends in New York City (twice for me) this year, had a few houseguests and random Chicago visits from old friends, and visited Brad and Kristen in LA.
6. Explore more Chicago neighborhoods. We've done so well with venturing out of River North this year! We have spent a ton of time going out and dining in Bucktown and Wicker Park. We have also spent more time in the Gold Coast, Lincoln Park, Lakeview, Logan Square, Lincoln Square, and we've explored more of the West Loop. This is such a great city!
7. Work on becoming a licensed architect. (Alex) I'm not sure that he's made much progress here, but I will say that I have never seen Alex more content at a job than at this one (which he started this spring). This is good news!
8. Read more books and watch less TV. Totally pathetic. I have read 6.5 books this year. Granted, this is a huge success compared to the 1 book I read last year (some girly fluff book on our honeymoon), but I could have done better. Since the beginning of 2012 I have read Water for Elephants, The Glass Castle, Most Talkative, The Next Best Thing, MWF Seeking BFF, and I have been (slowly) reading Loving Frank since October. Not surprising that this goal showed up in my list for 2013! It shouldn't be too hard to beat 6.5 books in a year...
9. Stress less and sleep more! I can happily say that I am able to sleep in a little on the weekends, but am still working on containing my stress level. While the wedding drama has subsided, I have learned that adult life is always full of stress and you just have to do your best to deal with what is thrown at you. I like to be in control, so this will always be a struggle for me. But, I'm learning to let go... and there is always next year!
10. Keep on blogging. I've really grown to love this blog and at any time of the day have multiple ideas swirling in my head about the next posts to write. It's been a wonderful way to fill my free time, a great place to channel my energy, and an even better way to connect with friends-- new and old. 14 months and over 170 posts later, I am still blogging and am not slowing down. I'm looking forward to sharing the next year of adventures with you. Tell your friends to follow too-- I'd love to share with a wider audience in 2013!
Cheers to a happy, healthy, and fabulous 2013!
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