New Year, New Goals

It seems like every other year I get to spend with my man. Our first nye together we spent at Panama City Beach watching fireworks while laying on the beach in the sand. The year after that, he had to work. Last year, we got a hotel room in Anchorage and after lots of champagne and seafood (and, we later found out I was pregnant) I passed out at 10pm. This year, he's again working overseas. Hopefully next year we get to do something AWESOME and I'll totally make it til midnight.

Last year. New Years Eve in Anchorage. We made fun of the terrible hippie fire dancers, drank and ate lots in our hotel room, and watched the fireworks from our window. 

I'm not going to lie, I really don't care about staying up til midnight this year. I think I've had enough late nights the last few months that I'm over it. I wish I could also say that I'm super excited to ring in a new year and start some new goals, but I'm finding it kind of hard to get motivated this year. Probably because it takes all of my energy just to get through each day juggling dogs, baby, and everything else that I do.

January 4th I found out I was pregnant! This was from our first ultrasound at 11 weeks. Our little donut baby!

Right now, I have 5 dogs in my house (I have an extra 2) and sadly, all of my efforts are going to not letting there be any bloodshed. The two guests are such good dogs! It's mine who are the monsters. Belle at first attacked one of the two a few times at the beginning. She's never done that before so I was not happy. I've had my eye on her ever since and haven't let her play. She's super sad that she doesn't get to join into the craziness, however that's what she gets for being aggressive. Maybe she'll learn next time. As soon as she calmed down, my two boys starting being aggressive out of no where again!! Luckily, it's not towards the guest dogs, just to each other, however that also causes stress knowing that once our house guests are gone, I've still got a big problem on my hands that won't go away. Little do they know that I'm thinking of chop chopping those balls of this spring. I'm not going to have aggressive dogs in my house with a baby around or when guests come over. Nuh uh, I deal with enough right now.

Visit from my bff during Fur Rhondy!

I do have lots of goals for next year. This year, my goal was to run 5ks. This summer, I want to run a 10k. For me, that's a big deal. I'm not a running and I find it hard to train because 1. If I push myself too hard, my shoulder tenses up and causes extreme pain and 2. I don't want to overdo anything that may get in the way of me teaching Zumba to the best of my ability. If I'm sore and tired, then it's not worth it. So I very gradually let myself get better at running and try to give myself lots of days off.

Finishing my first 5K!

I also want to do a pull up. I have a shoulder issue that's been painful for years. Years. I'm at the point where I can't imagine what life would be like if I wasn't uncomfortable all the time. I've been doing needle therapy this month on it, and they did electromagnetic therapy the other day-which was so insanely weird feeling! With that being said, I need to strengthen my back muscles to help me out, and I also want to strengthen my upper body in general. Mostly because this baby isn't getting any smaller so I could use the extra muscles to carry his big ol belly.

Paining at Arctic Crown Canvas on Easter while G was away at JRTC

I always have this on my list. Eat healthier. I need help with this one. I'm such a sugar addict. It's awful. I binge on sugar. In fact, I had two bags of M&Ms and a milky way earlier tonight. I want to eliminate that from my diet. I never have "just one" dessert. I can eat the whole pie if I wanted to. So in 2015, I want to try to get my sugars from fruits rather than dessert (I also just ate a pear). Artificial sweeteners aren't any better. I don't want chemicals ingested to replace sugar. It's worse. And the problem is that there's sugar in so many every day things I eat so I really don't need to be adding more. That, and I want to set a good example for Ryan as he grows up. I want him to live in a healthy household full of fruits and vegetables.

Our adventure to Denali-no dogs

Less TV, more reading. This one isn't too hard for me. It's more so when my husband comes home. I'm okay with waking up and reading with my cup of coffee (if Ryan allows). Unless I'm on a Netflix binge, then I'd rather listen to music as background music throughout the day. I pretty much only watch Ellen at 4. Plus, everything I've been reading about infants says that they shouldn't be watching TV before the age of 2. They are enthralled by the movement of images on the screen, but the time they spend watching it is time they should be spending on "self exploring" and they should learn to be entertained by human interaction instead. I'm very supportive of that idea. I don't want my kids to be overrun by technology. If my kid is acting up, I don't want to hand him an iPod to keep him quiet-I think that's terrible parenting. Think you want to wish me good luck? Well guess what? Generations of kids grew up with an imagination and patience to self entertain while their parents are busy. Suck it. So will mine.

Brigade Ball

Other goals, lets see.. I know we'll be moving to Georgia before the end of the year. We'd like to be homeowners down there. That's a big goal. I want to get us out of some debt in 2015 and build our savings. I want to find a way to make a little bit more money to help out with our finances. I want to stay on track with keeping Ryan happy and healthy. I want to get my dogs fixed and attempt to train them from being too insane when people come.

Color Run

I also want to work on my marriage. We don't have problems or anything, but I want us to grow together as parents and work on ways to find time for just us two amongst our chaotic household. Plus, we may have problems when he comes home. Who knows. I've been working so hard on getting into a routine to get everything accomplished by myself. Knowing me, I may find it hard to accept help and learn to relax while he takes care of things. And maybe he'll need to learn patience of getting a crying baby to sleep or having the tv off to appreciate the little things Ryan does. We'll see. I can't wait for him to come home and share my new life as a mom with him. I hate missing all the cute things Ryan does with my phone. I want him to be there for all the little moments.

Baby shower

I want to work on myself as well. I want to find time to do things for me. I find it so hard to spend money on myself. Already in January, I'm trying to talk myself out of a haircut because the dogs need to be groomed, we have bills to pay, we owe another $90 towards charges, I want to get the dogs fixed, Belle has a vet apt, I'm getting life insurance, and who knows what else will pop up in the next 30 days. But I'm going to. I'm going to spend money on my hair because it hasn't been cut since the summer. I will. I will. I promise.

Whale Cruise

Lastly, it'd be nice if I could somehow manage a vacation for Greg and I next year. There are so many places I want to go. I want to go to Mexico, Vegas, Orlando to Harry Potter world, or make our road trip from Alaska to Georgia full of lots of stops and exploring. The road trip. I also have the goal of surviving that road trip without us all killing each other. It's going to SUCK. I'm going to look for patience and optimism and laugh at our misery. I guess that's actually how I get through each day-laughing at my misfortunes. It's better than pouting.

Our little man!

I mostly made this post to organize my thoughts. As I've mentioned before, I write to benefit myself because it's a stress relief. Looking back 2014 has been a pretty good year. There's so much I've done that I'm grateful for. Life is a gift and it's short so I try to appreciate it and live each day as best as I can. So looking back, I can't say I have regrets from this year. I've accomplished so much, had new experiences, and loved the people in my life the best that I can (even though it's sometimes hard to do so from a distance). I've stayed true to myself, and since I strongly believe in karma, I took the high road many a times when I've wanted to scream in (a lot a lot a lot) peoples' faces.

Trick or Treating

So cheers. Cheers to a new year to learning more about myself as a person, about seeing what accomplishments I can make, about putting myself in uncomfortable positions to have new experiences, to build and grow as a Zumba instructor and maybe look for something that will bring in more dinero. Cheers to new friends, old friends, a growing family, and the craziness of life. Okay 2015, I'm ready. Let's do this.