A New Year, A New Start

Already this year is looking up. Didn't I say this would be a good year? It's only day 6 but I venture to say that my predictions are shaping up nicely.

Our Christmas actually turned out really well and our New Year's was low key, which was totally fine with me! We spent lots of time with the family and got in some precious hours with my niece, Lily, who is all things cute and sweet.

I've made grand plans for this year so I hope they don't bite me in the butt. I know that if I want this year to be great I have to keep moving forward!

Happy New Year! Here's to big changes and workout videos ;)

Can you believe it's almost November? Where did this year go?! It seems like hardly any time at all since I was making my grand plans for 2010, and now I'm gearing up for 2011.

I'm really thinking *this* year is gonna be an awesome year. 2010 was hard, it was painful. I'm just really looking forward to picking myself up, dustin' off and making some progress this year. I'm looking forward to moving forward instead of sliding backwards and grasping at straws, like this year felt a lot of the time.

But if I've learned anything this past year, it's to let life do what it does. I can make all the plans I want and still at this time next year, life is going to look nothing like I imagine. That's just the way of it.

"Live like you're going to die tomorrow, plan like you're going to live forever."

Celebrate!

I think October is my FAAAVOORITE month. It has finally started to cool down a bit (knock on wood), the leaves will be falling soon and it all just makes me feel like it's FALL! my favorite time of year.

Yesterday I celebrated with some more fall-y jams and my {current} obsession:

Iced sugar cookie from Edgars! Plus...it is (was) a pumpkin! Hello! FALL!!!

Fall just gets me all pumped up for new adventures for some reason. And I also feel like it gets my creative juices a-flowin. Now if I just had some space...

Regardless, I see big things on the horizon and I feel like I've been walking around with and extra bounce in my step. Maybe this year can be salvaged yet!

Expectations

Can I just say, 2010 did NOT exactly go according to plan. Ya ya, I know, 2010 is not over yet. But hey, I'm just gonna go out on a limb here and say that my expectations for an entire year are not going to come to frutation in the next three months.

Last winter I thought 2010 was going to be MY YEAR! It was going to be the best YEAR 4EVER YAY! Not to say that it was *all* bad, but ya...it was pretty rough.

I try not to look at things as failures. Instead, I try to see things as learning experiences and times of growth. That being said, I hope I grew a TON this year. Haha.

I was looking back at some of my old blog posts and thinking about all that I was going through at the time and all the things I was hoping to get out of this year. And you know what? Most of what I wanted to get accomplished did not get accomplished. And the dreams I had got put on hold and this year was a lot of heartache and pain. But I'm still glad I'm not where I was last year. I guess I'd say I'd rather be here than there. So I'd call that progress. And hey! there's always next year!

Come on 2011!

Back

Well, I'm back. In a lot of ways.

I haven't wanted to write. These last few months have been...different...and I didn't want to write about it, couldn't write about it, shouldn't have been writing about it.

So, we've moved back to Alabama. It's been a really fast/abrupt/amazing decision and it's really good to be home. It's also really weird to be home. It's not like moving back was the easy option, but it was necessary and it was the best option, for sure.

But you know what? I think I thought I was coming back to my old life. And I didn't come back to my old life. I came back to a new life in my old town. So I'm still adjusting. And it hasn't even been a week yet so I think I'm allowed to cut myself some slack.

So I thought it was time to pick up the ol' blog, dust it off, and start anew. This move feels like a fresh start to me. I know I said last year that fall always feels like the beginning of a new year to me. So that, combined with the move, makes this whole time just seem like a whole new start for me. I'm excited/scared/stressed/relieved/hopeful about the whole thing. We definitely had to make some sacrafices but I know that we are in a good place and, more importantly, in a God place.

So hopefully I'll be around the blog more. I'm still trying to get settled and get things figured out but this is like my version of "Hey, I'm back."

Ta