Don’t Ever Forget… You’re Worth it

Besides all of the great things that took place today, it was a weird day. The day itself went fine but the date, January 20^th had a bit of a hold on me. Today is my ex’s birthday. And yes I am happily engaged to an amazing man and I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with him, but my ex was a huge part of my life for many years before I met my fiancé. My ex is one of the main reasons I am who I am today and I can’t help but want to Thank Him every now and then.

I met my ex on a random day at a Jiffy Lube. I walked in, he was waiting, we talked a bit about what was on the tv and then he left. A few minutes later he came back pretending he had left something and asked for my number. We hung out and talked a bit and I was swept away. I thought I was in love. I thought he was great. I was 18 and naïve.

He was a combat medic in the army national guard and he spent the first year of our relationship in Iraq. We talked marriage and kids and had a whole future planned out. And then he came home.

The changes were slow. Getting mad over something little and making it bigger than it was. Storming out of my room and going for a drive not to return for a few hours. And then I started catching him slip up… texting all the time (not to me since I was sitting next to him), spending more and more time out of the house. Until I caught him exchanging messages with another girl… messages that should not have been shared with anyone but me. Talking about how he couldn’t wait to see her again and how much fun he had with her the other day. Confrontation after confrontation, reconciliation after reconciliation… I was stupid and blind. He would go from “I love you, let’s get married” to “love is a lie and marriage is a trap” in about 10 seconds flat. But I was stupid.

I went along with the charade, thinking like any 19 year old would, that I could change him, that he would wake up and see that he really did want all those things he used to say he did. He admitted to cheating on me on more than one occasion and I forgave him. I said I understood and that it was okay as long as he promised not to do it again. Another lie. I would surprise him after school or work and catch him “hanging out” with another girl. Again I would get upset but eventually forgive him. He would tell me he just needed new friends, and was trying to do that.

After breaking up and not speaking for about 6 months we tried things out again. Same patterns, same issues. I finally reached out to a mutual friend, wondering if maybe all of his actions had something to do with what had happened in Iraq. I didn’t know much but he would say “you don’t know what I’ve seen or done” often so I assumed maybe that was it. The friend told me there wasn’t a lot that happened but maybe he should seek some help.

Now I was stuck. I wanted to follow through and make sure he got the help he needed, so that he could lead a better life. But at 20 years old I had also realized that I deserved better and wanted out. Leaving him again would break his heart and could throw him into a spiral he might not recover from. I was his lifeline for awhile, the only thing he had. I pulled away as gently as I could, staying in his life but not committing. I told him if he wanted me he would have to work on himself and prove it to me.

The truth was I had met someone too… I had met Joe, my fiancé. He had shown me how I was supposed to be treated. He showed me what it was like to be cherished and respected. And I admit it was awkward for me at first, not sure what to do when he reached for my hand in public or sent me cute messages with no harsh undertones. Joe was truly my knight in shining armor who had come to save me from this evil toxic relationship.

When Joe took me out on our first date I realized what I had known for awhile… I was done with my ex, and there was no turning back now. I hung out with my ex the next day hoping to break the news to him. I told him I had met someone and wanted to see where it would go. The next day Joe and I became Facebook official and I received one of the more hateful texts from my ex. It didn’t bother me anymore though. I was done and was happy. I remember even telling him that I could see myself marrying Joe, it was that great with him.

Since then Joe and I have lived our lives together. It’s been just shy of three years and not a word from my ex. He did reach out to me this past November and I did return the message but soon realized he hadn’t changed and there was nothing good that would come of any kind of friendship with him. I have learned. I have Joe. And I am happy.

*Emotional abuse can be hard to see and sometimes it takes someone else to point it out to you. After months of being told by family and friends that things weren’t right with my ex I still stuck around. It took a man to treat me right to wake me up. If you or someone you know is in an emotionally abusive relationship understand that it is hard on all parties but you deserve better, you deserve more and you are worth it.

2015 Reading Challenge

I live in two worlds. One is a world of books. I’ve been a resident of Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha County, hunted the white whale aboard the Pequod, fought alongside Napoleon, sailed a raft with Huck and Jim, committed absurdities with Ignatius J. Reilly, rode a sad train with Anna Karenina, and strolled down Swann’s Way. It’s a rewarding world, but my second one is by far superior. My second one is populated with characters slightly less eccentric but supremely real, made of flesh and bone, full of love, who are my ultimate inspiration for everything.

I think Rory from Gilmore Girls summed up my life and love of reading in that quote above.  Reading for me is an escape, not that I need to escape my life, but at times it can be nice to forget about everything going on and get lost somewhere else with someone else’s life.

One of my goals for 2015 is to read more and to do this I found this challenge on Pinterest and decided to take a stab at it.  There are 50 different types of books on this list and the challenge is to read at least one of each type.  I have taken the liberty of doing some research and googling to find a few books of each type and marking which one I will be reading.  Feel free to join me in this challenge, I hope my list gets you started or at least gives you ideas of what to read next!

More than 500 pages
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling
Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer

Classic Romance
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Became a Movie
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Stardust by Neil Gaiman
Harry Potter Series by JK Rowling
Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Published this Year (2015)
The Start of Me and You by Emery Lord
Vanishing Girls by Lauren Oliver
Everything That Makes You by Moriah McSTay
The Edge of Forever by Melissa E. Hurst
Unspeakable by Abbie Rushton

A Number in the Title
Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
1984 by George Orwell
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne                 
Catch – 22 by Joseph Heller

Written by someone under 30
Red Rising by Pierce Brown
Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
Divergent by Veronica Roth
Looking for Alaska by John Green

With Nonhuman characters
Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchett
The Immortality Game by Ted Cross
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott
Trueblood’s Plight by E.S. Lark
A Woman of the Iron People by Eleanor Arnason

Funny
Sugar Rush by Belle Aurora
Roomies by Lindy Zar
Filthy Gorgeous by Jodi Knight
Eight Days A Week by Amber L. Johnson
Mermaids in Paradise by Lydia Millet

By a female author
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
The Harry Potter Series by JK Rowling
The Hunger Games Series by Suzanne Collins
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Bossypants by Tina Fey

Mystery or Thriller
The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith
Speaking From Among the Bones by Alan Bradley
Threat Vector by Tom Clancy
Touch and Go by Lisa Gardner
The Silent Wife by A.S.A. Harrison

One Word Title
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
Possession by A.S. Byatt
Coraline by Neil Gaiman
Loser by Jerry Spinelli
Night by Elie Wiesel

Short Stories
Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders by Neil Gaiman
Tenth of December by George Saunders                 
Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
No One Belongs Here More than You by Miranda July
What We Talk About When we Talk About Love by Raymond Carver

Set in a different country (than US)
The Quiet American by Graham Greene
Lavinia by Urula K. Le Guin
Snow by Orhan Pamuk
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera
The Elementary Particles by Michel Houellebecq

Nonfiction book
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell
Bossypants by Tina Fey
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

Popular Author’s first book
Going Home by Danielle Steele
Finders Keepers by Stephen King
The One in the Middle Is the Green Kangaroo by Judy Blume
The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
Star Quest by Dean Koontz

From an Author you love that you haven’t read yet

This will vary for everyone considering not everyone loves the same type of books let alone the same author. One of my favorite authors of all time is Sarah Dessen and even at 24 I still find myself enjoying her hopeless romantic young adult books about the summer that changed everything.
The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen
Wifey by Judy Blume
Inferno by Dan Brown
The Year of Luminous Love by Lurlene McDaniel
The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling

Friend Recommended

Now I can guarantee not anyone on my reader list has the same best friend let alone circle of friends as I do so this again will vary for everyone. My best friend has been reading a lot of motivational/inspirational books lately so of course I have a list of those on my to-read list. I also polled a few of my friends to get their recommendations as well so I could have a variety and have ended up adding more to my personal to-read list, damn!
On a side note I think for Christmas 2015 I am going to ask for my friends’ favorite books with an inscription inside. I have a thing for inscriptions and it’s a personal touch for a gift.
Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson
The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy
No Excuses by Brian Tracy
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
You Suck: A Love Story by Christopher Moore

Pulitzer Prize winning
Oliver Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
The Hours by Michael Cunningham
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

Based on a true story
Charlie’s Pond by C.L. Heckman
Phenomena: The Lost and Forgotten Children by Susan Tarr
Spilled Milk by K.L. Randis
Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

At the Bottom of your to-read list

I think all of my books previously on my to-read list have been pushed down thanks to this challenge so I’m not going to bother listing any here.

Mom’s favorite

Sadly my mom doesn’t read, I clearly did not get my love of reading from either of my parents. So I think I will read an extra recommendation from a friend for this challenge.

Scares you
Cellar Door: Words of Beauty, Tales of Terror by Shawna L. Bernard
The Shining by Stephen King
Intensity by Dean Koontz
Salem’s Lot by Stephen King
Nightwatching by John Zunski

More than 100 years old
Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift (1726)
He Last of the Mohicans by Fenimore Cooper (1826)
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas (1845)
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by H.B. Stowe (1851)
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (1862)

Based entirely on its cover
Entwined by Heather Dixon
Entangled by Cat Clarke
Academy 7 by Anne Osterlund
Forget You by Jennifer Echols
The Island by Victoria Hislop

Supposed to read in school but didn’t
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Memoir
There Was a Little Girl by Brooke Shields
Watch Me by Anjelica Huston
Seven Letters from Paris by Samantha Verant
True Love by Jennifer Lopez
Facing the Music by Jennifer Knapp

Can finish in a day
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
The Possession by Annie Ernaux
The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy
The Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker
Into the War by Italo Calvino

Antonyms in the Title
Up the Down Staircase by Bel Kaufman
The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Winter Notes on Summer Impressions by Ryodor Dostoyevsky
Accidentally on Purpose by L.D. Davis

Set somewhere you’ve always wanted to visit
This will vary for everyone again like some of these categories do. But if you are like me and have always wanted to visit Europe then this list is for you!
Release by Nicole Hadaway
Strange Pilgrims by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Ghost Stories of an Antiquary by M.R. James
One Hit Wonderland by Tony Hawks
The Exploits and Adventures of Brigadier Gerard by Arthur Conan Doyle

Came out the year you were born (1990)
Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver
Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy
Oh, The Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss
Four Past Midnight by Stephen King
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi

With Bad reviews
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
Lolita by Vladimir Narokov
The Qwakening by Kate Chopin
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak                 
Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor

Trilogy
The Matched Trilogy by Ally Condie
The Selection Trilogy by Kiera Cass
The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins
The Divergent Trilogy by Veronica Roth
The Fifty Shades Trilogy by E.L. James

From your childhood
Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White
Matilda by Roald Dahl
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss

With a love triangle
Catching Jordan by Miranda Kenneally
How to Kill a Rock Star by Tiffanie DeBartolo
The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson
Stepbrother Dearest by Penelope Ward
All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill

Set in the future
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
The Divergent Series by Veronica Roth
The Ender Quintet by Orson Scott Card
The Maze Runner Series by James Dashner

Set in high school
Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
Just Listen by Sarah Dessen
Avalon High by Meg Cabot
Looking for Alaska by John Green
Prom by Laurie Halse Anderson

With a color in the title
Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
White Oleander by Janet Fitch
The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard

That made you cry
The book I chose to read has not made me cry because I haven’t read it yet but it is on the list of the top tearjerker books so it’s bound to get me. The other books have made me cry but are still so good and so worth the read.
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

With magic
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
Beastly by Alex Flinn
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
Entwined by Heather Dixon

Graphic novel
Blankets by Craig Thompson
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
Ghost World by Daniel Clowes
Stitches by David Small
Bone by Jeff Smith

An author you’ve never read before
Like a lot of these categories this one will vary depending on how well read you are and what kind of books you like.   Personally I did a quick search for authors that were similar to my favorite author Sarah Dessen and went from there. Surprisingly I have only heard of a few of them so that provided me with a few books to add to my to-read list.
The Boyfriend League by Rachel Hawthorne
Dream Factory by Brad Barkley
City Love by Susane Colasanti
Shug by Jenny Han
Going Too Far by Jennifer Echols

You own but have never read
This list could go on for miles for me… I have this habit of buying books intending to read them and then sticking them on a shelf in the “to-read” pile. But I’ll only list one that I intend to read for this challenge.
Sweet Little Lies by Lauren Conrad

That takes place in your hometown
Another personal category and will vary for everyone. For those of you from Arizona you’re in luck because I am an Arizona Native and have lived here all of my life. I was surprised to find there were actually a lot of books set in Arizona.
In the Heart of the Canyon by Elisabeth Hyde
Dreaming in English by Laura Fitzgerald
Arrowstar by C.K. Thomas
The Immortality Game by Ted Cross
All Fore Revenge by Piper Denna

Originally written in a different language
The Twin by Gerbrand Bakker
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg
The Post Office Girl by Stefan Zweig
The Dog by Kerstin Ekman

Set during Christmas
The Christmas Train by David Baldacci
The Christmas Tree by Julie Salamon
The Christmas Wish by Richard Siddoway
The Christmas Clock by Kat Martin
The Snow Globe by Sheila Roberts

Written by an author with your same initials (BJ)
The Alchemist by Ben Jonson
The Stolen Bride by Brenda Joyce
Beyond Scandal by Brenda Joyce
Epicoene by Ben Jonson
Volpone by Ben Jonson

A Play
A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
Our Town by Thornton Wilder
An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

A Banned Book
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Animal Farm by George Orwell
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Based on or turned into a TV Show
Witches of East End by Melissa de la Cruz
The Pretty Little Liars Series by Sara Shepard
The 100 Series by Kass Morgan
The Sookie Stackhouse Series by Charlaine Harris
The Vampire Diaries Series by L.J. Smith

You started but never finished
I actually started working on finishing books I half read a while ago so I only have one on this list that is next in line after I finish the book I started in December. I actually loved this book but it got a little heavy for me when I was taking classes so I dropped it to read something a little lighter.
Going Rogue by Sarah Palin

Life is a Highway

It’s not about where you go but how you get there.  How many times have we heard this in some form or another in our lives?  Have you ever actually thought about how true this is?

This past weekend my fiancé Joe and I decided to go up to Flagstaff and enjoy the fresh snow.  As we embarked on our trip we were full of excitement and were looking forward to playing in the snow, eating at one of our favorite restaurants and enjoying some just us time.  Our excitement came screeching to a halt when only 20 miles into our 150-mile trip up north we hit a traffic backup due to an accident 20 miles ahead.  This was going to be a long day….

We could have been grouchy and complained to each other about how this totally sucked and it was going to take forever to get up there now… we wouldn’t have time for everything we wanted to do… so many things we could have (and probably did mention at least once) complain about.  But instead of dwelling on this, Joe plugged in his iPhone and started playing his playlist he made specifically for this trip.  Starting with some classic good morning songs [It’s a Beautiful Morning by The Rascals and Here Comes the Sun by the Beatles] we were going to enjoy this snail’s paced trip with good tunes.

As the playlist progressed and we gained a few miles I couldn’t help but beam at Joe; he remembered songs I loved that even I had forgotten about.  We were jamming to classics, new songs, oldies, almost any genre and band/group you could think of. Some he would instantly skip because he wasn’t feeling it [or it was meant to be played when we were at a different point in our drive] but others we would air guitar/air drum and even sing along to [Joe was particularly good at the “Bam a Lam” part in Black Betty and we both belted out Life is a Highway].

Finally, after a while, we reached where the accident was and then traffic opened up.  It was a smooth drive from that point on up to Flagstaff.  First stop was the cemetery to see my grandpa.  The cemetery was covered in snow up to my knees!  We uncovered his plaque as best we could but it was deep and the ground was frozen so it was hard.  Then we had lunch at Bun Huggers, which is one of our favorite places to eat in Flagstaff.

After lunch it was off to the snow… that was what everyone else had planned as well.  Traffic was horrible, again.  But we had the playlist Joe made and we just made the best of it.  We talked and told stories and tried to find a nice place to pull off to play.  After what seemed like forever we found a place to park off the side of the road and hiked into the mountain a bit and played.  We made a snowman, snow angels and had a snowball fight.  Mostly we explored… Joe found tracks that he followed for a bit around the area; he thought it was a mountain lion, which made me nervous but then, realized it was a dog on a leash! Haha!  We found a nice open area with gorgeous Aspen trees and took some pictures there.  When we were tired of the snow we trekked back to the car and headed back down to Flag.

Two hours later we were back in Flag… Traffic was again horrible.  But we were definitely entertained on the drive back into town.  We were both tired, I had to use the restroom and we were both getting cranky.  Joe took his shoes off to relax and threw his feet up on the dashboard.  When his feet started fogging up the windows we both lightened up a bit and the entire mood in the car changed.

A quick stop at Walmart and a debate on whether we should stay in Flagstaff for the night or drive home on possible icy roads and we were decided and headed back home. Traffic was not bad this time and we actually got home in decent time. Joe helped me maneuver the roads and made sure we stayed clear of any ice or possibly icy situations and we made it back safe.

I have to say I enjoyed our trip, all parts of it; and yes playing in the snow was definitely nice but I think my favorite part was the one on one time I got with Joe. We were goofy and free and didn’t really care about anything. That to me was the best part of our entire trip and it all took place on the journey to our destination.

Hello 2015

Most people make Resolutions this time of year. “New year, new me” is said all the time but when I thought about my “resolutions” I didn’t think it suited me. I don’t need to change myself or recreate myself; I don’t need to “resolve” anything in my life; I just want to be the best me and live the best way possible.

So instead of resolutions I made goals for 2015. Some of them have a time constraint to be achieved by a specific time during the year of 2015; others are general things I would like to accomplish at some point this year or something to work on throughout the year. Either way they are all things that I believe will help me have a happy and healthy year.

So let’s check them out shall we? [I apologize in advance for the length; I’m a girl with dreams and lots of goals so bear with me as we work through them.]

Financial Goals:

Have all wedding money saved by July 2015
​As most of you know I am getting married this September to the man of my dreams. Although we are pretty simple people and are keeping our wedding pretty low key, everything has a price. We have been buying little things here and there for the wedding and keeping track in our budget so hopefully we can either have everything paid off or all of the money saved up so that we will not be in debt for the wedding when we get married.

Have a $500 Cash Emergency Fund by July 2015
Some people would think this is super easy but with a car loan, student loan and normal spending it can be harder than you think, especially when it’s meant to just be there and only be used in case of emergency!
Open a Joint Account for Wedding Savings and Future Use by July 2015
​Joe and I already have a joint savings account that we have been using to save for our house down payment, however we would like to have a joint checking account that would be our household account for bills and such once we are married. I would like to open this soon so that we can start putting our money we have saved for the wedding in it and start using it as a functional joint account. This one is hard because we both grew up using different banks and we cannot seem to pick one we would like to stick with. I see a pro/con list in our future….

All Debt except for Car and Student Loans paid off by July 2015
​It is nice to be debt free and I would love to start our marriage debt free, but with a car loan and a student loan that is still growing I know that is not possible. I would however like to only have those debts when entering our marriage, so all credit cards need to be paid off by my birthday if not sooner!

Have Half of a Down Payment Saved for our House by September 2015
​With all of the other saving we are doing I thought it was a little far-fetched to have a full down payment ready to go once we’re married so I decided that half was attainable and if we can save more then we do that. Plus, with the price of homes fluctuating, the down payment amount will be changing as well so who knows exactly how much we will need to have saved and by when.

Family Goals:

Schedule family time at least every other weekend
​Joe and I recently introduced my parents and brother to The Place which is an awesome restaurant we like to go to for breakfast. It has already been decided that we would all like to go as a family at least once a month so that helps with this goal. However I would like more time scheduled with my family, so I’m thinking on another weekend out of the month to have a movie night in or even a nice sit down meal at home with everyone.

Schedule at least one date a month
​I recently saw this idea on Pinterest where you preplan and sometimes can prepay dates. You make a binder or box and fill it with envelopes with money for the restaurant, food prep, movie or whatever else the date may entail and a description of what the date is. I’m going to work on making this [so watch for a post in the future about it] and hopefully we can use it all year because spending time together just us is important. –I’m also thinking about making a rule that there will be no wedding talk during these dates. I haven’t gone bridezilla yet but I don’t want to drive Joe nuts with all the talk!

Personal Goals:

Maintain a GPA of 3.5 or higher at GCU
​Working full time and going to school can be a little stressful at times and usually something will suffer when balancing too much. My goal is to maintain a 3.5 GPA or higher at GCU while I am studying accounting and still working full time and planning our wedding. So far I have done well and still have a 4.0 but I know the classes are only going to get harder and I will need to focus and push through to achieve this goal.

Move up at Work
​I recently applied for two positions at work, one is a lead position which is a step up from where I am and the other is a Quality Analyst position which is still in my department but a different sector and would mean a pay raise so either is a step up. My interview for the Lead position is on January 7 and hopefully we will hear soon after if I got the spot or not. If I don’t I will still be striving to work my way up, it just might take a little longer as these positions do not open up very often.

Be at least a Level 2 SCUBA Diver
​I became a certified SCUBA diver in the summer of 2014 and have not gone on a dive since my certification dive. This was mostly because the water has been cold and we haven’t wanted to rent wetsuits. Hopefully when the water warms up Joe and I can get out to get in a few more dives to get me to level 2. I also want to explore more certifications and eventually become an advanced diver, but that can take some time and money so for now it’s a life goal not a goal to accomplish necessarily this year.

Engage More
​I posted this one on my Facebook this morning because it is one that pertains to my relationships with my friends. I follow so many people on Facebook and Instagram, and I like posts left and right but I don’t actually engage with these people. I would like to reach out and interact, comment on things and genuinely learn more about all of my friends. I would also like to carry this into my daily life and try to be more open to making new friends and learning more about people, really getting to know them and hear their stories.

Attend Super Saturday with Becky and Explore Beach Body
​My best friend just recently resigned up as a Beach Body coach and I couldn’t be happier for her. I think the team that she joined is amazing and I believe I would love to be a part of it one day. This would be a huge decision though that requires a lot of thought and research so my goal is to attend as many events as I can with Becky and to do research on my own about Beach Body so Joe and I can make an informed decision together.

Read More
​Specifically read more types of books and more often in general. To do this I found the following book list on Pinterest and have also worked on a list of books that coincide with the list. Look for a post in the near future specifically about this!

Okay kids, I know that was long but I hope it helped you learn more about me and maybe even gave you ideas for your own goals for 2015! Feel free to share your goals with me in the comments, I look forward to hearing all about them!