2013

I am going to let the "30 Reasons to be Thankful" posts serve as my "Why 2012 Was Awesome" posts. Because you don't need to read it twice.... and I don't want to type it twice.

Today is New Year's Eve. Woo! We have no plans. We will most likely stay home and fall asleep around 9 or 10 and do nothing exciting (except read, play some video games, watch some Dexter...).

But here are our goals for 2013.... I generally hate making New Year's resolutions since I fully believe in working on things and bettering myself at anytime of the year, but here we are anyways. Bret and I made a pact for a couple of them.

Bret:

1. Re-dedicate to fitness and health.
2. Pay down debt.
3. Stick to weekly budget.

Stephanie:

1. Continue to read more books. This obviously hasn't been an issue since I got the iPad mini, but since school and work are both starting back up, and I'll be working part-time again at PetsMart, I am going to have to really work to make sure I make time to read. For the record, I recommend Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, Still Missing by Chevy Stevens, The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Steven Chbosky, to name a few.

2. Work on having a positive outlook on all things. Admittedly, I have to try pretty hard to not assume negatively about most things. Obviously, this affects a lot of the relationships and important things in my life. I want to work on my default though process to be positive and to generally give people and things the benefit of the doubt.

3. Lose weight. (current weight 130. goal weight 125). I'll be straight with you. I have gotten lazy. I basically eat whatever I want and I haven't run consistently in about 6 months. This is a problem. Because I have gained 5 pounds of that weight I have worked all year to lose and I don't want to see these numbers anymore! My goal is to lose this little bit of weight again and to work on strengthening my body at my own pace. Living with two very fitness and health motivated people can be a little stressful especially when it's hard to make fitness a priority with all of the things listed in goal one. I hope to make this a priority that is manageable for me and my schedule.

4. Stay dedicated to training Darcy. She is doing great. She has learned so many things and by working with her on obedience, her potty training has soared and so has her cuddliness with me. I have a tendency to be a part of the pack instead of one of the leaders of the pack. I have noticed a huge behavior difference with Darcy since we started. She already knows go to bed, sit, down, wait, take it, speak, leave it, and we are working in paw. So proud of her!

Bret + Stephanie:

1. Don't eat out! We want to save money for goal two, and for goal three, we really want to focus on eating at home and being healthier in our meals. Since I am vegetarian (almost 5 years going strong!) and Bret isn't, we make most of our meals separately, which means we have to be diligent about groceries an actually making food instead of relying on going out.

2. Save, save, save to do things around our house that we really, really want/need: complete backyard fence, remodel kitchen, refinish living room floor.

3. Workout + Read. I have agreed to work out at least three hours a week. This includes: Insanity, running, or lifting in the garage. Bret has agreed to read at least 70 pages per week in any book of his choosing. We are gonna keep track of these things on the blog so you all can see, and to hold us accountable!

image