2012: Resolution Wrap-Up

What happens when you procrastinate? You end up with 47 million end of the year blogs that you want to get written in one day (December 31st)! I thought about dumping all of my end of year (and beginning of year) thoughts into one post but then I decided to break it up a little. So, here is my 2012 Resolution Wrap-Up!

At the beginning of the year I wrote a post on New Year's Resolutions (New Year, New _________!). I had no idea what 2012 had in store for me, but looking back at that post I'm inspired by the attitude that I had that I would go after life and God no matter what I would face that year. So, how did the resolutions go? Let's take a look.

5. Start blogging again. Write at least 1 blog per week all year.
I did pretty well with this one. I didn't exactly blog once a week, but I blogged 53 times this year, so it averages out...that counts right? I definitely learned that blogging can be very cathartic for me. On the flip side it has the ability to make me feel very exposed and vulnerable at times as I pour out my thoughts and emotions (both deep and shallow) for any and everyone to read. I think that it is something that I will continue to do if for no other reason than a record of what I'm doing and what I'm going through in the next phase(s) of life.

4. Communicate with at least 1 family member every day all year long.
I did fairly well with this one. I definitely didn't hit my goal, but I did communicate with someone every day all year long. It may have been a family member, a friend who was like family, or even someone I just met, but I made sure that I was reaching out to make contact with other people. There have been times in my past where I close myself off, shut down, and don't seek out human interaction. I didn't do that this year. So, even though this resolution evolved a little I still call it a win.


My crazy family skype-ing from all over the country (and Canada) on Christmas

3. Move to Florida.
Wow. This definitely did not happen. I'm planning on doing a 2012 Year in Review post later today that will go into more detail, but Florida didn't happen this year. When I wrote last year's post I really had every desire to move to Florida. As the year went on and circumstances continued to change I realized that my heart is firmly entrenched in Louisville. As more time went on I realized that even though I love Louisville I needed to get away for a while to create a better life for Riley and I. So, I did move in 2012, I just moved to Pittsburgh, PA instead of Florida.


Louisville has my heart

2. Get Hot! Reach my goal weight by 30!
ummm...not so much. I did not reach my goal weight by 30, or even by the end of the year, but my perspective on hotness has definitely changed. I used to think that there was no way that I could be considered attractive unless I was skinny. Boy was I wrong. I may not be a size 6, but I'm still hotter now than I've ever been. Confidence, attitude, and personality go a long way in my opinion.


Still pretty hot if you ask me ;)

1. Seek after God with everything in me. Go all in and find who He has made me to be.
This was the resolution that was purposefully vague. God and I have had our ups and downs this year. I have had my moments (a very few) where I wanted to yell and scream and blame Him for everything going wrong in my life and I have had my moments (the majority of them) where I know that I am beyond blessed and exactly where He wants me to be. I have sought after God and His plan for me this year and I will continue to do so.

So, that's how I did with my resolutions. How'd you do with yours?

Grumpy No More

So, I realize that over the last month or so I have been in a bit of a funk downright grumpy! I hate being grumpy! I am the girl who always has a smile on her face and a postitive thing to say in any situation. Usually being that girl comes very naturally to me, so this grumpiness feels awful! I have declared today Grumpy No More Day. I'm going back to positivity, optimism, and happiness.

Also, Clay Matthews is healthy again!

Just in time for a division game against the Bears. Clay Matthews has been out for the last 4 games with a hamstring injury (much to my dismay). We definitely need him for this game against the Bears. If you recall, in the Week 2 matchup between the 2 teams Clay sacked Jay Cutler 3 1/2 times. If the Packers win on Sunday they clinch the NFC North title (yay!) so I'll be looking to see a lot of action out of Clay, but hopefully he will play smart and not push himself to injury again.



Also, it's 12 days until Les Miserables comes out (yay!) and videos like this one make me so super excited!!


My sister and I will be there Christmas night to see it if it anyone in Louisville wants to join us :)

I hope you have a good Grumpy No More Day!

Two Things Tuesday

Ah, Alliteration. I love it! So, what are my Two Things this lovely Tuesday?

1)I got a job! When I decided to move to Pittsburgh I decided that I was going to go back to the restaurant business. It flexible, it's good money, it's familiar, seemed like a good plan. In case you didn't know, I worked for Outback Steakhouse for a long time. I worked at 4 different stores in 3 different states over a period of 10 years. When Riley was old enough to go to kindergarten I found a day job and quit the restaurant biz. I talk about my Outback love in this post. Anyway, I found out that a brand new Bonefish Grill was being built close to my new home in Pittsburgh. My brother, Paul, is in training to be a proprietor at a new Bonefish Grill in San Diego, so I mentioned to him that I wanted to work at the Pittsburgh store to see if he could contact them and put in a good word for me. He found out that the store was set to open mid-January and told me that he would contact the management team as the date got closer. Over Thanksgiving my dad mentioned to me that the store was taking applications. I hopped online and filled out an online application. I figured that they were getting a zillion applications every day and mine was likely to get lost in the shuffle. I figured I would wait a couple of days and if I hadn't heard anything I would call them and have them pull my application to look at it. I got a phone call 20 minutes later asking me for an interview. Because I am in Kentucky and they are in Pennsylvania I knew that a face-to-face interview would be hard to arrange. When I talked to the manager I asked him if he would be okay with a phone interview but also let him know that I would be willing to travel up to meet with him if he needed me to. He was fine with a phone interview so we talked the next day. He offered me a job and I took it. I start training 10 days after I move and I'm really excited to be back to the restaurant business. Bonefish Grill is going to be a new environment for me, but it's owned by the same company as Outback so it's still pretty familiar. In the last week since I've been offered the job I have been contacted and congratulated by all the managers (which I think is a very nice gesture). I'm so thankful to not have to job search once I get to town and to be able to focus on getting Riley ready for and settled into his new school for a week before adding in a job.

2) I'm done Christmas shopping I thought I was done Christmas shopping. If you recall I've been a bit grinch-y this Holiday Season, but I was pretty proud of myself for having all of my Christmas shopping done and everything wrapped by December 8th. I will admit that wrapping the presents and watching ELF this weekend has helped my be a little less grinch-like, but I'm still looking forward to Les Mis more than anything else this Christmas. Anyway, I thought I was all finished shopping, but then changed my mind. I decided earlier this year that Riley and I have the unique opportunity of creating some new Christmas traditions since it's just the two of us now. I have heard a lot about the Four Gifts Concept lately. Basically you receive four gifts for Christmas-something you want, something you need, something to wear, and something to read. Riley is blessed to have a whole lot of people that love him and buy him lots of amazing gifts for Christmas. He is an only child who now has divorced parents so the potential for Christmas to get out of hand is huge. I decided to go with the four gifts concept with maybe more than one thing in a category or two and then, of course, a few presents from Santa. I did pretty well until I got to the "something you need" category. This kid needs nothing...trust me. His big "something you want" present is a Wii and I got him a few games to go with it so I thought the games could go into the "something you need" category, after all, you can't play a video game system without a video game, right? It's reaching, but it could have worked. Then I realized that we are moving to a state with snow, and lots of it from what I understand. So, Riley needs a little more cold weather gear. A hat and gloves specifically. I was musing about how he needed a hat and gloves in the car when he so sweetly said that he wanted one of those animal hats with mittens attached. Specifically a bear one. Like this. Honestly, I don't think he will ever wear it, but if I can find one in town I'll get it for him. He may or may not have me wrapped around his little finger.

Anyway, those are my two things for today :)