Setting Personal Resolutions for 2012

Wow, is it really 2012 already?  Last year flew by!  Maybe it was because I was planning a wedding, finishing my undergrad, working, graduating, starting grad school in the summer, and then getting married all by August 13th and then was honeymooning, blogging, taking a full load of grad classes, working, preparing for my student teaching starting this February, and adapting to newlywed life.  Whew!  I’m exhausted just reading that.  Although it was jam-packed, 2011 was my favorite year to date.  As stressful and life-changing as it was (I’m never good with change, just ask Mr. Converse Sneakers who has a whole theory going about how I adapt, or fail to adapt, to change), it was simply incredible.  It’s not every year that a gal gets to marry the cutest man on the planet who is also her best friend!  I’m one lucky redhead!

As amazing as last year was, I’m ready to make this year just as amazing, if not even more so.  Last year I developed a healthy appreciation for taking risks and making the most of each day.  I’ve never been very good at either of those things, but this year I’m hoping to become a pro.

When we sat down to make our highlights from 2011 video which you may have seen last month, we also made a video of our goals for 2012.  The time references are a little off now since we made the video in early December (I was meaning to post it sooner but ran out of steam), but hopefully it all still makes sense.
If you’d like to watch me interrupt Mr. CS numerous time and ramble on and on (my blog is an accurate representation of my rambling abilities, I’d like to think) just click the little play button on the video below. :)




If you would prefer not to watch me make a fool out of myself via the above video, I am writing out the important deets below.

Goal #1: Buy a House

I’ve been dreaming of buying a house since I was a little girl.  Now that we’ve both lived in many apartments/dorm rooms (8 in total between the two of us in four years), we are ready to tackle home ownership.  Our current apartment costs the same as a modest mortgage, so as soon as I’m teaching full time in the fall (fingers crossed) and we’ve saved up for a down payment, we will begin searching!  I can’t wait to decorate.  We’re thinking of a house like one of the following (all from realtor.com in our general area and our predicted price range):

Swoon.  We will most likely buy an old house to make some upgrades to since the affordable homes in our dream area are all old, and we both prefer the look and feel of older homes.  I will most definitely be blogging about the journey as soon as it happens.

Goal #2: Stay on the Healthy Path

I’ve blogged a little big about our exercising and healthy eating endeavors, so you know where our minds are with this particular topic.  However, I let myself go a bit last fall by not exercising as much as I should and not eating the healthy foods that my body needs.  We are both determined to lose some weight and most important, get in shape.  Mr. CS wants to lose about 15 pounds and I want to lose about 7 (at least according to what the scale said before Christmas – I’m scared to look now).  After that, we plan on building muscle and maintaining our weight. 

I’m not sure what I’m doing in the photo below taken back in December 2009, but I do know I’m wearing pants I haven’t fit into for a year.  I’m keeping them to see if I will ever fit into them again.

Goal #3: Decide When to Have Kids

We want kids very badly (I tell everyone my ovaries are throbbing which is TMI but is funny to say and watch others squirm), but we are not financially ready for a child yet.  We want to wait a couple years to have some time to ourselves and get settled in a house before children, we think anyway.  We don’t plan on having kids any time in the very near future, but we hope to make a plan this year once I start teaching full time.

I can’t wait for little babies like this:

Like I said, ovaries throbbing.  I’m not sure if every couple experiences this, but just about everyone I know and everyone at our wedding continuously tells us (and have since we started dating) that they can’t wait to see our redheaded Asian babies.  I highly doubt they will have red hair, though Mr. CS sometimes gets little reddish “freak” hairs as we like to call them in his beard.  Only time will tell.  I would not be sad if they looked just like my hubby did when he was growing up.

I need to step away from the monitor – that photo is too much for me to handle.

Goal #4: Find a Teaching Job

I’m back!  I’ll be student teaching from February to May and after that I’m off to land a decent teaching job.  Most of our goals on this list were made with the idea that I would be teaching full time come September.  If that doesn’t happen like we plan, we’ll work through it, but I would be ecstatic if I could find a job I like that will help us financially.

Goal #5: Save that Moolah

Last year, we started the envelope system which has been going really well.  Though we’ve dramatically cut our spending, we haven’t necessarily been saving or doing anything productive with the money.  It just sits in our checking account waiting.  This year we want to really put it to good use by saving up money for a down payment on a house and paying off debt.  I’m ready!

Goal #6: Build Up Photography Business

If you didn’t know already, I started a small photography business last fall and have barely made a dent in building up the business.  Fall and the beginning of winter have been very busy with finishing up my last semester before student teaching, which was very important for me to focus on, but now I am ready to grow my business and my portfolio.  Thankfully some friends and family have been willing to pay me for my services and let me acquire more skills by photographing them.  I can’t wait to see what 2012 has in store for me.  I am very close to having a wedding booked.  We’ll see . . .

Here’s just a sampling of the engagement photos I took for my friends Christine and Lynden (see more here and here):

And, here are some from my photo session with my friends Courtney, Patrick, and their baby Parker (see more here):

Goal #7: Move Up in Culinary Career

Mr. CS has been working really hard to work his way up at his current job as a banquet chef at a very nice hotel.  He loves cooking for weddings and other banquets, but would love to spend some of his time managing people as well.  We are hoping this year he gets a better title!

Goal #8: Become Closer with God

We are constantly working on being better Christians by making time in our hectic days for some one-on-one time with the “man upstairs.”  Honestly, we were really bad at this last year.  I spent more time worrying about not praying than I did actually praying.  This year, I plan to change that.  We need to pray more, to pray together, and to include God in our lives and our marriage more.  We started a prayer journal last year; by next year I hope it is filled from cover to cover.  I already know this will cause amazing things to happen, so I’m ready and open.

Goal #9: Do More for Others

Once again, too many items on our to-do lists have left us with little time to give to others.  I haven’t had any amount of time to spend with friends all fall (seriously – just ask my neglected friends who probably don’t remember what I look like) much less to spend time with people I don’t know.  This year, we want to start volunteering our time in some way.  We don’t know the details yet, but once we get into the new year and see what our routines are like, we will make a decision.  I’m very excited!

Goal #10: Buy a Dog

We are huge animal lovers.  Huge, I tell you!  We can have cats in our apartment, but from our past experiences with cats, we think Mr. CS is allergic.  We don’t want to take any cat home knowing we may have to give it up, so we are waiting until we buy a house to get a dog.  We have one breed in mind:

Source: Pinterest

A bulldog!  They are so expensive, but we’ve been waiting for years to buy a dog and want to save up for our dream dog.  If that falls through, we are thinking of a Westie (since we love my parents’ Scottie so much but think it would be cute to have a white dog) or a Corgi:

Source: Pinterest

Source: Pinterest

We cannot wait to have our first baby in the form of a dog.  We haven’t decided if we’ll adopt or buy from a breeder.  Part of it depends on the kind of dog we want.  Any advice?

So, those are our ten goals for 2012.  We sure hope we achieve all of them!  If not, I am sure we will get to them next year.  These are some pretty lofty goals, so dreaming about them is okay too if we can’t quite achieve every one of them.  I’ll be sure to keep you posted on any of them them we do achieve.  I’ll be too giddy to stop rambling about them!  Be sure to come back tomorrow to read about my goals for this blog.

What are your goals for the new year?

Linking to: Five Days . . . 5 Ways