2015 Goals

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

This year I decided I didn’t want to make resolutions, I wanted to set goals. I know it sounds like the same thing but I feel like it’s a mental change. In my head, I looked at my resolutions as trying to fix something negative in my life while goals are working toward something positive. That’s how I’m looking at it to give myself motivation at least. 🙂

So here they are, my 2015 goals!

#1 Get into better shape

Stereotypical? Yes. Necessary? YES! I’ve been talking about it for a long time but now is the time I’m going to make a change. It’s not just about losing weight. It’s about feeling better about myself . This goal includes some scale and non-scale pieces:

a) Lose 30-40 pounds – I know this isn’t going to happen overnight so I’m going to celebrate each pound I lose and say goodbye to it forever.

b) Complete a Beachbody program – I purchased the 21 Day Fix over the summer and did well on the meal plan but not the workouts and I’m hoping to buy Piyo this month. Both of these programs are great and I think they can help me reach my goals if I keep at them. I have a great friend who is my Beachbody coach (Yay Mal!!) who I know will help me stay accountable on this one.

c) Wear a bikini – This will be the ultimate test of feeling comfortable in my own skin again. It’ll happen in stages, I’m sure, from wearing a smaller size pair of jeans to a t-shirt that hugs my mid-section without needing a cardigan. It’s the little things that are going to make a huge difference.

d) Ride every mile of RAGBRAI – I rode every day of the week long ride two years ago but not quite every mile so that’s my goal this year (every mile not including the Karras loop that is).

#2 Finish 3 quilts

I’ve wanted to take up quilting for a while now and Chris’ mom got me a sewing machine for Christmas so I could start. I bought my first pattern and some fabric for my first quilt and I can’t wait to get started! I know it’s going to be a process learning my new machine, re-learning to sew (haven’t touched a sewing machine since high school!), learning how to quilt – lots to learn! – so I feel like 3 is a good goal for year 1 🙂

Fabric for my first quilting project!

#3 Grow my Jamberry business

I wrote earlier this week about becoming an Independent Consultant for Jamberry Nails and it has been a wonderful experience so far! I want to work on growing my business this year and share Jamberry Nails with other people.

#4 Launch my dog treat business

I’ve been talking about this for a couple of years now but I feel like this is the time, I want to launch my dog treat business in 2015! I’m hoping that I can create my website, possibly get a spot at the local farmer’s market, and start selling my treats 🙂 It’s a dream to someday have a store front but let’s take this one step at a time!

Treats I made for Christmas gifts

#5 Read (at least) 12 books

I love reading and every year I have intentions of reading a ton of books but throughout the year I lose focus, get wrapped up in too many tv shows, can’t decide what to read, excuses, excuses, excuses. If you haven’t been able to tell so far, my goals are all about doing things for myself, making myself a happier person (which in turn will make me a better partner, friend, co-worker, sister, daughter…) so I want to focus on reading more because it’s something that I enjoy. 12 books isn’t a huge number, one a month – totally do able. Maybe I’ll even try to get involved in a book club (or start one!).

Tracking my books through gooreads.com

#6 Blog more consistently

It’s always a goal and always one that I fail at but if I’m going to going to do all of the fun things above I better be talking about it! I love spending time putting my thoughts out there for the blog (however random and inarticulate) and I hope that people enjoy reading them too! If I can do this, I’d love to take on the task of finding a new WordPress theme and self-host my blog. Maybe a 2016 goal…

There it is, a list of my top goals for 2015 (sorry for the lengthy post). I’ve been nervous about putting everything out there for people to see because it makes it real. But maybe that’s just what I need. Hopefully this will keep me accountable, help me reach my goals.

All of these are of course in addition to finishing wedding planning, marrying the love of my life in April, spending time with family and friends, and working at my full-time job. It’s going to be a busy, crazy, exciting, memorable year and I can’t wait to experience it 🙂

Did you set any resolutions/goals for the new year? 

Jamberry Nails

As if I didn’t have enough going on in my life currently, I’ve decided to embark on a new adventure – I recently became an Independent Consultant for Jamberry Nails!

What is Jamberry Nails you ask? They’re heat-activated vinyl nail wraps (made in the USA) without any harsh chemicals. They last up to 2 weeks on fingernails and 6 weeks on toenails!

My sorority sister introduced me to Jamberry Nails earlier this year when she became a consultant herself. Since then, I’ve attended a few online parties and placed multiple orders. I LOVE the way the wraps look on my fingernails. I’ve never liked painting my nails because it never fails that they smudge or chip right away and then look awful until I take all of the polish off. I also have had the horrible habit of biting my nails since I was little but the wraps have been great at helping end that.

A few of my “jamicures”!

I’m so excited to grow my Jamberry business and share this awesome product with others. Check out my website and/or like my Facebook page to learn more about Jamberry Nails and keep up to date on products and specials.

Where did summer go?!

Holy cow did this summer fly by! I feel like we have been on the go non-stop the past few months. Instead of trying to recap everything that I have missed I thought I would just post some of my favorite photos/events.

At Indy!

Kayla & I at Bike Night is Sioux City-sorry it’s so dark!

Chris & I after we finished RAGBRAI in July

Sturgis/Hill City, SD Trip

Sturgis!!

Jen & I at Alice’s wedding

Kiting the beautiful bride 🙂

SA Sand Volleyball Team (most of us at least)

Chris & I at the Iowa State Fair

And there you have it, our summer in a nut shell. I hope everyone had an awesome summer 🙂

 

It’s May and it’s snowing…

Mother nature is playing a sick game with us this spring! The weather has been so up and down, and I am sick of it. I was wearing flip-flops and a t-shirt on Saturday and today it’s full on winter again. I am so ready for beautiful, warm, sunny days. Since spring has been a bust, can it be summer now?

OK, enough of my complaining… I just saw this link on twitter (via @BuzzFeed) and I had to share – The 40 Greatest Dog GIFs Of All Time. I think this is one of my favorites:

Found on Buzz Feed

I cannot stop laughing! At least there’s something to smile about on this snowy day. And it’s almost the weekend 🙂

Looking forward…to the gym?

So I have to admit, I am completely LOVING working out again! I spent all day yesterday looking forward to my yoga class at 7:45. I’m really excited that I’m feeling this way and I am determined to keep at it. At the same time, I’m disappointed with myself that it took me this long to get moving again…Oh well, I’m just going to focus on moving forward and taking better care of myself.

Next step, a new “diet”! But I don’t want to call it a diet because I want to make some changes that I will stick to; that will become a part of my everyday routine. We’ll see how it goes!

(Image found on Pinterest, originally from Reasons to be Fit)

Happy hump day!

Relaxing Weekend

After a VERY stressful couple of weeks at work, I was so excited for the weekend. Even though I went to the office for a couple of hours yesterday I still feel like I got a lot out of the weekend…and I didn’t even do anything super exciting!

Friday, Chris and I went to a beer tasting at WineStyles and then grabbed a late dinner at Wok In Motion. If you know me very well, you know that Chris did most of the beer tasting and sushi eating but I had a great time just enjoying the evening together.

Chris at WineStyles

Our sushi at Wok In Motion

On Saturday, Stacy and I went to the mall and then headed back to her apartment so Chris could hang a few things up for her. While he did that, I played with Stacy’s kitten. Her apartment is so cute and it’s really coming together nicely.

Olive!

After we finished things up there, the three of us headed back to the house where Chris and Stacy proceeded to get me hooked on The Walking Dead. I never had a desire to watch this show – seriously, a show about zombies?! no thanks! – but now I can’t stop watching. We started with a few of the latest episode in season 3 because I didn’t want to start from the beginning but by the end of the night we were starting at episode 1 (and now I’m into season 2!). As you can imagine, that took up part of Sunday. With a couple of hours at the office and watching the Grammy Awards, I’d say it was a full weekend. Like I said, nothing super special but it was nice to relax a bit.

Here’s to a less stressful week this week – wish me luck! Happy Monday!

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Child of the 90s

Happy Sunday everyone! I hope you’re having a great weekend. Yesterday, Chris and I ran a bunch of errands and today we’ve been enjoying a fantastically lazy day. I probably should have gone into the office for a while today but I just couldn’t find the motivation. It’s been so rainy/icy/cold all day long I didn’t want to go anywhere. I finished a book earlier today so I’m ready to dive into another and watch the Pro Bowl, which I sure will be super boring exciting!

When Stacy got here earlier, she showed me this video and I felt like I had to share it:

Nice work Internet Explorer – I love to Oregon trail and pog references (I hated playing for keeps, ha! 🙂 )

Sunday night…

I’ve decided that Sunday night always comes way too soon. I’m just not ready for the weekend to be over yet. This weekend my mom and sister came up so we could go apartment hunting for my sister. She is starting a new job next week so she’s going to be staying with us for a little while. We found one that was pretty nice and hopefully she’ll hear back from them soon.

Today, I made my first loaf of banana bread and some treats for Calie, and now we’re just hanging out watching some football. On a related note, I can’t believe the Superbowl is in two weeks!! Where has the time gone?!

Anyway… I’ve decided I need to get out of the mind-set that I can only blog when I’m trying something new, going somewhere, or doing something exciting. Since one of my resolutions was to focus more on my blog so that’s what I need to do. So you’ll be starting to see more posts like this; posts that are just about what’s going on in my life. Hopefully you’ll all stick through this with me and you won’t be too bored 🙂 Enjoy the last bit of the weekend!

Rascal Flatts!

Chris and I spent this weekend at my parents house. It was a trip that we planned pretty quickly because my sister won tickets to the Rascal Flatts concerts and asked me to go. I saw them when they were in Des Moines while I was in college but they always put on a great show and did not disappoint this time. I had so much fun at the show and enjoyed a low-key weekend with my family.

On Friday, my sister also found out that she got an internship with the City of Des Moines so she’s going to be moving to town in a couple of weeks! I’m so happy for her and it will be nice to spend more time with her.

Italian Chicken Wraps

I am loving this weekend! I enjoyed spending time with family over the holidays but it is so nice to just have a weekend at home. Friday, I made my first big grocery trip since before Thanksgiving (I’m not sure what we’ve been eating for the past month!) and got a ton of food. It feels so nice to have full cabinets and a loaded fridge again. Plus, I picked up bunch of healthy meals and snacks to help us stay on track with our diet.

Yesterday ,Chris and I ran a bunch of errands, making exchanges and returns from Christmas. It was nice to check a few things off of my to-do list. I also decided to try a new recipe for dinner last night. I made Italian Chicken Wraps (a recipe I found on Pinterest from Taste of Home). Chris and I both thought they were pretty delicious so this recipe is a keeper!

Ingredients:
1 package (16 oz.) frozen stir-fry vegetable blend (I used a pepper mix but there were a few different kinds at the store)
2 packages (6 oz. each) ready-to-use grilled chicken breast strips
1/2 C.  fat-free Italian salad dressing
3 T shredded Parmesan cheese
6 flour tortillas (8 inches), room temperature (we heated them up in a microwave for a few seconds so everything was warm)

Directions:
In a large pan, cook the vegetables according to package; drain off the water when done. Mix in the chicken, salad dressing and cheese. Leave uncovered and simmer for  3 to 4 minutes, or until heated through.

Spoon about 3/4 cup down the center of each tortilla; roll up tightly. Makes 6 wraps – 290 calories each. 

Chris hamming it up with his wrap

The wraps were really filling and we had enough leftovers for another meal. I’m trying another new recipe for dinner tonight (it’s in the crock pot as I type!) and I hope turns out just as good. I’ll let you know how it goes. Now, back to my lazy Sunday!

PS Is anyone else as excited as I am for the Biggest Loser premiere tonight?!