Wait, it's almost 2012? Really?

Oh my, how time flies!

Feels like just yesterday, I was sitting at my computer, coming up with a list of resolutions for 2011! Hmmm...I need to look back through my blog and see if I can find those!

So while I'm on the topic of New Year's Resolutions, here are a few I have come up with for 2012 (I can't even believe I'm SAYING that!):

• Become financially healthy - I wouldn't say that I'm the most financially unhealthy person. It's just that I know I've got some work to do. This year, I want to focus on really paying down my debt, and starting to save for my future (our future, if you count the hubby!). In particular, I really want to start investing my money into stocks and IRAs and mutual funds and all of that other fun stuff. Having just turned 27 a few weeks ago, I'm starting to realize that it is never too soon to start saving.
• Sign up for my first 5k - technically, I already did this on December 16th, during my company's 1st annual 5k Fun Run at Memorial Park! But I don't really count that since it was work-related. I know I'm never going to be the world's fastest runner, or even be able to endure a marathon, but I think a 5k is a doable goal. I've been working on increasing my endurance at the gym for the past few months. I'm up to about 2.3 miles now, so I've almost hit my goal! I know I can do it. Some days, I'm really on the ball, and others I just can't seem to get into gear. But no more excuses! I also really want to sign up for the next Warrior Dash This will happen in 2012.
• Tap into my creativity - I know that I could be so much more creative than I am. I used to be so creative as a child. What happened?? I guess life, and more practical pursuits such as going to school and getting a job got in the way. Somewhere deep down, is a creative little girl just itching to come out! This could mean anything - painting, crafts, cooking, baking, photography, whatever!!
• Blog more - I know I say this every year, but this time, I mean it! I did do a good job of blogging more in 2011, but I still don't write nearly as often as I should. Next year, I'd really like to challenge myself to write every day. Or at least once a week. That way, when it comes time to send out Christmas cards in 2012, I'll be able to write one badass Christmas newsletter!
• Go to Las Vegas - I've always felt that this is something that should be done before kids. Even if I just got to go for a weekend, that would be enough for me. We'll see what materializes. 
• Get a promotion at work - considering I just started my job in November, I'm not sure how realistic this is. But I'm going to work my ass off to see that it happens!
• Budoir Photoshoot - I've ALWAYS wanted to do this!! And definitely before I have kids.
• Buy a house. Sam and I are working on that one as we speak. 
• Buy a new car. Preferably sooner than later!
• Start horseback riding again - the problem with this is that I'm pretty much at the point where I'm past lessons and need to own my own horse so I can train properly on my own animal. Except I'm not at the point where I'm financially able to afford a horse. See bullet point number one.
• Work on my writing - I'd really like to kick off my freelance writing career if possible this year. I've always loved writing and am at the point where I want to see how far I can take it.
• Get in shape - again, I say this every year. I definitely slimmed down quite a bit in 2011 compared to 2010, but I'm ready to take it to the next level.

Okay, so those are my goals thus far for 2012. I think they are all attainable. My friends and family often give me a hard time for being such an "overachiever" and tell me I'm too hard on myself, but I firmly believe that success is earned, and if you don't set goals for yourself and work towards them, you will never be successful and life. And success is what makes people happy! So there you have it. We'll see where 2012 takes me!

Weekend Blown

This weekend didn't quite go as planned.

I'd planned on getting a lot of clothes shopping done, starting my Christmas shopping and catching up on my house cleaning. Well, none of that really happened this weekend, so now I'm going to have to play catch up this week!

Sam is off work this week, so hopefully he will at least do a little house cleaning so I won't have to. It stresses me out when my house is a mess. My biggest pet peeve: dirty floors. I can't stand feeling dirt on my feet when I walk around my house!!

I really wanted to catch up on some crafting this weekend, as well. I guess I just need to start organizing my time a little better - I never seem to have time to do things I really want to do. Definitely going to put that down on my New Year's Resolution list.

So, what did I do this weekend?

Well, I got my hair cut (finally) and colored. I cut about 4 inches off; it's the shortest my hair has been in probably 6 or 7 years! I'll post a pic once I finally get it styled the way I want it.

I'm kind of funny about getting my hair cut and colored - I always dislike it the first week or so after I get it done, and then I absolutely love it! When it's first colored, it tends to look a little too saturated, so I like it better when the color is just starting to fade. And I have really fine hair, so when it's first cut it always looks a little too short, and, well, freshly cut.

I was a little hesitant to cut it, but I was definitely ready for a change. I'd been growing my hair out for my wedding for the past 2 or 3 years, so it was time for something different. I kind of miss it a little, but overall I'm glad I cut it! It's really not even that short (shoulder-length), I've just had it long for so long that it feels really short!

Other than that, Sam and I just spent some time with family and went grocery shopping. The exciting life of newlyweds, lol!

We did finally decide to start shopping around for a house again. I'm not sure if I ever wrote about it, but last year around this time we were actively looking to buy a house, but things didn't work out for us. We just ran out of time before the wedding and we had to be out of our apartment, so we decided to put it off for another year. Interest rates are even lower than they were last year, so this really is the ideal time to buy. Pretty much a golden opportunity right in front of us! Hopefully, this time around will work out better than last year! We are so ready to be in our home and stop moving every year. Such is the life of a twenty-something - I think I've moved at least once (sometimes twice!) every year since I was 20 years old!

When Little Things Aren't So Little

Well, I must say, today was EXHAUSTING!!

I haven't been very good about going to bed on time this week. I'm swamped with projects at work, and it's thrown off my whole schedule.

Last night, I brought home a project that kept me up until about 10:30 (and that was only because my internet crashed...if it'd been working, I would've been up much later...) and tonight, I stayed at work until 7:30, got home around 8:15, and just finished an addition to the project I was working on last night. So needless to say, I'm pretty tired.

Today was one of those days where nothing seems to go right. Little things, here and there. Like forgetting my sunglasses at home this morning. And remembering I'd left that at home right after I'd pulled out of my neighborhood. It was too late for me to go back and get them, so I begrudgingly left them at home. I hate driving without sunglasses. The Texas winter sun is just too bright for during my morning commute to not wear sunglasses.

Then, I'm driving on the freeway, and for once, I let someone in who had just entered the freeway. See, I don't normally do this, because it always backfires on me. In the past when I've let people in, they always end up lollygag around, not paying attention and leaving a 50 foot gap of space between them and the car in front of them. I'm almost always in a hurry when I drive, and I can't stand getting stuck behind drivers who are slow, purposeless, and distracted. It makes my blood boil. So while I realize I appear to be a jerk by writing this, I don't really care because I know that it's best for everyone involved if I just never let people in.

Once I get settled in at my desk at work, my email decides it's going to continually disconnect from the server and stop sending/receiving emails. Wonderful. And the weird part is, I'm the only person in the office who has this problem. The same thing happened to me several weeks ago. So I end up spending about 30 minutes on the phone with IT that could've been spent much more usefully. I was already slammed busy. Email never shuts down on you when you're slow, only when you're busy. And God Bless the guy that helped me, but he was quite the chatter box. Which normally I don't mind chatting up with people, but I was already beyond annoyed that my email stopped working and I lost 30 minutes of productivity, and not really in the mood to chat. Of course, that wasn't his fault, so I did my best to keep a smile in my voice. If not on my face.

I kept trying to take notes at a meeting earlier and my pen would just not write. That is unacceptable, for pens to just not write when I know they are fresh, and full of ink. So irritating. I just started scribbling all over my notepad, and yes it did eventually work. Suck on that, Papermate!

I sound neurotic right now. I think I'm just really tired.

Lastly, I get home and start working on my spreadsheet, and I can't seem to type to save my life. I'm typing things in the wrong boxes, with the wrong symbols, and my color coding got all screwed up, it was just awful. And then my numbering got messed up. It was about that time that I decided I needed to sleep for about 2 days, uninterrupted.

Luckily, these weekend is looking pretty open! The only open weekend I have this month. So I should have plenty of time to sleep in and rest up. And go Christmas decoration shopping (as well as gift shopping!) because I need to spruce up my Christmas decoration collection a little. Since this is the first year Sam and I have had a fireplace in our home, I really want to make some stalkings to hang. But I really have no idea how to use my sewing machine, so that might be biting off a bit more than I can chew. Yet, the challenge of it excites me...so we shall see!

November Update

So I haven't had much time to update my blog as of late, and today is no exception so I will make this brief!

Started my new job November 1, and so far, I LOVE it! Feels great to finally be at a position where I am using my skills and education. That doesn't mean the job is perfect, but I'm okay with imperfection (at least in some areas of my life). I do think this job has a lot of potential, so I'm hoping this will be a job that I can grow with over the next few years. That is my goal, anyway! I will write more about the new job another day.

Thanksgiving was WONDERFUL this year! We spent lunch with Sam's family, and dinner with my dad, brothers and my dad's girlfriend's family. I love big holidays with my new extended family! We had a great time, and I am looking forward to Christmas.

We spent the weekend Black Friday shopping and prepping the house for Christmas. We went to Target at midnight on Friday (first timer!) and boy, was it a mad house! Took about 20 minutes to get into the store. We didn't wait in line, decided to wait in the truck instead, and didn't want to be all rude and cut people off that had been waiting for two days. Once we were in, Sam and I divided and conquered. He went to look for a firebowl, and I got a set of King size sheets, a 16 piece Pyrex set, a 10 piece picture frame set and a set of PJs. We didn't end up getting the fire bowl - they were sold out - but we walked out of Target only paying about $30 (we had a $50 gift card) and that also included paper towels. Figured we might as well get them while we were there, lol!

After that, we went home with the intention of taking a quick nap, then heading to Denny's to eat an early breakfast before heading to Academy at 5:00 am. Well, once our heads hit the pillows, we were out, so Academy never happened. But we went back later in the day and got the same products we'd had our eyes on, so it wasn't really a loss.

I'll tell ya, I'm the first one to admit that Black Friday shopping is CRAZY, but I also know that it really can be worthwhile if you are going for things that you need. We must've saved a few hundred dollars this weekend, and for newlyweds, that is a lot of money!

Sam and his dad just finished putting all of the lights up, and I am finishing up a project for work before cooking dinner and doing some more Christmas decorating.

Debating whether or not I'd like to send out Christmas cards this year. I really want to since it's our first year as a married couple and I didn't send any last year, but it's also another expense (cards and stamps) and I'm STILL not done sending out wedding thank you cards (yes, it's pathetic, I know). Although, in my defense, I'm almost done and I'm hoping to finish up by Wednesday.

Happy Halloween!!

Okay, so technically Halloween is tomorrow, but since I'm not doing anything special I thought I'd write about the AWESOME Halloween-themed couple's shower Sam and I went to on Saturday! It was in honor of my friends Kristin and Hunter, who are getting married on January 14. Kristin was one of the bridesmaids in my wedding, and I am now going to be a bridesmaid in her wedding! It will be my second time to be a bridesmaid (the first time was for my sister-in-law, Crystal), and I can't wait! I love weddings and all of the festivities that come with them. Especially when they aren't mine, lol! Not that I didn't love my wedding/festivities...because I most certainly did...but when it's your wedding, things can get very stressful. It's nice to be able to enjoy a wedding from a different perspective this time!

I tried to coordinate our costumes for the party so they had a common theme. I had a cop costume that was left over from two years ago that I decided to wear again this year. For some reason, I get sick almost every year on Halloween (I think it has something to do with the weather changes) so I didn't end up wearing the costume last year, and the year before when I wore it, we were at an outdoor Halloween Party, and it was so cold I was wrapped up in a blanket the entire time and didn't really get to sport the costume. Sam went as a prisoner the first time I wore this costume, but I didn't want to do that again, so I decided he would be a mobster. The only thing I had to purchase was his mobster hat, which I got at Target for $18. Not a bad deal! Oh, and the cigar, but that was like $.97 at the convenience store at the front of our neighborhood.

The party was about a 45 minute drive from our house, but we had an absolute blast! My brother decided to ride along with us. The couple who hosted the place have a beautiful house and yard, with an outdoor bar and a nice pool. We ate a delicious meal of pork tenderloin with caramelized onions and sauteed mushrooms, rolls, salad, and some kind of delicious butternut squash lasagna with mascarpone cheese. So so good!

We had a really great time hanging out with good friends, enjoying great food and drinks and celebrating Kristin and Hunter's upcoming nuptials! I only had three glasses of wine, but somehow I managed to get TANKED and the ride home was really fun, lol! We stopped at Whataburger before heading home and I got my favorite Sausage, Egg & Cheese biscuit sandwich. I rarely treat myself to this since it's so bad, but it tasted so good and I have no regrets. Was definitely hungover this morning, but it was so worth it. I had a blast last night!

Tomorrow we are expecting trick-or-treaters, but I am hoping to get over to my in-laws house early enough to be able to see my sweet little nephew before he goes trick-or-treating! Then I'm planning on heading over the to fire station, where my husband is the captain, and taking photos of the participants in this year's No Shave November contest. Should be a lot of fun! Can't wait to see how the guys look after their facial hair is all grown out.

Cramps and Football

Currently recovering from what I consider to be the third worst bought of cramps I have EVER had in my life! Wowie, I can't believe I made it through that much pain lol! It just kind of hit me all of a sudden. I was lying in bed reading a book before I fell asleep, and then BAM, the pain just hit me like a ton of bricks! I was basically lying in the fetal position, just praying to God that the pain would go away.

Now, I must say, I am definitely a wuss when it comes to cramps. I have been blessed with relatively few incidences of bad cramping in my menstrual life, thus far. But when I do get them, they hurt. Really. Bad. I thought I was going to throw up. And since I stopped taking my birth control pills in June, I can only expect bad cramps to occur more regularly. Yippee. The joys of womanhood, lol!

In other great news, my alma mater, Texas Tech University, actually WON their game against OU this past Saturday!!! So very exciting and completely unexpected!!! I am a huge Texas Tech football fan. I never cared much for football until I went to Tech, and it just caught on to me like a bad fever. Tech has had a bit of a rough season so far. The team this season is primarily made up of freshman players, and our quarterback hasn't thrown a ball in a football game since his freshman year of high school. With that said, no one expected them to hold a flame against #3 ranked OU. They're a fantastic team, so I assumed the game would be a blowout. I wasn't even going to watch the game. I mean who wants to watch a sinking ship?

But my brother texted my husband on Saturday evening to ask if we were watching the game. We had just gotten home from dinner with my dear friend Bekkah, and decided to turn on the TV. To our amazement, Tech was ahead of OU by two touchdowns, and scored a third touchdown shortly thereafter! How incredible! The media is actually referring to it as the biggest upset in Big 12 history EVER. Ended OU's 39 game winning streak at home. Not only that, but Tech is now ranked in #20 in the BCS pole, ahead of Texas! We weren't even ranked at the beginning of the season! So very proud of my team.

Every time Tech plays OU, I am reminded of the last upset we had against them, back in November of 2007 when I got to rush the field. Definitely one of the best days of my life, and a once-in-a-lifetime experience! There's nothing like running down the stands, hopping over the fence and rushing out onto the field to celebrate with your fellow fans. I know it sounds corny, but it was an amazing feeling, one that no picture could ever recreate (although, admittedly, I do wish I'd taken a picture...). And I'll never forget it, as long as I live. One of the best decisions I ever made was to finish my education at Texas Tech, and I couldn't be more proud to be a Red Raider. Wreck 'Em Tech!!!!

Announcement Time!

Sooo...I am proud to announce that...drum roll please...

I GOT A JOB!!!! I am so excited!!!

I got the call last Monday that the company I had been interviewing with wanted to bring me on board, and extended me an offer. I was so thrilled! I had been interviewing with them the week prior, on Monday and Thursday. And it wasn't just a typical interview process - I had to create a powerpoint presentation based upon an assignment I was given, and then present it. Twice. The first time to the director of the division I would be working for, as well as another director, and the second time with the vice president of the company! I was so extremely nervous.

Honestly, I didn't think I was going to hear back from them after the first interview, so I was pleasantly surprised when they called me back first thing Tuesday morning. I was so excited to have the opportunity to interview again with the vice president, but I was really dreading have to present my project again. It's not that I'm terrible at presenting projects, I'm just not the best at it either. I get nervous like most people, but going through grad school really helped me improve upon my public speaking skills. And I think over time, I'll get better at it and learn to dread it less. But the VP was so nice, and it felt like were just having a conversation with each other, and not a presentation. I prayed for God to give me the confidence to do well at my interview right before I went in, and I felt cool as a cucumber the entire time.

I start November 1, and I couldn't be more excited! On paper, this is my dream job, so I'm hoping it turns out to be that way in reality too, lol! Basically, I'm going to be an Assistant Account Manager for a full-service food & beverage marketing agency in the Houston area. I won't give out the name of the company for now, but I basically stumbled upon it out of sheer luck. I found out about the company by surfing through Linkedin. It's true what they say, you really have to go through unconventional methods these days to find a job. I feel so blessed to have been given this opportunity amidst one of the worst economies in US history. I definitely prayed and prayed about it for a long time, and not only did God answer my prayers, but I now get to do something I have worked YEARS towards, and that is such a satisfying feeling!