A year in review...

Everyone in blogger land is doing it.  So I guess I will, too.

(I'm the one with the floatie, by the way)

2011 was a year of joys, triumphs...

2011 was crazy busy but amazing.  I think that pretty much sums it up.  We didn't mess around around here.  We were content to be extremely busy.  EXTREMELY.  When I told Charlie that we would start looking at houses in March, we actually ended up closing in January.  That pretty much sums up our year:  faced paced and always about 3 steps ahead of ourselves.

So that comes in at #1 in our review...closing on our house.

Therefore, this was also the year of a growing number of house projects, many of which involved paint.  Okay, most of which involved paint....and rabbit poop! ;)

Just kidding about the rabbit poop.  But Luna does love it.  ;)

Among my favorite projects were painting our built-ins, our mantle, and our fire place door.  I think it really elevated the room.

Probably my favorite paint color of the year was Behr's Contemplation, which became our new living room color.

We also completed other fun projects in reupolstery, grass growing, landscaping/woodchipping, spray-painting, and Goodwill hunting.

Let's not forget that I spend the summer finishing my Master's in Spain!

And wrote some "diddies" here and there that were on my heart....that's what a blog is for after all.  Like here, here, and here. :)

So, I looked for my post from 2010 that had my New Year's resolutions, to see if I succeeded in filling them.  Here were my resolutions for 2011:

1) Finish my thesis THIS year, so I can get my Master's sooner. Well, like we've established, I'm cheap, so I'm sure this will be a huge motivator.  CHECK, CHECK, CHECKITY CHECK!  It felt so good to finish her!! 

2) Wear sunblock on my scar every day! I just got a mole removed, and I know this will be hard to remember, but it's important so my scar doesn't look worse! Weird, but important.  Fail.  Well, not a total fail.  I do wear sunscreen on it, but only when I plan to be outside for a longer period of time.  My makeup does a pretty good job of protecting it I feel.  No discoloration, yet!

3) Stress less, laugh more. I think that one is simple enough :)  I would say I definitely did a lot of laughing this year.  Lots.  I love laughing.  But I also did my fair amount of stressing (what girl doesn't?)  However, I found myself stressing much less than last year about work, my Master's, etc.  So, did I stress?  Yes.  Did I stress less?  We'll give me a silver medal on that one.  Yay. :)


With that said, here are my new resolutions for 2012!  Woop! 
1) GET MORE ORGANIZED!  I've already started working toward this goal.  I want to be able to find things easier and lead a simpler, more stress free life.  This means working toward my goal in steps and taking one area at a time (I'm currently working on the pantry).  But I want the layout to make sense.

2) BETTER UNDERSTAND MY INSURANCE.  Okay, like number 2 last year, this one is weird.  I often feel I don't have a good understanding of how my insurance works/how to full maximize my benefits.  I've got the basics, but I want to know the ins and outs before we start to expand our family one day.

3)  EXPAND OUR COOKING REPERTOIRE.  Charlie and I have grown so, so, SO much as cooks.  We do eat very well (and quite healthfully) which I am very proud of.  However, I want to start expanding our capabilities while continuing to eat well.  Pinterest is my new inspiration for recipes, etc.  I'll keep you posted and post pictures of food that will make you (nearly) stop reading my blog because they look so good.  Muhahahaha!

Well, I think that's about it. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!