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Carry On

Warning, this post might make me sound like I’m in high school.

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Last March, I was visiting my parents in Kentucky and driving on a long windy road home from my mom’s school. I was by myself, which as a mom, rarely happens. So, I turned up my music really loud. The song Carry On, by Fun came on my shuffle and boy, did it hit a chord with me. (I know, it’s a really popular song and so please feel free to skip this post because it’s nothing you’ve never heard before.)

Last March, well… really, last Winter and Spring was difficult for me. I have never been through so much struggle and stress in my life. T.J. was never home because he was crazy busy at school and I was left to myself to worry about our future. So, when that song Carry On came on, I lost it. The words seriously spoke to me (I told you, this makes me sound like I’m 15 years old). But I bet everyone has a song that has spoken to them at one time or another.

If you’re lost and alone
Or you’re sinking like a stone.
Carry on.
May your past be the sound
Of your feet upon the ground.
Carry on.

Carry on, carry on

I vividly remember that drive. That song made me think things would be okay. I wasn’t sure of where we were going but we would get there and we would be okay.

Well, flash forward to now… Almost a year later. I was at the gym, looking over Jersey City. Music blasting through my head phones. Carry On came on my shuffle again. Guys, I started crying! There was only one other person in the gym, so fortunately I didn’t look like a crazy person. But I just couldn’t get that memory out of my head from last year. And now. Here we are. Everything worked out. We are where we are supposed to be.

‘Cause here we are
We are shining stars
We are invincible
We are who we are
On our darkest day
When we’re miles away
Sun will come
We will find our way home

 

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A Visit from Blair

My best friend who I grew up with, Blair, was in town last week and I got back right in time to visit with her and have her stay with us for a night! We have been friends since 4th grade, and have kept in touch even though we haven’t lived near each other for years. We met up in Jersey and then went to dinner at Spice with some friends from our hometown, as well. To end the night, we had dessert (lots of eating, yikes!) and lots of laughs from sharing old stories at the Grey Dog. It was such a fun visit! I miss her already!

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2014 Goals

I love setting goals. I don’t always follow through with them forever, but I try to work on them for as long as I can. I’m still figuring out what I want to work on this year, but here’s what I have right now:

  1. Lose 20 pounds
  2. Quit nagging and speak in a nice tone
  3. Organize my Apartment
  4. Stick to our budget
  5. Give more affection

Lose 20 pounds

My goal is to lose 1.5 lbs each week, so hopefully I achieve this goal in 14 weeks. Or 3 months. Right in time for summer. It seems kind of quickly when I see 20 lbs in 3 months. But I am going to use the MyFitnessPal app where I track everything I eat and I have faith I can make it!

Quit Nagging and Speak in a Nice Tone

Is this dumb? I just think I nag T.J. too much. He’s a grown man and knows how to live his life. He doesn’t need me to remind him to do things all the time or overwhelm him with my worries. I also want to speak in a nice tone to my family. These two goals I think will help me become happier on an everyday level.

Organize my Apartment

This year we want to finally buy a big book shelf which will take care of a lot of our boxes and toys. Then I want to cut down half of our storage bins by consolidating and getting rid of things so we don’t feel so tight here. I also want to deep clean our apartment every month. I’ve got a little schedule made where I just do one deep cleaning chore a day so it’s not overwhelming.

Stick to our Budget

I know I say this one over and over. But we are going to do it. 2014 is the year.

Give More Affection

It may surprise you, but I am not a touchy-feely person. Sometimes I feel claustrophobic when I’m all cuddled up with T.J. It gets worse the more I think about it. But it’s all in my head! T.J. loves affection and physical touch is his love language. (Mine is receiving gifts, btw…) So, this year. I’m going to show more love and affection to my husband. I am so grateful for my husband so I need to let him know it!

What are your goals?

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Christmas Vacation in Utah

I know the last post was about moving on to 2014, but I got ahead of myself. I’ve got to cover Christmas break first!

T.J. and I flew separately since he had to work through the Friday before Christmas and then was back at work on the 2nd. I just found the cheapest flights I could find, so I stayed for about two and a half weeks in Utah.

We spent most of our time with T.J.’s parents, his siblings and their cute families. The cousins all played together so well (excluding when Eva bit Holly and constantly stole toys from the other kids… we probably need to get Eva on more play dates…). It was fun to see their relationships grow as they played together. Eva was pretty much smitten with Cohen and by the end of the trip, she was already missing her playmate Holly, who had left to New Mexico.

I took a ton of photos-so I thought the best way to put them on the blog is just a bunch of collages so you’re not scrolling down forever:

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Eva loved the snow! She could have played out there everyday. She called “snowballs”-“shoe balls.” So that was adorable.

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The Sunday before Christmas, we went to T.J.’s grandma’s house for dinner. The kids reenacted the Nativity and the little girls were angels. Quite a crowd, as you can see.

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On Christmas Eve, I wanted to get a nice picture of Eva in her festive outfit in front of the tree. Easier said than done. That girl would not give me a smile. So, the emo pose will have to do this year. We then went to T.J.’s aunt Pam’s house for dinner that night and Eva had a blast playing with their toys.

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More scenes from Christmas Eve. The top center picture is in the middle of our Nativity. Not joking. I don’t know what was going on with Cohen and Josh. But sweet Haven was a perfect baby Jesus. We tried to take a picture of all the kids in their matching PJs, but that was a disaster (enter picture number one), so we decided to all get in the picture with the kids instead.

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Scenes from Christmas morning. T.J.’s brother and his kids were there as well for Christmas morning. Santa brought Holly a tricycle and it was the first thing Eva saw.

“A BIKE!” Eva said, so excitingly!

Fortunately, we were able to distract her from the bike with her Santa presents, which was a new doll and baby portacrib. Santa also brought a princess dress, dress up heals, and some other fun treats in the stocking.

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On Christmas day, the guys took the kids sledding in the backyard and then we played Pass the Parcel. Lots of fun games and fun memories. And check out my cute husband wearing a hat given to him by his old high school-he rebranded their logo for them last year… you can see his caveman on the hat and scarf!

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Wow. That’s a lot of instagrams. I may have am obsession. I’ll spare the deets and just run through it quickly:
Eva wearing her butterfly wings, a new haircut, Cafe Rio, setting up Santa presents, lots of time-outs
Cocoa Bean cupcake, decorated Christmas trees, rolling through WalMart, Happy New Year!, cutie pie Eva
Playing with gam’s doll house, the grandkids love grandma, church dress for Christmas service, new kicks from grandma, Eva and Cohen
Family night at the outlets, twinsies, Christmas Eve at the Mahlers, Sitting in the new crib, besties/kissing cousins
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I also got to see a lot of friends while I was in town:
Cocoa Bean with my old coworker, shopping and a movie with Laura, a movie with Danica, Cafe Rio with old friends from Provo Ward, Met Baby Maggie for the first time, Target with Erin!

We had such a great trip and loved seeing all of our friends and family again! Thanks to everyone who made it such a memorable holiday!

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On to 2014!

We had a good year. It was one of the biggest years of my life, up there with the years I became a mother, became a spouse, and became a BYU student. The best months were probably June and October because of all our fun adventures and the worst was March or April because I was so stressed about our future.

Our daughter turned two, we moved to the East coast, visited family, walked all over Manhattan, hosted lots of visitors, went to the beach, cried about being homesick, and met new people. We were blessed so much in 2013 and are still realizing the extent of those blessings.

Happy New Year, you all!

 

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