2013 Year in Review

So much happens in the course of a year.  I love to throw together a list of some of the major events that occurred so I can look back and remember them.  It feels like a REALLY long time ago that I ran in the Charleston Half Marathon and it was still less than a year ago.  Of course, we did lots of other stuff in 2013, but here are some of the highlights.....

January 2013
Made some resolutions... more on how things went in a later post
Completed the Charleston Half Marathon with a personal best time!
Spent lots of time visiting my niece in the NICU

February 2013
Hosted a Supper Club Super Bowl Party!
Celebrated my niece coming home from the NICU
Celebrated Ryan's 29th Birthday
Got together with friends to start Nooks & Grannies book club
Found some lovely fabric for re-decorating our den

March 2013
Ran in my first 10K - Get To the Green St. Patty's Day Run
Discovered Thursday night jazz at Hunter Gatherer

April 2013
Spent a long weekend at the beach!
Trained & ran in the Heart & Sole 5-miler
"Ran for Boston"
Celebrated my sister & niece at a belated baby shower
Helped with my JWC's Annual Yard Sale
Played Ultimate Frisbee for the first time (my team was awesome!)

May 2013
Served as a guest speaker for a group of nurses state convention
Spent Memorial Day Weekend at the Beach!

June 2013  
Quit Monthly Menu Planning
Began serving as the President for JWC of Lake Murray
Attended Brandon & Mary Kathryn's wedding!
Went Kayaking with friends... got inspired & bought our own kayaks!
It started raining... and it rained and it rained and it rained.  Longest streak of rainy days in history.

July 2013
Celebrated my nephew's 3rd birthday & my niece's Baptism
Ryan started a new job... I went on vacation to the beach
I completed my PHI Pilates Instructor Certification
Hosted Nooks & Grannies book club at my house!

August 2013
Went on a weekend trip to Greenville
Started training for Georgetown Half Marathon
Taught my first Pilates class
Talked about and decided to put our house up for-sale-by-owner....
Were completely shocked when it was under contract in a quick 2 weeks
Packed liked crazy & searched for a new home

September 2013
Quit training for Georgetown Half (too busy moving!)
CLOSED on the Sale of our first home
Shopped and shopped and shopped for a new home
Moved in with my parents
Put a contract on our new home!

October 2013
Completed lots of inspections & paperwork for our new house
CLOSED on the purchase of our new home
Helped to host a baby shower for my college roommate Elizabeth
Attended Heather & Jeff's Wedding

November 2013
Ryan started another new job... a much better fit!
Moved into our new home!
Celebrated 10 years together (we started dating in November 2003)
Made a big long list of things "to-do" for our house & got started working

December 2013
Volunteered at our JWC 2nd Annual Tour of Homes
Celebrated our 4th Anniversary
Celebrated Christmas & New Years with family & friends
Celebrated my 29th Birthday

2-Ingredient Pumpkin Muffins - A Birthday Breakfast

When my friend Jennifer mentioned these muffins earlier this week, I knew exactly what to make for Ryan's birthday breakfast! This is literally one of the EASIEST recipes ever!  Just two ingredients:

1 Can Pumpkin Puree and 1 Box Yellow Cake Mix

Directions: Mix Pumpkin Puree & Box Cake Mix together, spoon into muffin tin, and bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes!  Top with a dusting of powdered sugar, or if you really want something sweet, maybe add cream cheese icing.   For today, we went with powdered sugar:

The birthday boy approved these with rave reviews!  In my opinion, these are SUPER sweet and could use a little something extra.... maybe cinnamon?  They are also a lot heavier than the muffins I normally make, so a little goes a long way -- I could only eat one.   I'm looking forward to trying this again with some other flavors of cake mix!

Happy 29th Birthday to my husband Ryan! Love you and hope this year is the best yet!

2011 in Review

I think it is pretty cool to look back and see what the heck happened over the last year, especially when I feel like I was JUST looking back at 2010.  Seems like 2012 has always been a year that was WAY far in the future, but here it is, just around the bend!

Started my first full year of menu planning!  **First New Year's Resolution I ever kept!**

Joined the NOMA Dog Park... best place ever.

Started sticking to a budget to save money to replace Ryan's car & pay off school loans

Bought our first piece of furniture (all the rest we have is inherited/gifts) -- a new couch!

Got snowed in! You know it's bad when even the federal government cancels work!

Hosted our 1st Supper Club...  I made MEXICAN food (I know you're shocked!)  It was the first time I pulled out all my fancy china & crystal that we got for our wedding... all went well until the dog put his face in the sourcream :)

Celebrated Ryan's 27th Birthday

Had a long weekend at the beach & a weekend in Spartanburg for Josh & Jennifer's wedding

Helped host a wedding shower for Ryan's best bud and his fiance

I met THE PIONEER WOMAN with my sister at Ree's book signing in Georgia

Did some big projects for our backyard - new addition to deck, planted shrubs, painted the shed

Celebrated my great aunt's 90th Birthday!

  Decided to sign up with Team-in-Training for my first half-marathon
FINALLY sold the Rodeo & bought a Truck for Ryan
Had our second major mishap of homeownership & had to replace our A/C unit
Travelled to Chicago, IL and Holland, MI to celebrate the wedding of Christian & Stephanie

Celebrated with our friend's Gray & Leigh when they brought home their son from Ethiopia!
Finally got to make the Blackberry-to-iPhone switch

Watched excitedly as our GAMECOCKS rose to the top of the pack again and brought home their SECOND NCAA Baseball National Championship!

Celebrated our nephew Cooper's 1st birthday
Spent a week of vacation at the BEACH!
My friend Jenny moved back to town!

The summer of broken appliances continued with a washing machine that tried to flood our house!  Luckily we found a great deal on a new washer/dryer set at Home Depot -- our 3rd major purchase for our house.

Travelled to Charlotte to kick off the USC Football Season!
Suffered from tendonitis and had to break from training for my half marathon :(

Spent one awesome & relaxing weekend in the mountains with my college girlfriends
Resumed training and kicked it into high gear for about 6 weeks before my race.

RAN my first half-marathon in Savannah, GA!!
RESTED from all that running.
Ate TONS of food at Thanksgiving.
Decorated for Christmas... except, never got around to putting ornaments on the tree.

Celebrated the holidays by eating with pretty much everyone we knew.  And eating lots of food.  Our celebrations lasted ALL month.  
Celebrated our 2nd Anniversary with dinner at Mr. Friendly's & decided we need to go on more fancy dinner dates
Vacationed to the beach, relaxed & got all our Christmas shopping done
Spent Christmas with our families
Celebrated my 27th Birthday
Prepared to bring in the NEW YEAR!

Tons more things happened throughout the course of 2011, but I couldn't possibly remember them all. We are truly blessed and excited to see what 2012 is going to bring!  Happy New Year!

Twenty Seven

On my 27th birthday, I thought I'd share 27 things you might not know about me... or you might know them already :)  In no particular order...

• It's no secret, I'm a diet coke addict.  And I don't plan to quit!

• I wake up early, and sort of wish my husband was a morning person, but he's not. 

• I love a plan, a to-do list, calendars... anything organized (Read: Type A) 

• I let my dog sleep in the bed. I thought I never would.  He usually doesn't stay all night, but most nights he is at my feet when I fall asleep. 

•  I'm a blog stalker.  I love to get a glimpse into the lives of others through their writing on the internet

• When I'm anxious or upset, my face and neck turn bright red.  You won't have to worry about whether you've upset me, you'll know! 

• I love to listen to books on tape.  This started when my husband and I went on roadtrips together in college, and now I listen to books on tape nearly all the time.  I have been known to  sit in the driveway listening to a book when I've gotten to a juicy part!

• My favorite food is mexican.  Pretty much anything that includes salsa, sour cream, and cheese is right up my alley.  

• My second favorite food is Breakfast... undoubtedly, if I had to pick one food to eat the rest of my life, it would be breakfast (with a side of salsa). 

• I'm the only brunette child in my family, and they once told me it was because I was switched at birth.  

• I have more shoes than any human should possibly own. And, the shoe department is the first place I visit in any store, because I WANT MORE! 

• My love language is Acts of Service.  This might have something to do with the fact that I really don't like to do household chores.  I enjoy gifts, but I'd love it just as much if someone came and folded all my laundry, or dusted/vacuumed my house so I didn't have to! 

• If it was acceptable to serve chips & dip as an entree, I'd do it 

• I consume large amounts of orange juice daily.  When I came home from college, my mom rationed it out.  It's a must-have in my fridge.

• I hate secrets.  When someone keeps one from me, I want to figure it out ASAP.  

• Although I spend my days making sure other people take their medicines, and take the right ones, I myself hate to take them.  This makes me just a little more sympathetic to those who I'm constantly harping on to take theirs correctly -- even my own family! 

• I tell people that getting old must be contagious -- after all, I work with the elderly, and I always want to eat my lunch at 1130 and dinner at 530 -- however, the truth is, maybe I'm just already old at heart! 

• Along the same lines of being old, I also love to get to bed early.  In fact, it isn't uncommon for me to jump in bed by 8:30 or occasionally, fall asleep on the couch even earlier than that! 

• I love to roast marshmallows after we've grilled on our charcoal grill

• I ran my first half-marathon earlier this year... I decided that day that I would love to run more half-marathons, but never want to run a full marathon.  The place in the road where the marathoners split off from us to run 12 more miles was a very scary place! 

• I love my DVR.  Since I usually fall asleep before my favorite shows even come on, I usually end up watching them either the next morning or night.... this is alright by me because there's NO COMMERCIALS!  The two exceptions to this rule are The Bachelor and The Biggest Loser... Somehow I manage to stay up late to watch these  

• I keep a bunch of stuff in my car.  I could probably live in there for a few days if I had to 

• I'm the only person I know that doesn't love the Kindle.  I begged for one for Christmas last year and found out that I actually can't stand the thought of purchasing books when I can go to the library and get the real thing for free. 

• I love to listen to music in the shower.  Luckily I'm generally alone in the house cause when there's music, chances are I'm also singing! 

• I'd rather have flowers to plant in a pot or in the ground than fresh cut flowers... I love to plant flowers and work in the yard

•  I love Christmas decorations & Christmas music, and I usually start decorating in mid-November to be sure we have a full month to enjoy them.  This year I never got around to putting the ornaments on our tree, but I enjoyed it with just the lights! 

• A garbage truck once blew up in front of my house.  Not a joke.