My 30 before 30

A day or two before my birthday I was scrolling through my news feed on Facebook when I came across a post my birthday twin Ondra had posted about working on a 30 before 30 bucket list. Since I was also turning 29 on our birthday I thought it was neat and decided to create one for myself. That following Sunday I sat by myself near our Next Steps table during the 1st service at church and created my list. I started to run out of ideas by the time I got to 20, but I finally finished it. I've already realized some of it might have to be moved onto a 35 before 35 list but that's ok. I'm hoping I can get my husband and friends to help me accomplish some of the goals (actually my husband is the only one who can help me with one of them lol). I'm pretty excited about having new goals for the next year, and trying to finish as many of them as possible.

My 30 before 30 list:

1.FOG and FROG!!- this is the most important goal for me. FOG stands for Focus on God and FROG stands for Fully Rely on God. As a Christian its easy to sometimes lose focus or forget that we're never alone in our struggles. I've gotten alot better then where I was a few years ago, but I want my focus to always be on God 1st, my husband and family 2nd, friends 3rd, etc.

2. Figure out what I want to do in life and pursue it wholeheartedly.- One thing I know for sure is I'm tired of working job to job and not being happy. I'm also tired of working jobs that come and go too quickly like my last job. Its not a crime to want happiness AND security in a career, and right now I don't have either. The only problem I have now (besides no longer having a job) is I'm way too passionate about too many things and it makes it really hard to stick to one career path and follow it. I love the idea of wedding and event planning, I also love baking and serving people, but I really want a job where I make a difference. Shouldn't we know what we want to be and either be doing it or working towards it before 30?

3. Start a family (or at least start trying!)- Any and everyone who knows me knows I'm ready for kids, and I always thought I'd have at least one before 30. Jamie and I have talked about it quite a bit and even though I'm not as concerned about it as he is we've both agreed we need to make sure we're financially secure and both working before we start trying.

4.Swim with dolphins- sadly this one might have to move to the 35 before 35 list. We were hoping to try to go to Discovery Cove for our anniversary but after looking into it I realized we couldn't afford it at the moment. Maybe if our finances are looking a little better by my birthday next year we can go and swim with Rascal and the other dolphins to celebrate the big 30!

5. Get a passport- I really want to be able to one day travel outside of the US so I definitely need to have a passport handy.

6. Grow a backbone and stand up for myself and my beliefs.- One thing I will openly admit about myself is I hate conflict and confrontations. I will do whatever I can to avoid an argument or judgement at all cost, and sometimes in the past that has meant not standing up for myself or some of my beliefs. This year I want to finally stop caving in and stop being afraid of conflict resolution, but I also want to make sure when I do stand up for myself I always do it in a respectable manner.

7. Let go of the past fully. - Sometimes its hard to forgive and forget things and just move on, and this year I want to focus on letting go of the past completely. I've been through alot in my 29 years of life (including things I probably don't even remember), and somethings I've never been able to fully forget and move forward from.

8. Forgive, forget, and move forward.- This one goes hand-in-hand with number 7. There are somethings and some people in my past (and a few in the present) who have hurt me deeply, and its been really hard to fully let go. Everytime the memories of these certain things come into mind all the hurt, pain, and anger come rushing back. I don't want to be a person who harbors anger over things I can't change, or towards people I can't change either.

9.Reach out to someone I don't like.- I actually got the chance to do this the other day but didn't really fall through and I feel really guilty about it. It takes a strong and in my opinion a good Christian person to be able to want to help someone who has wronged them.

10. Take Jamie to the beach- my hubby and I are the same age and he has NEVER been to a beach. He needs to go to a beach!!

11. Step out of my comfort zone and try new things.- I've always wanted to try parasailing but I've been too scared because of my fear of heights. I'd really like to try it or do something else I've said I'd never do in the past.

12. Cook more- Both Jamie and I love to cook, but recently I've only been cooking one or 2 meals a week. I ultimately want to cook at least one meal a day no matter how busy we are.

13.Show honor and respect to Jamie daily- Sometimes its hard being a wife. Especially on days when you're tired, sick, or our monthly friend is visiting. You end up saying or doing things without thinking, and before you know it you end up hurting your husband's feelings (and more importantly his pride).

14. Take a family trip to Disney.- this is another one that might have to transfer to the 35 before 35 list. My nephews are getting older and I'd really like to be part of their 1st Disney experience. But one thing I can tell you from my past trips to Disney....no matter how you do it, a trip to Disney is expensive. Every single adult in our family will need to be working and chip in to pay for the trip. I'm really hoping we'll be able to stay at a resort and do the dining plan (the dining plan definitely helps you save money), and they can get the ultimate Disney experience.

15. Move into a new home- This one is almost complete! We have a home purchased (thank you dad!!! <3) now we just have to clear off our property, move our old place, and put it in. :)

16. Go on a girls only trip with some of my close girl friends.- This one will be hard to accomplish due to the fact that my closest girl friends all have kids which makes it hard for them to be able to pack up and go on a trip whenever they want.

17. Learn something new.- You're never too old to learn something new.

18. Invite the family over for dinner.- Once we get settled in I'd like to invite our families over for dinner. (It'll probably have to be at seperate times though because of space)

19. Take Jamie horseback riding- This is something else he's never done.

20. Go on a cruise.- This is something else probably moving to the 35 list. But neither one of us have been on a cruise before and I think it'd be something fun to experience as a married couple.

21. Teach Jamie to swim.- Its kind of important for him to know how to swim before we swim with dolphins, go to the beach, and go on a cruise.

22. Lead a connect group- With the launch of our new connect groups this has been something that has been on my mind quite a bit. I love our connect groups, and I would love to come out of my shell and lead one next year.

23. Do an outreach project with my family.- Last year my mom and I did Project Prom Night together, an event that was all her idea. It didn't turn out quite as we thought it would, but it was a great experience anyway. I'd love to get other members of my family involved in something similar. Sam has decided he wants to be part of Friends for Change through Disney so I might try to help him create his own outreach project.

24. Do the decorations for our home myself or with Jamie- I love DIY projects, and even though they don't always come out the way I hope I'd love for most of our decor to be things we've done ourselves.

25. Audition for a play- I miss acting!! And since I have the support of my hubby and a new theater company is coming to Davie County next year so its the perfect time to get reinvolved.

26. Lose weight- I've gained too much the past 2 years.

27. Go to NYC- another one to move to the 35 list. But its a goal to go and see at least one show on Broadway.

28. Teach my nephews something useful- I love my nephews and want to invest in their futures, enough said.

29. Send a friend a letter instead of an email- I miss the days when being penpals was considered cool. Now you're a loser if you don't send emails and tweets.

30.Start a youth group- I miss DCYC and want to recreate something similar for Davie's youth of today.

Happy birthday!!

I love September! I'd have to say out of all the months its definitely in my top 2 and here's some of the reasons why....its the official start of fall, leaves start to change, cooler nights, the return of pumpkin spice and pumpkin muffins, shopping for cute scarves and boots, and birthdays!!

Both my oldest nephew Christian and I celebrate our birthdays in September. I also have several close friends who celebrate their birthdays this month, including my friend Ondra who happens to be my birthday twin! Anyway, this year we had alot of fun celebrating my and Christian's big days.

First I'll start with Christian. His birthday is the 1st, and we had his birthday party at my dad's house. I don't know exactly when or why, but Christian has become fascinated with sharks. In fact fascinated probably isn't the word to use... obsessed is more like it! So my mom and Sarah went all out on a shark themed party for him. Below are a few of the pics just so you get the idea.

As you can see everything from the food, to the decor, games, and even presents were shark themed. Christian LOVED it!! The shark frisbee and shark-piggybank were from me (thank you Old Navy!) :)

Next was my big day! My mom had to work on my birthday (the 6th), so she, and my grandma took me with them to Greensboro the day before. After running some errands we ended up at the Christmas Store, a store that has everything you can think of. My grandma ended up buying some cute and supper soft bath mats for our new house as part of my birthday present. When we got back my mom took me out to lunch at Montey De Ray one of our favorite Mexican resturants, then we went to Adventure Landing for a "round" of putt-putt, and finished the day with a trip to Sweet Frog! It was my 1st time to Sweet Frog, and I loved it so much I've been back 2 more times in the past week!

On Thursday (my birthday) I was treated to an amazing breakfast by my hubby Jamie. Let me tell you he went all out...he fixed sausage gravy and yeast rolls, bacon, and juice. We ended up going a little overboard on our bread intake though, we ended up making sandwiches with the bacon. It was sooo good!! Later that evening I had training at Kersey Valley for Spookywoods. At first I wasn't thrilled with the idea of working on my birthday, but it actually ended up being alot of fun, and I made a new group of friends! Sadly they made me miss my Scarowinds buddies though. :(

Friday my grandma, Sarah, and her husband Dj took me out for a belated lunch at Zekos. I got chicken alfredo pizza (its amazing!!) and the owner surprised us by sending a slice of cheesecake AND tuxedo cake over to our table. Everything was delicious, and I was so full I didn't eat dinner that night! Saturday we launched our Saturday night worship experience at Journey and my birthday friend Ondra came out to worship with me. Afterwards we had dinner at La Caretta (another awesome Mexican place) and finished the evening with you guessed it....Sweet Frog! It was a great end to an amazing birthday weekend.

 This picture of me is awful lol, but its better then the one she took of me trying to climb on the turtle's back!!

 Yay for Sweet frog!!