What's in a Year?

 Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
Five hundred twenty-five thousand moments so dear
Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure, measure a year?

In daylights, in sunsets
In midnights, in cups of coffee
In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife
In five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure, a year in the life?

It's hard to really judge a year when you think about it from the perspective of Rent!!  I want to take a minute to recap some of the fun I had this past year before letting you in on my 2013 goals.

In January, I started this blog and saw Samuel L. Jackson and Angela Bassett on broadway.

In February, I worked my 3rd Super Bowl and saw SWV perform at Caucus Weekend.

In March, Chris' Godson was born and I began my journey toward qualifying for 2013 NYC Marathon.

In April, Chris and I celebrated two wonderful years and Mom and Dad visited for Easter.

In May, Brinley was born and I met her over Memorial Day Weekend.

In June, I saw lots of stars on broadway and took a sewing class.

In July, I celebrated my birthday ALL month!!

In August, Chris and I took our first vacation together and I started my 30 before 30 list.

In September, I participated in my first swap and celebrated 5 years at the NFL.

In October, I enjoyed Trey's baptism and "survived" Hurricane Sandy.

In November, I received the Liebster Award and found out I was going to be an aunt again when my brother accidentally texted me instead of his wife while we were at the Falcons-Saints game in Atlanta.

In December, I celebrated Christmas in Kentucky and saw lots of potential Oscar winning movies.

Looking back on 2012, I realize I have a lot of reasons to be thankful and a lot of reasons to look forward to 2013.  I believe that 2013 will be a great year.  I am praying everyday that it is the year Chris and I are able to stop being long distance.  We have every reason to believe that God will say yes this year and make it a reality!  It is also the year I turn 30.  It is the year I get a new niece or nephew.  It is the year that I hope to get promoted at work. It is the year I run a marathon...barring any late fall tropical storms, of course!  It is a year of lots of other exciting things that I don't even know about yet!  I look forward to seeing how it all turns out!

If New Year's Eve is any indication of the fun to come in 2013, then I'm in cause I had a blast!  We went out for a hibachi dinner with friends in Albany and then back to their house for games and fun to ring in the New Year!

Here are a few long-term goals I have for 2013:

1 - Get into better shape.  This includes eating healthier and working out more consistently.  This is vital to my success in one of the biggest event of the year for me - the NYC Marathon.  I know I will be running more once we start to see some sign of spring, but before then I need to work hard to get my weight down and bring my cardio endurance and strength training up.  I knew when I began my journey toward the marathon this time last year that it would not be an easy road, but I am looking forward to becoming more fit as a part of the challenge!

*While I did a significant amount of running and began a weekly boot camp class in the last half of 2013, I don't really feel like I accomplished this goal.  I feel like I am in worse shape actually.

2 - Read through the Bible.  This is very important to me.  I simply need to make it a priority.

*I started to accomplish this goal a few different times throughout the year, but it simply did not happen.  Sadly.

3 - Donate to a charity of interest once a month.  This goal was sparked by the challenge my dad gave us over the holidays.  He gave each of us $20 and asked us to give it away however we decided would be best and to report back to the family on the experience at Christmas.  I really enjoyed the challenge and want to incorporate giving back throughout this whole year.

*This was a huge success!  I hope to continue this in the future as well.  I loved identifying causes that were important to me and investing time and/or money into the cause.

4 - Be content/happy each day.  This will NOT be easy for me.  I am always thinking ahead to the next step, the next move, the next trip, the next anything and everything.  As a good friend reminded me recently, I need to learn how to be content and happy in the now.  These moments will not last forever, and my life is continually changing and evolving.  It will never be exactly how I wanted or thought or planned so I have to learn to accept life for what it is and more forward with the choices I make and opportunities I have.  I must worry less about nonsense and things that are out of my control.  I started a one page a day journal that I am committed to using to only write positive and uplifting things from each day.  No focusing on the negatives or the what ifs.  Chris and I are also committing to put one thing each week that makes us thankful into a our thankful jar.  At the end of the year (or if we are feeling down) we can look back on all the things we have to be thankful for throughout the weeks.

*I would say that I did this more often than I didn't.  I kept the journal up until the summer when my schedule became so hectic with travel.  Chris and I managed to record one thing each week for our thankful jar.  I'm very excited to look through it tonight!

5 - Use the Rosetta Stone that I purchased to learn Spanish.  Simple...just gotta do it!

*Simply did not happen.  So disappointing.

6 - Make better use of my mornings.  I am a major night owl.  I do my best thinking and work after midnight.  It is bizarre, but I need to work on correcting my habit of staying up so late in order to get the most out of my days.  I know this will particularly come in handy when the hard core marathon training starts in the late summer.  Until then, I need to find other ways to make the mornings useful.

*I'm not entirely sure that I made my mornings super useful, but I have been getting to bed earlier and getting up earlier.  Slow progress on this one, but at least it isn't a complete fail.

What are you most thankful for from 2012 and most excited about for 2013?

Andrea :)

*Edits to goals made on December 31, 2013.