Welcoming in 2010!

Wow! I can't believe it is really already 2010! 2009 really flew by. It was a very full and wonderful year, and I am looking forward to an even better year for 2010. I don't really like to make New Years Resolutions, because that is just another opportunity for me to fail at something, but I would like to make some challenges/goals for myself known to the online world, so maybe you can help encourage me along the way! (They aren't really new, most of them have been challenges/goals of mine for awhile!)

In 2009 I really enjoyed a ton of travel. I LOVE to travel and especially when I get to visit with friends or family AND see new places! I hope to do a good bit of traveling this year as well, but there really isn't anything in the actually planning stages except Washington DC in February. I am really excited about that, I haven't been to DC since I was around 11 or 12 I believe. In case you are wondering what my dream list of travel plans would be....here are a few places I would love to have on the travel list for this year:

Hawaii...my dear friend Natalie has just moved there to work on a YWAM base and will be there for 2 years, so I believe a visit to her will be a must...and would be a dream come true as well, so Lord willing Hawaii will be on the travel list this year!

Alaska has always been a place I wanted to visit, so maybe we can add that to our list for sometime over the summer this year. I really want to see the beautiful Northern Lights someday, so wouldn't that be an amazing place to put on the travel list for 2010!?!

Kevin really wants to see New Zealand, and I am never one to turn down an opportunity to visit a new place, so if that worked out I would be ecstactic!! (Hey if we are dreaming here we might as well dream big right!?!?!)

OK, back to reality and making my goals for 2010 known...

I really fell back in love with sewing last year, and I hope to continue to develope that passion. I have gone a bit crazy lately with my fabric purchases, so I will have plenty to keep me busy for ages to come with some new projects.

These gloves I had read about online and so I picked up a pair, I used them for my last finish of 2009 (the quilt at the bottom of this group of pictures) and I LOVED it! It was SO much easier with the gloves than it had been without!!

Here is one of my other presents from Kev a container for my thread and a new circle cutting tool (and a $50 gift card to Joanns!! Do I have an awesome hubby or what!!)

I signed up for a challenge in November for finishing up some UFO's and I am over the moon with pride that I got 6 out of the original 10 I signed up for finished, and another one that I had forgotten about. Plus I started and finished a Christmas quilt (a wall hanging I did as present for my mom) and started some other Christmas projects. I did more completions in the last two months of 2009 than I had done in the last 2 years, and so I am over joyed. (Signing up for 10 finishes was really shooting for the stars, but again I tend to do that...I kinda aim for the stars, go big or go home right?) So anyhow, the goal for 2010 is to continue to improve my sewing skills and hopefully learn how to use the embroidery machine my dear hubby got for me for Christmas (2008) that I still haven't tried to tackle. It really scares me for some reason. I think I am afraid of failure and machines are kinda scary to me! (Speaking of Christmas presents, I am typing this up on my present from hubby this year...a new laptop!! Love it!!)

Other than sewing I really want to work on making time for other interests. I love to sing and play the guitar, but I never seem to make time for it, so I hope to be better at time management this year and enjoy a better variety of activities when I am not at work! Reading will be another interest that will be taking up a good bit of time this year, since I signed up for two reading challenges for this year, and I really want to finish the Twilight books before I see my sister again. (Yeah, I know I am a truly selfish person for keeping her present and giving her some "filler" books to keep her busy in the meantime, but thankfully she is my older sister and is used to me by now and loves me anyhow!! I really have been "bitten" by the Twilight madness and I finished the second book in record time...at least for me...and so I hope to be able to get the other two finished quickly as well so that I can get these books to her when she comes up for a wedding in two weeks...plus I need to get started on the books for my challenge if I am going to even attempt to reach that goal!!)

I read about a 365 challenge, where you take a picture every day of the year, but if I had thought I had a chance at completing that challenge, the idea was blown out of the possibility list when I didn't take a picture yesterday...wow! I didn't even get ONE day!! But, maybe I could make it for one picture per week!?! (Hey! Actually I did take a picture yesterday!! It was of my quilt that I finished on new years eve, which is one of the pictures above! "What-whhhhaaat! I am not starting the year out as a failure!!" But, I still think that taking a picture everyday would not be an attainable goal, so I will challenge myself with one a week, which is still questionable as to whether I will be able to do that, but I think I just may!!)

New Years Eve was spent at home with my baby sister. Since Kev has to work every New Years Eve (Chick-fil-a Bowl) I am used to making plans to be elsewhere, but I really just wanted to be at home this year, thankfully my sister Mary thought a relaxing night at my house full of movies was the perfect night as well! (I was really glad not to have to be by myself!) So we watched a ton of movies (including some for my mini movie challenge that I signed up for ) both Thursday night and Friday morning and chilled at my house! It was wonderful! Don't worry, we did watch the apple (NY) and peach (ATL) drop on t.v. between movies so that we could jump up and down with excitement for the new year at the right time!!

Oops! I keep distracting myself...back to the goals!!

Last, but not least, I really do want to do better about my health this year! If I want to continue to dream that my body will ever decide to work properly and let me have the wonderful experience of becoming a mother I need to take better care of myself. So the goal for 2010 is to be braver about trying new foods (I can't live in fear!! I don't want to let IC rule my life!) and I want to be better about exersize. I REALLY DON'T LIKE to exersize, but after a workout, I really do feel better about myself, so I want to make an effort to exersize more often, and more than that, to be joyful in that exersize. I have so much to be greatful for, although I have plenty inside of me that doesn't work properly I do have two legs and two arms that work properly, so I should really take advantage of that and work hard to keep my body in shape and as healthy as possible!

So to recap:

1) I want to continue to enjoy sewing and improve and learn new things (embroidery machine here I come!!)

2) I want to limit my time in front of the tube (although I do really love to zone out in front of it after a long day at work!!) and spend some of my free time at home pursuing some of my other passions: reading, singing, guitar playing, etc.

3) I want to develope my love of photography by taking a picture (and sharing with you or coarse!) every week!

4) I want to explore this big and beautiful world we live in whenever the opportunity presents itself

5) I want to take better care of myself...because lets face reality here, the main thing I would love to have happen this year, more than ANYTHING ELSE would be to become a mother!

Here's to a wonderful and exciting new year

filled with opportunity!!