Ringing in the New Year!

I rang in 2013 with my closest and dearest friends. We have had this tradition since 9th grade in high school. That is a LONG time. 9 years. I couldn't imagine starting out a new year with out these folks!

We went to my brothers house in West Chester this year. In the past we were at my old house in Coatesville or in Delaware when our friends had a house there.

Here are some pictures of our lovely night. Happy New Year! (17 days late!)

ALEX- we see you! My dear friend Alex couldn't be with us this year, and we missed her, but she was in time square! How neat! So when we saw this, we knew she was down there and with us!

Friars, having secret friar talks. Typical.

The cute engaged couple! 

Some dancing went on, and since I can not dance (kurt says I do the white girl bop) I captured it on camera, typical me taking pictures!

I am excited for 2013. To tell you the truth, I don't really like the number 13 because it isn't an even number, but i really think this year is going to be a great year! I am going to GRADUATE from nursing school and get a job! Which is very exciting! I can not wait to finally be doing something that I have wanted to do for so long! Only 4 more months to go!

I have a few goals for 2013!

1. Run a triathlon. I haven't even signed up for one yet, but I started training for one! Once I figure out my schedule I will sign up for one! Lately, I have signed up for races so far in advanced and then I cant run them because of school, clinical, or other things. 

2. Start REALLY planning my wedding. I am super excited for this. Watching wedding shows on TV, exploring pinterest, and going to bridal shows has made me so ready to start planning! We have booked our venue, now its to the little details that I am most excited about! :) If you know me, you know how much I love weddings!

3. Run more. Running makes me feel so good, it lowers my stress and puts me in a better mood. My friend and I went for a run last night, both very overwhelmed with school work, and when it was over, we both felt 100% better. I just need the motivation to get off my comfy and warm couch and go run. That motivation is meeting my friend and knowing how good I feel afterwards. I love this quote: "You never regret a work out". I try to keep that in my head. I used to run all the time, but boy oh boy, this accelerated nursing program has kept me busy. I have been so busy that I put it on the back burner and I am ready to make it apart of my life again.

4. I hope to blog more! I know I said this last year, and I failed. I am really hoping to find more time. I like writing about my adventures so that some day I can reread and remember these precious moments.

5. Eat healthier! Being a nutrition major, I feel like I know how to eat healthy, but my busy schedule makes it easy to forget how to eat healthy. I am focusing on making/packing my lunch more and cooking healthy meals (or having kurt cook the healthy meals since he is the chef in the house!). 

6. I also want to grow more spiritually and read more Christian based books. This is an important part of my life and I feel like I tend to ignore it when I am busy which is when I need it most of all! I just bought this new book and I am SUPER excited to start reading it! Like my book mark?

7. DIY more. I love love love crafting and making things. I have pinned so many ideas to my boards on pinterest and I really want to start crafting more. This is a goal of mine this year, when I have a little more free time.

8. Save up my pennies for a nice camera. I love love love taking pictures and I usually take them all on my iPhone, which does an ok job, but I have always wanted one of those nice big cameras that take wonderful pictures. My goal is to save up for one and hopefully be able to purchase one on black friday! 

Wow- another LONG post! Hope everyone has a wonderful 2013!

A little update...

Ok, it is actually a long update!

Happy 2013!

2012 was a long but accomplishing year. I graduated from West Chester and dove right into starting nursing school at Thomas Jefferson. It has been a busy and stressful year, with not much down time. I am ready for this new year. I am hoping for more down town, where I can enjoy life a little more. In this new year, I will graduate nursing school, get a nursing job, and start planning my wedding more. I am very excited for what 2013 will bring.

December was a great month. We got to spend time with family and friends who mean so much to us. Kurt and I had a little break from school around the holidays. It was so nice not having to worry about studying and when assignments were due. While we were home, we were very busy. Here are some pictures from our adventures!

My best friends from home and I always have a pollyanna. We have since we were in 10th grade. We used to do the pollyanna where you picked names, but this year we changed it up a bit. (Before Kurt and I started dating, in 10th grade, we both got each others names! How weird is that?) We did a chinese pollyanna. Everyone brought a gift that represented who and where they are in life today. It was fun to see how creative our friends got. It was especially nice to spend time with them. They have always been there for me and I miss them all being so close to home. Zach is in Seattle, Becca is in the New Orleans, Bubba is in Buffalo, Alex is in NYC, and Sam is in Virginia. I am so proud of all the big things all of them are doing whether they are far away or still close to home! :) *Side note: We missed Alex, Claire and Jack!

It was a WHITE Christmas. The snow was so beautiful. I am not a good driver in the snow. Mainly because I freak out, slam on my break and slide everywhere. Took us a very long time to get to church on Christmas eve! Thanks to Steve and Kori for driving us, after Kurt and my attempt failed. I need to practice more and not freak out!

 My brother plays a game called Kronum! It is pretty awesome (a tad confusing) to watch! I suggest you check it out. He got a sweatshirt and shirt for Christmas. He was one happy boy!

Kurt likes HOT stuff. Every time he cooks (which is 5/7 times of the week, he is really good!) he always adds too much "hotness" and I have to always ask him to add less next time. I think he is set for about a year with his stocking filled with every type of hotness you could think of.

 Every year, since I was probably born, I have gone over to our dear neighbors house to celebrate christmas. It is one of my favorite traditions because these neighbors are like family to me. This year was extra special because my dear friend KASIE got engaged! I am so happy for her and Scott. They are an amazing couple!

*I had to share this one:

Typical brother, being a typical brother!

 We experience AC for the first time. I think it was the COLDEST and WINDIEST day of the year. It hurt to walk out side. And we did a lot of walking. But it was nice to spend time with good friends.

My incredible Aunt Gretchen and Uncle Jon threw Kurt and I an engagement party. We are having a super long engagement because of the craziness of school (med school and nursing school) and we want to save up some money (weddings are expensive!) We want to be able to enjoy the planning and enjoy the wedding. We are getting married the summer of 2014 and I am beyond excited to start planning. Just look at my pinterest board!

The engagement party was a super fun way to celebrate our engagement with good family and friends. The party was perfect, from the decorations to the food to the company. My Aunt is a super awesome host! Every detail was amazing and perfect. My three little cousins were also perfect little helpers. They decorated, served food, and took pictures for me (well the two older ones did). Bea was the entertainment. She was sweet and adorable. I have some amazing friends who helped my aunt plan the party. I am so grateful for all of them and all they did to help. It means so much to us to have such great family and friends that support us! I wouldn't be who I am today without them. Thanks to everyone who helped us celebrate!

*Bea entertaining!

Kurts mom framed the "cards" kurt used when he proposed to me. 

They are hanging in our office/spare bedroom now.

Lu and Edy decorated this beautiful deck!

Love these two! <3

During our time at home, it SNOWED. It only snowed a few inches, but is was PERFECT sledding weather. We went sledding on the huge VA hill by the high school. It was at night and we thought the police would come and kick us out but we wanted to give it a try anyways. The police did come, but just wanted to make sure we weren't doing anything illegal, and they let us continue sledding. The hill was SUPER fast and the first time down it... I hit a bump and went flying. It hurt, but after a minute I was right back up. Kurt went after me, and he hit the same BUMP (that I warned him about) and he was down! It flew a little farther than me and hurt him self a little more than me. Poor boy. After a good 10 minutes, he was back to sledding. His back still hurts though. Afterwards we went to Applebee's for hot cocoa and half price appetizers! 

*I think we each had about 6 tops and 4 bottoms on! 

We did not want to get cold!

*And he is UP! 

Cheers!

That was a long post and one of my goals of 2013 is to try and blog more. It is hard and time consuming, but I really want to remember these years and I feel like blogging is a great online scrapbook. Soon I will post about new years and some goals I have for me as a person in 2013!

Thanks for reading! Enjoy your weekend! I am off for a run (one of my goals for 2013-run more!)