2011 begins...

2011 is here - 2010 has flown by... It's pretty ridiculous how quickly time can go by without me even realizing it's over. I figured I would post a quick picture from Christmas and get straight to the nitty-gritty of new years... :)

We were in KC again this year for Christmas Eve with my family. It's turned into quite the free-for-all since my older cousins now have a million kids - okay, there are 4 all under the age of I think 5 plus girlfriends/fiancee kids (3 more), but that's a LOT of little kids.

After celebrating the new year we drove up to Wisconsin. A while back (June) we decided that we should go to the Bears vs. Packers game.... that game just happened to be January 2... Yeah, what better time to go up to northern Wisconsin than the beginning of January, right? Luckily our friends' family has a lake house just north of Milwaukee, so we were able to stay there and then just drive up to the game. We wore a lot of layers, and honestly, dressed like snowmen the game wasn't that bad (cold wise) and since we weren't playing for anything other than keeping the Packers out of the playoffs it was even okay that we didn't win.

One word - frozen sand is weird... You think it should sink like sand, and you mentally think that it should feel like sand... but it's hard and frozen... ha. It was kind of a trip.

Either way, the holidays treated us well. We had a wonderful time with our families, a wonderful time with our friends. Now we are just looking to get our lives back together and clean up our house to recover from the holidays.. Ha. :)

I started thinking about the new year after I got back from Wisconsin. I'm not one for new year's resolutions, as I feel it's either setting myself to be disappointed in myself, or just too cliche for me to want to do it. But, then I started realizing - if I post them hopefully it will 1) hold me accountable and 2) it will inspire me throughout 2011. So here are my resolutions for what I want to accomplish not just in the new year - but to generally inspire throughout the years to come.. :)

I resolve to...

...better myself by eating healthier, drinking less, and exercising more.

...take the GRE and at least apply to grad school.

...be more kind to myself, but more importantly to my friends.

...raise $600 for PAWS Chicago for the Chicago Rock and Roll Half Marathon (yeah, I think I'm going to run... I might be crazy).

...remember to send my nieces presents for Christmas and birthdays (as close to the actual day as possible). (I still need to send Christmas presents... ugh... I might need to have that be for next Christmas)

...learn how to take better photos with our Canon SLR.

...finish putting photos into my photo book (from my first anniversary.. yikes!).

...keep up with my LEED certification.

...calm myself down when I get frustrated at work.

...calm myself down when I get frustrated at life.

...have an inner filter.

...throw something out every month to try and get rid of my clutter problem.

I feel like I could so keep going with all the things that I know I want to do this year.. but I don't want to get overambitious, especially since some of these things are a little intense (i.e. running the 1/2 marathon)....

I hope that everyone had a wonderful, safe, and happy holiday and new year. I can't wait to see what 2011 has in store for you all!