Simple Resolutions

January has pretty much come and gone and as is tradition, we are to make resolutions. I hadn't made it a priority this New Years and kind of forgot about it. Didn't feel like it was a big deal. But then I realized that changing and resolving to be better is the point of this life, right? And it doesn't have to be anything big. Let's go with simple.

Better late than never.

My (not-so-grand) Resolutions for 2013:

1. Exercise 2-3 times a week
2. Reach $10,000 in savings
3. Apply to PA grad schools

All growing up, I was taught the importance of exercise ever since I can remember. Sincere kudos to my Dad! However my workouts have usually consisted of mainly running. And now I've decided that it's high time to start including strength training to my routine. I know that it is super important to include weight-bearing exercise especially for us women who have osteoporosis running in the family (woop, woop). So here is to vamping up my work out and pumping some iron! Cardio + strength training = best exercise.

For those of you who are familiar with Dave Ramsey, you may have heard of his "baby steps" to financial success. The first one is to get out of debt. Jonathan and I have been so blessed to graduate from college, both debt-free! Thank you to both sets of parents :) The second baby step is to put aside $10,000 worth of emergency savings. That way you are not only secured in case of an emergency, but you can get away with health insurance that has very low premiums. Although the deductible is a bit higher, you have the $10,000 saved and you are basically self-insured! If you aren't planning on having a bunch of medical bills in the near future, this will save you bunches of money on your premiums.

So that is what Jonathan and I are working towards now. $10,000 doesn't sound like too much money in today's terms, but when you are trying to save that amount of money, it is a lot! It will take us a while, but I think we can reach that goal within this year. A special thank you to my parents who gave us the online videos of Dave Ramsey's lectures from his "Total Money Makeover" bestseller! I felt so dumb when it came to grown-up stuff like insurance, premiums, deductibles, 401Ks, mutual funds, etc. But Dave explains it simply, shows you the math and how to save the most money! It was best to learn now so that Jonathan and I can start our lives together making good financial decisions.

P.S. I HIGHLY recommend everyone to either read this book or sign up for Dave Ramsey's online "Financial Peace University" program. It's all the same material. He is so much fun to listen to and it will honestly change your life!

And my final goal for this year is to apply to Physician Assistant graduate school. There are many great programs all over the country so I have been doing a lot of research- and still have much ahead of me. Little nerd like me, I am making a table to compare program length, cost, application deadlines, prerequisites, and other important info. Gosh, I forgot how much work applications take! That's why my goal isn't to get accepted to grad school necessarily (although that would be fantastic), but just to apply. Again, start simple.

I think that is what I have learned most from this past year. It's always the little things that we need to be consistent with in our lives that end up making the biggest difference. Here is a quote that I see multiple times everyday outside my boss's office:

"The secret to success is doing common things uncommonly well."

I don't know who said it, but I think they are right. It would be fantastic if I could invent or discover something revolutionary that would greatly impact humankind. But chances are, that's not going to happen; not that I'm not going to reach for that or dream big. That, I will still do. I think it's important to have faith and push yourself to the limit. Never shortchange yourself. But rather than measure my success on whether I do something extraordinary with my life or not, I would rather strive to be extraordinary. I am sure that I would look back on my life at that point and be much more satisfied with who I came to be and feel like I made my time on this Earth worth it.

I guess what I'm saying is, resolve to be extraordinary this year.

You Know You're a Newlywed When...

Sorry I haven't written for a while since my last (and first) post. A few things have been going on, well, I'll get to that later.

I was thinking about married life this morning. As of a couple of days ago, Jonathan and I have been married for 4 months! And it's been the best 4 months ever. Sometimes I feel we've been married shorter than that, but most of the time I feel like it's been much longer. And we thank our lucky stars that the transition from single to married life was very comfortable (if not easy) for us. But in the grand scheme of things, we are still just two young kids barely starting out!

For fun, here are some things I have noticed over the past 4 months:

You Know You're a Newlywed When...

1. You still count how long you've been married in weeks.

Don't worry guys, I stopped doing that a long time ago. But in case you were wondering, we've been married for 18 weeks tomorrow....just sayin.

2. You have an expensive, new KitchenAid sitting on your counter top but you don't own a single pot larger than a saucepan.

Very frustrating sometimes. However KitchenAids are the BEST!

3. People ask if you are newlyweds because they noticed you looking at your ring during Sunday School.

Oops. I swear I didn't know I was doing that haha.

4. The only decorations you have are countless pictures from engagements/bridals photoshoots and the wedding.

Who wants to have pictures of themselves hanging everywhere?! Especially when you are wearing the same outfits over and over again = tacky.

5. People mistake you for your husband's little sister.

This has happened to me SO many times. I guess it's true what people say about couples starting to look like each other! We even had a guy in our ward try to set Jonathan up with his single daughter while I was standing right there. I guess he didn't hear the introduction, "...and this is my wife." 

6. You pay for all of your groceries with giftcards.

Registered at Walmart. Boom, baby!

7. You have a beautiful wood bed frame and a queen size memory foam mattress, but you still have all of your clothes packed in suitcases because you can't afford to buy a dresser.

You either have super nice things, or really crappy things. That's the way it goes.

8. You and your husband go to bed at 9:00 just because you CAN!

No more staying up until curfew! Yay sleep.

9. You move into someone's basement to save money.

Whether that be the parents', in-laws', or some random person's basement, it's all the same.

10. You realize that you have started to let yourself go, because guess what? You're already married! 

But then you realize that the last time you worked out was before the wedding and you are now in desperate need of a gym membership. Whoops.

So yeah, all of those and many more things have happened to us :) Now back to what we've been doing this past month-- We have moved into my in-laws' basement! Yup, we are those guys now. But like I said, that's the way to live the "newlywed lifestyle" nowadays. Seriously though, we are so blessed that Jonathan's parents have moved to Lehi, Utah and offered for us to live with them. We can't thank you enough! It is actually a really nice little basement apartment. Well, it's not that little. It has the biggest basement kitchen I have ever seen! 

Here are some pictures (specifically for my parentals who want to see where we live): 

Check it out! Granite counter tops and tiled walls/backsplash. Complete with a stove, oven, and refrigerator. There is so much cabinet space, I didn't know what to do with myself.

Here is our beautiful bed we are so proud of. That is really the only thing worth showing from the bedroom so there you go.

And here is the private bathroom. Also quite big with a granite counter top. I couldn't get it into the picture, but there is also a tiled steam shower off to the right (you can see a bit of it in the mirror). It is fantastic!

Basically we realized that we have been immensely blessed and we will have to take a huge step-down to wherever we are going to live next haha. But we are loving it here and will probably stay for a year or two :)

Oh and here is a little shout-out thanks to my Mom who sent us a few holiday decorations! I absolutely love them and can't wait to accumulate more over the years! Thanks Mommy.

Yay for Fall and Happy Halloween everyone!

Trying Something New

Unfortunately I have always been really horrible at keeping a journal. (And you will probably be able to tell this by my rough writing skills...sorry for that in advance). I was just so busy with school and so I used to justify it by saying that I keep a good record of my life through pictures! The miracle of facebook, right? But now that I have recently gotten married, I now feel responsible for keeping all of my new family's memories recorded! And even though a picture is worth a thousand words, I believe writing down your thoughts and recollections of events is a good habit to get in.

So I am trying something new...a blog.

Here we go. I've never been really good at coming up with amusing commentary or executing a good joke. And I am not the best story-teller either. Those are actually fortes of my adorable husband! He graduated in Communications with an emphasis in Advertising- even got on the elite creative track as a copywriter. So he definitely should be the one doing this. However, seeing as he does this all day for work, I am going to probably head up most of this blog's writing. Plus it will improve my skills. Yay.

Hm, what to tell? Well, Jonathan just started his first "grown-up" job! Salary and all, baby. He is the new Social Media Guru at an advertising agency called Friendemic. Haha I love that his title actually says Guru. It's up by Murray, UT so he does have to make quite a commute everyday-- NOT his favorite part of the day. He manages all the social media (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, etc.) of a bunch of Fiat Dealerships all around the nation. Not the exact dream job he was hoping for, but that is a pretty big client and we are very grateful!

Now as for me, I have assumed most of the typical "wife" duties around the house. Cooking, cleaning, laundry, and most recently- blogging. Now that I've graduated from college and the wedding is over, I am able to do things now that I couldn't ever get to...

Like reading for fun. I can't remember the last time I actually did that! School just pounds you with the books so hard that whenever you DO have spare time, you definitely do NOT read. You start to despise them. I feel kinda like this girl.

But now that time is my friend, I have since found much joy in reading! I have actually made it one of my goals. I even got a library card. Talk about commitment. I figured I would start out with something fun and light- I am currently in the second book of the Eragon series. It is quite a fun read! It also allows more for Jonathan and I to talk about which is really fun as well. I'm trying to read many of the books that he has already read so I have a LONG way to go. He is quite the bookworm.

Having all of this time has been very relaxing! However, as more time passes, I am finding myself quite bored. So now I cannot put it off any longer.

On to the notoriously dreaded job search...

Wow. It is draining. Filling out the same information over and over again until you realize that 3 1/2 hours just passed by and with the exception of your fingers, you haven't moved one muscle! That's the worst kind of exhaustion. When your body isn't exhausted at all but your brain feels like it's going to melt. I guess that is how school is too, but with this you work and work and you have nothing to show for it.

Persistence is the key. Something is bound to come up. That's what I have to keep on telling myself anyways.

But until then, here is to trying something new! Making new goals, trying things that you have never done before, or maybe things you just haven't done in a very long time. Starting a new family, living in a new place, looking for a new job, basically changing my lifestyle has been one big adjustment. But one that is so exciting and fun! And the thing to remember is that you don't have to have big life changes to force you to try something new. You just make the decision and go for it.

Do it.