Happy new year!

I'm spending my evening in my cozy clothes, drinking pink champagne and watching movies. :)

2012 Goals

Since I do NOT do resolutions (honestly.... who really sticks to those), I figured that I would stick to the goals for 2012.  I'll also be updating the Goals page on the blog so that it shows 2012 and 2011.  You can still track the progress there.

2012 Goals:

1. WORK ON MY 101 IN 1,001 LIST - I made this list for a reason.  I will be trying to tackle as many things as possible in 2012.

2. SAY "YES" MORE OFTEN - This is a big one for me.  I tend to say "no" to less than comfortable situations for me.  I want to say YES more often, and really grow personally in 2012.

3. SAVE, SAVE, SAVE - This is the only goal that specifically carries for from 2011.  I want to save money in 2012.  

So there they are.  Hopefully, I will maintain my focus throughout the year.  Happy 2012 everyone!

2011 - The first "year of Megan"

In January, I started this blog as a way to express my feelings with what happened and to get a grip on what I was going to do next.  I can't lie and say that my plans for 2011 were completely thrown away when the break up happened.  I mean, 2011 was going to be full of wedding activities and moving.... and well.... none of that happened.  So I needed a plan.  Or at least a distraction.

I came up with my goals for the year as a way to help me with things to accomplish for the year.  I do well when I have something to attain (maybe it's the years of competitive sports).

While I wasn't regimented on accomplishing those goals, it did help me throughout the year.

Primarily, I moved on from my break up... and am ready to date again.  Now that's an accomplishment in my book.

Also, now that I am inching closer to 30, I feel confident that I am really identifying who I am.  I finally made the transition from post-college adult to full-fledged professional adult.  Sure, I still have some ways to go, but I do feel much about myself and where I am.  I have a good job (that I am good at).  I am identifying where I want to go with my career.  I have family and friends that I care about and care about me.  I am finally narrowing down what my personal style is and take more pride in my appearance (a still thing, but still important).

I am excited with where I have come in 2011 and am anxious to see what can unfold in 2012.

Goals Update: Year End Review

I seriously can not believe that 2011 is basically over.  I feel like it was just a short time ago that I was starting this blog as a way to get my thoughts out and deal with the sudden changes to my personal life and my plans for 2011... and boy, were those some big changes.

I created those three goals as a way to give me some thing to achieve instead of floundering around for the entire year trying to move on.  Overall, I think I did really well.  I'm going to post in a few days about my overall review of "the year of Megan", but so summarize on the goals specifically...



1. SAVE MONEY, REDUCE DEBT: This one started off really well, and thank goodness for that.  I managed to put over $1,000 in my savings.  Then, we put the house on the market and I had to pay for the title attorney AND a POD storage.  Bye bye savings account.  BUT, if I hadn't made this a goal in the first place, I would've really been stuck and would've had to rely on my parents for so much more than I had.  I plan to work really hard on getting back on track with the savings in 2012.  About the debt, that's still plugging away.  I've been really good about not spending on my cards and just making payments.  In 2012, I want to pay a little more than the minimums to try to cut them down faster.

2. GET BACK IN SHAPE:  Another up and down one.  I managed to lose close to 20 pounds (AWESOME), run my first ever half marathon (AWESOME) and gave myself some good workout at home.  The end of the year made this one really rough.  I struggled to keep doing things once my traveling schedule became really busy AND then I packed up all of my things.  I received an email the other week about the 2012 Summerfest half marathon and I'm seriously considering doing it.  I have to struggle through January with some travel but I would like to get back on track with working out.  I really felt good for a while and I want that back.

3. STEP OUT OF MY COMFORT ZONE:  This goal was really to make me do thing I'm not usually comfortable with.  It did work in some ways.  I made more effort on my appearance at work.  I tried new things with fashion and makeup.  I do my nails regularly now.  I know these are superficial things, but they are a big start for me.  If anything, this goal forced me to figure some things out about what I wanted for myself.  It felt really good.


I'm going to develop 3 goals for 2012 as well, because, well....  the Year of Megan is continuing and getting better!

Christmas lights

So we're driving home from Milwaukee, our day three of Christmas activities and I'm staring out the window at the Christmas lights.

For me, lights are a lot like fireworks... You see one that you are POSITIVE are your favorite... And then the next one comes up and WAIT! Now these are your favorites!! :)

So I may have multiple favorites... All the best favorites.

1 - The Favorite One & A MERRY CHRISTMAS

Merry Christmas Everyone!

I hope everyone is able to celebrate the holidays with their loved ones.  I know I am! :)

I'm wrapping up my Christmas Music Countdown with my all-time favorite Christmas song..... "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas".  It was difficult to choose which version to pick, but Michael Buble's is one of the best.

So please enjoy my favorite song, by my favorite artist, on my most favorite of days.....

And for an extra warm fuzzy, enjoy the studio clip.....

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

2 - The Holy Night One

I'm not going to lie..... I have probably enjoyed this Christmas countdown more than you all have..... and now I am down to two of my all-time favorites.

For today, a reverent and romantic song.  It seems funny to consider a very faithful Christmas hymn as "romantic" but I think it is.

There are a ton of version of this song that are really great, but this one is my favorite.  Something about the choral group singing along with him.