Honest to Blog: Goodbye 2013 Hello 2014

So we are at the end of another year and only a drunken breath away from a new year. I for one am pretty happy to be done with this year. It was a hard one for me. This was one of the hardest years for Richard and I in our 7 year relationship. A lot of that was to due with the fact that I was hit super bad at the beginning of this year with one of the hardest bouts of depression I've had in a long time. I was in the hospital earlier this year with a really bad kidney infection as well. In my defense I was trying to be healthy and took some daily vitamins which ended up giving me the kidney infection. Then being on even more of a 'got to get healthy' attitude I decided to work out and my knee slipped and I've had to deal with that injury. So if this is any kind of lesson it should be to stay unhealthy, but I know that's not the best attitude to walk away with.

But lets talk about some of the amazing things that happened this year. I became an aunt not once but twice to two beautiful girls. Both my brothers had daughters this year: Callie and Sarah. Add those two to my new nephew Caleb that was born last year, we are now up to 7 nephews and nieces.

Left: Simon, Valerie, and Caleb. Top Right: Tyler, Macayla, and Callie. Bottom Right: Sarah

Seriously?!? How beautiful are all these kids. Ridiculous, I know but there you have it.

I joined all the cool kids and signed up for Instagram this year, and it reminded me of how much I love taking photos. So much so that I did a 30-day photo challenge with a Beautiful Mess. I am really proud of the photos I took for the challenge, and tried being creative with how I took them. 

On top of these photos with instagram alone I have taken just shy of 400 photos since May of this year. I have also done Photo Adventures with my friend Hillary and Uncle Chris. All of which you can see here, here, and here. 

I got promoted at my work from Receptionist to a Call-Coordinator. I like that I have a lot more tasks to do and the team I work with is awesome. They really make the days at work more interesting. And I've made new friends at work, but shh don't tell them that. 

These are the girls on the Deskside Team. Our team lead Neil was MIA for this photo.

Speaking of work I was a part of the Social Committee for the second year in a row and we put on two very successful events. A 50's Breakfast and, my ultimate favourite, our Masquerade Holiday Party. You can see all the photos of those here and here. 

I also challenged myself to read more books this year, and ended up reading 27 new books. I wanted to challenge myself to read 30 new books, but fell in love with so many this year that I ended up re-reading the same books over and over. So I guess technically I did read over 30 books. Challenged Accepted- Challenge 'sort of' Completed. And with reading comes wanting to write. I joined Richard's writing group and started writing a novel. Ya that's right I'm writing a book. Pretty awesome if I do say so myself. 

After getting out of my depression in the beginning of the year the rest of the year went pretty darn well. I'm happy with how this year ended and I'm looking forward to next year. This is around that time where people post their goals and talk about how they want to lose weight and stop smoking and learn a new hobby. Well I've done that on here before and let me tell you, those goals where never accomplished. 

But I do want to set myself up with some goals, so here is a list of what I want to do next year:

1.Stay positive.

2. Spend more time with family.

3. Cross off more things on my Bucket List. (You can see what I have on it here.)

4. Finish my book.

5. Throw out my weight scale and never weigh myself again. EVER. My health goal next year is not going to be to lose X amount of pounds but instead get myself to a point health wise where I'm happy. Screw the number on my clothes and the number on the scale. My goal is to be happy with my body and how I feel. 

6. Stick to my passions and complete my home decorating ideas. 

7. Chisel away at our debt. I would really like to be debt free as soon as possible. 

Well, that's all folks. Thanks for reading this little bit of the internet world that I have. Hope you all will stick around next year and see what other crap I get up too. 

Happy New Year Everyone. 

Honest to Blog- Bucket Lists

I like a lot of people have a Bucket List. Being an notorious list maker I have created Bucket Lists for different events in my life. I had one when I was in High School as well as one for College. My High School/College one was fairly simple:

Make out with someone in a movie theatre.

Smoke a cigarette.

Go to Prom

Graduate High School

Get Drunk

Try Weed

Get my Licence

Have Sex 

Get into College

Graduate College

Get a Tattoo

The third photo is of my first time drunk. I'm doing my 'Rose Pose'. As you can see from the photos above some of these were accomplished, others took longer then I thought, and some, well some never happened. 

Since then I have created other lists. Much longer lists. I now have a fairly large Bucket List for things I want to accomplish in my life. While I understand that some of my dreams may never happen, see Graduate College above, my plan is to cross off as many as I can.

In my last post I talked about creating goals for myself. I figure having a bucket list is an "In Your Face" way of not only having goals, but also accomplishing those goals.

So without further adieu, here is my Bucket List, split off into different sections no less. Yes I am aware I am a nerd.

Bucket List!!

Classes I Want to Take

Learn Ballroom Dancing

Take a Pole Dancing Class

Learn an Instrument (Guitar or Violin)

Learn Archery

Learn how to drive a Motorcycle

Learn how to Ice Skate/Rollerblade

Learn how to Run

Fun Things to do Once or Twice

Travel on a Plane

Have my photo taken in a photo booth

Fly a Plane

Go Soaring/Gliding

Go in a Helicopter

Go Skydiving

Try Absinthe 

Go Sailing

Swim with Sharks

See a Sea Turtle

Go Scuba Diving

See the Northern Lights 

See a Kangaroo

Do a Marathon for a Charity (walking/running/biking)

Go Zip Lining

Go Bungee Jumping

Get Married

Own a Car

Buy a Home

Do the Polar Bear Swim

Ride an Elephant

Do the CN Tower Sky Walk

Meet a Celebrity

Be an extra on a film set

Go Skiing/Snowboarding

Stay in a Penthouse in a Hotel

Go to a shooting range and fire a gun

Go White Water Rafting (This is by far the scariest thing I can do. I have a terrible fear of drowning.)

See a Meteor Shower

Go to a Ball

Go to a Masquerade

See a Cirque du Soleil Show

Get into a Food Fight

Do the Zombie Walk

Do the Colour Run

See a Ballet

Have a REALLY Fancy Night Out. 

Take a REALLY SCARY Haunted Tour

See a 3D Chalk Art

Dance in the Rain

Do a Free Stand Hand Stand

Go Horse Back Riding

Have the balls to do a Boudoir Photoshoot

Travel

Go to Florida

Go to France

Go to Ireland

Go to Scotland

Go to Africa

Go to Australia

Go to Hawaii

Go to Dubai

Go to Egypt and see the pyramids

Go to China and see and walk on the Great Wall

See a Cherry Blossom Festival

Go to Tokyo

Go to Austria and do the Sound of Music Tour

See Austria's Green Lake

Go to Germany for Krampus Fest and see The Geiger Museum

Stay at a room in Lake Louise

Go to Amsterdam

See a Volcano (preferably not because I'm running from Lava)

Go to Pompeii

Go to Hollywood and take a tour of film sets and see the Hollywood Sign. 

Go on an Alaskan Cruise

Go to New York

Go to San Francisco

Go to a Lantern Festival

Go to Las Vegas

See Easter Island

Go to England

See Antelope Canyon and The Grande Canyon

Go to North and South Carolina

Go to British Columbia

Go to New Orleans

Things I want to Own
(Yes it may seem shallow but a girl deserves pretty things)
Something from Tiffany
Burberry Trench Coat
Pearl Earrings
Christian Louboutin Black Pumps
Wardrobe filled with Dresses
Brand Spanking New Car
Own my Home (no more mortgage payments)
Richard Vaughan's First Published Book

Pretty Long Ass list, right? Well as you can see I've crossed some of those things off, but I'm far from done. I am also aware that some of these things are super crazy and I will never ever achieve them, but what happens if I can? Well then I take out my fancy pen -or in this case scratch out button- and cross it off my list. So here's to making goals and achieving them.

Do any of you have Bucket List? Are you like me and carry it on you where ever you go? What are some of the things on your Bucket List?

PS in my next post I'll be sharing all about the latest thing I got to cross off my Bucket List.