...New Year...

Every new year we try to set "goals" for the upcoming year. Then January 2nd comes & they are mostly forgotten! (Seriously, we're bad at remembering them!) This year, we decided to revisit the goals that we've previously made for the past two years. And rather than call them "goals", we're thinking of them as "habit changes".

In addition to our couple "habit changes", I took it upon myself to set a few goals for myself this new year. I conquered a huge goal this past year, which has taken me almost half of the year to accomplish, but sooooo very much worth it! For health reasons, I had a goal to loose 30 pounds by the end of the year. As of December 31st, I lost 37 pounds!! To be quite honest, this was such a roller coaster ride for me. I put on a lot of weight after Mat & I got married, which I referred to it as "happy pounds". In June 2009, I realized that those "happy pounds" had crept to a whopping 42 pounds. It was extremely hard for me to realize & after many tears, I decided to make a change. I am now 5 pounds away from the weight I was when I got married! This next year, I would like to loose the last 5 pounds & maintain the weight loss.

This year, I also am trying to have us eat more at home. We love to go out for breakfast, lunch & dinner, just as a reason for us not to have to cook or clean up afterwards, which isn't the best thing for the pocket book. I'm trying to have it be more of a "splurge", rather than a "convenience". It takes a little more effort & planning to make this happen. So to start it all off, I have been seriously craving a Cinnabon Cinnamon Roll! Granted they are full of a TON of calories and HUGE, so in the notion of cutting the calories (& not destroying my first goal or my weight loss success), I found a recipe for Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls & altered it just a bit. Now, I could have gone to the store and bought the tube of Cinnabon cinnamon rolls (by the cookies), but they normally are around $3-4 for six (or so) rolls, that doesn't include the gas it would take to drive to the store (maybe another $1, if that, but still....). Not to mention, I already had everything I needed at home. My recipe made 20 LARGE rolls & I even made the frosting to go on top! I passed a few cinnamon rolls out to friends, neighbors & family members since there was really no way we could consume 20 LARGE cinnamon rolls between the two of us. :) I think I am going to give them a go again, but try to make them slightly smaller. I could seriously only eat 1/2 of one at a time. I also didn't get any pictures....I will try this next time around. :)

2010 is a year of many new beginnings & a ton of changes for Mat! Mat is planning on an internship over the Summer, instructing for UVU in the Fall & graduating in December. I can't believe that he's almost done. It feels like yesterday when he just started & the end was so far away! I'm so proud of him! His passion for flying has not wavered at all, he's been as dedicated as he was the first day! He's had the dream of becoming a pilot since he was younger & is in the home stretch of achieving that dream! This is really Mat's year! I will just be working, going to school & focusing on my "goals". :)

I have the next four days off of work and will be spending them focusing on my finals....I had a two week break from school, just to return to have finals. I'm hoping to get them done sooner than later, but we will see. Mat saw his grades from the last term, he was quite surprised by one class in particular. His CFI class was a HUGE struggle for him, by the end of the term, he really thought he wouldn't get anything better than a C. He got a B!!! He was very pleased! I'm hoping I have that type of luck this week!

We hope everyone had a wonderful New Year!