27!

so last year when i celebrated 26 i was on the edge of moving to charleston and excited about the possibility of everything that was changing in my life. i was excited about starting over in a new city, looking for non-teaching jobs and just ready for a change but so excited about the possibility of everything! and well a year later i feel like i'm back to square one trying to figure everything out - what do i want to do? where do i want to live? and i feel much less sure about everything than i did a year ago.

so 26 was definitely an interesting year. one of challenges and sometimes backtracking but i took a risk and made a major life change by moving to charleston and i'm still trying to figure it all out. but in all the crazy there was some awesome.

so in the last year i have finished out my summer in dc and all the crazy that goes along with conferences, went to a bunch of country concerts, packed up my life and moved to charleston, explored and had fun adventures in charleston, read a lot of books when i was unemployed, had some fun in pittsburgh with conferences, broke myself playing kickball and tore my acl, went back to nj for surgery for a bit longer than anticipated but was able to see friends a lot more, traveled all over for spring conferences, subbed for a month, went to chicago! finally moved back to charleston in march, visited annie in colorado, continued to travel like crazy with conferences, went camping in the rockies, went to wyoming for the day, traveled for 7 weeks, was a bridesmaid for one of my best friends and now i'm ending the year working one of my favorite conferences in dc.

so i'm not where i thought i'd be right now and not really sure where i'm going with everything. but hey it will all work out - or so i keep telling myself.

so taking a look at the 2012 goals -

- find a full time job where i am happy (preferably teaching) - currently working on finding a full time job - any assistance would be greatly appreciated
-continue traveling - yup! made it to chicago & atlanta as 2 new cities and added 2 states - colorado & wyoming and had 40 flights since jan 1st
- read 100 books - i just finished book 96 of the year yesterday 
-write more letters & cards to friends - i've been pretty good about mailing birthday cards to friends, want to write more notes just because 
- get my strength back in my knee and run a half marathon this fall - strength is getting back, currently running about 2 miles. still a possibility to run a half 
- get my savings up to $5,000 -  this is directly related to the need a full time job
- get my first two years of college scrapbook finished -  i've done a few pages, need to work on
- continue doing my photo365 - i'm still taking photos and labeling them, haven't uploaded any to 365 blog since january 
- cross 5 things off my 30 by 30 list - crossed off 2 new things 
-create 3 things off my pinterest list - made 2 new recipes 
- blog more (100 posts) - ummm again slacking i'm only at 40 for the year
- continue looking for the best in every situation - doing the best i can i feel like there have been a lot of disappointments this year
- enjoy life and have fun! - 


so here is to a great 27 and hoping for some good news! i'm not really celebrating my birthday too much as i'm in the middle of a conference session in dc with 270 hs students and but i am excited to go to my favorite monuments and memorials so at least that is something fun!