let the good times roll

I cant believe it is already February. Although I love the snow and winter, I can't say I'm mad that it has been 65 degrees and sunny for the last week. I never got around to finishing up my New Years post (not surprised) because life got the best of me and once the holidays were over it was back into the daily grind.

I'm not going to lie, 2015 got off to a really rocky start and I never expected that. The title of this post is a little deceiving to being with, but has good intentions. I thought "this is going to be my year". I just graduated from college, I'll make lots of money working full time, I wont have to do homework, I'm moving to a new place with new people, I'll have way more time to date, life will be great, this is my year.

Although I had plenty of things to be grateful for in January, there were a number of things that went wrong and made me overlook the things in my life that were good. Long story short I went unemployed for about 6 weeks, which were the longest days of my life. I thought I'd be able to find a job in the first week after finding out that I didn't have a job but that wasn't the case. If there are a couple things that I learned from that experience its that (1) It is SO important to have a savings account in case of emergency, and (2) More often than not it really is more about who you know and not what you know.

January was a huge financial crisis (definition of) since I wasn't working but still had expenses in order to live. It was stressful because I didn't know how long I needed my small savings account to last me. I finally started my full time job the last week of January and started to get back into a daily routine again. Thank heavens for that because I was starting to go crazy.

Setting January aside, I decided that February would be a good month. I have plenty of things to be thankful for; I have a job, a house, a car, family and friends surrounding me, and finally an income to keep me grounded. How could anything go terribly wrong again?? I kid you not the FIRST Monday of February, the start of the second week of my new job, I get in my car to leave for work aaaand...I had a flat tire. It was all fine and dandy until the guy a Big O Tires told me that the hole was too big to patch and I had to pay $110 for a brand new tire instead of $15 to patch it. Keep in mind I just bought this car 4 weeks ago...not exactly an expense I wanted to have, especially when I hadn't had a paycheck in 2 months.

But thats ok, right? because February is going to be MY month. To say that was the only hiccup or financial crisis/issue I've had in the first week of February would be a lie, but I already told myself that this would be a good month and Im not going to let these things get in the way of being happy.

In my New Years post, I was going to put down some resolutions and goals I had for the year. I've never been good about resolutions or whatever so I decided to change it up this year and have monthly goals instead of the year thing people do. In February, I will:

• Go through all of my junk drawers. Im trying to de-junk my life. 
• Read an entire book. I just started Dave Ramsey's The Total Money Makeover. My parents got all of the kids in my family a copy of it for Christmas and I've heard its really good! 
• Complete my B&W photo project. I'll post photos when its done. 
• Post on my blog at least once a week.

So even though its already February 8th, I'm going to make sure this is a
good month. So my friends...

LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL

(here are some 2014 recap photos for good measure)

I ventured to Mexico with 10 complete strangers on the best road trip of my life.

I turn the ripe and quite unexciting age of 22.

I graduated from BYU.

 

 

I drove to California with some of my favorite people for Emily and Nate's wedding.

I obviously made the best purchase of the year on a churro at Disneyland.

 I visited the most picturesque city in the world, Venice.

I traveled through 10 countries in Europe with my study abroad group. 

I paraglided in Interlaken, Germany...worth every penny.

I went to the most beautiful place me eyeballs have ever seen, Iceland.

I saw John Mayer at the O2 Arena in London. 

I visited JT with my mom and Sierra.

My entire family was in Utah for Thanksgiving..and the boys never seem to make it into photos.

 I celebrated the last day of the best job at BYU by caroling through the TNRB.

 I spent Christmas with my family in Arizona.

I bought a car!

Thank you 2014.