Turning 24

Well, I turned 24.

Not really a very exciting age when you think about it...

But hey!  I had fun anyway!

After work I came home to a bouquet of flowers and dinner on the table :)

My parents came over and brought cake and presents :)

Most of my presents involved our upcoming cruise and the summer- whoo hoo!

And that weekend, Aaron took me on a time traveling adventure to Medieval England (ish) where we attended the king's feast and a tournament of the knights of the realm.

So even though 24 isn't really an exciting age, I had a great birthday and I'm looking forward to a great year.

Vacation Planning!

My parents went on a cruise in December and had a blast.

I was jealous.

So we're going to go on a cruise too :)

I'm super excited!  This is a combination birthday/birthday/anniversary trip.  We're setting sail out of the Port of Baltimore and going down to the eastern Caribbean (Turks and Caicos, Bahamas, Half-Moon Cay) on our 7 night cruise!

Now I need to start working out more to minimize the cruise weight gain that I've heard about!

The Empty-Nesters

My parents are awesome.  True story.

Now that all 4 of us kids are married and living away from home, my parents have a lot more free time.  They also don't have as many expenses, since it's just the 2 of them.

Free time + extra cash = new toys!

And of course, we don't complain when they let us use their toys!  I think Aaron was the best at flying the quadricopter...

(These pictures are from around the New Year, but I haven't uploaded the photos from my camera in FOREVER and forgot about these until now- oops!)

Dad chased this poor kid around with the quadricopter

I Did It!

When we first moved to Maryland, we knew that Aaron wouldn't be starting work right away.  So I started looking for work, knowing that we were coming from a college student budget.  Since we had both been working part-time in Utah while Aaron finished school, we didn't have enough saved up to hold us over for the whole time we would be waiting for his job to start in August.

I got lucky and found a job that would allow me to start working just a week after moving into our new apartment.  I knew it wasn't my dream job, and therefore wouldn't be a permanent situation, but it was a decent office job.

For the past little while, we've been talking about me quitting- and this week I did it!

I'm so excited to finally have my time back- I have so many things I want to do that I will be able to do now that I have time during the day!  My biggest plans include working out more, playing the guitar and piano more, and writing.  I have a few ideas for books and now I'll finally have time to work on them!  (Okay, I guess I probably HAD time already in the evenings.  But I would rather have time to spend with my husband in the evenings- he will always take priority over almost anything else.  What can I say, I love the guy!)  I can't say that I'll become a famous author, but I started dreaming of being a writer in sixth grade, and now I'll get to try it.  Other goals include writing on this blog more often (and that means doing more things worth writing about!), making more friends around here (the ladies my age from church often get together during the week for lunch and now I'll get to go!), getting around to the sewing projects I have had in mind (and my fabric box!) for months, possibly teaching piano lessons again, and keeping our apartment clean and organized.

Whew- I can already foresee my days filling up!

This is going to be a major life change for us and we're both excited about it.  I'll finish work in the last week of March!  New countdown in the sidebar!

The downsides:  Giving up the iPhone and the bonus income

The perks:  Everything else!