2015: A Year in Review

I won't lie to you, 2015 was a challenging year. Not in that there was some major disaster that I can pinpoint all my problems to, but in that I had to struggle really hard to make good things happen this year. It was the amazing things in my life that made this year hard, which I guess you could say is a good thing!

This was my first year working a full time job and it definitely had it's ups and downs. I definitely find the office life very confining but at the same time I do recognize all that my job has afforded me to do. I bought a car with this job, and a house too, I went to Europe with this job, and I am a very lucky person who gets benefits, sick days, personal day, and vacation days. So I can't be too mad at it.

The year started off with a whole lot of house hunting and an unexpected trip to Florida, which was very nice and welcomed considering I had already reserved my entire vacation allotment to go to Europe in September so the idea of actually getting a vacation between the 1st and 9th month of the year was a treat!

House hunting was very emotionally trying for me. We had a very specific house in mind since we were planning on turning it into a duplex so our hunt usually took us to places that had "potential" but mostly places that seemed to be inhabited by serial killers. We finally found our perfect home in April after spending countless hours in danky basements, shivering our butts off on driveways discussing pros and cons, and an eternity crowded over paperwork.

We moved into our home in June and that's when the real fun began. I started a part time job at this time too so my entire summer was spent renovating while working 7 days a week. I kid you not, I spent a lot of time crying in our basement while scraping up tile and pulling up nails. If you can't tell yet I'm pretty soft, but hey, I get things done regardless.

By the time September came along we NEEDED a vacation and it was FINALLY time to go to Europe. Even though we were up to our eyeballs in stress and we spent the week before our vacation killing ourselves to get things done we ended up having the vacation of a lifetime. This was the first time I really travelled, as opposed to vacationed. It really changed my perspective and put the travel bug in Jordan and I.

By the time we got back we had some finishing touches and A LOT of painting to do but on October 31st we welcomed our tenants in and christened our new house with a Halloween party.

Two of our friends ended up being our renters and it's been working out wonderfully. It's nice to have some built in pals to have drinks with and watch movies with. I'm so glad we chose who we chose to be our tenants!

Now as the year is closing I'm looking forward to a trip to Florida in the first week of the year. This will be the first bit of relaxing we've done in a long while and it's well deserved.

For this coming year I'm very excited to start reaping the rewards of all our hard work. We can finally relax and really focus on ourselves this year. Some of my most anticipated plans for next year include:
- Doing some renovations of our own upstairs so we can finally make the place exactly how we'd like it
- Making a garden in our back yard and getting to enjoy our space this summer with bbqs and parties on our deck
- Getting to spend lots of time relaxing and making memories with friends and family

Hoping this upcoming year finally bears the fruits of our labours!

Happy new year!