Our long-awaited honeymoon

I know, I know. It's about time!! Dustin and I were never able to go on a honeymoon. We stayed at the MGM in Las Vegas the night we were married, then drove home at 11am, and Dustin went back to work the next day. LAME.

So, after debating and debating, we finally decided to just do it. This June will be our 5 year anniversary, making it even more perfect. While living with my parents, we were able to save up some money to buy a house. Well, that obviously didn't work out, so we decided to take a chunk out of our savings and go on a vacation, just us 2. I know there are many other things we could put this money towards- but for some reason I have the feeling that we won't regret doing this. We've had a rough past few years (to say the least), and I just want to escape for 1 week with my husband and act like newlyweds.

So... come March 19th, we'll be sailing away on a Mexican Riviera Cruise!

The e-mail I got this morning

Dear Erika:

Congratulations! We are pleased to offer you admission to Brigham Young University-Idaho. Rich blessings and life changing opportunities await you here. yada yada yada

I got in!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't wait to go back to school. Rexburg, Idaho here I come!

24 is my year.

So friends, I guess I'm officially 24 years old now. Mid-20's.

I rarely make New Years resolutions, but I do make "age resolutions." My goals for age 23 were to start working out and to run a 1/2 marathon. Well, after doing Insanity (it actually is insane. I wanted to throw up or die during every workout) and running, I accomplished my goal and finished the 13.2 miles in 2 hours and 9 minutes. I never stopped running the entire time and I'm proud of my time!

For age 24 I have some bigger resolutions/goals. This year I want to work out my MIND!! (That was suppose to be overly cheesey) I want to go back to school. I'm not exactly sure what I want to major in yet (which has been a large contributor of why I haven't gone back until now) but I think I'll figure it out soon. I at least know what I don't want to do. So, I applied to BYU-Idaho for hopefully Fall/Winter semester- but we'll see. It will be nice to return. I won't have to transfer credits and I'll be around people just like me. Plus, BYU-I has much more to offer than a typical state school- smaller classes, teachers that remember your name, a fast track where you can attend school 3 semesters a year instead of 2, and really inexpensive tuition. We're moving to Southeast Idaho as soon as one of us can find a job.

My other goal is mostly for my family, but it's to have our Independence back!! I can't wait to reunite with our belongings safely stored in 2 separate storage units. It's been 2 years since I've even seen our beautiful black breakfast buffet table. That reunion will definitely be sweet/similar to Christmas morning.

So there you go.

Oh, you want to know how my Birthday went yesterday?
Great! I got to sleep in until 10:30. My mom took me to lunch and Dustin took me to KFC (it's what I wanted) and to get dessert at Papa Haydens in Portland. Dustin surprised me with a mini fridge stocked with beverages galore and the first season of The Middle. I also got a creme brulet torch w/ ramekins, some cute clothes, jewelry, some awesome sandwich shape cutters (which even got Lillie to eat her entire heart-shaped PB&J today), a gift card to Applebees, VS lipgloss, shower gel, slippers, OPI nail polish, and even a homemade cherry cheesecake from my visiting teachers!

But I have to say, the best gift of all was logging on to facebook today to see my entire page full of Birthday wishes. Who doesn't love that?