New Years "Resolutions"

Here it is, the last couple of hours of 2017! It has been a great year and I am looking forward to 2018. Let's see how long I'll be signing my pay stubs, cards, and checks with the wrong year!

I am doing things a little differently with my New Years "Resolutions" this year. Each year people post their resolutions, and by the end of January, many of those resolutions have crashed and burned. So this year, instead of setting myself up for failure, I'm going to do a 2018 Bucket List.

Here is a list of things that I hope to do in 2018:

• Go to a Corn Maze
• Pack Up & Go Vacation
• Complete Two Rounds of Country Heat
• Complete One Round of T25
• Get a Gym Membership
• See the Holiday Train
• Get Couples Pictures
• Host a Bonfire
• Pay it Forward Once a Month
• Have a Water Balloon fight
• Take a Photography Class
• Go Camping
• Read "The Love Dare"
• Road Trip to Minnesota
• Meal Plan
• Make at Least One Blog Post per Month
• Create a Senior Scrapbook for Gavin
• Clean Up Pinterest
• Fill the Bed of the Pickup with Pillows and Lay under the Stars
• Start a Bullet Journal
• Track Migraines
• Road Trip to Michigan
• Get a Daith Piercing in May
• Start a Photography Project
• Get another Tattoo in May
• Buy another Camera
• Send Out Birthday Cards
• Go to the Rotary Lights
• Go Hiking
• Go to a Pumpkin Patch
• Create a Scrapbook of Dusty and I
• Go to an Apple Orchard
• Take Dusty to a Concert
• Go on a Monthly Date Night
• Make a Blog Post for Photography Sessions
• Go Ice Skating
• Go Snowmobiling
• Go to the Beach
• Play Sand Volleyball
• Make a Backdrop Holder for Photography
• Go Mini Golfing
• See a Waterfall
• Play Paint Twister
• Road Trip to Iowa

End of Year Wrap Up!

As I said in my first post, a lot has happened this year. So much, in fact, that it's easy to forget all of the good times. I scrolled through my Instagram posts from this year to pull out some of the highlights, and here they are:

My brother's friend got a puppy, Diesel, and he has pretty much grown up at our house. It's crazy to see how much just one year can change things! That little pup that we started with is now a full-blown "doggo."

My mom and I became official members of the North Bend Presbyterian Church! My siblings are members of the church by default because they were confirmed there, but my mom and I finally became members!

Dusty and I started dating. I won't go off on a tangent with this because I've got plenty of other posts about him that you can read, and let's not beat a dead horse.

I got my first tattoo! My friend and I decided to get matching tattoos, so we scheduled an appointment, decided what we wanted, and got them done. We chose the stethoscope bent into a heart with the words "Caring," "Strength," "Love," and "Courage" as a symbol of our commitment to the nursing profession, it is the reason that we are best friends now!

I moved in with Dusty. Living with my best friend has been a roller coaster, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. Some of my family doesn't agree with this decision, but it is one that I spent a lot of time making and I have been very happy with it. There have been a couple of ups and downs, but overall we are happy with this decision.

Hintzy Photography took prom pictures for my brother and his friends, and by Hintzy Photography, I mean me. Since he was a junior, and it was junior prom, I made sure I got some pictures for him to remember the day by.

I went to Las Vegas for a wedding! I flew for the first time with my dad, grandma, great aunt, and great cousin to Las Vegas for my great uncle's wedding. We spent a lot of time at his house, but he only lives about 5 minutes from the strip, so we got to walk around the last night that we were there. It was SO HOT, just like everyone says, "it's a dry heat." We got out of the airport, and it was like the gust of air after opening the oven, but it doesn't go away. Luckily, my great uncle and his husband have a pool, so being outside wasn't completely unbearable. I can't wait to go back some day, and spend some more time on the strip!

I participated in the Dragonboat Races, and our team took first place! One of my mom's friends is a breast cancer survivor, so she has a team for the Big Blue Dragonboat Festival in La Crosse and my mom and I participate. This year, like last year, our team took first place and we got medals for our participation!

I officially committed myself to the nursing profession at my school's commitment ceremony! Viterbo University holds a Commitment Ceremony for the nursing students before we begin our clinical experience to symbolize our commitment to the nursing profession. We got our "Student Nurse" name badges to wear during our clinical rotations!

I started my nursing clinical experience with gerontology! Being in the gerontology setting was amazing and made me even more excited to continue on with my nursing education. Next year is family health!

Hintzy Photography hosted three senior sessions! Bree, Cody, and Gavin were my seniors this year, all Melrose-Mindoro High School class of 2018. I am excited to see where life takes these three, and will forever be grateful that they allowed me to take their pictures!

Dusty and I got to see the Pink Heals National Tour, and I was able to sign the truck in memory of my mom's cousin. The Pink Heals National Tour drive around big PINK firetrucks that have been signed by survivors or family members of those who have battled with any kind of illness or disease. The volunteers who put on this tour encourage people to make donations locally, and all the money raised from sales goes to the gas, maintenance, and other tour expenses.

I got to take Gender Reveal pictures for one of my best friends! I met the guy in this picture years ago when I had a different boyfriend, and he has been one of my best friends since that day. He helped me through my parents divorce, and it's been a lot of fun knowing him. I was ecstatic when he called me and asked me to take pictures for him at their gender reveal party. I'm so excited to see baby Miller, PS - it's a girl!

Hunting was a bust - but I went out! I worked opening weekend, so I didn't get out until Sunday night. I sat with my brother and we didn't see much, but it was good bonding time. I don't get to see my brother all that often anymore, so any time with him is always welcomed.

I got a new car! "TECHNICALLY," my mom got a new car, but I'm making all the payments on it, so I'm saying it's mine. Dusty, my brother, and I went to look at a couple of cars in Viroqua one night, and we decided on one. After we headed home, my brother kept looking and found two in Sparta, so the next day I looked at one of them in Sparta with my mom, and we got it that night! It's been so weird having a new car, it's RELIABLE, and it doesn't make any alarming noises. Going from 275,000 miles to 35,000 miles has also been a bit of a switch, this one has so much to look forward to and will last me awhile!

I turned the big 2-1! As I covered in my post about my birthday, it was exciting, but it wasn't the big alcohol frenzy that everyone says it will be. I'm almost a month into being 21 and it still hasn't been all that much of an alcohol frenzy.

I got a promise ring! Dusty gave it to me in the sweetest way. For Christmas, he got me two lunch boxes, one fit inside the other, and inside the smaller one, was a ring box. I opened it up, and there was a ring and a piece of paper all folded up that said "I promise." It was a note with all of the things that he promises to do or be for me in the future. It was the sweetest thing ever!

Also, the movie Wonder was released, and you all should see it! Wonder is the story of August Pullman, a boy with facial differences entering the fifth grade. It is a wonderful movie that inspires others to be kind. If you have the chance, watch it and let me know what you think!

Preface to End of Year Wrap Up

Awhile ago, I noticed that I made 12 blog posts in 2016, and I wanted to at least tie that in 2017. Well, this will tie them up, and as the title implies, there will be at least one more post this year!

This year has been good to me, and I'm excited for what next year has to offer.
I finished up my sophomore year of nursing school, I bought a car, I got into an amazing relationship and met a lot of awesome people.

My little brother started his senior year of high school, and played a full season of football. I attended almost every football game and was able to take pictures at most of them. It has been a lot of fun to watch him grow into a young man, and an incredible football player. He even made Dairyland All-Conference First Line Defense, and was invited to play football in Hawaii for a couple of days in July 2018. I am so proud of him for showing up for his senior year, and I can't wait to see what the rest of this year and the school year have for him! He has dedicated himself to Southwest Technical College in Fennimore, Wisconsin!

It's not often that I get a nice picture of my sister, or that she even wants to be in a picture, but she insisted on getting a picture with our brother after a football game. She is a sophomore in high school, which is crazy to think of. She has blossomed into a very nice young woman (sometimes). Her grades are crazy good and I'm very proud of her for her accomplishments. I can't wait to continue to watch her grow and see what she decides to be as an adult.

Tune back in before January 1, 2018 for a final wrap up of 2017!

$5 Savings Plan

Let's talk money.

I've always been pretty money-conscious. My mom taught me how to save and how to live below our means. 

This past year I tried to follow a $5 savings plan which started the first week of January with $5, and increased every week by $5. At first it was pretty easy. It was such a small amount of my paycheck that I didn't miss it. However, as the months passed, it became harder and harder to put that amount into savings. I was able to save about $3,000 before I had to stop because I couldn't make it work financially. I had to pay rent and my credit card bill, which is a month's worth of gas and a few random expenses, each month.

Being a college student tends to mean that money is pretty tight. At the beginning of the year, I was still living with my mom so I didn't have to worry about the cost of food or pay her rent. In May, I moved in with my boyfriend, so I started paying rent and pitching in on groceries. Things haven't been too tight, and I've been comfortable with were I'm at. I made enough money each month to cover my expenses and still have some money left over.

This past month, I bought a new car. It came with a loan that I need to start paying back in January. With my average monthly income, I could just barely squeak by with my payments. However, my hours are going to be cut back at work this next semester due to a rather spotty class schedule. This means that I have to find another part-time job to pay off my monthly bills without dipping into my savings too much.

In January, I will try to follow the $5 savings plan again; however, I'm changing things up this year. Since I hit a bit of a wall this past year, I've decided to take the initial amount to save and alternate it with the final amount to save. This way I won't be stretched at the end of the year and will have one "easy" week and one "hard" week. I'm excited to see how this goes, and I will update you sometime in the next year!

Turning 21

21

This past week I celebrated my 21st birthday. It's the "rite of passage" into adulthood, right? The time when you can finally drink, and don't have to worry about getting an "under-ager." Everyone seems to be so excited to turn 21, it's like they want to rush through their younger years just to hit the "golden age" so that they are able to drink. Now it was my turn to enter the age that everyone looks forward to.

This birthday kind of crept up on me, and I didn't think much of it. My boyfriend, Dusty, and I made a plan to stay up until midnight on the 6th so that we could go out to the bar for a drink. It sounded like a fun plan until the night actually came and I felt a cold coming on. I managed to stay up until 11:30pm, but then I turned into bed because I decided that I didn't NEED to go out drinking.

Dusty and I both took the day of my birthday off of work to spend it together. We got to sleep in and start the morning slowly. Once we got moving, we headed to La Crosse and dropped off my brother's senior picture book at the Studio on Main (where he got his senior pictures done). After that, we went to the mall and Dusty treated me to some shopping. We stopped at Spencer's and we got a couple of shot glasses, Dusty got a Rick and Morty one, and I got one that says "Just Turned 21" and another that says "Drunk Up B*tches!" I got a matching set and two free bags from Victoria's Secret. We then wandered over to Rue21 and Dusty got two bottles of cologne, and I got two bottles of perfume. Our final stop in the mall was Maurices where I got a pair of blue jeans and a water bottle.

After shopping, Dusty treated me to lunch at Red Lobster. I had to show the waitress my ID for the first time when I ordered a Sunset Passion Colada. She wished me a happy birthday, and so did the couple at the next table. Dusty and I got to enjoy lunch, and then the waitress brought out a free sundae for us to enjoy.

This caption (I think) is supposed to say "Her *first* legal drink"

On our way home, we stopped at my grandparents to talk to them and see what they were up to. After at least half an hour spent talking with them, we headed home and they headed to town. At the end of the day, my mom, sister, brother, and "other brother" came to Tomah to eat at the bowling alley with us. We all split an appetizer platter and two large pizzas. The bartender mixed me up a "Sex on the Beach," and Dusty later ordered two Jaegerbomb shots, which he insisted that my mom or I had to take with him. My mom and I compromised, she took a sip, I drank half, and we handed Dusty the rest of it.

In the end, responsibility got the best of me (as always) because I had my last day of classes the next day, so I was in bed at a relatively decent time. It's now the weekend after my 21st, and I've been working. I work again tomorrow, and the following two days, and then I have finals the two days after that. I may never "really celebrate" my 21st birthday, but I am perfectly happy with the way that I did celebrate turning 21.

My Boyfriend

Each time my boyfriend notices that I'm making a blog post he asks if it's about him, so here's the first post dedicated just to him.

This guy means the world to me, and we haven't even known each other for a year yet. We have come a long way since adding each other on Facebook in late December 2016, then on Snapchat, and then agreeing to meet on New Years Eve at the party at his house. He was so persistent that we were dating, even though I insisted that I wanted to be single until the summer. I finally caved in and on March 10, 2016 we began dating. One school finished up in May, I started moving in and was fully moved in by June. It's been a roller coaster as we navigate life and living together.

Dusty having a full time job and working anywhere between 40-72 hours each week, and myself spending up to 17 hours on campus and 10 -22 hours at work each week makes for a tough time. We both come home pretty tired most days, and we've been trying to cut back on our fast food intake. I recently made a couple of freezer meals for the crock pot and hopefully we will try them soon! We are also planning to get back into working out. I made a plan for December using 3 different workout plans that I found on Pinterest, and Dusty is planning to start T25!

And a final shout out for my amazing boyfriend, he handles my mood swings so well. This final picture is from Thanksgiving day. I had gotten my hair cut the day before, shorter than it's ever been, and I didn't anticipate on having to do so much to give it some body. I asked Dusty to help me straighten it, but he didn't come right away so I finished up by myself. Once he came, he started braiding it, but he didn't really have any plan so I got frustrated and we just left. He just rolls with the mood swings and I'm so thankful for him.