returning in 2014..

"We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day" - Edith Lovejoy Pierce

i thought it appropriate i start with a quote as i have not ventured into the world of blogging for quite some time. apparently not since September and even then posts were sparse. it's not really that too much is going on in my life that i haven't had a chance to log on, it's more due to the fact that working full time is just motivationally draining.. its like being stuck in a rut i guess - as much as i love work, i honestly think i still have not got used to working 40 hours a week, being surrounded by the same people and doing pretty much the same thing for 5 days in a row every week.

aside from work, there actually are some extremely exciting and huge things going on in my life. for one, terry and i got engaged!

September 14th :) he proposed  - typical engagement story probably, he was completely nervous and i was being difficult - the restaurant we were supposed to go to that night had a fire in its kitchen two days earlier and called terry to cancel the reservations. no big deal for me, i had no idea what terry had planned, but i think it threw him off a bit and got him stressing.

- he found a place by the water, got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife... it was beautiful.. i said yes :)

i spent from august to september studying for a certification exam i had to write for HR.. and as badly as i wanted to start planning our wedding, i knew i couldn't start until i finished writing the exam on november 2nd!

after i completed the exam, terry and i started the search for our perfect venue. it took a few weeks and a visit to many places but we eventually decided on one we are very excited about! finding the venue is only the beginning of planning and it's all we have done so far. there is still lots and lots more to do but we have until spring of 2015 anyways, so no rush!

second of the huge things going on in life is that terry and I bought a house (although we don't have it yet). we started going to random open houses and that by far was one of the most disappointing thing in my life. so many houses in areas we want to live that are were already over our price range and further, absolutely needed at least $30000 in work. we finally took it further and got a real estate agent and literally in a matter of days we viewed a house that hadn't even listed yet. we viewed the house on a monday night, and put an offer in on a tuesday morning and that night, the accepted. the house was listed at a very competitive price, in a fantastic area that is so close to my parents house and his brothers house, and it doesn't need any immediate work to be done! we get the house mid february and we are both so excited to start painting and starting a new life together :)
thats been my life for the past few months and now i am gladly welcoming 2014! there will definitely be lots of new excitements, stresses and opportunities this year and i am excited to experience them all.