Welcome 2016!

The past two years, I have posted about my yearly goals. And maybe they were too unrealistic, or maybe they were just too general/big. As I was thinking about what I want to accomplish this year, I came to the realization that goals set to be completed at some random, vague time during an entire year does not work well for me. Most of the goals I posted about for 2014 and 2015 remain uncompleted. While I do still have some general goals for this year, I have decided to set weekly and monthly goals instead. 

I might decide to post them occasionally, but no promises. Maybe if I keep them to myself and quietly work on them on a weekly basis, I will accomplish more this year. I did just commit to memorizing Scripture each week; my friend and I plan on calling once a week to quote our verses to each other. Hopefully this will motivate me to actually memorize more! 

And I do still have goals for visiting new countries this year! The past two years I did not reach my travel goals (I blame school), but this year looks to have more potential in that area. I've been working on travel plans for the past few weeks and am getting super excited about this year's itinerary. Maybe I'll share soon.... ;) 

Farewell 2015

Well, 2015 is gone. 

In some ways it was a mellow year; school kept me pretty occupied and my international travel was held to a minimum. But it was a good year nonetheless. The most prominent part of the year was school. I took a full spring semester, one class during the summer and another full fall semester. And tested out of 3 classes during that time also. Some days, it sure felt like all I did was homework. But my Undergrad is completed and yes, I am relieved. 

Other highlights from the year include:

My first niece being born! She's almost a year old already. And even though she lives several thousands miles away, I've been blessed to see her 3x this year. 

Traveling in the Lower 48- I went 3x this year for a total of roughly 6 weeks and was in 11 different states. 

Mongolian family in Colorado

USS Alabama in Mobile

Navy Pier in Chicago

Memorial Day in Wisconsin

backwoods Indiana

southern Cali

The wonderful experience with work in the field of ESL. Had some amazing coworkers this summer and great students. It was a rewarding time teaching English and exploring various places in Fairbanks with my students. 

learning English

exploring Fairbanks (with strangers photobombing)

Then there was that trip to Arctic Canada that was epic, crazy, fun and slightly dangerous all rolled into one.

autumn in the Arctic includes snow

Canadian friends

Welcome 2016! Looking forward to some grand adventures! :D

Christmas at Home

Can you believe Christmas was 3 weeks ago? and I am just now getting around to posting about our Christmas, but who minds hanging on a little longer to that happy time of year!? This was my 3rd consecutive holiday season at home in Alaska, but the past two years I've been housesitting, so have still missed some of the excitement leading up to the Big Day. (and it really is a big day at my house). So, I was pretty stoked that I got to be living at home, eating goodies, decorating the house/tree, wrapping presents and keeping secrets from the siblings about who got who what. Course, school put a little damper on the holiday spirit, as the entire week before Christmas, I was still frantically trying to tie up loose ends. The school schedule this year was horrible; we had finals only one week before Christmas Day. 

My older brother had to work Christmas Day, but my sis-in-law and nephew came over to celebrate with us. He was more into the action this year, though he was soon bored with opening presents and wanted to know when we could go sledding. Ha! It was a nice relaxing day with the family...

before there was wrapping paper covering the floor

not sure who's more excited about the ice skates

pretty awesome mug and hoodie

don't try this at home....

Merry Christmas from the Greenfields!