Happy New Year 2013!

Happy New Years 2013, everyone!

2012 has been a pretty exciting year at the Barlen household. Like I did last year in this post, I am going to write out my top 10 highlights of 2012! It is a really fun way to think about your year... I recommend it :) I will also write out some goals for 2013.

10. Hiking new sections of the Bruce Trail: My Mum and her partner, Rick, bought a house in Eugenia. It is right on the Bruce trail, which made for a great excuse to hike more of it!

9. In late April, we joined Joe's friend, Chris, on an early spring Canoe trip at McCrae Lake. It was a fun adventure!

8. Hiking through the German Alps at Neuschwanstein Castle. I visited this place back in my year abroad, but didn't hike around much. It was amazing!

7. Mum and Rick got married!

6. Buying our second house! We moved in on May 23rd, and have been busy with it ever since. It has been fun!

5. Paris with Joe: it was a lot of fun to show Joe around one of my favourite cities! And it was also fun to explore Paris WITHOUT a student budget... That was a first for me! Although we did do many things on a budget still.

4. Reuniting with my French host family, the Sechers. Joe and I spent 4 days near Nantes, France catching up with them, and it was just like old times. Except the kids were much older! It was so wonderful.

3. On July 30th, my newest nephew, Spencer James Bauman was born! He is the one of the sweetest and happiest babies I've met!

2. Celebrating our first anniversary! As some of you may know... Joe and I got married one year from the day we met. This year on our first anniversary we were expecting! Things have definitely moved quickly, but I couldn't be happier! I am one lucky girl! Married life with Joe sure is easy!

1. Finding out we were pregnant! Although the baby won't come until early 2013, he/she has been one of our biggest focuses this year... Since I've been pregnant for much of the year! It has been an exciting (and uncomfortable!) time. I can't wait to meet him/her!

Goals for 2013

It is more challenging to make goals this year with so much unknown coming our way... so they will probably be more open-ended this year!

1. Be the best Mum I can be! It's hard to believe I'll have a baby.... And soon! I'm really excited and anxious.

2. Get back in shape after baby.

3. Eat more vegan. As of now, I have cut out all animal based products except for eggs and yogurt. I must say I have noticed some huge improvements in mood and health! (I haven't really been sick this fall, and when I had a sore throat it was minor and lasted only 2 days.) I also notice the difference when I do eat animal products (ex. Over Christmas!), which isn't always good. I would love to become fully vegan. (This should probably be a full-post that I do...)

4. Some sort of a trip next summer ??

I hope you all had a great New Years, a wonderful 2012, and an even better 2013! 

I'm looking forward to all that this new year will bring!