Happy New Year everyone!! I know we’ve now started a new year, but I just wanted to take time in this post to share a little bit of my 2022 with you all. So I made a video! Enjoy and best wishes in 2023. ❤️
Tag: Happy New Year
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Hello 2022!
Just like that we’re in another new year. Hello 2022! I won’t make this post very long but I did want to wish you all a wonderful new year. I really hope we can get past this pandemic and get on with life.
Full disclaimer, no I did not make it to midnight on New Year’s Eve. I stayed up til 11 and then I was DONE. I usually go to bed around 10:30 pm so the extra 30 minutes was pushing it haha!
I’ve never really been a resolution maker but I do have a few goals for myself in the new year. For one, I’d like to have more positive self-talk. That’s just part of working toward a more positive view of myself. Second, I want to continue working on myself (obviously mentally) but also physically. I want to get into meditation and yoga more this year and also see if I can’t PR on bench pressing 100 lbs this year. That, and I want to be able to do a pull up. It’s the small things I need really!! And while this isn’t exactly a goal, I’m just excited for dental school to start! That’ll be a fun, new adventure for me and I’m so excited to see where it takes me.
I hope you all have time to set some goals or intentions for yourself this year. I feel like it’s gonna be a good one! Again, wishing you all the best this year. Let’s make it great!! Buh-bye 2021 and hello 2022!
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I’m Back!
Happy New Year everyone! I apologize for being gone for a bit but I needed some time to focus on my academics and also family and personal life for a bit. I’m back now though! I’m back and hopefully you won’t have to deal with hearing anything else about big stressful tests for a while. 🙂 I just thought this week I would do a little update on where I’m at and just wish you all the best for 2021.
Christmas was quiet but very good. My family and I had a wonderful breakfast and included my great aunt’s cheesy potato recipe. We used to go to her house Christmas mornings when visiting family in New Mexico and so it has been nice to keep some parts of our old traditions in our Christmases the past two years we haven’t been to New Mexico. We also Skyped with my aunt and uncle that live in New Mexico and enjoyed opening presents with them. I really hope I can see family in person soon and I bet many of you can agree with me on that! Basically right after I finished opening presents, I spent the rest of Christmas Day studying as much organic chemistry and math as I could to feel decent going into my DAT the next day.
I finished strong with my fall semester. I still made the Dean’s List (despite my B in anatomy) and my other grades looked really good too which I am super thankful for. Following my semester, I had a few weeks to really study hard and prepare for the Dental Admissions Test, which is also known as the DAT (I referred to it as the DAT above). I had been preparing to originally take the DAT in August but I wasn’t feeling ready so I made the decision to reschedule my test to December 26th, the day after Christmas. Throughout my semester, I dedicated a lot of time to reviewing material for the DAT, but when I was finally free from my schoolwork, that’s when the hardcore studying really kicked in. And I’m happy to report that all that hard work really paid off. 🙂 If I’m being honest, I thought I was going to have to retake the test but I scored above average so I’m really pleased with how I did.
Finishing out 2020 was very low-key. I spent a lot of time just recovering from all the stress and exhaustion associated with the DAT and playing tennis with my dad and sister. We rang in the new year with sparkling cider and that’s basically where I’m at right now. For next year, I think I’ve decided that I’m going to call it good around 10 pm on New Year’s Eve. I STRUGGLED to stay up til midnight if I’m being honest.
With the beginning of 2021 there was a lot that happened in our nation’s Capitol. In response to it, I just want remind you all that it is important to be respectful and it is important to be kind. I understand the frustration. I understand the anger. From both sides! There is a lot done by our government that is right and there is a lot that needs to be improved. There is absolutely no justification for breaking into and vandalizing the Capitol building however. That is low. If we want change, we must first go with clear heads and then make the decision to respect ourselves and others.
I wish you all the best in 2021 and I really really hope that it’s not 2020 part 2. I’m glad to be back and I hope you all will still around for another year of blogging. Have a good week and I’ll see you all next Sunday! 🙂
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Reflecting on 2019
Photo by Chinh Le Duc on Unsplash This year was quite the year. A lot happened. A lot always happens, but I feel like this year was especially good and also especially sad and hard. With that said, I’m reflecting on 2019 and looking back on the year I had.
January: My family and I rang in the new year from our couch and I got to play a lot of tennis with my dad, sister, and friends that we’ve made at the Ranch Country Club. I feel fortunate to have the opportunity to play at such a nice facility and have courts year round to play at. Does anyone remember my shrimp project for ecology last school year? That happened in late January too. 🙂
February: I went to a dinner to celebrate my academic achievements for my freshman year. We also celebrated my mom’s birthday. Marty was starting to get pretty sick around this time but he was still a happy, wonderful dog.
March: School was definitely in full swing again and I got to celebrate my sister’s 18th birthday. Her birthday was during the week, so I didn’t get to be home for it, but we celebrated over the weekend. We also had those two big bomb cyclones in March. I got school off twice so of course I remember that! 🙂 My aunt also came to visit during spring break and we had a great time at the Denver Art Museum (at least outside it), touring Regis, and eating at BurgerFi.
April: Boo turned eight in April and I got to watch Allyson at a couple of her high school tennis matches. She was 1 singles so of course I had to be there to be her cheerleader! Allyson also had her senior prom and I had so much fun helping her get ready. She looked beautiful. 🙂
May: Bobo turned two and I finished out my first year of college. Allyson also graduated from high school and my aunt and uncle came to spend some time with us around then. We had a wonderful party for her at the Ranch and it was so good to be around so many friends and family members to celebrate her. We also sent Allyson to Hawaii then!
June: Allyson started working at Build-A-Bear, so I was one proud sister then, haha. We also spent a lot of time at the pool and on the tennis court for leagues, tournaments, and just some good family fun. My grandma also flew back to Georgia in June and my summer classes were in full swing. Woohoooo.
July: Boo rang in July with his big dental surgery. He needed a bunch of teeth extracted so that was his way to celebrate our nation’s independence. In July, I played a lot more tennis and explored Colorado with my family. We went to The Inventing Room, saved a bunny from our window well, and Allyson and I won a couple of tournaments. I also visited one of my best friends from school in California. We had a lot of fun. 🙂
August: We celebrated my dad and aunt’s birthday as well as Marty’s tenth birthday and then shortly after Marty’s birthday, he passed away. 🙁 I still miss him so much. If I’m being totally honest, I’ve struggled more than I thought I would with his loss. Beside that, I started my sophomore year of school and we also made a trip to Farmington to see my grandpa, aunt, and uncle before school started. My family and I also went and saw Anastasia in August and it was a beautiful show.
September: My dad and mom went to New Mexico for my dad’s high school reunion and while that was happening, I was in full study mode already. Organic chemistry and physics were an intense combo! Despite our distance, we also celebrated my uncle’s birthday. 🙂
October: I turned 20! We also celebrated my grandma’s birthday. My family and I went to Phil Collins’ concert when he was in town and I also competed in the Miss Colorado USA pageant.
November: My family and I went to the Denver Art Museum for a project Allyson needed to work on. Early in November, my grandpa passed away too. 🙁 It was tough and still is tough to deal with his death. Over Thanksgiving break, we went to New Mexico for Thanksgiving at my great aunt’s house and we also celebrated my grandpa’s life at his memorial service. My sister and I had the honor of speaking at it. We also visited the Salmon Ruins while in New Mexico. This year, one of the things that I truly took to heart is that family is the most important thing to me. I don’t know who I would be or where I would be without them.
December: The last few days of 2019. We spent Christmas at home this year and it was different, but it was good. We had my great aunt’s famous cheesy potatoes on Christmas morning and that was fun. Different, but fun. We also went to Gaylord, the new hotel/resort out by DIA and saw their ice display. It was really cool. I’ve enjoyed a lot of time with family while I’ve been home since winter break started and I finished strong with my sophomore season at CSU.
So that was my year! I know there are still a couple of days, but I felt like reflecting on 2019 now was a good idea. This year sucked in a lot of ways but it was also an incredible year. There will always be good and there will also always be bad. With every new year, I just remember that and see how I can improve my responses and attitude toward new challenges, obstacles, successes, and downfalls. I hope these last few days, you all spend some time reflecting on 2019 and enjoying the last days of this decade. I’m looking forward to 2020!
I won’t be posting for the next two weeks due to a study abroad I’m doing in Ecuador, so I’ll see you all in the new year when I get back. Have a great week and again, Happy New Year!
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New Year’s Resolutions and Bob Ross Paintings
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and I’d like to wish you all a very happy upcoming new year. 2019 is going to be a good one! My sister sure seems to think so considering that she graduates from high school. 🙂 For this upcoming year, there are a couple of resolutions I would like to make for myself. Most of my resolutions revolve around my personal appearance because that’s something that I really haven’t been happy with in the past. I’ve been working out really hard during my time at college and I have seen results losing around 15 lbs, but I know I can work even harder to really strive for the body I want.
My first resolution, as sort of mentioned above revolves around my physical appearance. For those of you who have been around my blog for a long time, you will know that I dealt with foot and ankle injuries for two years and gained a lot of weight as a result of sitting for so long. I went from being a tri-sport, 125 lb girl to 160 lb person who felt unhappy and embarrassed with my appearance. For how active I used to be, I was disappointed with what I had become and I really wanted to change that. I personally feel like I became really unhealthy then, both physically and mentally, and I am still working to improve that.
For this year, I would love to finally be happy with my body. With this in mind, the goal is to be healthy, not to lose weight. I’ve found that if I focus on the numbers, I become discouraged or frustrated and that puts me in a bad place. If I focus more on the various workouts I do and the foods I eat and an overall change to have a healthier lifestyle, I think that the changes I make will become more permanent and better for me mentally and physically. By keeping my mind happy and keeping workouts fun but challenging, I know that I can stick to this resolution.
Another resolution I have is to experiment more with my clothing. I have a lot of really cute clothing that I’ve gathered over the years and I feel like my lack of confidence has prevented me from wearing what I really want to wear. I really like a lot of cute tops and dresses and I’ve never really caught onto all the short shorts and crop top stuff but I feel like my typical leggings and a t-shirt or sweatpants just isn’t what I want to wear all the time. CONFIDENCE is going to be key for 2019. I want to gain the confidence to be the person I know I truly am and wear all of the cute stuff I have!
In addition to these resolutions, I would like to read more books this year. Getting ready for college and then actually starting college left me so so so busy and I feel that I missed out on a lot of reading this past year. I love reading and something that I’ve always enjoyed using as a way to relax. It’s important to step away from the screens and studying and take time to enjoy a good book and I’m going to make that happen this year!
Now some of you might be asking about the title of this post. How do Bob Ross paintings fit into all of this? Well they don’t really fit into the whole idea of resolutions, but my sister and I just got done painting one of Bob Ross’s paintings. We followed one of his episodes and it was SUPER fun but oh boy, oil paint is MESSY! We still had a lot of fun and got some pretty cool paintings out of it. Maybe I’ll share a picture of those paintings when I get a chance. They’re going to need some time to dry and maybe then I’ll post it.
Well I hope you all have a wonderful New Year’s Eve and I wish you all only the best in 2019!
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Here Comes 2018: Happy New Year!
This blog will officially go up 3 hours before midnight and 2018, woohoo! That also shows you just how much I have going on for New Years’ Eve… Anyway, I just wanted to wish you all a very happy new year. Let this be the best year yet! 🙂
For 2018, there’s a couple of resolutions I plan to actually stick to this year. New Year’s resolutions tend to fail, but I’ve set up a plan for how to keep myself accountable and be successful.
For one, I want to work on my hair. I’m planning on growing it fairly long over the course of the year and in order for that to happen, it’s also going to have to be healthy. Through a variety of hair care products, including Living Proof PhD shampoo and conditioner, Keranique products, as well as hair vitamins, and supplements, I think I can be successful. Drinking plenty of water and applying less heat to my hair will also help keep it healthy and strong.
Another resolution of mine is to completely banish soda from my life. This one is definitely going to be tough, but I know it’ll be for the best. Soda just is not good for you, regardless of whether or not it’s diet, or sugar-free, or “zero” as some brands call it. This resolution will rely on self-control mostly, and it’s not like I can have a set plan for it, but I plan to follow through on this.
One other resolution I have this year is to get in shape and see my body in a positive way. Ever since my foot and ankle injuries, I’ve struggled to get my body back into the form it was, and that’s really damaged my self-esteem and confidence. I’ve really struggled to like the way I look, but it’s getting better. I’m so thankful I’ve been healthy for the past two-ish years now, and I’ve had the opportunity to be active again, but I’m just not quite where I want to be. I already have a gym membership at a new, nearby gym, and my family is members of our local country club, and with hard work, I hope I can improve myself physically and mentally.
So these are some of my resolutions. I’m excited to see my transformation over this year and I hope that you all have the chance to follow through on your resolutions. See you all in 2018 and Happy New Year!
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The Memory Jar
Happy New Year everyone! 2016 was quite a year and there were plenty of ups and downs. Hopefully 2017 will be a better year. Something cool my family did last year was create a memory jar. My sister and I found just a regular, old jar lying around our house and then decorated it, and as the year progressed, we put all kinds of memories in it.
If you want to create your own memory jar, as mentioned above, all you need is:
- A jar (a larger one will work better)
- A bunch of small pieces of paper or sticky notes
- Half of a piece of 8×11 piece of paper cut hotdog style (this is for the outside of your jar)
- Markers or sharpies to decorate your jar
- A pen or special marker or even pencil for writing on the slips of paper
Here’s a few tips for your memory jar:
- Follow through! Actually keep the memory jar going the entire year. My sister did a really good job of keeping our memory jar in order and made sure that memorable events made it into the memory jar.
- Persuade everyone in your family to add to the jar. It’s more fun when it’s more than one person adding to the jar.
- Write the month or even day the memory occurred so when you go back and look at all of them, you remember when they happened.
- Be detailed with your writing so when you go back, you can actually recall them.
- Add pictures, movie tickets, maps, and other little memorabilias.
- Don’t open the jar to look at memories until the end of the year!
- On New Year’s Eve open your memory jar with your family and share everything that happened over the year.
My family did a memory jar for the first time this past year and I could definitely say it’s going to be a New Year’s tradition from now on. I hope you all had a safe, fun night and cheers to 2017! 🙂
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A Holiday Letter to Readers…
It’s that special time of year! Every year my family sends out a Christmas letter to family and friends updating them on how we’re doing and our journey throughout the year. My dad always writes the letter and he does a great job making it entertaining and worth reading. I figured I might write my readers a holiday letter, so here goes!
Dear readers,
This year has been quite an adventure! Those adventures ranged from making new friends and being with family and old friends to having surgery on my ankle and other crazy events.
My sister is a freshman and I am a sophomore in high school. We’re both doing well school and keeping up good grades. I’m glad to be at the same school as my sister again. Go Eagles! We are each other’s best friends and we get along well. My two dogs Marty and Boo, are still running around, barking, singing to the piano, and being the most adorable dachshunds I’ve ever met. They enjoy begging for carrots and whatever else they can get to eat from my grandma who is visiting us from the Republic of Georgia.
My parents are keeping busy with work and running my sister from practice to practice. My mom is working as a dental hygienist and selling her children’s book Lola and Sir Germs-a-lot. There may be a few more books coming out soon, so keep an eye out on Amazon or Xlibris. My dad is working from home with business and economic research. He also coaches my sister and I in tennis and is busy working with my sister and getting her to club volleyball practices. As mentioned earlier, my grandma from Georgia (not the state) is staying with us for a few months. She is a wonderful, sweet person and it’s been great having her with us the past few months.
This year has been filled with some lows but mostly highs. I had to have surgery on my ankle to resolve some issues I had with it and that caused me to miss another season of high school volleyball which was a bummer but I was able to really focus on school and take time to recover. Because of my ankle issues, I was able to meet some really amazing people that I now consider good, close friends that I hope I can keep in touch with for a long time. My birthday this year was my sweet 16 and it was a good, memorable day. I made some new and really good friends at school this year and I feel like I’ve been able to make a difference in my community through sports, school, and my blog.
My blog hit over 2,500 views this year and that means a lot to me. I’m glad that people are reading my blog and I hope that you all enjoy reading it! I hope that my blog is something you look forward to reading and it encourages you to try something new or learn about something you didn’t know how to do or didn’t know about.
My ankle is recovering well, I know the rest of the school year is going to be great, and I’m looking forward to high school tennis season! I wish you Happy Holidays and a very Happy New Year.
With love,
Ana Horvath
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What I’d Like to See in the New Year
2015 is four days away! This year has gone by so quickly. People are working on New Year’s Resolutions and getting ready for the new year ahead. I have my resolutions for 2015 just like everyone else and I also have some things I’d like to see in the new year.
There are so many wonderful and brilliant movies coming out these days and there are so many that I would like to see in 2015.
– Mockingjay Part 2: This movie will be the last movie of The Hunger Games trilogy. The books were great and the movies have been even better so I can’t wait to see how it all ends on the big screen.
–Frozen 2: Frozen took the world by storm when it first debuted and there have been rumors that Frozen 2 is in the making. I liked the movie Frozen, and it would be cute to see how the story in Arendelle continues.
– “The Lost Hero”: “The Lost Hero” was a book by Rick Riordan and it was a combination of Percy Jackson and his crew and a new guy named Jason and his friends. It featured Roman gods and new adventures and just like “The Lightning Thief”, “The Lost Hero” would be an awesome movie.
Also, there are some world problems and beyond our planet things that I hope will be resolved or discovered in the new year.
– The Ebola outbreak has been devastating and not only for the victims and their families but for the entire planet. I hope that a cure will be discovered, the disease will be eradicated, and the world can begin to heal.
– I would love to see all children happy and healthy throughout the world. All children deserve a family, love, care, knowledge, and support. I would hope that child poverty would also become less of a problem.
– If another planet like Earth was found, that would be one of the highlights of 2015. I’ve always been fascinated with extraterrestrial life and the possibility of a planet like Earth somewhere out there.
I am an intermediate-becoming advanced piano player and there is a long list of songs I would love to learn to play and perform.
– “Let it Go” from Frozen: This song is a very pretty song and I have been given the notes for “Let it Go” and I would like to have it mastered in the new year.
– “Someone Like You” by Adele: The instrumentals for this song are really interesting and it seems like a fun challenge.
– Classical Sheet Music: There are a large number of wonderful songs written by the masters of the piano like Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven and learning to play their songs.
Sports are a huge part of my life and since I missed half of the year for an injury, I would like to accomplish these things for the upcoming year.– For tennis, I would like to be ranked in the top 20’s or 30’s for the 16’s division in my state. It will be my first year in this division and I will be on the younger end but I enjoy a challenge and plan to work hard for my competitive season and high school season.
– For volleyball, I plan to work even harder than last year to get a whole lot better than I was before I was injured. I want my all-round playing skills to improve and same with my leadership skills.
– For dance, I would like to continue with my tap, jazz, and maybe ballet lessons. I hope to become more flexible and get my needle and get my middle splits and left splits back.
Academics are additionally important and I have many things I’d like to achieve for the new year.
– Get an A in my Advanced Algebra 2 class. I was really, really close to getting an A in that class last semester and I know that by eliminating my silly mistakes and by working even harder, I can get that A.
– Always start on homework and projects the day they are assigned. I did a good job of this during the first semester, but I really want to break the habit of holding off on a map or an essay until the moment. This will make my life so much less stressful if I do everything the day it is assigned or break up the work evenly for a project.
– Have a 4.5 GPA or above at the end of the school year. As previously mentioned, I ended the first semester with a 4.5 GPA and I felt pretty good about that. I enjoy a challenge, so I hope to get my GPA even higher.
Have a safe and wonderful new year! I hope you plan to do many great things in 2015. Make every day count and best wishes!
