Twas the Night Before My 23rd Birthday

Today I had a training ride, so my weekend consists of enjoying Sunday off this week (or technically the start of a new week) but lucky for me, tomorrow is my birthday! 
So many incredible things have happened in my 22nd year of life.  I had my first year of marriage, although most of it was spent separated by entirely different continents.  I'm so excited that in our second year of marriage, Ryan and I finally get to be together.  I graduated from an awesome university and commissioned as an Air Force officer.  My husband came home, safe and sound, from his second deployment.  I cannot verbalize how completely and utterly happy I am in this moment.  I cannot wait to hold my husband in my arms and now that he won't ever have to deploy or train.  That moment will come in less than 5 days!  It's going to be amazing to finally just be married and together.  I've mentioned it in previous blog posts, but it can be difficult to have a "real" marriage when you're balancing it between phone calls and text messages.  We'll be able to get down to the nitty gritty and adjust to each other instead having to adjust every two weeks.

Speaking of adjustments, tomorrow I turn 23-years old.  Where did the time go?  I remember being in high school and imagining what being 23 would be like.  I also remember having my family life plan of starting to have kids anywhere from 26-28.  That's only three years away and that's just so close.  Ryan and I have started talking about it, but with the idea that we're going to try to wait until Ryan's done with school and then that'll become more of a possibility.  I've had some outrageous baby fever and I wonder if that's just natural with getting older.  I never thought this maternal clock would start a'ticking...so weird.

I spent my birthday eve grocery shopping at the commissary and stocking up on delicious food for Christmas and some of my husband's favorites, including Dunkin Donuts Coffee, Simply Made orange juice (with pulp), and yogurt.  It was fun putting his favorite items in the cart once again.  Now I'm all bundled up, watching Prep and Landing on Hulu.  So fricken adorable!  It was the perfect touch to the Fresh Frasier scent that is in my new warmer and the glow of the Christmas tree lights is perfect.  Tonight is also the last night of Hanukkah and I am thrilled to have celebrated this year and am excited to expand on that next year.

 

My roomie, Brittany, got me a Keurig! What an amazing friend I have! I showed a pic to Ryan and he totally geeked out. He is so excited and it seriously is the perfect birthday/Christmas present for the both of us. I certainly know Ryan is going to use that Keurig like crazy.  Tomorrow will consist of seeing The Hobbit (which I am totally amped for), pedicures, maybe getting a fishy, and dinner at a habachi...we'll see :)

So in celebration of my birthday, here are some things that make me happy and bring me joy.

The first includes 26 moments that restore my faith in humanity.  I started to get a little emotional at how beautiful and truly inspiring these people are just to their fellow neighbor.  We could all learn a little something from this. 

The second, my Erin Condren planner came in today! I ordered mine to go from January 2013 until December and I cannot wait to use it!! I'll do a review in the coming weeks.

 

Excited to start reading the Mortal Instruments series.  The books have been incredibly popular and I picked up the four book set as a birthday present to myself.  Here is the movie trailer, based on City of Bones:

My latest issue of Time Magazine came in today with some of the year's best movies and books.  I totally need to see the movie, Beasts of the Southern Wild and I saw The Invisible War, earlier this year and it was heart-wrenching but impactful.  As an officer, I want to do as much as possible in re-creating the culture of women in the military.

Source

 There are so many books that I want to read from their Best of 2012 recommendations.  These include: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green and NW by Zadie Smith.

Well I have a ton of cookies to make for a Cookie Exchange Party tomorrow. Have a great weekend!