The importance of writing down your goals!

About 5 years ago I sat down with my older sister, Elena, in a local coffee shop in Raleigh. She wanted to help me figure out where my life was going, I had just recently dropped out of BYU and moved back home to be closer to my family. We talked about my future and where I saw myself in 5 years, 10 years, 20 years... I really didn't know, I had not put too much thought into it. Together she and I compiled a list of goals for myself, a list to complete within 5 years and a list to accomplish within my lifetime.

Fastforward to now... Last week I was cleaning up from the tornado aftermath and gathering some important papers and I stumbled across the goals list my sister and I wrote 5 years earlier. I had kept it with some other important documents, but had not looked at it in over a year. When I read over my list I was very pleased at what I had accomplished and I would like to share with you what we came up with in that little coffee shop, where my sister helped me find direction in my life...

In 5 years:
  * I see myself happy, married and living comfortably - (not necessarily with kids)  - Check
  * I want to be working in a job that allows me to travel, perhaps as an even planner - Check (pretty much)
  * I want to be on the east coast, near my family, in a warm place - Check
  * I want to have an associates & technical training  - Check

Before I die, I want to:
  * Go to Denmark
  * Learn another language
  * Go skydiving or hang gliding
  * Help build a house
  * Get married
  * Have kids
  * See California
  * Have a flower & vegetable garden
  * Write a book
  * Travel Europe with a friend, tell our story through photos
  * Visit South Africa
  * Learn about different religions and cultures
  * Spend $1000 in one shopping spree

Over the years some goals of mine have changed and that is ok it happens, but the point is to write them down! Until they are written down, they are only dreams!

New 5-Year Goals (by 2017):
  * Establish and run my own business
  * Travel to Europe with my husband
  * Purchase a new car
  * Start to expand our small family (kids)
  * Get back in shape, maintain a healthy weight of 135
  * Finish decorating and organizing our house
  * Starting writing a book

The tornado - a night we'll never forget!

I figured we should tell our story before it's forgoten; however, I do not think we'll forget last weekend, ever!

Last Friday night, March 2nd, Josh had been out with some friends and I stayed home because I had been sick the last couple days. Becuase I was homesick Josh decided not to stay out late and come home to be with me. By 12AM Friday night, we were fast asleep.

Around 2:30am I am awaken by a really loud noise outside... I shake Josh awake, "baby there's something going on outside, I think it's a tornado". It took us a minute to process what was happening. We got our bearings and then jumped into our half bath across the hallway with our puppy Stryder. The power was out, I had grabbed my phone and started to call a few people just to make sure they were ok and to warn them of a potential bad storm coming their way. I called my mom from the bathroom at 2:45 in the morning and let her know we were ok... I'm sure the phone call wasn't what she expected to get that morning, but I wanted to make sure my family knew we were ok - We had no idea how bad the storm was or how far it went. My phone call started like this, "Hey Mom, I just wanted to let you know Josh and I are ok... However, I think we just had a tornado at our house."

 The noise was as loud as a freight train, but only lasted 90 seconds, tops!

Maybe 10 minutes later the worse of the storm seemed to be over, it was still raining but we decided to go outside to see what happened and what we saw, we'll remember forever...

Tree limbs down everywhere, 50' trees uprooted laying on the side, a limb pierced the roof of our front porch, and my car had a smashed in windsheild ... the worse of the storm occured in front of our house; we had large trees, maybe 3' around down in the road and in our driveway. And that is what we saw at 3:00 am, what we saw the next morning was 20 times worse than what we saw in the dark just a couple hours earlier. Our neighbor directly across from us had a tree that landed in the front of their house and just a quarter of a mile down the damage was worse than at our house...

Most of the 6' privacy fence was knocked over by limbs or just really strong winds, a branch came through our upstairs guest bedroom knocking over a TV and the table it was on, another branch came through our pantry and somehow smashed our washing machine, the whole back and front yards were covered in debris and someone else's roof landed on ours and put a couple holes through it - the sight was overwhelming! Though the wreckage was pretty extreme, Josh and I both know it could have been a lot worse and we are thankful everyday that we only had the damage we did to our home and cars.

The next day we had a couple friends came out to help us start with the clean up. No one really knew what to expect, when we told them about what happened. One friend thought he was coming over just to do some yard work from some strong winds that came though the area... boy was he wrong! Apparently they had to go through a couple check points and around so many different emergency vehichles just to get to us.

More friends came out the next day, on Sunday, to start the clean up. Josh and I will forever be greatful to the friends who have helped us with the disaster relief. It's not every day we face a natural disaster but we're certinaly thankful for those who came out, no questions asked. It was a lot to tackle and we could not have done it without our friends hard work and kindness and Josh and I will never forget it. Though it will take a little while to get back to normal, thanks to them the recovery process is going a lot faster!

A crew came out the first day to help us tarp our roof, and a lady had asked me, "are you devestated?" I really didn't have to think about my answer... because I knew I wasn't. Yes, it sucks it happened to us, however both Josh and I knew we were very blessed that we only had minor damages and we were all safe. Thankfully, it is all just stuff and it can be replaced. And I believe this experience has made Josh and I stronger, as people and as a family.