Happy Birthday To Me!

This morning, at 12:26 (or was it 12:28?) am, I officially turned 27 years old! I am so excited to be 27 and I am looking forward to an amazing year! When I was younger, I kind of always thought of 27 as the "Adult Year." To me, 27 has been the age for un-officially being considered a grown-up. I know that 18 and 21 are typically the big years, but for me, 27 was always the year that I aimed to have certain goals accomplished - it was the age at which my future would be determined. And you know what? I don't think that I was wrong.

   My life - career, love, family and friendships - are all in wonderful places right now. Everything in my life isn't perfect - but where would the fun in that be? Instead, I am embracing the uncertainty and accepting all of the wonderful things in life at my fingertips right now.
I am not actually celebrating my birthday today (you know it's a sign you're getting older when life gets in the way a bit), but Josh and I have an incredible celebration planned for Saturday. I am also planning on indulging a bit at one of my favorite downtown restaurants for lunch today and celebrating with a few friends during another lunch out later this week. So really, the silver lining of being too busy to celebrate my birthday on my birthday is that my birthDAY becomes a birth(FIVE)DAYS. And I am not at all upset about that.
Now, in the true spirit of birthday awesomeness, I have a few goals that I want to share with you this year. As you may have noticed yesterday, I set quite a few goals for myself last year and then, well, life sort of got in the way. And so, this year, I want to take more time to expect the unexpected - and I made sure that some of my goals reflect that.
1. Create beautiful, inspiring and hopeful new memories.
This year is going to be a big year - I can feel it. And I want to make sure that I am not getting in my own way of enjoying each and every moment that I have the opportunity to be a part of. I want to create new memories and I want to do my best to capture those moments.
2. Take time to welcome exciting adventures into my life, while remembering to keep a balance.
Sometimes, I take on a lot at one time, and I tend to overload my schedule/workload without even realizing it. This year, I want to focus on balancing work and play and rest more. My life has certainly taken a busier turn as of late, and while I am so grateful for that, I need to find ways to balance that with everything else in my life so that I don't get burned out.
3. Work on creating, and maintaining, a healthier lifestyle.
I really like food. A lot. A whole lot. The problem with this? Sometimes I don't always remember that the key is everything in moderation. Since losing twenty pounds a year and a half ago, I have gained a few of those pounds back due to a variety of factors - schedule, eating habits, gym habits - and I want to take time this year to get to, and stay at, a weight that I am comfortable with. And, the key here, is taking the time to find a system that works for me.
4. Go skydiving.
Seriously, it's been on my last two birthday goal lists and still hasn't been accomplished. In spite of what I said yesterday about not putting it on another list, I'm hoping that maybe this serves a good reminder for me that I should be facing my fears. 
And last, but not least, 5. Achieve [INSERT MAJOR LIFE MILESTONE HERE].
I am currently working towards so many exciting things in my life - and as I said in goal #1, I do want to embrace new memories, and in goal #2 that I want to create balance - but I also very much want to accomplish everything that I have set out to do. While there's a whole slew of things I'm on my way to accomplish this year, I promise to fill you in and keep you updated on this amazing journey as I work to weave each new milestone into my life. 
I hope that you all have as wonderful a day as I am having! Happy Wednesday!