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<\/p>\nI’ve been dreading turning 30- and it\u00a0has been no secret. \u00a0 I remember planning my life when I was much younger. \u00a0I saw myself being married right after college, and having both of my babies before I turned 30. \u00a0I wanted to be the young, cool mom. \u00a0HA! I am 100% happy that I waited longer to get married, because I had no clue what to look for in a partner during college. \u00a0And having both of the kids before 30? That’s a bit unrealistic.<\/p>\n
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My 20’s were a roller coaster of ups and downs, twists and turns. \u00a0Like anyone in their twenties, I made mistakes and learned many of life’s lessons the hard way. \u00a0But the best things (in no certain order) about my twenties were these:<\/p>\n
But above all- \u00a0I know who I am now, and I really think that happened within this last year. \u00a0I feel confident in my career, fulfilled in my marriage, rejuvenated in my faith, reconnected to my inner calm, and aware of what drives, discourages, inspires, and soothes me.<\/p>\n
So how did I ring in my 30’s?<\/p>\n
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I told Tony that I did not want to have a party for my 30th- I was dreading it that much. \u00a0So what did he do? \u00a0He coordinated a surprise wine tasting day, including a bus trip, 40+ of our friends, and hotel rooms to help me ring in my 30’s. \u00a0I had a small idea that some friends might be there when we arrived to go wine tasting, but a busload? No freaking way. \u00a0It was amazing. \u00a0 I felt incredibly loved by the end of the weekend and was blessed to be able to catch up in person with so many of our close friends.<\/p>\n
And that was just ONE of the days of celebrating. \u00a0I also enjoyed reconnecting with Lurie girls, had dinner with my St. Joe girls, brunch and cake with my aunt and uncle, and dinner with my in-laws. \u00a0It was really quite the birthday month, and by FAR, the best February I’ve had in YEARS.<\/p>\n
Goals for my 30’s?\u00a0Maybe a few of these?<\/p>\n
That’s quite the list- there’s no time like the present!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’ve been dreading turning 30- and it\u00a0has been no secret. \u00a0 I remember planning my life when I was much younger. \u00a0I saw myself being married right after college, and having both of my babies before I turned 30. \u00a0I wanted to be the young, cool mom. \u00a0HA! I am 100% happy that I waited longer to get married, because I had no clue what to look for in a partner during college. \u00a0And having both of the kids before 30? That’s a bit unrealistic. My 20’s were a roller coaster of ups and downs, twists and turns. \u00a0Like anyone in their twenties, I made mistakes and learned many of life’s lessons the hard way. \u00a0But the best things (in no certain order) about my twenties were these: Graduating from nursing school- Rock Chalk! Witnessing the Jayhawks win the national championship in 2008. NICU nurse career, including obtaining my RNC-NIC Meeting “the one” and getting married Buying our first home Learning mindfulness Living the “city life” in Chicago for one year Seeing more of the world: Honduras, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Dominican Republic, I T A L Y – and seeingmore of the country: Seattle, Maine, San Diego, San Francisco, New York (meh) Nashville Being a dog mom Starting this blog, and having the courage to share our story. But above all- \u00a0I know who I am now, and I really think that happened within this last year. \u00a0I feel confident in my career, fulfilled in my marriage, rejuvenated in my faith, reconnected to my inner calm, and aware of what drives, discourages, inspires, and soothes me. So how did I ring in my 30’s? I told Tony that I did not want to have a party for my 30th- I was dreading it that much. \u00a0So what did he do? \u00a0He coordinated a surprise wine tasting day, including a bus trip, 40+ of our friends, and hotel rooms to help me ring in my 30’s. \u00a0I had a small idea that some friends might be there when we arrived to go wine tasting, but a busload? No freaking way. \u00a0It was amazing. \u00a0 I felt incredibly loved by the end of the weekend and was blessed to be able to catch up in person with so many of our close friends. And that was just ONE of the days of celebrating. \u00a0I also enjoyed reconnecting with Lurie girls, had dinner with my St. Joe girls, brunch and cake with my aunt and uncle, and dinner with my in-laws. \u00a0It was really quite the birthday month, and by FAR, the best February I’ve had in YEARS. Goals for my 30’s?\u00a0Maybe a few of these? Add a human child(ren) to our family Travel the world more: Ireland, I T A L Y again?, Greece, Australia, HAWAII? Buy our “forever home” and DIY the crap out of it \u00a0Continue my NICU career Reopening my Etsy shop: goods TBD. Worry and plan LESS Never take Tony for granted More yoga Continue mindfulness and meditation Possibly run a half marathon That’s quite the list- there’s no time like the present! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":814,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-journey-to-parenthood"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hopemeetsjoy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/IMG_1970.jpg?fit=3390%2C3022&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8oEBX-d3","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hopemeetsjoy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hopemeetsjoy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hopemeetsjoy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hopemeetsjoy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hopemeetsjoy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=809"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/hopemeetsjoy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":824,"href":"https:\/\/hopemeetsjoy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809\/revisions\/824"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hopemeetsjoy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hopemeetsjoy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hopemeetsjoy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hopemeetsjoy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}