FIVE years from Now? {Blogging with Purpose link-up}

First of all, let me say that my plans are always so laughable.  Like most everyone else, I start out with specific plans in mind for my life.  Some pan out the way I imagined but most of the time my plans are so vastly different than what actually ends up happening.  Thankfully!  Five years ago it was the summer of 2008 and life was getting ready to drastically change.  Tony and I were moving into our first place and moving 8+ hours away from where we had spent all or most of our lives.

Since then... Tony accepted a new job.  I worked at Family Video (again) and Build-A-Bear in Davenport.  I eventually quit both jobs and worked at the YMCA.  I graduated with my Associates Degree.  My cousin, Breanne, got married.  My sister, Amanda, got married.  My little sister, Ashley, got engaged.  We got married & went to Walt Disney World.  I had Presley.  I graduated with my Bachelors Degree.  Amanda had Anne Marie.  We got a new car.  Breanne had Emory.  Friends got married, divorced, and had kids of their own.  Family members passed away and new ones were born.  Unexpected things happened as well as meticulously planned events.

Me & Presley, Amanda & Anne Marie, Breanne & Emory

This brings me to looking out over the next FIVE years... which will bring us to the summer of 2018.  That just sounds insane.  Tony and I will be celebrating our seventh wedding anniversary.  We will be parents of (at least) a six year old.  A SIX YEAR OLD!  Which only means that I will be... *deep breath*... 30.

So, here are a few items from our "to do list" for the next 5 years:

• Buy a house.  No more moving!  Plant a flower/herb/fruits/veggie garden.  Have a yard and a fence and more than one bathroom!  Have a guest bedroom again and a kitchen table.  Central air, a dishwasher, and plenty of closet space... hey, a girl can dream!  Put down roots.  Become part of the community around us.  Be active in our church.  Hang with more couple friends.
• Upgrade to a king bed.  This one is pretty much self-explanatory!  My husband is over 6 feet tall and loves to stretch out all over the bed.  And I am 5'7'' yet somehow expect more space on the bed than him.  So, upgrading to a king is inevitable.  We've just been waiting until we live somewhere more permanent.  Which, if plan #1 goes well, this will fit in just fine... eventually.
• Baby #2.  I sometimes joke about not having any more kids... especially on tough days.  And really, I would be happy staying a family of 3 as I know Tony & I would feel extremely fulfilled with that life!!!  I don't know what path our life will take, but I hope there is a 2nd child in the cards for us.  Tony and I both have siblings and our parents all have siblings as well, so it really would be hard for me to imagine not expanding our hearts and family.
• Walt Disney World.  Oh yes.  We are absolutely going to Disney World as a family.  Not sure that it will ever top our Animal Kingdom Lodge honeymoon experience, but I don't know that I would ever want to top that trip!  I just hope that Presley will love all things Disney just like we do!
• Baby #3?  This is absolutely pushing some boundaries that my husband has so safely put up... and possibly this is asking for TOO much from him...  but at this point, I am open to it.  I suppose that's easy for me to say considering we are a family of three at the moment and I have an easier time imaging the joys of being a family of five rather than hardships.  I know there are plenty.  But, five is a great number!  Tony's "magic number" is two and I would say mine is 2 or 3, depending on the day.  He comes from a family of four and I come from a family of five... so it seems pretty natural that we would think this way!
• Adopt.  A dog.  Once we decide we are out of the baby stage and completely out of diapers... it will be time to add some fur to the family!  We are such dog people, though, that it will be a miracle if we can hold off on finding a pup until then.  I just don't want to add a fur-baby to the family until we are in a spot where we can give him or her a good deal of attention.
• Sometime in between ALL these things, I'd like to find my passion (outside of my family life) and follow it.  I have a great idea in mind... but who knows where my heart and mind and motivations will lead me in the next five years.  Whether it's a job or volunteering... maybe a hobby to start concentrating on more... I am open to whatever, I just know that there is so much more of myself left to give/share with everyone else.
• Increase savings.  This may be extremely naive of me to hope for... but I just really would love it if in five years our nest egg has been shown more love and attention than it has been lately.  (Obviously, the majority of items on this list would require the opposite of this hope!)  Money is great and everything - but I also don't want to forget what is so much more important than money: LIVING and enjoying each moment.

I also hope I've completed a 5k WITHOUT STOPPING by this point.  And I hope I am more active than I currently am now.  I would love to get back into something like Zumba because it made me so happy and I always felt so great during & after a Zumba class!  I just want to continue to invest in myself over the next five years.  Because if I lose who I am and lose sight of who I want to be, none of these other things will mean as much.  I want to live closer to my in-laws and closer to my sisters.  I want Presley to grow up in a beautiful, safe environment and learn to LOVE school the way I did, even from the youngest of school aged kids.  I want to be closer to God - I want the Lord to be an everyday piece of my everyday life, which would be so vastly different from my life right now.  I would like to cook more than we eat out or processed foods.  I hope that in five years we've already begun so many family traditions - ones that we carry on from our parents and others that we have created ourselves.  I can only hope that Tony & I would continue to put our marriage in the forefront and to never forget that it all started from us two dedicating our lives and souls and hearts to each other.  I have hopes and dreams for myself, my family, my country, and this world for the next five years - mostly I just pray for health and happiness and that the rest of the puzzle pieces fall into place accordingly, whether it's by my plans or bigger plans that I don't understand yet.

Where do you see yourself five years from now?