Hi, 2015!

Happy new year! Can't quite believe it is 2015. 2014 went very quickly. There were some terrific ups

Miss you, puppy. xxx

and downs last year, but it was mainly positive. The downs were pretty intense too though. An example: my dog of 14 years was put down due to a traumatic fall. Really missing him.


However, this year is going to be a super great AND productive year. Honest! My new year's resolution this year was to read the Bible in a Year, so I'm using a plan on the Bible app. It's quite interesting, and it's opened my eyes a bit over the last week. In the first devotional, it listed 5 of the most common new year's resolutions:

• Get fit;
• Lose weight;
• Reduce drinking;
• Stop smoking;
• Get out of debt

Yep, they sound familiar. I was interested to research these, and came across the Time.com article "Top 10 Commonly Broken New Year's Resolutions". Lo and behold, it included all five of those things, with the additions of "spend more time with family; travel to new places; be less stressed; volunteer; eat healthier and diet and learn something new." (I've highlighed be less stressed because I thought it was a hilarious resolution - how can you forsee your year being unstressful?!).

Calvin and Hobbes say it how it is

Some of these resolutions are understandable. It would be lovely to get fit, volunteer, go jetsetting off somewhere or spend more time with the family - but this also helps us to highlight where exactly we went wrong last year.

People say, "new year, new me" when 1st January comes around, and seem to look back at all the negative parts of the previous year when saying this. Is the phrase true? Can we just instantly change all our bad bits?

Well, no, not really. There's always going to be bad bits, but why can't we just focus on the good bits? At the end of 2014, after all the sad bits, I kept saying, "what a naff year this year has been". Erm. It wasn't? It was the year I got married! It was the year I had blessing after blessing piled upon me and I didn't stop to reflect on how great those blessings were!

Another example, a friend (who will remain nameless) messaged me one night last week saying how sad they were. Feeling for them, I messaged back, asking why, and she replied saying that she was down about which direction her life is going in, her appearance and her being single. Again, the bad bits of 2014, which she was worried about continuing into 2015.

Well, I was fairly shocked about this message, as my friend was one of my most successful friends in terms of job, with the most incredible, lovely personality, and I personally think her appearance in beautiful! And it is sad (and actually incredibly surprising) that she is still single, as she has literally everything going for her, but this year will be a year of self-realisation for her after her having such a hard relationship before - I just know it!

But we don't in anyway need to change who we are this year. Happiness does not derive from that. As a Christian, I believe happiness comes from living everyday with God at the centre of it all. We are the way he made us, and he blesses us (although we don't always see it). Yes, we will come across sadness, loss, pain, loneliness and illness, but through it all, He is there, with his arms wide open. He knew our plans for 2015, even before we had started it ourselves. You can lose that weight, reduce your drinking, get out of debt or try and be "less stressed", and give up half way through, or you can actually start living! Well, that's what I am going to do anyway.

New year, new outlook.

A Month Into Marriage (& Post-Weddingness)

Literally a month ago from right now, I had been married for around about 6 hours. Although, by the time I've finished this, it will probably be even longer than that!

I can't quite believe it has happened and a month has passed. I imagine that is how it feels to all newly wed women. I do, sometimes, feel the post-wedding blues, though - especially when browsing Pinterest and gazing upon pretty little ideas that I "definitely should have used at the Jazimon wedding". However, it was a beautiful day, and I actually couldn't have asked for a better wedding. My husband, I'm sure, concurs! Or at least I will say that he does, as I am already speaking on his behalf (I am his wife after all).

So, why have I randomly started a blog with the most bizarre name in the world I hear you ask? Well, there is a reason behind my madness and I shall explain. A week ago, I was speaking to an old friend of mine on Facebook who came along to the wedding. She hadn't met my husband, and, for reasons which don't really matter anymore, we hadn't really seen each other as much as we used to. I had invited her and her partner to the wedding because she had been a huge part of my life, and I really wanted her back in it - and besides, what I wanted most was for her to share in the happiness of the wedding day like I'd wanted for all my other nearest and dearest. Old or new, a friend is a friend, so I popped her an invite in the post.

Sorry, I digress. I do this a lot.

Anyway, fast forward again to last week! My friend and I (who shall be nameless!) were talking about how she had got to know my husband without getting to meet him. It was through my 100 days of Weddingness.

 --- For those of you who don't know, 100 Days of Weddingness is my adaptation of 100 days of happiness - a recent craze on Facebook, where you post a picture and small anecdote publicly to show followers how happy you are in contrast to how miserable everyone else is. ---

 Within my Weddingness posts, I would write something for myself (and for others if they wanted to read it, though I imagine there was a 90% rate of bypassing it on most of my friends' news feeds...) about my husband-to-be. Sometimes they were sloshy-sop-fests, and sometimes they were embarrassing horror stories about our relationship. I wanted to write a post every day for 100 days relating to my relationship with my husband so that in years to come, I could look back, and think about how magical the lead up the wedding had been, as well as our pre-marriage relationship! (With the invention of Time Hop also gracing our phones, that makes my life even easier now! I don't have to scroll down relentlessly, I can, without hassle, just repost year after year after year after... *groans are heard from my Facebook feed*)

Here is a shot snippet of an example of a Weddingness post:

#Day4 #96daystogo #100daysofweddingness -

New Years Eve of 2011-2012 was a bit weird really, because everything was a bit up in the air, and Simon invited me to this NYE party he was at. When I found out it was just me and him I had a complete panic, worrying that this was a date or something!! So I texted Simon saying "This isn't a date is it?" to which I got the response "no".

The evening was okay but I felt a bit out of place. Simon tried his best to make me feel part of the occasion, but then I managed to drink him under the table and he was first to chunder (such a lovely pair we were...). Also I like to remind him that I won that battle.

Anyway, I think the highlight of my night was at midnight when Simon went to give me a Happy New Year peck on the cheek and got my ear. Smooth.

Even though that night makes me feel awkward, I'm really glad it happened because it opened up so much more!

And yes, there was a lovely picture of my hubby everytime - and you can see the miraculous growth of his hair in them, too!

Anyway, I digress. Again!

My friend liked these posts and asked me whether or not I had considered blogging about things like marriage and so on. I said no, because I had no time and life is crazy and why would anyone want to read the rubbish I spurt out and blablabla... but after thinking about it, I thought, why the heck not? I don't care if no one reads it, I guess it's for me. But if people do read it, I could encourage them to take up the...

100 Days of Weddingness Challenge!

Go on, do it. It's quite fun, although you'll need to think long and hard about what to write about. 100 things on 100 days before the wedding. Write a post, and then post a photo. Here are some things you could write about:

1. Something wonderful about your husband to be
2. A funny anecdote about your h2b (but not humiliating)
3. A memorable day out or event with your h2b (I like abbreviations)
4. How you met
5. How he proposed
6. Something you did that was weddingy with your husband.

Honestly, the 100 days of Weddingness was the best thing I did - not just because it was fun, and a
challenge, but because it actually made me reflect, whilst writing it, on how wonderful and awesome my h2b was. I think it made me even more excited than I was to spend the rest of my life with him. It also makes your other half feel great too... I mean, he didn't admit it, but I'm sure he felt good seeing all these great things being posted about him.

---OK, so maybe the example within this post was a slightly embarrassing one for him, but we both saw that event happening in that way. Sort of. ---

Anywhooo... I hope I haven't bored readers to tears, and I really hope you will consider doing the 100 Days of Weddingness. If you do, maybe comment? Would be great to hear if others did it...

For now, though, I'm off. Hope you've enjoyed trying to keep up with the first babblings of Polka Dot Beans.

Jaz xo