New Year, New Goals - 2016

I can't believe it's already 2016 (I know it's February but better late than never, right?!) ! I feel like 2015 just flew by and I'm so excited for what's ahead. We had a lot of major milestones this year, here are a few highlights:

1. We bought our first home!

In February, we closed on our first home. We feel so blessed to have gotten this beautiful home that we can see ourselves in for many, many years to come. I can't believe it's almost been a year since we moved into our little Hough Home. (Anyone notice the blog name-change?!)

2. New jobs for both of us

After 2 year at a great PR/Marketing agency, I decided it was time for a change! I wanted to switch from an agency to corporate setting and completely change what field of marketing. I've been in a marketing role at the Home Depot corporate office for just over 7 months and am absolutely loving it! I miss some great friends from my old job, but knew this was the right career move for me and am so thankful I took this new job.

I work with some really awesome people and am passionate about going to work each day!

Houston also took a new role last year in June. He's been working extremely hard and I'm so proud of him!!

3. Betsy's wedding

My sister Betsy married the love of her life Michael in November! It was absolutely stunning and I wish we could do it all over again!! Here are a few special pictures from their unbelievable photographer Kristen Weaver.

Don't they just look like models?! (insert emoji heart eyes)

4. Trips

We took some really awesome trips this year including Salt Lake City to celebrate our 1st anniversary, Highlands (twice!) to have an Engagement Weekend for Betsy and Michael and then again with Juliann and Daniel for a fun couples weekend, Boston to visit Houston's brother and sister-in-law. Charleston for Betsy's Bachelorette, Louisville for our friends' engagement party, Destin (our favorite place to go to the beach!), Naples to visit grandparents and see one of my best friends get married, Birmingham for another best friend's wedding and St. Simons to celebrate my mom's special birthday.

Here's a few pictures from our trips:

Goals for 2016:
1. More Reading

I feel like I say this every year, but I really am going to try to read more this year and minimize my time on social media. I'm off to a pretty good start! I started reading How To Win at the Sport of Business, a compiling of some of Mark Cuban's blog posts. It's an easy read and really interesting to hear how he became so successful. I'm also re-reading Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Life. This book has made such a wonderful impact on my spiritual life. Houston and I actually read this together when we first started dating and it's amazing how you can re-read something and God can speak to you in a completely different way each time.

Any other suggestions of books I should add to my list?!

2. Health

I'm trying to get back into eating healthy and working out consistently. Now that it's officially cold in Atlanta with the snow we had this past weekend my option of running in the neighborhood isn't an option. I joined something called ClassPass and am really enjoying it so far. It lets you go to classes at several different gyms (barre, yoga, kickboxing, etc.) or in different cities if you travel for work. Some cities are Atlanta, Orlando, Chicago, Boston, Nashville, New York, D.C., and many others. Check out if your city offers ClassPass to give it a try! Use this link and you'll get $20 off your first month and I'll get $20 bucks off too, win-win!

I'll write soon on some of my favorites after the first few weeks. It's nice to try new classes and workouts a try that I wouldn't normally try.

3. Opening our home more

Something else we want to do this year is open our home more to have friends over. I grew up with a love for hosting from my momma, who is the hostess with the mostest! We're going to try and make an effort to have people over more often this year.

4. Get a puppy!

So this may not necessarily be a "goal" but I really want to get a puppy this year!!! Houston and I are still working on a breed we can agree on. One day it's big, then small, then a Goldendoodle then a King Charles Spaniel. Also, I still don't think we're fully ready for the responsibility just yet... but we're close :)

So those are my goals for the year! Come on 2016, can't wait to see everything you have in store for our Hough Home! What are some of your goals for this year?!

xox, A

Gettin' Ready for Spring Break!

I know what you're thinking... 2 posts in 1 day?? Don't worry this probably won't happen very often.

I was just talking to Houston earlier today and told him that I really wanted to be more dedicated to healthier eating habits and workouts this semester. I want to have a healthier lifestyle and be more comfortable in my skin. He is amazing and tells me everyday that I am beautiful and is always so incredibly encouraging in my efforts to be healthy (when I try), but I am not thrilled with how I look and he is the BEST person to help me because he is so knowledgeable about health and fitness! So he told me that if I wanted him to, he would help me come up with a plan for my diet and fitness schedule! If you can't tell... I'm one very lucky gal:)

So after that great talk with Houston, my sweet friend Jaime had some of us girls over tonight to catch up now that we are all back in town (we start our final semester of college this Monday! Where has the time gone??) We were talking about how we all want to be in good shape for our Spring Break cruise, and decided we are all going to join our local Pure Barre, at least until Spring Break in March!!

Above is a video to help explain what a PB class looks like.


I am so excited because I love PB! It's so much fun and I love the workout, and I am also much more likely to go if I have a friend with me (social butterfly, right here).

PB really helps me to tone up, but I get faster results for my stomach if I'm running. So what I've decided to do is do my cardio on Tuesdays and Thursdays (I don't have class on TTh this semester - hallelujah!) and then I can go to PB classes with my girlfriends whenever they're free!

Now I'm posting about this so I can have a little more accountability. I'm not sure how many people actually read this (besides my sweet family and supportive friends), but this way I feel like I'm posting it out there for the world to see and I (hopefully) will be more diligent with my healthy living!

We (Juliann, Jaime, Courtney, Kristin and myself) are going to start our memberships this weekend at PB and I am so excited to get back! I haven't been in "Pure Barre shape," as I like to call it, in awhile so it might take me a few weeks! But here we go:)

Last thing --- Have y'all heard of this phone app called GroupMe?? I'm obsessed. My friends just showed it to me tonight and it operates how text messaging should on the iPhone (sorry Apple)! It's similar to WhatsApp if you've had that, but you can turn on a setting where you can receive them as text messages if you want, and you can also turn notifications off and/or take yourself out of the group message if you want to stop getting buzzed every 5 seconds... GENIUS! I love group texting, but sometimes it can drive me crazy if I'm out of town and can't hang out with my friends trying to make plans in the group text or my family loves to group message but sometimes I'm in the middle of things and can't respond, so this gives you the option to turn on the notifications! A highly recommend it!

Okay, sleep time! I have a business meeting in the morning! Eek:) I'll keep you posted on my newest entrepreneurship idea as it evolves!

-A

Fitness Update:
Juliann and I went to the gym at school today and I did:
10 minutes on the elliptical
10 mins sprint/walking on the treadmill
4 planks 30 seconds each
each side plank 30 seconds each
2 sets of 10 squats
2 sets of 10 lunges
3 sets of 30 rep "back dancing" (as PB calls it)
and 20 reps captain's chair leg raises

New Year's Resolutions

The great thing about a new year is the ability to "start fresh." Even though we have the ability to do that everyday, something about a fresh year makes it easier.

I actually took the time to write out my New Year's Resolutions and would like to share them with you:

1. Spend more time reading Scripture - I often get caught up in reading devotionals or Christian books, but forget to read the most important Book of all... my Bible!

2. Find a job! - I graduate in May and I find it very important that I find employment this year, despite the poor job market these days.
Mini Goals:
-I would like to have two interviews scheduled by February 1st (informational or actual).
-Send my resume to at least 10 people or companies by February 1st.
-Find a job by Spring Break!

3. Take advantage of my last semester at Samford - I have special friendships that I want to be sure I devote time to and step away from any friendships that seem to be surrounded with any type of "drama."
- I especially want to take advantage of living in the same city as my big brother, Michael, and hope to meet him for lunch or dinner maybe once a week since I know I'll be moving a state away after graduation.
-My Chi Omega family is very special to me and I want to be sure and invest in those beautiful women while I'm in Birmingham.
-Last but certainly not least, the majority of my best friends are women I've met in college and I want to devote special amounts of time to them. I certainly feel that school is important, and have always put school first, but I don't want to look back on my last semester of college and regret missing out on any fun times with these ladies!

4. Start a blog... CHECK! And I hope to write at least once a week this year!

5. Read two books - I'm not much of a reader (this is why I have set the bar pretty low with only two) and I'd like to spend more time reading and less time on social media. Any recommendations??

6. Love my body! Thankfully, I haven't had much of a problem loving my body (Although it was certainly easier when I cheered in high school and worked out at least 4 times a week, but since being in college it has become a little harder to carve out time to stay active and I've never been a huge health nut! But I'm hoping that I can begin cooking more (I'm taking a Food Prep 101 class this semester that I'm REALLY excited about!) and find fun ways to stay diligent in a healthy lifestyle!

What are some of YOUR goals for 2013??

Well that's it for my first blog post ever! I'd love your comments, questions, concerns and feedback anytime:)

-A