It's gonna be a BIG year

This is the year that will change my life forever.

In March, we'll welcome a baby girl into our family and life will never be the same...I am nervous, excited, overwhelmed, and really happy. I will be happier when she is out and healthy and send positive thoughts to my growing belly every day in hopes that wish is realized.

I always start the year with a reflection on some of the goals I made the previous year and set some new goals. I am not so much into resolutions because I feel like I pretty much live life the way I intend to, so I don't feel a huge need to change that. But, I do feel the need to set goals to keep myself on the track that I am on.

Let's take a peek at my goals from last year...

• Complete the half marathon in April! Check! I finished the race in 2 hours and 3 minutes and was super proud of myself and all my running buddies. They are still at it and have continued on to run other half marathons since, but being pregnant has put a stop to my running. I am thinking of signing up for another half in the fall as motivation to get back to running after the baby comes, but I think I need a taste of motherhood before I commit to that. 

• Complete Core Paper and Specialty Paper for my doctoral program-Done and Done. I completed my core presentation and defense on June 16th--a mere two days before I returned to Germany for the summer to reunite with Mr. Sneaker and make a baby. :0) Midway through the specialty paper, a committee at PSU decided that it would no longer be required, but what I wrote basically became the first 2 chapters of my dissertation proposal, so I am totally on track. I am now starting to work on my methodology section with the hopes that I can complete chapter 3 (final chapter of the proposal) before Little Miss Sneaker makes her debut in March.

• Start my dissertation research- Fail. This goal was a bit premature as we realized that it truly takes 4 years to complete all the program requirements rather than 3. We were led to believe it could happen in 3, but no-one in the cohort is quite ready to actually start research yet. We are all still working on our study design and need to get through the hoop of getting our proposals approved before we can start collecting data. I am looking at data collection next fall with the hope of completing the entire dissertation and finishing by Spring 2013.

• Read at least 1 book for pleasure each month (I loved this goal last year!)-Pretty sure I did this, yet I totally forgot about keeping track and writing down the titles of the books that I read. I am not trying to make excuses, but pregnancy brain has taken over and I am not nearly as organized as I used to be...hopefully I get my mojo back after the baby is born...ha! I'd really like to get back to making my way through that list of the top 100 books every young reader should read that I was working on in Germany.

• Post on this blog more frequently! Since becoming pregnant I can say for sure this goal has been a fail. I feel like I have not been posting at all and I hate that, yet I can say for sure now that being pregnant has this magical way of shifting one's priorities. I am LOVING my job this year, I love my kiddos and small class sizes, and I feel like I have a great groove going in the classroom. But, I don't always feel the need to post about it when I get home...I still read the blogs in my sidebar all the time and want to be part of bloggy land, yet I find myself just wanting to take a load off when I get home and I'm somewhat uninspired to write about teaching. Everyone has a rut every once in awhile, so maybe this means that Sneaker Teacher will make some changes in the upcoming year. 

 This year, I don't really feel like I have too many goals besides delivering a healthy baby. That is my main focus and purpose and all other things take a backseat to that. I have no idea what is in store for me as I enter the world of motherhood, but I hope that I'll be good at it and make the most of being home with my baby for 5 months before going back to work in the fall. I am so excited to meet my little baby girl in a few months. 

Professionally/School-wise my goal is to complete my dissertation proposal before Baby Sneaker comes out and to present and defend the proposal by the end of the school year. I think the summer will bring a bit of a break and then I hope to collect my data in the fall and then use winter and spring terms to analyze and complete the dissertation writing. It will be interesting to see how I can juggle being a new mommy, working on my dissertation, and teaching...

Happy New Year to everyone. Health and Happiness are my big wishes for everyone this year!