25 Mind Blowers at 25.

At the age of 25, with 26 rapidly approaching, there are lots of norms in my life that I would have never seen coming! It's nice to sit back and take a moment to look at your life in 'awe,' every once in a while. Good awes and bad awes, but mostly the awe in which nothing is how you had it planned. 

At 25 I never thought I'd...

1. Own so much burnt orange. Thanks a lot University of Texas Longhorns. 

2. Have two children. TWO. Whoa! Amazing!

3. Live in Texas. I always wanted to move, but Texas never crossed my mind. Ha!

4. Be engaged! I thought I was on the fast track to not getting married well into my thirties.

5. Be content, most of the time. I have days I'm very eager to buy a house, take off in a career other than motherhood and pursue my dreams with reckless abandon, but most days, I am perfectly content with where I'm at in life and that surprises me.

6. Be into working out. I always took full advantage of my naturally fast metabolism and muscle memory from my soccer playing back in the day, but now I want to take care of my body and actually enjoy working out.

7. Want to eat healthy. I always gave my mom a hard time for buying organic foods or almond milk and she said, "When you have kids, you'll get it." Mom was right again. You want to give the best to your kids and then you start thinking about the crap you're giving to your own body and want to be a healthier person. 

8. Write so much. I've always loved writing, but now realize what a key part of my life it is. It helps me navigate through the world.

9. Have already travelled to foreign countries. I always "planned" to travel, but never made concrete ways to do it and I've been blessed with opportunities just popping up in my face allowing me to visit lots of different countries before I was even 23!

10. Be absolute best friends with my parents. I've always had a good relationship with my parents, but never dreamed of the awesome friendship we would have at my age now. It's priceless.

11. Enjoy cooking. I didn't even like making peanut butter and jellies for myself before I had kids, now I love cooking and trying new recipes. 

12. Not own a home. That was pretty high on my priorities list when planning my life. I wanted a house ASAP. People make a place a 'home,' so for now I've got all the home I need.

13. Still not know how to do my hair and make up. Yep, never refined those skills. Still try, but don't really seem to get any better at it.  

14. Be spiritually in touch. I feel I'm really getting to the roots of my soul, which I never would have even guessed I'd be aware of at this age.

15. Be up by 7 am almost every, single day. I loooooved sleeping in.

16. Still be so stubborn. Ugh, this is a hard one for me, but at least I recognize it :). Ha.  

17. Feel great about age! I'm looking forward to aging gracefully. No plastic up in here.

18. Be a plane ride away from my family. It's a toughie. Not a day goes by that I don't miss them. I always pictured us just a short car drive away. 

19. Drink so much coffee. Every. Single. Day. I didn't even drink coffee until I was 21 years old.

20. Be so brave. I, legitimately, think I can do anything I set my mind to and I'm not scared to pursue things!  If you told me I'd be this way when I was 18, I wouldn't have believed you. I couldn't even hack it in San Francisco city by myself. Now I have a family, I'm in a fairly new place, I've made the initial steps in pursuing life-long dreams and I ain't scuuured. :)

21. Know how important compassion is. I've always been a "nice" person, but showing people true compassion is a major key to life, in my own little world anyways. 

22. Be prepping meals, ironing men's dress shirts, and making a weekly schedule of chores. I am on top of it--or at least have a schedule I try to follow to stay on top of it. At 25, I thought I'd be living in Rome, eating pasta every night, by myself. But I prep meals and iron shirts and share everything with 3 beautiful souls that Rome can never stack up to. 

23. Not own a dog. A house and a puppy. That was what my life was going to be by 25. Nope! Apartment and babies--that's what it is :). 

24. Be a stay-at-home mom. I thought I'd be conquering some business world, but I am so fortunate to have the opportunity to stay home with my little ones and wouldn't have it any other way. It really is the hardest job in the world and if you're a dude reading this, or a woman who thinks its "not that hard to press play on the DVD player," I invite you to my home for 2 days. 48 hours straight. You, kids, and the clock. You'll be singing a different tune way before your 48 hours is up! 

25. Have a blog and be sharing personal information with the "world." Or the 5 people that actually read my blog. (Haha). It's a journey and I'm loving it and I hope in sharing my stories and feelings, a positive community grows! 

When it comes down to it, I thought my life would happen in a perfect, sequential order. It's quite hilarious thinking about it now. Life throws you surprises, beautiful surprises! Life begins when you let go and see what happens. Blow in the breeze a bit. The wind will take you to far better places than you can even imagine! 

Snapshots of my 25th year:

Whatever age you're at, did you ever think you'd be where you are? Isn't it cray cray?