5 Years From Now

Today the topic for Becky's 52 Weeks of Blogging with a Purpose is "5 Years From Now".  When I start to think about 5 years from now, I immediately think back to where I was 5 years ago.  Five years ago I had just graduated college, adopted Harper (my puppy), accepted my first teaching job, moved into my first place living alone, and was training for my first marathon.  If you had told me then that in 5 years I would be married with a 6 month old baby and running an average of 12 miles a week, I'm not sure I would have believed you.  Things sure change and life takes us to unexpected places.  Obviously I have no idea where I will be 5 years from now, but I can dream and guess.  Here's what I envision for our family 5 years from now...

Marriage
Ty and I will be celebrating 7 years of marriage.  In the perfect world I will still be able to fit into my wedding dress and will put it on to celebrate our anniversary.  I was able to cram into it 3 months pregnant last year for our anniversary, so that shouldn't be too much of a stretch.

Wearing my wedding dress for our anniversary last year.  I had to crop out the mess our dog made on the floor!

Children
Carter will be 5 and a half years old and will be gearing up to start kindergarten in the fall.  I don't even want to think about him being old enough for that, oh my!  I'm sure Carter will have at least one sibling, probably 2 or 3 years old.  Ty and I have talked about 2 or 3 kids.  Lately I've been slipping in, maybe 4...  It's so hard to know right now.  I feel like after our last child I'll just know that our family is complete and we are done.  Right now I'm so obsessed with pregnancy and babies I just can't picture being done after 2, but I won't know until the time comes.

It's hard to imagine our little man with a backpack on heading off to school.

Pets
What is an even crazier number to think about is that Harper will be 10 years old and Skippy will be somewhere around 13 if the vet's original estimate for his age was correct.  I know Harper and Carter's relationship will be even more special.  I doubt she will be sleeping in our room anymore, I bet she will be sleeping with Carter by then!

Work
I will be in a first or second grade classroom and honestly believe I will still be teaching multi-age with my current co-teacher.  When you've got a good thing goin might as well stick with it!  After 5 more years I will have learned even more and will be a more effective teacher.  I'm proud of where I am now and know with 5 more years of experience, my abilities can only improve.  I see Ty working his way up and becoming a leader at his company. 

Home
Ty, I know you're reading this, so I want you to know I expect our master bathroom remodel to be finished within the next 5 years!  :o)  I see us in our current home, but revamped.  I have lots of projects I would like to do and I think we can get them done within 5 years...  They include a remodel to our guest bathroom, painting our kitchen and kitchen cabinets, painting the exterior of the house, and decorating the current guest room for Carter before baby #2.  In my dreams our garage would be organized and cute and the laundry room would be painted and adorable.  Priorities here, my friends.

Running
There's a possibility that in 5 years our family will still be growing, so I imagine my running will still be sub-par.  I will be running somewhere between 3-5 days a week and I bet getting in less weekly mileage than I am now.  I don't see Carter chilling in a stroller for runs anymore, especially in a double stroller, but who knows.  In my dreams I would be running sub-22 minute 5ks and decent half-marathons, but I doubt my life will allow for that kind of training.  Ty will also be running, mostly obstacle course races and 5ks.  Carter might be participating in some kid fun runs at our races.

A running family.

Family
As much as I'd like to predict what will be happening with my parents, brothers, and Ty's family, there's just no way to know.  I would love it if I had gained another sister-in-law or two, but that's not quite in the works right now.  That doesn't necessarily mean anything though since 5 years ago I hadn't even met Ty!  I would love it for my dad if he were retired and working solely on his reading curriculum and coming to visit us with my mom!  Ty's parents are happy in their jobs and I see them both still working where they are.  Paul and Amanda will have moved back to our area of the country, a girl can dream, right?!!?  

I don't know what 5 years will bring, but I do know it will be a wonderful ride!  It will be fun to look back at what I wrote today.  I know I would be laughing at my predictions from 5 years ago if I were reading them right now.  Life doesn't seem to take us where we think it will go.