Day 1, 2014; goodbye 2013

I just crawled out of the basement corner... the one we have been skipping getting organized and cleaned up. I need to get the shop vac and drag it in, the old basement vac just died and I need a break anyhow. I really want to open the floor plan up some more, so the walls are all shelved and filled up, with organized and easily identifiable bins.
The bins could have a label called spices, batteries, nails/screws, candles, etc. We figured this would be a great way to keep everything a little more organized than it is, and improve the lighting and layout. I want a table in the middle of the room so I can work from there on putting away newly purchased items.
This will also make everything a little easier next week when the new washer and dryer get delivered. Shortly followed by a gas water heater, and with the combo of all three it should lower the electric bill by 25%. I would like more but they just raised the utility rates again, the average home in Colorado Springs pays $200 a month for utilities (all year, averaged). Our utility bill is exactly $200 a month.
We have a lot to do in the next week.

So 2013 is over, and I finished it the same way I finished 2012, a nice long gym workout. I didn't have the gym to myself, I don't know anyone in management like I used to, so I worked out with everyone else. I finished up with 200 gym workouts, 20 hotel gym workouts, about 4 dozen runs, and around 8 strongman workouts. My only workout regret is that I didn't keep up my cardio endurance like I was hoping. I am hitting running again, and now that they finally opened the park and national forest above the house, I'll be able to get back into the swing of things easily.

We had a lot of fun playing on the ATV's, 4 wheeling around the state, a trip to Montreal and Barcelona, Florida and Vegas. We sold a couple vehicles to downsize the fleet and added a 5th wheel toy hauler camper. The kitchen remodel was finished and is working out great. We fell out of touch with some friends and made new ones. The garden was the best ever. A great year indeed!

In memory of my Dad passing away on New Years morning a few years back, I am going to eat this whole raspberry pastry (yes, well on the way). It tastes exactly like it did when I was growing up and when we could afford it every few months he would buy one. It felt heartwarming to not only buy it, but not even care about the cost, knowing all of the lessons and wisdom he gave me helped me be as successful as I am. Financially it was my best year and I owe my success to the work ethic that was drilled into me as a child.
Thanks Dad!

2014 is going to be a great year, one of becoming stronger both mentally and physically. We plan on purchasing some land at the end of the year, so we will have a lot of weekends driving around and camping while we search. The garden will be bigger and better, there will be dozen and dozens of things canned and put away for a rainy day. I'm not a big resolution guy but I have some goals:

Dead lift 400 and front squat 300 by May 1st
Run 1000 miles (made me laugh to type that since I was running 2500-3000) in 2014
Go back to N.H. and visit my Brother and friends
Triple our savings account balance
Have more fun adventures than we did in 2013