When I make our holiday card each year, it’s fun to look back through all of our pictures that we’ve taken over the past year and remember all of the fun memories Shane and I have created that year! It’s a great way to remember everything we did and how far we’ve come, since sometimes with everything going on it can be easy to forget.

It has been a roller coaster of a year for Shane and I in a lot of ways! It has swept us off our feet both in good ways and in bad. Even though we’ve had some tough times, we’ve sure had a lot of great times too! We also made some big changes in our professional lives which have been full of learning experiences, growth, and a lot of fun!

We started 2018 feeling on top of the world since 2017 was such an amazing year for us. Check out one of my first post on the blog, Happy New Year, to read all about 2017. On January 3rd of 2018, I started this blog because I felt like I had so much to share with people about what I’ve learned through personal development, life experiences, along with my hobbies and interests!

For the blog, I learned how to build a website from scratch (with the help of WordPress templates of course) and everything that it involves as far as the social media side of it and building a business. By the time we hit spring, I had pretty much burnt myself out from going too hard (I tend to do this with things).

This past winter didn’t help! As many of you already know, Shane and I live in MN, so we have long winters but 2018’s winter took the cake for one of the longest, we had a snowstorm in April with 20 some inches of snow and by the end of the winter, I was done and about ready to move!

I had also been dealing with some depression like symptoms, which didn’t help and I believe are a result of my hypothyroidism (but that’s a whole post for another day). By the end of spring, I had decided to take a break from the blog and refocus on what I wanted to do next and focus on myself.

When summer started, Shane had ventured out into a new area for his business. If you’re not familiar with what my husband does for a living, he’s an online live streamer, which means people watch and play online video games with him live. He also has his own merchandise and other means of income from it.

The new venture Shane started was IRL (In Real Life) streaming where he streams various activities live while interacting with viewers. This past summer he mainly focused on fishing streams. He learned a lot and had to overcome quite a few obstacles with it, but he loves it and so do his viewers. He still streams online at home as well so he puts in a lot of hours but it’s what he loves to do so I’m happy he was able to make it happen!

We also had a lot of fun together this summer! We went fishing with my dad at his house up north, went to the Zoo and MN State Fair with my sister-in-law and her family, attended the St. Paul Food Truck Festival with my best friend and her boyfriend, attended a few weddings, Shane went on a charter fishing trip to MI, we went on our annual camping trip with my family, and spent the week of 4th of July at my mom’s house in WI hanging out, fishing, and spending quality time together. By the end of summer, I finally felt like myself again!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

My love language is quality time so being able to spend so much time with the people who matter most to me filled up my cup and gave me the fuel I needed to jump back into blogging! I knew I wanted to keep going because I had so much more to share with people!

At the end of summer, I slowly started up the blog and my social media for it again. By the beginning of October, I started my first ever personal development, Feed Your Mind Book Club. It was so fun doing my first book club and I learned so much from the book and the other’s in the book club.

Around that same time, I was accepted by Amazon as an Associate which was an amazing accomplishment for my business! I also found a way to allow people to easily shop my links. I started getting more and more amazing feedback and results from my hard work and how it has helped improve other people’s lives, which has helped me to keep my focus and keep going which is my ultimate goal with this blog!

We spent a lot of time with family this fall too. Went on a diner cruise for my mom’s birthday, headed to the apple orchard with Shane’s side of the family, I went to a winery with my best friend, and had an annual girls weekend at my mom’s with the women in our family.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Also in October, Shane and I celebrated my birthday and our 1 year wedding anniversary which was so much fun! We spent the day taking photos together, visited the place that we got married, and had dinner at the place we had our wedding dinner. November was also filled with celebrations of Shane’s birthday and time with family for Thanksgiving.

• 

• 

Shane also had some amazing results for his business this year as well! Just this year, he started another merchandise line for another company and had his most successful year for his Merkadis business yet. He achieved a lot of milestones and has now ventured into ice fishing which is going great!

• 

• 

Looking back, 2018 has been quite the year! We had a lot of tough times as far as health and car issues and life stress (I won’t bore you with the details) but we sure had a lot of great memories too! We had many successes, learned so much, and grew in so many ways!

We’re excited to spend the holiday’s with our family and see what 2019 has in store! Happy Holiday’s from The Dooleys!! We hope you all had a great year and have an even better year ahead!