101 things in 1001 days, take 2

So, some of you  might have remembered my last list.  Even though I didn't actively update the last list, I actually did a lot of the things on that list and was fairly successful.  However, now that I have Luke around and we've bought our own house, the scope of my list has changed a little.  I think it's time for the list, part deux. 


Today is day zero.  The start of 1001 days that will end January 25, 2016. 

101 goals, sounds easy, right?  Should be easy.  It's always harder than what it seems.

Personal:

1. Participate in a 5k
2. Get (yet ANOTHER) pair of glasses (Thanks to Luke, my old new pair are broken)
3. Do something that's just for me
4. Learn something new
5. Try 10 new foods
6. Eat at 10 new restaurants
7. Go someplace completely new to me
8. Write a letter to future me
9. Write 100 things that make me happy
10. Make a top 10 list of quotes
11. Top 10 personal experiences of my life thus far
12. Make a top 50 list of favorite movies
13. Re-certify my CDA
14. Make a top 10 bucket list of places to visit and things to do
15. Read 5 new books

Marriage and Family:

1. Take a small weekend getaway trip with just Matt
2. Read "The Five Love Languages"
3. Take Luke to Disney World
4. Write letters to Luke for him to open at important life events (just in case)
5. Teach Luke to read
6. Get rid of all things diaper
7. Take Luke to his first full-length movie in the theater
8. Take Luke to the Drive-in
9. Go back to the Indy children's museum
10. Take Luke back to the beach
11. Watch 26 movies as a family (including at least 10 classics) to correspond to every letter of the alphabet
12. Spend the Fourth of the July watching fireworks
13. Top 10 things I love about Matt
14. 
    

Friends and Co-Workers:

1. Have at least 5 parties at the house
2. Make it a point to have regular girls nights out
3. Keep in regular communication with friends and extended family
4. Bring in treats for co-workers at least once
5. Make a new friend

Home:

1. Get the bathroom shower stall finished
2. Get Living Room painted
3. Replace front curtains
4. Install clothes line
5. Start small garden 
6. Have a garage sale

Community:

1. Participate in at least one volunteer experience
2. Pay it forward for at least three people
3.  See one live and local play
4. Listen to a live music group play

Misc:

1. Get a nice camera and new lenses
2. Enter a contest

well, this is awkward.

Well, wow.  This is awkward. 

September to May---that's.....:does some quick calculations: 7 months. 

Well.  Hmmm.  I told you I'm no good at this stuff.  Total transparency on my part, people, total transparency. 

So what's new with you?  How have you been?  How was Halloween?  Thanksgiving?  Christmas?  New Years?  President's Day?  Valentine's Day?  St Patricks Day?  Easter? :-) 

We've been good.  Busy, but good. 

See?  Very busy.  :-) 

Welcome Fall!

Well, with it being Labor Day, what a better time to kick off the fall bucket list season? I have far higher hopes for the fall season for a couple of reasons.  1) Matt’s going to be done with his job at the zoo in about a month, so that will help give me more time/flexibility on the weekends with Luke.  2) We love the fall and it’s vey easy to convince the the two of us to get out of the house in order to go do something in the pleasant fall weather.  3) Luke is (as always) getting older, so it’s more fun to do these things with him. 

Here’s the fall list: 

1. Go apple picking
2. Pick out a pumpkin
3. Carve a pumpkin with Luke
4. Take Luke Trick or treating
5. Go trick or treating at the zoo
6. Go to the zoo one last time (pre-trick or treating season)
7. Drink/make hot apple cider
8. Have/attend a bonfire
9. Go to Grabill Country Fair
10. Go to Johnny Appleseed festival
11. Go to the apple festival
12. Play in the crunchy fall leaves
13. Have a fun grown-up night out
14. Make homemade applesauce
15. Take Luke to his first movie (it’s a hold over from the summer list)
16. Make insulated box for the water pipe
17. Attend fright night downtown
18. NCIS Premiere!
19. Have a nice anniversary dinner/trip
20. Donate box/bag of things to goodwill
21. organize Luke’s books
22. clean up guest room (hold over from summer)
23. hang curtains in guest room (hold over from summer)
24. Change out Luke’s wardrobe (appropriate season/sizes)
25. Attend home opener Komets game
26. Eat homemade chicken and dumplings
27. Plan Luke’s birthday celebration
28. Decorate front yard for halloween
29. Donate to a charity
30. Take Christmas Card picture
31. Get family pictures taken (hold over from summer)
32. Go to/Watch an entire football game
33. Wear an old favorite hoodie
34. Start Christmas projects
35. Make list of 25 things I’m thankful for
36. Apple-themed art project
37. Roast pumpkin seeds
38. Get a fall-scented candle
39. Make Leaf Rubbings/Leaf Art
40. Watch a Halloween Movie
41. Dance in the rain (hold over from summer)
42. Go out three times with friends

Well, all in all, not so bad!

So I’ve been trying to keep up and stay on my summer bucket list.  However, with Matt working 40-70 hours a week, most of the time I’m by myself with Luke so it’s harder to get things done.  HOWEVER, the final results of my summer bucket list?  77 out of 100 accomplished. 

1. Make a list of 50 things to do this summer!
2. Complete the 31 day blogging challenge
3. Go to the botanical gardens and take pictures (solo)
4. Go on three girl dates with friends (no boys allowed, big OR small) (Thanks Yvonne and Jennifer!)
5. Send 5 handwritten letters/cards to family or friends
6. Identify 100 things that make me happy
7. Spend a whole day without looking at my phone (Thanks trip to TN)
8. Spend a whole day without tv or computer (Thanks power outage!)
9. Read 3 books
10. Try 3 new foods (working on it—down to just one new food)
11. Complete 3 random acts of kindness (Paid for parking for someone at the game, let someone go in front of me at the store and helped someone find their way out of the hospital when it was actually out of my way)
12. Bake Cupcakes (and give them out)
13. Make a list of 25 things I like about myself
14. Go a full day without swearing (Thanks trip to TN)
15. Make a list of 50 quotes that inspire me
16. Clean out the guest room  (Working on it!)
17. Hang up the curtains in the guest room (When #16 is done)
18. Pull out the bush on the side of the house
19. Get rid of 100 things  (See #16)
20. Visit a farmers market (Southside farmer’s market)
21. Watch Fireworks (Tincaps game)
22. See a parade  (Technically we watched the TRF one on tv, but we’re planning on Harlan days)
23. Play in the sprinkler
24. Blow Bubbles
25. Eat Popsicles outside
26. Go Swimming  (Jury Pool)
27. Have a spray bottle/squirt gun fight
28. Play at a splash pad
29. Make s’mores
30. Catch fireflies
31. Go to a festival (Monroeville Days)
32. Get family photos taken
33. Go to a concert
34. Go to the movies (Luke’s first trip to the movie theater!)
35. See a drive-in movie
36. Go to a baseball game (Tincaps game)
37. Go to the playground  (With Yvonne and Luke)
38. Play in the rain (It FINALLY rained!)
39. Eat shaved ice
40. Go to a story time
41. Watch the Olympics (We’ve already watched enough that I can cross this off, but we’re still watching it)
42. Make Lemonade from scratch
43. Make breakfast for dinner
44. Ice Cream Sundae party
45. Go to the library
46. Go on 3 date nights with just us
47. Try a new restaurant
48. Have a candlelight dinner
49. Plan our anniversary (weekend getaway?)
50. Play a game together

100 things that make me happy (a work in progress)

 

So I can go back and edit posts and so you might see this once and it doesn’t have 100 or you might look and it’s complete and wonder what in the world I’m talking about.  Either way---I’m not sure if a list of 100 is going to be easy or hard.  It seems like a lot, but if I get really specific, it might go quickly.  Let’s see! (in no particular order)

 

1. Taking pictures and looking back on them and thinking “wow, gorgeous!”
2. Playing with photography and trying new things
3. Finishing a book so good that I sigh when I close it
4. Laughing so hard I cry
5. Making someone else laugh so hard they cry
6. Seeing a new place
7. The smell of salt water
8. Swimming
9. Listening to music that makes me think of another place/time and smile
10. Finding ways to surprise Matt
11. Watching Luke turn into a “real person”
12. Winning contests
13. Walking in the sand
14. Camp
15. Campfires (and the smell of campfire smoke)
16. Getting through to a kid and watching them hit a milestone
17. Trying new foods
18. Making new foods
19. Cooking with Matt
20. Watching Luke try new things and like them
21. Watching Luke try new things and NOT like them
22. Carving pumpkins
23. Giving people presents
24. Stepping on Crunchy Leaves
25. Deep Dish Pizza
26. Spending time with my family
27. Making a new friend
28. Spending time with old friends
29. A well-timed, all-in-good-fun joke
30. Bad Puns
31. Komet Hockey
32. being proud of my city
33. Halloween
34. My Birthday!
35. Margaritas (high quality ones)
36. Potato Soup on a cold day
37. Walking barefoot in the grass
38. My Tevas
39. Watching everyone spaz when I actually look like a girl
40. New car smell
41. Trick-or-treating
42. Hanging out with old friends
43. Dancing with Luke
44. Dancing with Matt
45. The smell of the air after it rains
46. The sound of rain on the roof/windows
47. NCIS
48. Hanging out with new friends
49. Watching Luke dance
50. Hugs

Taking Luke to his first (real) parade!

So truth be told, I’ve taken Luke to a parade before.  His first fourth of July, matt and I went up to Crown Point and took him out for the parade.  However, being as he wasn’t even real food yet, it didn’t count.  This has to to be in a handbook somewhere…if you’re not even eating normal human food, milestone accomplishments are up for parental approval.

 

Oh Crap.  If I discredit his “first” parade, that means I took him to his first without Matt.  Then I have to listen to Matt complain about it.  Hrrrrm…we’ll solve this by saying I took him to his first NON-4th of July parade. 

Moving on: 

Matt had to work so ‘gram-ma’ went with Luke and I to Harlan for the Harlan Days parade.  I think I was more excited than Luke because I was interested to see how he handled it.  We almost went to the Three Rivers parade, but I chickened out at the the thought of taking Luke downtown with all of those people by  myself.  We watched on tv, however, and Luke stood pretty much right on top of the screen and waved, yelling “A-hi!! A-hi!!!”.  Since that day, when he’s on the sidewalk or waiting somewhere and he sees a car drive by, he waves and says hi to the passer-bys.  

We arrived and had to wait about 45 minutes for the parade to start.  This got a little boring, but he did enjoy waving at everyone going by.   The highlight was when the jogger passed by and he yelled “GO GO GO—RUN RUN RUN---USA USA!”.  It sounds like a bad joke but, “you know you’ve been watching too much Olympics when….”. 

Once the parade started, he did pretty awesome.  I think he was torn between thinking he had to wave to everyone, avoiding sirens and loud engines, and staring in wonderment every time someone handed him candy (or winged it at him).  For a toddler who can’t have most hard candies, he brought in a pretty impressive haul.  (Related note:  I can’t wait to take him trick or treating this year, he is going to have a blast!). 

I think his favorite part was seeing Icy coming down the street as he started jumping and yelling “ICY ICY HOCKEY HOCKEY!”

 

Some Pictures:

 Waiting with Mom

Waiting with Grandma

Practicing waving and dancing

Looking and watching

ICY ICY HOCKEY HOCKEY!

Should I feel weird my child was literally sitting in the gutter? Nah.

Hauling his candy bag to the car. 

Take me (and the family) out to the ball game, take me out to the crowd---

 

Look who showed up in the middle of the game!

 

 

Someone thought it’d be a good idea to give our family (complete with toddler) mini baseball bats.

 

What a beautiful night!