101 Things in 1001 Days: Not Totally Forgotten. Part I.

So this great list of ambitious things I set out to do by the spring of 2013 has been sorely neglected for much too long.  Here is a partial update and explanation of everything I have done to date.  Since this blog is public now, some of them deserve an explanation, really for self-preservation reasons, so I don’t seem like a huge creep/bitch/etc.  I’m going to post updates on 25 at a time, because let’s be honest, no one wants to read about 101 things I’m doing all at once.

1. Get better at photography. Have some work worthy to post on this blog.  This is a good one.  I am loving taking pics and learning about my camera but I have a LONG way to go.  I really want to keep working with some of the manual settings and master those.  On auto though, I like to think I’m pretty good. However, with the onset of fall classes, my spare time has seriously dwindled.  So it’s a goal of mine to pick up the camera more often this fall.

2. Buy a Coach purse.  Have not done this yet, and honestly, probably won’t.  Ha.  How’s that for commitment?  With our financial situation right now, I really would just spend my money on other things.  But we’ll see.

3. Take my husband out for a fabulous date.  Hmmm.  Well he’s taken me out for lots of fabulous dates.  Does that count?  Probably not.  I’ll work on that.

4. Learn how to grill.  Totally rocked this one.  Due to Dave’s foot injury this summer, if we wanted to enjoy grilled food – it was up to me.  Now, I’m not going to lie and say that there were not a few pieces of charred chicken in there, but I did find some great marinades and cook pork, burgers and chicken.

5. Cook paella - the full recipe. Including crazy seafood like mussels.  I have not done this one yet – maybe over my Christmas break.  Paella takes FOREVER to create, but would be fun on a day off!

6. Do something unexpectedly nice for each of my fabulous friends.  Uh.  Need to work on this one too.  All I know is when I get a card out of the blue, or a nice phone call from a friend, it totally makes my day.  And I want to do that for my fab friends.  So I’ll get on that.

7. Blog - about everything and nothing. Clearly I have done this one, not to the extent that I would have liked, but hopefully my Pinterest inspired revival will take it where I want it to go.

8. Print out and frame my wedding pictures.  Definitely done.  Dave makes fun of me when I say we don’t have very many wedding pictures up in our house, but I always feel like I could have more.  We got two canvases done in for above our bed as well, LOVE those.

9. Read 5 books that enhance my knowledge of meaningful subjects. Hmm.  Well I would say over the past year or so, there are a couple of good (aka not beach read) books that I have read.  I LOVED The Help, such a great book.  I’m also reading Obama’s book – Dreams from My Father which is a good one as well.  I think that’s it.  Any recommendations are welcome!

10. Run a full marathon.  Does a 5k count?  No?  Ok I’ll get on that.  I think I’d need a training partner for that one. Any volunteers?

11. Go skiing. Not yet.

12. Make a cool martini recipe for friends.  Also not yet – have a very cool recipe book though. 

13. Do everything I can so Dave can buy a new car. Well, not sure how much I have done on that one, but it looks like with all of his new job stuff panning out that he will get one!

14. Get a new king bedroom suite. Done and done. It's amazing.

15. Plant a garden in my back yard.  No garden yet.  We did organize our firewood though.  I know it’s not really related, but it also is in our backyard.

16. Buy nice running clothes to run my marathon in.  See above.

17. Set definite career/life goals for the next 5 years. I thought this would be my hardest one, but once I took the plunge, it was not too bad.  Don’t get me wrong it’s been a lot of work and struggle and time and money spent, but I totally think going back to nursing school will be a great thing for me and my family.

 
18. Print out and frame the rest of Robby's pictures on our living room wall. 2 more down (Yosemite and Grand Canyon).  We have one more pano of LA, but I’m not sure where to put the frame, so I haven’t done it yet.

19. Finish our travel wall in the dining room.  I’m making progress on this!! But, I really nee d to start adding in more interesting frames, with some dimension to really make it look the way I want.  A full wall of $3 Walmart frames just isn’t going to cut it.

20. Start and finish the following scrapbooks: high school, college, europe in 2005, europe with the fam/dave, wedding and honeymoon.  Not sure how this is ever going to get done.  I did start my most recent Europe trip book as Dave’s Birthday gift, so that now leaves me at 4 half done books.  Awesome.

21. Go camping. Legit camping. We went in the summer of 2010 to the Smokey Mountains in Tennessee with Marcus and Julie. SO much fun.  We definitely want to go again now that we have Dexter though.  He would LOVE it.

22. Get patio furniture.  Thank you Jan Yar for moving!

23. Send 10 random cards to family and friends.  Nope.

24. Go snowmobiling.  Nope.

25. Label the wine/campagne corks we have saved. YES.  We’ve also continued to add many more to the collection. And, I just found a fun idea to spice up the container I have them in.  I’ll try and do it and post a photo soon!

So this ended up being much longer than I thought.  Props to you if you made it all the way though.  Parts II – IV  and a photo post to come soon!