101 Things In 1001 Days. Part II.

I removed a couple of numbers in this section (don't worry, I do know how to count to 50).  Not to cheat and make my list shorter; they just didn’t really make much sense and are really not worth your time reading about.  Again, side effect of the wine when writing these.

26. Visit wine country.  Visited Santa Barbara for a wedding, but no wine country yet!

27. Dress up/do my hair every day for a week.  Clearly not.

28. Buy a "Y" for my entry way.  I looked for an appropriate sized Y that would look good in our large entry space for MONTHS.  I gave up and framed an 11 x 14 print from our wedding day in that space.  Looks great!

29. Buy a fabulous way too expensive pair of shoes.  Nope.

30. Take another trip to a beach with my husband.  Santa Barbara could count for this! 

31. Have a great girl’s weekend get away.  Not yet…

32. Write thank you notes to my family for their help with our wedding - and the 24.5 years before.  I did this for my family last Christmas, but need to make sure Dave’s family gets theirs as well.

33. Buy a real Christmas tree for our living room.  THIS year.  For sure.

34. Send out family Christmas cards to our family and friends.  Did it.  It was so much fun taking the picture for it and writing notes for everyone.  Doing it again this year for sure.

35. Buy a REALLY nice bra - if you saw mine you would understand.  Bought one.  Loved it.  Wore it out.  Need another new one.

38. Be a role model to my little brothers - in some small way.  Always trying.

39. Complete a creative project around my house (i.e. paint the kitchen chairs)  AHH thank you Pinterest for so many new ideas!  Bathroom will be finished tonight.  Pictures to come!

40. Go skydiving.  Not yet!

41. Finish the YarMac :)  Blah.  No way.

42. Pass a Rockband song on hard.  Totally did it.  Singing Mr. Brightside.  Drunk Kara has a much better voice than sober Kara.

43. Go to Vegas and enjoy it now that I am well over 21.  Planned and cancelled for this fall.  Long story.  We’ll keep trying!

45. Get on the board of a charitable organization.  At this point, I at least volunteer for one!  Getting closer.

46. Take some sort of college class (marketing, photography, whatever).  I have taken six college classes.  All my nursing school pre-reqs.  AND a photography class. 

47. Make a smoothie at home.  Yes!  With our new blender.  Very delish.  Need to make more of them.

48. Go to a metal concert with Dave, and enjoy it :)  Went to one, drank a little too much.  I’ll have to have a redo on that one.

49. Donate to my mom's nonprofit.  Yes!

50. Go to a black tie event.  Not quite.  Been to some very fabulous weddings over the past few years though.

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!

Scary

School is scary. After being out for four years - I fear that I have forgotten how to go to school. And study. And retain that type of educational information.

I had to take my first online quiz last week, and was terrified (I did well, don't worry). It's the weirdest feeling. For such a huge part of your life you are conditioned to just learn and learn and learn. You know how to do it, and it becomes easy. And, it's all your expected to do.

Being thrown back into that environment is crazy, and a bit overwhelming. What and how you learn in the real world is different. It's on the go, fast-paced and trial and error. That's not how school is. You have to know it. And you have to know it now (or by the assigned test date).

My nights this week are going to be spent reading, reading, more reading, and making flash cards. Goodness. Been a while since I have had to do any of that.

I'm almost looking forward to the first tests in these classes so that I can reassure myself that I still know how to learn. And the additional pressure is on, since I basically have to get A's in all of my pre-req classes if I have any chance of getting into nursing school. Geeze.

What did I get myself into?? Nothing that I can't handle. I know that. Just takes a shift back to the good old days when structured learning was all I knew how to do!

Limbo and Dreams

Limbo. That frustrating, all-encompassing place that is in-between starting and finishing, and not close enough to either to make quitting whatever you are doing ok.

Dreams. What are you able to have once you are out of that state of limbo.

I have been through a mini personal journey over the past week from the current and comfortable, through a state of limbo, and out on the other end, to a place of dreams. Is limbo fun? No. Is working hard and jumping through ridiculous and tedious hoops fun? Not always. Is finally figuring something out and getting where you wanted to be fun? YES.

On my last day of holiday vacation from work (yes, of course I waited until the last day) I began really looking into nursing school. Have I talked about it forever? Yes. Had I filled out the initial application at IUPUI to start the process? Yes. Had I really looked into the details and/or made a commitment to do it? No.

So on this last day of break that I spent googling class pre-requisites and application requirements, and calling IUPUI, Ivy Tech, and IU School of Nursing - I took the plunge. From safety and security into limbo land. Which I may add, is not a place I have been for a long time.

As I began to research which classes I needed to take and where, I began to realize that if I do want to go back to nursing school - this is the time to do it! It was almost as everything was arranged perfectly to get my pre-reqs done quickly, while still working - and in the order they needed to be taken. As far as I can tell - if I had not jumped into the process now - it would take me several more years to get everything completed - just to apply to school. Who says there is no such thing as divine intervention?

However, my perfectly arranged schedule was not quite as easy to get to. Because it was so late in the game to sign up for classes - it took me days, two campus visits, dozens of phone calls, filling out multiple forms, learning how to use two university webistes, and sending several not pleasant emails to get anywhere.

But look at me! A week later, I am enrolled in 2 of the 3 classes I need to apply for nursing school, have my books ordered and am back in school for the first time in 4 years. And it feels really good.

I never really knew if I had it in me to make a big life change. Are there still lots of obstacles and problems I am going to have to solve over the next few years? Yes.

But this little exercise in making a tough choice, and working hard to get from point a to point b been fabulous for me. And proof that I really can do anything if I put my mind too it and trust in God to get me there.

So I did it. I officially started the next chapter in my life. And from a place where I let all my doubts and challenges discourage me and keep me where I was, to a place where I can dream about what my future might be like and have hope for something better, I can tell you - it's much better over here.

2011

I haven't taken much time to stop and reflect on the turning of the new year. What with the holidays, social engagements and family in from out of town, time kind of slipped by me this year.

I have complained a bit to people close to me this year that I wasn't as into the Christmas season as I usually am - and I think that's because there were a few things missing from my life this holiday season. Most importantly - God. Dave and I always talk about how religion is very important to the both of us and how it is something that will always be a priority - but right now, we are not acting that way both as individuals and as a family. So that is the first, and pretty obvious.

The second is running. I love to run, it is how I focus, think through things, and pray. But, I have not made it a priority to continue to challenge myself to run daily and keep the body God has given me in good shape.

So, 2011 is the beginning of my 27th year of life. The 25 and 26th years sure were eventful - trips to Europe, engagements, home purchases, weddings (LOTS of them), a new puppy and a new last name.

So in looking forward to the new year - I resolve to make it a year less about the physical and superficial, and more about continuing to grow in my life spiritually, physically and in all those other ways that I have struggled with recently.

I have spent a lot of time the past couple of years worrying about other people, events and things - and this year, I vow to challenge myself in new ways to ensure that I become who God is calling me to be in this life.

Cheers to 2011!