This has nothing to do with the post, but seriously... how beautiful.
One month after I published my list, look at me go! Goals started and in progress are in pink, goals completed are in green.
1. Make Bailey a Canine Good Citizen and take her to a nursing home and/or hospital
2. Volunteer at the Pittsburgh Food Bank and the Jubilee Soup Kitchen
3. Read 100 new books (5/100)
4. Go to Europe
5. Make my mom's sour cream apple pie from scratch
6. Put x dollars into savings (there is a real number here, but I'm not sharing it!)
7. Pay off my credit card
8. Go to a national park out west
9. Maintain my blog...this is an ongoing task, but I'm doing well so far! I might make it more measureable, i.e. "write at least 4 blog posts each week.
10. Reread all of the Harry Potter and Anne of Green Gables books (1/15) 11. Lose 20 lbs... must take first steps here, and not move in the wrong direction by gaining 3 lbs.
12. Ride in a hot air balloon
13. Write more letters, postcards, birthday cards and all thank you notes for anything (I realize that's a little ambiguous, but you can't have everything)
14. Make cheesecake
15. Write a book ( though I'm certainly not getting through 1000 words each day)
16. Buy classic, well-cut dresses in the following colors: black, light gray, cream, navy, light pink, dark pink, dark purple, dark green, light blue, yellow, dark red (don't judge me - as I said before, all I wear are dresses)
17. Buy classic, comfortable pumps in the following colors: black, dark brown, tan, gray, navy
18. Visit 5 museums
19. Join a community pool
20. Go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter
21. Join a book club... Yay! Our first book is "The Help," and our first meeting is this month. I might organize a second one too, specifically for children's literature. But one step at a time, one step at a time...
22. Create our wedding album
23. Get another dog
24. Donate x dollars to the Red Cross, the Children's Hospital Free Care Fund, the Humane Society, and the ASPCA
25. Go to Cook's Forest every year on the weekend before Christmas
26. Host a dinner party
27. Roast a chicken
28. Make 10 loaves of homemade bread
29. Make a gift for someone
30. Follow the change jar method of budgeting (this is a definite work in progress)
31. Get some kind of haircut
32. Learn a great poem by heart
33. Make homemade soup once a week from October-March
34. Watch all AFI Top 100 movies
35. Send out Christmas cards
36. Go camping
37. Get better at returning phone calls (again, ambiguous... but noble! I am terrible at this right now)
38. Stop swearing
39. See "Wicked" (tickets for the show Sep. 20 for my mom's birthday!!!)
40. Go to a Steelers game
41. Legally change my last name... got my new social security card last week. Now I have to go through the arduous process of changing it on my license, credit cards, at the bank, with HR at work - but still, it's legal now!!!
42. Refill someone's parking meter
43. Pay for the person behind me at the drive through
44. Clean out my closet and donate clothes to Good Will at least once a year... well, this is mostly done. We cleaned the entire third floor, where all my clothes from the past 10 years lived, and I've grouped together all the clothes for donation. Now, to wash them!
45. Take a graduate class, just for fun - probably in Children's Literature
46. Attend a concert (Elton John, Paul McCartney, U2, Lady Gaga are all contenders)
47. Cut down our own Christmas tree, and decorate it beautifully
48. Bake shortbread for Christmas, and give it to friends and family
49. Write a will, and make Kyle write one too
50. Attend Mass at least once a month (yikes - lapsed Catholic)
51. Pray more regularly
52. Stay off of Facebook for an entire week
53. Ride a horse
54. Get a massage
55. Get a facial
56. Trim Bailey's nails and brush her teeth at least once a month (nails in August, yes; teeth, not yet)
57. Do the dishes every day (some ongoing tasks are achieved with more regularity than others)
58. Go on a picnic
59. Complete the Couch to 5K program
60. Go to a taping of the Colbert Report
61. See Louis CK or Chris Rock in standup
62. Have a psychic reading at the creepy shop in Hilton Head
63. Finish wedding thank you notes...glory, glory, halleluiah!
64. Buy patio furniture
65. Use my French and Spanish audio CDs to gain back some kind of competence in foreign languages
66. Surprise Kyle with x, y, and z (again, there are things here - but they wouldn't be surprises then!)
67. Try one new kind of wine each month
68. Purchase a real newspaper subscription ... we started receiving the Post Gazette last Sunday
69. Attend the Harp and Fiddle's Ceili dancing night
70. Go to a dog show each summer
71. Go to the Irish Festival each summer
72. Have dinner at Morton's, Ruth's Chris, and the Capital Grille
73. Try a new cheese every other month (don't just buy Dubliner each time, though it's the best cheese on earth)
74. Resize my wedding band, and have Kyle do the same
75. Find a PCP we like, and actually go once a year for a physical
76. Keep up with dentist appointments
77. Go to Maine
78. Have fresh flowers in the house, ideally once a week (Kyle says he won't buy me flowers because I buy them for myself all the time)
79. Pull weeds, ideally once a week
80. Improve my manners (esp. regarding accepting compliments without being super awkward, and not talking too much to strangers, those who were talking, or those who are busy)
81. Fix our front porch flooring - replacing a few boards, restain it, and seal it
82. Clean out our creepy basement (OMG, terror)... or maybe pay someone to do it for us?
83. Learn to play the guitar
84. Send anonymous flowers
85. Tour a scotch distillery
86. Walk to work
87. Go to bed before 10 pm for a week
88. Wake up before 6 am for a week (probably the same week as the 10 pm bedtime)
89. Take an art class for fun
90. Buy a new pair of glasses, and wear them for an entire day
91. Visit a lighthouse (maybe on the trip to Maine?)
92. Buy a king size bed, and a Tempur Pedic mattress
93. Face the uncomfortable: saying "no," unavoidable confrontation
94. Wear my mink wrap to fancy events in the winter
95. Go hiking
96. Go to the Crawford County fair
There is still a LOT of work to do, but I'm happy with my progress so far:)