Let's see how it goes...

With a child on the way and our 'adult' lives really beginning I personally feel it's extremely important for Ryan and I to not lose focus on the things that we love in life, the things that keep us close, our personal goals and so much more. I feel that often it's too easy to fall into a routine and lose sight of the things that once mattered.

So, I've heard of people who do this "101 things in 1001 days" thing and figured I'd give it a whirl to see if it's something I can commit myself to. I generally have a lot of things I want to do/see/accomplish and figured this could be a GREAT way to actually do some of them and hold myself accountable. 1001 days translates roughly to about 2 3/4 years. If I comit to starting my list on Januray 1st 2009, I should in theory have all of these items complete by September 28th 2011. If I happen to start knocking some of these items off the list before January, I'll adjust the start/end date accordingly (so if I do/start something today then I'll adjust the end date by roughly a month and a half).

Green: Done
Italics: In Progress
Regular Font: Not Started

So, on with the list - in no particular order:

Personal/Self Improvement Goals:
1. Start my 'career' (whatever that may be)
2. Go back to school to study something new - whether I plan to do anything with it or just am interested in learning - even if it doesn't result in a degree, take classes that interest me.
3. Photograph someone and get paid for it. - will be photographing my cousin Laura's wedding in January - will be getting paid in the form of a new camera
4. Start a better morning routine - i.e. waking up before I have to, in an effort to make the mornings less hectic.
5. Read a book a month for 6 months straight - one book to go!
6. Take a walk during the fall simply to take pictures of the trees
7. Pull over while driving and take a picture when I see something beautiful
8. Try 6 different beers (at home or at a bar - can be on different days) to say that I've given drinking beer an honest try.
9. Make a quilt
10. Go one full day without getting online/on a computer/watching TV/ talking on the phone.
11. Go 1 month without eating meat to see if I could be a vegetarian.
12. Go out of my way to be nice to someone who annoys me. 5/2009
13. Make a seasonal dessert each season for one year (4 desserts total) that I have never made before. 2 down (raspberry, apple) - I plan to make something peppermint or ginger for winter.
14. Complete a "handy" project around the house on my own.
15. Go 1 month without eating fast-food (anything with a drive-thru is fast food).
16. Take a day off of work and sit at home and do nothing.
17. Buy a watch or fix one I have and wear it regularly
18. Get a massage
19. Maintain a flower bed for a whole season - only a month or two left to go!! - summer 2009
20. Mail out Christmas cards - I have designed cards for xmas 2009 - they 'fit' into our christmas theme b/c a donation is made with the purchase.
21. Meet all of our immediate neighbors (house directly to the right, left and in front) - we have become 'friends' with the old man next door, the house to the right is now officially vacant and being put on the market and we've chatted a number of time with the people across the street!
22. Sell something I made/did for money (could be a photo, a service or a craft of some sort) - sold Bryan my homemade laundry detergent!
23. Have Ryan help ME hang a light or ceiling fan in the house.
24. Make putting on make-up part of my morning routine

House Goals:
25. Remodel our kitchen
26. Start and finish decorating our baby's nursery to have a special place to welcome him/her into the world.
27. Remodel and decorate our living room - sooo close! while replacing the receptacles which was the last part, ryan knicked out molding and now we need to replace it to officially cross this off!
28. Remodel and decorate the general areas of our home (hallway, entrance ways, etc)
29. Remodel the three bathrooms in our home (1 started)
30. Unpack all of our boxes.
31. Remodel and decorate master bedroom
32. Remodel and decorate guest room
33. Be able to park my car in the garage - I'm not crossing this off for good yet, it's a mess again.
34. Find a way to display our shot glasses (plan: build shelves and hang in dinning room - eventually to be moved to basement when bar is done)


Fitness:
35. Run a marathon (hopefully with Ryan)
36. Run a 5K in less than 25 minutes
37. Walk through the mall one morning with the "mall walkers"
38. Get back to my pre-baby weight (or less) post baby.

Donate/Giving to Others/Environmental:
39. Donate my hair to Locks of Love again - hopefully more than last time (if running a marathon w/Ryan shave head for donation per agreement with Ryan)
40. Skip celebrating Christmas one year and donate any money we would have spent on the holidays to poor children who otherwise wouldn't have a Christmas - go as far as telling anyone who would have bought us a gift to donate to a charity instead of gifting to us (any gifts we receive should be packed up and donated accordingly)
41. Volunteer - at least 40 hours total
42. Plant a tree
43. Try donating blood again
44. Grow vegetables at home - cleared out flower bed this fall, plan to plant veggies in the spring.
45. Encourage someone to recycle (they actually have to start doing it for it to count!)

Family Growth:
46. Get another dog

Traveling/Site Seeing/Family Activities:
47. See the Northern Lights!
48. Go on my much anticipated trip to Washington D.C.
49. Take a road trip (to count as a road trip I have to be in the car for 3+ days making more than 5 stops along the way)
50. Go to the "please touch" museum in Philly
51. Go to the New Mexico Hot Air Balloon festival - and ride in a hot air balloon
52. Go to an art museum and truly appreciate the art
53. See a show on Broadway
54. Take Buddy to the dog park
55. Go skiing
56. Host a holiday gathering at our house for our families
57. Take a ladies trip for myself and any female friends (to count as a trip it must be over night)
58. Take a trip on a train
59. Take our first "family vacation" - went to NC for a long weekend
60. Make a snow man
61. Jump in a pile of leaves
62. Sprinkle some of Zoey's ashes somewhere I know she'd love to be
63. Go strawberry picking
64. Star Gaze on a camping trip - stay at a camp site "in the middle of no where" for a great view of the stars.
65. Have a candle light dinner
66. Take Ryan to see the Daily Show or Colbert Report (his choice) - we have new tickets for January!
67. Walk through a professionally maintained garden on a spring day.
68. Lay on my back and watch the clouds
69. Play in the rain
70. Get Buddy's picture taken with Santa
71. Go cherry picking
72. See the Statue of Liberty - up close (with the whole Ellis Island Experience)
73. Go fishing
74. Go to a Holiday party that I have to get dressed up for (christmas or new years)
75. Go to a carnival/fair
76. Go to the circus
77. Eat the 1 piece of wedding cake left in the freezer on our anniversary
78. Go on a fabulous trip to one (or more) of the following places: Egypt, Tahiti, Hawaii, Victoria Falls, Ireland, African Safari, London, Machu Picchu - we have plans to go to Hawaii next October.

Financial:
79. Be out of debt (everything except mortgage payments and car payments)
80. Organize our finances/bills on our computer and go paperless for as many bills as we can.

Organization:
81. Find a way to display more of the thousands of images I have stored on my computer (and be creative about it!) - currently doing scrapbooks for each year, but still need to do something with some of the others - some sort of collage. - recently decided I want to do a projector of some sort... still working on it
82. Organize our office in a way to make it easier to find important papers and maximize space.
83. Get rid of something that I really don't need but hold on to for some reason or another (aka junk) - gave my "aw" purse to goodwill - I'm no longer AW and don't talk to the person who made it... no point in holding on to it.
84. REALLY clean out my closet and dresser and give away anything I don't wear (no matter how much I tell myself I'll wear it)

Becoming a Mom:
85. Throw a successful kiddy-party
86. Find a daycare for baby
87. Make and decorate a birthday cake for our baby

Misc.:
88. Win something on the radio
89. Get another tattoo - another one with meaning
90. Get a new passport with the right name
91. Blog about each task as it's completed (or as I realize I did something that was on the list as sometimes it may not dawn on me until days later) - I'm linking all of my blogs to the item as it's done.
92. Encourage someone else to make a 101 list of their own
93. Buy a 'flashy' pair of heals
94. Get a desk-top computer
95. Order something out of a cataloge
96. Help Ryan and Ryan make another movie in any way I can
97. Buy an argyle sweater
98. Mail someone a card on a special occasion (anniversary, b-day, etc)
99. Support Ryan in getting another tattoo - or start his "sleeve" - ryan got his v for vendetta tattoo
100. Sing Kareokee
101. Sell something on e-bay

I'll be printing this list and hanging on my fridge as a constant reminder!