#8- Establish a Yearly Christmas Letter

So I did this. Ya, it's not super fancy and no one is probably going to flip out over my Christmas letter, but I set out to do this this year, and I did.

Maybe next year will be better.

Actually, it has been insanely hard for me to get in the Christmas spirit this year. (Kind of like last year.) I think I'm just really becoming disillusioned with Christmas. I mean, I still see value in the birth of Jesus, obviously, but the rest of it just seems like a huge money-sucking, stress-inducing waste of time to me. Sorry. Maybe I would feel better if there was snow. Or I was gonna see my family. Or we had two dimes to rub together.

Anyway, the Christmas Letter is established. Onward!

#44 Read the Clock Without a Face

Did it! Actually read it out loud to Trey which, for me, is a feat of it's own. (I hate reading out loud). If you don't know what this book is you can check it out here or here, which is where I first heard about it.

Love. I must write a book like this.

#12 Find a Pen Pal

Well, last night I received my first letter from my pen pal. And today I sent my first letter to her. I don't know what is going to happen from here but I really hope it works out:)

So #12, Check.

#94--Make a Pie from Scratch

Ok so pretty much since I saw this video when I was little:

...I have been intrigued by the idea of making a pie from scratch. It's funny to think that something that used to be the norm fascinated me so much. Haha.

Then, a couple of months ago I went to Utah to visit my parents. There had been this restaurant I used to work at that had the best homemade pies and I was so looking forward to having some pie. There are just not that many places that sell pie, you know? Unfortunately the place was closed down so my pie dreams were dashed. That's when I decided to add "make a pie from scratch" to my life list. And last night, 3 months later, I finally did it and satisfied my pie craving!

Mixing the pie dough

Most of the recipes I found had you making the filling from scratch and then using store bought, pre-made, dough. But that's not the way I wanted to do it. I also wanted to make my own pie dough. After searching the internet for a while I decided to see what Martha had to offer. (Thanks to the free subscription I got to Martha Stewart Living I'm now obsessed with Martha haha). So I found this recipe for apple pie and this recipe for pie dough and went from there.

Dough to be cooled in fridge

Pie filling!

All ready to pop in the oven

Fresh out and piping hot

Yum yum yum

I was kind of nervous about making it because so often things I plan to do don't turn out like I thought. I was afraid the pie would explode or sink or SOMETHING. But it turned out amazing! It was actually a lot more time consuming than I thought but it was fun and I was super excited about it. I will definitely be making this again. Probably for Thanksgiving!

#10--Get a professional massage

Wow, I actually did this on Saturday, the 16th but, in the meantime, we've been moving and it's been crazy.

So my mother-in-law, my sister-in-law and I went out to lunch and then to the spa for our birthdays. It was awesome and I really enjoyed the massage. But most of all I enjoyed the family time:)

I didn't take any pictures cuz..hello? That would be weird. Plus...my cameras were still packed. So....suffice to say CHECK! I'm pretty happy about it too.

The life list is going pretty well this year lol. I'm also pretty excited because after what feels like SCOURING the internet, I finally found a site to post an ad for a pen pal! And I also wrote to some people on the site, so I'm hoping that I can cross off #12 sometime in the near future! I think this is the life list item I am most excited about right now:)

Last but not least: meet Sally Squirrel!

O hai Sally Squirrel

Ya I know she looks nothing like a squirrel. And ya this is a terrible picture. I unpacked my cameras but I decided to go the lazy-cellphone-picture route.

I've had her since I was three. She actually used to have fur but it's long since rubbed off. I have no idea how I still have her or how I got her back from wherever she was hiding for several years. But whatever. She's been on a couple of mission trips with me now and, although I never took any pictures with her before, I've decided to start including her in some of my pictures, especially life list posts. Sooooo...welcome to the blog Sally Squirrel:)

#103 Go on a hayride to a pumpkin patch

Trey with his pumpkin

aaannnddd...with another pumpkin

The farm had the most beautiful sunset.

Me and Trey

It's blurry cuz we were moving


Check!

This month is being a good life-list month for me.

Yesterday Trey and I went to a pumpkin patch with some friends. It was totally fun. I was really afraid that this item on my list wouldn't live up to my expectations. You know how that sometimes happens? So I was really trying not to get my hopes up too much, but it ended up being really fun! We got to go on a hayride, see some animals, pick out pumpkins and go through a corn maze.

Overall I really enjoyed it, although the best part was probably just being outside and getting to spend some time with my husband and some friends!

The view looking up from the hayride

Hayride!!

Punkins

Baby cow wants some MILK

#102? I'm saying CHECK

In a semi-effort to start #102 on my life list, as well as just for my own random pleasure, I thought it would be fun to start leaving random little things around in random places.

So today I got some paper and my gluestick (I wasn't kidding about that tip of the day) and made a little mini-book. And I wrote in it and drew (drawled) in it and now I'm just looking for a place to put it. I got like the hugest kick out of it ever so I'll probably do this again.

It also gets me super depressed to think about it getting thrown away so I made a duplicate and stuck it in my journal lol. Because I am awesome. The only thing left to decide is if I should try and track it somehow a la Operation Beautiful or something like that. Eh, maybe not.

I wish someone was leaving me random cute things to find in random places. I think I might be a hero.

#82-- Learn to love heels

Ok, apparently when I added this item to my life list I neglected to observe the cardinal rule for writing goals: They have to be measurable.

How, exactly, do you measure whether or not I have achieved the goal of "learning to love heels?" The only basis I have to go on is that I now FEEL that I have accomplished this goal: I wear heels nearly everyday and have been loving doing it. The only issue now is that I feel I MUST add more to my wardrobe. Haha.

So, short post: check, #82: check.

Peace

#19--Try Sushi

I didn't NOT like it. That's all I really know to say. It was such a different experience than anything I've ever tasted that I can't really compare it to anything.

The pastors of the church that we are going to be working at love sushi so, while having lunch with them, I decided to try a piece--you know, for life list purposes.

I think it is something I'll have to grow into.

Fast Over. Alternate title: #43: Try being a vegitarian

I am a two post-a-day-er! Consider this partial make-up for my frequent bouts of disappearance. I may have mentioned before that our church has a 21 day fast. Well, it ended on January 30th. By the way, I love that it ended right at the end of the month. It warms my organized heart.

The fast was very different for me this year. The first two times I did it were when I was in 24/7 and (admittedly) I didn't do it last year when I was in Utah. The only explanation I can think for it feeling so different this year is because it is the first time I have chosen to do it on my own. Anyway, the fast was awesome. I have always enjoyed it in the past and this year was no exception. We had some awesome things happen and I just feel so content and so at peace right now. In fact, it has been so weird coming off the fast. Food hasn't been appealing to me the way it usually does. Another thing I decided to fast was secular music and I have yet to change the radio since the fast has been over. It just feels weird.

The reason for the alternate title is because, instead of doing a full fast, I did a Daniel fast. For those who don't know, a Daniel fast is (basically) fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. So that's what I've been eating for the past three weeks. Honestly, it was not too terribly different from what I normally eat since I eat so much fruit and vegetables. I'm thinkin I might have to go on a full fast next year but I'm kind of hoping that I wont be allowed to fast, if you know what I mean... From what I understand you can also eat whole grains but I just skipped bread all together. I guess what I did was more "vegan" than "vegetarian" since I wan't eating any animal products but, eh. So I'm checking that off my list. I'm almost pretty sure that I could make it as a vegetarian. I do love me some meat, but it wasn't so bad. I might have to try it for a longer period of time sometime. I heard that if you go long enough without meat your body can't handle meat anymore so I'm kind of scared to do that.

Anyway, #43 check. Let's move on to the next thing.

Envelope

So, I'm sitting in the cafe at church. And I couldn't be happier. I had wanted to quit my job and come work here for months but I just never felt like I could. Trey has been working (very) part-time at the cafe for a little bit and when I lost my job he offered to let me work (at least some of) his shifts.

Since the church is in the middle of the fast right now there is not much to do. But hey, I'm used to not having much to do, right? But this is better. It's better because there are things I can do (cleaning) if I want and I can busy myself with various activities without being stressed out. Very nice.

--side note: I think I may be coming down with something as my ears are all plugged again and my throat is killing me. Have I become a sickly person? These are the questions that plague--

Anyway, I've recently discovered a new obsession: cute envelopes. I have some gifts to send out (more on that after I actually give them) and I had been looking online for cute, homemade envelopes I could make to put them in. The long and short of it is: I stumbled across this tutorial for making cute little envelopes out of magazine pages. I'm in love.

My junior and senior year of high school I had a, shall we say, *problem* with magazines. Okay, I was addicted. I bought every magazine. Part of it was me just wanting to read them and part of it was that one of the things I find relaxing is to cut pages out of magazines. I rarely used them for collages or anything else constructive, I just like to cut things out. Whatever....

So, once I realized I had this magazine problem (oh, about the same time I was running out of storage space beneath my bed). I quit buying magazines right then and there. Well...my grandma, for some odd reason, has subscriptions to several fashion magazines. And she, knowing I like magazines, saves them for me and I get them when I go to see her or my mom sends them to me. So I had this stack of magazines that I didn't know what to do with when I discovered this envelope thing. Bingo! Guess what I've been doing the past few days? That's right--folding dozens of tiny envelopes. I don't know what I'm going to do with them yet other than mail some, use some in my journal ect. I'm thinking of opening a shop on Etsy but well see...#53 is a-itchin to be done. I would just like to get some more things to sell before I make that step...

In other news, I am working on some other life list things. Since I am participating in the church fast I decided that I wasn't going to be reading any of the things I normally read (ie fiction, NOVELS) and, instead, would tackle Evidence that Demands a Verdict (#72). I've had it since high school, when I first got interested in apologetics. Since then, I've tried to get through it, but it's no party. Usually I would find my mind wandering as my eyes roved over the words and I'm pretty sure I never made it past the intro. Enter #72, and the fast, and I decided to try again. I am still not past the intro yet but I am making sure I am paying attention and I'm taking notes. I say I'm off to a good start.

Another thing I have started: #30--Become conversational in a foreign language. I went to the library and picked up some CDs for learning French. Actually, I am listening to lesson 2 as I type this. (Ya I'm not getting much out of it but maybe my brain is absorbing it. Haha.) I am pretty proud of myself as far as lesson 1 goes so well see how this works out. While at the library I also picked up some yoga DVDs in an attempt to start #27 but that is not exactly going stellar. Honestly, I just find yoga kind of boring. I'm thinking of taking it off the list but I want to give it the old college try first. More on that later.

All for now--out.

My list

I started working on my life list today. Well, not started, but worked on for sure. I posted it in my sidebar if you're curious. I also tried to learn how to post tabs at the top of my blog so I could display my list on a different page, but that was too hard so I settled for learning how to strike through words on blogger. See TaDa! Now I can cross words off my list as I complete them. Score!

Anyway, as I was working on my list I started to come into the thinking that my list was way more important than the other things in my life right now (excluding God and Family of course). Did that sentence make ANY sense at all? I guess what I'm getting at is that my list looked way more fun than my job and I decided I'd rather do it than work. Haha. Maybe someday.

Another good thing about this list: it lifted my spirits. When I actually typed the whole thing out and looked at it I started thinking "I can do these things! My life can be exciting!" And it pulled me out of my spiral of mundane despair. For now, at least, I have something to look forward to! Completing the tasks on my list! And they are all things that I want to do so that doubles the fun! I mean, who wants to check off things on a list of things they hate? Not moi!

Now, most life lists are things that people want to do before they die: "Bucket Lists" of things they want to do before they "Kick the Bucket." MY list started off as more of a "Things I want to do before I'm 30"--List. So, most of those things I want to accomplish in the next 8 years. Some of them, like "Take my kids to Disney World" or "Visit all 50 states" are more of life long goals but most are for before I kick my 30-bucket.

Soooo...a new year is about to begin. I am counting the days, (21) because I just KNOW 2010 is going to be a great year. And I'm looking forward to starting my journey of crossing things off my list! Let the strike-through-ing begin!