18) Give away, throw away, or sell 101 items (in progress)

Over Memorial Day weekend this year I've decided to tackle our cluttered utility room and garage. I figured I might as well incorporate that into #18 on my list. In a way I hope to find 101 items so I can complete this task, however at the same time I'm afraid that I may cry if I find 101 things to give or throw away in one cleaning session!

11) Do yoga every day for a month to try and establish a routine (0/30)

I just ordered some fabulous prenatal yoga DVDs that should arrive at the beginning of June so hopefully soon this one will be crossed off!

35) Get pregnant/have a baby (in progress)

It's been awhile since I've updated so I need to go through and see what other tasks I've accomplished but the most exciting news right now is that the first half of this goal is complete! Dean and I are expecting our first child this November! So within the next six months I should be able to cross this baby (ha ha, no pun intended) off the list. :)

15) Clean out basement closet and get rid of things we don’t need/use anymore

Dean and I did a lot of cleaning and purging this weekend and our basement closet was finally one of them! We reorganized all the Christmas decorations into less containers and purged the items we don't need.

88) Get a library card

I decided to finally get a library card, but have yet to visit a library. I'm hoping once work slows down and Dean heads out on his summer work trips I'll actually have time to read again.

3) Babysit my nephew for a day

In April ('10) I took my nephew Lawson and nieces Allison & Madison to the Omaha Zoo for the day. It was so much fun and everyone got along and behaved great! It was a hot, hot, hot day (with only two concession stands open!) but no one complained and we all had a great time.

83) Buy sewing machine & learn to sew

Dean bought me a really nice sewing maching for my 30th birthday this year! I've tried out some of the basic sewing lessons online and have familiarized myself with the machine... As soon as I complete my first project I'll post it!

61) Read a trashy romance novel (in progress)

I hope to accomplish this goal this summer b/c I just won two romance novels in a Valentine's Day sweespstake! So I think it's a sign that this goal must be accomplished!

30) Walk a 5k (or more)

Ever since finding out about this event, I've been intrigued in participating since I love running and walking. It's not only for a great cause, but is an unique event. It's a 3-Day walk for the Susan G. Komen Foundation. The biggest problem with it is that the cost for an individual to walk is a whopping $2300!! And not that I couldn't raise the $$, I just don't know how to go about it--or if this is even something I could do when we have a baby. But this is still in the back of my mind and always will be.

37) Try twelve new recipes in a year (6/12)

October '08 Recipe
This month I tried to make baked spicy sweet potato fries. It wasn't really a huge success, but definitely worth trying again. I severly cut down the quantity and used our toaster oven rather than our conventional oven so that probably made the difference. Unfortunately half-way through the baking process when I went to turn the fries I found that the majority of them were black... not sure what happened since I can usually follow a recipe to a "T" with great results. However the fries that turned out were delicious so it's definitely going to get a 2nd attempt. :-)

April '09 Recipe
This month we tried Paula Deen's Fried Egg and Avocado Sandwich. It was really good, but I'm not sure if it's something we'd ever make again. It was a lot of work for just a sandwich--but who knows, one day in the future we might crave it.

May '09 Recipe
This month we tried Peanut Butter Chicken Skewers. Dean's favorite chinese dish is peanut butter chicken, so these seemed right up his alley. They are soooooooo easy to make and soooooooooo yummy! Definitely will become a regular in our meals.

June '09 Recipe
This month we tried a killer marinade for pork chops. Grilled Pork Chops with Soy Sauce, Cumin, Lime, and Oregano recipe comes from Kalyn's Kitchen, my favorite blog for South Beach Diet friendly recipes. This recipe is definitely a keeper!!! Soooooooooo delicious.

July '09 Recipe
This month we tried a recipe from Whole Foods Market for Edamame Guacamole. It was very simple to make and tasted great! Perfect healthy snack to have around.

August '09 Recipe
This month we tried Grilled Lime Chicken with Black Bean Sauce from one of my new favorite blogs Simply Recipes. This blog has great recipes and they all look gourmet, which we love!

100) Make a list of another 101 things to do in 1001 days

Here are some ideas for my next 101 in 1001 list (begins 6/29/2011). This list will definitely become more of a family-oriented list.

1) Buy Dean a bike (or buy me a girl bike and he uses my boy bike).
2) Ride RAGBRAI at least part of the way with our family. Purchase an i-Bert safe-T-seat and a bike trailer for naps and supplies.

26) Try 10 new local restaurants (3/10)

Unfortunately since there are so many items on this list I tend to forget my goals and so I'm sure we've gone to many more local restaurants that I can't think of, but they do come to mind I'll add them later...

1) The Old Mattress Factory [5/17/09]
2) Wave Bistro [unknown]
3) LePeep [7.20.09]


Restaurants of interest:
- O Dining
- Mediterranean Bistro
- Sakura Bana
- Sushi Japan
- Twisted Fork

84) Read "The Five Languages of Love" in progress

Instead of reading "The Five Love Languages" book by Gary Chapman, I downloaded the audiobook version from iTunes, but I'm still crossing it off the list since this goal is more intended to indentify our love languages rather than crossing another book of my list.

Here is a brief synposis:
While love is a many splendored thing, it is sometimes a very confusing thing, too. And as people come in all varieties, shapes, and sizes, so do their choices of personal expressions of love. But more often than not, the giver and the receiver express love in two different ways. This can lead to misunderstanding, quarrels, and even divorce. Gary Chapman identifies five basic languages of love and then guides couples towards a better understanding of their unique languages of love.

58) Help build a house for Habitat for Humanity (coming soon)

I have volunteered to help build a house for Habitat for Humanity on August 8, 2009. More to come...

12) Complete the 100 Pushups Program (in progress)

This goal is intended to improve one of the areas I hate most on my body--my flabby upper arms! The 100 Push Up program aims to have you be able to do 100 consecutive push up in only 6 weeks. It takes only 10 minutes, 3 times a week to complete.

6.24.09 - Week 1 Day 1 Level 2 (Total pushups: 35)




Measurements
Week 1: 11.5"

7) Visit Chad, Sherry & the girls without it being for a football game

At the end of May '09, Dean and I drove down to Columbia for Chad & Sherry's 40th birthdays. We stayed with them for a few days, attend the girls' softball games, attended C&S 40th birthday party, and overall had a great time.

16) Sell the elliptical by the end of this project if it's not used at least 20 times (in progress)

I haven't tracked this so well, so I know my numbers are higher than this, but I'm still playi0ng fair and counting when I do from here on out.

June 2009
3 times (as of 6/15)

19) Finish painting the interior of the house (in progress)

Over Memorial weekend '09 we decided to finally paint our master bedroom! Neither of us have painted before in our lives so it was interesting to say the least. But we LOVE the way it turned out!! Hopefully I'll have a picture to add soon.

We plan to paint the last room that needs it--the spare bedroom--once we get pregnant and know the sex (we aren't finding out until after the birth though)... so this task probably won't be finished for awhile.

2) Have (at least) 4 girl's night outs and document it

Goal #2 is designed to stay in touch with my girlfriends. We all have super busy lives and sometimes go months without seeing each other! Then when we do see each other it's about a week's process to plan what we're going to do. I came up with a fun idea I think... I want to have four girl's nights this year and each of my girlfriends (including myself) have to plan one of the nights so on the other nights no one else has to make any decisions.

5.12.09
Wicked Night - Drinks at La Buvette with Megan, dinner at Stokes with Megan and Mary, and to the Orpheum for Wicked.

42) Complete a 26-Things Photo Scavenger Hunt

This site has great monthly projects that feature 26 different items you have to take a great photograph of. For my first project I want to attempt an older project they did--take a picture of something that exists that resembles a letter of the alphabet. Tricky thing is that I really have to avoid taking a picture of a letter that is on a sign--unless it's really unique. This project really makes you view things in a whole new perspective.

The other project I'm interested in is taking a great picture of something for every letter of the alphabet. I like this idea too because I can print these pictures in a book and use it to teach our future children the alphabet! (And technically could cross #75 at the same time!)

5) Babysit my nieces for a day

Over my niece's Spring Break they came up to Nebraska. From Thursday (3/26) through Sunday (3/29) they stayed with us. We hung out, played games, watched movies, went to the Amazing Pizza Machine, Bounce U (inflatable play area), and much more. It was a blast having them at our house. :-)

6) Give 15 gifts just because (in progress)

1) Designed gift basket for a friend starting a new job, filled it with fun lotions and soaps that are all themed around "for when you need to relax" (lavendar), "for when you need a drink" (pina colada), etc.
2) Gave my girlfriends a box of chocolate (around Valentine's Day) when we went out to breakfast. Maybe this isn't "just because" but I feel it is...

62) Perform 101 acts of kindness

1) After a big snow, shoveled Joyce's sidewalk for her and began other neighhors when I wiped out on their icy property--ow! [1/25/2009]
2) Offered to take an elderly woman's shopping cart back to the cart-holder for her as I was leaving HyVee. [1/30/2009]
3) Drove coworker to her husband's work since her car was in the shop [3/20/09]
4) Donated several cans of food to Boy Scouts for their 'Scouting for Food' program [4/4/09]
5) Donated $$ to the food bank [5/21/09]
6) While at the Playing with Fire concert series, an overwhelmed employee at the coffee bar didn't charge us for our coffee drinks after they were made; we informed her of this and so paid. [5/21/09]
7) Donated to Breast Cancer Research via a fundraiser at Walgreens [5/27/09]
8) Volunteered to help with field day at Maddy's school. Offered to work with a stranger on a station since her partner didn't show up. [5/29/09]
9) Offered free code to strangers while renting at a Rebox movie location. [7/6/09]

32) Go jogging at least once in the winter

I went running for the first time in the winter today. It was about 38-degrees out, so it wasn't too terribly cold. I wanted to try it out first before getting any new gear for running. I enjoyed it so I think I'm going out this weekend to get a new jacket, hat, etc.

20) Complete level one of Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shread (10/10)

As with most New Year's resolutions, comes the determination to lose weight. I'll admit I really let my body go after the wedding. Months prior to the wedding I was addicted to running and exercising to look my best not only on our wedding day, but on the beach during our trip in Hawaii. Then after the reception the stress of looking good melted away, the holidays and winter came and so did the weight.

So here I am with a brand new year, new prospective and a great workout DVD that months ago I was dying to have now collecting dust next to my TV. My first goal is to complete the entire 30-day program of Jillian Michael's shred program, on level one. If I succeed in this I'll move onto level two and the third (last) level.

January 1st, 2009 begins my first day of the level one, (which lasts 10 days) of the 30 days I'm dedicating to this DVD. I'm also hoping to incorporate some pilates/yoga and the elliptical machine into the routine. Plus January is a "fun" month to begin because Dean will be in New Mexico for the last three weeks... he doesn't know I'm working out again so I'm anxious to see his reaction to my results when he comes home on January 30th!

48) Enter my sweepstakes every day (in progress)

As many of you know, I'm addicted to entering sweepstakes. We've done pretty good for winnings, but I was pretty bad at entering them in 2008. Between being really busy with the wedding plans, gone for two weeks for the wedding/honeymoon, plus just plain being discouraged about not winning I wasn't very dedicated to entering. However I can only blame myself for not winning much because you really have to dedicate yourself every day to entering to stand a good chance. So it's my goal (for 2009 at least) to enter every day unless there really is something big going on in life that prevents it.

To help encourage myself here is a list of some of our biggest winnings and hopefully we'll enter more for 2009!!
~ Laptop, Digital Picture Frame, Digital Camera & Photo Printer (Ellen - 2007)
~ Trip (Oprah - 2008)
~ $500 SpaFinder.com gift card (Whoopi - 2007)
~ Audio/Video Baby Monitor ($250 - Family Groove - Feb '09)
~ Year's Supply Diaper Wipes/Cream ($350 - Mustela - March '09)

93) Help donate 1001 free grains of rice (1000/1000)

1/01/09 - Donated 100 grains
5/21/09 - Donated 200 grains
6/15/09 - Donated 200 grains
6/24/09 - Donated 200 grains
7/12/09 - Donated 300 grains


Background
FreeRice is a non-profit website run by the United Nations World Food Program. FreeRice has two goals:
- Provide education to everyone for free.
- Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.

To donate you have to answer a trivia question and for every answer you get right they donated 10 grains of rice. You don't have to create a user or anything like that. It's free and easy to do! I'm actually improving my vocabulary while helping the hungry! To donate rice yourself, please click here.

39) Take one picture a week to document 2009 (in progress)

Our New Year's resolution this year is to capture and document as much of 2009 as we can. So we started a weekly photo/blog project that you can learn more about here: Our Blog

10) Send out holiday cards every year (1/3)

This year we accomplished part 1 of #10 on the list--send out holiday cards. However after thinking about it, I've decided that we're going to put a twist on our holiday card/yearly update by sending them out on Valentine's Day instead. Everyone sends Christmas/holiday cards, but I think I'd like to start a new tradition and send out cards on the day when you're supposed to tell those in your lives how much they mean to you. So although we did send out holiday cards for 2008, I think in 2009 we're also going to send Valentine's Day wishes. Regardless, here is the holiday card we sent this year:

36) Vote in the 2008 Presidential Election

Today I took part in history and voted in the 2008 Presidential Election. Today's would either elect the first black president or the first female vice president. Right after work I drove to Erin Court over by our house and placed my ballot for my choice. This is (sadly) the first time I've voted in an election and was very proud to do it. I even researched most of the local issues and offices as well to be able to make educated choices.

38) Red an entire book series

I've never been big on reading, let alone reading many book series. The only other time I've done this was with the Shopaholic series... however those are very easy reads so I wanted to try to find a larger book series to complete--and I certainly accomplished that!!

In September I began reading the Twilight Series and was hooked! So in order to accomplish #38, I decided to read the entire 5*-book saga. I have already read Twilight and am beginning to read New Moon for October. After this book I will have Eclipse, Breaking Dawn, and possibly Midnight Sun left. I'm also excited because the first book is being released as a movie in November and it's rare that I've read a book prior to the movie so I'll be excited to compare the two.

** Editor's Note: I am so addicted to the series that as of 10/6 I've already completed New Moon and Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn!!! I'm marking this task as completed since the last book in the series may or may not be published. However I know how the story ends because the last book is just the first book written from Edward's perspective rather than Bella's... can't wait!

Series Progress
September 2008 - Twilight
October 2008 - New Moon
October 2008 - Eclipse
October 2008 - Breaking Dawn

* There currently are 4-1/2 books in the series... the author's fifth book Midnight Sun was leaked to the public and it's undetermined if she will finish the rest for publication.

59) Buy new ornaments to represent events for each year (in progress)

This might be cheating but since we were married in Hawai'i this year we purchased an ornament while there to remember the trip and we also received a bride & groom ornament for our wedding. We might decide to buy something else to remember the year when ornaments come out closer to the holiday season, but I'm considering this task (1/3) completed. :-)

Yearly Ornaments
2008 - Hawai'i Flip Flop, Bride & Groom

1) Create a blog site for this list

Since you're reading my blog, this obviously that means #1 is checked off the list. Here is some background on this adventure...

The Mission:
Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days.

The Criteria:
Tasks must be specific (ie. no ambiguity in the wording) with a result that is either measurable or clearly defined. Tasks must also be realistic and stretching (ie. represent some amount of work on my part).

Why 1001 Days?
Many people have created lists in the past - frequently simple goals such as New Year’s resolutions. The key to beating procrastination is to set a deadline that is realistic. 1001 Days (about 2.75 years) is a better period of time than a year, because it allows you several seasons to complete the tasks, which is better for organising and timing some tasks such as overseas trips or outdoor activities.