Life List 101 - A Work In Progress

Life List - 101 Things I Intend To Accomplish In My Life

Here is an ongoing list of all kinds of things I want to do someday. You should make one too, it's fun! You will inspire yourself. 

1. Become a foster parent. I've wanted to do this for years. When my kids are a little older, I'd love to provide a safe and loving temporary home for little kids. 
2. Participate in the Breast Cancer 3-Day. I think this would be such a great experience, but I need to enlist a friend or two to do it with me and help me raise funds because I really hate asking for money.
3. Done! Run a 5K. Sounds pathetic, I know, but this would be a challenge for me and I really want to do it.  
4. Get LASIK eye surgery. Originally I also had "get contact lenses" on my list, but I did that in 2010. And I hardly wear them because I'm lazy. I'm still glad to have them for those times when I don't want to be wearing glasses. But it would be lovely to lay in bed at night and watch t.v. and not worry if I'm going to wake up laying on a pair of crushed glasses.
5. Live somewhere outside of Michigan. I don't know if I'd ever want to permanently re-locate, but I would like to live someplace outside of the mitten for awhile, preferably someplace where months of endless winter don't suck the life out of me.
6. Scuba dive. This one scares the crap out of me. I don't know if I could overcome my fear of spontaneously combusting from oxygen to the brain or something. (boy, am I my mother's child or what?) But I think it would be totally surreal to get an up-close view of life under the sea. I will at least snorkel. I can totally handle that. I think.
7. Take my kids on a major, life changing trip. My real dream is to take a family round the world trip, like my idols at sixintheworld.com did. They inspire me, as does this family . 
8. Volunteer in a third world country. I'd love if we could do this as a family someday, when the kids are a little older. It'd be great if my youngest was past the eating anything and everything she happens to see on the floor no matter where she is phase.
9. Master sewing. I'd like to be able to follow a pattern and make clothes. I don't quite aspire to be like my friend Hilary who can sew the most amazing things, like turning her husband's dress shirts into the most adorable dresses for her girls, but it would be nice cause I'm totally jealous. 
10. Learn to crochet or knit. I want to do this one this year. I need something to do with my hands while I'm watching t.v. or riding in the car. I just need someone to teach me because I don't think I'm one of those people who can pick it up from watching You Tube tutorials.
11. Go on a zip line. This one scares me too, but I think I could do it. Maybe a little Valium beforehand would do the trick. Kidding. (probably). There's one at the Grand Rapids Zoo, which I know isn't as exciting as zipping through the rain forest, but it might be more my speed.
12. Master French. French was my favorite class in high school, and I started out as a French major in college, but transferring colleges a couple times got my classes screwed up and I switched to Psychology (smart move. not.). I want to speak fluent French and understand it when I go to France someday.
13. Ride a bike again. I haven't ridden a bike since I was about 11 years old. But my aunt is giving me her bike and I'm totally going to ride it this year. I better get a helmet though cause I'm not exactly known for my grace and athleticism. I see family bike rides in my future.
14. Be in decent enough shape that I'm not mortified to be seen in public in a bathing suit. Don't worry, not a bikini (scared you there for a minute, didn't I?), that will never happen without the aid of cosmetic surgery. It's sad that the most comfortable I've been in a bathing suit in the last 10 years was when I was pregnant. Cause then it's cute to have a huge belly.
15. Go on a trip with friends. No kids. That's for Chris whose reading this and thinking, go ahead. You and the kids go ahead and take a trip with friends, what are you waiting for?
16. Go back to Jamaica where we went on our honeymoon. That was the plan for our 10th anniversary, before Chris lost his job and then almost died of a ruptured ulcer. Fun times, 2008.
17. Go to Prince Edward Island and see all the sights from Anne of Green Gables, one of my favorite series of books as a child.
18. Done! Take a family road trip across the entire U.S. As a kid I traveled from Michigan to Arizona and California and back again a few times, but I don't remember much of it. I'm probably nuts but I just think it would be so much fun.
19. Buy a camper. Then we could take it on our cross-country trek. And lots of other places.
20. See the pyramids in Egypt. Maybe I helped build them in a former life because I have wanted to do this for as long as I can remember.
21. Get in the habit of meditating daily. I need this to calm my busy mind.
22. Take a mother/daughter, mother/son trip alone with each of my kids. Even if only for a night or two.
23. Done! Get in the habit of washing my face every night. Again, I'm lazy. I don't wear much make-up though, so it's not totally disgusting. Just a little disgusting.
24. Get braces. The sooner the better.
25. Publish a book.
26. Done! Potty train Mathilda. oh wait, how'd that get on here?
27. Do something fun on New Year's Eve. We need to break our tradition of boring nights in on NYE.
28. See a play on Broadway. 
29. Go back to Arizona and California and see where I lived as a kid.
30. Go cross-country skiing. 
31. Done! Try out being a being a vegetarian for awhile. Not a vegan though. I need my cheese and ice cream, thank you very much.
32. Done! Ban the children from watching television for a set period of time, like a month or three. Notice I didn't mention anything about the parents.
33. Learn to draw. This is another thing my mom can do but somehow never taught me. Maybe it was the poisonous lead...
34. Teach my girls to sew. Well Connor too if he's interested. Which he's not because girls do that. And girls are like so gross. But I'm totally equal opportunity and all. Once I figure out what I'm doing, I'd like to pass it on.
35. Learn to play the piano. Just a little would be fine. We have this piano sitting in our living room, someone is going to learn how to play the darn thing.
36. Get on a vitamin regiment. Learn about what I should be taking and do it every day. I've been taking calcium supplements for a couple months now, but I know there is more I should be doing. 
37. Transform my bedroom into a restful oasis; a clean, tidy and organized place Chris and I can go to relax. As the only room with a door on our first floor (besides the bathroom), our bedroom is generally the catch-all where we shove everything extraneous anytime we're expecting company. I want it to be beautiful and peaceful instead.  
38. Get in a regular habit of rotating one-on-one time with each of the kids. We don't even have to leave the house, but it would be great if we did at least once a month or so. 
39. Organize all of my photos, both digital and print. This is going to be a huge job, and when I'm done with my own, Chris's mom has tons of old pictures in her attic that I'd like to get in new albums.  
40. Happening soon! Host a foreign exchange student. I think this would be an awesome experience for our family, but it will probably wait until Bethany & Connor are in high school.
41. Done! Enjoy my birthday every year. As I've noted once or twice before, my birthday is a difficult time for me. I hereby pledge to do my very best to love my birthday from here on out. 
42. Put music on my iPod. I got an iPod Touch for Christmas, which I love. I've been having a lot of fun playing around with it, but yeah it would be nice to actually have music on it. Especially when I start running for real. 
43. Have a real relationship with my siblings. I've known them for almost 6 years now, and I love them all. They're really cool people and I'd like to know them better.