My 101 in 1001

I have seen this 101 in 1001 idea on quite a few other friends' blogs. I seriously had no plans to do one of these lists when I first saw one...as if I need another thing to add to my ongoing mental "list." But "everybody's doing it!" so I just had to. haha No really, I thought it was a fun idea and a way to get me to do some things I've been wanting to do for a while...or at least help myself feel a sense of accomplishment when I finish a few!

The deal is, I have 1001 days (about 2.75 yrs) to complete my list of 101 things (that's about 1 goal every 10 days...wow!). Some are big and/or expensive, some are far-fetched, some are simple/easy/cheap, some are just for fun, some are challenging, some can't be marked off til the very end, and some are a combination of all of those things! You'll notice most of them are personal goals and not school/professional goals. Although I definitely have other professional goals, I try to keep this blog about the more fun & family-related things in my life since it's a hobby! I've been working on making the list for a few days...it's harder than you would imagine to think up 101 things you want to accomplish! I actually left a few blank though because I keep having others come to mind & want to have room to fill in.

So, starting today (well, tomorrow I guess), I'll start & have until the end of Friday, January 4, 2013 to complete as many of these 101 of these things as I can. I will try to blog about them as I complete them... but will definitely mark them off the list when they're done. You can check in to see how I'm doing any time by clicking the "My 101 in 1001" link in the navigation bar at the top of our blog (under the header).

Feel free to join in the fun and make your own list! It really did feel good to get some of these things I've been thinking about doing down on "paper." If you do it too, let me know so we can check up on each other along the way! Also, my friend Allison posted this calculator you can use to determine your deadline date: click here

In no particular order, just wrote them as they came to me...

1) Defend my thesis (4/26/10)
2) Propose my dissertation (7/20/10)
3) Apply for internship (11/15/10)
4) Move away for internship (7/21/11)
5) Go on a mission trip
6) Learn to drive a stick shift
7) Plant flowers in our window boxes & flower bed
8) Keep those flowers alive as long as possible!
9) Do a blog post at least every other day for a month (and hopefully continue that trend!)
10) Get caught up on loading/editing all of my pictures
11) Go to another drive-in movie
12) Upload all of our videos from the video camera
13) Make a DVD (probably multiple DVDs) of all the videos
14) Buy something or figure out somewhere in our house to organize & keep our family videos after I make DVDs
15) Back up everything on our computers to our new external hard drive (5/31/10)
16) Take a photography class
17) Take my Godson, Carson, somewhere he chooses for his birthday each year (2010 [8/8/10], 2011, 2012)
18) Take my Godson, Trent, somewhere he chooses for his birthday each year (2010 [8/15/10], 2011, 2012)
19) Take my Goddaughter, Bella, somewhere she chooses for her birthday each year (2010, 2011, 2012)
20) Do a blog post about couponing (8/19/11)
21) Frame my college diploma & Master's diploma
22) Get back down to my pre-wedding weight
23) Go on another Caribbean vacation with my hubby

24) Go to Sips n' Strokes

25) Watch my niece swim, completely alone, under water (kind of like this, but more consistently) -- She can do it!! Video below is from 7/5/10, but was actually doing it a month or so before that:

26) Watch my nephew swim, completely alone, under water (Summer 2011! Swimming AND diving in video below:)

27) Go back to Six Flags

28) Go on a cruise

29) Re-organize our home office (10/3/10)
30) Run in another 5K
31) Go to the beach with our friends
32) Go to my 10 year high school reunion
33) Go to Cullen's 10 year high school reunion (7/16/11)

34) Give blood at least twice
35) Finish The Love Dare (5/18/10) (No, we're not having marriage problems, it's just a great book that will give you a whole new perspective on marriage!)
36) Watch Fireproof with Cullen again (It's the movie that shows how The Love Dare works in a struggling couple's marriage. Again, great even for those not struggling too!)
37) Do The Love Dare again, at least twice - I can't tell you how great this book is. I imagine I'll get more and more out of it every time.
38) Complete Baby Step 3 in Dave Ramsey's journey to financial peace
39) Start on Baby Step 4
40) Continue my routine of walking/running in the mornings
41) Serve a meal at a soup kitchen
42) Go to a big aquarium (TN or Atl, I guess)
43) Go to another Braves game
44) Go to the Coca-Cola factory in Atlanta again
45) Go to the mountains of Gatlinburg for a weekend in the winter (never been!)
46) Get a new scale for the bathroom to replace the one that is so finicky
47) Take Madelyne & Bennett to a Baron's game
48) See a Broadway play with Cullen (anywhere)
49) Go to Antigua for our 5 year anniversary (unless we change our mind about location btwn now & then!)
50) Not have a baby until after we come back from internship!
51) Go to Alabama Adventure again (8/8/10)
52) Play tennis with Cullen again
53) Keep up with my morning devotion routine
54) Find a few new good devotional books to use for #53 (suggestions welcome!)
55) Go camping (if we can rent/borrow the gear - don't want to have to buy all that for one time!)
56) Have all of Cullen's divers over to swim & cookout
57) Get a milkshake from Flipburger - Although this won't help with #22, I've heard they're amazing! (7/2/10 - with Cullen, Madelyne, & Bennett)
58) Go for a whole month without letting a stack of mail accumulate - this needs to become a habit!
59) Get a basket or something to keep all loose mail so that it's not scattered throughout the house for the remaining 32 months of this challenge.
60) Finish ALL my Christmas shopping by December 20 - 2010, 2011, & 2012 (yes, that would be a big deal for me!)
61) Get my friends' Christmas presents to them before January (2011, 2012, 2013)
62) Put all of my pictures I printed from our trip to Savannah in an album (sadly, this trip was in 2008 & I haven't done this yet)
63)Go to my sister-in-law (Cullen's sister), Rachael's house (we still haven't made it out there!)
64) Hike up a mountain
65) Take a trip to two fun places in the US (other than the "usual" ones - beach, Atlanta, etc.)
66)Spend a day with our niece & nephew, Jordan & Allison (either separate or together), doing whatever they want to do
67) Go back to a water park (8/8/10)
68) Get a professional facial
69) Start a "blessings list" to post on our refrigerator & add to it often
70) Go tubing
71) Read the bible more - as in, actually read chapters at a time
72) Get our Christmas cards MAILED before December 20 (2010 [didn't happen in 2010, woops!], 2011, 2012)
73) Go on a tour of & wine tasting at a local vineyard
74) Sponsor a child through Compassion
75) Write to that child monthly once we sponsor him or her
76) Go to a restaurant & just order appetizers & dessert
77) Get all of my recipes organized better in the great recipe book my mom gave me
78) Donate more to charitable organizations (or even just a specific one)
79) Pay for a the meal of the person behind me in a drive-thru
80) Get the heel tips fixed on 2 pairs of my boots (this has been on my to-do list for ~4 mos!) (9/4/10)
81) Keep my car clutter-free (with no more than 3 days of clutter building up) for the entire 1001 days - this is a tough one for me!
82) Go on a real picnic - basket, blanket, open grassy area, etc.
83) Eat lunch with my grandmother, just Cullen and me
84) Go to the beach with Cullen's family since we never have!
85) Not let more than a day pass without returning a voicemail (I'm terrible at returning calls!)
86) Clean out our filing cabinets and throw away old/useless stuff
87) Bake a cake (used to do this all the time and haven't in forever!)
88) Watch a sunrise on the beach with Cullen
89) Be in bed by 10:00pm every night for at least one full work week (Sun-Thurs nights)
90) Finish my blog posts from Christmas 2009 - yes, I'm serious!
91) Blog about other events from January
92) February
93) and March
94) Go to a Cirque du Soleil show with Cullen
95) Have just Bennett to spend the night at our house (4/18/10 & 5/2/10 - click both dates for pictures from the next mornings)
96) Take Madelyne to get a manicure & pedicure
97)
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99)
100)
101) Read this list every Monday to see what I can be working on during the week!