My 101 in 1001

The Challenge:

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 your part).

Why 1001 Days?
Many people have created lists in the past - frequently simple challenges such as New Year's resolutions or a 'Bucket List'. 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 organizing and timing some tasks such as overseas trips, study semesters, or outdoor activities.


Start Date: April 1, 2012
Finish Date: December 27, 2014

My 101 in 1001

Better Me

1 Do hair/makeup every day for two weeks

2 Volunteer for a day

3 Take one picture every day for a year

4 Take at least one hour each week between May & September to relax in the hammock (every year!)

5 Send Christmas cards

6 Keep car clean (inside & out) for 6 months
7 Read the Lord of the Rings books

8 Clean out closets and donate clothes 3 times

9 Blog twice a week for a year

10 Vote in the Republican Primary

11 Vote in the 2012 Presidential Election

12 Buy 5 new dresses for work

13 Read the Left Behind series from beginning to end

14 Shave legs once a week for one year

Home

15 Create and use a routine for cleaning the house

16 Hang curtains in our bedroom

17 Hang pictures/decorations on bedroom walls

18 Replace the rest of the doors & trim in the house

19 Hang decorations in kitchen

20 Spruce up hall bathroom

21 Get guest room/office organized

22 Get knitting things organized

23 Turn back room into playroom for Brylee

24 Make extra bathroom 'usable'

25 Landscape the front of the house

26 Put in a new paved walkway to front door

Marriage/Family

27 Stay at a Bed & Breakfast with Robert

28 Go on one date a month for a year

29 Have professional family photos taken

30 Write a will

31 Get a couples massage

32 Let Robert teach me to shoot a gun

33 Host a family Holiday at our house

34 Attend a 'Weekend to Remember' conference

35 Take a picnic to Dornboss and feed the ducks

36 Get a Christmas Tree from a tree farm

Exercise

37 Complete the Couch to 5K program

38 Run 3 days a week for a year

39 Run a 5k

40 Run a half marathon

41 Learn how to stretch properly

42 Get left & right split back

43 Try yoga

44 Update my I-Pod

45 Make a workout playlist

46 Join the local gym

Spiritual

47 Read the whole Bible

48 Memorize 30 Bible verses

49 Have a quiet time every day for a month

50 Attend a group bible study

51 Memorize the books of the bible (again)

52 Teach a VBS class

53 Attend church every Sunday for a year

54 Host a 'Girls Weekend' with girls from the youth group

Travel

55 Go on a ski trip

56 See the Grand Canyon

57 Take Brylee to Sea World

58 Take a trip to San Antonio

59 Plan a legitimate family vacation

60 Go kayaking in East Texas

61 Take a trip with 'the girls'

Fun

62 Have a sleep over (junk food, chick flicks, hair braiding and nail painting kind of thing)

63 Spend a weekend at the beach

64 Float the Guadalupe 3 times

65 Host a backyard BBQ, complete with decorations & games

66 Attend a concert (either Kenny Chesney or Dave Matthews Band)

67 Build a snowman

68 Build a sandcastle

69 Go see 15 movies

70 Go horseback riding

71 Get a facial

72 Get one pedicure a month for a year

Cooking

73 Make 25 new recipes

74 Make one whole meal from scratch

75 Bake a layered cake

76 Make fudge

77 Make a meal planner board

78 Cook 2 dinners every week for 3 months

79 Cook a dinner for someone in need

80 Learn how to make fried chicken

DIY

81 Start & finish knitting a sweater

82 Learn how to sew

83 Sew Brylee a dress

84 Finish a cross stitch

85 Make a photobook of Brylee's first year

86 Make 10 Pinterest inspired crafts

87 Crochet 25 scarves per year for Operation Gratitude

88 Start a knitting class/group

89 Write my own knitting pattern

Pets

90 Get Freckles fixed

91 Brush dogs once a week for a year

92 Cut dogs nails twice a month for a year

93 Get dogs professionaly groomed once a year

94 Breed Astro & Aggie again

CPA

95 Pass 3 CLEP tests

96 Take online Ethics course

97 Take 2 Accounting classes at Lamar

98 Pass part 1 of CPA exam

99 Pass part 2 of CPA exam

100 Pass part 3 of CPA exam

101 Pass part 4 of CPA exam

Bathtime

Brylee had her first bubble bath last night!! Look how friggin cute she is :)

She thought the bubbles were awesome and kept trying to eat them. The bath was a short one because I was worried she would eat too many bubbles and get sick.

After her bath I wanted to try to get a cute wrapped-up-in-hooded-towel picture. To say that I failed would be a huge understatement. You should have seen me trying to get this girl to sit still for a picture! It was chaos. My child does not sit still. Ever. Here are just a few of the resulting pictures...

I realize that I was just using my cellphone camera so they wouldn't be perfect, but the child moves so much they were so blurry! And then she said peace-out mom, I'm gettin outta this place!

Oh well, we had fun :) I just laughed and laughed.

P.S.- please excuse the messy room. I'm not the best housekeeper in ideal conditions. Add in my work hours right now and we'll just say I'm not planning on having visitors anytime soon!!

Friends and Fairs

Lets all stop and take a second to celebrate the fact that I only have SIXTEEN working days of tax season left! YAAAAAAYYYY!!!

Okay, now that we have that out of the way... :)

This weekend was absolutely beautiful weather wise. It could not have been more gorgeous! I just hope the weather is this nice in a few weeks when I will actually get to enjoy it.

Once I got off of work on Saturday I had dinner with one of my closest friends who was in town. It's always good to get to see my favorite other Lindsey :) We had a good time at dinner with B and the hubs and then headed back to her parents' house for a little visit.

Brylee had fun trying out a lemon.

On Sunday I made it to Sunday School and the service. I was a good little girl. I think I will make it through this busy season only missing one Sunday, and I'm okay with that. Sometimes you just need a day to stay in your PJs and rest so your head doesn't explode.

After church B and I went to the South Texas State Fair with my mom & my Nanna. We ate some good food and looked around the exhibition hall. I got a little sun on my face and Brylee did great riding around in the stroller!! I'm so thankful to have such a content baby. She has made being a first-time-mom a breeze. I love her so much :)

Here are some pictures of Brylee's first trip to the fair!

I know she looks upset here, but it's just because I was giving her bites of my chocolate covered cheesecake and she wanted another bite but I wanted a picture! She really was happy :)

See? There's my happy baby!! We were on our way out and Nanna wanted to stop and watch the belly dancers. Why? I have no idea...

By the time I got home she was worn out!! She took a nice long nap on Sunday afternoon.

Hope you all had a great weekend, too! Happy Monday!

Wednesday!!

It's that time of the week again!

This week I am loving...

My sweet girl. Always & Forever!

The Caramel Iced Coffee from Dunkin' Donuts I treated myself to this morning. YUM! I definitely needed a pick-me-up!

My Kenny Chesney Pandora radio station. I'm usually streaming 89.3 KSBJ at work, but my country music has really been hittin the spot lately :)

What are you loving today??

Waiting on Summer

We're almost there! I'm pretty sure Brylee will be all out crawling by the end of the week.

The only other thing I have to say is...


21 more days!

Weekend Review

I always have such boring weekends that I don't want to 'recap' on my blog because it just makes me look sad. Ha! Now don't get excited, just because I decided to do a recap this morning does not mean that my weekend was in any way exciting. Because it was not. At all.

On Friday afternoon as I was driving home from work (at 5! YIPPEE!) I was noticing how beautiful the weather was.  And I got this giddy feeling. You know the one? When you're leaving work early on a Friday for a vacation, headed home to load up and go somewhere gorgeous. Yea, that's the one. I got that feeling and a smile spread across my face. And then reality set it. What's so exciting? I'm leaving work at 5 (which should be normal) and I have to be back at work by 8 if not earlier tomorrow (Saturday). Ick. The feeling was fun for the 30 seconds that it lasted!

When I got home Robert had us all load up for dinner. I think he was planning on taking a drive to Baytown for dinner (one of our favorite things to do is just drive around). We only made it as far as Winnie before he decided he wanted to eat at Machos. So Machos it was.

On the way home from dinner we stopped by our new property (Robert likes to check and make sure no one stole it ;)) and one of the neighbors was outside, so we stopped to tell her hello and ended up staying and talking with her for over an hour. She is so sweet! I can't wait to be her neighbor :)

By then it was time to get home and get Brylee girl to bed. Not long after I hit the hay, too.

On Saturday I had to work. BOO! Robert came into town at lunchtime so that I could spend a little bit of time with my girl. We had lunch in the foodcourt at the mall and then went to BabiesRus for some diapers. I know you're jealous of all the fun we had :)

When I got off of work I went to my parents house where B was napping and spent some time with my mom. That evening we went out to eat with my parents and then it was home again.

I know the pictures are terrible quality, they're from my phone. But I thought B looked pretty cute looking out of the window, and then she decided she would like to be in her carseat. Ha! :)

I woke up on Sunday feeling like every single bit of energy had been zapped out of me. I've just been going too much lately, I needed a break. I didn't 'get dressed' at all yesterday. I didn't shower until at least 6 PM. I took care of B and watched TV. It was a much needed lazy day.

Wow... even when we don't hardly do anything it still makes for an unusually long post!

Happy Monday, everyone!!

Letter to Me

I don't know about you, but I'm a country music fan.  I haven't really listened to it all that much lately since I've been on a 89.3 KSBJ kick, but today I was feelin' a little Kenny Chesney radio from Pandora. Brad Paisley is one of my favorites and he sings a song called Letter To Me. In the song, he talks about what he would put in a letter to himself to read at 17. Kind of a 'hindsight is 20-20' thing.

Every time I hear this song I get to thinking, what would I write to myself if I could write a letter to my 17 year old self?

So here it is. These are some things I would tell 17 year old Lindsey:

1. Don't date. Just don't. There are so many better ways to spend teenage years than pining away for some stupid guy that has the maturity of a 9 year old.

2. Your friends won't be around forever. Don't take advantage of the time you have with them now. Because in just a few short years you will all grow up and life happens.

3. Being 'grown-up' isn't all it's cracked up to be. Stop trying to grow up so fast. Being independent isn't the cake walk you think it is. Soon you will have to go to work, you will have bills to pay and a house to clean. Enjoy the freedom.

4. Even though your parent's rules are a pain, they really do only make them because they love you. You will thank them later and wish you had followed all of them. I promise.

5. The most attractive thing about someone is confidence. (as long as it doesn't turn into cockyness!) This is still something I'm trying to learn...

6. One day someone will love you and you will have a family, so stop worrying. Remember that if you delight yourself in your Heavenly Father, He will give you the desires of your heart!

and to steal a line from the song...

7. These are nowhere near the best days of your life!! Life gets way way better than highschool! Thankfully :)

That about sums it up :)

What would you tell yourself??

What I'm Loving Wednesday

This is the first time I've ever participated in a link-up. And honestly, although I love lots of things, there's not a lot going on in my life other than WORK to love right now. But I'll do my best :)

I'm loving the time change. It's so nice to leave work when it's still light out! Even if I'm not leaving until 7.

I'm loving that Brylee is a good sleeper. I hear so many horror stories about babies staying up all night and I'm so glad that I can put B to bed at 8 and have to wake her up at 6:50 to get her to my mom's house.

I'm loving this house plan. It's honestly a little on the big side for me, I don't think I want that much square footage, and I definitely wasn't planning on a 3 car garage. But Robert loves the garage and he wants a bigger house... we still have a long time to make these decisions! I just love love love the master bedroom in this plan. Love.

I'm loving that there is only a month of tax season left! Momma needs some quality time with her girl!!!

And finally...

I'm loving my husband, who is a quarter of a century old today. HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOVERFACE :)

Movin' On Up

Well I guess it's official enough for me to write about on my blog (especially since my lovely husband announced it on facebook already!). We bought land!! Here it is!! Most of what you see is our land.  The square above Foard Rd framed by trees and then the area below the row that isn't cleared. I'm becoming more comfortable with the idea by the day, and Robert is definitely excited.  I never really imagined myself 'having land' and I've never wanted to build a house.

Building a house is intimidating at best. But it's what the hubs wants.  And in our house, what the hubs wants the hubs gets.  I'm just thankful that we didn't end up with 10 acres like he originally wanted.  We will have 3.3 acres, plenty for me!!

Stay tuned for the building process, I'm hoping it won't take us as long as normal. I want this to be as quick and painless as possible!!

But I'll probably be pinning a whole lot more design ideas in the next few months :)

Friends

When I started (and re-started) this blog with the intention of being honest and open. To write about a lot of the things I think about. I'm always worried about hurting someone's feelings or starting debates or whatever. So I hold back from writing what I feel. I think this will be my first post that will go a little deeper.

I really struggle with comparing my life to other people and wanting what they have. But I don't want the typical things.  I'm not envious of someone's nice car, or their pretty new house.  I don't really care about a bank account with a 6 digit balance (although that would make life so much easier!) and I can do without designer clothes. I find myself envying the relationships people have. I think Man, it must be nice to have a good group of friends. You know the kind of group I'm talking about.  The one that gets together every weekend.  The one that has a good mix of different personalities.  Where they all know each other so well that they can just hang out and laugh without feeling like an outsider or self conscious.

I used to have a group like that.  I count myself blessed that I found a group of friends to do things with in middle and high school.  I honestly don't know how I would have survived those years without my friends.  But somewhere between graduating high school and now I seem to have grown apart from pretty much every friend I had.  It seems like it happened a little bit at a time.

A few friends left for college and made new friends. That's understandable. I dated a handful of different guys, and probably paid them more attention than I needed to (neither of which are things that I am proud of, at all.). I'm sure that contributed to losing a few friends. I guess the rest were lost in the process of growing up. We all kind of 'become ourselves' in the first few years of adult-hood. A lot of times we change. Most of the time we change. Our lives don't fit together as well as they once did. We have different interests. We have different schedules. And we grow apart.

So here I am now.  Almost 25. Married. A mom. With no one I can really call a 'close friend'. And, to put it plainly, it sucks. On a beautiful Saturday when I just want to go sit at the park and people watch, I can't think of anyone to call. If Robert is going to the lease for the weekend and I want to host a girls night at my house, I've got nothin.

I've met a handful of girls in the past year or so that I have really liked. In my mind they are potential best friends. Yannow, we have a good time together and have a few things in common. And I consider myself a pretty friendly person. My problem is my self esteem. I meet these new people (usually through Robert because he is way more outgoing than I am) and I really like them.  But I then I over analyze everything. What if they don't like me? What if they think I'm coming on too strong or being clingy? What if they think I'm a total freak? What if... What if... I could drive myself crazy!! Robert tells me that I need to just put myself out there (like I'm dating or something, ha!) but I just can't do it.

I can't make myself call a girl I've only hung out with around our husbands and ask if she wants to go see a chick-flick together. Or take a shopping trip to Houston. Or go to Larry's Trade Days. I just can't do it.

What is wrong with me???

So I stay where I am. 25. Married. A mom. Alone.

Am I the only one? I sure feel like it =/

**sorry if this seemed like a pity-party post. something more uplifting next time, promise!**

Seven

Babygirl. Today you are seven months old. I still can't understand how time goes by so quickly. But, it does and here we are.

You have the sweetest little personality. You are almost always happy. We haven't hit the separation anxiety stage yet (and I'm hoping we never will!). You still go to anyone who wants to see you. You grab their nose or their ears and give them a big ole smile :)

Last week you got your first two teeth. I didn't even know you were teething! There was no crying or fever or sign of discomfort. You handled that like a champ!

You are so close to crawling. You can scoot anywhere you want to go, kind of like a military crawl, but you haven't quite figured out how to put it all together. But you get closer everyday. The other night you were up on hands and knees rocking back and forth, so I know it won't be long!!

I hardly get to spend any time with you right now because of tax season and it is killing me. The only thing that gets me through is knowing that you don't even know the difference right now.  I know it will be even harder when you are older and realize I'm gone. Maybe by then your daddy will let me stay home ;)

I love you so much, Brylee girl. Don't you ever forget it!!