101 in 1001

       One of my friends posted a 101 in 1001 list on her blog. I think it is a wonderful idea! The basic idea is that a single year isn't much of a time frame to set for tasks and goals to be completed in. I am a list person, so this is a great way for me to get things done. The tasks on the list must be realistic, stretching; all of these things are items that I really want to do or desperately need to do. This is the motivation to do it!
        You get 1001 days because while the purpose of lists is to avoid procrastination, you still need to give yourself a realistic time period for some of these life changing events.

        So far I have been quite surprised at how difficult it is for me to just come up with 101 important things I want or need to do. Some of them were easy to pick, like the trips; others like the Pinterest task were more of a stroke of "oh, I really want to do all these things, but will I ever?"
I know myself pretty well. When I was planning my wedding there was more than one DIY project that I committed myself to that I knew full well I would not A) have the discipline or B) have the time or various means to complete. I was right, almost to a tee. I called it on what projects would fall apart, were too much for me to handle alone or at all, or would simply fall through the cracks. I wonder what a psychiatrist would say about my habitual patten of knowingly setting myself up to fail means? I honestly hope I can actually complete all 101 of these items. They are all important to me in their own specific way.

Starting Date: December 27, 2011

Date to be completed by: September 23, 2014

Items crossed off are complete, items italicized are in progress and items unmarked are still to be completed.

1. Go to Six Flags (Six Flags Fun!)
2. Buy a brown winter coat
3. Take a Cake Decorating class
4. Visit another country
5. Visit family that we don't see often in California July 2014!
6. Visit family that we don't see often in Houston
• We made a trip in Early June 2012
  
7. See the Grand Canyon and visit family July 2014 (family moved back to Texas so just the Grand Canyon)
8. Build up an emergency fund of at least $1000 (completed in summer of '13)
9. Have a baby (or pregnant) or be in the adoption process
• Change in plans...see what's up now.
• Edited - Due October 2013!
10. Start a new family tradition (see the plan & why it's still on the list)
• perhaps make and use a family advent calendar
11. Do something that worries me, because I usually wouldn't take that leap
• Thirty-One Bags & Gifts I am a Thirty-One Independent Consultant!
  
12. Take a cruise
13. Paint pottery (with John)
14. Host a party - just because at our house
15. Finish all major house repairs.We moved!
16. Attempt at least one recipe from each book in my collection of cook books
17. Have a "Christin the China" dinner party!
18. Create a Menu board, including recipe cards
• Our Menu Board
19. Do something political I voted... Several times!
20. Make a purchase of at least one item from Etsy.com (my first Etsy purchase)
21. Spend a day at the lake with John
22. Go to the Nutcracker or some sort of a Christmasy fine art event
23. Have my car professionally detailed
24. Eliminate all credit card debt (Completed Summer of '13!)
25. Host a game and dinner night Hosted in Spring 2014 - Apples to Apples and Chicken Parmesan
26. Go to Lubbock for a fun weekend and Texas Tech football game
27. Clean out closet and donate all too small or too big clothes to good will or freecycle
• Cleaned it out and donated it all to a mom in need via freecycle. : )
28. Clean out John's closet & donate the clothes to a good cause.
29. Meet my goal weight of 145
30. Go to Hawaii
    ... A change in plans, this probably won't happen by the deadline.
31. Visit John's Grandparents at their house in New York
32. See New York City
33. See a Broadway play
34. Have a family photo session Just after Cora was born
35. Host a Sunday lunch with my family like the ones we had with Grandma (We started this tradition back in July 2013!)
36. Have a useful and used vegetable garden Summer 2014
37. Set up the patio completely
38. Bake for my office just because (Bun in the Oven Cinnamon Rolls!)
39. Bake for John's co workers, just because
40. Go on some sort of an overnight trip with friends
41. Post to the blog at least once every two weeks in 2012 or start over in 2013 if I didn't succeed.
42. create a Guest basket for the bathroom  (Created for our new house in July of 2013!)
43. Have at least one guest over for a night - outside of the family (check!)
44. Eat at 5 new restaurants with John
• 1, 2 (completed 1/21/12 - Los Toreros for Lauren's birthday), 3, 4 (Mooyah's for my brother Robert's 22 bday), 5
45. Start a pet emergency fund, have at least $1,000 in it.
46. Take John on a surprise local date
47. Take a spontaneous trip out of town with John (see #52)
48. Have all Christmas Gift shopping finished by December 1
49. Go to a fine arts event with John Dallas Symphony Orchestra with my brother Robert and his friend Kimmi
50. Purchase another vehicle. My Mom-Mobile!
51. Bake for a social event I'm not hosting
• See the cake I baked here
52. Take John to Corpus Christi or Galveston
• Spontaneous overnight trip!
53. Visit St. Augustine Florida
54. Go to the Harry Potter Theme park in Florida
55. Have a spa day - get my nails done and maybe a massage John's 1st anniversary gift to me!
56. Clean out my undergarment drawer and go panty shopping. Buy at minimum 5 new sets of panties and bras.
57. Go to either the Dallas or Fort Worth Zoo It was actually the San Diego zoo... which is better so I say it counts!
58. Help a friend in a major/life altering way
59. Design/create/buy some sort of kitchen pantry (we moved and have a pantry in this house)
60. Celebrate 1 year of marriage
• Read about our anniversary celebrations here.
61. Celebrate 2 years of marriage   - Check!
62. Go on a picnic (using my handy dandy picnic basket) We take picnic lunches to Daddy sometimes to get out of the house and visit him at work!
63. Help a new mom with any aspect of life involved in being a new mommy Dinner for Tiffany's family!
64. Give a gift to my choir students that is from me, not the choir budget (completed 5/9/12)
65. Have our house Decorated for Christmas (completely) by one week after Thanksgiving
66. Clean out our guest room that is currently acting as a storage space. Put everything away or give it away.
67. Decorate our bedroom - including buying a comforter set and pillows
68. Find our 9 puppies a safe and loving home (completed some time in mid-March)
69. Get Pepper spayed.
70. purchase appropriate storage for my Christmas dishes and store them away
71. Purchase appropriate storage for my Bankhead silver and store away.
72. Either buy new or refinish an old china hutch to properly store my nice dishes and crystal.
73. Have a Will in place for both John and I designed to span, at minimum, until we have heirs.
74. Draft a Declaration of Final Arrangements for both John and I.
75. Draw up a Medical Power of Attorney Document for both John and I, to be used in the event that one of us was to become incapacitated. 
76. Purchase a nice new black winter coat.
77. Install a television in the East end of the house that can be watched in both the bedroom and the dining room/kitchen. (thank you Daddy)
    
78. Should one of my brothers become engaged, host a special bridal event for either the Bride or the couple. Something other than a traditional Wedding Shower: qualifying events include a true Bridal Shower, themed wedding shower, Couples Shower, Engagement party, Bridal Luncheon.
79. Complete a minimum of 25 of my pins on Pinterest. These pins cannot be counted if they also go towards marking off one of the other items on this list or the home repair list.
80. Pay off current car loan
81. Be at least one payment ahead on all student loans by the end of the 1001 days.
82. Have John visit an orthopedist for his knee and shoulder.
83. Take a multivitamin every day for 6 months, or begin again.
84. put together a wedding photo album
85. Prepare a weeks worth of outfits (including jewlery, accessories, shoes etc) on Sunday afternoon. Do this for a minimum of two weeks in a row.
86. Cook at home every day, for 5 days in a row. Only days 6 and 7 can be "left over" days.
87. Read 5 of the books that I have purchased and not started. 
• Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin; completed on  1/22/12
• Something Blue by E. Giffin; completed on vacation in late Aug. '12
88. Finish wedding Thank You cards in some capacity
89. Host a family affair at our house that my family and extended family attend. Spaghetti Dinner when Cora was born. We had 13 guests, filling the extended family requirement!
90. Go to a sporting event that I would not normally attend; basketball, hockey, or soccer.
• Dallas Stars Game on 2/4/12
91. Go on a camping trip!
• Completed May 2012
92. Start a batch of Friendship Bread and pass it around
93. Buy a nice watch John's 3rd anniversary gift to me!
94. Install smoke detectors in the house
95. Purchase a new set of Corelle dishes, so we don't break our nice stoneware or china for everyday uses.
96.  Donate Blood (completed 9/14/12)
97. No fast food for a month
• Completed in May 2012
98. Update my legal name documents and get John a passport
99. Run a 5K
100. Stop biting my nails (consider accomplished if I have successfully not bitten my nails after 6 months)
101. Create a new 101 list upon the completion of this one.