101 in 1001

I first saw this idea over on Jess's blog. The concept is to come up with 101 things you want to do in the next 1001 days, roughly 2 years and 9 months. Some things on my list are little, some are big, and in all honestly, I may not complete them ALL within 1001 days, but I'm gonna try to get to as many as I can. As of right now I actually don't have 101 things but I will add the rest soon... maybe I'll organize them later too.. in order by the amount of time and/or money they will take to complete, but for now, here's what I've got so far: (My start date was August 27, 2011)

1. Create some kind of family birthday/anniversary calendar
2. Graduate with Bachelor's degree
3. Create a household cleaning schedule and follow it for one month
4. Potty train Brayden
5. Write a letter to Brayden once a month
6. Do a craft/special activity with Brayden once a week
7. Read 10 new books
8. Do a project 52 (or maybe project 365)
9. Shop at a Farmer's market [completed August 27, 2011 - blog post to come]
10. Teach Brayden all of the colors
11. Get Brayden to eat veggies (voluntarily) again!
12. Complete the couch to 5K program
13. Run a 5k
14. Get to goal weight (130)
15. Buy a DSLR camera
16. Learn to shoot in manual
17. Get 1,000 page views on blog
18. Buy a house (this is iffy, probably not within 1001 days)
19. Watch 10 new movies I wouldn't ordinarily watch
20. Go to Vegas
21. Take Brayden to Lagoon
22. Go on a family camping trip
23. Take Brayden sledding
24. Build a snowman
25. Go back to Cedar Point and ride EVERY roller-coaster
26. Take Brayden on his first airplane ride
27. Take Brayden to the beach
28. Water ski again
29. Create a family photo book at the end of every calendar year
30. Participate in Embrace the Camera every Thursday
31. Learn how to sew
32. Volunteer somewhere
33. Go indoor skydiving
34. Write a biography - or at least start one
35. Go to the aquarium in Salt Lake
36. Buy a pair of Tom's shoes
37. Have a day of pampering followed by a fancy date-night dinner
38. Update address/phone book
39. Learn to drive a stick shift
40. Contribute at least $10/month to Brayden's savings account
41. Take my dad out to dinner
42. Finish designing/decorating Brayden's room
43. Have a fire on my dad's patio & make S'mores
44. Visit Michelle, Bri & Noah in Phoenix
45. Go to the Denver Zoo with Julia & Addy
46. Wear a dress or skirt once a month
47. Find new ways to style my hair
48. Make homemade bubbles with Brayden [completed August 27, 2011 - blog post to come]
49. Learn how to snowboard
50. Send Christmas cards every year
51. Go to a professional soccer game
52. Buy a bike trailer (for Brayden to ride in while I bike)
53. Go fishing and actually catch a fish
54. Buy Brayden a new book at least once a month
55. Start selling... (don't want to expand on this because I'm not ready to do it yet and I don't want someone to steal my idea!!)
56. Go to a MOPS meeting
57. Make Brayden a crayon monogram [completed August 31, 2011 - blog post to come]
58. Make a growth chart for Brayden

and because no post is complete with-out some pictures, here is our week through Instagram!



*Trolley Square, eating at Spaghetti Factory!
*Throwing pennies in the fountain



*Cuddly boy just waking up from a very, very long nap
*Who knew a storage trunk could be so entertaining?



*Baked Carrot Fries. oh.my.lanta. YUM.
*Carrots and farmer's market green beans, again I say, delish!



Have a good weekend!

Embrace the Camera

I am joining the fabulous Emily at The Anderson Family Crew in Embrace the Camera Thursdays. My brain thinks in structured organization and I think that's why my blog gets neglected. Plus, I really REALLY love the idea of making a point to get IN FRONT of the camera instead of staying hidden behind it. I want Brayden to have pictures of us together! Okay, and I want to have those pictures too. Especially when he grows a mile a minute - I don't want to forget these days.

Earlier this week my Dad was in town so my Mom, Dad, and I took Brayden to the zoo. He's still a smidge too little to get really excited about it, but he still thought it was pretty cool. (Mostly because he got to run around like a wild man for 2 hours.) Anyhow, here are me and the boy sitting on a lion.. don't mind the little girl, no clue who she is!

Finding the Right Groove

I'm a music fanatic. I love finding new music, undiscovered artists. It's like an adrenaline rush for me when I find a new song with that perfect beat. I especially love when I find a new work-out song. Some songs are good for working out and some are absolutely not.

As I've been working out the past few weeks, I've been browsing my iPhone for some good songs to listen to while I run. Eventually I will search online and download some new ones but for now, the two that I'm really loving are:



For me, finding good, upbeat music to run to makes me be able to run farther and longer, and that's always a good thing!

Speaking of working out... I'm a little nervous about leaving town this weekend. Every time I've gotten into a good work out routine, I've left it in the dust when I went on vacation, and never picked back up when I got home. I'm DETERMINED that this will not happen again. I'm giving myself the day off tomorrow if I choose, but who knows I may decide to go for a run when I get to my dad's. After that, I am probably going to have to run during the day on Saturday & Sunday and just toss Brayden in the stroller :) How do you keep on track with your work outs when you're on vacation?

PS- Found my camera cord! Yay! So I'll have fun stuff to share in the next week. Here's a preview:



And just because my baby is so darn cute.. here's some snapshots of him playing outside. It's starting to cool off a bit in the evenings (by "cool off" I mean it's 85 instead of 95), so it's making it a tad more bearable to be out there for any amount of time. I never thought I'd admit that I'm ready for fall!

Standby

Well, I have lots of fun, new things to share. BUT - I cannot find my camera cord ANYWHERE! So, since I think blog posts with no pictures are bor-ing, please standby until I find my camera cord or get a replacement! Hopefully in the next day or so!



be back soon!

Keep Going

Your legs are not giving out.
Your head is giving out.
Keep Running.

Just a hop..

skip, and a jump away from our house, buried in the mountains is this:






And on the way back home from all that beauty, along comes this:





We were just on a short cruise and found this lake unexpectedly. But, I'm looking forward to making a day trip up there sometime, hopefully soon!

A Mom is...

...a hairdresser?

Well, not quite, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

BEFORE:


His hair was in his eyes, over his ears, hanging over the back of his polo shirts. Yeah, it was bad. But he's such a worm that I didn't want to take him somewhere and have some grumpy hairdresser get frustrated, or accidentally poke his eyeball out :) So, I figured I couldn't mess it up TOO bad... I trimmed it a teensy bit over the weekend, then finished up tonight.



AFTER:






Muuuuuuuch better!