The List.

Hey, remember when I made a list of 101 things to do in a 1001 days and did them all?

Yeah, me neither.  To be fair, I have another year.  I've completed 30 out of 101.  Hmmm.  Not doing so hot.

Since I've last looked at the list, I've completed:

9. Start a college fund for Mo-mo Totally makes me feel like an adult.

15. Go trick or treating with Mo-mo  Gnomish cuteness.

20. Join a mommy group When I was between jobs, I met an awesome group of SAHM mom's from the neighborhood.

25. Learn to knit  Kind of?  I learned, but mostly forgot. 

47. Spend the night at the Lemp Mansion  Alas, no ghosts.  Just a very uncomfortable creaky bed and an interesting old house.

 

53. See something at the Fox Theatre  Wicked.  Yeah. (Note: Wicked as in the actual musical we saw, not the Bostonian adjective.  But it was pretty wicked.)

57. Do something amazingly special for our 5th wedding anniversary.  See above--we went to the Lemp Mansion

63. Start an herb garden Really?  This was a goal?  Huh.  I planted an herb garden, but I thought it was on a whim.  Oh well.  Still counts.

66. Purchase a matching set of living room furniture  Thanks, Craigslist.

84. Clean out everything from my room at parent's house.  Thanks, random basement flood.  Wait, I think there may be a couple things still in that closet. 

98. Purchase a new car for Batman  He is riding in style with his new Honda.  And by "in style", I mean that his bumper is no longer duct-taped to the car and he has air conditioning.

100. Find a "mommy friend"  Got several of them.  Hooray!  Friends, keep procreating.


I have to fess up--There are two that I did.  Then undid.

80.  Get at least 25 followers to my blog. 
Back when I was blogging regularly and had it under the original title of "The Whole Mommy Thing", this was true.  Then I got impatient and tried to switch platforms and realized that I suck at trying to code things so went back but didn't realize that it got rid of all of my followers.  So yeah. 

101. For every goal I accomplish, put away $10. When it hits Sept 19, 2012 do something fun with that money. 
See, last year when Batman and I had both just graduated from school, we were broke. We're still broke but less broke than we were then.  My parent's took us on an amazing vacation to Cozumel.  I had $200 or so saved up.  We broke the piggy bank and spent it on fun crap in Cozumel instead of waiting.

Updating the numbers.

Guess what?

That's right, I am awesome--so awesome that someone decided to hire me.  But not as a starship captain. Which is unfortunate.  Who cares that I never went to the Academy, I would rock at that job.

I will now have a lot less time to write mildly amusing blog posts about nothing.  Don't cry, I know how upsetting that will be for my devoted fan base of approximately four people (and one of them isn't even related to me!  Boo-yah!)   

On the plus side, I will be able to feed and clothe my family.  And buy books, which is always important.  Oh, and the job is actually very neat.

This leads to an awkward segueway....of a list update!

3. Get a professional job.
I have a job.  I'm using both my degree and professional experience, which is great.  I'm working with an education non-profit organization to plan events and raise money through individual giving.  Tons of work but I'm loving it.  

54. Go scuba diving

Cozumel.  Family scuba diving.  Evil Dr. Porkchop, stepmother, Batman, Meat, and ....stepbrother who needs a faux name all scuba-dive.  I hadn't been in over five years, back when I was in Fiji.  It was AMAZING!  I saw sea turtles, sharks, lobsters, mantarays, and lots and lots of little brightly colored fish.

Batman managed to brush up against some coral and come home with a nasty rash that spread and oozed and blistered for a couple of days.  He ended up scrubbing it out, pouring vinegar and rubbing alcohol on it, and it finally stopped spreading.  It's semi-healed now.

I bet you're so happy that I have a blog, so that I can share such marvelous stories about rashes with you. 


Things from the list I did but didn't blog about because I'm lazy and so feel guilty about not mentioning before now

1. Graduate with my master's degree with a 4.0 GPA

7. Become proficient in GIS mapping software.

11. Bring Mo-mo to the zoo

22. Plan and execute a successful 1st birthday party for Mo-mo

62. Have a garage sale

78. Update blog at least two times a week for four months

80. Get at least 25 followers to my blog

96. Move to St. Louis

Done and done.

4. Finish my master's research paper. 
All done.  "Single Parents on Campus: Designing Programs for Support" is turned into both the graduate school and the MPA office.  Nifty.

2. Raise more than $20,000 for the MS Walk in April 2010 
We raised about $19,500 so I suppose it's close enough to count.  I had tons of family and friends come and support me and the cause. 

Pictured: 
Top row: Lacy, Batman, Meat aka my brother, Father Bee.
Second row: me and Mo-mo, I was going to say Mrs. Meat but she deserves a nicer nickname than that so we'll just say my awesome sister-in-law, Batman's Momma, and Stepmom Bee.  


Notes about nicknames:
Sorry Lacy, you're the only one who doesn't get a secret blog identity.  I can give you one if you really want me to.  Ummm....your new name is Shortstuff.  So that's Shortstuff on the top left.  She's going to teach me how to knit and help me write up a will, so she will be featured in this blog again.
Meat aka my brother chose his own name in a drunken discussion with Batman two years ago.  Mrs. Meat needs a nicer nickname but I want to go watch Lost on Hulu, so I have a limited attention span. We'll just call her Dee.

Progress report

I'm doing pretty good with my "101 things in 1001" days list (see sidebar for a link to the complete list.) So far I have I've blogged about twelve of them.

I've also recently done:

12. Take a water babies class with Mo-mo
The first class was last week. I forgot to take pictures, I'll take some tomorrow and post them soon. Mo-mo was unsure of what she thought of it and had a furrowed brow the entire time.

82. Keep a food diary for a week
What I've found out: I eat a ton of saturated fat. And I need to start eating breakfast because I don't snack as often when I do.

So I've crossed off 14 items in 125 days. I'm tempted to make a chart to show my progress but perhaps my love of graphs should be kept to myself.

The next two months are crazy--there are about eight different goals (most revolving around events or graduation) that I hope to accomplish.

Butterfly House

13. Bring Mo-mo to Faust park to see the Butterfly House and ride the carousel

Another thing crossed off the list!

We didn't get to go to the Faust park carousel because it wasn't opened yet, but the one in Chesterfield mall is quite nice.

Ta-da!

Look what I finished!

24. Cross-stitch a Christmas stocking for Mo-mo

It's only two months late...

Next cross-stitch project? My crazy ambitious one that will take years. I'll show you all later.

# 34. Taggie Toy

Number 34 from my list: Make some sort of toy for Mo-mo (felt food, "Hide and Seek" pillow, taggie blanket, etc.)

I have a list of crafts that I want to make one day. I think this pillow is pretty awesome, and who doesn't need a felt Mr. Potato Head?

I've had this page on how to make a taggie monster bookmarked for the past four months. I was feeling crafty yesterday (and I'm doing the finishing touches on Mo-mo's stocking) so I decided it was time to try something new. One trip to Hobby Lobby and $13 later, I was ready to start sewing. I even have enough supplies left over to make two more!

Instead of a monster, I decided that Mo-mo needed a taggie cat. It took about three hours to make.





It's lumpy, lopsided, but I'm still proud of it. Next time around I'm going to make it a little fatter and add a couple more tags.

I'm slightly obsessed with making more now--I think that'll be my go-to gift for new babies. Anyone want me to make one for them? There's so much I could add to it--embroidering initials, more tags, various fabric textures...

Edit: Here she is, she really likes it!

Keeping my mind off it

Tonight we Ferberize.

This means that we're putting Mo-mo to bed and trying to teach her how to self-soothe herself to sleep rather than rocking her. This translate to a lot of crying.

Before the holidays, she was sleeping through the night in her own crib with no problem. During Christmas and traveling she got used to co-sleeping with Batman and me. This last month she's been waking up between 2-5 a.m. and coming back to bed with us.

I wouldn't mind it except for two reasons: 1) She a restless sleeper. She kicks and rolls and I generally don't get much sleep. 2) Our animals wake up at 6 a.m., and Mo-mo usually wakes at 7 a.m. The pets wake her up an hour earlier when she's in our bed and it throws her off for the entire day.

So anyway, I'm listening to her cry and waiting until I can check on her again. The idea is to let them cry for a certain amount of time before checking on them. This process is a bitch but I'm told it gets better.

So I figured I'd give you all an update of The List. (It totally deserves capital letters.)

8. Send out five job applications by Feb 1, 2010 (1/5)
God, I hope I have job lined up before we graduate.

27. Organize recipes.
I bought a binder, dividers, and plastic sheet protectors. I am organized!

64. Frame 4 photos (4/4)
I kind of cheated with this one. Batman got a mosaic photo frame for Christmas, so we technically have 8 framed photos now. It looks great in our bedroom.

71. Complete the 30 day shred
This is not going to happen anytime soon. That damn video is HARD. I'm going to do the EA Sports 30 Day Challenge first, then try it again. Yes, I am a wuss.

74. Drink nothing but water for two weeks
One week down, one week to go. I really really really want a glass of wine. Or a diet coke.

89. Give blood at least three times (0/3)
I have an appointment to give blood on Tuesday.


I hope this gets better. It's tough listening to her cry. Poor baby. Poor Mommy and Daddy, too.

Yet another update

I've accomplished some more of my goals.

10. Breastfeed until Ellie is at least six months old.
Formula feeding is okay. Not great, not wonderful.

31. Finish the cross stitch cats for Carol
I deserve HUGE kudos for this one. I started this without realizing how big of a project it would be. I think I began working on it over two years ago.
Here are the finished products:


And because this lone photo can't begin to describe how awesome they turned out, here are some close-ups. For any person who does not know what cross stitch is, it's making an image out of tiny little stitched "X"s. Yes, every single one of these "pixels" is a hand-stitched X.

They are throw pillows with my stepmom's three cats: Bounce, Feather, and Marigold. I had the pattern created online from photos.




32. Learn to make an excellent crab bisque
Lobster bisque totally counts.

I've made progress towards:
70. Collect five more Painted Ponies (2/5)
Whoo-hoo for accomplishing goals!

2 down

14. Get Mo-mo's picture taken with Santa
Done and done. Not a great photo but at least she wasn't crying! And I have to admit she's darling in those Christmas PJs.


87. Inspire someone else to start a "101 in 1001" list
I'm taking credit for this one. I posted about it on the message board I frequent and she liked the idea!