Life List

I am a list maker...

I make lists about lists I need to make...

I like to cross things off

I feel accomplished...

A few months ago I came across this post on one of my favorite blogs. I remember thinking, I don't have 100 realistic things I think I can do...then it hit me, they don't have to be realistic.

How do I know what the next few weeks will bring or the next few years or decades. So I threw caution to the wind and started my own Life List. It probably took me at least 3 months to get 100 things down on paper, I would jot things down whenever I found myself thinking "I wish I could do that" and all of a sudden I had 100 things down, some things I want, some things I wish, some things I hope for.

So what better time than the New Year to share this with you all...

So here it is, my carefully calculated List of things I want to accomplish before...

well...you know..

My Life List

1. Take my kids and husband to Portugal to meet my family
2. Host a foreign exchange student
3. Own a neighborhood pub
4. Get published for my photography
5. Teach my daughters photography
6. Take a romantic trip to Greece with my one and only (after the kids are on their own)
7. Stop complaining
8. Stop listening to others who complain
9. Manage my business expenses more closely
10. Go to Cape Cod
11. Visit NYC and see the Statue of Liberty
12. Take my daughters to a Penn State Football game
13. Sleep outside with my girls
14. Take a yoga class
15. Take a kickboxing class
16. Scrapbook at least the first years of my daughters’ lives
17. Invent something
18. Do the 365 days photo assignment
19. Swim with Dolphins
20. Donate a substantial amount of money to an animal shelter
21. Cross the border to Canada
22. Learn to ski
23. Teach a photography class for children
24. Do a self-portrait
25. Photograph a famous person (knowingly, not paparazzi style)
26. Create a family tradition for each holiday
27. Volunteer yearly
28. Get in a workout routine and stick to it
29. Live a healthier lifestyle
30. Photograph my parents
31. Hire a photographer to do MY family pictures
32. Find my childhood friend from Brazil, Juliana
33. Start a charity for kids with cancer
34. Learn to accept compliments
35. Make photography my full-time career
36. Visit Italy
37. Trace my family heritage
38. Go on a missions trip with my husband
39. Go to a dealership and buy any car that I want
40. Photograph my family’s small town in Portugal and write a book about it
41. Own a beach house
42. Organize my family photos and print them!
43. Rent a Winnebago and drive across the US
44. Take my daughters clamming where my grandfather took me
45. Go fruit picking and make jars of jam with it
46. Donate to a scholarship fund
47. Donate a photoshoot a month to a deserving family
48. Go to church every (most) Sundays
49. Do the chocolate spa thing at Hershey
50. Spend a day doing girly things with my girls
51. Take a trip with my girlfriends
52. Make wine
53. Have a picnic in a vineyard
54. Take my daughters to a Broadway show
55. Buy a house with an inground pool
56. Stay at a Bed & Breakfast
57. Speak at a graduation
58. Host a murder mystery party
59. Run a 5 k
60. Become a wine connoisseur
61. Finally understand Football
62. Inner tube down a river
63. Renew my wedding vows on a beach
64. Take a pottery class
65. Speak fluent Spanish
66. Run a profitable business where I make my own hours
67. Schedule my work around my life (not vice versa)
68. Say a prayer at Ground zero
69. See Niagara Falls
70. Put a message in a bottle and throw it into the ocean
71. Rent a scooter at the beach
72. Build an outdoor barbecue out of bricks
73. Take my daughters to see the Cristo Redentor in Brazil (like my dad took me)
74. Perform in a play
75. Attend a World Cup game
76. Have my palms read
77. Vacation in Hawaii
78. Start a family recipe book for my girls
79. Walk (and maybe shop) on Rodeo Drive
80. Be someone’s hero
81. Have a yard sale
82. Cook an entire meal using a fire
83. Cook all our family’s meals for a month
84. Become debt free
85. Go to a drive-in
86. Play golf
87. Host a Gala
88. Watch my girls fall in love
89. Grow old with my one and only
90. Watch my daughters change the world
91. Be a mentor to someone
92. Become organized
93. Develop a family budget and stick to it
94. Lose the weight I want o lose and then stay there!
95. Learn to let things go
96. Be thankful everyday
97. Be the mom that my daughters deserve
98. Have my work showcased in a studio
99. Live peacefully
100. Allow myself to dream

and they said I wouldn't use my $400 Cricut!