Pressure Points & 101 To Do List

I have found my perfect motivator. Peer pressure. Now it’s nothing that will inspire a scolding “If all your friends jumped off a bridge, would you?” It’s more like, I have friends making a difference in their community, political change, the environment, or cousins who have tremendously busy lives yet find ways to cook fabulous meals, or even just my co-workers who are athletic and motivated to stay fit. It all inspires me.
At work we are actually having a contest with another branch to see who can travel the most kilometers through exercise, the first team to Miami, Florida (figuratively speaking) wins. Now, everyone is gung ho about it, and so am I because this is just the kind of pressure and group accountability that pushes me to follow through with my own good intentions. Not only that, but even before this contest began our office has been trying to find a way for ourselves to be more active and we’re thinking of bringing in a yoga instructor once a week to lead who ever wants to join. That’s perfect for me because I hate doing things alone, and having to travel to a place on my own time to exercise is a DE-motivator for me. I am really hoping this sets the flame under my butt I think it will.
And on this subject, I think I am doing pretty well in my 101 Things To Do in 1001 days. This was another peer pressure motivated challenge for me. My cousin Pam had this on her blog and so I joined her in late July. It was another one of those things I knew I needed to do because I would have accountability to Pam and anyone else reading my blog after I posted it, motivating me to actually work towards crossing every last thing off. It was actually hard to come up with that many things I wanted to accomplish but now it has inspired me so much I have actually added to it : ) I think I have it up to 110 things I want to do in 1001 days now.
Here is my updated list of accomplishments:
Out of 101 to dos - 55 Completed ~ 19 In Progress ~ 13 daily/weekly/etc. items implemented~9 Added ~ 8 No Can Dos15 LEFT TO DO! With 345 days to go! (as of last update - 05/09/09)
House & Home1. Finish curtains for living room on MIL's sewing machine - just bought new ones so they can stay with the house when we sell
2. Buy new curtains for dining room - bought new ones
3. Find a better shoe shelf, to keep shoes off the floor – built in shoe rack at new house
4. Replace old light fixtures with same as ones already replaced - done by BIL!
5. Buy new couch and love seat, something smaller and cat hair resistant – bought new love seat, recliner and couch, chocolate brown microsuede
6. Buy a new coffee table with drawers and cubby holes to hide junk in – found a storage ottoman, can be a seat, foot stool, or the lid flips into a tray, and there is storage inside
7. Have or share a garage sale - block garage sale May 10th
8. Continue working on growing grass in back yard - grass has fully grown in
9. Re-do sidewalk to garage - something we might possibly do for new yard10. Add step for garage entrance - won't be completing after all because of moving
11. Replace bedroom doors with doors with vents - not doing this because of moving12. Back up and reformat computer - done
13. Have Dutch Elm Diseased trees removed - all removed, unfortunately the half dead oak is not going to be done by the city for free and we don't have the money to remove the eye soar, but at least les DED trees means less worms.
14. Childproof the house for babysitting: managed two occasions of babysitting with no incidents, new house and furniture much more kid friendly15. - door blocking mudroom (with cat door) - will block too much of hallway for moving furniture out of upstairs, so not doing after all16. - reorganize shelves close to the ground - done
17. Rebuild mudroom, with drywall and linoleum, and depending on money, a more energy efficient furnace and water tank (if we don't move first : ) - settling for replacing flooring because we're going to sell and move, BIL laid down plywood and we laid peel and stick tiles....looks good!
18. Match siding on house to garage (if we don't move first) - done, been painted to match garage
19. Make a timeline for moving into a bigger house, if not actually move - house sold as of June 25th and new house bought as of June 26th, moved in as of August 16th
20. Replace locks for the house/fix the front & back screen doors - didn’t end up needing to replace them, just fix them
21. Replace broken drawers/cupboards in counter - BIL finished fixing
22. Make one BBQ usable - decided we'll buy a new one or a BBQ pit with house sale proceeds23. Clean off the deck and patio set, and protect from fall/winter weather - cleaned and placed in shed.
Organization
24. Scan negatives, as well as family members negatives – finally bought scanner to start this but waiting for some free time!
25. Go through clothes and make a pile to give to charity - done
26. Finish going through still packed items for 'keep' and 'garage sale' piles - done
27. Organize craft supplies so I can find what I am looking for – have organizational furniture, getting even more now that my new craft room will just be a craft room.
28. De-clutter shelves in living room, less décor, better storage - done
29. Burn back up DVDs of computer in more organized fashion – bought a second hard drive to use for backing up our computers
Academics/Work30. Finish on the job training - done31. Take at least one Golder U course per year - 2- 07/08, 2 - 08/09
32. Re-organize office library - done
33. Organize server room - done
34. Create a birthday list and start birthday celebrations - done
35. Create a better manual for my job responsibilities – finished for new admin hire36. Aim to use less than 5 days of sick time per year - 07/08 =6.5/5 days, 08/09 = 4/5, 09/10 = 0/5
Travel/Entertainment
37. Renew passports - renewed in April for Sean's trip to Vegas and our trip to Nashville
38. Driving vacation through Saskatchawan & Alberta, Edmonton, Calgary,and Rockies – hopefully next year39. Attend a Big & Rich concert – on January 21st, 2008
40. Attend as many Paul Brandt concerts as we can – on November 19th, 200741. A long weekend with Sean in a major US city - went to Nashville for more than long weekend, June 5-11th42. A long weekend with Sean at a cabin -hopefully next year43. Go to a State or Province we've both never been before – going to Nashville
44. Go horseback riding with Sean - maybe in Alberta if we go next year45. Girls only road trip/shopping trip
46. Collect DVDs of favorite movies and t.v. shows – now have PVR so that we can record shows and watch them at our leisure instead of our favourite shows becoming a leash, so that was my ultimate goal, I'm technically done
47. Eat at Confusion Corner Grill, on the building top patio48. Eat at Café Inferno – ate there for my birthday, done!
49. Eat at the Tavern, on the building top patio
50. Have a BBQ in our back yard with at least 2 other people over - waiting till we have new BBQ
Family/Friends
51. Plan an amazing 5 year anniversary date! (since the odd years are my turn) – had a wonderful 24 hours at the Inn at the Forks, in the Riverstone room, fireplace, waterfall, jacuzzi, bathroom as big as our bedroom!52. A romantic stay somewhere in the mountains with a hot spring – hopefully next year53. Once a month, not including date night, do something as a couple that will allow us to carry on a long conversation (no t.v./movies/video game), such as; boardgames, walks, car rides, bike rides, etc. – once a month dedicating one weekend to spend time just the two of us54. Continue dedicating each July to the Honoring Husband Challenge – did my third July of this challenge and it still is continuing to teach me more about being a great wife. 3/3 July's done.55. Go out for a one-on-one coffee/dinner with at least 6 family members each year – 11/1656. Organize a day of scrapbooking for the females in the Braun family
57. Have a WOG friends get together - have hung out with 2 old WOG friends seperately, hopefully can with at least one more couple before this is over
58. Have an ECC friends get together
59. Go out for a coffee/dinner with at least one friend each month – 17/3260. Babysit my neices or nephew - babysat Landon once overnight and Brooklynn and Landon together overnight
61. Organize a 'paper crafting' club that will meet every other month
62. Become a mom (even though this one is a little out of my control) - my cycle was regular for 6 months and now the last two have not been again...not sure what's up
Spiritual
63. Join a cell group/Bible study
64. Copy sermon notes from Church into my notebook - done
65. Make entries in a prayer journal at least once a week, including a weekly list of people to pray for – a sermon on prayer has changed my perspective on this and I am still journaling but without time constraints.66. Post scripture around me to remind me of important verses to me – working on this
67. Make a song book (just lyrics) of my favorite worship songs – working on this68. Read the whole Bible – 14/66 books, had a lapse in this but back on track
Health/Fitness/etc.
69. Find and implement ways to reduce allergies (and therefore snoring) – have noticed an improvement, don't have anything to attribute it to70. Follow 1200 calories per day meal plan (snacks incl) until I lose 30 lbs - re-adjusted to range of 1100-1700 calories, but trying not to exceed 1450 calories per day. Have lost 27 lbs
71. 30-60 minutes of walking & orbitrek each 3 times a week until I lose 40 lbs - working out 180 min.+ per week72. 30-60 minute bike ride once a week until I lose 30 lbs - part of above plan
73. After reaching goal weight, maintain weight with 5 hrs weekly exercise and healthy meals - reducing that to 1.5 weekly
74. Drink 8 cups of water a day – been doing really well at this lately, I’ve been averaging 2 litres a day
75. No more than 250 ml of a sugary drink per week (pop, Starbucks, slurpees) – need to get back on track here
76. Start taking vitamins again – daily multi-vitamin, plus Omega 3-6-9 and vitamin C too77. Get into the WPG Sleep Clinic – 2-5 year waiting list so will be talked to the specialist (#69) instead.78. Start regular massage therapy – bookings are a regular
Purchases to make79. My second tattoo – had my consult, can't do my design as small as I wanted it, going to go back to an original design which will be actually 3 smaller tattoos80. New cell phones and new cell phone plan - Sean gets a free phone through work now so I switched to a new provider (keeping my same number) and cheaper plan, and got a new Razr phone, yay!81. Manicure & pedicure - got both82. Get fitted properly for a bra and then purchase some in correct size (not sure if before and/or after #73) - I know my proper size now but will have to get this re-measured after weightloss.83. At least 2 new casual-dressy tops for each season - did a mini-shopping trip because all clothes way too big
84. At least 2 new casual-dressy bottoms for each season - did a mini-shopping trip because all clothes way too big
85. Buy a new two piece swimsuit - got a new suit because the other one was falling off me, couldn't go swimming like that
86. Cheap/small digital camera for events I can't bring the big camera too - finally bought it 50% off!
87. New video camera - using one on second camera, does decent videos for now88. Upgrade computer to be able to upload and edit videos - bought a laptop, haven't put on video editing software yet though89. Stampin Spot ink pads from Stampin Up! – done thanks to my turn to host
90. At least 10 stamp sets from Stampin Up! - thanks to it being my turn to host, I now have more than 10!
Hobbies/Crafts91. Finish wedding album by our 5th year anniversary – 7/19 pages, didn't finish on time but still trucking!
92. Make a scrapbook for Brooklynn & Avery's first years - journaling my memories of them currently
93. Finish the Braun Family Wedding Album I started – working on this
94. Finish one digital design kit/month – 3.5/32 - decided to quit making these95. Make at least 100 cards for at least 10 different occasions, to have ready on hand for each year's events – created 58/10096. Take different photos to test out camera capabilities in different modes – working on this
97. Read about one book/month – read 16/32
98. Finish the poems I have started but left incomplete – done99. Make at least two journal entries per week, on blog or on paper - 265/284
100. Finish the memories book mom asked me to make her – turned this into a blog, which is much easier and adds to my journal entries each week!
101. On day 1001 post a new 101/1001 list

Added
102. Have the house reinsulated - cancelled due to moving
103. Buy plastic garbage bin to alleviate cat in garbage worries – we bought one for the new house
104. Try ethnic foods I haven’t tried before; Japanese, Caribbean, French – tried all three, Japanese at Shogun, French at Inferno's Bistro, and Caribbean at the Forks.
105. Make guest room into craft room also – done at old house, new house has both craft and guest room
106. Get a computer armoire to hide computer in dining room - done
107. Buy new Tupperware, especially collapsible kind to save room in kitchen cupboards - done
108. Buy kitchen organizing tools (racks, dividers, etc.) - done
109. Buy a smaller oven - changed plans, we're now spending money on home renos to make house more sellable, this one's a no can do too.
110. Buy a portable island cupboard to replace microwave cart (for more counter space) - cancelled, had BIL build a pantry instead for more storage, and microwave cart would give more counter space we wanted.