Happy Birthday

Today I celebrated my 31st birthday. We went out for a very nice dinner and had jumbo chocolate chocolate-chip muffins for dessert. It was a good birthday (I even left work early today so that was extra special).

Since it's my birthday again, I feel compelled to share with you the progress from my list of Birthday Goals established 1 year ago today. Looking back, I don't think I did a very good job. But, it was nice to have the goals to keep me focused on something during the times when I wasn't enjoying life as much. I tried to blog about each goal as I accomplished it so I've included a bunch of links below. If you've already read my blog posts, you don't have to read them again, but it's a nice way to capture my successes in one place. I've also included a little bit of info on the items that I failed or only partially completed. Hopefully, I've done a good job of explaining myself (a.k.a. making excuses).

BIRTHDAY GOALS:
✔1. Go on a cruise

✘2. Make donuts
(FAILED: I don't know why I didn't do this. I love donuts...I just never made time for it so it didn't get done. I'll do it next year!)

✘3. Start an herb garden (and keep it alive!)
(FAILED: I have an herb garden kit, but it's still sitting in the box. I guess I don't get points if I didn't even open the box.)

✔4. Send homemade Christmas cards

✘5. Learn all the U.S. Presidents, in order
(FAILED: I started this one by listening to a song about 10 months ago...but then I never listened to it again so I can only name the first 6 presidents and the last 5.)

✔6. Go to the dentist

½ 7. Read the entire Bible (chronologically)
(PARTIAL: I started off strong with the reading and then slowly stopped. I do get points for getting about 33% thru. I think I'll start this one again next year!)

✔8. Watch all the Lord of the Rings movies in one day

½ 9. Cook thru an entire cookbook
(PARTIAL: I started the cookbook, and I was doing really well... for a while. Then I just got tired of the pressure and the weird ingredients in the cookbook. I was also tired of always having to use recipes from the book instead of other things that sounded good at the time. So, I stopped...therefore I only get partial credit.)

✔10. Buy an exercise bike (and use it!)

✘11. Go whitewater rafting
(FAILED: I really wanted to do this, but I just could get it planned. There is a place in Panama to go rafting and we talked about it in Costa Rica, but never followed through.)

✘12. Read “The Path Between the Seas” by David McCullough
(FAILED: The book is really big. Have you seen it? I just don't have time for huge books...maybe I'll start it slowly next year!)

✔13. Go to Costa Rica
(DONE: We went to Costa Rica in February. I have wonderful great pictures and even stories about the wonderful restaurant at our hotel. But, I realized that I've never written about it or shared the photos or stories. I'm so sorry! I'll try to write about it sometime soon, just to prove we did it!)

✔14. Volunteer for something at church
(DONE: I'm going to take credit for this one. The reason I added it to the list originally was to get more involved in church and meet more people. So, even though I didn't exactly volunteer for something, I did join a Bible Study. And, now I'm more involved and I'm meeting more people...so I'd say I accomplished the purpose of the goal.)

✔15. Get a second pet
(DONE: I never really wrote about this event either...I didn't keep up very well with my blog posts, huh? We got a new kitten for Bill's birthday in June. I've mentioned her, but never properly blogged about her arrival. The link above shows a recent post of the cat and her friend gekko.)

½ 16. Watch the entire Gilmore Girls series with my husband
(PARTIAL: We started watching Gilmore Girls...and we would have finished but we started too many other series at the same time. Bill was actually willing to watch Gilmore Girls with me, but we were too busy enjoying Stargate SG1, The Office, Arrested Development, and others. So, I get partial credit and we intend to finish the series eventually!)

✔17. Cross-stitch something

½ 18. Write a letter once a month
(PARTIAL: I think I wrote a total of 6 letters. One a month for the first 6 months...then I got lazy. I really wish I had kept up with this one, I wanted to get better at sending thoughtful letters and notes to friends and family. Maybe I'll continue to work on it.)

✔19. Learn how to make pesto

✘20. Paint a picture (paint-by-numbers is good enough!)
(FAILED: I have the picture! It's a cute paint-by-number picture of a dog. I've had it for a while and I really intended to get it painted...but again, laziness got the better of me. If I ever finish it, I'll let you know.)

✘21. Make a will
(FAILED: We just never got around to it. Bill and I talked about it several times, but we don't really have anything worthy of putting in a will. I guess the animals could be added to a will...we'll try to work on that next year.)

✔22. Participate in “Flavor of the Month” on my blog
(DONE: I participated in a fellow blogger's monthly theme for a while, then she cancelled the whole thing. But, I get credit for participating as long as it lasted. You can read the posts here, here, here, and here.)

½ 23. Exercise twice a week (at least)
(PARTIAL: I'm taking half credit for this one too. I may not exercise enough, but I definitely exercise more than I used to. More than I did before I made this list of goals. So, the purpose has been accomplished. Right now, I am exercising at least twice a week with water aerobics and exercise videos. So, although I can't say I did this every week, I'm doing better!)

✔24. Go camping on Anderson Island
(DONE: Another one that I've accomplished and failed to blog about. Last May, when we visited my family, we went camping. I had a lot of video footage so I planned to make a video clip. It ended up being 10 minutes long and I knew that my blogging friends would get BORED so I didn't post it. I had intended to write something about our wonderful time on Anderson Island and share some pictures, but I guess I forgot. I'll work on getting that posted.)

½ 25. Save enough for a down-payment to buy a house
(PARTIAL: Technically, I could say this one is done. We have enough money for a down-payment on some house...but not enough for a down-payment on the kind of house we want to buy. But, we're doing an excellent job of saving our money right now so I know that we will have a good amount saved when it's time to finally buy our first house!)

✘26. Make shrimp or scallops for my husband
(FAILED: I guess since I don't like shrimp or scallops I was never very enthusiastic about this one. I did want to learn an easy shrimp recipe so Bill could enjoy them from time to time, but I never made it a priority. Maybe next year...maybe.)

✘27. Go snorkeling in the Atlantic Ocean
(FAILED: I thought I was going to get this one. We were supposed to go snorkeling on our cruise [see #1 above] but that didn't work out. We made it to the Atlantic [Caribbean] one other time but I didn't get to snorkel. Oh well, someday I'll snorkel again.)

✔28. Go snorkeling in the Pacific Ocean
(DONE: I technically snorkeled. I didn't see anything, but I put the mask on and swam around for a while. There was nothing to see except sand and water, but I was there and I made the effort so it counts!)

✘29. Host a Murder Mystery Dinner
(FAILED: I tried, I really did. I had the guests all picked out...but no one could make it fit in their busy schedules. So, I picked different guests and had the same problem. We've tentatively scheduled it for November, which doesn't count for this list, but I'll let you know when/if it finally happens.)

✘30. Make an address list in Access (a really good one)
(FAILED: I have been very unorganized lately so creating something in Access hasn't sounded fun. Usually, I'm so organized that I would jump at the opportunity, but I've been in a funk for a while and never got it done. I guess it's not a priority since my little address book is so well maintained, but someday I hope to make a good list.)

TOTAL: So, if I add up a point for each one I accomplished, and subtract a point for each one I failed, and add in the half points for each partial, I get a grand total of...5. Can you believe that? Not very good! I guess it's better than failing completely, but I really thought I would do a better job in the 30th year of my life. Maybe I need to wait until I'm 40 and make another list. Oh well, I'm done now. Hope you enjoyed the ride!