29 New Things

I've mentioned it here before, but I have a birthday tradition; every year, I take the age that I'm turning and try at least that many new things during the year.  I know this will be more of a challenge every year, but I'm looking forward to finding out what 75 new things I will try when I'm 75.  I think it will keep life interesting.

For some reason I have not posted the list of new things that I tried the last two years, and I greatly regret it because those lists are lost with my old hard drive (Booooo!).  So here is my list of 29 new things that I tried over the last year (although I added on a few extra because I cheated by listing a few that were not really by choice)

1.  Appeared on live TV

2.  Had a second baby

3.  Was pregnant without Gestational diabetes

4.  Watched my little brother get married

5.  Celebrated Yellow Day

6.  Made Lisa a string scavenger hunt

7.  Saw a movie at the Sundance Film Festival

8.  Used a Moby Wrap (Thanks Melinda!)

9.  Designed my own Card line

10.  Moved from a house back to an apartment

11.  Saw A Banksy in person

12.  Toured the Homestead Crater

13.  Grew Wheat Grass

14.  Ate at the chow truck

15.  Made Strop Waffles

16.  Made Surprise Balls

17.  Threw a villain party

18.  Spent a weekend with friends at Bear Lake

19.  Waded in the Great Salt Lake on Antelope Island

20.  Had something I designed carried at the MOMA gift shop! (can you believe it?)

21.  Lost my hard drive

22.  Took my kids to the drive-in

23.  Met the author and illustrator of Babymouse

24.  Bought peonies

25.  Planted a lemon tree

26.  Made a rootbeer float cake

27.  Pretended to be the Binky Fairy

28.  Trained some Easter bunnies

29.  Made a Max costume

30.  Made fortune walnuts

31.  Searched Salt Lake for the best Doughnuts

32.  Joined a grown-up book club

33.  Collected all the letters to spell Abracadabra in Creed's room

34.  Played Secret Agent and slipped Larry secret message capsules

I've already started on my 30 new things for this year.  I can't wait to see what the year will bring . . .

Progress Report

Remember my monthly To-Do list? This is my progress report so far.

1. Continue searching for the letters to spell out Abra Cadabra in Creed's room. I only need to find one more A and an R. I know that I could order them online, but I sort of love the thrill of the hunt that collecting something brings. Do you collect anything? Do you feel that way?
2. Write bunches of Thank you notes to all of our wonderful friends for all of the great things they did for us after Ollie's arrival - Well, I started, but I have a long way to go
3. Throw a birthday party for Creed - DONE!
4. Survive Larry going to a conference in Georgia for several days - DONE! Thanks to my parents for letting us crash there for a while.
5. Design Ollie's birth announcements
6. Track down and sample the Chow Truck (Haute Asian Cuisine on the go in a cart that moves around the city? I HAVE to try that!) - Attempted, but it switched locations so it wasn't where we thought it was. We will try again soon!
7. Attend the Holi festival in two weeks (I'm not sure that we can work out babysitting though so we'll see about this one) - We had everything set, even a babysitter (Thank you Aunt Nina) and then BOTH boys got sick the night before. I was so sad to miss it!
8. Start taking Ollie's monthly photos - DONE!
9. Visit Wheeler Farm to see if new baby animals have started arriving
10. Hold a Moonlight-flashlight Easter egg hunt for grown-ups - DONE!
11. Try the Sesame Chicken Salad Wrap at Les Madeleines - DONE! It was delicious.
12. Hit up a couple of letterboxes around the city when we need an adventure on a sunny day. We found one and hope to make it out again.
13. Make some Easter Egg cozies when I get the crafting urge.
14. Make good use of my new waffle iron for Belgian cookies. - Made them once.
15. Grow some Wheatgrass (not to juice, we're not THAT healthy around here, just to decorate, although I have no idea where to find the seeds to get started. Whole Foods?)
16. Visit the new Penguin exhibit at our local aquarium after it opens in two weeks (because you know how Creed adores penguins)
17. Take some new photobooth pictures. It's been way too long since our last photobooth session and I've been saving up my single dollar bills, but I'm not sure if this one will happen because both of the booths we used near us have been removed! We'll just have to try to go when we're visiting family in Provo. - Attempted but the first photobooth we tried was removed and the second was out of order. What a pain!
18. Sign Creed up for swim lessons - DONE! and we already finished the two week session. More about that later.
19. Try some new, easy dinner recipes. I am a horrible cook. Do you have any favorite recipes that you'd like to share because I don't think my family can continue to live on pancakes and frozen pizza?

I still have two weeks to accomplish the rest, but I'm feeling happy with where I am so far. On top of all of that I managed to get my hair cut (It's been way too long).

And I made a short appearance on a local show called Studio 5. This is the lovely Stephanie Bryson helping me set up for my segment. Now I have being on live TV to add to my list of 29 new things to try for the year.

The Soundtrack for Tiny Ford's Arrival

Tiny Ford is due to arrive on Saturday, but as of now, the plan is to head to the hospital Thursday night to be prepped to be induced Friday morning (that is, if he does not make an appearance before then, I guess we shall have to wait and see though).

What's that you say? You think we better hurry up and come up with a name so we don't have to call him "tiny" when he arrives? And it's time to actually get that new car seat out of the box and make sure we know how to get it in the car? And I better finish packing that hospital bag? Why do that when I could be putting together a playlist of happy, relaxing songs to listen to during labor? So here it is, the soundtrack for Tiny Ford's arrival! Some songs are baby related and some are just songs that make me feel happy. I thought I'd share them in case you needed a little happy, relaxation music too.

1. Family Tree / Frances England 3:32

2. 1, 2, 3, 4 / Plain White T's 3:20

3. Coin Laundry / Lisa Mitchell 3:17

4. You Are My Favorite / Sophie Madeleine 3:32

5. Stay / Katie Brandeburg 3:18

6. Butterfly Nets / Bishop Allen 3:14

7. Neopolitan Dreams / Lisa Mitchell 3:05

8. Ordinary Day / Emilie Mover 3:26

9. Maybe / Ingrid Michaelson 3:16

10. It's a Big World / Renee & Jeremy 3:12

11. I Don't Know a Thing / Lucy Schwartz 4:10

12. Trouble / Never Shout Never 2:28

13. Mama Papa Love / Renee & Jeremy 2:13

14. Oh, It Is Love / Hellogoodbye 4:04

15. I Wish You Love / Sunflow 2:29

16. Click click click click / Bishop Allen 3:04

17. Light Bulb / Rachel Goodrich 2:41 (I had to edit this one because there was a lot of blank space and then a weird song after this one when we downloaded it from I-tunes)

18. Night Mantra / Renee & Jeremy 3:20

Hmmmm . . . I guess that I'm really liking ukulele music lately.

Do you have any new favorites lately?