25 for 25!

Well, I know that this is a little late, considering that my birthday was a month ago, but I wanted to make a "to do list" for my 25th year of life.  These are 25 things that I would like to do before I turn 25!

1. Send out 25 cards: I'm really bad at sending out cards to people, but always enjoy it so much when I receive a card in the mail from someone.  For money's sake, I will count birthday and special occasion cards, even if they are hand delivered.
        1. Mom for Mother's Day
        2. Nannie for Mother's Day
        3. Mom-June
        4. Nannie-June

        5. Allie-June
        6. Emma-July
        7. Allie-July
        8.  Nannie-July
        9.  Emma-October

2. Call family members at least once a week: I hate talking on the phone, but I know it's important to have contact with my family, especially now that I live farther away.

3.  Remember people's birthdays: I've always been bad at remembering birthdays, and I really have no excuse.  Facebook tells me every day when someone's birthday is!

4.  Run 366 miles: This should be interesting.  That averages out to 1 mile a day, obviously (since it's a leap year).  Right now it's a little tough to get in 7 miles a week, because I normally don't do longer than 3.2 miles at a time.  But once I get past running just 3 miles when I run, this should be easier.  At the moment I have ran 21 miles since my birthday, so I am currently 11 miles behind schedule.  :(  Got to kick my butt in gear!

After my first 5k, somehow smiling

5.  Run a 10K: In helping with the 366 miles in a year, I want to train to run a 10K around February/March of next year.  It will be the farthest I have ever run, and will keep me striving towards something.  I've noticed that my motivation to run sort of dwindles when I don't have a race hanging over my head.  I've been scouring the rungeorgia.com website to try to find a 10k to put on the calendar for around that time to hopefully keep me motivated.

6.  Run a mile in under 8 minutes: This may not seem fast to most people, but I have always hated running, and have never been very good at it.  I haven't run an 8 minute mile since high school. 

7.  Finish a 5k, sub 30:XX: For the three 5ks that I have run, this was my goal.  Always at least a few minutes off, so not there yet, but hope to be by fall. 

8.  Lose weight: This is a big one for me.  I don't really care so much about the amount of pounds lost, but definitely want to be more toned/in a smaller size.  I would like to be the same weight I was at my wedding two years ago.  

9.  Give more of my time and money to help others: This seems kind of vague, but I want to be more involved in my community and church, whether that is monetary or just time spent helping.

10. Make 5 recipes from Mastering the Art of French Cooking: My mom gave me this cookbook two Christmases ago, and I have only made one recipe so far, Beouf Bourguignon...which was quite ambitious of me.  It was delicious, just time consuming!

11.  Make 5 recipes from the Joy of Cooking:  This is the book that inspired Julia Child to write her cookbooks, so it would be neat to make some recipes that she made when starting her cooking journey.  My mom gave me a vintage copy of this cookbook for this past Christmas.  

12.  Attend 5 concerts: Concerts are always a good thing to do with Husband since he loves music so much.  Already got 1 under our belts!
       1. Punch Brothers

13.  Read 2 books a month:  This should be pretty easy.  I'd like to extend that to being 1 fiction, and 1 nonfiction book per month.

       So far:
       1. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children-fiction
       2.  Let's Pretend This Never Happened-nonfiction
       3.  The American Heiress-fiction
       4.  Mrs. Kennedy and Me-nonfiction
       5.  The Dovekeepers-fiction
       6.  Unbroken-nonfiction
       7.  The Poisonwood Bible-fiction

14.  Read through at least the New Testament:  I've tried to do this several years, but have never actually finished it in a year.  I would definitely like to accomplish this one. 

15.  Read the Count of Monte Cristo:  I have owned this book for about 7 years and have started it about 3 times.  It's just so intimidatingly huge.  But I love the movie, and love the storyline.  I am determined that by age 25, I will conquer this book!  All 1,462 pages of it.

 16.  Create a family tree:  This would be a fun project to do with my parents and grandparents and I think would be a good way to help preserve my family's history.

17.  Learn to sew: My mom always tried to teach me how growing up, but I always resisted her efforts...much to my current chagrin.  Hopefully she'll give me another try.  I'd be fine with just knowing the basics.

18.  Watch 25 new-to-me movies: Husband and I really like watching movies, so this should be pretty easy!

19.  Re-learn French:  This seems so vague, but after studying French for 5 years, I was in the very beginning stages of being fluent.  Since my last semester of it a couple of years ago, I haven't really sharpened that skill anymore.  There is a little shop in the next town over that has some French speaking women that work there, but I have only had the guts to go in there and talk to them once.  They could definitely help me get back to where I was, just need to suck it up and go talk to them.

Me in high school with my French teacher, Mme Wells.  Awesome teacher! 

20.  Take 500 new pictures: I've had a nice DSLR for years, and took tons of pictures to begin with.  I've sort of hit a wall with picture taking, and want to get back in the habit of taking pictures. 

21.  Go to Wakulla Springs: Husband and I have been planning this for a while, and hopefully we'll get to go this summer.

22.  Go to 3 parades: I usually resist parades, but once I'm there I always enjoy them.  I'm sure one of those will be the annual Cairo Christmas parade.

2011 Cairo Christmas parade

23.  Go on vacation to a city I've never been: For the sake of our budget, this doesn't have to be another country or even another state.  Just a city I've never been.  Darrien trip!

24.  Paint my toenails a different color each month: This was my sister's contribution, and I love this idea.  Some of these might just have to be pedi trips with said sister. :)

25.  Write 200 blog posts: Self explanatory, 15 down, 185 to go!