Danni's 101 in 1001

#21 Clean and organize the spare bedroom

2011-03-21T12:22:00.000-04:00

This was a major work in progress. The spare bedroom started as our catch-all room. Then when we got pregnant it had to be turned into a nursery. These picture were taken November 2009. You can see that a bunch of our wedding gifts were stored in this room. Along with our cooler, and our extra paper supplies.

It still wasn't completely done in June when Baby Rebel was born. Luckily he was sleeping in our room, so it wasn't a major concern.

I have no idea how long I spent working on his room. Like I said, it was a work in progress for a long time.

Baby Rebel moved into his own room when he was 4 months old. I can happily report that at that time his nursery was complete.

The big reveal!!

Note- His room still houses our books. There are 4 while shelves which you can see to the left in the first picture. Which is why there are still some books on that shelf that runs along the wall. There just isn't another place to put them in our apartment. And yes, Baby Rebel does have his own shelf!! :)

#88- Read 5 nonfiction books

2011-03-05T18:19:00.000-05:00

Belly Laughs: The Naked Truth About Pregnancy and Childbirth

This was my 3rd non-fiction choice. I finished this one back in February of last year. I was about halfway through my pregnancy, so I was able to really appreciate the humor in what she was saying.

From almost the first page I was constantly laughing. While most of what Jenny shared didn't come as new info or a surprise, it was nice to get an honest take on all the different aspects of pregnancy.

I felt this was the girl's version of My Boys Can Swim, a book I bought for my husband about pregnancy. A light take on the ugly truth that can be pregnancy.

#43- Learn sign language, beyond just the alphabet

2011-03-05T18:06:00.000-05:00

This one is a work in progress.

I posted on my regular blog back in December about starting sign language with Baby Rebel. Watching that DVD has taught me signs beyond just the alphabet. While there is no way I could carry a regular conversation in sign language, I'm happy just to be expanding my vocabulary.

This is the DVD that we're using to teach him signs. Oh, and he's started signing back "milk". So happy!

#23- Get rid of or fix small freezer

2011-03-05T17:59:00.000-05:00

I'm pretty sure this one got done a year ago February. My grandma, mom and sister came over with my grandparent's truck to bring me a china cabinet. My grandparents have a junkyard just down the road from their house, so I asked my grandma if she thought Jim, the owner, would be willing to take the freezer.

So, we loaded it up and my grandma took it away. Whew, glad to have that gone.

Getting my butt in gear!!

2011-03-02T22:45:00.000-05:00

So I've majorly been slacking on this and I don't want to give up. Some of the things on the list I've managed to complete. So I'll be doing a whole bunch of updates, and I'll try to include some pictures. I've got just over a year left. While I know I won't finish everything, I'm going to do my best to get done what I can.

I may do a bit of revising of the list. Some circumstances have changed and I have to be realistic about what is feasible to get done in the next year.

#40 Take an "Us" picture every month

2010-01-19T15:34:00.002-05:00

Fail! I fail at taking an "Us" picture. The last picture I have of the 2 of us is back from October.

I'll try to pick it up, but unfortunately I won't make any promises.

#35 Spend a day doing whatever H wants

2010-01-19T15:26:00.002-05:00

Last week H had some time off from his part-time job, so I decided to indulge him a bit and let him decide what we did for a day.

First, he decided to see a movie. So we went to see The Blind Side. We went early enough to get the matinee price, which also meant the theater was pretty empty. Our fellow viewers were of the much, much older persuasion! The funny part was waiting for them to walk down the steps once the movie was over. Talk about slow! LOL!

Second, he decided to go bowling with a friend, S. Spectrum Lanes had a deal where each game was $1/person, plus shoes were $1 each. There were a lot of people there, so it's a pretty popular deal. We ended up bowling 3 games. The first game I got a 10th frame turkey! I was so stoked, I had to print the game. Yeah, I'm a dork like that. S and H each ended up winning a game as well. We usually all bowl about the same, so the games are more fun and can get kinda competitive. Especially, when L is in town!

It was a pretty nice day, and I hope that H enjoyed choosing what we did.

#56 Make 5 Vegetarian Meals

2009-12-12T21:56:00.005-05:00

Easy, Cheesy Tortellini Bake

Recipe- Bun in the Oven

Another win for the vegetarian meals. Really, how can you lose when you have stuffed pasta shells with marinara and alfredo sauce plus loads of cheese!

#92 Don't read a book for a whole week (7 days)

2009-12-01T12:08:00.003-05:00

I actually completed this one inadvertently. Ever since getting pregnant I have had no desire to read. Between starting my new job, and dealing with tiredness reading a book just has had no appeal for me.

I actually went from November 8th till November 27th without reading a book. The last book I read I finished on the 7th, and then managed to start and finish a book on the 28th. So while my goal was to only go 7 days, I actually went 20 days.

So far this year I've read 193 books, so while the desire to read hasn't really come back I'm really hoping I can finish 7 books in the next 30 days. I really want to read 200 this year.

#40 Take an "Us" picture every month.

2009-12-01T12:03:00.003-05:00

This picture is for October. I actually took it on the day I got the positive pregnancy test. Nothing stellar, but at least it is from the first day I knew I was pregnant.

#94 Get Pregnant

2009-12-01T11:58:00.003-05:00

Well after 13 months of trying, I can finally cross this one off the list! I got the bfp (big fat positive pregnancy test) back on October 20th, but wanted to wait till we saw the doctor before telling the whole world.

We saw the doctor yesterday, so now we're telling everyone. Since I wasn't positive who was following my blogs, I waited till now to update them.

Here's a picture of baby.

Baby is measuring right at 10 weeks, which is what the calculations put me at. My estimated due date is June 29, 2010.

#40 Take an "Us" picture every month

2009-10-03T05:40:00.005-04:00

I fail! I managed to never take an "Us" picture last month. Of course I didn't realize this until October had already started.

However, I do have this picture which is of my whole family at our family reunion back at the beginning of the month. And since H and I are standing next to one another, I'll say it counts!

H and I are on the far left. Included in the picture are my mom, step-dad, grandparents, sisters, nieces, aunt and lots of cousins.

#56 Make 5 Vegetarian meals

2009-09-26T02:38:00.005-04:00

Veggie Pizza

Recipe: Bun in the Oven

While this recipe isn't new to me, it certainly applies in my quest to make 5 vegetarian meals. H actually suggested this recipe after we had some carrots and celery left over from that vegetarian chili I made last week.

While chopping all the veggies is time consuming, it is well worth it. I had this recipe a lot growing up, and it never failed to be a crowd pleaser. I'm really happy that H also appreciates this recipe.

Since this isn't a warm recipe, it works really great in summer. Also veggies are usually cheaper in summer.

#12 Organize all Recipes

2009-09-22T20:19:00.004-04:00

I love to cook. I've subscribed to Kraft Foods, Real Simple, and Food Network Magazines. I'm too much of a neat freak to keep a ton of old magazines with only a few recipes I'm interested in. So I have a lot of loose pages of recipes that I want to make.

I decided to organize them by putting them in a 3-ring binder in page protectors. Finally got around to organizing them.

The only thing I don't know is what I want to do with the recipes once I've made the recipe. For the most part once I make a recipe I blog about it on my food blog. So, I don't need the paper copy anymore. But the paper copy inside it's nice safe page protector is easier to use than my laptop when I want to make that recipe again. So I guess what I'm getting at is that I'm thinking I want to file them. Maybe in the back of my 3-ring binder so they are easy to access?

Anyone else have any thoughts?

#56 Make 5 Vegetarian Meals

2009-09-11T19:56:00.005-04:00

Cheesy Chili Soup

Recipe: Bun in the Oven

Once again, the link to my food blog has the recipe.

I found this recipe in Kraft's magazine that I get. At first I thought it just looked good for a cold night. When I realized that it didn't include meat, I was stoked to have found another vegetarian recipe! Just had to substitute vegetarian vegetable broth for the chicken broth, and I was in business.

This was a hearty vegetable soup. It's so easy to make and really tastes good. I plan to make this again!

#40 Take an "Us" picture every month

2009-09-01T13:30:00.002-04:00

Here's our third picture. Man it sure does seem like we dress up a lot! ;) That's what happens when we attend 5 weddings over a span of 14 weeks. Once wedding season is over trust me, you'll see us dressed down.

This was the wedding for a pair of really good friends that we used to work with. I actually can remember when they weren't a couple and they didn't really know one another. Wow how time flies and things change. They are so perfect for each other. B & M certainly won't have a shortage of laughter in their marriage.

Here's to many years!!

#88 Read 5 non-fiction books

2009-08-30T05:36:00.002-04:00

My 2nd choice was Time Bandit: Two Brothers, the Bering Sea, and One of the World's Deadliest Jobs.

I love the show Deadliest Catch. It airs from April to July on Discovery Channel and showcases 5 crab boats that fish the Bering Sea for king and opilio crab. H, myself, and a friend, S, have become addicted to this show over the last 3 years.

This book is written by 2 brothers who co-captain the fishing vessel, Time Bandit. They are one of the 5 boats featured on the show. Having seen what life is like for these captains and their crew I was very interested in seeing what they had to say.

The book is pretty good. Definitely some great lines in the book. "I have give you boys every means at my disposal to kill yourselves, and you have failed." I also gained some insight into why these guys are the way they are and background that isn't divulged in front of the cameras.

While I don't necessarily love these guys, you can't help but see that they are the product of how they were raised and they don't make any apologies for that. They do what they love, and that is fish.

I'm sad that this season of Deadliest Catch is over, and I can't wait to see what next season has in store. I know the Hillstrand Brothers won't disappoint.

#38 Kiss in the pouring rain

2009-08-26T19:10:00.005-04:00

We've had some storms recently, and every time it rains H bugs me to go out, so we can check this one off the list. Well until last night every storm included lots of thunder and lightning. I'm not a fan of getting electrocuted. :)

Anyways, so pretty late last night H asked if I wanted to go outside. It was raining pretty good, and it was late enough (after 11pm) that I knew no one would really see us (we live in an apartment complex).

So we went outside barefoot, and did the kissing in the grass. As proof we took pictures of ourselves after we came back in. Hey, I'm not gonna take a picture of us kissing and post it! ;)

#56 Make 5 vegetarian meals

2009-08-26T00:19:00.005-04:00

Spinach-Artichoke Ravioli-Lasagna.

Recipe: Bun in the Oven

I included the link to my post in my food blog, instead of posting it both places.

I saw this recipe on Rachel Ray's 30 Minute Meals. I actually watched an episode. Some of her stuff has just gotten so strange and out there that I don't often watch her anymore. I saw her make this, and knew I wanted it to be my first vegetarian meal. H and I like spinach and artichoke dip, so figured we would like this. We also love pasta dishes, so that was another bonus for this meal.

Overall it was great, and a good intro to vegetarian meals. Hopefully my other 4 tries will be as successful.

If anyone has a vegetarian recipe that they think I should try let me know. I consider H and I to be kind of adventurous in eating, but no tofu!

#73 Donate clothes/shoes I don’t wear

2009-08-24T02:21:00.004-04:00

While cleaning/organizing my closet wasn't part of the 101 list, it was essential in order to establish what needed to be donated. I made H go through his clothes, so not everything is mine. But our closet and both our dressers are looking a lot better now.

Closet Before:

Closet After:

Clothes/Shoes we're donating:

I love the feeling of accomplishment from cleaning the closet and donating stuff.

#87 Start an online journal/diary

2009-08-23T00:21:00.003-04:00

I added this to my list because I want to get back to writing a journal. All through school I had a diary. I wrote about my crushes, problems with my father, anger and depression about death, and everything else my heart desired. I pretty much stopped when I started dating Tim. Plus he found and read it, so I thought online would be a better idea than paper.

Livejournal is where I chose to set up shop. You can choose your privacy settings from private to public like this blog. I chose private, and even made my password something that Tim doesn't know. Plus I didn't have my computer save my password and I didn't write it down in our password book, so there will be no snooping for the Mister!

So while I already have 2 blogs, this journal is just my way of being able to express myself always without fear of offending anyone or being judged for my thoughts.

#78 Donate 100,000 grains of rice on freerice.com

2009-08-21T06:36:00.003-04:00

Free Rice is a website that donates rice through the UN World Hunger Program.

How it works is it asks you a vocabulary question, gives you 4 choices on a definition, and for every correct answer the site donates 10 grains of rice.

It goes really quick, I spent like 5 minutes on the site and managed to donate 500 grains.

The site won't keep track of my donations from separate visits to the site, so I'll have to keep track of it.

100,000-500= 99,500 more to go.

#40 Take an "Us" picture every month

2009-08-01T02:40:00.005-04:00

So this picture is technically from June 27th. But H and I did absolutely nothing this month where we would take a picture of us. At least in August we'll have a wedding to go to.

This picture was at another wedding. This time a cousin of mine got married in the U.P. It was a lot of fun, and great to get away if only for a weekend. Plus we got to see family that we haven't seen in years.

#88 Read 5 non-fiction books

2009-08-01T02:18:00.004-04:00

I read my first non-fiction book for the 101.

I read Through the Storm: A Read Story of Fame and Family in a Tabloid World by Lynne Spears.

This was the review I posted on Goodreads.com

Not really sure why I decided to read this book. I'm not really a fan of Britney Spears. While I like her music, I don't really like her all that much. And I don't get into the tabloid stuff, and I don't have to know what is going on with the stars.

For whatever reason, I decided to read it. Maybe just to get the mother's perspective on such a crazy family. Of course everything the media reported wasn't accurate, so getting a first hand account of the family's decisions sets things straight.

While the book certainly sheds some light on why some things happened, and background info that is otherwise lost, I just didn't seem to really care about Lynne Spears or the Spears Family. I lost a lot of respect for her when she kept defending her husband's alcoholism and preferred to live in denial. And perhaps looking back now she realizes her mistakes with him, but I just have a problem when she says that she doesn't believe in divorce, so therefore wouldn't leave her husband. Even when that is what her kids wanted her to do.

I could appreciate that Lynne Spears recognized her mistakes and limitations and wasn't afraid to share them with the world. While I know that there are more than 1 side to every story, she wasn't shy about her version of events.

I've read other non-fiction books that I preferred. I'm hoping that that the other 4 I read will be better.

#40 Take an “Us” picture every month

2009-06-22T16:08:00.002-04:00

This is our first "Us" photo. We took this in front our apartment after attending a wedding. Trust me, we won't always be dressed so spiffy for these pics! ;)

Btw: it was really bright out so that's why I'm squinting, my eyes are really sensitive to sunlight.

Oh, and that is also the tie I tied from my last post! Not bad, eh!

#46 Learn to Tie a necktie for H

2009-06-21T00:14:00.004-04:00

Got my first lesson today. H and I had a wedding to go to and his tie was all messed up. It had been tied by the professional at Men's Wearhouse when we bought it and just kept tightening and loosening it when he needed to wear it. Of course he managed to screw it up today ;) and had to be redone. Perfect! Something else from my 101 list!

So I pulled out the laptop and looked up on Yahoo! how to tie a tie. We went with this site and opted to go with the Windsor knot since the site says that is one of the easiest to learn. After watching the video and using the step by step instructions I managed to tie H's tie decent enough to leave for the wedding.

I'm going to consider this step "In Progress" as I want to work on the Windsor knot some more, and perhaps try a few others. Plus I think I may want to learn to tie the knot while the tie is on H, instead of around my own neck. I know that's how my grandma does it for my grandpa. :)

#45 Look into Pilot Lessons

2009-06-20T02:51:00.001-04:00

Back story: When I was in high school I dreamed of being a pilot that landed planes on the aircraft carriers. Thought that would be so cool. Well no point in joining the military when you have vision as crappy as mine, regardless of what that recruiter told me!

So recently I decided "Hey, if I wanted to be a pilot so badly in high school maybe I should look into flying lessons to see if I really like it." I've flown before, but only once that I actually remember (well round trip to Mexico). So by adding this item to the list I could finally see if that dream so long ago even had a remote chance of reality.

I started by looking into flight schools in the area. Found one, and checked out their website. Looks interesting and I'm certainly learning the requirements to get my Private Pilot License. Although after further research I discover that I'm looking at $4,000 to get it. But the $49 Intro Flight is probably the place to start. I don't even know if this is something I want to take all the way.

So then I decide to look into what more you would have to do to become a Commercial Pilot. Lovely wikiHow helped me out with that answer. Definitely have a loooooong ways to go before that would be a reality. And again I'm back to not knowing whether I even would like flying. I've never been in a small plane, much less as the pilot.

So I can check this one off the list. But I do want to do more follow-up. It may take a little while longer into the 1001 days, but I really want to at least do the Intro Flight and see if being a pilot really truly interests me.

I'll let you all know!

#101- Inspire someone to do their own 101 list

2009-06-18T16:29:00.000-04:00

It seems I've inspired a fellow May '08 Nestie to make her own list. Congrats funkypineapple! One day in, and I can already check another item off the list. Talk about motivation.

When I originally was making my list and decided to add this item I was actually hoping to inspire H to make his own. I thought it would be fun to see what he came up with and thought we could work together. I also figured we would have some overlapping items, so we could work twice as hard to get them finished.

Obviously I can still inspire him, we'll just have to see.

Oh, and he is following this blog, so he'll be reading this! ;)

So it begins!

2009-06-17T04:45:00.000-04:00

I've jumped on the bandwagon and decided to do the 101 in 1001 days.

My start day is today, June 17, 2009 and my end date is March 14, 2012.

I've created this blog to not only keep you informed on my progress and to help keep me motivated to finish everything. By creating this blog I can already check on thing off the list, only 100 more to go! Woot, how about that for motivation.

I hope you enjoy my journey!