First real beach trip as an adult (aka, rental house with brother and friends, paying our own way, no help from mama and daddy). It included some sweet wedding planning, lots of hot tub time, and of course, a fabulous seafood feast dinner.
September
Back to school ...
Opening game of the 2011 season.
Nerd alert -- cheesin' about the completion of my 365 photo project.
First trip back to campus since graduating -- and first game in the newly renovated stadium.
Showered with love from true friends during a rough time.
Spending time with bridesmaids and picking out dresses!
November
Joel and team representatives waiting to receive his trophy for SCMS' soccer team for going undefeated in the regular season and becoming the 2011 season champions.
A trip to NoVA with BYOT ladies to help Jen look for wedding dresses.
December
A trip to Tennessee with Ted, Dana, Jack, and Alie.
Celebrating the holidays.
And just like that, it was 2012. The year we will get married!!!
I know I never post here, but here's some Christmas fun that's floating around the blogiverse.
1. egg nog or hot chocolate? Hot chocolate. I tried egg nog once, never again!
2. does santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? At my parents' house, Santa used to leave his gift unwrapped.
3. colored lights on tree/house or white? Colored lights on the tree.
4. do you hang mistletoe? No, it's bad for dogs and our dogs WOULD find a way to get it.
5. when do you put your decorations up? We got our tree two weeks before Christmas but it didn't get decorated until a week later.
6. what is your favorite holiday dish? Grandma's mac and cheese
7. favorite holiday memory as a child? My brother and I spilling the beans about everything we knew our parents were getting each other :)
8. when and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I have no idea.
9. do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? We used to, now we celebrate with my dad's parents and aunt&uncle on Christmas Eve so we don't really need to open one from immediate family, we're a little more patient.
10. how do you decorate your Christmas tree? Colored lights, assorted ornaments, and a crocheted angel on top
11. snow! love it or dread it? I hate cold and I hate snow. I don't mind quite as much if it's enough to get it out of school.
12. can you ice skate? Yes, the last time I did was at all-night grad party.
13. do you remember your favorite gift? I think my favorite gift was my mac a few years ago. It was a Christmas/birthday/college graduation gift.
14. what’s the most important thing about the holidays for you? This year it's that it's my first Christmas that I get to spend with Joel. Last year, we'd been dating for a month when Christmas came along so I'm not really sure our family took us seriously so we got to spend Christmas Eve together but not Christmas Day. The most important thing every year is continuing traditions.
15. what is your favorite holiday dessert? Grandma's sugar cookies
16. what is your favorite holiday tradition? Spending Christmas Day at my grandparents' house "up country". Unfortunately this is the last year as they have decided that this is their last Christmas and in the next year, they'll be moving to a retirement community.
17. what tops your tree? a crocheted angel that my fiance's grandmother made
18. which do you prefer: giving or receiving? Is it cheating to say both? I love picking out gifts that I think people will enjoy but it would suck to get to Christmas morning and not get anything.
19. candy canes: yuck or yummy? Depends on the flavor.
20. favorite Christmas show? Elf.
21. saddest Christmas song? I'll let you know the next tears I shed while listening to the Christmas music station.
22. what is your favorite Christmas song? Baby it's Cold Outside
Oh my dear non-wedding planning blog, how I've missed you. I, of course, have things going on in my life besides planning a wedding and there are some things I'm just not in the mood with sharing with the entire internet. For now, I have not updated my 101 in 1, 001 since the end of last year so that I shall do. Asterisks are in progress, strike-throughs are complete, comments as needed.
1. Donate hair to Locks of Love Children with Hairloss - Had to change to an organization that takes color-treated hair
* Not planning on more than a trim from now until the wedding and then planning on cutting my hair soon after.
27. Visit Georgia to meet Jack Have not been to Georgia to see Jack, but I have gotten to see him twice. Knowing the effort we had to go through to get to that point, I'm counting it as done. Ted, Dana, and Jack came to VA in May and this past weekend we spent in TN with them.
30. Make a gingerbread house
*31. Do one thing a month I have never done- August 2010, went to a
movie by myself; September 2010, adopted a dog; October 2010, finished
my first nine weeks of teaching; November 2010, cannot remember now that
my notes were deleted but I'll come up with it!!; December 2010, bought
and put up my own Christmas tree!! (Gosh, I didn't keep track for a year, yikes!!) January 2011, spent New Year's Eve with my love; February 2011, had major surgery/a body part removed, was that gross? Maybe!; March 2011 - picked out an engagement ring!; April 2011 - went to Las Vegas, baby!; May - met my "nephew" for the first time; June - finished my very first school year; July - watched the Harry Potter series; August - first "grown-up" beach trip -- aka no parents!; September - met my future in-laws; October - found out who my true friends are; November - inducted the first class of NJHS at SCMS (as co-advisor)
32. Visit a national park- last weekend we went to Roan Mountain, TN -- we actually stayed in a state park, but we did visit at least on national park, according to my internet searches
35. Live by myself for a year- when I made this list, it was August 2010 and my thought was "even if I meet a guy today, there's no WAY I'll live with him within a year..." yeah... best laid plans :) I'm ok with the fact that this goal won't be met
*49.
Listen to 26 bands I've never listened to starting with each letter of
the alphabet.- again, I lost my list, but I pick up the free iTunes
singles from Starbucks when I remember and download iTunes free singles
every week which helps this one.
*63. Attend 10 concerts- Sugarland in Sept. 2010 and will be seeing Jimmy Eat World in Feb. 2011. This summer added another Tim McGraw show. Not sure if I should count comedy shows, but I also saw Gabriel Iglesias and Jeff Dunham. They may end up counting at the end of these 1001 days as I'm just not seeing as many concerts as I used to!
83. Blog at least once a month- technically I failed on this, however, I feel that my frequent blogging on the wedding blog might count if I were to average it out.
90. Go to a Redskins game- done times two -- went to the last game of last season and the first game of this season, both against the Giants with very different results
*92. Regularly update regular blog about dayzeroproject- note sure how often "regularly" is but I figure if I update all the way from here until it ends, it counts!
94.
Do something adventurous- I went to Vegas, moved in with Joel, got engaged ... I didn't count all the huge big events in my life last year for some reason but I feel like at this point, something along the way counts.
Completed - 27 (and plan on making a gingerbread house before this holiday season is over!)
In - progress - 8
It's nice to see that I've made some progress this year. Mostly without even intentionally trying. In fact, I think the only one that I did and thought "I can check this off this list!" was getting the tattoo. In 2012, I think I'll be more intentional with some of the things on the list as some take a bit of planning/follow-through to complete. Considering I still have until May/June 2013, I think it's plausible that my list get mostly checked off!
