The Holland Family: November 2008

A looong time ago I posted my 101 in 1001 list on xanga. I got the idea from an amazing photographer, Melissa Jill. Its a list of 101 things I'd like to accomplish in 1001 days. I never check xanga anymore, so I had totally forgotten about it - and actually had completed a few things without even realizing it! I tweaked it a little bit and decided to re-post it here. Hopefully I can keep up with it better this time! (I'll come back and edit it later, I'm trying to find some of the dates for things completed.)

Start Date: February 27, 2008
End Date: (Anyone want to do the math to figure out my end date??)

1. Sponsor a child through ‘All God’s Children’
2. Sign up with ‘Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep’
3. Do a photo session for my parents *Sort-of completed, we need to try again
4. Do a photo session for Blake’s parents
5. Second shoot at a wedding
6. Become a member of PPA *Completed
7. Attend a photography workshop/conference *Completed
8. Take Maggie to a training class
9. Go to the dentist and get up to date with fillings, etc
10. Eat at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse with Blake *Completed
11. Go to 3 states I’ve never been to before
12. Order samples from all the vendors I'm signed up with
13. Finish painting master bathroom *Completed
14. Get wedding photos & book from my wedding photographer *In progress
15. Paint (or hire someone to paint) the living room *Completed 5/7/09
16. Organize & de-clutter craft closet *Completed
17. Make a weekly dinner menu and stick to it *Completed
18. Make a budget and stick to it
19. Put one month of our salaries in savings
20. Pay off all credit cards *In progress
21. Fit back into my wedding dress *Completed 3/14/2008 (Needs to be completed again)
22. Vote *Completed 11/4/08
23. Sing in public
24. Blog once a day for a month (Professional or personal)
25. Twitter *Completed
26. Send 5 friends letters through snail-mail
27. Purchase “L” glass for my camera *I rented a lens, and wasn't as impressed as I thought I would be. This isn't such a high priority on my list anymore.
28. Get 5 stars on Guitar Hero in ‘hard’ mode *Completed
29. Go camping
30. Make & sell something on Etsy
31. Make a snow angel
32. Go to another Red Sox game *Completed Father's Day 2008
33. Go back to Chicago
34. Ride a horse
35. Create an ‘inspiration folder’ for magazine clippings (& throw out huge pile of old magazines)
36. Learn how to sew *Completed!
37. Take a photography class
38. Flatten my tummy
39. Take a road trip and stop along the way at cool places to take photos
40. Enter photos in a print competition *Completed
41. Visit Florida once a year *Completed
42. Get a massage
43. Go to a concert *Completed 4/18/2008 and 4/26/2008
44. Go skiing/snowboarding
45. Go on a picnic
46. Become CPR certified
47. Crochet a blanket
48. Become a member of a church
49. Switch from PC to Mac *Completed 9/2/2008
50. Watch a sunrise
51. Set up a recycling system *Completed 11/20/08
52. Go to a museum
53. Go to a zoo
54. See the penguins at the Tennessee Aquarium
55. Go on an out-of-state weekend getaway with Blake (TN & MI don’t count)
56. Buy a fish-eye lens
57. Organize the garage *Completed
58. Replace flooring in living room
59. Use power tools and don’t get hurt
60. Take Blake to the Strawberry Festival
61. Get headshots taken for the website *Sort of completed
62. Have new pictures taken of Blake & me *Completed 8/30/08
63. Go to Las Vegas
64. Make prints of personal photos on my computer and put into albums
65. Learn to drive stick-shift
66. Tile the kitchen backsplash
67. Learn to speak Spanish
68. Fit into size 8 jeans
69. Get a bigger Wacom tablet
70. Get tested for the Cystic Fibrosis gene
71. Mail in a postcard to Post Secret
72. Get Maggie professionally groomed
73. Cook breakfast on a weekday
74. Get a new cell phone *Completed
75. Get my teeth whitened
76. Grill a steak as good as Poppi
77. Make a homemade pie – crust and all
78. Go fishing
79. Do a ‘Trash the Dress’ photo session
80. Update my address book *Completed 11/22/08
81. Get a potted plant for the front porch and keep it alive for at least 3 months
82. Throw a party
83. Learn sign language
84. Tour Fenway Park
85. Purchase slideshow software *Completed 10/22/08 (Bonus - it was free!)
86. Move out of state
87. Learn how to play the guitar
88. Set up a display of photography in a local shop/boutique *In progress
89. Move into a bigger house
90. Read a classic literature book I haven’t read before
91. Try sushi
92. Finish this list! *Completed 5/1/2008
93. Re-design blog *Completed
94. See a Broadway show
95. Print & frame photos from Boston game *Completed 5/1/08
96. Organize master bedroom closet, dresser, etc. *Completed 4/12/08
97. Learn how to use my crock pot *Completed
98. Go bowling and score 175 or higher
99. Detail my car
100. Organize/re-design kitchen cabinets *Completed
101. Do an anonymous good deed

I always forget that I started this blog... Here is an update just for Christa! :)

We were hoping to have already started travel tech at this point, but obviously that isn't the case. Blake signed up with a traveling company, got the ball rolling a little bit, and now his rep won't call him back. We aren't sure if she's just bad at her job or if that means that there aren't any traveling positions open right now. At this point, we aren't really worried about pushing the issue since its so close to the holidays and it would be a hard time to move. Oh well.

Since we thought we would be gone by the end of October, I told the mom I nanny for that my last day would be October 16th. So... I am officially unemployed!! (Or retired, according to my Dad.) Either way, I'm loving it! I spent a few days in Michigan, next weekend I'll be going to TN for Lee's homecoming, and my house is much more clean! I was worried about needing to find a new job since we will be here a while longer, but Blake told me he didn't want me to get another job and I didn't argue :)

So, that's all that is going on with us. Blake took the day off on Friday so we have had a great long weekend just hanging around the house. Here are a few pictures from Halloween night. Maggie's first Halloween she was a fire hydrant and last year she was a lobster. This year Blake wouldn't let me get her a whole costume so she just wore a pumpkin t-shirt.