Tackling the Bucket List

I've been thinking a lot about my Bucket List this morning. I went back and re-read it, because I had forgotten a lot of the items on the list.

Since writing my bucket list on April 6 of this year, I have accomplished:

#8: Bake the perfect chocolate chip cookies

#29: Be completely debt free (well, except for the house. But I'm counting it as a success).

#56: Go camping with our new tent

And that's it. I decided to pick 10 items from the list, and try to accomplish those before the end of 2009. Since we're going to the beach in 2 weeks, a lot of them can be tackled while I'm there.

So here are the bucket list items that I'd like to accomplish before the end of 2009"

1. Have a picnic in the park. This should be relatively easy, for sure! I'll actually probably do this one sometime next week. Luke has softball games every night next week if his team keeps winning (it's tournament week!) Usually since the games are at the parks where he works, he doesn't come home between work and the game. I could just make us a picnic dinner sometime next week, and meet him in the park before his games. I could probably do that more than one day next week! I'm kind of excited to start planning a menu ;-)

2. Go bike-riding. We are planning on bike-riding in Virginia on our vacation. And if we don't get a chance to go while we're there, I'm sure Luke and I could find 2 bikes to borrow from someone and go on one of the local bike trails. Hmm...maybe another bucket list item should have been, "Purchase a Bike." ;-)

3. Read all the Twilight Books. I only have 1.5 books left in the series, and 5 months left in 2009. Let's HOPE this one won't be too hard!

4. Go for a midnight walk on the beach. Again, I can take care of this one on vacation in two weeks. Ideally, I'd like to do this with Luke, but I'll have to see if he's up for staying up that late, and taking a walk that late! lol...if he's not, I'm sure Julie would do it with me. Sisterly bonding time :-)

5. Build a sandcastle. Again, this will easily be accomplished in 2 weeks at the beach. I think I need to head out and buy some buckets and other sand toys so we can make the biggest, coolest sand sandcastle ever. I promise I'm 24 years old!

6. Carve pumpkins in the fall. Last year, I bought pumpkins for Luke and myself. I remember being out shopping and buying pumpkins and a bunch of fall cookie cutters with plans of taking a little break from fixing up our new house (while we still lived in the old apartment) and having a fun, fall night. I got home from the shopping trip, and Luke informed me that our apartment had finally been rented out, and we had to be out in 1 Week! Needless to say, we never got to make fall cookies or carve our pumpkins :-( We were busy until Thanksgiving moving out of our apartment, staying at Luke's grandparents' for a few weeks, and finally getting settled into the new house. All that to say, I'm REALLY looking forward to carving pumpkins this year, since we didn't get to last year! I'm sure Luke will get really creative, and I'll be jealous of him :-P

7. Dress up for Halloween. How fun would a costume Halloween party be? I haven't dressed up for Halloween since I was probably 11 years old. I think it would be fun to have a costume party! Not sure if Luke or our friends would be into that, but maybe I'll have to run it by them this fall.

8. Play tennis with Julie. Julie's coming home this weekend to celebrate her birthday (again), so maybe I'll talk her into going to the park on Saturday morning with me for some tennis. She will definitely kick my butt, because she played tennis in high school, and I did not. And also I'm not in shape (although Wii Fit is fixing that problem!). But it will be fun!

9. Fly a kite. Another item that will be covered while on vacation. My parents bought one of those really cool ship kites while they were in Myrtle Beach this past fall, and never used it when they were there. So we're definitely breaking it out on vacation.

10. Make a homemade pie. This sounds like a good one to try this fall. Apple pie is my favorite! It might be a total disaster, but either way, I'm sure I'll be blogging about it when the time comes ;-)

Okay, so that shouldn't be too difficult! There are definitely items that I WISH I could accomplish this year like "Go to Hawaii," "Visit Disney World before we have kids," or "Own a nice camera." But I will have to be patient, and wait for those things to come in time.

If you don't have a bucket list, you should make one. It's so much fun to be able to cross items off as you complete them! :-D