Busy, busy, busy! (Day 287)

Busy is a 4 letter word (see my 2/5/11 post), and busy is the best word to use to describe the last couple of months. In fact I have been so busy accomplishing my goals that I haven't had time to blog about them (this is my attempt to excuse away my unfaithfulness to my blog... it's working for me, hope it works for you too :-)

I am going to make a list of what I have been working on so that I don't forget to blog about anything that I've done. In order to keep you on your toes, I will not be writing about them in that they are listed.

16. Go to 10 group exercise classes
25. Make 10 bibs for Des Moines Pregnancy Aid

26. Help serve a meal at the Union Gospel Mission

40. Learn Geo-caching

46. Try 20 new recipes

47. Bake 3 cakes from scratch

48. Crochet a blanket & give it away

82. Invite 3 of our neighbors over for dinner

87. Visit 20 new parks/ playgrounds

94. Go to the Ballet

#48. Crochet a blanket & give it away

My mom went in for surgery last week which gave me a great excuse to get out my forgotten crocheting and try and get it done. I had begun this project months ago, I was almost half way done and thought I may actually complete it. That was until I (with the help of my mother) realized that I was dropping stitches.

For my non-crocheting readers, this means that if I continued on, I would indeed still make a blanket. It would, however, be triangular. Seeing that the blanket is being made for my mother, I tried to sell her on the idea that everyone has normal boring rectangular blankets, but triangular.... that's UNIQUE!

I do believe that ripping out half of a blankets' worth of stitches takes almost as long as crocheting it does. I am now 1/4 of the way completed with a beautifully normal blanket.

# 94. Go to the Ballet

I have been told that I am "lucky". If there is a $20 bill or a diamond ring on the ground, I am the one who finds it. I have entered drawings for concert tickets, deep freezers, a gold bracelet, mariners baseball tickets, and a slew of other things, which I always seem to win.

I loved the Steven Curtis Chapman concert, use my freezer from Dream Dinners on a daily basis, have a bracelet that I rarely wear, and went to an amazing baseball game where the man in front of us just happened to have tickets to the next days game, and out of the blue, gave them to me.

It is no surprise that my son Micah would inherit my "lucky" gene. A while back, the boys and I went to the Seattle Center. Just so happens, that Radio Disney was also at the Center on that day. They had a drawing that kids could enter, so I had both of the boys enter the drawing. A few weeks later I got a call informing me that Micah had won 4 tickets to the Ballet.

Micah decided that he would like to invite a friend of mine and her daughter along. He knew that my friends' daughter was in ballet and thought that she would really enjoy seeing Cinderella at the Pacific Northwest Ballet. As you can see, he also inherited my sweetness gene :-)

So off we went, the ballet was good. Afterwards I was talking to my girlfriend and came to the realization that I am one of those people who appreciates ballet, but by no means, am I an enthusiast.

#46. Try 20 new recipes

I love to cook, hate baking, but LOVE cooking. You may be asking yourself "if you l

ove to cook so much then why haven't you got this goal accomplished already?" That is a good question. I guess that when I think of the phrase "new recipe" it means something completely unlike anything I have ever made before. I am one of those cooks that takes a recipe and ma

kes a variation of it. That to me is not a new recipe, just an altered one.

Last night I made "Panera Breads Broccoli Cheddar Soup". I make potato cheese soup all of the time and I would assume, removing the potato and adding broccoli does not a new recipe make. I found a recipe online and decided to give it a shot. The way that they had me make the roux was a little different than how I made it for my soup. The recipe called for nutmeg which I would never have thought to add to my potato soup. It wasn't until I tasted the thick green gooeyness, that I decided it was indeed a new recipe worthy of blogging about, and one that I will be making often. YUM!

#82 Invite 3 neighbors over for dinner.

I invited some neighbors over for dinner, they came, we talked, we ate.

All in all it was an enjoyable evening (side note: I would have invited them over even if this wasn't one of my 101 items so it feels a bit like cheating... oh well)

#16 Go to 10 group exercise classes

I was at the YMCA with the boys one afternoon and I was ready to go but they were begging to stay in the teen zone just a little bit longer. It just so happened that there was a Zumba class at that time so I thought "what the heck, I'll give it a try".

What the heck is what I was thinking for most of the hour long class. Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed the class, but I'm pretty sure that if I was earning my living through using my Latin inspired dancing skills...I would starve.

#26 Help serve a meal at the Union Gospel Mission

I did not actually complete this exactly as it is written, but I am marking it complete anyway.

The family and I went down to the Dream Center on a Saturday morning and helped to prepare sack lunches for the homeless and others who are less fortunate. It was fun doing this with Brent and the boys. I was so proud of how my boys jumped right in and started working and we are all looking forward to going back and doing this on a regular basis.

I figure that my intentions behind this goal were to help prepare a meal for others. With that in mind, I feel like I did complete this goal, just not at the Union Gospel Mission.

Micah was a great "runner" and made sure that 2 sandwiches went in every sack.

Ben was the master mayonnaise spreader

Brent was the master mayonnaise eater!

#87 Visit 20 new parks/playgrounds

The boys and visited a playground in Des Moines. We didn't spend long there because, it honestly wasn't a very great park. I know, your dying to know Why would we go to a not so great park?

#40 Learn Geo-caching

This is the answer to why we would visit a not so great park!

In my mind I had built up geo-caching as this difficult and complicated thing. It is not!

I found a great website that took all of the difficulty out of it for me http://www.geocaching.com

What is geo-caching? It is basically, a treasure hunt using a GPS, or in my case my iPhone (they even have an app for it).

So now that I understood the concept, I decided to take the boys out on our first geo-caching adventure, which is how we ended up at a not so great playground.

Here are the photo's to prove that we are true geo-cachers!

The boys with our very 1st Geo-cache

Ben searching for the second cache.

We found our second cache just as it started to rain.

I was recently told that I am a geo-caching addict and it very well may be true seeing as I have gotten my children, husband, mother and a few of my friends hooked.

I can't say too much more because some of you are most likely geo-cache "Muggles".

#25 Make 10 bibs for Des Moines Pregnancy Aid

I bought the material to make these ages ago and finally decided to take a crack at sewing my very first bib. It actually turned out OK.

I used a pink flannel frog print for the front and a coordinating yellow flannel for the back. I put quilt batting inside for extra absorbency.

I still need to add the Velcro but other than that I am pretty pleased with myself.

#47 Bake 3 cakes from scratch

As you know, I really do not enjoy baking cakes so this is biggie in my book.

In our house we have this crazy tradition called "torture mom" My children know that their mother is a pushover when it comes to birthday cake requests. They come up with an idea for a cake, and then they bat their big brown "irresistible to say no to" eyes and I am a goner.

I love my children and want only the best for them, which is why I don't buy the cheap $0.99 cake in a box mix. I go all out and have been known to spend upwards of $1.89 on their boxed cake mixes.

This year I decided to kill two birds with one stone and make Micah's cake from scratch. This was not done out of love for my child, but rather loathing of a certain goal that I had to accomplish.

When Micah declared what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday I nearly passed out. Here is what our conversation sounded like

Micah: Mom I think I know what kind of cake I want for my birthday

Me: Really buddy, what kind?

Micah: A chocolate cherry one.

Me: Sounds yummy! What shape do you want it in?

Micah: Mine.

Me: I know you want your cake, but what shape do you want it in?

Micah: I want a mine cake!

Me: A mind cake? Like, grey brain matter?

Micah: NO! A mine, like a gold and jewel filled MINE cake.

Me: What?!?!?

Micah: Oh and can you make mine carts too.... that would be soooo cool! (this line is delivered with batting of eyes and a big toothy grin)

After a minor panic attack, help from a dear friend, and a ton of baking (the first cake failed and was replaced by a good old $0.99 box mix) this is what we ended up with.

The bottom sheet cake is the non ruined home made chocolate cherry cake. The mountain is made by good old Betty Crocker.