100 Things

Today I made my Bucket List. One hundred things to learn, to do, to go - I am sure the list will grow with time. I have done a couple of these, but there are many more to go!

100 Things:

1.  Fall in love and get married

2.  Buy a house

3.  Be debt-free

4.  Travel all around Italy

5.  Have a job I enjoy

6.  Be in my best shape at least once in my life

7.  Learn to play a challenging song on piano

8.  Be able to do a hand stand

9.  Go on a safari in Africa

10. Have a wardrobe I love

11. Have a baby

12. Write a children’s book

13. Index 500,000 names

14. Have a vegetable garden and a flower garden

15. Go to Portugal

16. Sleep in a haunted house

17. Go to Prince Edward Island – visit places from Anne of Green Gables

18. Learn how to dance (tango, salsa, etc.)

19. Take a cooking class

20. Road trip along Route 66

21. Learn to write calligraphy

22. Ride a camel or elephant

23. Ride in a gondola

24. Eat at an undersea restaurant

25. Learn a foreign language

26. See a Broadway play in NYC

27. Ride in a limousine

28. Make a difference in someone’s life

29. Hike the Appalachian Trail

30. Visit Gettysburg  

31. Visit all the church sites (SLC, Palmyra, Vermont, Ohio, Missouri)

32. Visit Washington DC

33. Learn 100 basic ASL signs

34. Go on a Pioneer Trek

35. Go to an opera

36. Go on a treasure hunt

37. Ride on a passenger train

38. Visit Williamsburg, VA

39. Learn to make pottery

40. Make a quilt

41. Have a small library of favorite books

42. Go one year with no TV/movies

43. Read all of the winning fiction books of the Pulitzer Prize

44. Become an early riser

45. Learn how to write better thank you notes

46. Write more letters

47. Create/fill in my family tree

48. Have a dog and cat

49. Have a big canopy bed

50. Have a home with a big porch

51. Learn how to give a good massage

52. Attend a Cirque du Soleil show

53. Go to a fondue restaurant

54. Have a huge 4^th of July party

55. Make my own pasta

56. Become a grandma

57. Go full vegan for a month

58. Visit a ghost town

59. Go to 50 different temples

60. Make a wish at the Trevi fountain in Rome

61. Attach a lock on a love bridge

62. Visit Greece

63. Make Christmas boxes for the missionaries

64. Create holiday/birthday traditions

65. Go apple picking

66. Go on a cruise

67. Become an‘urban explorer’

68. Let go of a floating lantern

69. Make fancy caramel apples

70. Visit Norway

71. Travel to Ireland

72. Tour a castle

73. Spend the day at a luxury spa

74. Write my memoir

75. Go to a George Strait concert

76. Learn more about the lives of my ancestors

77. Have my own star

78. Visit a chocolate factory

79. Make homemade gifts more often

80. Organize every room in the house

81. Have everything prepared for food storage and emergencies

82. Buy my favorite painting of Christ

83. Make my house a loving, peaceful, comfortable home

84. Be a peacemaker

85. Create/put together a cookbook of all my favorite recipes

86. Get to know my neighbors wherever I go

87. Climb to the top of a lighthouse and watch the sunrise/sunset

88. Watch the top ten movies of all time (need to look these up!)

89. Buy a painting by James Christensen

90. Learn to decorate a pretty cake/cupcakes

91. Learn different ways to do my hair and makeup

92. Go for a long bicycle ride/picnic in the country

93. Go to Hawaii

94. Have a hammock under a tree

95. Help a friend decorate/plan their wedding

96. Buy a nice camera

97. Go zip lining

98. Go on a rain forest canopy walk

99. Create a realistic budget and stick to it

100.        Learn how to administer first aid confidently

My Favorite Things

Tonight Jon is at a Boy Scout camp out for church, so I decided to have my own 'spa night' at home. I took a nice long bubble bath, did a clay facial, and gave myself a manicure. I was also listening to Christmas music by the Cambridge Singers (which makes me feel quite homesick, but is probably one of my favorite Christmas albums - along with Andy Williams. When I was growing up I put a little fake Christmas tree in my room every December, pinned up twinkle lights all around my bedroom walls, and replayed the Andy Williams Christmas CD over and over and over again. I loved it!) So I started to think of all of my favorite things, and here are some of my lists (and in no particular order, I don't think I have a TOP favorite of anything, it's too hard to choose):

Favorite Movies:
- It's a Wonderful Life
- White Christmas
- Life is Beautiful
- Gone with the Wind
- State Fair
- Mary Poppins
- Leap Year
- Persuasion
- North and South
- Indiana Jones series
- Anne of Green Gables/Avonlea
- Pride and Prejudice
- Return to Me
- Jane Eyre (2006)
- An Affair to Remember
- Letters to Juliet
- The Sound of Music
- Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Growing up, we girls would reenact the dances and songs from this movie - and still quote it sometimes:

Adam: Smells good enough to eat.
Milly: Tastes good too, so they tell me.
Adam: Got any ketchup handy?
Milly: My stew can stand on its own feet.

Haha, those lines have been said to each other at least 100 times. Mostly around dinner time...

Favorite Books:
- The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
- Fifteen (Beverly Cleary)
- The Unbroken (Laura Hillenbrand - I read that a movie based on this book is coming out next year. I can't imagine how it will do it justice, by I am still looking forward to seeing it!)
- A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
- Harry Potter series (JK Rowling)
- the Narnia series (CS Lewis - mom read these to us growing up)
- The Hobbit (JRR Tolkien)
- The Work and the Glory series (Gerald Lund)
- Heckedy Peg (children's book by Audrey Wood)
- various church/relationship books

Favorite Colors:
- grey
- blues
- black
- light yellow
- creams and whites

Favorite Music:
- The Cambridge Singers
- Harry Connick Jr.
- Taylor Swift
- Adele
- Nina Simone (I love how low she sings - and since I have a low voice, I can sing along with her most of the time! When I first heard her, I couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman!)
- George Strait
- Sting
- Diana Krall
- Mormon Tabernacle Choir
- Maroon 5
- Frank Sinatra
- Madeleine Peyroux
- Il Divo (especially at Christmas)
- Coldplay
- the ladies, like Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston
- Katherine Jenkins
- Marty Robbins
- soundtracks from Evita, Nashville, Dear John, Pride and Prejudice (2005 movie soundtrack), Phantom of the Opera, etc.

Favorite Quotes:
"Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith." (President Uchtdorf)
"She understood who she was and whose she was." (Elaine S Dalton)
"There should be no yelling in the home unless there is a fire." (President McKay)
"I am still determined to be cheerful and to be happy in whatever situation I may be, for I have also learnt from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions and not upon our circumstances." (Martha Washington)
"There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate's loot on Treasure Island." (Walt Disney)
"The cure for anything is salt water - sweat, tears, or the sea." (Karen von Blixen Finecke)
"If you live to be 100, I hope to live to be 100 minus 1 day, so I never have to live without you." (Winnie the Pooh)
"The greatest thing a father can do for his daughter is to love her mother." (Elaine S Dalton)
"He's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same." (Emily Bronte)

Seasons/Holidays:
- every crisp, cool fall day
- Christmas
- 4th of July
- Valentine's Day

Favorite Foods/Desserts/Drinks:
- mom's homemade bread and rhubarb jam
- Chicken Bryan from Carrabbas
- Mint Pomegranate Lemonade (also from Carrabbas)
- No Bake cookies
- popcorn
- Honeycrisp apples
- oranges/clementines
- saltwater taffy (from Goldenrod in Maine)
- stuffed shells
- sweet and sour chicken
- zucchini and squash
- soup (lots of different kinds...)
- pasta dishes
- watermelon
- fresh peas from the garden
- bruschetta
- fruit crisps and pies (with vanilla ice cream, of course)

Animals:
- elephants
- giraffes
- zebras
- tigers
- Otis and Bo

Favorite Things to Do:
- playing games (word games, board games, dominoes, etc)
- cooking/baking
- going for walks
- going for long drives and seeing new places
- playing piano
- reading
- being with family and friends
- going to museums/concerts
- pinning on Pinterest
- 'spa' nights at home
- Indexing on familysearch.org

Favorite Places to Go (Someday):
- Portugal (Jon has always wanted to visit since his mission, so that would be fun to do together)
- Italy (all over!)
- Norway
- Prince Edward Island
- on a safari in Africa

Favorite Flowers/Trees:
- small white daisies (I always like when they are wrapped in brown paper - I think it's so romantic...)
- peonies
- sunflowers
- lilacs
- hydrangeas
- dahlias
- Weeping Willows
- Birch trees
- Maple trees
- Christmas trees :)
- Cherry blossoms

I realized while typing this that I have SO many favorite things, and I know I am missing many, also. I am so blessed!