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66. Decorate the Apartment
I'm considering this one done. There's always more to do, but I have things done for the most part.

77. Print some black and white pictures, get them matted, and hang them on the wall by the stairs
They're not black and white, but Justin did this for me for my bday/Christmas, and we just put them up tonight. They look SO good!! I love them!!! It's going to take me forever to go up and down the stairs now, because I have to stop and stare at each of them. Hehe.

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I killed two birds with one stone again. We took the boys ice skating tonight at Rosa Parks' circle.

18. Spend more time with my nephews - invite them over or take them somewhere at least ten times

37. Go ice skating with Justin.

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19. Have more girls' nights with my sisters.

We went early bird shopping together (which wasn't at night, but it was dark, so I'm counting it!) And we saw "August Rush" together on Saturday. Yay! I love my sisters!

54. Buy flowers once in a while (six times in two years, at least)

Justin bought me flowers the other day. We had to put them way up high so Lola wouldn't get them, but they were still beautiful. :-) Here's a picture. (And that's Lola in the background. This was before I put them up high. Silly kitty.)

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18. Spend more time with my nephews - invite them over or take them somewhere at least ten times
60. Make seasonal cakes/desserts
I killed two birds with one stone tonight! I invited the boys over to make Halloween cupcakes with me. They were surprisingly creative and enjoyed eating all that sugar. :-) I love hanging out with them.

I'll put more pictures on xanga. I can't figure it out on this site.

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30. Talk to a doctor/therapist about my anxiety

I went to the school counselor at Cornerstone yesterday, and will go nine more times to try to conquer this ridiculous anxiety. My first session went really well and I'm seeing the Cornerstone doctor on Tuesday to get prescribed some anxiety medication! Yes! My life is about to get a whole lot better . . .

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I've done a lot, lately!

13. Take more pictures

I'm taking this off the list. I've been taking lots of pictures.

50. Buy “Moulin Rouge”

Justin bought me this for my birthday! Woohoo!

55. Travel a little bit

We went to Traverse City this weekend (check out my xanga for the recap). That counts as traveling for me.

83. Buy a baseball cap

Another birthday gift from Justin. Look how cute it is!

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54. Buy flowers once in a while (six times in two years, at least)

I had a really bad day at school today (see www.xanga.com/sizzlinsade), so I stopped at Meijer and bought myself some flowers. Aren't they gorgeous?

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8. Give up fast food for one month

I did it! Here are my reflections . . .

1. I thought that making meals every day might give me a new appreciation for cooking. It didn't. I'm still not a big fan.

2. I didn't actually lose any weight (my last entry is wrong - my scale was lying to me).

3. It's amazing what a convenience eating out is. Justin and I have very strange schedules and we eat at weird times. It was such a pain. And of course there were those times I forgot to bring dinner to Cornerstone when I'm there from 1:00 to 8:30.

4. We did save money. I gave myself an extra ten dollars a week for groceries and never went over that budget. We ALWAYS go over the alloted $10 a week for fast food.

5. It wasn't AS hard as I thought it would be to plan for meals every night of the week. I planned about five meals a week and then bought a lot of quick easy things like frozen taquitos, chicken patties, hot pockets for weekends and nights that we were really busy.

Overall, I'm really proud of myself for doing it. It wasn't thaaaat hard. I just realized that eating out is the ONE splurge I allow myself. It's so often the only date night Justin and I ever have and I felt so deprived not doing it. So basically I'm just glad it's done and I don't ever want to do it again!! :-)

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5. Buy new eye shadow
My little eye shadow compact from nine years ago (I got it for my 13th birthday) finally fell to shambles. So I made myself spend the 7 bucks to buy a new one today. Go me. Hopefully I won't still have this one nine years from now.

7.Lose ten pounds (starting at 125)
I've randomly lost six pounds. I'm down to 119. At least according to my scale. Don't ask me how. I haven't been trying. I think my scale might be lying . . .

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4. Learn how to use my curling iron

I was bored today, so I decided to try out the "new" curling iron (which I bought weeks ago). Here are the amazing results! I LOVE curly hair. Seriously. I have been twirling and bouncing around since I finished it because I feel soooo gorgeous. I hate all of you who wake up with this look every morning. It took me almost half an hour to do this . . . as much as I love the curls, I cannot imagine adding 30 minutes to my morning routine.

8. Give up fast food for one month
This is soooooooo hard for me!! I LOVE eating out, and I'm not a big fan of cooking. It's my weakness. But we've made it through 13 days of September so far without eating out. Only 17 to go! Ugh. I really want to go out tonight to show off my cute hair. :-( It requires a LOT of planning on my part, but it's saving us money and hopefully it'll help me with number. Stay tuned to see if we actually make it the whole month.

Sorry, I have issues with posting pictures . . . . . and all this extra blank space.

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45. Send a card to someone I love every month (for no reason – not just for birthdays)
In July, I sent a card to Ben VanderZouwen. It was technically for his birthday, but it's also a longstanding tradition of ours. At the end of our 9th grade year he handed out his new address because he was going on a missions trip all summer and wanted mail. I was one of the few people who actually wrote him faithfully. I also sent him a birthday card that year and every other summer since then. And in August we sent a card to the people that moved into our apartment at Cornerstone. The guy was on Justin's soccer team and they were pretty good friends. I have an idea of who I'll send one to this month . . . hopefully I remember.

88. Tithe more faithfully and accurately
I've been meaning to tell this story for a while. I've really been convicted about tithing faithfully even when money is tight. A couple months ago, I was really stressing about paying our bills. We were on the way to church and I was figuring out how much we had to tithe that week. It ended up being around $100 (because I was behind a few weeks). When I opened my checkbook, I had like $120 there. I knew I had a doctor's appointment at the end of the week that would be exactly $120, but felt so convicted to tithe the $100 anyway. So I did. And God had provided the money for my doctor's appointment by the end of the week. Since then I've been tithing very faithfully and accurately . . . and it has been an exercise in trust. :-)

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18. Spend more time with my nephews - invite them over or take them somewhere at least ten times

The boys are over right now, spending the night. We played a stinkin' long game of Phase 10 that we didn't even finish and now they're watching a movie and going to bed (on our sweet pull-out couch that they think is the most amazing thing ever). Tomorrow we're going to see a movie.

63. Make a scrapbook of Chase

Yay! I finally did this!! I've been taking pictures all summer and working feverishly on this book to give it to his mom today. This September is one year of me watching him, so this was my way of comemmorating it. It's so cute!! Here are a few of my favorite pages:

This is the cover.

Chase's First Masterpiece (on the right)

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19. Have more girls’ nights with my sisters
Friday night I went to a movie with my sisters (The Nanny Diaries). We shared popcorn, pop, gossip, and laughter. I love them!

62. Take more pictures of Chase
I've been taking a gazillion pictures of the kid. I just printed them all and there were hundreds of them.

102. Go out for breakfast with Justin
Today we skipped church and went to IHOP. It was delicious and nice just to hang out together. Go us!

In case you haven't noticed, I've been adding to the list - it's not just 101 anymore. :-)

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26. Get caught up on scrapbooking

I've been working on my wedding album. I usually love scrapbooking, but this one is so hard for me. I feel like my wedding album needs to be perfect and elegant and classy looking. I'm terrified of ruining my pictures, so I haven't done any cool cutting or anything. Mostly I'm just pasting them down and putting a few little decorations around them. Not real creative.

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71. Have a Dawson’s Creek marathon with Niki

On Saturday, while Justin was away at Cedar Point, Niki and I spent 12 hours watching Dawson's Creek - Season 5. Lol. We are ridiculous. Actually we took a couple breaks for dinner and to say good-bye to Jen who is leaving for college this week, but we spent most of the day glued to the tube. It was really fun just to hang out with my sisters for the day. Libby was there, too, though she wasn't too thrilled about watching Dawson's Creek. After about six hours we got a little loopy and started wrestling and sitting on each other. Libby poured water down the back of my pants, which of course resulted in somewhat of a water fight. And then we did a few handstands and cartwheels. We're a strange bunch, but we love each other! Unfortunately, we didn't even finish season five, but that just gives me an excuse to go back and do it again!! I love my sisters . . . and I love Dawson's Creek.

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42. Go for more walks with Justin
87. Go to the beach four times (twice a summer)

I know these aren't terribly interesting to read, but I just want to document doing them, so feel free to skim.

Justin and I took a walk on Saturday. We had been really lazy all day and I was feeling fat, so we walked down to the gas station and bought a pop. Haha. It's so not a long walk, but it really hurt me. Ugh. I need to get in shape.

And then we went to the beach on Sunday with some friends from high school. It was a terrible day for the beach - cloudy and cold (I wore jeans and a long sleeve t-shirt the whole time), but we had a lot of fun just hanging out together and making memories. I'm going to write a more detailed entry on my xanga, so refer there if you please. :-)

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3. Buy a curling iron
95. Put all my old pictures in albums

I finally bought a curling iron last night at Meijer thrifty outlet. It was only six dollars. Woohoo! Now I just have to learn how to use it. That's the hard part . . .

And I spent 2 and a half hours last night putting my pictures in albums. I bought another album that holds 200 pictures and filled it with summer 2003 through Christmas 2004. Pete's sake, I have too many pictures. Then I filled one of my old albums with the rest of my pictures through spring 2005! So now I'm caught up with the pictures I have printed. In July of 2005 I got a digital camera. But that's another number on my list. . .

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87. Go to the beach four times (twice a summer)

One down. Three to go.

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95. Put all my old pictures in albums
Today I spent two solid hours sorting my old pictures that were stuffed in boxes. I bought an album from the dollar store that holds 200 pictures and filled it all today. That only covered tenth through twelfth grades. I still have everything from there on to finish - as well as all my really old childhood pictures!! I need to buy some more albums . . .

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24. Make dinner at home more often
Here's what I've made the past two weeks. I'm doing pretty well so far!

Monday: Chicken Caesar Wraps, Chips
Tuesday: Italian Chicken and Potatoes, Salad
Wednesday: Taco Bell
Thursday: Tyson Roast Beef Dinner, mashed potatoes, corn
Friday: Frozen Pizza

Monday: Burgers, Chips
Tuesday: Tyson Ham dinner, mashed potatoes, corn
Wednesday: Chicken Cordon Bleu
Thursday: Mom and Dad's
Friday: Pork chops, cheesy rice

The Tyson dinners were buy one, get one free last week. :-)

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42. Go for More Walks with Justin
I generally don't cook on the weekends, and since we never seem to have food in our house anymore, we decided to go out for lunch today. It is BEAUTIFUL outside, so Justin convinced me to walk into Sparta and try the Re-Union St. Cafe. It was a decently long walk, but it wasn't bad. We enjoyed talking about the people we knew who lived in the houses we passed and wondering about the decrpit old foundry. The Cafe was nothing special. Back in the day it used to be Cafe a la Mode and they were so cozy and cute and had the best chicken caesar wraps. This palce was a sit down family owned restaurant who charged more than the food was worth and the menu was so full of grammar and spelling mistakes I could hardly enjoy the food! Haha. Actually my club sandwich was very good and I enjoyed sitting by the window and people watching. On our way home we decided to stop by Tasty Treat and get an ice cream cone. Only it wasn't really on the way home, so we went way out of our way for ice cream and then started the trek back home. I was EXHAUSTED by the time we got back, but it was the perfect activity for this nice day and it was great to get out of the house and away from the t.v. and Internet that seems to take up so much of our time! Justin suggested we make it a Saturday afternoon ritual. Maybe we will. :-)

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21. Have people over for dinner once in a while
We had Esther over to see the new apartment and eat dinner with us on Tuesday night. I made Zesty Italian Chicken and Potatoes. We started with salad. It was delicious and fun!

25. Go to a couple Festivals/Fairs
Last weekend was Town and Country Days in Sparta. We went to the parade and some of the other activities. And we had an elephant ear at the carnival.

49. Take Chase to storytime at the library
June 27, 2007. See my xanga entry. www.xanga.com/sizzlinsade (Titled "My New Nannymobile")