27 in 27.

So I was all ready to do my usual Awkward & Awesome Thursday...until I read Erin's latest amazing post (seriously, all of her posts are amazing. plus they usually make me want to pee from laughing).

Take your age. Then think of that many things that you want to do in the next 365 days of your life. Write them down. Now me, I'm getting up there in age, so it's taken me quite some time to think of 27 ideas that I might like to accomplish over a year. Not to mention it already takes me at least an hour to write a normal post. Slow. I'm old and slow. Then (since I'm a compulsive self-editor) I went back over that list and made sure I'm imagining things that are actually attainable. So after scratching out half of them, and five hours later, I've come up with these.

1. Get down to the beach house in the off season and go for walks on the beach.

2. Spend a weekend at my parents' cabin when the leaves are changing color. Or when the snow is falling.

3. Get pregnant with baby #2. Say what? No, I'm not crazy. Just love being a mama. Of course, I've learned that babies cannot be planned, so we are not trying for that. We'll let God decide when it's time for S to have a baby sibling.

4. Have my parents and sister at our house for Christmas morning so we can all watch S open up her gifts for the first time. (She wasn't quite "into it" last year.)

5. Learn how to make my Grandma's famous potato filling.

6. Run a 5K. Get back into running shape first.

7. Muster up enough courage to start selling some of the headbands I make for S.

8. Make that road trip with Hubs to see our friends we left behind in D.C. Power half hour anyone?

9. See the Grand Canyon. This actually might go down since Hubs and I (and S in her airplane debut) are traveling to Phoenix in October for a wedding.

10. Take S to NYC for her very first trip to Central Park.

11. While I'm thinking of the city...see White Christmas on Broadway this holiday season.

12. Read 15 books. Yes, 15. I'm not-so-secretly in an obsession with reading.

13. Get all the closets in our house organized. Especially that one containing my clothing. Stop procrastinating and donate all those things (ahem...suits) I don't wear anymore.

14. Learn how to successfully thrift shop. Our budget tells me this is a must.

15. Try out that zumba class that I've been dying to go to with my friend. Oh, just need to give up my Saturday mornings and bribe Hubs into watching S for an hour. Harder than it seems.

16. Take S to Christmas Candylane at HersheyPark.

17. Black Friday shopping with my sister! Can. Not. Wait.

18. Volunteer at a local animal shelter.

19. Saw this one on another blog and love the idea: Go a week with only eating food that is pure and fresh. No processed or preserved foods!

20. Purchase an ad space on one of the hugely successful blogs I adore.

21. Be committed to reading my Bible devotions each morning. Better yet, read them with Hubs and S.

22. Take the plunge and get that external hard drive so I can back up my thousands of pictures. Take the time to get hard copies developed of some and make photo albums. Those shots of S are priceless.

23. Join the bandwagon (that I used to say I'd never join) and get an iPhone. Sadly, the lack of apps available for my beloved BlackBerry just isn't cutting it these days.

24. Get better at creating good, simple blog posts that don't take me all of S's nap time to write. A la Sydney's style.

25. Lose five pounds. I don't really need to. And I actually like my body these days. But it would be nice to see some toned muscles again. Preferable before next baby, that is.

26. Finally get the last boxes left over from moving out of the garage and install some shelves.

27. Grow my blog to 200 followers. Might be a stretch seeing as I only have 14 to date. But I like to dream big. (Or at least tell myself that I do.) Wanna help me do this?!