End of the Year Updates!

It's been over a month since my last post, but rest assured, I have not been ignoring my to-do list.  I have knocked a few more goals off the list, and I have plans to work on a few others in the near future.  So, as the year draws to a close, I wanted to make sure to post my latest updates.


#54 - Complete my Level II Educational Specialist certification (in progress)

As a guidance counselor in Pennsylvania, I am required to obtain my Level II Educational Specialist Certification within 6 years of receiving my original Level I certificate.  I have all the work done, paperwork completed, and necessary documentation compiled to submit for my Level II.  All I have left to do is drop everything off with Human Resources and the ball will be rolling.  I had every intention of doing just that last week, but the office closed early for the holiday, just as the schools did, so I will have to wait until next week to drop it off.

#20 - Date night with Dave at least once a month (more progress)

Disclaimer: When you have two children and one more on the way, "date night" is defined by any time you are doing something together, just the two of you, regardless of time or activity. 

We had 3 "dates" in December.  The first can actually be considered a "real" date.  My sister (who clearly is insane and/or a saint!) volunteered to watch not only her two children, but my other sister's daughter, and my two children, and to keep them all overnight on December 10th!  We started the evening by taking all five children to get their picture taken with Santa (a tradition we started with Matt and Ali for Matt's first Christmas).  Then Erin and Tony took all of the kids back to their house.  Dave and I then spent the evening having dinner together, finishing some Christmas shopping, and then watching a movie at home.  It was lovely, and a rare treat :)

Dates #2 & 3 would not exactly fit the traditional definition of a date.  However, it was just the two of us, so I'm counting them (but I'll count the two together as one, to be fair).  They were both baby-related.  On December 14th, we went to the OB together to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time.  If I'm going to be honest, it wasn't exactly the first time since we have a doppler and cheated by listening to it at home a few days prior.  But this was our first "official" time hearing it.  Then, on December 23rd, we went to the perinatal testing center for an ultrasound for the sequential screening.  We are happy to report that everything looks great with the baby so far!  We do not know the gender yet (it's still too early to tell), and we don't know if we'll find out in a few weeks at the 20-week ultrasound or not, but it was great to get another sneak-peek at our newest little peanut!

#26 - Write and send a letter to my godmother the old-fashioned way (completed)

For years my godmother has sent me hand-written letters on my birthday and enclosed in her annual Christmas card.  I have always told myself that I should write one in return one of these days.  As you know, life frequently gets in the way of doing things like that (hence, one of the reasons for this blog!).  I didn't want life to continue getting in the way, and I really wanted to write to Wilna because she is a very important person in my life, so I finally sat down and did it.  I enclosed it with our annual Christmas card, just as she always does.

#40 - Get a Keurig coffee maker (completed)


My fabulous mother-in-law happened to have a Keurig sitting, unused in her basement.  When I mentioned that I really wanted one (not to mention needed one to complete my 101 list!), she said I could just have hers.  It's practically brand-new, works perfectly, and I'm sure will save me money in the long run over my trips to Wawa and Dunkin Donuts!  So far I've only tried two blends, and I can't wait to try out some caffeinated ones once I have the new baby!  Thanks again, Terri, for the great gift!

#74 - Organize all the pictures on my external hard drive (completed)

A few years ago I bought an external hard drive to store the multitude of pictures I have amassed since switching over to digital photography.  The thought behind it was fabulous, but the execution became a bit lacking over time and with the cleaning out of multiple computers as they began to crash on us.  So when I received a Dell gift card with the purchase of my new laptop over the summer, I purchased a new, larger, external hard drive to continue my efforts at backing up files as well as to organize the many years of photographs, many of which had become jumbled and/or disorganized in one way or another.  The task proved to be a bit more time-consuming than I had originally anticipated, but I can thankfully say that I am now done and since I have developed better filing practices over the years, I am hoping to keep everything better organized from here on out!  The screen shot below isn't the best, but I swear, every photo is now safely located in an appropriately labeled file folder.  :)

#84 - Have dinner at a sushi restaurant (completed)

I am pretty much terrified of the thought of eating raw fish.  Really, fish and I in general are not friends at all.  I hate the aquarium, it creeps me out.  I don't like eating fish, cooked or raw.  About the farthest I'll usually go is shellfish, and I'm even limited in that.  However, I've been trying to push myself recently to try new and different things.  So while I was nervous at an invitation to a local Hibachi restaurant for a friend's 30th birthday (happy birthday, Steph!), I agreed, knowing at least I had a reason to skip all the yucky raw stuff, being pregnant and unable to partake.  Little did I know that there would be plenty of pregnancy-friendly sushi options on the menu, as well.  While I was still nervous, I knew Dave and I would never go to a sushi restaurant on our own, so I decided to take advantage of the opportunity.  I ordered the Crunchy Spicy Philly Roll (Crab, Cream Cheese,Temp Flake, Spicy).  I was delightfully surprised that I enjoyed it and I am excited to say that I plan on trying more sushi again in the future!

Congratulations!!

You made it all the way to the end of this ridiculously long post!  Here's the final end-of-year recap:

Days since beginning my list: 102

Goals accomplished: 7

Goals in progress: 3

Goals yet to complete: 91

I'm right on target with the approximate pace I'd like to keep in completing my goals, especially given some plans I have in place to tackle a few more goals in the upcoming weeks and months.  Thank you again for following me and encouraging me along my way!