Almost there! 46.5% DONE!

Wow, so it has almost been a year since my last post. Life sure got crazy!! But crazy in a great way! :)

Baby Natalie Jane was born on 12/14/10 weighing in at 7 lbs. 15 oz. and was 21.5 inches long. My goodness, how time flies when you are having fun!!! I just love this little girl to bits! She has filled my life with such happiness and love. (along with her papa, of course!) Here she is!! My mini!!!! (It is now so painfully obvious how long it has been since my last update since the last picture of her that posted was her 19 week ultrasound!)

Anyway, obviously life has changed a bit, so I went through and cleaned up my list. There were a few items that were on my original personal list, but once I decided to make it public, I changed a few. Well, I decided that it's time to be honest with myself and give myself credit for items accomplished even if it was of a very personal nature.


Even though I've been "away" from my blog, no worries...... I've been keeping up my end of the deal. I have been checking things off left and right! :)


Ok, so here goes the update~!!!


14. Add chair rail in dining room



15. Paint the kitchen


16. Sand and repaint the cabinets


I am so happy that these are done! I have wanted this (at least the kitchen) since the first day I walked into my house as a potential buyer. My first response? "if we buy this house, the kitchen has to be fixed" well, five years later, it finally happened!! Below are the before and after pics!

On the topic of home renovations, here is another great one:

17. Redo the Driveway

Again, before and after! :)

Moving on from home improvements,

23. Host three dinner parties with at least five people present (1/3)--- we had the Murphys and the Szczukas over for a couples night.

32. Scrapbook 30 pages (one a month)- (17/30) Thanks to my friend Rachel, I am readdicted to scrapbooking. :) I have gotten through scrapbooking my pregnancy all the way to the hospital visits. LOTS more to go and lots to catch up on, but I'll take any kind of progress! :)

I am so happy that two of my wishes off of my "personal" list came true! :)

37. Get married (or at least engaged)-- Married the most wonderful friend, father and husband. Honestly, this man is best thing that could have ever happened to me. :) Here is a picture of me and my Matthew!

38. Have a baby-  YAY!!!!!!

40. Visit three friends – go to their city (2/3) and 44. Take a completely impulsive, spur of the moment road trip.we recently went to Washington DC to visit my friends Chelsea (and her hubby!) to see their new home and puppy and my friend Joe. :)

49. Go to a farmers market three times (4/3)--- this one was already accomplished, but I've taken this one to an extreme lately! I joined a local, organic co-op! So I get fresh, local, organic veggies and fruits delivered to me every week!! It's amazing!!  Check it out for your self! Here is a pic of last week's delivery!

65. learn to cook baby food-- Yup, I'm making all of Natalie's food! :) I just love cooking, so why not cook for my little one too? I enjoy knowing exactly what goes into her food and it's a great way to use the veggies from the farm co-op! :) I also like knowing that it was made with lots of "vitamin Ai" as my mother would say. "Ai" is Japanese for love. <3

76. Watch 30 documentaries (one a month) (17/30)-- I'm seeing a trend here.....lol!

-Food Matters

-Fat, sick and Nearly Dead

-Fat Head

-Fast food Nation

79. See 101 new movies (109/101)--- guess I can stop counting! :)

-The Guardian

-127 Hours

-Burlesque

-Twighlight Eclipse

-Black Swan

-The Hurt Locker

-Gran Torino

-Date night

-Love and other drugs

-You again

-Despicable me

-Taken

-Bride Wars

-Back to the Future I

-Back to the Future II

-Back to the Future III
-Twighlight New Moon
-Brothers
-Chaos Therory
-Easy A


100. Write down my favorite part of the day, every day.  An example of my journal of favorite moments---


August 14, 2011~
Natalie’s 8 month birthday! My favorite thing about today? Lying in bed after being woken up from a two hour nap by Natalie and Matt. We all lay in bed and Matt and I took turns kissing Natalie’s face and tickling her. The sound of her giggling and her full belly laugh as Matt was blowing raspberries on her neck is something I never want to forget.

new list still coming soon!!

well, it's been a busy month! SO much to do to get ready for the newest member of our family, but I've been trying to keep up with my goals list! Should probably do it now before my life is totally taken over! haha. So here is the latest and greatest......


17. send out birthday cards once a month (18/30) Happy birthday to my sept. peeps!! Marissa, Dad and Chelsea! :)


25. scrapbook a page a month- (6/30) I've been busy! I figure with the little one on the way, I might as well take advantage of any "down time" I have and catch up! Otherwise, who knows when I'll have time to keep track of all of these good memories? :)


28. Go out for a girls night once a month (9/30)- went out to dinner and to see "eat, pray, love" with Maria and Emily. I must say the book was much better. I feel like the book had so much internal stuff going on that a movie just doesn't do it much justice. What was so beautiful about the book was not the indivisual EVENTS as much as it was the realizations she comes to in her journey to heal and become more what she was meant to be. That's hard to show in a movie. But either way, good night out with the girls. :)


46. donate to three charities- (3/3) I took a huge load of things to the Junior League. Gotta make room for the little one who will be here in about 10 weeks!!! crazy! so much to do!!!


76. watch 30 documentaries (13/30) I watched the "dolphin defender" a documentary about saving dolphins around the world. :) A tribute to my old 5th grade self!


77. try 15 new restaurants (41/15) we went out to a new Peruvian/Chinese fusion restaurant called Chima. It was sooooooooooooooooo good!!!! Highly recommended! Lots of veggie and non veggie options. All parties were satisfied. :)


79. see 101 new movies (89/101)

Lots of movies!!! too many to go through....
-eat pray love
-valentines day
-disturbia
-it's complicated
-time traveler's wife
-love happens
-funny people
-did you hear about the morgans
-following
-men who stare at goats
-zombie land
-evil dead
-the dead zone
-did you hear about the morgans


80. try 30 new recepies (31/30)
-cheesy bacon chicken- obviously for Matthew, not me. :-p
-BBQ chicken fold over/ BBQ Tofu fold over. --- wow, this was AMAZING. For the Tofu one, I took grilled zucchini, red onions, corn, red pepper, tofu and BBQ sauce and then made a thin bread casing for the whole thing. YUMMMMMM!


84. Take Jin to the dog park 30 times (18/30)- we've been busy!! Poor little guy though....... every time we take him to the park, there are no dogs there! or they leave pretty much right after we get there. Do we smell? :-p we are going to take him to the dog park in center city today and see if we have more luck.

Changes are coming again!!!

I feel like I say this every time I write...... where does the time go?!?! Anyway, lots of exciting news on my front! :) In fact, I may have to change my list a bit because.......




I'm pregnant! :) That's right, it's a little girl for me and Matt! :)


Here she is sucking her thumb:


So keep your eye out for some changes once again to the 101 list, but no worries, I'm still keeping the same deadline, so really I'm kind of making it harder on myself! :)


ok, so on to some updates!!!

17. send out 30 b-day cards (15/30) Happy birthday Nana!! :)

76. watch 30 documentaries (12/30) I watched "the business of being born" which was like the food inc. of child birth! lol. Very interesting stuff. Mostly talking about how hospitals make it easier on themselves, rather than the mother when it comes to the birthing process. HIGHLY recommended for anyone who is thinking about natural birth.

77. try 15 new restaurants-(40/15) wow, I'm really into this one! haha! I tried three new places:

-Benelux which is a Belgian fondue restaurant. It was pretty good, but I have to say, it comes no where near this place in NYC called "DIP" I have to go back!!!

-I forget the name!! hahah! It's a Turkish kebab place Manayunk. It was pretty good, although I recommend eating outside, it was sooooooooo hot in there!!


-New Delhi an Indian restaurant in University City that Chelsea and I tried. Unfortunately it was too spicy for me. Even on mild settings. It's no Amar India, that's for sure.


79. see 101 new movies (75/101)
-the wrestler: pretty good movie. It wasn't as depressing as I thought it would be.

-the reader: sick and twisted, and yet, very emotional and very good. Highly recommended!

-inception: OMG! this was amazing. Go out and see it RIGHT NOW!

-couples retreat: a silly comedy. It wasn't as bad as the rating said. It's a typical cute and funny romantic comedy

-sex drive: I watched the director's uncut version which was just odd. lol. It was ok. humorous.

-Julie and Julia: If only I could be as good as she is on keeping up with my blog! VERY cute movie.

-Transformers II: to be honest, I fell asleep. lol. Perhaps this one shouldn't count.

-Shrek the III: same with this one! :-p

-Toy Story III: cute, just like the first two.


84. Take Jin to the dog park 30 times (13/30) One night Matt and I decided to take him to the Manayunk Pretzel Park around 7:45. It was still light out, but unfortunately, all of the dogs had gone home for the night!! So poor Jin had to play pretty much by himself. :-p he had fun though! (and I got eaten alive by mosquitos)

Lots of family time! :)

17. send out 30 birthday cards (14/30)--- Happy birthday Christy and Stacy! :) Also coming up in June: Nana! :)

18. visit family 15 times (15/15)
wow, we've gotten spoiled on this one!! I have seen my parents essentially every week in a new city for three weeks straight!! :)

First they came to Philly for my wedding reception :) more photos to come once I get the CD from the photographer.
Then, I took Matt back to Dayton, OH for my UD 5 year reunion. Pretty crazy to think it's been 5 years already!! Here is Matt after his first official class at the QC! :)

Finally, this past weekend, we went to Dewey Beach, DE for my cousin Elyse's wedding!! Here I am with my Nana! :)

So much fun!!! I am so spoiled now!!! now it's time to go back to just the two of us in Philly.

28. Go out for girls night once a month (8/24)- went with the DE girls to dinner and then to see Sex and the City 2.

79. see 101 new movies (66/101)
- sex and the city 2: meh, it was ok. Not necessary to be 3 hours long!!


80. Try 30 new recipes (29/30)

-butternut squash soup: yummmmmmmmmmmm

-butternut squash quesadillas: from my friend Kim's friend's website http://www.twobluelemons.com/ it's a great website for delicious veggie recipes. SO GOOD!!

Yikes!! where does the time go???!

wow, seriously, how does time go by so quickly!!! I have been doing a really bad job keeping up on this!!

not to worry though, I have been keeping up with the 101 list!! :-D Just not very good about writing it down.....

Perhaps the MOST exciting one to update:

29. Travel to a new continent- I went to South America!! :) Where I went to Rio in Brazil, Iguazzu Falls in both Brazil and Argentina and then to Buenos Aires in Argentina for about 10 days. Also exciting news about this trip...... I eloped at the falls!! :)>



46. Donate $200 to three different charities- (2/3) I donated to the Tibetan Relief Fund that my father's non-profit was putting together to give to the Dalai Lama when my father was the MC for his event in May. :) A cause that has always been one near and dear to the Hayes heart. :)



79. See 101 new movies: (65/101)

-Iron Man 2
-Just one of the guys
-The machinist
-Bolt
-Hairspray
-Predator
-The Shawshank Redemption



Thanks to the long flight from Brazil for these:
-Up in the Air
-The Blind Side
-The Invention of Lying



84. Take Jin to the dog park once a month (12/30)- now that the weather is getting better, we are going a lot!! :) He went to the last Shiba Inu meetup and it was sooooooooo packed! There had to have been at least 30 Shiba there, of which, 20 were reds like him! It was really hard to figure out which one he was when they were all running around like mad playing together. :) so cute!!!!!



100. Buy myself flowers once a month (7/30)- Although Matthew spoils me quite a bit, I do manage to go out and buy some flowers for myself from time to time :)