30 Before 30

So every year I try and do New Year's Resolutions and they don't really turn out that well.  This year, I was inspired by Jaime (thanks, girl!) and decided to do a spin on the resolutions and make my 30 before 30 list. 

So, without further ado, here are 30 things I would like to accomplish before I turn 30:

1. Write a children's book.  Seriously, I'm doing this, not sure if I want to make it just for my children or as a real deal children's book.
2. Host a red party.  If Kyle and Diddy do white parties, I'm going to do a red party.  Criteria to enter: be fab and wear red.
3. Volunteer at least once.  I really need to start giving back and I realize that 1 time in 365 days isn't enough, but it's a start.
4. Participate in 5, 5ks.  Determination and lots of huffing and puffing and this shall be accomplished.
5. Organize my closet.  Shoes, old fashioned telephones and bubble gum machines... only one of these things belongs in a closet, so why are all 3 in mine?
6. Follow a general wellness regime: eat less, walk more, etc.  2012, year of getting healthy.
7. Get a new do'.  This scares the C-R-A-P out of me, but I'm going to do it.
8. Go on an old fashioned picnic, which includes a gingham table cloth.  Because, I mean who doesn't love a freaking picnic.
9. Make my lunch at least once a week.  My lunch consists of an $8+ meal a day (what can I say, I like my lunches), which adds up.  ($2080 to be exact.  Cringing, totally cringing.)  If I "packed" my lunch 1 day a week, it would equate to a savings of $416.  (Insert "joey woah" here.)
10. Attend a professional soccer game.  World Cup fever is where it's at; if refined Europeans can get into this, so can I.  I'm refined, dammit!
11. Travel to state that I've never been to before.  I've been to most of the bordering states, but I would like to go beyond...
12. Learn 50 words in Polish.  I'm talking about the text book words here, like: toilet and sock.  I'm not talkin' about no conversational Polish.
13. Read at least 5 books.  The amount of books I read is inversely proportional to the amount of children I have; therefore, this may not sound like a lot, but it will be 5 more books than I read when I was 28.
14. Watch the sunrise at least once.  When the time comes to do this, I'm imaging it will probably go something like, "Enh, I could go either way about watching the sunrise, but it's on my 30 before 30, so I've got to do it!"
15. Plan a surprise weekend for my husband.  Like, a real nice surprise weekend.  He's always doing nice things for me, it's the least that I can do.
16. Get a family portrait on the beach, I'm talking jeans and white t-shirts here.
17. Set up a home office.  Instead of having bills and important papers "strewn about" I am determined to get some sort of chic organizational system.  I smell a before and after blog post.
18. Publish 200 blog posts.  Roughly 17 blog posts a month... a little scary, but if anyone can do it... it might be me.
19. Get Arden to sleep through the night.  Honestly, the 2 1/2 years of being up all night long, has got to stop.  I'm exhausted.
20. Learn how to do a smoky eye.  I think there are tons of video tutorials about this on youtube, so perhaps I will do a smoky eye for my red party.
21. Hang up the portraits of the kids that I got blown up a while ago.  My kids are adorable and they deserve to be all over the walls of my house.
22. Become more educated about cars, so as to avoid getting ripped off.
23. Research and map out my family tree on both sides.  I'm fascinated by geneology, I desperately want to be on the show Who Do You Think You Are.
24. Create a finger print necklace.  Like this, only cheaper and more hand-madey.
25. Grow herbs.  Any herbs will do, just so long as they were planted by my little, fat fingers.
26. Rent a surrey at the beach and have the kids sit in the front basket.  If you don't know what a surrey bike is, you're missing out.
27. Plan the ultimate 30th Birthday Party.  Spoiler alert: the theme is Living My Life Like It's Golden.
28. Create a piece of art work.  Any kind, pick a kind.
29. Expand the recipe section of the blog.  I really enjoy cooking.  So does Jim.  Together we can cook a "mean" anything and I think it's a good idea to tell everyone about it!
30. Do one thing special just for me.

So, so I need to do 2.5 things per month.  Hell, maybe I'll be proactive and do 3 things for the first 10 months and then I will be ahead of schedule... or maybe I will do 20 things in December of 2012 and do like I always do: wait until the last minute and then try and cram everything into a week.