Well, I have thought about this entry a million times and now when it comes down to actually writing it I’m having trouble finding the words. Today is a special day, but yesterday was even more special. Today, June 16th, is my birthday, but yesterday was the day I wanted to hold on to. My last day in my 20’s. I told Bret that was the last day he would have the chance to kiss a girl in her 20’s. For some reason the last day of everything always hits me harder than the actual day…the last day as a teenager, the last day of high school, even the last day in Elementary school (can you believe it started that early!?!) As my best friend, Andrea, likes to remind me, I cried and said “it will never be the same again”. Some how I just KNEW that going to Middle School was going to change everything. Little did Andrea and I know that the many years in school would change us to the point that we would be where we are today…best friends. She was always the cool kid with the awesome ribbon belt that I wanted. Now she’s the beautiful Mom and woman that I look up to. It would only make sense when Andrea blogged about her list I would soon be creating my own. Some call it a “Bucket List”, or the “Burn List”, I call it my “Life List”. My list started way back in college, but wasn’t very long and was far from complete. I’ve been putting off blogging this because it just never felt complete and truly still doesn’t. I keep thinking of things I want to do. Some are small and silly…others are big and I realize may never happen. A fellow photographer posted a quote on her blog today which said “Shoot for the moon. If you don’t make it, at least you will land among the stars.” After all, isn’t it the journey that matters the most? I’ve listed things I’ve always wanted to do, things I think that everyone should learn…know…or do, things that will strengthen who I am as a person, will strengthen my relationship with God, things that will help others, and things that just flat out give me the warm fuzzies. Trying to make things measurable in order to be able to one day mark them off was a challenge, so there are some that just aren’t. I’m getting butterflies just thinking about posting this.
Before I post my very long “Life List”, I would like to share with you another list. My list of birthday memories. Some happy…some sad. I wanted to tell stories of these, but I couldn’t pick one.
* When Mommy and I lived with Papaw Ray and Mamaw Pansy. I have so many wonderful memories from there that are near and dear to my heart. Summer nights of chasing lightning bugs and listening to the “whip-poor-wills”, being chased by geese, catching frogs, running around in nothing but my panties, catching all the stray animals I could, rainbow popsicles, and the list goes on. One of my favorites was a birthday one. We were having cake. I told everyone that I would go outside and come back in. When I did they all had to say “surprise!” I guess that would be my first surprise birthday party?
* The trip to Myrtle Beach with two of my best friends Amanda and Martie for mine and Amanda’s birthdays. It still goes down as one of my favorite trips to the beach.
* My 16th birthday. Me, my friend Bryanne, and my uncle Mikie drove cars to the auction for Mikie’s business. We stopped at a Golden Corral and I begged them not to have them sing happy birthday to me.
* My first real surprise birthday party that Bret put together for me. He knew I had always wanted one, since I was a little girl telling everyone to scream “surprise”.
* Just before Mommy passed away. She was in the hospital. She realized it was my birthday, even though she had been pretty out of it for a while. She was so worried. So sad. She wanted to be with me. She didn’t want to leave me. She wanted to do something special for my birthday. All she had with her and all she had to her name was $5 in foodstamps, when they were still paper. That’s what she gave me. It is the best birthday present I’ve ever received. I didn’t realize it then and I wish I had. Those are some of the saddest days. Most things I talk about openly. I can’t talk or think about those last days without feeling depressed and crying. Today is different, I’m embracing all of those feelings.
* Today. At 6:00 AM this morning Bret was out cutting flowers and arranging them in a vase and hand making a birthday card. I didn’t go into the office until 11 AM, in which I saw them sitting on my desk. On the front was “Happy 30th Birthday” (with the 30th in a heart). Inside it read something like “You will always be that same 22 year old in my eyes. Only more beautiful.”
Now…for the LIFE LIST.
1. Play putt-putt golf
2. Have a rose garden
3. Grow our own fruit trees/bushes
4. Take salsa lessons
5. Scuba Diving
6. Go back to Europe (preferably a European tour)
7. Visit Savannah, GA
8. Visit New Orleans and try all the delicious food that Bret talks so much about
9. Go to Paula Dean’s restaurant
10. Write a book and try to have it published
11. Learn how to can food
12. Make my own jam/jelly
13. Make pickles
14. Photograph the Obama family
15. Sing karaoke by myself
16. Bake my own bread
17. Learn to make butter
18. Have a fire pit in our back yard to roast all the marshmellows and hot dogs we want!
19. Have built in white shelves full of interesting books
20. Own a white slip covered couch (I know…I fear I may have missed the point of the list. lol)
21. Have a window seat to sit and talk to the “man in the moon” like on that televeision show
22. Begin a tradition to something for a charity every Christmas
23. Do yoga on a regular basis
24. Walk with Bret on a regular basis
25. Start praying more and strengthening my relationship w/ God
26. Read and understand the Bible to the best of my ability
27. Go parasailing again Completed with Bret June 2010
28. Be open and let all my close friends and family know I love them
29. Research family history
30. Have a back yard family dinner with a beautiful long table, eclectic chairs, white lights hanging from the trees, and the food all spread out on the table
31. Use my photography to make a difference
32. Ghost pub crawl in Wilmington
33. Hawaii w/ Bret
34. No credit card debt
35. Go a week with out the internet (on purpose)
36. Really use our back yard (hang out, grill, plant, etc.) often
37. Have my sewing machine out in a place where I can use it when I want to
38. Be happy with my body
39. See a Broadway musical
40. Visit Chicago
41. Truly make a difference and let my life be a testimony for God
42. See Aroesmith in concert
43. Make drinking water often part of my every day life
44. Grow several large hydrangea bushes
45. Swim with dolphins
46. Help Andrea mark things off her list (at least 5 things)
47. Finish Andreas scrapbook
48. Zip line
49. Sky dive (not positive about this one)
50. Drive in movies
51. Private 
52. Take a big camping trip with my closest friends
53. Visit Great Wall of China
54. See the Eiffel Tower at night with Bret
55. Pay Mikie and Erica back in some way
56. Changed…see #64
57. Learn Mommy’s story and tell it the way she would want it told
58. Have something a little stronger than a Coke in Monte Carlo
59. Place a large bet at the KY Derby
60. Take Chasity to the KY Derby
61. Tip someone unexpecting a very large tip (i.e. a dive restaurant waitress, a street musician, etc.)
62. Go to a major music festival
63. Tour the White House
64. Write a hand written card or letter per week for 6 months.
65. Go on a ski trip complete with a cabin, fire place, hot tub, and hot chocolate
66. Go see an old black and white movie in a theater
67. Private
68. Ride (or drive?) a paddle boat
69. Ride a jet ski in the ocean
70. Take Bret on an African Safari
71. Tattoo (not sure…)
72. Have a sushi lunch
73. Learn to make sushi rolls
74. Play in a warm summer rain (complete with puddle jumping)
75. Learn to bake my own baguettes
76. Fly a kite
77. Learn to change a tire
78. Donate blood (UGH!)
79. Host an out door movie night
80. Fully learn to drive a stick shift
81. Visit New York City in the fall or New Years Eve
82. Go to a beach in the winter when it’s cold. Bundle up in sweaters and my boots. Preferably with a fire and roasted marshmellows.
83. Blog something personal once a week for three months
84. Watch a meteor shower
85. Organize my old photos
86. Travel to CA and have a photo shoot w/ Tara Whitney
87. Visit Greece
88. Make home made ice cream
89. Visit the new Busch Stadium
90. Get on a horse again
91. Go to a circus
92. Cookout on the beach at sunset in Dunedin
93. Have boudoir photos taken of me (of course very tasteful ones!)
94. Eat a snow cone at the beach Completed with Bret in Dunedin June 2010
95. Visit Mt. Rushmore
96. Watch the top 100 IMDB movies
97. Take a drawing/painting/pastels art class (one or all)
98. Take a ceramics class
99. Learn to crochet
100. Volunteer for Habitat for Humanity
101. Go hang gliding
102. Volunteer abroad for one month
103. Give ice skating another shot
104. Visit Niagra Falls
105. Relax in a natural hot spring
106. Learn to build a fire
107. Learn the Heimlich maneuver and CPR
108. Learn to jump start a car
109. Eat at atleast 50 of the Travel Channels 101 Tastiest Places to Chow Down
110. Go to a zoo
111. Stand under a waterfall (preferably in Hawaii)
112. Have a successful herb garden
113. Fly fishing
114. Visit the Grand Ole Opry
115. Have a family reunion at the place where I grew up
116. Learn to play poker
117. Learn self defense techniques
118. Volunteer with Toys for Tots
119. Meet Loretta Lynn
120. Shoot with an old film camera
121. See the July 4th firework show in Washington, D.C.
122. Take the road trip I had planned for our honeymoon that includes stops along the Blues Highway (adjust the trip to our liking)
123. Visit Graceland
124. Read at least 50 of Newsweeks Top 100 Books
125. Visit 10 different kinds of churches and learn something about that religion
126. Grow the business enough that we don’t have to worry about money and Bret could focus on his writing if he wanted to
127. Spend a night on a boat under the stars
128. Go to the KY State Fair
129. Have a swing at our house (either porch or tire) and/or a hammock
130. Meet Stacy Dade in person
131. Photograph a water birth
132. Be featured on Creative Mama blog and/or The Savvy Photographer Blog
133. Always “Give freely from a heart of gold.”
134. Write every detail of the most important moments in my life
135. Pick fresh strawberries at local “u-pick” place
136. Inspire five others to create a “Life List” of their own
Now…I encourage all of YOU to create your own life list. Bret has to remind me that the point of the list is not to simply mark things off. It shouldn’t become a job. The point is to live life and this truly empowers you to do so. It feels like you’ve really accomplished something, even if it’s the smallest thing. Life passes by so quickly. Before you know it, you’re 80 years old, sitting in a rocking chair, thinking about all you wanted to do. Or 30 We met a lady while parasailing in Clearwater. She said her life used to be filled with fear. What if this happened? What if that happened? Then she decided to put all the fears behind her. My favorite story of hers was that she showed up at the airport, got a ticket to Peru. While there they were watching all these people hang gliding and thinking how crazy that was. Next thing she knew, she was up hang gliding with them…up above the skyscrapers. Can you imagine just going to Peru on a whim? Hang gliding on a whim? Your list doesn’t have to be filled with adventurous things. Just filled with things you want to do. Anything you’ve thought “oh I would love to do that” and thought it was too far out of reach, put it on the list and it may just motivate you to do it. Of course, if you’re like me, you may have to win the lottery to accomplish them. Maybe I should put that on the list too?
