What I Want Out of This Year (Nicole's completely selfish list)

Following Kim, I'm going to do a selfish post on things I'd like to accomplish this year.  I'm going to do more "measurable" things (unlike "be more positive"  and "have more patience" and "be more tolerant of other people" because seriously... how can you really measure that?).  I might just print this baby and put it on the fridge.

• I want to read.  READ READ READ.  I used to love to read for fun, and I need to MAKE time to do this for myself.  I got these 3 books for Christmas and plan to start one of them this week. 

  

• I need to give myself a "bedtime" instead of staying up all hours of the night.  I might aim for an 11pm bedtime on work nights.  That could be a good place to start (ha! and probably end). 
• My goal this year is to take a few trips... maybe not anything HUGE, but these trips I cherish (and they've become "annual" things so I hope they continue).  So let's see.... 
• The Cottage with The Girls in March and September.  
• Family weekend to Chicago in June.  
• Camping with Supper Club in June.  
• A week at the beach in April.  
• Whiskey Creek-atuckey over Labor Day weekend.  
• Mother/Daughter weekend in September.
  
  WHEW!  That's a lot of trips but so so worth it.  I'd also LOVE to take the boys to Mackinac or Niagara or something.  We also need to carve out a weekend to visit the Morrison's in Nashville (which will be a new place to visit for us!)

• I used to love running and I am thinking it would be a great goal to start training for a 5K this spring.  I also want to go to a real shoe store and get real running shoes fitted to my feet.  Yes.  Yes, I do.  
• I would like to set aside monthly "date nights" with each of the boys.  Since we have 2 kids (a 1:1 ratio with parents), it'd be perfect to set aside 2 nights a month and each of us take one of the boys each night.  
• Sunday Scrap Night.  Not so much a "get together" but I'd like to make time to create a scrapbook page each week.  Just one a week makes 52 a year.  And anything extra would be a bonus!
• Next winter... I want to go skiing.  I want to take Porter skiing.  Ryan and I used to love to ski, and I'd love to make it a family thing at least a couple times each winter.  We have plenty of ski slopes within an hour or two drive from us.  However, as much as people complain about Michigan's winters, I really don't feel like we have a loooong winter.  (Okay, maybe its just starting... but dude, its been 50* here and our snow is GONE!  Bring back our snow!  I want to go sledding!  I want to go skiing!).  ALl this would mean NEW SKI CLOTHES for me!  My ski coat is like 10+ years old... and purple.   I am eyeing a beeeautiful North Face coat (not sure if I love the brown or the Ivory better) and some ski pants to go with.  
• (is my list starting to sound like a list that enables me to shop??)
• As always, I have a few home renovation projects ALWAYS on my mind.  This year my goals are:  Remodel the main floor bathroom (adiós drinking fountain sink!!!), put up privacy fence around our yard, add a deck and landscaping and finally, convert the mudroom into a main floor laundry.  Ryan wants to knock out a wall and make it a larger laundry/mudroom, but this will also cut into some of our garage storage.  It's do-able, though.  OH and I'd love to get my office renovated.  It has ugly paneling (which I WOULD just paint except the previous owners GLUED styrofoam insulation to the walls and so now I have paneling with baseball sized glue gobs ever 2 feet).  This would entail ripping out the paneling and ceiling, putting up studs, drywall, EWWW MUD-and-SAND EWW, paint and new flooring.  I'm pretty good at keeping things in a budget so maybe we could tackle this this winter.  
• I would like to finish sewing a quilt I started last winter.  I guess that would mean buying a sewing machine.   Hmph.  
• I also have, for over a year, wanted to create Blurb Books from my blog.  I have 2005 and 2009 finished and printed, and have begun working on 2006 and 2007.  I'm still behind by... ohhh 4 years.  And each book ends up costing me close to $100, so its going to be pricey.  But so worth it.  And, since I've failed to print out all of my pictures since... ohhh 2007 (?) I would love to put all of my pictures (both pictures I've scrapped and the hundreds and thousands I haven't) into Blurb Books as well.  More $$ and more Time. *sigh*
• I would also like to purchase a pair of Ugg boots for the winter.  I love the ones Katie recently bought (they have buttons on the side and are better for wider calves like mine) but I'm not able to drop $180 on boots at the moment.  I had hoped to buy some for this winter (because I find that Fri/Sat/Sun I'm always loungy and lazy and when I run errands with the boys I would totally love to slip on some comfy/cute boots), but that hasn't happened.  So, maybe by next winter? 

• Church.  I want to become a regular attender of Westwinds.  I love going, and I do consider them my "home church" but I have become such a slacker at attending over the past year or two.  My goal is going to be at least 3 of the 4 Sundays of the month.  
• Exercise.  I'd like to make an attempt to do some sort of exercise 3 days a week. I think this is do-able.... I just need to "schedule" it and keep that time carved out for it.  I'd love to do Zumba one or two days, and the other days either walking or running.  However, if I do manage to train for the 5K, that'll scratch off two items on my list, eh?