100th Post of 2011 - 100 Things I Want to do Before I Die

I noticed yesterday after writing my two blog posts that I had posted 99 times since the beginning of 2011 making the very next post (this post) #100. Most would not think much of this but I have this strange obsession with numbers and number patterns. My mom tells me that I use to read the phone book when I was little, I can remember dates like crazy (yes, poor Jason), and I love algebra. (There, now you know my secret shame.)

Anyway, it felt a bit unnatural to not acknowledge the 100th post in some way so I thought I would compile a list of a 100 things I wanted to do before I died. I have two things to say about this - 1.) It is harder than you think. Go ahead - make one of you own and see what I mean. 2.) I felt a bit selfish doing it. It was strange - I have never thought that much about what I actually want. Really, you can ask Jason about my birthday and Christmas. He asks me what I want and my standard answer is, "I don't know." It is like anytime I think about something I want I get that "deer in the headlights" look and don't know whether to go straight or turn back around. All I think about is with all the poverty in the world and so many others out there that need help why am I thinking about spending Christmas in Hawaii. But it was an exercise and I didn't want to back out half way through so I went with it.

These are in no particular order. So, on with the list....

1. Attend the Olympics at least once in my life. (Here's to hoping it comes back around to somewhere close again. Wish I would have thought of this one a few years back when it actually happened in the United Stats.) 
2. Sky-dive 
3. Bungee jump (thinking I will wait to accomplish 2 and 3 until after my children are grown.) 
4. Visit the Statue of Liberty
5. Be the one to teach each of my children to read. (Well, I have one down - things are looking promising here.)
6. Drive across America from coast to coast.
7. Learn how to take a compliment (Yes, I still struggle with this one.) 
8. Take a ride on the highest roller coaster in the country.
9. Make my dear husband ride with me on the highest roller coaster in the country. (I am not against calling him a girl and making chicken sounds if necessary to accomplish this.)
10. Go on a cruise. (Really hoping this one happens sooner than later. Thinking anniversary 2013 - hint, hint.)
11. Decorate my daughters wedding (how she wants it of course).
12. Learn to juggle.
13. Learn how to do the walk-the-dog-thingy with a yo-yo.
14. Scuba dive 
15. Visit the Holy Land.
16. Spend New Year's Eve in the Big Apple with my hubby, watch the ball drop wearing one of those silly hats, and blowing one of those cheesy noise makers. (Hey, if you are going to go, you might as well go big!)
17. Send a message in a bottle. (Really have no idea what I would say - just sounded cool to do. My luck is I would find a bottle with a message in it too - only sadly to discover it was my own message. :-(
18. Spend a whole day reading a great novel - and not feel guilty!
19. Spend Christmas in Hawaii.
20. Grow my dream garden. 
21. Make my house exactly the way I want it (with Jason's input of course.) 
22. Go up in a hot-air balloon. (And not fall out - the "not falling out part" is very important.
23. Go deep sea fishing.
24. Have a book published. (Big surprise here I know - it is kind of a "thing" with writers.)
25. Watch each of my children graduate from high school (yes, homeschoolers have graduation ceremonies too!)
26. Despite my children's reassurances that they can make it to college their first year by themselves - drive them anyway and don't apologize for the tears.  I gave birth to them - I can cry when they leave my "nest". 
27. Have my house Martha Stewart organized. (Yeah, I know - it is kind of like "extreme organizing" - hey that could be the next reality t.v. show.)
28. Own a cabin in the woods where I can sit on the front porch reading a book, smelling the wild flowers, and listening to the birds sing their sweet songs. 
29. Raise a boat load of money for an organization that will change people's lives.
30. Make sure my family knows how much I love each and every one of them. 
31. Make sure my friends know how much I love each and every one of them. 
32. See each of my children fall in love with the one God has intended for them.
33. Be a good mother-in-law.
34. Be a grandma someday so I can too say, "Having children is wonderful but being a grandma is so much better." (Side note - it is very difficult to imagine it getting any better than what I have now.)
35. Watch my husband give my sweet baby girl away to the man that will love her unconditionally for her entire life because he knows if he doesn't he will have to answer to her three brothers. (God does have a sense of humor.)
36. Have a huge rose garden. 
37. Learn how to use a potter's wheel.
38. Make something really cool on the potter's wheel and then mess it up just because I can. 
39. Attend a professional baseball game.
40. Attend a professional football game. 
41. Tell my husband how much I love him every single day. 
42. Visit all 50 states. (I have been to Colorado, South Dakota, North Dakota, Alaska, Utah, California, Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Wyoming, New Mexico, Idaho, and Montana. 19 down - 31 to go.)
43. Go paperless with regards to all of our bills (shamefully this has less to do with wanting to save our environment and more because I hate filing).
44. Become debt free. :-) 
45. Take my children to Disney World or Land. 
46. Get paid to craft. 
47. Take the time to watch a sunrise and sunset in the same day and be amazed at God's creation.
48. Go golfing at least once a summer with my hubby.
49. Go camping every year. 
50. Come up with a really cool bumper sticker.
51. Survive cancer. (For those of you reading this that don't know my story - I already have cancer. This is something I would have never chosen for myself but since I don't have a choice about that I did add the "surviving" part as I felt that has become important as well.)
52. Survive chemo. (See reference above.)
53. Have tea parties with my daughter just because.
54. Never allow my children to doubt how much I love their father.
55. Teach my daughter that boys have cooties - until she is at least 35.
56. Learn how to build stuff out of wood - all by myself - with no help from hubby.
57. Teach my children about God's unconditional love by unconditionally loving them. 
58. See each of my son's faces when they come home to tell us that "she is the one". 
59. See my daughter's face when she comes home to tell us that "he is the one". 
60. Write a devotional for each chapter in the bible. 
61. Beat my husband at chess - just once before I die. 
62. Upon beating my husband at chess refrain from doing any kind of victory dance. 
63. Live on a houseboat (even if it is just for a vacation).
64. Stay at a bed & breakfast for a night.
65. Have one night where I sleep straight through without any interruptions.  
66. Own and drive regularly an old car from the 60's - and have the sunglasses to match.     
67. Grow boat loads of flowers in my yard. 
68. Learn how to make my own pasta. 
69. Help out in a soup kitchen. 
70. Make my husband take me to a play. 
71. Learn how to make my grandmother's dinner rolls.
72. Live for each and every day, rejoice, and be glad in it - for it is the day the Lord made. 
73. Own a hot tub. 
74. Help build a house for a homeless family.
75. Anonymously pay for someone else's groceries. 
76. Play bingo. 
77. Win while playing bingo. 
78. Write an article for a major publication. 
79. Become an aunt and spoil my nieces and nephews like crazy. 
80. Take an art class. 
81. Go to a restaurant and order dessert first. 
82. Take my children to Washington D.C. 
83. Plant flowers in someone else's yard that I don't know very well. 
84. Have a greenhouse.
85. Start all my plants from seed.
86. Tour Europe.
87. Get better at golf. (Really, there is no where to go but up here.)
88. Complete the Daniel's Fast for 72 hours.
89. Make the only beverage I drink be water for 30 days. (I have already done this once before but my goal the 2nd time around is to do it with a positive attitude for the WHOLE 30 days and avoid the pouty attitude I had last time for the first 4 days.)
90. Blog everyday for 1 year. (Sorry readers.)
91. Help someone in need. (I sure hope that I have helped someone by now in my life but if this is always on my list of things to do then I hope I never miss an opportunity.) 
92. Find a way to "pay forward" all of the prayer, love, and generosity we have been shown through my cancer treatment. I am pretty certain that this will take the rest of my life to do. 
93. Teach each of my children to cook so when they go off to live on their own I at least won't have to worry about that.
94.  Enjoy "the view from the rocking chair" with my hubby when we are both old and gray. (He and anyone who has been to Sonrise Mountain Ranch in Cimarron, Colorado know what I am talking about here.) 
95. Stay in every cabin at Sonrise Mountain Ranch at least once. 
96. One year have all my Christmas shopping done by September. 
97. Take my husband to the coolest gun show in the country and allow him to take as many hours (or days) as he needs to go through the entire thing without any interruption from the kids....or me...but mostly the kids. 
98. Survive the "teen years" - especially when we have a 17, 15, and 13 year old. 
99. Learn how to make tamales. 
100. Serve God in all that I do and ask for forgiveness when I fall short. Really, the 99 wouldn't even be possible without Him. Thank you God. 

S0, this is my little list of 100 things I want to do before I die. What do you think? Have you ever made one of these lists yourself? Was it as hard for you as it was for me?