29 by 29

I had such a good time with my list last year, I thought I would start another one. :) Need to roll a few forward from last year, sadly. But better to not give up on one's goals, yes? :D (Numbers 2-18 are rolled over.)


1) Get married!! Hey, this is legit. It takes a lot of time and energy to get a wedding off the ground!
2) Learn 29 new recipes. 3/2/14 Sweet success!

1	Balsamic Glazed Carrots
2	Steamed artichoke
3	shrimp tacos
4	mango salsa
5	Pioneer Woman's slaw
6	Midnight Sin Chocolate Cake (layered with the mousse and marscarpone frosting, not ganache)
7	Not so Humble Frangelico Dark Chocolate Mousse (skipped the Frangelico the first time, since I didn't have any)
8	Dark Chocolate Mascarpone Frosting
9	Cilantro pesto
10	baked sweet potato fries
11	salmon/dill/ricotta slow scrambled eggs
12	Grilled Chicken with Curried Couscous, Spinach, and Mango
13	Harvest Squash, Veggie, and Pumpkin Lasagna
14	Crème brûlée
15	Beef Stew with Root Vegetables and Horseradish
16	Homemade Pasta
17	Fettuccine with Portabellas, Sage, and Walnuts
18	Pineapple and Shrimp Eggrolls
19	Earl Grey Crème Brûlée
20	Chocolate Crème Brûlée
21	Chocolate and Chambord Crème Brûlée
22	Caramelized onions and mushroom grilled cheese
23	Nutella Cheesecake Cupcakes
24	Mini Fruit Pizzas
25	Baked Ziti
26	Pan-Seared "Smoked" Sweet Salmon
27	Sauteed Bok Choy and Broccoli
28	Cucumber and Mango Tropical Salad
29	Chicken Enchilada Pasta
30	Homemade chicken nuggets
31	Roasted Tomatoes
32	Veggie Lettuce Wraps
33	Pretzel Dogs
34	Grilled Cheese with Balsamic Caramelized Onions
35	Peas with Lemon, Mint, and Scallions
36	Classic Deviled Eggs
37	Carrot Layer Cake with Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting
38	Roasted Strawberry Banana Bread
39	Pork with Rice Noodles, Scallions, and Chile
40	Blackberry Mojito
41	Mashed Potatoes
42	Homemade Granola

3) Post 29 blog posts. XD 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29

4) Watch 12 movies off the 100 best movies of all time list. (Let's be more realistic this year!)

#	Title	Date
1	It's a Wonderful Life	December 13, 2013
2
3
4
5

5) Read 12 books (at least 5 off the 100 best books of all time list).

#	Book	Author	Date finished
1	Brilliance	Marcus Sakey	August 3
2	Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone	JK Rowling	August 7, a re-read; 1st time as UK edition
3	The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls	Claire Legrand	August 9
4	The False Prince	Jennifer A. Nielsen	August 13
5	Skin	Donna Jo Napoli	August 16
6	The Hunger Games	Suzanne Collins	August 18, a re-read
7	Catching Fire	Suzanne Collins	August 20, a re-read
8	Mockingjay	Suzanne Collins	August 24, a re-read
9	Before I Go to Sleep	S J Watson	August 28, just two days!!
10	Jurassic Park	Michael Crichton	August 31
11	The Lost World	Michael Crichton	September 7
12	The Mortal Instruments: City of Bone	Cassandra Clark	September 8
13	Green Rider	Kristen Britain	September, a re-read
14	First Rider's Call	Kristen Britain	a re-read
15	High King's Tomb	Kristen Britain	a re-read
16	Blackveil	Kristen Britain	October 6
17	The Mortal Instruments: City of Ash	Cassandra Clark
18	Wildwood	Colin Meloy	October 30
19	The Mortal Instruments: City of Glass	Cassandra Clark	November 7
20	Tell The Wolves I'm Home	Carol Rifka Brunt	November 9 (in just 5 hours)
21	The English Girl	Daniel Silva	November 23
22	The Ocean at the End of the Lane	Neil Gaiman	November 26
23	The City of Fallen Angels	Cassandra Clark	December 6
24	Wither	Lauren DeStefano	December 7
25	Divergence	Veronica Roth	December 14 (in 2 days)
26	Fever	Lauren DeStefano	December 16 (ish)
27	Sever	Lauren DeStefano	December 23
28	The Mortal Instruments: City of Lost Souls	Cassandra Clare	December 31
29	The Husband's Secret	Liane Moriarty	January 2 (in one day)
30	Matched	Ally Condie	January 3 (in one day)
31	The Reason I Jump	Naoki Higashida	January 4
32	Speaker for the Dead	Orson Scott Card	January 11
33	Crossed	Ally Condie	January 15
34	Reached	Ally Condie	January 19 (in 2 days)
35	A Great and Terrible Beauty	Libba Bray	January 20 (in 1 day)
36	Rebel Angels	Libba Bray	January 25
37	Insurgent	Veronica Roth	February 19
38	Allegiant	Veronica Roth	February 24
39	The Sweet Far Thing	Libba Bray	March 8
40	Apocalypse Z: Dark Days	Manel Loureiro	March 29
41	A Million Little Pieces	James Frey	April 6
42	Shards of Time	Lynn Flewelling	April 16
43	Sous Chef	Michael Gibney	May 15
44	Atlantis Gene	A.G. Riddle	May 17
45

6) Take dance classes or lessons again.
7) Visit a new state. 5/24/14: Went to South Carolina for a wedding.
8) Learn to do the three beat weave. (Poi)
9) Finish 24 scrapbook pages
10) Plant a "garden" outside our new deck. Including a hanging herb garden pot. 4/23/14. Planted 2 varieties of tomato (Pink Brandywine Heirloom Tomato and Early Girl - 50 days hybrid tomato), summer squash, zucchini, yellow bell pepper, mint, cilantro, flat leaf parsley, 2 basil, marigolds, and some lovely red flowers. Should have the first hitting maturity in 48 days!
11) Get scuba certified.
12) Join a gym (and you know, go.) Calling it good 2/22/14, but of course I'll have to keep working at this one! Joined last June, went a bunch the month before the wedding. Finally started going twice a week reliably this February, feeling really good about it!
13) Run a 5k.
14) Complete a 10 day real food (clean eating) challenge. 5/11-5/24. It's been pretty eye opening how many foods have preservatives. We're working on reading ingredient labels, keeping the unpronounceable items to a minimum, and making more staples from scratch. I'm feeling really good about the changes. The idea is to have a healthy relationship with my food, and I think trusting where it comes from will go a long way in that.
15) Go for a hike in the mountains. 7/29/14 OK so this is technically done in the 30 by 30 timeframe. But apparently I didn't carry this item forward like I thought I did. I also wanted to note that this is NOT a first time thing!! I've been on MANY hikes in the mountains. I just missed it, and wanted to make it a deliberate thing to get back out there. Today we hiked at Chimney Rock and it was beautiful! Gorgeous views, loved the Hickory Nut Falls, took tons of pictures and climbed way too many stairs. XD
16) Make date night jar to kick start weekly date nights. We put out sticks at the wedding, and got some really adorable ideas from our friends and family. ♥
17) Take a crafty class (cake decorating, painting, knitting, scrapbooking... something!)
18) Try Zumba.
19) Make Christmas ornaments.
20) Visit another country (St. Lucia - honeymoon) 7/31/13 - 8/6/13
21) Visit mud baths at a volcano. In St. Lucia, our last day there! I'm still trying to get the lining of my swimsuit back to a normal color! :)
22) Get a different haircut (after the wedding) Got a "lob" (long bob) with wispy side swept bangs. Love it!
23) Wear neon nail polish. 1/20/14 Neon pink! It smells like bubble gum. XD I may still try one of the more eclectic neons down the road... ;)
24) Link my domain name to this blog!! As of 1/7/14 we are officially linked up to www.joyfulfoodie.com! Woohoo! May have taken me 3 years to start, but once I finally bit the bullet, it only took about 20 minutes to work out. YAY!! :D
25) Transcribe the first of my Farmor's journals and share it with the family.
26) Find a new job. I started officially on 8/21/13 at a middle school! Very excited to get back to my awkward teenagers.
27) Re-evaluate budget/figure out how joint checking accounts work.
28) Master Crème Brûlée, and at least two flavor variations.
11/11/13: Made vanilla Crème Brûlée using Fine Cooking's recipe. SUPERB. I am addicted. So creamy!!
12/17/13: Made Earl Grey Crème brûlée. Much better the second night... I think we weren't quite expecting the flavor somehow the first night. Lovely coffee color to it, like a mug of tea with cream would be.
1/7/14: Made Chocolate Crème Brûlée. Used Fine Cooking's base recipe, read a few other recipes for the chocolate variations, and made my own up from there.
1/31/14: Made Chocolate and Chambord Crème Brûlée, using the chocolate recipe I invented last time and adding chambord when I put in the extract.
29) Upgrade pots and pans! (And get rid of hand me down college pieces that are so bent they don't sit flat!) Bought new scanpan set at Sur la Table yesterday (1/4/14)... LOVE THEM. They cook so even and nothing sticks at all! Bonus, they are updating to a new model, so the whole line was clearance priced - and these NEVER go on sale! 37% off total with our registry completion discount! :D Now to donate the old ones...




August 24th: 6/29 completed, 3 with good progress!
September 8th: 7/29 completed, and one of them a big one! I can't believe how many books I read in a single month! And how many books I finished in only a day or two! And these aren't 200 page books either. *whew*
January 4th: 9/29 completed, lots of little ones left...
January 7th: 10/29 completed, tackled a little one! And fully crossed off the Crème Brûlée variations requirement. ;)
January 20th: 11/29 completed.
February 22nd: 12/29 completed, nearly done with another big one!
March 2nd: 13/29 completed, half done with a big one!
April 23rd: 14/29 completed.
May 26th: 16/29 completed. Made it over half way this year!! And got most of the big ones done. I'm happy with this. :) Now onto the new year!



... July 29, 2014. Completed number 17. I know, past the deadline. But it wasn't on the new list and I wanted to document it. :)