8 Years Down!

Only a short 9 months since my last update! Haha I think I'm really getting the hang of this consistent blogging thing. But I finished a good chunk of activities and I also worked hard at getting caught up on some of my reading. Due to the number of items I'm blogging about, I'm going to probably say very little about the books, but feel free to ask me about any of them that you want to know more about.

#83 read Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall & Denver Moore

"Looking back now, I mourn the mutual wounds inflicted in verbal battles with the 'unsaved.' In fact, I have chosen to delete that particular term from my vocabulary as I have learned that even with my $500 European-designer bifocals, I cannot see into a person's heart to know his spiritual condition. All I can do is tell the jagged tale of my own spiritual journey and declare that my life has been the better for having followed Christ."

"...you can't judge people by what they do or what they have. You got to judge them by what they been through. And you ain't gonna know what they been through lessin you cares enough to ask. But, if the truth was to really come out, God don't need no more judges; He's got courthouses full of em. What God does need is servants. I pray you will become one."

#289 do 10 activities that are new or intimidating (1 done)...pie eating contest
Since there wasn't any female representation in the pie eating contest at church, I of course decided I should participate. My chief competitors were the Harris brothers who are more than 15 years younger than me (everyone else was even younger than that) and are over 6 feet tall. I obviously had no chance.

I convinced one of my high school girls, Abi, to do it with me. She was such a good sport since it was way outside of her comfort zone. There were dozens of people crowded around watching us and taking videos so it was kind of intense.

Haha but I love that Ben made a sign to cheer for me instead of his two brothers that were competing against me. What can I say, I'm such a fan favorite! Also, for future reference: I may not be a speed eater, but I could definitely perform well in an endurance challenge.

#24 read Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

#140 go to 10 Pacers games (8 done)

Chris did his fellowship at our office for 9 months so I tried to help him experience some Indiana things while he was here. He's a Wizards fan so we went to watch them play the Pacers. It was an exciting game where we blew a big lead but managed to hold on for the win.

#244 buy a new TV

I finally broke down and did it! I got my console TV for free when I first moved into my apartment in 2004 and then brought it along to the house too. I was a little sad to get rid of it though since it was still working. No, I did not actually keep it to use as a TV stand for the new one even though it was very tempting. A big thanks to my friend Curtis who actually did the research for me and found a good deal for me on my new one!

#289 do 10 activities that are new or intimidating (2 done)...lip sync battle

There is an actual video of this floating around somewhere but I will just let you use your imagination instead. I went to a Christmas party (once again I was about 15 years older than everyone but the parents...I'm beginning to see a pattern here that may be related to the fact that I am much closer to the end of this list than to the start of it) where we played a bunch of games. My "reward" for winning the Christmas logic puzzle game was that my partner and I had to compete against each other in a lip sync battle. I tried to hold my own, but she was definitely much more accustomed to doing dramatic performances. Anything to make people laugh though!

#291 play the piano every week for a year
So my goal was to play half an hour every week and make up any weeks that I missed. I did pretty well overall but had to apologize to my roomie that she would hear me play a lot the last week since I had something like 7-8 hours left. At least I had lots of Christmas songs I could play through at the end of the year.

#107 read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

"We are afraid of losing what we have, whether it's our life or our possessions and property. But this fear evaporates when we understand that our life stories and the history of the world were written by the same hand."

#140 go to 10 Pacers games (9 done)

A fun Christmas gift for my friends and a very memorable first Pacers game for the Tindalls. At one point during the game a large man barrel rolled all the way from the top of the section down to the bottom of it. He apparently fell and once the first few rows didn't stop him he just got so much momentum going that he couldn't stop. He went by through our row just a few seats over so it was really freaky. It happened so fast you hardly had time to realize what was happening or to try and stop him. So crazy.

I've determined if that ever happens to me I'm going to just go all spread eagle- getting an arm caught and breaking it would be way less traumatic than falling that far. Luckily, after a couple of minutes he got up and walked away with his friends so hopefully there were just a bunch of bruises for him the next day.

#279 touch a real snake

This is Penelope. She lives in a tank at Climb Time. I actually didn't even know she was real for a long time and it was about a year before I even learned her name. After yelling at me for not knowing her name, Jake (one of the awesome employees there) got her out for me to hold. On a random but fun side note, Jake recently learned his lesson about trying to fight my sister. I warned him that she had a vicious scissors hold if she got him down to the ground, but he had to learn the hard way. And then she accidentally backhanded him in the face later. Haha have I mentioned how much entertainment there is at the climbing gym??

#78 read A Severe Mercy by Sheldon Vanauken

"The best argument for Christianity is Christians: their joy, their certainty, their completeness. But the strongest argument against Christianity is also Christians- when they are sombre and joyless, when they are self-righteous and smug in complacent consecration, when they are narrow and repressive, then Christianity dies a thousand deaths. But, though it is just to condemn some Christians for these things, perhaps, after all, it is not just, though very easy, to condemn Christianity itself for them."

#282 get certified in something
I got CPR certified. Please don't make me use my knowledge.

#31 read Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs

#44 read Just As I Am by Billy Graham

All I can say is it's ridiculously impressive how much he accomplished at such a young age and how he was able to touch millions of lives all around the world. And yet, when you do so much you realize there's so much more that needs to be done. A good reminder from Billy as he spoke about trying to visit places where they had provided assistance after disasters:

"We know we cannot do everything that needs to be done, but in a world that is never free of turmoil, Christ calls us to do what we can."

#247 don't speak for 24 hours
I guess it's kind of fitting that I don't have any picture for this one. Life had been crazy busy and I decided that I just wanted a mini vacation where I didn't have to be around people, could have a little silent retreat, and could get caught up on some of my reading. My awesome friend Sheri let me stay at her house while she was out of town and it was just what I needed to recharge. I had a whole day of quiet, journaling, and connecting with God.

#23 read Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

#241 get a pedicure
This was well overdue since a) I've never had one before and b) climbing is hard on the feet. Our climbing buddy David told us his sister had just opened a salon in Carmel (Be.You.tiful Nails) so we went to support her new business. It was really nice in there and I had a great time hanging out with my sweet climbing girls. They were also kind enough to pick out a color for me since I could not handle the overwhelming number of options. My nails looked great for about 3 weeks and then the climbing shoes took a toll on them.

Me with Cameron, Carolyn, and Christina. Carolyn was such a sweetie to give me my pedicure as a late birthday present!

#289 do 10 activities that are new or intimidating (3 done)...lead climbing
Holly and I decided to learn how to lead climb with Aaron & Carolyn so that we can climb outside at some point. I only really said yes because I like hanging out with them and it would count toward an item on my list. I don't particularly like to learn new things or do things that I'm not good at (hence why I added #289 to the list). I get weirdly nervous and become a chatty student who makes a lot of jokes. Luckily Topher was super chill and made class a lot of fun. Unfortunately for him we suffered schedule issues, job stuff, and my badly sprained ankle. So our 4 or 5 sessions ended up stretching out for 4 months before we finally all officially graduated. I also tried to jack up my good ankle during one lesson. But at least in the end we learned a new skill, made a new friend, and I evened out the ankles so my bad ankle didn't seem as terrible when you compare it to my "good" ankle.

Still smiling four months later!

#27 read Huck Finn by Mark Twain

For those of you keeping score at home, the tally is now 94/120 books and 233/300 total items. So I have to double up on books some months still but I'm not too far off the pace. If I didn't mention it before (who can remember these things when it's been 9 months since the last blog??), I'm also taking suggestions for #298 which was added to the list- create a 40 things to do in my 40s list. This of course is assuming that I survive my 300 list. Thanks for reading and if you've stuck with it through such a long update, you definitely get a good star today!!

I Should Have Learned Some Russian

Well I have reached a new low as it has now been 9 months since my last blog update. While I was going to wait a little longer this time, I was thinking more like July or August. Oh well...lots of grace for myself and just continuing to move forward. Not my most thorough update ever, but I did get some big things crossed off at least.

#140 go to 10 Pacers games (7 done)

The Pacers were a whole lot of fun to watch this year. After they were roundly criticized for who they got in the Paul George trade, it was so cool to watch this team come together and play with such a selfless attitude. Plus it was pretty awesome to see what a great season Victor Oladipo had and how he embraced the city. Looking forward to this next season starting up soon!

#131 let someone plan a trip for me
Ashleyne and I headed back down to Orlando to go visit Kristen and it was great not having to think about any of the details for this trip.

#173 go canoeing or kayaking

Kristen's apartment is right on a lake and it was so relaxing to paddle out and sit there in the stillness with just the breeze blowing across the water.

#252 go barefoot for a whole day
I had a nice chill day that only required walking down to the lake and out to the parking lot to pick up pizza. Now that is a pretty good combination in my book!

#124 go to Disney World

I hadn't been to Disney World since high school. It started out as a crappy rainy day, but it was a nice day of walking around Epcot (which Kristen's friend got us in for free!) and eating lots of delicious food.

#287 don't watch TV 1 day a week for 50 weeks
This was just a good thing for me to be intentional in at least once a week unplugging from needless background noise.

#13 read Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

I love the story of Les Miserables, but the unabridged version is LONG (a theme with a lot of these classics, which is why I still have so many of them to plow through) so it took me awhile to get through it. I also got to go see the show in March with my friend Hannah. It was so well done- every song was amazing, the set was great, and the company was fun. I never get tired of seeing it and it has such beautiful themes running through it of grace, mercy, redemption, and selfless love. "To love another person is to see the face of God."

#126 go overseas
It is hard to sum up 10 days and how much impact it can have on your life. Although they only scratch the surface, here's a link to my letter that I wrote after I got back and some pictures from the trip.

 Our team at the airport

 Right after we arrived in Kyiv (Kiev)

 My buddy Sophie- we sent daily recaps via Marco Polo back to the US

 Ali & Svetlana who are both in the US but from Ukraine

Hanging out waiting for the metro

YWAM base where we stayed

 A fun outing to the water park for the kids on their last day

 Tearful goodbyes

 One of my favorite pictures from the trip with Dima & the girls

Here's a great video that Kohen made of our trip. It makes me cry every time!

#288 find the right hat (in process)

 

We hung out a mall one afternoon and my friend Jordan tried to help me find the right hat. I would say that the search continues.

#203 attend an opera
The Kyiv opera house was beautiful and I enjoyed Eugene Onegin, although we only stayed for part of it since it was 3+ hours and it had been a very long week. They had a little bit of ballet in it too, which I loved watching.

 

 

As a little extra enjoyment for my dedicated readers, here's a picture of me working on my Ukranian model pose. Definitely a future career possibility. Actually this is just what happens when I'm asked to stand and pose for more than a few seconds. I get uncomfortable and can't hold still when someone's looking at me. Truly lovely neck positioning. : )

#272 participate in a competition

Yay for climbing buddies!! Climb Time had a climbing competition that was a little intimidating, but a lot of fun. It was a great night hanging out with all of the other members. Aaron & Carolyn are two of my favorites and I actually just got to see them get married a week ago. Just because we look so much prettier than we normally do when we're climbing, here's a wedding picture with our other climbing buddies Sheena & Ryan.

#142 go to 10 Indians games (8 done)
A beautiful night for a church outing and hanging out with some of the youth!

 

#202 do something artistic
We all know that I am not artistic in the least. So I went into this outing at Painting with a Twist with my friend Julie with very low expectations. I was looking forward to hanging out with her and not caring how my painting would actually turn out.

Oh, the best laid plans. I had a nervous pit in my stomach the entire time and was totally stressed out. And that was with not caring how it turned out! There is something seriously wrong with me.

 

I think if I had been facing forward throughout the process I would have gotten my dimensions more accurate to how they were supposed to be and not having to try and fix things as I went. Also, turns out that I managed to select one of the hardest paintings that they have. Of course.

Our finished products

(Side note: my roommate says mine looks like a mushroom cloud, which is now all I can see.)

#33 read John Adams by David McCullough

For some reason, this one took me a long time to get through. It was really interesting though since I didn't know much about John Adams' life. I think a lot of people tend to romanticize the Founding Fathers and everything that took place back then, but government & politics were definitely really messy from the very beginning.

#132 visit Brown County

This is my friend Gail. We sort of have a random friendship- she and her husband Chris used to go to church with me and she worked at the Curves where I worked out. And I went to a party at her house once celebrating her ridiculous hiking abilities. (FYI she has currently hiked about 1,200 miles of the 2,189ish miles of the Appalachian Trail. Yikes.) We've maybe seen each other once in the last five years, but it was so much fun spending the afternoon with her down in Brown County. It was a beautiful day to ride around in her purple Jeep (have I mentioned how cool she is??) and see some of the places she goes hiking down there. Such a great way to spend a day off.

So the countdown is now at 30 months until I turn 40!! Time to get serious about working on this list and getting things knocked off of it. Thanks to everyone who's been helping me get things completed or offered to help in the future!