Alright, finally lots of stuff to report...

 

 

Goal 1 - Adopt 2nd child.  We're done with our homestudy and now we're raising money to proceed with the agency.  We're hoping to be done with this by the end of the year.

 

Goal 2. Pay off 1st adoption debt  Slowly but surely.  The plan is to have this gone with our next year's tax return.

 

Goal 15. Watch AFI's top 100 movies  Watched the following - The Deer Hunter (weird), Rocky (fell asleep half a dozen times but wanted to see the ending so I also rewound it half a dozen times),  American Grafitti (great music), City Lights (Did not know that I liked Charlie Chaplin), Dances with Wolves (different from when I remember seeing it as a kid), Gold Rush (sort of kinda fell asleep), and now working on Ben Hur - holy cow that movie is 5 hours long!  It may take me a week to get through that one!

 

Goal 17. Read 100 best novels  I've been doubling up, no, tripling up on these.  One in book form, one on the iPod, and one in the car.  Here's how I've done so far...  _Light in August_ (William Faukner) was okay.  I have to go back and read a summary b/c I think I missed some major plot point.  But it was interesting anyway.  _Beloved_ (Toni Morrison) was good but strange.  Not what I expected.  _The Fellowship of the Ring_ (Tolkein) - I'm 90% done with but I had to return it for the library.  I got a silly grin when I went to check it out - I love this series so much!  I can't wait to move on to the next one.  _The Hunchback of Notre Dame_ (Victor Hugo) I am listening to as I type.  I like the book, but whoever thought this would make a good kids movie I think was stretching it a bit (or a lot).  I haven't seen it but I think it's on Andrei's Netflix, so I'll have to see how in the world they made that work!  _The Handmaid's Tale_  (Margaret Atwood) was amazing.  I really loved it, but I also loved _1984_ and it reminded me of that.  I raced through that one in a week and a half.  Currently just started  _Persuasion_ (Jane Austin) and _Love in the Time of Cholera_ (Gabriel Garcia Marquez).  So that makes 10 finished, 2 almost finished, and 2 just starting. 

 

Goal 23. Take a picture every day for a year and post on Flickr   Well I know I said I was doing this in 2009, but I got very sick for a week and let it slip.  So we'll have to complete this goal in 2010

 

Goal 26. Make $1000 doing graphic design work  I made $50.  And I have more work on the way :)

 

Goal 37. Read Chronicles of Narnia to/with Andrei  We finished _Prince Caspian_ and we're about to start _The Voyage of the Dawn Treader_.  We're reading one per school term so we should be done in fall of 2010.

 

Goal 42. Take bellydancing class  - DONE! My workplace was offereing free classes at the gym this past week and one was a bellydance class.  I really enjoyed it, and when talking to the instructor, I found a regular evening class that works with my schedule.  So I will be attending that when I have the time :)

 

Goal 49. Go without soda for one month The attempt at doing this during Lent failed as my birthday fell right in the middle and Andrei bought me a soda for a present.  How could I turn down a generous gift like that!  He sure knows me!  But, a few weeks later, I was enjoying a Diet Coke and got a severe headache and was sick for 2 days.  So I've sworn off it totally.  I don't know exactly the last date I've had soda, but it surely has been a month, or at least I will have completed this by the end of May.

Oh yeah, and DH bought me a coffee on my birthday and I haven't completed the month-less-ness on that yet either. 

 

Goal 70. Eat 5 types of fruit that I have never had before The third was kumquats.  But we didn't really like them and I had bought a whole pint.  I couldn't let them go to waste, so I blended them up with a banana and some yogurt and Andrei and I enjoyed a nice smoothie. 

 

Goal 85. Make all of the 50 best cookie recipes on the internet   I stalled on this one for a while.  The next one on the list was checkerboard cookies and I didn't want to do the work so I just kept putting it off.  Finally I was home one Saturday all day so I tackled them. I started at noon and wasn't done baking until 6 PM.  Most of that was not active, but passive waiting for them to freeze, but still.  They were not good enough to justify the work.    Next was Lemon Crumb Bars which were so so good and they disappeared quickly in our house.  After that was Cranberry Decadent Cookies which were okay but Andrei loved them.  Next I have to make is Brown Eyed Susans.  They look easy but I have to get almond extract which I keep forgetting.  Maybe next week.  I've completed 8 from this list.

 

Goal 89. Have a garden with 8 types of plants  The garden boxes are made and we're waiting for the rain to stop to order the dirt.  I forsee a planting frenzy on Memorial Day :)

 

 

Ok that's it for now - I'll be back sooner than 2 months - I promise.