101 Things in 1001 Days

Okay, this is a little off my usual topics but I've seen this on a couple of blogs and I thought it'd be fun to do and I figure here is as good a place as any to keep a tag of them.

The idea is to set 101 goals of things you want to do and you have 1001 days (roughly 2.75 years) to do them in. They have to be specific, realistic and stretching which means I have to make some effort towards them and can easily show that I have achieved them. I shall be starting on Saturday and will review them once a month to see how I'm doing.

Start Date: 1st April 2006
End Date: December 27, 2008

So, my 101 things are (edited to organise them a bit):

Personal
1. Get married (a bit of a cheat but who knows how these things go LOL)
2. Get pregnant
3. Lose 50lbs
4. Move house
5. Write a letter to a friend once a month
6. Get my legs waxed
7. Visit a spa
8. Make a new friend
9. Find an old friend who I've lost touch with
10. Get a henna tatoo
11. Have my hair dyed professionally
12. Buy a dress
13. Spend a whole afternoon browsing in an LNS
14. Have my bra size professionally measured
15. Buy at least two items of luxury underwear
16. Build a personal website
17. Learn 50 new words
18. Have a facial
19. Get a birthday book and not forget anyone's birthday for a year
20. Tell someone I love them at least once a day

Entertainment and Leisure
21. Throw a party
22. Go on a picnic
23. Watch 20 B&W movies I've not seen before
24. Go for a walk at midnight
25. Ride a horse
26. Spend a weekend away from DF and Lia just enjoying myself with friends

Craft and Hobbies

27. Read 50 books
28. Go to the cinema at least once a month
29. Finish Michael Powell's Handmade Houses
30. Learn enough Greek to have basic conversations
31. Learn to knit
32. Stay on the Stash Wagon for a year
33. Learn karate
34. Learn to play the banjo
35. Try hardanger
36. Make six ornaments for the Christmas tree
37. Make a scrapbook of Lia's first year
38. Fill in Lia's baby book
39. Frame at least 10 finished cross stitches and hang them on the wall
40. Decrease my cross stitch projects by at least 20
41. Put all my family photos in albums
42. Do some family tree research
43. Make a needle book instead of admiring other peoples
44. Use my sewing machine to make an item of clothing
45. Take a course on framing
46. Go to a professional stitching course
47. Start playing the keyboard again
48. Organise and quantify my stitching stash
49. Learn to juggle
50. Build a wooden ship
51. Enrol on an OU course

Travel
52. Go to Italy
53. Visit 6 museums
54. Visit Cambridge
55. Spend a long weekend away somewhere we've never been just the three of us
56. Go to Wales
57. Visit Lands End
58. Go to London at least once a month for six months and visit somewhere new
59. Visit Ireland and the Giant's Causeway
60. Visit Scotland

Food

61. Eat 5 fruits or vegetables a day for a month
62. Cook a new recipe at least twice a month
63. Write my recipes down in a book
64. Try a new food at least twice a month
65. Find a local farm shop and buy stuff from it at least twice a month
66. Have a romantic meal for just the two of us once a month
67. Learn to make Creme Brulee
68. Roast a leg of lamb for DF

Health
69. Go for a half an hour walk at least three times a week
70. Have a foot spa twice a month
71. Go to the dentist
72. Not drink fizzy drinks for a month
73. Not eat chocolate for a month
74. Fix up my bike and ride it at least once a week for six months
75. Not eat take aways for one month
76. Go swimming at least once a week for six months
77. Go walking somewhere in the countryside at least once a month
78. Try meditation


Financial and Personal Info
79. Aim to pay at least £100 a month extra into the mortgage
80. Re-write my Will
81. Organise all our financial information and make sure at least two people have copies
82. Get Lia's christening gifts valued and insured
83. Get a safety deposit box
84. Organise all the bills and file them as soon as they arrive

De-Clutter
85. Clear out my wardrobe and donate old stuff to charity
86. Tidy the house once a week
87. Throw at least one item of junk out a week (or donate it to charity)

Miscellaneous
88. Paint bathroom door frames
89. Varnish the doors
90. Replace the dining room chairs
91. Fix the car radio so it holds the stations
92. Recycle more
93. Clean up the back garden
94. Paint the small area just inside the front door
95. Organise the home office into something less resembling a bomb site
96. Have a family portrait photo done once a year
97. Research one country a month and learn more about it
98. Chase the dust bunnies out from behind the sofa at least once a week
99. Clean out the kitchen cupboards and throw away anything not used in the last 12 months

100. Take pictures of all my 101
101. Start a new 101 list when this one is finished

I should of course add that I got this idea from Hazy's Blog although from following her link backwards it seems quite a few people are doing this.

For those of you thinking about it and wondering if they can come up with 101 things, it did take me three days to think about it so come on, join in (and feel free to nick some of mine if you like the sound of them)

How Much!!!!

You know I said in my last post that Lia seems to be bypassing crawling? Well Saturday she pushed herself up onto her feet and was quite happily stand on her own when holding on to something!

So Sunday we headed for the shops and her first pair of shoes. I would have waited a bit longer but we've got laminate flooring and she slips around quite a lot so I figure shoes will help her stand steadier. So she's measured and fitted and tested and the like and her first shoes are chosen. Pink unfortunately (I try and avoid pink whenever I can but they had a really limited choice) but cute nonetheless.

So, to the point of this blog entry, the price. £16.00!!!! Yes, SIXTEEN POUNDS!!!! And then I'm told she'll need to come back in six weeks for the next fitting. SIX WEEKS!!!! I don't pay £16 for my shoes if I can help it and I certainly expect them to last for more than 6 weeks.

I guess I've been lulled into a false sense of security as clothes are so darned cheap but I can't believe how much I'm expected to pay for a pair of shoes for a baby that she'll wear for six weeks and barely scuff.

It's wrong and I wish I knew who I had to complain to...

Still here

Yes I am still around and I do have stuff to post about but it's been a funny couple of weeks and everytime I sit down to post something else comes up that needs my attention.

I've also had another stinky cold and this one actually laid me up for a few days. I have this weird reaction to head colds that is like a bout of travel sickness when my head gets really bunged up. This means that as well as coping with the cold I get nausea and I can't read, watch TV, stitch, use the computer or do anything that really passes the time. When it's real bad I can't even sit up.

Anyway, it's been really bad on and off since Thursday but I'm definitely on the mend now. I didn't bother with the Doctors as I'm sure the excessive use of antibiotics is what's killed off my immune system in the first place so I'm soldiering on and hoping the immune system will slowly get back up to full strength.

Enough of that boring stuff, what's going on with Lia?

Well, last Wednesday I was feeding her and she decided that she didn't want me putting bits of food in her mouth, she wanted to do it herself. Since then, if the food doesn't come on a spoon, it has to go in her hand first. This is great fun but I did discover yesterday that it's not a good plan to leave her alone with a Jaffa Cake...

She's also had her first hair cut (yes I did keep a lock). She's had a funny hairstyle for a while now - basically the original hair on the top of her head never fell out but she rubbed bald patches on the sides and back. This meant that she looked like she had a comb over as the top stuff was about four times the length of the rest. I finally gave in and trimmed some of it as it was actually over her eyes (very wispy though) so now she looks a little startled but less shaggy.

Still no proper crawling. She's been displaying serious stroppy moments over the whole thing and I think she feels it's not worth the effort. She'll roll over onto her tummy and even push herself up onto all fours but then she just slides back down onto her tummy and shuffles around a bit. About 30 seconds later she'll start complaining about the whole thing very loudly until someone comes and sits her back up again...

Along with her reluctance to crawl is a determination to be on her feet. She doesn't pull herself up at all but if you help her stand she'll hang on to you and wobble around slightly, sometimes even making a few tentative steps. I don't know whether she'll skip crawling all together but she's definitely frustrated by her lack of independence.

Oh and that frustration is manifesting itself in a right little temper sometimes. I can't think where she gets that from (*grin*) but I'll be keeping a serious eye on it as I'm not putting up with any of that nonsense.

So that's Lia's last couple of weeks. No more teeth yet but some serious teething signs.

In other news, the Big, Fat Greek Celebration is still somewhat in Limbo. We've started the process of getting the official documents for the marriage but we're still trawling through red tape to get confirmation of when we can do it and where.

DF's mother is currently checking out caterers. Yes, that's right, the event is 10 weeks away and we don't have a caterer yet. 110 Guests, but nothing to feed them. We also have no entertainment lined up.

I'm not panicking, I'm not, I'm really, really not. There's very little I can do but I will sit down with DF this weekend and come up with a list and demand some answers. I keep getting vague comments like 'the Godmother is in charge of that, don't worry' or 'my mother's sorting it, don't worry' but I'm determined to finally pin him down with a list as, if nothing else, it might spur him into some action.

In other news, I've been stitching again (although not for the last few days with this cold) and should have some finishes quite soon. I've also found a local framer who'll do a discount if you frame six or more items. I want to finish two more and I'll have seven to frame which will be great as I'll finally get some of my stitching onto the walls!

Nine Months Old

I can't believe we've reached nine months - where does the time go?

Lia's now crawling but very tentatively, she keeps getting onto all fours and rocking backwards and forwards as if she's ready to explode out of the starting blocks but, as yet, no explosion, just a vague shuffle forward. She's also started waving, sometimes she amuses herself by waving both hands wildly but sometimes she waves one hand at you in greeting.

The big news of today is that tooth number two has just pushed it's way through so we're well on the way to a full set (LOL) She's still really good natured, despite the teething she's sleeping okay and rarely really grumpy (although the nappies leave an awful lot to be desired...)

She was on her hols last week as her Greek Grandparents were over so she had lots of trips out and tried lots of new foods. We had a fun week although world war 3 did break out for several hours one evening (that's a whole other post) but that aside her grandparents loved spending time with her.

One really nice thing that happened was one lunchtime when we'd headed to a pub on the seafront at Folkestone (in Feb!!!) The pub was full of elderly people having their fish and chip lunches, one group of which were at the table behind ours for about an hour and a half. As they got up to leave they stopped at our table and congratulated me on Lia saying that she was a lovely baby and so well behaved that I should be really proud!

Proud doesn't even come close, let me tell you. I was gobsmacked that they took the time to say something so nice and really pleased that they did it in front of my In-Laws as my MIL had been rumbling on about my parenting skills for three days.

I'm so lucky that Lia is good natured and I know that DF and I can't take all the credit but I'm so grateful that at the moment we can take her anywhere and know that she'll be good and happy to sit and play.

However, I am convinced though that we'll either have the worst terrible twos on record or her teenage years will be totally awful.