What’s on | my bucket list

I like to read other blogs and found Rachel over at Floral and Fudge sharing her Bucket List as part of a series: What's On from Momfessionals.   It got me thinking, I made a bucket list a few years back...

One night Adam, Matt Mortel and I were all sitting around playing Sorry and decided it was time to make our bucket lists.  I had Adam dig mine out.. I was pleasantly surprised to see that I can actually check a few of these off! 

A view from Under the Eiffel Tower - 2010 - my photo.

1.  Visit all major league baseball stadiums... I have made it to 12 out of 30 stadiums!  Baseball has always been a great passion for me and I would love getting deployed to new cities and be able to see a different stadium.  I tried to get to 1 new park each year when I was younger.  Having a little one has slowed that process but I think as he gets older we might be able to travel to a few more.  

Great American - Cinicinatti, OH

Sharidy Johnson and Ashley Garner at Marlins Park, Miami FL

Adam, George and I at Miller Park

Adam and I at Target Field 

My college roommate Sarah Cheeseman at Busch Stadium, St Louis MO

Sara Ragsdale and I at "old" Yankee Stadium

2.  Buy an RV.  John Nesse if you're reading this I do NOT mean one like Farrah Revcon!  I am thinking BIG and fancy.  One that you could live out of and travel across the country potentially accomplishing #1 on the list.

3.  Adopt a child.  I once watched a documentary on the orphanages in Russia and the poor conditions the children are raised in.  Since that I have had this passion to adopt a child.  In Russia boys live in much poorer conditions than girls, they don't have any sort of plumbing and children as young as 5 have to do manual labor to keep the orphanage up and running. It simply broke my heart and I knew that I would want to adopt some day.  Even after having my own sweet boy, I still carry this passion in my heart and hope to be able to do it some day.

4.  Decorate a room that is magazine worthy.  I have some pretty talented friends (Jen Bourget!) who have homes that could simply grace the cover of a magazine.  My house is currently in shambles, undecorated for any type of season/holiday and looks more like something you would see on a different kind of TV show or magazine.... maybe not that bad, but it just feels like it lately. 

5.  Learn to LOVE Christmas.  Growing up Christmas was always a hustle and bustle and my mother and I would usually end in some kind of fight.  I never had a passion for Christmas because of the stress that would go into it.  After my folks divorced, I had the task of making sure that Christmas was still wonderful for my brothers which meant that I had to shop for all of their gifts from dad and even make Christmas dinner - it just became more of a chore than a passion for the season so every year I dread it.  Now that I'm older, have George and celebrate with Adam's family I hope that we can re-light that spark of what the season is about.  

6.  See the Eiffel Tower... ACCOMPLISHED!

7.  Spin a Globe and go where it stops.  Anyone who knows me know that I am a complete control freak and type A.  This is me letting go of where I am traveling and simply just go.  There are places I absolutely LONG to travel to (Italy, Ireland, Germany, Norway) and others I have ZERO desire to travel to (Pretty much anywhere in the Middle East, India, Asia, etc...)  So wherever it stops is where we go!

8.  Own a house.  COMPLETE!  I bought my house in March of 2011 and have lived here since.  With Adam's help we have made many changes to this little box.  We have added a deck, patio, finished the garage, added new flooring (laminate/carpet), painted, put in a backsplash, currently remodeling a bathroom and SOON we will be adding a fireplace w/built in bookshelves.  I am blessed to have such a talented boyfriend and lucky to be able to save for the upgrades we want.

9.  Go see a movie in a park.  I see this in movies all the time and think it would be so fun to spread out a blanket and watch a movie in the park.  It would be very sweet for us to do as a family.

10.  Have plastic surgery (This is me being 100% honest and transparent with my blog).  I have been self-conscious of my nose my entire life. I hate profile pictures and when I'm captured in the wrong angle in photos with my nose.  We each have our own fixations about what we don't like about ourselves and mine is my nose.  As I get older I start to look at my face and am growing more okay with it... and if I could update this one, I would have plastic surgery to tighten up my mama belly.

11.  Run a half-marathon.  ACCOMPLISHED!  I signed up to run Grandma's 1/2 back in 2009 and wasn't selected in the lottery system.  I was COMPLETELY okay with it because I didn't think I could do it.  So when a friend challenged me to join her this year I committed.  I have never stuck to a workout program like I did for my 1/2 training.  It was one of the most physically challenging things I have done but am so grateful to have done it.  Thank you Jennifer!!

12. See Garth Brooks in concert.  I have been dreaming of the day I could see him live since I started listening to country music my senior year of high school.  Back then I couldn't afford going to a show so was never able to go.  I am thankful to a few guys (Mike Anselmo and Tony Stanek) who shared country music with me.  I have never looked back...   And I GET TO SEE GARTH BROOKS next weekend!!  We have tickets to the 10:30 show on Saturday Nov 8th and I am BEYOND excited. Pretty soon I can say this one is accomplished!!

I love to dream of all the things we will do and places we will go.  These are the ones I took the time to put down on paper. I know that this list will grow and likely swell as I continue to get older and dream more.  

...So.... What's on your Bucket List?