Life List: Rough Draft Volume 3

Please see Volume 1 and Volume 2.

1 Take an annual picture of each of the kids with some sort of prop or cool setting, starting this year.

(I need to think on this more.)

2 Go horseback riding

(This is one that I don't necessarily love. But I just think it's stupid I've never been on a horse. At the same time I'm never going to add Learn To Ski to my list because, skiing is for assholes. You know what I mean.)

3 Grow sunflowers

(I've tried, bugs always eat them. I will persevere.)

4 Host an annual party everyone wants to be at.

(Some of the items on my list are party ideas, I don't know which one will spark interest but I want one to be the one everyone thinks about and looks forward to each year.)

5 Knit Baby Sweaters for every baby my friend's have from here on out.

6 Find a babysitter we can have stay for the weekend

7 Plant a small garden with the kids.

8 Make our backyard into a bird refuge.

(I have a really weird love of birds. I've named some of the ones in our yard, like Robirda (the robin!) It's scary, I know.)

9 Get new wedding bands we both love.

10 Spend a day shopping with Maddie and buying her a lot of the clothes she thinks are "cool".

11 Sew some lovely things.

12 Take the kids to the candy store and give them $10 each to spend as they wish.

(Their heads will explode)

13 Take the kids to Storybook Gardens in London, Ontario.

14 Do karaoke as a family.

15 Ride the swan boats at Belle Isle

16 Find a perfect black dress.

17 Buy a house our grandchildren will visit us in.

18 Go to a U Pick Orchard

19 Visit the Sting Ray Lagoon at the Grand Rapids Zoo

20 Learn to use knives

(for Cooking!)

21 Make tamales with friends

22 Make new Christmas stockings for the whole family.

23 Plant a garden of succulents

24 Throw a memorable baby shower.

25 Have a sleepover party for Maddie's friends with Root beer Floats.

*I should really add visit Puerto Rico and swim with bioluminescent plankton to this list because that's what I'm doing next week. But alas, that was not on my life list. How lucky am I to get to tag along on this amazing adventure?

Comments

[ashley]

Jealous. Right here. Totally jealous.

[Amy Jo]

I have the same troubles with sunflowers. Damn bugs.

[Sheila]

We grew sunflowers accidentally once. My husband likes to use sunflower seeds in a bird feeder by the deck so birds will come and provide entertainment for our cats looking out the window. So many of the seeds were spilled on the ground around the feeder that we had a surprise crop of sunflowers show up late in the summer!

[Danielle]

That's a lovely list.

I would do the Storybook Gardens trip soon though. There's been a rumour floating around for years that the park will be closing.

[Cory]

I've been thinking about Maggie's life list, and others who have created theirs, and I am stumped re: my own list. It takes so much more imagination and "bigness" to come up with these ideas. So I commend you on your putting so much thought into yours. What shines is your clear love of your family. Have a great time in PR!

[Olly]

Love the list, except karaoke. There are just some lines I won't cross.

[Fraulein Furioso]

Nice list. When I read "for cooking" under #20, I laughed and said to myself, "and not for stabbing." Just the first thing I thought.

[ChrisBL]

We went to the new stingray "experience" at the St. Louis Zoo a few weeks ago. It was weird but cool and interesting, and our kids loved it. The stingrays are so beautiful and graceful; it's one of those things I think the kids will remember when they're grown up.

[Amanda]

The sting rays in GR are GREAT! And if you are getting over the west side of the state, I can personally recommend TREE-mendous fruit! My family went there all the time when I was growing up...apples, peaches, cherries, etc.
http://www.treemendus-fruit.com/

[Haley]

You'd better do #13 soon, as they keep talking about closing Storybook. If you come to my hometown, we need to get a drink together!

[Lenice]

Great list!
There are few on there that are on my list too. As a matter of fact Skyler & I just planted a succulent garden a few months ago. There is the new place not too far from us called Kroaky's Karaoke that has 14 private karaoke rooms, and serves food, beer, & wine... the only way I'll be doing karaoke!

[maggs]

Storybook Gardens! My husband was just talking about the class trip he took there in the 1970s (he's even older than Logan). Hope it's still as good as it was then and your kids still remember it 35+ years later.

[kathleen Stewart]

I saw # 13 and immediately thought, 'OH NO' don't waste your time. Then I googled and realized that what I was remembering is Storyland http://www.storyland.ca/ which is really not at all worth the trip unless you're driving by on the way to the cottage ....
great list!
Kath

[amy]

You get to go too?!?! Awesome!

I swam last summer in the ocean off the Sunshine Coast where there was bioluminescent plankton. Just MAGICAL!

Lucky, lucky you.

I need to make a list...

[Beth]

Is it weird that I'm delurking after a million years to comment on this one? #2 - I'm so with you on this...I forced myself to go horseback riding on my honeymoon b/c I never had and my (critically ill at the time) dad told me it would be great. It totally sucked, but at least I got to cross it off my list and I hope you enjoy it more than I did! On the other hand - I'm totally with you when it comes to skiing. Not a chance...I imagine it's asshole city as well. Now, the ski lodge I could handle, just for the bar factor...

[p/f]

After living in Michigan for 9 years, I cannot imagine the psychological toll winter would have on me without skiing.

If we could move to Austin, I'd learn to live without it.

[Shannon]

I was just thinking that at a certain point, presumably one's friends pretty much stop having babies! Unless you have a lot of young friends.... If you put off this goal for a few more years, maybe everyone will be done having babies and you can skip this one! But then maybe you have to save it until you're elderly and you can do it for your friends' GRANDchildren?

[MelissaS]

We have tons of youngster friends. Logan is a 41 year old in a 24 year olds body.

[Nancy]

Skiing is for assholes? Seriously, I just don't get this.

[Emmy]

I'm about to have a very open schedule, and although I do require a flight at the moment, I'd love to sometime be able to work out a way to be your answer for #6! It's about time to make my own Austin Powers strobe light dance video with Maddie and Max...

[MelissaS]

Nancy, I'm just kidding skiing isn't for assholes.

I'm being sarcastic because the thought of hurling myself off a mountain is totally unfathomable.

Don't take anything I say seriously.

Except when I tell you Opposums are assholes. That's totally true.

[Nancy]

Thanks for the clarification. And the way you describe skiing only makes me miss it more!

Opposums are indeed assholes. Raccoons, even more so.

[kate]

You get to go to PR with Maggie?? Did you win some sort of friendship lottery, or what?

That is sure to be an amazing experience and fun as hell. Hope you have an absolute blast!

[melissa]

storybook gardens. i have some of the most amazing memories from when i was little and my parents took my sister and me there! i took my kids there, quite a few years ago. they loved it too!

i don't know if you'd be interested but, there is a blogger meet up at loving touch pool hall in ferndale at 7:30, this wednesday july 8.

[julie]

Her in the PNW the way to make your yard a bird refuge/sanctuary is to go for natural vegetation. Plant succulents as ground cover, go natural with shrubs, etc. and never have to cut grass again. I think never having to cut grass again might be on my life list if I had one.

[CinAA]

Are you really sure about #9? I can't say I *love* our wedding bands. They are plain, and small, and the cheapest 14 K gold you could get in the mall in Denver, CO, two decades ago. But they are what we got married in, and it's held up so far. I guess I'm just superstitious.

[MelissaS]

We aren't replacing our rings because of their value.

I would love to do a blogger meet up but I'll be in Puerto Rico then.

[CinAA]

Ah, some bad karma attached, perhaps.

[MelissaS]

Nope, our fingers are too fat. Glad I get to write that!

[John Campbell]

Storybook Park! What great memories of going to that park when I was a kid. I was born in London and lived there until I was 4. Every year we went back to visit relatives we had to go see Slippery the Seal! Recently went back to London and walked through Springbank Park.. great memories!

[StephAA]

Please make sure it's OK to swim in the bioluminescent bay. We were in PR in Feb and the tour operators are not supposed to let you swim- all the bug spray, suntan lotion, make-up, hair products, etc. add up and poisons the very precarious balance of the ecosystem needed to support the organisms. Believe me, the trip is mid-blowing cool enough without jumping in...

[Sarah @ BecomingSarah.com]

When you find the perfect black dress, will you let me know? It's my ongoing quest.

[AC Siapno]

I have to confess something to you... I totally read your blog, and then thought the ad at the bottom was part of your blog and sat here for about 5 mintues trying to figure out if that was a separate posting or how it related to the blog I thought I was reading! Help!

[MelissaS]

I'm not sure what you are referring to. My trip to Puerto Rico is not sponsored by Intel. I am tagging along on my friend's sponsored trip.

[Blythe]

I got a new wedding ring on our 10th anniversary and I love it. Sometimes I wear the old one on my right hand, but the new one still commemorates the marriage. In fact, I like to think it marks the time we've been together as much as it does our wedding.

(Maybe AC is talking about the video ad at the bottom of the post? I dunno. Anyway, have a fantastic time, I can't wait to read about it!)

[Eva]

Plant new sunflower seeds now. The key to more successful young sunflower plants is to plant the seeds when the weather is warm. You might be able to get a decent crop in yet. Planting another round this late I would avoid the mammoth variety and stick with the seeds that will produce medium size flowers.
I'm a bird freak as well. If you don't already have a water feature add that to your garden. Basic bird bath, gurgling fountain--the birds hear it, see it, they visit. Although I have lots of plants that supposedly attract birds I "cheat" and keep three bird feeders full all year.

[Jennifer G.]

I have a suggestion for your #4. Every year, I have an Ornament Exchange with my girlfriends, the first Friday in December. It started off as a way to force me to decorate for the holidays early (I'm kind of a Scrooge) and try to get in the spirit. What began with a dozen women has now grown to over 50, so I had to move it out of my house, and we hold it in the bar of the local American Legion hall (everyone brings a dish). Some of the women who come every year are friends of friends, and this is the only way that I know them, and the only time I ever see them, but now even they are bringing friends!

Right after Halloween, the girls start shopping for the coolest ornaments they can find. The night of the party, we draw numbers and choose in order, either from the gift-wrapped pile or from the ones that have already been opened. The fun really begins when people start stealing from each other--each ornament can only change hands three times and then it's removed from circulation. Lots of plotting and manipulating--you know, good, clean Christmas fun!

[Heather]

London is great. My husband and I went there a million years ago. And I don't know if it's still there, but if it is, you should take the kids to the restaurant in London that is roofless (it's kind of a walled in area between two buildings). It's a cool location, and they have a pasta bar where you pick what you want. The food is awesome, and it seems like a place that kids their age would love as a "fancy" fun excursion.
Does anyone know what I'm talking about?

[Digibutter]

I am loving your Life List's! I should put together something like that...but the lack of money tends to cloud my view. Maybe someday! Enjoy checking things off the list though!

[Diane]

Delurking to say if you ever come to Ontario in the winter, I will happily teach you to ski (I am an instructor). Totally not scary once you learn how!

[Phil]

I do a photo every year of just my hands with the kids' hands. A close up. I call it Father's Day Hands, because I usually do it on Father's Day (easier to remember). Of course they'll look cook in an album, all together, but for now I have them on my hard drive. It's still cool.