L.I.F.E.- List Idea Friday Everyone!

Every Friday I will feature a new idea from the book Dream it. List it. Do it! that you can add to your life’s to do list.

Today's idea:

Learn CPR.

I have had to learn CPR twice: once when I was taking a Sports Medicine class in high school and again in college when I took a CPR and First Aid class because I needed an easy elective. I had a card proving I was certified and everything, but it expires after 1 year, so I’m not certified anymore. But I think if you were dying in front of me I would know what to do.

Is this something you would add to your list? Do you already know CPR? It’s a good skill to have!

Dream It. List It. Do It!

Back in December, I got an email from someone with Workman, a publisher of such books as What to Expect When You’re Expecting and various 365 “page-a-day” calendars. She asked me if I would be interested in reviewing some books on my blog, in particular this one since it has to do with life lists. I said sure and also requested 1000 Places to See Before You Die because you guys know how much I love to travel.

Dream It. List It. Do It! Is a great little book full of ideas and helpful tips to making and actually completing your life lists (like my 30 Before 30). It starts out with “10 Rules for Creating and Conquering Your Life Lists” with helpful tips like “define a finish line” and “document your progress”.

The following chapters focus on different themes for “Life List” items:

-Understand Myself
-Learn New Things
-Be More Adventurous
-Make a Difference
-Fix My Finances
-Live in the Moment
-Reconnect
-Cook More
-Be Independent
-Stay Focused
-Make Music
-Be a Better Person
-Be Healthy
-Get a Pet
-Be Happy
…and more! (43 different categories in all!)

There are literally hundreds of ideas in this book. Each theme has pages and pages of items to add to your list that fit with that theme. When I made my "30 Before 30 List" it was kind of spontenous. But I have really loved having my list and I’ll probably continue this tradition and make a 40 Before 40 list. This book is really going to come in handy and give me lots of great ideas for that list.

I know my blog has inspired others to make their own lists (because really, life lists are just so great ya'll!) So I am going to feature a new “List Idea” from the book every Friday. I’ll tell you if I have done that particular item or if it is a contender for my “40 Before 40” list. You can comment and let me know what you think each idea, whether or not you have done it, have no intrest in it, or if you are going to add it to your list. Sound fun? I think so.

(I thought about calling this feature "List Idea Friday Everyone" and shortening it to L.I.F.E. Is that completely cheesy? Probably.)

If you want to get a copy of Dream It. List It. Do It! for yourself to jump start your own Life List, you can find it here.

I also found this nifty little quiz you can take in relation to the book (because who doesn't love online quizzes?!)

I took the 43 Things Personality Quiz and found out I'm a

Self-Knowing Healthy Builder

Also be on the lookout for my review of 1000 Places to See Before You Die on my Bookshelf Blog soon.

SNOW!

I kept saying “If it’s going to be this cold, I at least want some snow!” Well today I got my wish! We have snow and I love it. That is, I love it as long as I don’t have to drive in it. Luckily there is this little thing called “working from home”. It's still snowing and I feel like a little kid. It's so pretty!

It has been a long time since I have seen actual snow accumulation around here. Mostly we just get ice. In fact a few years ago, there was a really nasty ice storm that clogged all of the roads around Raleigh . Luckily it happened just a few weeks before I moved here from Greenville . But I heard horror stories of how it took some people 5 hours to make it home when it normally takes 10 minutes and some people had to stay in hotels because they couldn’t make it home. Cars were sliding around all over the place! I’ll welcome this pretty snow over that nightmarish ice any day.

This is also the first time Cam has seen real snow. He has seen flurries before but nothing like this! He loves it:



Cam eating snow and lovin it!



Cam trying to catch snowflakes



After a romp around the yard

All this snow is getting me excited for my upcoming ski trip in February. (I should really say snowboard/ice skating trip since that is what I plan on doing instead of skiing this year.)

We are headed up to Beech Mountain over Valentine’s Day weekend. It is mostly couples- which scares the crap out of me. Lately I have not really enjoyed being the only single person in a sea of couples. Plus, it is going to be Valentine’s Day which is tough for single people even when you aren’t witness to all the couple’s mushiness on that day.

But they are all my friends and I love being around them- couples or not. We always seem to have a blast on these group trips. We play board/card games like Truth or Dare Jenga or Phase 10. We enjoy meals together and laugh until our stomachs hurt. We fight over who gets to sleep where (I better get a bed!). We act silly and take lots of pictures and sometimes even video! There are always lots of great stories to tell.

This weekend I had to buy new ski pants. The ones I had from my last ski trip were child’s size and were just way too uncomfortable. But it is impossible to find the right length for me in adult sizes! The ones I ended up getting are super cute, but have some drawbacks. They are white (probably a mistake considering how much falling I will probably be doing) and way too long (but I am hoping they will just bunch up around the boots and not drag too much).

I also get to mark something off my list on this trip! I am really nervous about this particular task since I hear snowboarding can be particularly painful the first time. But I am hoping I will pick it up quickly and not come back with too many bumps and bruises!

Oh and can I just say all the inauguration hype on TV is making this day super exciting too. It is a historic moment and I am inspired to see such hope and excitement in our Country!

Q and A

Thank you to all of you who delurked! I like seeing who is reading my blog and love comments on all my posts, so don't be afraid to comment from here on out!

The only question I got was: I would love to know what God has spoken to your heart about tithing since that post. Also would love to know what you thought of "The Shack".

Well, I still don't know where I stand on the tithing issue. I believe in giving, but I am still not sure about tithing. I think one of the things that bothers me is it is covered a lot in the Old Testament, but not so much in the New Testament and the OT is tricky to me. Some of the laws are still followed and some aren't. Who's to say what's what? Even though I haven't figured out my stance on it yet, I have given 10% every Sunday. I basically pray for guidance on how much to give each Sunday morning (after checking my account balance in the bank to make sure I can cover it, because I think God still wants me to be financially responsible!)

Ironically our church gave out copies of Randy Alcorn's The Treasure Principle: Discovering the Secret of Joyful Giving this month and our Bible study group is going to start going through that tonight. I don't think this was just coincidence. So maybe I will have more to share on the topic later.

I finished The Shack last week and I thought it was a great story. I think God's love was really reflected in the story and could give comfort to those who have been through bad things in life. You can see my full review of it here on my Bookshelf Blog.

The Shack

I hope to have some exciting things to post this week including my reviews for some books I got through a publisher who found my blog and emailed me to see if I would review some books on my site! Doesn't that make me somewhat more official as a blogger or something?

I also hope to post the next focus for my Defining Character series. It's going to be about letting go of anxiety, acceptance and living in the now.

National Delurking Week

This is a little late, but this is National Delurking Week. What is delurking you may ask? Well, if you have been lurking around here reading my blog but not commenting, it is time to come out of the shadows. Come out and say hi. Really, it would make my day!

So if you read this post, please leave me a comment to say hi. In fact, leave me a question you might have for me. I need something to get my mind out of this funk. I promise I will answer all your questions open and honestly in a future post. It's your turn to interview me, so sieze the opportunity.

And don't worry, I'm a lurker too. I've had to delurk on quite a few blogs I read this week!

If a tree falls in the forest…

“If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it really make a sound?”

I have this fear of dying alone in my house and not being found for like months. And when someone finally did find my body it would be so decomposed that they would have to use my dental records to identify that it was me and not some girl who happened to end up dead in my house. Then I start to wonder if I did die, would Bailey and Cam get so hungry that they would try to eat my decomposing body? Doing that would probably contaminate and kill them too, even if they didn’t choose to starve to death. So by the time someone broke down the door to my house, they wouldn’t even want to come in to find me because the stench from our 3 decomposing bodies would be so bad.

This really isn’t outside the realm of possibility. Sometimes I can go days without seeing anyone. If I didn’t show up for work without calling in for 2 consecutive days in a row, they just consider that you “quitting without notice” and no one would try to investigate- trust me- we are not very personally connected at my work. In fact, I can go months without anyone actually coming to my house, so this really isn’t that far-fetched.

I once fell and broke my toe (it was major…cracked it completely in half…it was pointing in the wrong direction and everything) and if I wouldn’t have had a boyfriend at the time, I don’t know what I would’ve done. He drove over and took me to the ER at midnight and stayed with me and took care of me in the following weeks as I hobbled around. If something like that (or worse) happened to me while I was at home now, I don’t know what I would do.

Sure I have friends who say they would do anything for me, but half the time when I try to call just to chat, they don’t answer right away. So if I was dying on the kitchen floor, I doubt I would be able to get in touch with one of my top friends before I lost consciousness. And really sometimes I doubt some of my friends would be willing to get out of bed at 2 am on a work night to come help me.

Yet another reason I need to get a maid so that at least she could find my body. Or maybe I need a roommate?

Sometimes I hate living alone.

(Sorry for the morbidity. This has been a horrible week, so my thoughts haven’t been all flowers and sunshine. I'll be back to my normal self soon.)

Chivalry is Dead…

…which is probably why I need to marry a mechanic.

This Friday I went to the movies after work to see Bride Wars with some friends. (it was oh so cute!) On the way there I noticed my car kind of shaking and making a noise. I turned down the radio to really listen and noticed the noise/shaking stopped when I slowed down or stopped. It’s a short drive from my house to the theater, so I didn’t have much time to evaluate the situation, but I found it odd because I had just made the much longer drive from work to home and didn’t notice a thing on that trip.

When I got to the theater, I looked at my tires since that is what I had deduced might be the offender. Sure enough my back tire looked way more flat than my front. I bent down to see if there was a nail or something in it and when I touched it, it was burning hot! I compared it to the temperature of my front tire which was not hot at all and came to the conclusion that something was really wrong. But I would deal with it after the movie.

So after the movie, Steph, Amber, and Alicia came over to my car to try to help. Amber had this nifty little contraption that you plug in to your car and it pumps air into your tire. The only problem is it sounds like a really, really loud generator. No way could you NOT notice us in the parking lot! For such a little thing, it sure made a lot of noise!






But despite this spectacle not one person stopped to offer help or even ask! People were walking past trying to avoid eye contact. One guy even got in to his car right beside us and left without saying a word. I know it is a Friday night and you might be late for your movie, but can’t you recognize a damsel in distress when you see one?!

I mean just to cross off #15 on my list, I sometimes walk around hoping to run in to a situation like this (not that I would be much help in THIS particular situation- cars are not my forte). But judging from this experience, most people have no desire at all to help a stranger.

Back to the story…the mini generator wasn’t able to make a difference at all to the tire after 15 minutes or so of pumping. So I called AAA, who informed me the average wait time was ONE HOUR! We called our friend Spazz, who used to work at a tire place, and he laughed and said he was on his way.

But before he could show up, the AAA man showed up much earlier than expected (flashing lights and all). If we weren’t a spectacle before, we were now.




He tried to pump air into the tire and we could just hear it gushing out. He got my spare out of the trunk (I am amazed one could fit in that tiny little thing!) and set about changing the tire. (After watching this, I know there is no way I could have done that myself!) When he took the old tire off he gasped. There was a HUGE hole along half of the backside of my tire!





I was surprised I made it to the theater alive! I was so thankful to have my friends with me during this whole ordeal, because I seriously probably would have broke down in tears and called my mom for help had I been by myself.

Needless to say I spent all of Saturday afternoon at the tire place replacing the dead tire. I thought they would be cheap since it’s such a little car, but the guy informed me the tires on there now were $215 each! I asked for a cheaper version and came out right at about $175, which is still way too much.

Ironically my car is not completely back to normal. My left turn signal light had went out earlier that week (the one right behind the tire that died). The tire place didn’t have the bulb for it, so my blinker is still out. But it makes me think God was trying to tell me something last week. Maybe if I would’ve gone in to get the blinker looked at my tire wouldn’t have exploded?

Who knows…I hate car stuff which is also why I need to marry a mechanic.