Where did the time go?!?

WOW. Where have the last 6 months gone?!?! I have trouble keeping the days straight, so I think I'm going to stop trying to figure out where the last few months went. It was a good that I decided to check my goals for this year... somethings have been updated, while a few of the goals clearly need to be changed since they are SOOOOO not happening before the big 33. Let's see where things stand: 1. Read 6 books: As of the last post I had read 3. As of now, I have exceeded my goal! I have actually fit in quite a bit of reading considering how crazy busy I have been. I have read: "The Wedding Girl" by Madeleine Wickham (a fun girly book); "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen (great book); "Measure of the Heart" by Mary Ellen Geist (touching book about the story of how music helped a man with Alzheimer's); "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell (very interesting read on what makes people successful). I have started 2 more books (unusual for me as I usually read one at a time): "Courting Her Highness" by Jean Plaidy and "World Withouth End" by Ken Follett. 2. Visit Sarah in NC: done as of last blog entry. 3. Paint my bedroom: done as of last blog entry. 4. Take a hot yoga class: I have a feeling this isn't going to happen this year. I did go and buy the towel for my yoga mat. I think we'll turn this goal into: Go to concerts I wouldn't normally go to. This I can say I have done. I went to the Sting concert in Boston earlier this fall. It was AMAZING! I love Sting! And next week I will be going to the Tori Amos concert in Boston as well. Sounds like an interesting tour so I'm excited to see her. 5. Go to the beach this summer. It was a glorious summer! I was fortunate enough to be able to go to the Cape several times this summer. There were many fabulous beach days to be had! Take a look:

6. Visit Becky in NYC and finally meet precious little Maelee! I finally had a weekend this summer to go to NYC and see Becky and meet Maelee! It was a quick trip, but it was so much fun! A trip to the playground, wonderful food, fabulous company and lots of playtime with Maelee! I can't wait to see them all again. Here are some pictures:

Becky and Me making our classic "kissy face" pose :)

7. Go Rock Climbing. This is also not happening. I actually did go to a Rock Climbing place as I had a meeting at one. I learned more about rock climbing and that confirmed my ideas that rock climbing wasn't for me and this goal wasn't going to be met. This one will get changed to: Go skiing (although I will need to take some lessons on the bunny hill first. Last time I went skiing I thought I didn't need to take a lesson and ended up walking down a very big mountain). 8. Take a Brewery Tour. Well, I haven't actually been to a brewery yet, BUT a certain someone is becoming quite the beer afficionado so I have been learning a lot about beer and have gotten to taste the different types of beer. I'm not a big fan of beer anyway, but it has been interesting to taste different kinds and see what I consider good and bad. I'm going to say this one is done as I have been getting a solid beer education these past few months ;) 9. Take Guitar Lessons. Well, I haven't had formal guitar lessons, but I did sit in on the adult beginning guitar class we had at the school over the summer, and I have been teaching myself through some method books (of course I have had a little bit of help from a certain someone).... I'm contemplating posting a video of me playing but I haven't had a chance to practice in a few months so I'll have to practice a bit and then see if I'm brave enough to post a video of me playing very poorly on the guitar :) Stay tuned! 10. Take a Weekend Get-Away this Summer: I went to Lawrence for reunion as mentioned in previous blog. I also had many wonderful weekend getaways to the Cape this summer as noted above. I'm almost done with everything - yay! Stay tuned - Just a couple more months and I will be at the end of this year's journey! Happy Holidays! :)

First update!

I figured it was time to report on my progress for this year's goals. Here goes:

1. Read 6 Books: 3 down, 3 to go. Unfortunately, all of my reading has been for the benefit of my school (and of course me), but my 4th book is a book for fun so hopefully I'll work a few more in like that. The books I've read so far are: "How to Connect with Donors and Double the Money You Raise" by Thomas Wolf; "The Four Spiritual Laws of Prosperity" by Edwene Gaines; "Brains on Fire: Igniting Powerful, Sustainable, Word of Mouth Movements" by Phillips, Cordell, Church and Jones.

2. Visit Sarah in NC: I took a long weekend in February during February vacaiton week and went to visit Sarah who moved to Charlotte in October. We had a fabulous time together! It was so nice and warm - what a nice escape from a cold and snowy winter! Here are some pictures:

3. Paint my Bedroom: Over Christmas I bought a new bedspread - it's various shades of purple. The problem was that my bedroom walls were blue. So I decided to paint my bedroom a more neutral color to match my bedspread over April vacation. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the before, but here is a picture of the after:

10. Take a Weekend Get-Away: This wasn't exactly what I had in mind, but it actually does count....I went to my 10 year reunion at Lawrence University this month. It was sooo amazing! I had such a great time! There weren't as many people from my class as I thought there would be, but I had a great time with the ones that did come and I made some new friends too. My flute professor retired this year, so we had a big celebration for her that weekend as well. I love Lawrence! Here are some pics from the weekend:

I'm pretty sure that is all I have done so far. More to come! :)

Goals for 33!

So after my successful completion of all 32 goals by my 32nd birthday last February I decided I would make a new set of goals... only this time, I would NOT do 33 for this year. :) I think 10 might be a more feasible number given how busy I am now. And since I have been so busy, it's taken me 4 months to put together the list and post it on this blog. Better late than never though, right? ;) So here is the big list for this year:

1. Read 6 Books
2. Visit Sarah in North Carolina
3. Paint my Bedroom
4. Take a Hot Yoga Class
5. Go to the Beach this Summer (more than 1 time hopefully!)
6. Visit Becky in NYC and finally meet precious little Maelee!
7. Go Rock Climbing
8. Take a Brewery Tour
9. Take Guitar Lessons
10. Take a Weekend Get-Away this Summer
11. Re-Do my Bathrooms: This is a stretch and I put this on there as a bonus goal that I'd really like to accomplish but I think the chances of it happening are very slim.

I have actually already done some of the things on my list and will enlighten you on those accomplishments in another blog post. :)

The End of the Challenge!

It's now February 14 - 14 days past the deadline for the end of the 32 by 32 challenge. But I had to wait to do this final update until the last item was complete, which it now is!

It's been a great year. It was a lot of fun doing this challenge - I highly recommend it to all of you out there. It forces you to do things you always say you will do but never get around to doing, or to do things that are outside your comfort zone, or that are totally not you, or to do things that you would otherwise never make time for. So go for it! Make a list - and then make a blog so you are held accountable to other people to complete the list :)

So I guess we'll start with the items that I had left to complete from the last blog.

2) Read all the books by the Bronte sisters - which got updated to read 4 others books since I gave up on the Bronte sister books. I read 3 of the 4 books and have started the 4th book. I finished "Eat Pray Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert, "The Prince" by Machiavelli, and "Utopia" by Thomas More. I am about a quarter of the way through Henry James' "Portrait of a Lady"... I just couldn't finish it in time. Almost...

12) Randomly tell people I care about them - Finished doing this.

26) Take Ella ice skating. Unfortunately, time just wasn't in my favor on this one, so I changed it to "Go to a Celtics game" since it is something I've never done before and I did this in December for my sister Erin's 30th birthday. Here is a picture from the game (Celtics won by the way):



5) Give a recital - DONE! Yay! Recital took place February 12 at First Unitarian Church in Worcester. I was very pleased with how it went. I didn't get many pictures, but here is one of my woodwind quintet:



And here is a video from the recital. This is the first movement of the Sonata op. 77 for flute and piano by Joseph Jongen. If you'd like to hear more of the recital, you can visit my YouTube channel - my channel is sarahkflute.



32) Lose 32 pounds: Total weight loss was 43 pounds. Yay! Here are some before and after pics for you (pics are in reverse order for some reason - current pics at top, last 2 are from last Feb):







And last but not least, here are some pics from my 32nd birthday to finish off the year. I made myself a yummy dinner for myself..cheese stuffed chicken with a baked potato sprinkled with a little cheese (totally no no foods for me, but it was my birthday!), and a very yummy french vanilla cake that I made for myself. Then my sisters got me a Ben & Jerry's ice cream cake for when we celebrated the following weekend - yummy!






So there you have it! The 32 by 32 challenge is now complete! Thanks for following along on this journey! I think I'll make more lists for myself each year - although maybe not 33 for next year... 10 might be more realistic giving how busy I am now.

Thanks again and I hope you've enjoyed this journey too!