Bucket list for 2012

Pinterest is inspiring.  It really is.  But there are so many ideas and so little time!
I've gone through my boards, I've checked them twice, and I've created a bucket list of sorts of the things that I will do, make, or visit in the year of 2012.
Are you ready for this?

1. I'm going to read "The Total Money Makeover" by Dave Ramsey.  And not only read it, but explain it the The Man as I go, and then we're going to apply it to our finances.  Our total goal (that won't happen in 2012, but we'll at least start it)? Debt free. Can we do it? Yes we can! But I have to read this book first.  I hear it helps you get in the right frame of mind to actually want to follow through with it.  Yes.

2. We have a pretty awesome job chart system going at our house.  But it's just boringly written on a dry erase board.  I need cuteness.  Our job chart is going to be converted into cute form.

3. Also in the name of converting to cuteness, instead of hanging my handwritten menu on the side of the fridge, I want to paint our cabinet end with chalk paint.  It's in a prime position to look awesome.  It hangs where the bar starts so it would look like a cafe menu board. I get giddy just thinking about it!

3. We will finish the blasted bathroom.  Which means I get to do all these fun details in it.

4.  I looked at my "Please take me there" board longingly.  *sigh*.  But in the name of getting out of debt I suppose I ought to visit a new place that's close to home.  Arches anyone?

5. I'm going to try my hand at bleach pen shirts.

6. And I'm making this shirt.  Because I love everything about it.

7. As well as this skirt.

8. This one kind of scares me to put on my bucket list. But I would like to have my six pack back.  Not a big six pack, just a slightly there cute girly six pack.  I had one a couple of years ago.  I want it back.  Yikes.  Now it's on my list.  So I have to do it.

9. I'm going to make a quilt.  Maybe not all of these, but at least one them.  Or maybe not even one of these per say, but I will end 2012 with at least one quilt made by my hands.

10. Because I can't stop laughing about this.  I need this in my house and my parentals will probably receive them as gifts.  Because I can.

I think I better stop there.  I actually want to do/finish this list so I need to keep it realistic (and I've probably already over shot realistic).  Okay, wait.

11. Run another half marathon.  But this time actually complete a full training for it.  Besides, I have a time to beat now, and my cousin wants me to go to San Diego to run one with him.  Done deal.

12. Go diving in the ocean.  I have been a certified scuba diver for... 15 years and have never gone diving in the ocean.  Sad.  Is it cheating to add this to the list if I know I already have the trip planned for March to do this?  Plane tickets are already purchased. (This also includes seeing my brother Nick get married and going to Universal Studios Orlando (both of them)).

Okay, now I'm done.  Time to get started!

We still have a week and a half before 2012, and perhaps I should be writing this post on New Year's day, but I'm not one for "resolutions" on the first of the year, I do them when I'm ready.  I happen to be ready.  Let's do this.

Resolutions... I guess *sigh*

I've never really been one for making resolutions. I understand the talk and the idea of a new year, so perfect a time to determine to make a new start. I really do understand all the significance of this, I do. It's just that, for me, when I get the itch to change (or rather the shove by life :)) I do it. Whenever it comes. I don't wait for the timing of a new start, I just do it. I make rash decisions and changes in my life, and they seem to work for me. Though there was one year I made the resolution not to miss a single birthday on my calendar. And I did it too. For that ONE year, every brother, sister, parent, niece and nephew got a card. And I haven't done it since. I actually have resolutions this year.
Resolution number one: I'm going to introduce my children to flylady. They will have their very own fly routines. AND, thanks to my friend Aislinn telling me about this (via her blog), I'm going to set them up online with www.myjobchart.com with interactive job charts. West thinks I'm crazy for wanting to try it, but I think it adds a level that the kids are going to love.
And my second resolution (I know, amazing that I have TWO resolutions when generally I don't have any at all!): West and I finally broke down and got a vehicle that will fit all eight of us. I found a super sweet deal (you know, the kind that you brag about) on ksl. This lovely Yukon Denali is now mine. And West's. I guess I have to share now and then :). What does this have to do with my resolution? Well... on the occasion that people say to me, "I don't know how you do it all", I squirm. Because I DON'T do it all. I have a mountain of laundry, a sink full of dishes, and a very dirty car to prove it. The laundry and dishes I just hate so I procrastinate it until I can't anymore. But my car... it truly is one of the things in my life that just falls through the cracks. Papers, toys, blankets, shoes, jackets, books, all these things collect and pile up, and I simply do not have the time, I'll even give the concession that I don't make the time, to clean my car out. So we search high and low for things we need, and are probably getting trampled on in the car. I blame it on my circus, and rightfully so. When I do finally get around to shoveling it out, 97% of the crap in it is theirs. Taken out to the car for whatever reason, despite my telling them not to, and then it gets left there. My car absolutely is something that falls between the cracks for me. Not this year. With this new car, and now that I have cleaned the Camry out, I will, every Friday, clean out my cars, vacuum them, and run them through the car wash. It's a simple common courtesy that I need to give to West, as he's sold his truck, and we're sharing these two cars. He'll get his truck in time for summer, but in the mean time... just for him, I make the resolution to better myself in this area, and keep these suckers clean and nice to be in.