Happy Birthday to Me!

This morning, September 7, 2014, at 4:59 a.m. I turned 34 years old. THIRTY FOUR. 34. I’m trying to let that sink in…

Nope. I just can’t believe it. I may be larger and wiser and wrinklier and slower, but inside – deep down in my guts – I still feel about 18. But 34? It just can’t be. I realized a few weeks ago that I am closer in age to 50 than I am to high school. OUCH. Life moves so quickly!

Four years ago I wrote a post called 40 by 40 – a list of 40 things I wanted to accomplish before I turned 40 years old. I figured 10 years is a good amount of time to get a list this size checked off. What better day than today to post an update on how this list is going? 

Katie’s 40 by 40
(not in any order)

1. Visit Disney World
2. Go on a culinary tour of Italy
3. Go on a culinary tour of Paris
4. Take a cruise vacation
5. Pay off all my debt – Getting there! So very close…
6. Be at a healthy weight – Working on it! 
7. Eat more whole, organic, locally-grown foods
8. Read 12 books per year OR 120 books by the time I’m 40 – It’s going well! 🙂 I can’t cross this one off yet though…
9. Be in the habit of working out at least 15 minutes daily
10. Find a hair cut that I love
11. Understand baseball – I’m getting better! Last week at a Cardinal game, I cheered. Matt looked at me and said, “Do you know why we’re cheering?” I looked at him for a minute and said, “Well, yeah. We have two players in scoring position, and a guy with a higher batting average is at the plate.” Duh. 🙂
12. Get a great camera and learn how to use it well
13. Learn to play piano
14. Learn to play guitar
15. Learn Spanish
16. Read the bible from start to finish
17. Improve my complexion
18. Start a great ministry
19. See everyone in my family come to know and love Christ
20. Stop cursing – If this ever happens it will be a damned miracle…
21. Be known for a dish that I make – If I had a dollar for every time I was asked to make my green bean casserole, I’d have like twenty two dollars…
22. See these artists perform live (again or for the first time): Neil Young, Van Morrison, Emmylou Harris, Metallica, Marc Broussard, (to be continued/added to)
23. Live in New York City – even if for just one year
24. Go to Las Vegas with my Grandma Alice at least one more time
25. Learn to bake like my mom
26. Learn to be rebellious like my dad (to a point!) – I’m as rebellious as I’m going to get! 🙂
27. Become a mother (either by birth or adoption or surrogacy) – SO CLOSE!!!
28. Find a beer that I enjoy drinking – No closer to this one, but I have discovered WINE. (cheers!)
29. Learn to bake bread
30. Create things that people love so much, they would pay money for them – People have purchased my photos. I can hardly believe it!
31. Decorate my home well – I feel like I will never accomplish this! I feel it’s so much better now than it used to be, but dang those interior design bloggers! They make me feel useless…
32. Have a great garden
33. Finish at least one more cross-stitch project
34. Catalog family photos with my dad
35. Enjoy one last good conversation with Grandma Jordan. – Sadly this one will never be crossed off. Grandma passed a few months after writing this list, and I didn’t get to see her again before she died. I will always ALWAYS have great guilt over that.
36. Worry less
37. Rent a beach house with my family for an awesome vacation
38. See the ruins in Greece
39. Go on a genealogy tour of Holland, Germany and the British Isles
40. Be on The Price is Right

There. If I can do those things, I’ll be at perfect peace and happiness, right? 🙂

Ten years is a long time to cross these things off my list. As I look at all of these items, I have to think of some things that will probably happen during the next decade:

1. Tayla and Damon will graduate high school, and may even marry and/or have kids (Tayla graduated this year, and started at University of Dayton last month!)
2. Kamryn and Clarissa will be in high school: dating, learning to drive, getting grounded and turning into women (OY VEY)
3. Harrison will be here, and will be a tall, lanky 10 year old (He turned four last week! And he’s already tall and lanky!)
4. Grandma Jordan will probably have passed away – one of the great saints of my life. (She’s 99 now, if she’s alive in 10 years, someone please call Willard Scott!) – She passed on December 23rd, 2010 – just a few months shy of her 100th birthday. I am blessed to have been loved by her.
5. My parents will continue to age – hopefully well. – Very well! Older, yes, but still just as fun and loving as ever!
6. My brother may marry a wonderful woman that fits right in to our crazy family – Not married, but he has definitely paired up with an awesome woman who fits right in!
7. One or more of our pets will probably die. – We lost Lucille earlier this year. So hard…
8. We may move once, twice, 5 times! Who knows? – Just once…so far!
9. If I remain in my current job, I will have at least one change in bosses. – And yes, I have a new boss. Hopefully he sticks around for a while!

Some things will continue to be the same though:

1. Tragedy will continue to strike. – yes
2. Happiness will continue to prevail. – yes
3. Matt and I will continue to love each other strongly and deeply. – Oh, yes.
4. God will continue to be sovereign. – Yes, always.

Well that’s it for the update. Here’s to turning 34! Cheers!