Summer Bucket List

For those of you who have poked around the blog a little, I've been doing bucket lists since I began. It's not that I think I'm going to die. This blog began as a project to do more and try more and not waste my college years studying and doing nothing else. I started creating bucket lists as more of a list of goals I wanted to accomplish in the next few months. I decided when I was working on the summer bucket list that this will be it for the bucket lists for now. It's not that I don't enjoy working on my bucket lists. It's just that I want to be freer to accomplish new things and try different things with the blog. Maybe I spend the entire month of November making soup. Maybe I find new things that I'm already doing without noticing. Maybe I start blogging about sorority land more. But for now we will talk about summer.

Summer might be the best season for the amazing that is Jen and Joe. We just have a lot of fun when we aren't doing stuff for school. This bucket list got excessive. There was no lack of ideas but these are the top ten ideas. They are the perfect balance of pushing ourselves to do things we're always saying we are going to do and things we already know we love. Because this will be my last, I am going to really push to accomplish everything on the list. There is always one or two things that don't make it but not this time. So get ready for an awesome summer!

If you want to check out all the bucket lists, here they are:

Fall

Winter

Spring

2013

Mini Golf & Ducks

I told you that spring is my favorite. Remember my spring bucket list? I just love being outside. So I was pretty excited when Joe and I finally got to go mini golfing. We're pretty competitive sometimes. I may have lost but I did have more hole-in-ones than Joe. We had way too much fun. I don't understand how we are allowed out in public because we always have way too much fun.

Holes-in-One Poses

Losing golf balls to castles, karate, wild swings, and posing.

We also got to feed ducks. I was very intent on feeding ducks. Geese freak me out. They stink and they are pushy and rude. Ducks are all, "Oh that's cool. Thanks for the food" where geese are all, "OMG FOOD! GIMME!" Joe and I fed ducks some oats and rice because I read online that that is better for the ducks than bread or crackers. And once the food was gone, we ran around like ducks. So there is that. Like I said, too much fun.

Quack quack!!!

Picnic

Oh Michigan spring. You've made my spring bucket list impossible. Joe and I tried to picnic. When we had the first taste of real spring weather, we decided we would try a picnic. It was a failure. It was cold and rainy and windy.  But we made BLT wraps with pesto mayo so it was not all terrible. We ate wraps and fruit salad in the car. The wraps were so dang yum, it just confirmed my belief tortillas kick bread's ass at being bread. And eating in the car at the park is still a picnic right? We'll try again soon.

Joe's wrap was so big, he really couldn't eat it. But it was fun to watch him try.

Car picnics! Don't hate me for this picture, Joe.

Doctor Who Season 7 Part 2 Premier

WARNING: May contain spoilers.

Doctor Who once again made my bucket list because the premier was on the Saturday before Easter and I've been looking forward to it since Christmas. The first episode of second half of season 7 is "The Bells of Saint John".  We have the return of Jenna-Louise Coleman's terribly confusing character of Clara Oswin Oswald and Matt Smith continues as the eleventh incarnation of the Doctor. And spoiler! We also get a glimpse of "the Great Intelligence", played by Richard E. Grant. Can't wait to see how he comes back throughout this season.

We don't get a lot of details about Clara/Oswin except the connection from Clara to the name of Oswin and the little details of how Clara comes to be a nanny in the 21st century. I'm afraid the last 7 episodes of the season may not give us a lot either.  Moffat can be pretty sadistic like that. But I'm hopeful this season will help us learn more of Clara's story and resolve how she has died twice! Seriously, I wouldn't be surprised if she is Rory's daughter or something from the number of times she has died and come back to life.

Also! Neil Gaiman has been bribed back into writing another episode, which will be the 12 episode of the season! It's titled "Nightmare in Silver" and Moffat requested that Gaimen make cybermen scary again! Considering Gaiman wrote one of my top 3 favorite episodes of all time, I can't wait to see it!

"When you say 'mobile phone', why do you point to that blue box?"

"Because it's a surprisingly accurate description!"

Spring Cleaning

Another post from my Spring Bucket List. As much fun as all the food and activities are, I put spring cleaning on my list for some motivation to get stuff done. I didn't actually clean my whole room. I limited my cleaning to the reorganization of my closet. With all the crafting I've been doing, the shelf in my closet became unruly. I'd been storing stuff I meant to up-cycle on my floor and I had already begun to clean out my wardrobe so it was getting a little out of hand. Here are the before pictures.

View from the door: All that stuff on the right is on the floor because I had literally no other place for it. The big blue bin is full of sorority shirts.

The cubes on the back wall were over flowing, particularly with purses and hoodies. As you can see, they also were home to all the beauty products that didn't fit on my shelf in the bathroom.

#shortpeopleproblems. I had just been tossing things up there because it had been so hard to get things off the shelf and put them back up in an orderly manner.

I began by clearing the shelf off and pulling everything out that was on the floor. Which gave me a tiny panic attack because it just made a big pile of stuff in my room that would all have to find a home before I could go to bed. Just look at the mess!

What you can't see is the pile that also took over my closet and how I was stuck in the closet while I attempted to reorganize.

I set my priority at the beginning: Crafting. I wanted all my crafting supplies organized in such a way that it would be easy to find what I was looking for. All those pretty patterned boxes and only one small box was dedicated to crafting. I knew I could consolidate my other boxes to make room for more crafty things. I ended up making all 6 pretty patterned boxes craft stuff along with a clear plastic tote for current projects so I wouldn't get down all 6 for one project.

All the sorority clothes and bag made it into the blue tote. The plastic bag just has plastic bags in it to use as garbage bags. The cubes got reorganized and the beauty supplies were consolidated down to just one shoe box and my box of samples.

All the stuff I use regularly got pulled to the front and everything else creates a secondary row at the back of the shelf. The big box of papers got sorted into two shoe boxes that have been labeled to make it easier.

The best part of this whole project? I can find what I need now and the whole thing cost me absolutely nothing. I didn't have to spend any money buying new organizational tools. I just rethought some stuff I already had and created a priority for the space. Perfect!

Ribs

The second thing I got crossed off my spring bucket list: RIBS!!! I think Joe was equally as excited about this as I was. We used this recipe. It was absolutely delicious! We did not bake them as the recipe calls for and chose to throw them on the grill for 45 minutes because Joe and I love the grill! And good food was had by all!

Waiting for the ribs to boil.

BBQ Sauce

Waiting to go on the grill.

Getting ready to chow down.

Om nom nom

Easter Eggs

Here's the first from the spring bucket list. One thing I didn't remember about dying Easter eggs is how long it takes. I also did not know that you should buy egg dye from the dollar store. It didn't make for great colors. But it was a blast! And the best part? We made deviled eggs. :) It was a good time.

Lemon Pie Bars

Joe loves lemon anything. I think I could make lemon flavored grass candy and Joe would at least try it.  I first made this for Joe when he moved into the house he lives in now. He had his parents over for dinner and I made these for desserts. They are so light and tasty. They are the perfect spring treat and they are perfect for my spring bucket list. Their crust is like pie crust but thicker, more like shortbread. Joe and I have always talked about adding blueberries so maybe we will do that this summer and try it again. They are super simple, the prep time is next nothing, and Joe has all of the ingredients all of the time. They are just perfect.

Spring Bucket List

I'm ready for the snow to be gone. Snow is silly. Spring is so pretty. Flowers and fresh grass. Sun dresses and cardigans. Being outside again. I'm ready for the winter to be over. So once again, I present a bucket list for the change of seasons. Joe and I are ready to be back outside again so everything except cleaning may end up in some way outside. If you can't tell, I love spring. I just love that winter is over. I miss my dresses and short sleeve tops and seeing the sun. So I'm ready for this to happen ASAP.

Snow

You remember my complaining when I introduced my winter bucket list? Yeah, well for whatever reason I still put a walk and a snowman on there. Anyways, this week Grand Rapids got 19 inches of snow and they're saying to plan on more. It's not packing snow for a snowman so I just took some pretty picture on campus to show you how lovely the snow looks around campus. Even the though snow looks pretty, I'm not sure why they have tours of high school juniors and their parents walking around with a windchill below zero but whatever. I'm not an amazing photographer with my little digital Kodak camera and it was really cloudy but GVSU does take amazing care of it's buildings and landscaping so it is a really pretty campus and that is what drew me there so here are my pretty pictures of snow.

The Cook Carillon Tower houses 48 bronze bells that ring every 15 minutes. They are actually 2 minutes early so you know if you are eating lunch or walking slowly, speed it up because you are about to be late. They play Christmas carols in December and bring in musicians in the spring to play and you can even peek in and watch from time to time.

You can't actually see cars from the main campus. All the main parking lots are hidden by buildings or man made hills and landscaping. Even most of the residence halls are fairly removed from parking lots.

The university arborist takes care of all 4,800 trees on GVSU's campus and they are all native to Michigan. GVSU is also home to a 7 acre arboretum as well as 4 gardens.

The Cook-Dewitt Center is the auditorium that overlooks the Valley. It is home to a huge old fashioned pipe organ and there are a lot of alumni weddings here in the spring and summer. It will always hold fond memories for me because they hold freshman orientation in this building. 

Relaxation

One of my goals for 2013 was to make more time for relaxation. I've found a couple of ways that help integrate relaxation better into my lifestyle.

Reading: I've made it a goal to read for about 30 minutes every night after class. Not homework or academic reading. Just personal fun reading. I've been working on The Hunger Games and I've found homework more bearable knowing I will have time to read something fun later in the evening. It will also get me closer to my other goal of reading 10 books for fun this year.

Journaling: I tried to do this last year and it lasted for about three months. This year, I'm only writing when I feel anxious about something. It's less pressure that way and putting it in my journal is a good way to release it. I've been trying to use people less as a way to vent and the journal helps with that.

Blogging: I've set aside time to work on four blogs a week and it really gives me something to look forward to. It's nice personal time where I feel like I'm not neglecting homework and it is incredibly relaxing. After I write a post, I feel like I've accomplished something for myself and I really love my blog so it gives me joy to see the long list of scheduled posts.

Lotion: It sounds so weird to say that but I've gotten in to the habit of putting lotion on every morning and it gives me a moment of peace in the morning before my day gets really busy. It's time focused just on me and no matter how small the moment, the point was to make more time for relaxation.

Meditation: Meditation doesn't have to be sitting on the floor saying "Om". I practice meditation by taking a moment to relax every time I get frustrated. I clear my head and take deep breaths. It doesn't always work and sometimes I feel like I'm just getting more frustrated but that's when it's time to take other steps. Usually taking deep breaths gets me to a point where I can deal with it.

Hot Tubbing

Do you know what the most relaxing thing in the world is? Sitting in a hot tub while it's snowing. Joe and I got a groupon a while ago for an hour of hot tubbing for $3 apiece. It was so relaxing and a great way to spend time with my bestie right before classes started. We went to Oasis Hot Tub Gardens in Kalamazoo. Their staff is always helpful and super nice and I've always been impressed with how clean it is.

10 Person Hot Tub for 2 :)

Fancy Fireplace!

Hot Tub Land Shark

Chicken Rice Soup

Do you know what the best part about winter is? Creamy warm soup. Soup that is so thick, it makes soup from a can look pathetic. Joe makes a delicious chicken rice soup with peas and carrots. He got the recipe from his mama so I don't particularly feel like sharing it just because it feels extra special. It cooks all day in the crock pot on low and it uses a rotisserie chicken so it's really easy. I wish I could eat this soup every day.

Holiday Movie Marathon & Hot Chocolate

Like I said when I introduced my winter bucket list, winter is a fraud. I like staying in to watch movies and drink hot chocolate. So that's what we did. Our marathon included: Home Alone 1, Home Alone 2, Home Alone 3, Die Hard, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and Elf. It was a great day spent with my best friend!

Yum yum yum!

Hi Joey!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Om nom nom I love cookies! This is one goal from the winter bucket list that I have really been excited about! Joe and I chose to make oatmeal raisin cookies because we had all the ingredients on hand. I love oatmeal raisin cookies. They are chewy and soft. We used Betty Crocker's recipe because she seems to know what she is doing and they were pretty tasty!

Doctor Who Christmas Special 2012

WARNING: May contain spoilers.

The Doctor Who Christmas Special is on my winter bucket list because honestly, it wouldn't be Christmas without the Doctor Who Special. Anyways, this year's special is titled "The Snowmen". We have Matt Smith as the Doctor and Jenna-Louise Coleman as the new companion, Clara Oswald. It also features a new Tardis design! We have the return of Madame Vastra, Strax, and Jenny. Jenny and Madame Vastra really should have their own spin-off because the characters are just hilarious and Strax is a fun character.

The story is set in Victorian London and without giving too much away, it is definitely the scariest Christmas special in recent years. It also left some pretty big things hanging. How is Clara going to begin travelling with the Doctor? And how is the Doctor going to fix this Oswin/Clara mess? I'm really excited to see all this play out in season 8.

"I'm the clever one! You're the potato one!"

2013 Bucket List

After doing an autumn bucket list and a winter bucket list, I decided to create a list that would be a challenge. These are the 12 things that I really have been meaning to do and would really add something to my life. The goal is to do one thing every month. I'm really excited to get started and see how this goes.

Winter Bucket List

Winter is a fraud. People say they love winter but they are frauds too. No one actually likes winter. They like Christmas. But really, after two weeks of blizzards, no one loves winter. If you think you like winter, you are deceiving yourself. Winter is all "I'm cozy! I have hot chocolate and soup and blankies and presents!" but deep down, you know that you could have all of those things by just turning the AC up.  And I'm going to help you rid yourself of that deception with a winter bucket list. Sorry I'm not sorry. But really. Winter is stupid which is why I made this great little list. It's the best parts about winter so you can stop telling yourself you like winter and actually like the cool parts of winter. Like skiing and food and Doctor Who. And then you can be grumpy about snow and ice and bad drivers without feeling like a hypocrite. You're welcome.

Bonfire and Pumpkin Carving

Remember my autumn bucket list? I've been picking away at it slowly but steadily. These two events actually happened different days but the same weekend so I decided they could share a post. Sharing is caring. So anyways, the roommates and I carved our pumpkins and we had a blast. I just love the fall season for this reason. I mean when else do you haul nature in and decorate it just to add flammables and put it all on display... OK well I mean pumpkins are still fun. So the nerd in me has been dying to do a Tardis pumpkin and I found a great pattern here.

Courtney carving her Harry Potter pumpkin!

The tedious process of tracing the three part pattern.

Finished product in the light.

Finished product with a candle!

Then we had a bonfire over at Joe's Dad's house. We even got to toast marshmallows! It was extremely hot but so fun!

Avoiding getting too close!

Eating my s'more while Kate and Joe avoid the fire.

The fire was so hot, I could only toast the top of my marshmallow!

We're getting to the end of our autumn bucket list and this has been so so so fun!