This summer’s bucket list

Lately I spend a lot of time thinking dreaming of everything I want to do when I go back to the States while Mark is gone.  So I’m going to do what I do best - make a list!  I love making lists, especially when they involve fun stuff I want to do!  So here it is, in no particular order:

• Spend LOTS of time with friends and family that I haven’t gotten to spend quality time with at all in the past 5 years.
• Shop
• Get my hair cut and colored by Rachel 3 times.  (Rachel, expect me to be in your chair the first week I am home!)
• Take Abbie to the pool a few times, preferably with friends.
• Eat at a hibachi grill.
• Go boating with my family and introduce Abbie to the fun that can be had on the river.
• Shop
• Lose 15lbs.
• Take a trip out to CO to see family and friends and to spend some time in the Rockies.
• Enhance my photography skills by taking pictures of friends’ families and animals and anything else they want me to shoot.
• Shop
• Learn how to use Photoshop and practice using the photos I take for my friends.
• Read a lot of books.
• Take violin lessons.
• Do a “mommy and me” class with Abbie.
• Shop
• Learn more quilting techniques from people who’ve been doing it for a long time.
• Go out to eat at least twice a week with friends.  (This might interfere with my losing weight goal, but I’ll figure it out…)
• Do a girls weekend, maybe to Chicago.
• Take Abbie to the zoo a few times - Madison, Lincoln Park, Omaha, etc.
• Shop
• Write to Mark at least 2 times a week.
• Take Abbie to story time at the local library weekly.
• Visit my friends in OK and maybe NM if I can make it that far.
• Watch TLC, HGTV, and The Food Network as much as possible.
• Potty-train Abbie.  (I’ll let her pee all over someone else’s house.  HAHA!  (Just kidding, mom…)
• Play my piano regularly.  (Need to remember to take my music back with me!)
• Shop
• Take some great photos of my hometown.  (Shouldn’t be hard.  It’s very picturesque!)
• Throw Abbie a huge 2nd birthday party.
• Keep in touch with my friends back in Italy and the ones that are going back to the States too.
• Shop
• Plan a fun vacation for when Mark returns.
• Spend a lot of time with my 95 year old grandma.
• Send care packages to my husband at least every other week.
• Buy a new suitcase to take all of my new clothes back with me.
• See an off-Broadway show, maybe in Chicago.
• Do day-trips with Abbie.

And I might want to do a little shopping while I’m home too….  =)

Call me crazy, but I always gauge how far or close events are by the milk expiration dates and library book due dates.  When Mark is away, I start getting excited when I see that milk expires after he gets back.  Silly, I know, but it’s true.  I am happy to announce that our milk officially expires after Abbie and my departure date from Italy and the library books I just checked out for her are due a day after we arrive in the States!  I’d better remember to return those before we leave!

PS:  I don’t really even like shopping that much.  I realize this makes me look like a shopaholic, but really, I’m not.  I just haven’t shopped, besides going to H&M twice, in over a year and there are quite a few things that I’ve been wanting to buy, but I’ve been putting it off until I get back to the States.  I miss shopping for Abbie.  I had so much fun buying stuff for her when she was tiny, and she’s in desperate need of 2T clothes now, but again, I’ve been putting it off so I can pick things out in person.  And I really miss looking at fabric and shopping at Hobby Lobby.  There’s nothing like that over here.  Even if I don’t buy anything,  I miss just browsing and seeing what’s available.  My mom keeps saying that I should just bring empty suitcases home and buy stuff when I get there, and that’s very tempting, but I am going to take a bit of clothes with me.  But I’m not denying the fact that I might come back with 3x’s the amount of clothes I go over there with.  =)