30 by 30 Update

Sometimes I don't like to think about it, but I'm about 2 months away from my 28th birthday. Therefore, I'm 2 years away from my 30th birthday, so it's take to take a look at my 30 by 30 list and see how I'm doing.

Blow up at least 3 of our own photos to use at art in the new house

Make a calendar in Photoshop to give as Christmas gifts

Teach Snax a new trick

Serve at a soup kitchen at Christmastime - This seems tougher to do than I expected. It seems everyone wants to do this at Christmas and they only want volunteers who can commit on a regular basis. I'll keep trying.

Take a wine tour - Not done, but my friend Ashley bought one on Groupon so we should be doing that sometime this year

Play ice hockey

Try (and hopefully enjoy) running - Started this. I'll add a post in a couple weeks.

Bungee jump - I'm ready, just need a location and some extra cash

Road trip down the California coast - Still dreaming. Not going to happen this year.

Scuba dive - Not sure if this will happen either. No vacation plans in sight.

See the Goo Goo Dolls in concert

Go on a short term missions trip with AJ - would still love to do this, but it might be on hold until we have older kids

Weigh 160 - had a baby. Still working on this.

Read the favourite book of at least one friend each year - Going well. Will be looking for one this year.

Spend New Year’s downtown in a big city - Possible.

Read the Harry Potter series

Spend a day some time painting on canvas - This is the most likely to be next.

See the Grease musical

Take kickboxing

Learn to drive stick (better) - Also a strong candidate. Just need to get out there.

Go white water rafting

Pay off our debts

Recover the dining room chairs - I so so want to do this, but the old covers were outrageously stapled and I haven't found the time to get them off.

Learn to sew so I don’t have to get my mom to fix my buttons

Get a great permanent job

Buy a design program (probably Photoshop)

Host a family Christmas

Bake a pie from scratch

Be in a play - Trying to convince my church's children's ministry to do something so I can be in it without having too big a commitment.

Have a baby

16 complete. About halfway done in both time and tasks, but I've got some tough ones to go. Not sure I'll be able to complete the travel ones, but the others should be do-able.

You Don't Talk Me Down

I'm married to a dreamer. His mind is full of ideas - things to try, things to accomplish, at home, in career, in life.


I am more of a realist. I'm creative, but I'm also practical.


AJ is often coming to me with his ideas, big and small. He's so excited, thinking about all that is possible. My automatic reaction is a quick brain scan: ok, here's an idea, is it realistic? Is it possible physically? Financially? The answer is almost always no and I start listing off reasons why it wouldn't work. You can almost watch the bubble burst, but I figure he might as well realize it won't work before he gets too far into it.


My way ensures that we continue to live comfortably, financially stable, living in a straight line of knowing what's to come. But it also means we're not growing, arguably not really living life to the fullest. And certainly for AJ, a little bored.


One of our favourite bands is Jack's Mannequin. On their new album is a song that must have been written just for me. The chorus has given me new insight on letting AJ be AJ without letting go of me.


          "And you don't talk me down
          You're talking me through"


AJ's not completely irrational. He may have all these ideas, but he does think them through before he decides to carry them out. So when he has a dream that he truly wants to pursue, what if, instead of talking him down, I used my practical, detail-oriented personality to talk him through?


I'm in marketing and when we're trying to come up with an idea, we first have a brainstorming session. This is where you speak any idea that comes into your head, boring, crazy, practical or not. It goes on the board and when you've exhausted them all, THEN you go through and find the one that will actually work.


I need to encourage that brainstorming session in AJ, maybe even join him, before trying to work out the details. If I can do that, I know some incredible ideas will surface and we'll get to experience a more full life and a more full marriage.


Here are the full lyrics, I hope they can encourage you too.




Jack's Mannequin – Platform Fire

Tore up like your baby blue jeans
I was stepping through a fog
Under pressure, but I'm feeling weightless
Can't let heaven's pin-stripe shooting
Leave you carrying a cross
Across the desert when you're feeling faithless
After all, this haze is only temporary
Laughter falls on deaf ears in the auditorium

Stories stacked up so tall
And you don't talk me down
You're talking me through
Bright lights, our platform fire
I'm a man on a wire
You're here for the view

Scattered in the mist, unmoving
It's getting hard for you to watch
Me under pressure when I'm feeling weightless
Up where tensions aren't computing
And where I've never fallen off
I guess I'd like to think your worry's wasted
Worry's wasted on me
After all, this haze may not be temporary
I heard you call
From the back row of the auditorium

Stories stacked up so tall
And you don't talk me down
You're talking me through
Bright lights, our platform fire
I'm a man on a wire
You're here for the view
I'm a man on a wire
You're here for the view

So tell me what you think
When you see me there
And tell me what you see
When the smoke is clear

Tore up like your baby blue jeans
I was stepping through a fog

Stories stacked up so tall
And you don't talk me down
You're talking me through
Yeah, just like you always do
Bright lights, our platform fire
I'm a man on a wire
You're here for the view
I'm a man on a wire
You're here for the view

Bright lights, our platform fire
I'm a man on a wire
You're talking me through

30 by 30 #24–Learn to sew

I took Home Ec in grade 7 and learned to sew on a button. And that was probably the last time I actually participated in that task. Since then, my mom has fixed everything for me that required any sewing. Even now that I've moved out, I save up a few things and send them over for fixing. Since I have my own kid now, I figure it's about time I at least figure out some basic sewing.

Project #1 - the button on my winter jacket

Project #2 - my nursing pillow

30 by 30 #27–Host a family Christmas

The plan was to check this one off during Christmas 2010, but circumstances changed and we weren't able to do it. So 2011 was our year.

Spending the 23rd and 24th in Mississauga meant some planning ahead of time, but we had lots of help, especially with the food. We came home Christmas morning after stockings and breakfast, started the turkey and got some snacks together and even fit in a quick vacuuming.

In the afternoon, both sides of our family arrived, 13 people total. We ate snacks, opened gifts and spent some time together while the turkey cooked. My only regret is that you really can't cook dinner ahead of time, so about 30 minutes before dinner, we were all in the kitchen trying to get everything ready. That half hour was a little stressful for me, but everything turned out great, including my first-ever turkey - success!

It was great to have everyone together. I'm not sure that I would want to host Christmas like that every year, especially once we have a toddler, but I really enjoy entertaining, so this won't be the last Christmas at our place.

30 by 30 #2–Make a calendar in Photoshop to give as Christmas gifts

I'm no graphic designer, but I work with some at work and I've picked up on some techniques and played around a little at home. I really enjoy taking a blank screen and creating something out of my ideas. So, for Christmas this year, I decided to make a calendar for each of our moms with some of my favourite Kai pics out of CD jewel cases. They turned out really well, so maybe it will become a yearly tradition?

30 by 30 #22–Pay off our debts

AJ and I started out our marriage financially better off than many people. We were both able to pay for college without accumulating any school debts and we paid for our wedding out of money we had already saved up. This was a huge blessing.

Then, just after we got married, it was time for AJ's car to be replaced, so we bought a new Mazda on a 5-year term. A couple years later, we were ready to leave the condo and get a bigger space, so we bought a house and took out a loan for the down payment. We're very careful with our credit cards so we don't have any debt there.

Neither of these loans were too much for us to bear financially, which was great, but they were loans nonetheless. We do, of course, have a mortgage as well, but the house is what financial planners are calling "good debt" so we're ok with that.

In November of 2010, we paid off our down payment debt and on November 27 of 2011, we officially paid off our car loan, making us totally debt free!

We took a financial planning course through church and are sitting down together every month to plan out our spending before the month starts to ensure we are living within our means and hopefully with some margin. This has been a great tool especially with me on maternity leave, which has cut our income significantly this year. We're planning on keeping my 2003 car around for a few more years so we can save up some money and buy my next car with no debt if possible.

The Sock Bun

I discover a YouTube video about how to curl your hair with a sock, so I had to try it out.

You just cut off the toes of the sock and roll is up into a donut. Then you put it over a ponytail and roll it back over, then wet it and sleep on it.

The initial sock bun

The next morning

The final result