Cause I'm a sucker for internet visuals

I got this via my cousin Alice via her SIL Ashley. Let's keep in mind that until my senior year of high school I had only been to 4 states: Arizona, California, Utah, and Hawaii. And I had been to 3 countries: US, Mexico, Australia. I've added 16 states and 2 countries since then. Don't you think I should add more countries to the mix? I do :)

Here are the states I've visited so far:

visited 20 states (40%)
Create your own visited map of The United States

And countries:

visited 5 countries (2.22%)
Create your own visited map of The World

A few things

1. On Friday my older brother Gordon signed an offer for full-time employment! After 2 years, 2 months of contract / part-time work since graduating with his MBA, we are extremely grateful! He starts on Monday - hooray!
2. I paid my deposit for the cruise in February 2012!! I am going with some high school / church friends from Saratoga / LG as a celebration of our 30th birthdays.
3. I found a spot behind the laurel hedge in our yard that is PERFECT for a discreet clothesline. This could save us $15-20 a month! (Our coin-op laundry is very expensive - $1.25-$2.00 / load - and we do 2-3 loads a week.)
4. I burned myself with the curling iron yesterday. It looked scandalous*, but only hurt for an hour or so.

*And, naturally, I burned the right side of my neck - the side that faces the entire congregation** when I play the organ.

**Do not you worry! I was able to strategically place my hair such that I think my burn escaped detection. ;-)

#49: Buy a Bicycle

I just crossed #49 off of my list - Bruce and I found a bike on Craig's List on Memorial day and now I am just riding all over the place!

So far I've completed 20 or 21 out of the 50 I've defined so far! My goal is to complete 25 by my 30th birthday and to add the next dozen or so (I purposely haven't defined all 100 as I want to give room to develop new goals).

Here is what I'm working on now:

• #8 - Go Rock Climbing
• #16 - Go on a Cruise
• #30 - Witness Stuart's Temple Marriage :)
• #45 - Learn to Play the Organ Using Pedals
• #50 - Visit Crater Lake, Oregon

Since the proposed cruise is technically after my birthday (even though it's in the same month!), I need to come up with one more that I could accomplish in the next 7 months or so - I want to plan on beating my goal of 25 by a few, so that there is NO risk I'll miss it! I'm thinking #33...

Things I'm Looking Forward To

• Riding my bike tonight
• Eating the strawberries, brie and walnuts that are waiting for me at home.
• The pending niece that has almost, ALMOST arrived...
• My haircut scheduled for next month.
• My baby brother Stuart's wedding in a month! (!!)
• Sarah's and Jed's wedding in August! (!!)
• Christensen family vacation in August*
• Crater Lake in September
• Spending Christmas in Portland**

*In Which I Will Take Off 7 Days From Work.
**In Which I Will Take Off 5 Days From Work.

Things that make me happy

<3

(in no particular order)

1. Sleeping 10 hours at night*
2. Riding my bike =)
3. Being married to Bruce
4. Cooking dinner
5. Flowers
6. Reading / listening / watching GC talks, Mormon.org profiles and Mormon Messages**
7. Being with my nephews (see picture)
8. Google Docs
9. Talking to extended family on the phone***
10. Having a clean house

*One of Bruce's 'surprises' when he married me
**I have found that when I don't do this, I'm not happy.
***Poor man's alternative to being with them....

This Week

• Bought a bike on Craigslist
• Bruce fixed it up tonight :)
• Did wedding planning / helping (Stu's wedding)
• Bought a new pair of jeans -- I'm finally getting used to the new weight / body I have with birth control. My only real complaint is that half of my wardrobe doesn't work right now... (okay two: and the heartburn side effect. So happy to have Zantac and tums!)
• Planned Bruce's birthday surprise -- so excited about this!
• Punched the numbers and confirmed that nothing has changed -- we still will never be able to afford a house in the Bay Area. heh.
• Caught & beat a cold.
• Caught my youngest nephew FINALLY calling me "Kawen"* (instead of "Bruce").

*He's not the only one to miss the 'r's. A few months ago Bruce and I signed up to help clean our church building on a Saturday morning. When the sign-ups went around the following week, someone had typed out previous sign-ups and mine read "Kawen Christensen."