Here’s hoping I stay sane until my life returns to it’s version of normal. Or just that I don’t call The Salvation Army to take away everything we own and start from scratch. I’m tempted.

1. Travel to India. This is so close to becoming a reality I can taste it. Really it deserves it’s own post and I will work on one in the near future. Basically it’s been my dream to go on a mission trip to India since I was 12 (half my life) and we have one set up to go in October.

We are working on fundraising right now. We’ve had some very generous donations from some amazing people. We’re still a ways off from the total needed though. If you have any ideas for fundraisers please send them my way. You can get more info at HelpSend.Us

2. Become a mother: Still not ready for this one. I have time ::grin::

4. Read all books on Time 100 best novels list: I have a few books marked off but honestly they’re ones I read prior to making the list. I need to step up on this one.

5. Run a marathon: I’ve taken the first step. Or steps. Check out Running Between Tweets for updates on mine and all my fellow tweeps progress.

9. Visit every US state: I have 12 more to go. I still have my flight benefits so getting to the states isn’t a problem. The main thing is having a place to stay once I get there. I don’t have tons of cash but I have so many wonderful blog/Twitter friends spread all over the country.

Would any of you from the states that I’m missing be willing to host me? Even just over night so I could meet you and buy a spoon (yes I collect spoons. What?) I don’t need anything fancy. A floor and a blanket would be more than enough. Who’s first? ::wink::

10. See all movies on Time 100 best movies list: I’ve gotten about a quarter of the way through the list thanks to our Blockbuster online membership. I’ve loved some and been bored to tears on others.

14. Earn an award with Phoebe: I’m entering us in our first rally obedience trial the middle of this month. I’ll let you know how it goes!

16. Join a book club: I get to mark one off! Woot! I’ve written about my book club a few times so you already know I have met some really neat girls there including the one who invited me to be on the soccer team.

I don’t know that I expected to have so much fun. I love reading but the book club is so much more than just discussing books. In fact, as we’ve gone on I could almost care less about the books that I’ve read. None of them are probably ones I’d pick out myself. The great part is, it doesn’t matter because the group of friends we’ve built is priceless. It’s just what I didn’t know I needed.

26. Keep a blog or journal daily for one year: That is where the title of this blog comes in. As of today I have successfully completed six months of that year on SkyWaitress.com. I’m actually really impressed that I’ve come this far.

Before this I was always a sporadic blogger. I would post several times a week for awhile and then go for months with nothing. I felt like if I didn’t have anything big to blog about I couldn’t post.

Now I’ve realized that isn’t the case. Granted, all of my posts haven’t been stellar but I feel like I’ve learned so much and improved as a writer and blogger by making this commitment. There are days when I have no idea what to blog about but I sit down and start writing anyway. And sometimes? Those are some of my best posts. Apparently my brain has a lot rolling around in it.

I don’t pretend to be a professional blogger or to have everything figured out. I am having fun though. I’ve also gotten more involved with Twitter and have made some wonderful friends out of it. I seriously wonder what I did without all you guys. I look forward to the next six months of blogging and beyond.

I am so excited about how far I’ve come. I have a long ways to go and a lot to accomplish in the next 5 1/2 years but I’m confident I can pull it off. I’m doing really well. Working through this list has already improved who I am as a person. I am much more focused and excited about life. I have goals and I am working towards them. I highly recommend everyone make a list similar to this. It can fit where ever you are in life and drive you to where you want to be. You’ll be surprised how inspiring it is.

Letting myself dream and get excited is the best thing I’ve ever done. It’s already taken me places and I can’t wait to see where I’ll be in six months, a year and on my 30th birthday. I have a feeling, it’s going to be somewhere amazing.

Pros:

• A buddy for Phoebe: I’ve been out of work almost the entire year we’ve had Phoebe. She’s used to having me around all day almost every day. In a couple of weeks I’m going to be (FINALLY) starting a new job. If Phoebe had a little buddy to keep her company she wouldn’t be as lonely when Joel and I are both at work.
• A new member of our family: I never knew I could love a little creature as much as I love Phoebe. I would love to add to our little family.
• Another dog to train: I loved training Phoebe. It was a lot of hard work and it was a lot of fun for me. Phoebe has all the basic commands and a lot of tricks down. It would be fun to start fresh on another little puppy.
• This is the breeders last litter: This is the very biggest reason I feel so much pressure to get one now. I want one from this breeder because I can be confident I’d be getting another great dog.
• Look at these face!

How can you resist that wittle face?

Cons:

• $$$$: This is the biggest one. It isn’t just the initial cost of the dog. It’s also the vet bills, the spaying or neutering, the extra accessories and the puppy classes. We don’t have a lot of extra cash right now. I am finally starting a new job so we’ll have a second income again. It’s still hard to think about spending that much money on something we don’t actually “need” right now.
• Early puppy phase: I did not enjoy being woken up several times in the middle of the night to whining and crying. I’m not a nice person when I don’t get enough sleep.
• Housebreaking: The housebreaking sucks. We finally have Phoebe reliably housebroken. Not loving the idea of starting over from scratch. Although we would know better than to try and liter box train it this time. That would probably make things go a lot faster.

So yeah, I’m completely torn. The hugest thing is the money. We probably shouldn’t. But there are a lot of good reasons to get it now. Have I mentioned it’s the breeder’s last litter?! Ugh. Please weigh in and tell me if I’m being totally crazy here.

Also? Look at the adorableness!

WANT!

Yes, I’m one of those dog owners. She looks so ridiculously cute though, I can’t help it!

Growing up I never really celebrated Halloween so it has never very important to me. This year we got into it a little bit though and carved our first pumpkin ever! It was really fun.

I hope you enjoy our little video. Have a safe a happy Halloween!

Miss Phoebe Lou

Here she is at about 5 weeks old.

When we went to the breeder (Country Pups in Durand, Il) to look at the litter there were four female puppies. One was already spoken for so we had our choice of the other three. They were of course adorable, as all puppies are, and we took them out of their box to play with them to see if we felt a special connection with any one of them. After awhile, one by one the puppies got sleepy and whined and scratched at their box to get back in. Except Phoebe that is. She crawled into Joel’s lap and curled up and fell asleep. Just like that we were both in love. So while we may like to think we chose her, I think it’s much more fair to say that she chose us.

At eight weeks we brought her home.

So tiny!

It’s a two hour drive from the breeder’s to where we live but she was a good little girl and didn’t even pee on me!

Here are a few highlights over the past few months.

Her first bath. She hated it, lol.

She seriously is the most cuddly puppy I’ve ever met.

She loves going for walks. She has finally stopped eating ev.ery.thing. in sight.

Look at that sweet face!

She’s now almost eight months old. I can’t believe how fast she’s grown and turned into this sweet little dog! She’s still super tiny, my best guess is she’s about 3 1/2 – 4 lbs. However, she’s not one of those obnoxious, yappy little dogs. In fact, she barely barks at all. Everyone who meets her loves her, even people who don’t like little dogs.

Her only fault is she’s not 100% reliably housebroken. I blame us for that since we tried to litter box train her at first. Yeah… she’s a dog… that was a bad idea. Anyway, at about 20 weeks we stopped that and are still retraining her. She’s pretty good about going outside but she’s not good at telling us she has to go out. *sigh* If anyone has any advise we’re more than open to it!

Other than that I couldn’t ask for a more loving, well behaved little baby dog. I’m sure you’ll be hearing more about her in the future since she goes with us anywhere she’s allowed. So now you’ve been introduced and I hope you grow to love her as much as we do. She’s our baby and we’re super lucky she chose us.