Updated 101 in 1001

I've seen this 101 in 1001 days blog "project" a few times before, but have never really paid much attention to it. I've been meaning to start it for a while now, and finally decided to do it. The only thing was that I underestimated how hard it would be to come up with 101 things! It took a while.

Not familiar with the 101 Things in 1001 Days project? Check out this website.
The Mission: Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days.

The Criteria: Tasks must be specific (i.e. no ambiguity in the wording) with a result that is either measurable, or clearly defined. Tasks must also be realistic and stretching (i.e. represent some amount of effort on your part).

Start Date: November 1, 2010
End Date: July 28, 2013

Marriage & Family
1. “Date night” with Hubs once a month (13/33)
2. Surprise my husband with a gift just because
3. Get married (Completed July 10, 2010)
4. Talk to home every weekend (27/132)
5. Plan a trip to Halifax (Completed Feb 2011 for trip in June 2011)
6. Buy a house (In the works Feb 2011)
7. Have a baby
8. Visit Hubb's family for Christmas (Completed December 23, 2010)
9. Celebrate 1st wedding anniversary (Completed this upcoming Sun)

Mind, Body & Soul
10. Lose 10 lbs
11. Go a week without weighing myself
12. Complete some form of exercise at least 3 times per week
13. Read at least one book per month (7/33)
14. Give up soda for a week
15. Learn a new recipe and cook it at least once a month (6/33)
16. Get a hobby
17. Get my first massage (Completed Nov 20, 2010)
18. Have another manicure or pedicure (Completed February 15, 2011)
19. See a sunrise and sunset in the same day
20. Hike a really large hill (Completed Nov 2010)

21. Go on our honeymoon (Completed Nov 15, 2010)
22. Do something for myself at least once a month (13/33)
23. No dessert or cookies at work for 2 weeks
24. For one week, go to bed at 9:00 p.m. just to read
25. Clear the dinning room table off to eat dinner there again (Completed Jan 22/11)
26. No tv for one week
27. No eating after 8:00 p.m. for a month
28. After baby, get back to pre-pregnancy weight

Home Is Where the Heart Is
29. Put new carpeting in the spare bedrooms (Completed August 31, 2011)
30. Finish our wedding album
31. Buy a new vaccum (Completed December 27, 2010)
32. Get a new bed (Completed April 2011)
33. Get a new dining room table (Completed June 2011)
34. Empty entire fridge, clean it, then put everything back in (Completed March 20, 2011)
35. Reorganize kitchen cabinets and paint them
36. Defrost freezer twice a year (1/6)
37. Buy a new house (Completed March 15, 2011)
38. Finish Painting 2 spare bedrooms (Completed August 28, 2011)

All Work, No Play
39. Upgrade our camera (Completed Nov 4, 2010)
40. Get a new washer and dryer (Completed Sept 2010)
41. Stay on top of the house cleaning (15/33)
42. Start a wedding planning business
43. Help Hubbs with his business

44. Get a permanent job(Completed June 2011)
45. Get another term at my current job (Completed Jan 20/11)
46. Take 3 courses at work

Hit the Open Road
47. Take a spontaneous road trip (2/3)
48. Travel to a foreign country (Completed Nov 15, 2010)
49. Visit Newfoundland
50. Visit friends in Winnipeg
51. Go camping at least once each summer (2/3)
52. Have a picnic in the park we got married
53. Visit the Buchart gardens in the winter
54. Visit Hubbs friends in Alberta

I ♥ Food
55. Update my recipe book with new recipes (At least once a month (11/33)
56. Go out just for dessert
57. Go Out for Breakfast (5/5) (Completed March 26, 2011)
58. Don't eat out for an entire month
59. Make homemade pasta
60. Try something new at least 3 times a year (9/9)
61. Make banana bread with all the banana's in the freezer

Friends Are Forever
62. Email my best friend once a week (7/146)
63. Send Christmas cards each Christmas (1/3)
64. E-mail friends at least once per month (1/33)
65. Catch up with an old friend
66. Have a party or dinner party (Completed June 2011)
67. Send birthday cards to all friends/family in 2011

Pinching Pennies
68. Save for a house(Completed February 22, 2011)
69. Set up retirement savings

Cha-Ching
70. Pay off all debts (Completed August 2011)
71. Pay off LASIK Surgery (Completed February 22, 2011)
72. Buy a second car
73. Budget for a vacation

Pay It Forward
74. Clean out closet and donate to charity (3/3)
75. Donate to Christmas charity
76. Buy something from a thrift store that supports a charity
77. Donate money to a children's charity (6/6)

Just for Fun
78. Go skiing
79. Go to the beach
80. Go to the fall fair
81. Buy a pumpkin from a pumpkin patch and carve it
82. Go to a local museum
83. Take pictures on all our excursions
84. Have a Christmas cookie exchange (1/3)
85. Decorate for Christmas

Hobbies & Skills
86. Blog once a week at least (11/33)
87. Learn to cook more things
88. Get some family tradition recipes
89. Make a scrapbook
90. Read a book a month (7/33)

Capture the Memories
91. Get wedding album (Completed May 2, 2011)
92. Print photoes of each year's events and put in photo album
93. Get photos printed to hang in home
94. Take more pictures
95. Complete 101 in 1001
96. Send more pictures to family

No More Procrastinating
97. Pick pictures for wedding album(Completed Jan 24/11)
98. Clean out email accounts
99. Start an excercise routine

101 in 1001
100. Start a new 101 Things in 1001 Days list once this one is completed
101. Get friends in on this project

Congrats!

Congratulations to my coworker on the birth of his beautiful daughter yesterday afternoon. As well I wanted to congratulate my boss on the birth of his son mid October. Hub's cousin's wife also had their first,a boy, the end of October. Another of Hub's friends just announced she is pregnant as well.

Not to much going on with me. Just relaxing and enjoying a day off without unpacking, doing to much cleaning or running around. I found a great recipe for Mexican cookies and hope to try it out soon.

It's November

Happy November everyone. Hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween. We had no trick-or-treaters this year :( so that leaves us with a bunch of candy and playdough. I can't believe its November 1st already. I can't wait to start putting out the Christmas decorations and get a new tree this year.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone. I've got the day off with Hubs which is nice as it doesn't happen to often that we get a holiday off together. We don't have to much planned, just a quiet night in since the neighborhoods will be filled with kids out trick or treating. Hope everyone has a fun, safe night, and the kids get a bag full of candy.

Review of Resort in Mexico

Hubs and I just got back from our 2 week vacation in Mexico, where we stayed at the Grand Sirenis Riviera Maya. We were extremely excited as last year we enjoyed our trip to Mexico immensely. This resort is rated at 5 *'s, however, we felt the service and feel of the resort gave off more of a 3 * feeling. We definitly would not stay at this resort again.

Pro's :

- The room was great. It was large, spacious, had a huge bathroom with a jacuzzi tub.
- Air conditioning system in the rooms kept the room comfortable and not damp and musty like some resorts
- Free safe in each room was a bonus (most resorts you pay an extra fee for this service)
-Spa was amazing (We did the water circuit twice and the tezemecal)
- Provided robes and slippers in each room
- Room service was included from 11-11 which was great
- El Patio (Mexican restaurant) had delicious food
-Ikebana (Japanese restaurant) had great atmosphere and delicious food as well.
-La Gira Rodizio (Brazilian Food) was great too
-The beach was nice, lots of beach chairs and a gorgeous view with ruins.
-Frederico and one other waiter were the only decent waiters at the resort and the only ones we tipped
- Cleaning staff were excellent and friendly
- Ice cream shop was the perfect treat
- The lazy river was relaxing
- We seen lots of iguanas and even a monkey
-Our westjet rep Lili was amazing

Con's:

- Our welcome drink was warm juice which was disapointing
- We were booked into a room with 2 double beds (We asked for a queen or king during our booking, and with a few complaints they managed to find us a king bed the next day)
-Our original room was so far away from the restaurants, theatre
- The resort was huge, it took us 45 min to walk around the whole resort and you needed a shuttle to get to the spa which was in the middle of nowhere
- Concierge's tried to sell time shares and were always asking your room #, even if you weren't in that block of rooms and just walked by.
- You had to book the spa/restaurants through the concierge.
- The nightly entertaintment was sub-par, we only watched 1 show and a few min of another in the 2 weeks we were there.
- The drinks were watered down until we complained, then, depending on the bar tender, they got better
-There was a lot of construction and maintenance going on while we were there
- Due to heavy rain, the main lobby had some roofing fall, blocking off half the lobby until it was fixed
-No rainy day entertainment was available
- The resort itself had a concrete jungle feel, it lacked flowers and charm.
-Buffet food was mostly cold (another complaint we put in) and another common complaint we heard in the lobby
-Buffet food was repetative and the same old every day, unless you hit a theme night (mon,wed, sun). The best theme night was Japanese
- We had to get our shower and patio  door repaired in our new room
- Many of the fancy showerheads didn't work (common complaint we overheard in the lobby)
- House wine tasted horrible and always seemed to have fruit flies in it
-The cajun restaurant was horrible, we ordered the jambalaya and it came out with cut up hot dog as a garnish on top (mentioned it to our concierge and he said we should have ordered what he told us to and that he heard nothing good about the jambalaya)
- The steak house was ok, it was middle of the road, nice change from the buffet
- Even though we had special reservations for the A La Carte restaurants, their desserts werent any different or better then the generic buffet, except for the Japanese restaurant
- It was hard to make reservations for the restaurants as they werent open to often
-We had the French Restaurant given to us (it was an extra $60 Canadian per person) and it was horrible, we were so glad we didn't have to pay for it.
- The bars all closed early except those in the lobby, which even closed by midnight.
- There was never a restaurant open all day, each one open and closed throughout the day. Breakfast was from 7-10, lunch 1-3 and supper from 6-10. Nothing was open after 10pm or between 3-6pm.
-There was a lack of things to do past 5. Everything shut down around 5 or 6, so you had wait until 9pm for the show in the theatre.
- There were no roof top views or restaurants to lounge at
- The floors were extremely slippery when wet (horrible mix when you add rain or even the thought of people coming from a pool) I bailed once down a set of stairs and had a nice bruise on my leg the whole time I was there.
- Staff didnt seem overly friendly
-The beach sand was full of coral and sheels so it felt rocky on the feet, and the beach was smaller then we thought.
- Apparently there are 2 different hotels, the cheaper and more expensive one and there seeemed to be no difference between the 2 other then how much you paid to be on the more expensive side. Everything was shared between the 2 resorts so dont waste your money to stay at the "nicer" one

Overall, we enjoyed our stay at a 4.5 * resort last year so much better. The service and activies/entertainment was beyond comparison compared to the resort we stayed at this year. I would recommend the Catalonia Yucatan beach resort and spa

Updated 101 in 1001

I've seen this 101 in 1001 days blog "project" a few times before, but have never really paid much attention to it. I've been meaning to start it for a while now, and finally decided to do it. The only thing was that I underestimated how hard it would be to come up with 101 things! It took a while.

Not familiar with the 101 Things in 1001 Days project? Check out this website.
The Mission: Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days.

The Criteria: Tasks must be specific (i.e. no ambiguity in the wording) with a result that is either measurable, or clearly defined. Tasks must also be realistic and stretching (i.e. represent some amount of effort on your part).

Start Date: November 1, 2010
End Date: July 28, 2013

Marriage & Family
1. “Date night” with Hubs once a month (12/33)
2. Surprise my husband with a gift just because
3. Get married (Completed July 10, 2010)
4. Talk to home every weekend (26/132)
5. Plan a trip to Halifax (Completed Feb 2011 for trip in June 2011)
6. Buy a house (In the works Feb 2011)
7. Have a baby
8. Visit Hubb's family for Christmas (Completed December 23, 2010)
9. Celebrate 1st wedding anniversary (Completed this upcoming Sun)

Mind, Body & Soul
10. Lose 10 lbs
11. Go a week without weighing myself
12. Complete some form of exercise at least 3 times per week
13. Read at least one book per month (7/33)
14. Give up soda for a week
15. Learn a new recipe and cook it at least once a month (6/33)
16. Get a hobby
17. Get my first massage (Completed Nov 20, 2010)
18. Have another manicure or pedicure (Completed February 15, 2011)
19. See a sunrise and sunset in the same day
20. Hike a really large hill (Completed Nov 2010)

21. Go on our honeymoon (Completed Nov 15, 2010)
22. Do something for myself at least once a month (12/33)
23. No dessert or cookies at work for 2 weeks
24. For one week, go to bed at 9:00 p.m. just to read
25. Clear the dinning room table off to eat dinner there again (Completed Jan 22/11)
26. No tv for one week
27. No eating after 8:00 p.m. for a month
28. After baby, get back to pre-pregnancy weight

Home Is Where the Heart Is
29. Put new carpeting in the spare bedrooms (Completed August 31, 2011)
30. Finish our wedding album
31. Buy a new vaccum (Completed December 27, 2010)
32. Get a new bed (Completed April 2011)
33. Get a new dining room table (Completed June 2011)
34. Empty entire fridge, clean it, then put everything back in (Completed March 20, 2011)
35. Reorganize kitchen cabinets and paint them
36. Defrost freezer twice a year (0/6)
37. Buy a new house (Completed March 15, 2011)
38. Finish Painting 2 spare bedrooms (Completed August 28, 2011)

All Work, No Play
39. Upgrade our camera (Completed Nov 4, 2010)
40. Get a new washer and dryer (Completed Sept 2010)
41. Stay on top of the house cleaning (14/33)
42. Start a wedding planning business
43. Help Hubbs with his business

44. Get a permanent job(Completed June 2011)
45. Get another term at my current job (Completed Jan 20/11)
46. Take 3 courses at work

Hit the Open Road
47. Take a spontaneous road trip (2/3)
48. Travel to a foreign country (Completed Nov 15, 2010)
49. Visit Newfoundland
50. Visit friends in Winnipeg
51. Go camping at least once each summer (2/3)
52. Have a picnic in the park we got married
53. Visit the Buchart gardens in the winter
54. Visit Hubbs friends in Alberta

I ♥ Food
55. Update my recipe book with new recipes (At least once a month (10/33)
56. Go out just for dessert
57. Go Out for Breakfast (5/5) (Completed March 26, 2011)
58. Don't eat out for an entire month
59. Make homemade pasta
60. Try something new at least 3 times a year (9/9)
61. Make banana bread with all the banana's in the freezer

Friends Are Forever
62. Email my best friend once a week (7/146)
63. Send Christmas cards each Christmas (1/3)
64. E-mail friends at least once per month (1/33)
65. Catch up with an old friend
66. Have a party or dinner party (Completed June 2011)
67. Send birthday cards to all friends/family in 2011

Pinching Pennies
68. Save for a house(Completed February 22, 2011)
69. Set up retirement savings

Cha-Ching
70. Pay off all debts (Completed August 2011)
71. Pay off LASIK Surgery (Completed February 22, 2011)
72. Buy a second car
73. Budget for a vacation

Pay It Forward
74. Clean out closet and donate to charity (2/3)
75. Donate to Christmas charity
76. Buy something from a thrift store that supports a charity
77. Donate money to a children's charity (5/6)

Just for Fun
78. Go skiing
79. Go to the beach
80. Go to the fall fair
81. Buy a pumpkin from a pumpkin patch and carve it
82. Go to a local museum
83. Take pictures on all our excursions
84. Have a Christmas cookie exchange (1/3)
85. Decorate for Christmas

Hobbies & Skills
86. Blog once a week at least (10/33)
87. Learn to cook more things
88. Get some family tradition recipes
89. Make a scrapbook
90. Read a book a month (7/33)

Capture the Memories
91. Get wedding album (Completed May 2, 2011)
92. Print photoes of each year's events and put in photo album
93. Get photos printed to hang in home
94. Take more pictures
95. Complete 101 in 1001
96. Send more pictures to family

No More Procrastinating
97. Pick pictures for wedding album(Completed Jan 24/11)
98. Clean out email accounts
99. Start an excercise routine

101 in 1001
100. Start a new 101 Things in 1001 Days list once this one is completed
101. Get friends in on this project

Home

Hubs and I are home from our much needed and enjoyed 2 week vacation. Will post all about it as soon as I get a chance.