Our Happier Mighty Life List

I had a birthday recently and turned 39.  And I don't mean “turned 39” like some people say they are “39 for life” trying to avoid turning 40.  I really did turn 39.  And not "39 years young" either.  I’m not 39 years young.  I’m 39 years old.  And I feel 39 years old. If you don't believe me, I'll trade knees with you.

See.  My 9 year old will gladly vouch for the fact that I am in fact 39.

Not that I feel old and decrepit or something.  For example, I'm delighted to report that 39 year old me feels physically better than 37 year old me ever felt schlepping around an extra 60 pounds last July.  But I’m not under the impression I’m a spring chicken either. 

But I'm pretty okay with 39.  It's wacky that next year will be 40.  But I wouldn't trade any of those 39 years because they all brought me to where I am now including bringing me to the Italian Stallion and the 2 screwballs we called kids.  And I appreciate that.   On my knees kind of appreciate.

From the nine year old mini me.  Lots of balloons and hugs and kisses.

But my favorite thing about 39 is realizing over the last year that I'm still a work in progress.  Even at 39.  Who’d have thought?  Here's hoping I always am.  

In honor of my 39th birthday, I finally made a life list.  Some people call it a bucket list.  I like to think of it as ideas to keep my work in progress going.  I call it a Happier Mighty Life List inspired by Mighty Girl's Mighty Life List. 

Some of the things on the list are stupid.  Some are sappy.  Some are easy.  Some seem completely impossible.  And some will probably take me a lifetime to finish.    I like to think that's all part of the charm of a life in progress. 

Part of the charm of my 7 year old son is that when asked to draw me a picture for my birthday he drew me not one but 2 giant fire engine red convertible limos.  He knows me so well.  Not.

Even more charming, my Italian Stallion husband helped me with the list and calls it our list.  It warms my cold black heart that he listed things on there that he's done before because they don't count until he does them with me.  He's seen some stuff and done some stuff.  I take it as a compliment that he wants to do them with a girl that has apparently been living under a rock.


Our Happier Mighty Life List:

1. Go on a family camping trip and roast marshmallows.
2. Go white water rafting. With my kids.
3. Take a trip alone with my husband again. 
4. Take a cruise. 
5. Shop for new clothes that actually fit. Drop serious cash.
6. Take dance lessons.
7. Sleep on an overnight train ride.
8. Have a topsy turvy day and serve dinner for breakfast and breakfast for dinner.
9. Do a mud run.
10. Do a color run.
11. Run a marathon.
12. Run a race with my kids.
13. Run another race with my husband.  No injuries this time.
14. Do a real push up.  Nose to the ground and correct hand and elbow position.
15. Try a step aerobics class. "Try" means go more than once.
16. Try a yoga class.  "Try" means go more than once
17. Renew our wedding vows.
18. Have a family portrait taken.
19. Buy a sundress.
20. Grow my own vegetables and eat them.
21. Ride on the back of a motorcycle my husband is driving. 
22. Stay at the beach for an entire week and not do anything except swim, read and walk on the beach every morning.
23. See a Cirque de Soleil show.
24. Watch an Olympic event live.
25. Be in a parade.
26. Have my hands painted with henna.
27. Finish reading every Agatha Christie book.
28. Make a pizza from scratch.
29. Join a book club.
30. Make homemade bread.
31. Try 1,000 new restaurants.
32. Go skydiving.
33. Go skiing.
34. Go kayaking. 
35. Go zip lining.
36. Watch Casablanca.
37. Volunteer at a soup kitchen.
38. Drive a car worth more than $100,000
39. Sleep in a castle
40. Create a YouTube video
41. Swim with dolphins
42. Spend a weekend in a cabin with no tv, phone or internet
43. Catch a fish.
44. Participate in a road rally
45. Write my name in wet cement
46. Host a game night
47. Have laser hair removal.
48. Enter a bike race
49. Go windsurfing. 
50. Get my palm read. 
51. Learn to do a backbend.
52. Go to a Thanksgiving Day Parade.
53. Ride a camel in the desert. 
54. Go on a multi day biking trip. 
55. Cross the Canadian border.
56. Climb a mountain.
57. Stay in a tree house overnight.
58. Go clamming.
59. See a glacier.
60. Finally visit 3 old friends.   
61. Go snowshoeing.
62. Experience zero gravity.
63. Successfully donate blood.
64. Ride a mechanical bull.
65. Drive an 18 wheeler.
66. Ride a roller coaster in 20 different states.
67. Go on the Amazing Race. 
68. Travel in first class.
69. Ride in a limo.
70. See Madonna perform live.
71. Ride on a private jet.
72. Attend a black tie event.
73. Ride in a helicopter.
74. Go to the Super Bowl  
75. Go to a Grand Slam tennis tournament
76. Get paid to write something.
77. Take my kids swimming in the ocean.
78. Take my kids to a Broadway show on Broadway. 
79. Take my kids to FAO Shwartz.
80. Give my daughter a copy of The Bell Jar when she's old enough to appreciate it.
81. Ask my daughter what she thought of The Bell Jar when she's done reading it.
82. Zip up my daughter's wedding dress.
83. Tie my son's tie on his wedding day.
84. Learn to tie a tie in preparation for being capable of tying my son's tie on his wedding day.
85. Dress up with my kids for Halloween until they refuse to do it anymore.
86. Do family game night at least once a month. Every month for a year.
87. Do family movie night at least once a month. Every month for a year.
88. Have my picture taken next to a guard at Buckingham Palace while I try to make the guard laugh.  
89. Climb to the top of the Eiffel Tower.
90. Eat pasta in Italy.
91. Eat a beignet at Cafe Dumonde.
92. Go down into the Grand Canyon.
93. Go to Hawaii and have someone put a lei around my neck.
94. Watch a volcano erupt.
95. Visit all 50 states.
96. Go whale watching.
97. Take a cross country road trip.
98. Take my husband to the NFL Hall of Fame
99. Take my husband to see every NFL football stadium.
100. Visit Yosemite.
101. Tour the White House.
102. Walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.
103. Visit the Blue Bell Ice Cream Factory.
104. Visit Alcatraz.
105. Visit Dollywood.
106. Visit Coney Island.
107. Ice skate at Rockefeller Center during Christmas time , 
108. Ride in a gondola in Venice.
109. Run across the Golden Gate Bridge.
110. Go to Pike Place Market in Seattle.
111. See Mount Rushmore. 
112. Go to Alaska.
113. Go on a safari. 
114. Drink beer in an Irish pub.
115. Visit a pyramid.