22 Things To Do - 2022 Edition

1. Figure out my next steps at BMCD and what I want my path to look like. 

2. Find and hire a designer to help us with our master renovation since this is going to be a little outside of my wheelhouse. 

3. Find at least 2 volunteer opportunities. 

4. Figure out our landscaping situation and what works here in Kansas. 

5. Go to London. 

6. Celebrate Alli's birthday in Belize. 

7. Take Mom to NYC for her 70th. 

8. Eat 3/4 veggies at nearly every meal and quit being so stupid about it. 

9. Do something Peloton every day even if it's just 5 min core or a mediation if I'm sick/injured/whatever.

10. Find a local race to run since we're missing Rock the Parkway and run a 5K with Owen. 

11. Cooking class with friends. 

12. Find new doctors/dentists/etc (GAH!)

13. Read 10 books and put my damn phone down. 

14. Master the sous vide. 

15. Figure out our plans for KC theater tickets. 

16. Find friends/community/whatever here and figure out if we are wanting to do church or not. 

17. Mother/Son trip

18. Go visit the farm. 

19. Go to the lake. 

20. Plan a CDC trip now that we all live in the Midwest again. 

21. Visit a new ballpark. 

22. Go to a Chiefs game. 

2021 To Do List Review

1. Choose restaurants with intention, rather than "I'm tired. I'm hungry. Let's go for burgers and beer."

Did great with this until we didn't. HA. But even with the move, we were intentional about choosing restaurants we wanted to go to before we left and restaurants we wanted to try when we got here. 

2. Complete at least one session with Stronger U and my coach.  (along with this comes macro tracking and being more mindful about the things I'm eating and drinking)

I did this. I had pretty decent success but slid back into old habits when we started the move process.  I just didn't have the bandwidth to keep it going all year. 

3. Lose 30 lbs by my 40th birthday. (12/5/21)

Yeah. Nope. 

4. Go somewhere new.  This is going to be challenging but I'm going to make it happen. 

Yes!  Big Island Hawaii! 

5. Go to a new National Park. 

Hawaii Volcanos

6. Get my vaccination card!  Technically this all occurred in 2020 but I want that card of sweet, sweet beauty as proof. 

WOOT! Got that sucker in January. 

7. Remodel our master bathroom. 

Check done! 

8. Go on a trip for my birthday.  I want to go to Germany but I'm trying not to get my hopes up. 

Arizona, check done! 

9. Master our sourdough starter! 

Houston derailed that a bit, it was not easy to have a starter in the heat and humidity but we will press on in KC and try a new one. 

10. Run a half marathon before my birthday. 

Oops, nope. 

11. Figure out how to compost. 

We did this but sadly left our bin in Houston and don't have space here in Leawood for a new one. 

12. Grow a garden. 

We had a really great garden this year until we had too much rain in June and most of our plants had root rot.  

13. Keep my houseplants alive. 

I managed to do this with a few plants that got left in Houston but I got two new snake plants and we carry on.  

14. Figure out my next step in my career.  Goal is to not be in my same position by next January, however that happens. 

This one, I crushed.  Kind of by accident but I have an infinitely better job now and way better prospects for growth.  

15. Do another cooking class, even if that has to be virtual. 

I did a charcuterie class and a cocktails class this year in person and Adam and I did two awesome beer/cheese pairings classes online.  

16. Take an iPhone photography class. 

I need to do this still.  

17. Hike a mountain. 

Did it!  We did some great hikes in Colorado and I climbed Camelback again. 

18. Get my CEOP and RSTBS certifications. 

Did not do either of these things but I was well on my way before we moved.  No sweat because I am onward and upward! 

Goals that are a hold over from 2020 - Let's try this again! 

19. Take Owen on another mother + son trip. 

We drove in the same car from Houston to Kansas, does that count? 

20. Date night once a month

Not intentionally but I bet we came really close if I were to think about it.  We did so many trips to KC without Owen that we wound up having a lot of parent date time. 

21. Monthly budget.  I need to follow through with this and work to pay the car off. 

NOT EVEN CLOSE. 

2021 Year in Review

 1. What did you do in 2021 that you'd never done before?

Ha. WOW.

1. Fired a realtor. (Adam says technically he did it, and I suppose that is fair.)

2. Tore apart the interior of a house to have piers put in the foundation. 

3. Touched both sides of a canyon. 

4. Turned 40. 

5. Worked to stop caring so much about stupid things (like what other people think) and started trying to take up more space in the world (DO NOT cut in front of me in line, Old White Man, because 2021 Jen will NOT have it).

6. Moved to Kansas.  

2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year? 

I don't make resolutions but I think, despite all the things, I did pretty darn well with my to do list.  And the good thing is that I make my to do list with the expectation that 50% of the stuff might turn out to be epic fails. 

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Hmmm. I don't think so?  Our neighbor in Houston had a baby but that's about all I can think of.  

4. Did anyone close to you die? No funerals that I attended this year so that is a small win.  We had a close family friend pass away but that's all I can think of. 

5. What countries did you visit? COVID IS STUPID.  But I'm booked for two trips in 22 and I WILL BE GOING unless the world falls apart or something stupid. 

6. What would you like to have in 2022 that you didn't have in 2021? Pretty much the same answer as last year.  "Normal" life back.  And I don't mean that as much as I did then in the nostalgic "life before Covid" sense but more so in terms of us finding our routine and balance here in KS.  I feel like 21 was one long year of crazy. 

7. What dates from 2021 will be etched upon your memory, and why? September 23rd.  We drove from Houston to Wichita, KS.  Didn't quite make it all the way but it was 3/4 of a really long journey that was a really long time coming. 

8. What was your biggest achievement of this year? { 2021 answer: Not being admitted to a mental hospital. Seriously. } 2022 answer:  Same (ha!) but also surviving.  It felt like a long slog of a year due to all of the things we had going on as a family.  Every day was just a lot to get through.  

9. What was your biggest failure? It's complicated but it's all related to the way things ended at my job in Houston.  I shouldn't classify it as a failure, it's more just a sad state of affairs that things wound up the way they did.  Instead of failure, I think I'm landing on "crummiest thing" of the year. 

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? All three of us in our little family. We made it to the other side of some really crazy times and some really hard things. 

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? I wouldn't say appalled but a person in my family disappointed me in a lot of ways this year.  

14. Where did most your money go? Renovating the house (again, HA!), realtor commissions and closing costs, moving, restaurants while we lived in temporary housing, thankfully, OH SO THANKFULLY we got to spend some money traveling this year again. 

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? MOVING OUT OF HOUSTON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hawaii.  MOVING OUT OF HOUSTON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

16. What song will always remind you of 2021? Pretty much anything by Doja Cat, Levitating by Dua Lipa

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: a) happier or sadder? b) thinner or fatter? c) richer or poorer?

a) FIVE MILLION TIMES HAPPIER. Seriously.  Moving and subsequently turning 40 and losing a lot of the ability to give a fuck has been amazing for my mental wellbeing.  Also not working in a toxic hellhole with actual terrible people helps a lot.  Midwest Nice People make it really hard to be sad. 

b) a little thinner (thank goodness) but not by much.  Dammit.  Ooops.  Will remedy this in 2022. 

c) richer, thankfully.  But about to spend all the monies ripping apart our master suite. 

18. What do you wish you'd done more of? exercised.  I'm such a bitch without endorphins and I consistently suck ass at remembering that when life gets hard. 

19. What do you wish you'd done less of? waiting. It felt like I was always waiting for something this year. 

20. How did you spend Christmas? We drove home from Preston's wedding in Colorado and had 4 glorious days off that we spent organizing our house and garage and we had a really quiet day at home.  We went to the movies to see Sing 2 and it was kind of a debacle, life in the Covid world continues to be ridiculous at times. 

21. Did you fall in love in 2021? with Leawood, Kansas.  Aka Mayberry. 

22. What was your favorite TV program? Ted Lasso

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? probably not?  Other than really any politician that I was unaware of in 2020 and know now, I probably hate them.  

24. What was the best book you read? Atomic Habits

25. What was your greatest musical discovery? Doja Cat

26. What did you want and get? a move out of Houston

27. What did you want and not get? the move to have taken place before school started

28. What was your favorite film of 2020? Sing 2 was awesome, In the Heights was also great

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 40 and we went to Arizona for 5 days.  It was great, we got to climb Camelback, do the spa, cross two off the bucket list (Horseshoe Bend and Antelope Canyon), spend time with my cousin and we ate and drank a lot of really great food, including a best meal at Mariposa in Sedona.  Arizona just has a vibe that I dig so it was a very happy time.  

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Not having the Delta or Omicron variants. 

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept of 2021? having to actually buy business type wear

32. What kept you sane? the idea that we were GTFO Houston

33. What political issue stirred you the most? Covid continues to irritate me - how it's political, how one side is moronic in their feelings about how science works and how the other side continues to spew all this "we're ALL GOING TO DIE" rhetoric.  It's so dumb.  

34. Who did you miss? I miss our friends in Houston and moving so far away made me miss our friends in Dallas and Chicago quite a bit, too.  It was weird to feel homesickness pangs but not really for a place, more the idea that we weren't quite home. 

35. Who was the best new person you met? Pretty much everyone in my new department at work.  Everyone is incredibly nice, supportive and we have a lot of fun while getting shit done.  

36. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2021. 
I think I learned how to assert myself a little bit more and I also realized that I had to demand solutions to being sad and depressed, that life wasn't going to get better unless I worked toward that.  

Midpoint 2021 review!

Halfway (oops a little over) through review. Hoo boy, did not see a lot of this coming. 

1. Choose restaurants with intention, rather than "I'm tired. I'm hungry. Let's go for burgers and beer."

So much better about this in 2021. We did no restaurant month in January and crushed it. Even in times of chaos, we have been a lot more intentional about restaurants and choices. 

2. Complete at least one session with Stronger U and my coach.  (along with this comes macro tracking and being more mindful about the things I'm eating and drinking)

I spent 6 months with my coach through a LOT of ups and downs. ✅

3. Lose 30 lbs by my 40th birthday. (12/5/21)

Down 15 as of July. Have some work to do here. 

4. Go somewhere new.  This is going to be challenging but I'm going to make it happen. 

Goal I thought would be the hardest, was the easiest. ✅

• Big Island, Hawaii

• going to Monterey, CA this week

5. Go to a new National Park. 

Hawaii Volcanoes! Boom! ✅

6. Get my vaccination card!  Technically this all occurred in 2020 but I want that card of sweet, sweet beauty as proof. 

Got it in January! One upped myself and got Owen into a trial so he’s been vaccinated well before his peers! ✅

7. Remodel our master bathroom. 

Finished in early June! ✅

8. Go on a trip for my birthday.  I want to go to Germany but I'm trying not to get my hopes up. 

Sedona is booked! Hoping to get to Antelope Canyon if it’s reopened. 

9. Master our sourdough starter! 

Work in progress but I gave up trying in Houston. 

10. Run a half marathon before my birthday. 

Hmm. Not sure if I want to do this but I should have opportunity to in the fall if I want to. 

11. Figure out how to compost. 

Done! But leaving it in Houston 😂😬❌

12. Grow a garden. 

Had the best garden ever but it’s kind of crapping out at the moment because it NEVER STOPS RAINING. 

13. Keep my houseplants alive. 

😬❌ discovered that our house doesn’t have enough natural light. TBD on how this goes in Kansas. 

14. Figure out my next step in my career.  Goal is to not be in my same position by next January, however that happens. 

✅ and ❌ I quit my job so this goal will be met no matter what. Remains to be seen what the next step will be. 

15. Do another cooking class, even if that has to be virtual. 

Need to figure this out when we move. 

16. Take an iPhone photography class. 

Bought one and have yet to do it 🤦🏻‍♀️

17. Hike a mountain. 

Done! ✅ Gem Lake trail in RMNP. Going to do Camelback again in December. 

18. Get my CEOP and RSTBS certifications. 

❌❌ no longer applicable. 

Goals that are a hold over from 2020 - Let's try this again! 

19. Take Owen on another mother + son trip. 

Not sure how this will shake down but we spent a lot of time alone together in Kansas City on one of Adam’s work trips so does that count- ish?

20. Date night once a month

I think this has mostly been an abysmal fail although we are making up for it currently on Owen’s trip to Utah. 

21. Monthly budget.  I need to follow through with this and work to pay the car off. 

Shit. 😬

2020 To Do List Review

It's January 18th, can you tell I've been dreading this?  I've spent a lot of time in the last 2 plus weeks processing all the bullshit that was 2020 and this feels like the last step.  Let's close this book, shall we? 

 1. Leave the country at least once.  - Dammit.  Our Paris/Amsterdam trip was a dream trip.  We had direct flights, it was super inexpensive when we booked it.  I mourn that we may never get that lucky again.  I'm so sad we didn't get to go.  

2. Run the Chicago Marathon and beat my time from 2009.  Canceled. STUPID.  But it was helpful because I'm not sure I want to run 26 miles again.  Will have to think on it more. 

3. Take Owen on another mother/son trip. We never did this.  I hate that the window we had to travel was really March-May when it just wasn't possible but that was when it was most flexible for us in terms of virtual work and school.  

4. Keep working on strength and yoga classes (goal is 4X of each per week)  I did really well with this until I didn't.  The renovation really threw me off. 

5. Do at least one major house project to get it over with! Likely O's bathroom.  WELL! ONE THAT WE JUST CRUSHED.  We did Owen's bathroom, the entire kitchen, the powder room, the laundry room and a complete overhaul of the attic.  A full gut job.  Not to mention the millions of other little things we took care of. 

6. Date night once a month in Houston.  Another one we just lost track of in the chaos. 

7. Figure out better sleep habits with the Whoop.  I almost quit wearing it so many times this year.  It was the one thing I stayed committed to, even if I didn't do any of the things I need to for real success. 

8. Get back to 2017 fighting weight and eating habits.  Beyond epic fail.  The only time I've ever been heavier was the day I gave birth. 

9. Start budgeting every month with discipline. HAAA BUDGET? We blew that baby with All Restaurant Fall but no kitchen is a pretty good excuse. 

10.  Astros away game in Atlanta.  No fans were allowed but we did get to go to Atlanta. 

11. Go somewhere completely new.  OOOH I DID THIS! We did an awesome West Texas trip for Thanksgiving.  Big Bend, Terlingua, Marfa, Alpine, Ft. Davis. 

12.  Galleria staycation at Christmas and summer at the Marquis.  We wound up doing a night in Galveston before going back to work/school and a night at Memorial City for my birthday, I call it a win, we just adapted to the circumstances. 

13.  Do something creative, even if it's just one of those drunk painting places. Not really a great option this year. 

14. Take Owen to College Station.  We were scheduled to go in April.  Cancelled. 

15. Meet Pelo peeps at HRI and hopefully meet Jess Sims or Matt Wilpers!  DOOOONNNNNNEEEEE CHECK CHECK AND CHECK! NAILED IT! 

16. Continue to learn to be a better listener, you know, talk less, smile more.  Nope. 

17.  Let's try this again.  3/4 fruits or veggies with every meal.  Nope. 

18. Do something really fun for my birthday since it's A) on a Saturday and B) the big 3-9!  We did the best we could.  Enjoyed a haircut and color, an awesome brunch with Erin, a great dinner at Killen's and a fantastic suite at a hotel.  It was pretty darn alright for a covid birthday. 

19.  Reorganize things I can change at work.  I completed my three huge projects and we got 2 awards and a really big accreditation the district had never gotten before so I'd say this was a big success.  Docusign and covid solved a lot of my other issues for me :) 

20. Figure out my new retirement savings situation.  Crushed this.  We started an account with TD Ameritrade and faithfully put money in it.  My original Roth that I can't use anymore is just killing it right now so I feel pretty alright about the things I'm doing toward retirement. 

Phew, I guess all things considered, that wasn't all that bad! 

21 things for 2021

2020 felt like this thing that was happening to me, my overarching theme for 2021 is to be more intentional about everything I do.  And then to commit to all of the things that I'm being intentional about.  I want to feel good about turning 40 in December and entering the next decade of my life.  Here goes nothing: 

1. Choose restaurants with intention, rather than "I'm tired. I'm hungry. Let's go for burgers and beer."

2. Complete at least one session with Stronger U and my coach.  (along with this comes macro tracking and being more mindful about the things I'm eating and drinking)

3. Lose 30 lbs by my 40th birthday. (12/5/21)

4. Go somewhere new.  This is going to be challenging but I'm going to make it happen. 

5. Go to a new National Park. 

6. Get my vaccination card!  Technically this all occurred in 2020 but I want that card of sweet, sweet beauty as proof. 

7. Remodel our master bathroom. 

8. Go on a trip for my birthday.  I want to go to Germany but I'm trying not to get my hopes up. 

9. Master our sourdough starter! 

10. Run a half marathon before my birthday. 

11. Figure out how to compost. 

12. Grow a garden. 

13. Keep my houseplants alive. 

14. Figure out my next step in my career.  Goal is to not be in my same position by next January, however that happens. 

15. Do another cooking class, even if that has to be virtual. 

16. Take an iPhone photography class. 

17. Hike a mountain. 

18. Get my CEOP and RSTBS certifications. 

Goals that are a hold over from 2020 - Let's try this again! 

19. Take Owen on another mother + son trip. 

20. Date night once a month

21. Monthly budget.  I need to follow through with this and work to pay the car off. 

Ok. Let's do this. 

 2020 Year in Review

1. What did you do in 2020 that you'd never done before?
Where do I even start?

Lived through a global pandemic. 

Survived a major home renovation. 

Got an experimental vaccine as part of a pharmaceutical trial. 

Made it through a lot of really dark days where I wasn't even entirely sure I wanted to be alive anymore (that was the worst). 

Switched Owen's school at the literal last second.  That was a painful one. 

2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year? 

LOL. This question can suck it. Survival was all that was manageable. 

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? My stepsister had a baby in August, which totally sucked because we totally didn't get to celebrate the way we should have for someone's first baby. 

4. Did anyone close to you die? I'm trying to think back and I think this was maaaaaybe the only negative thing that didn't happen to us but with Covid, it felt like everyone was dying all the time.  Thankfully, in 2020, we only tangentially knew a couple of people who passed away. 

5. What countries did you visit? We were supposed to go to Cozumel 3 days after the world shut down. We also had a Paris/Amsterdam trip booked for November that didn't happen.  2020 CAN SUCK IT. 

6. What would you like to have in 2021 that you didn't have in 2020? NORMAL LIFE BACK. Travel. Big Events. Not having to wear a freaking mask everywhere. My family to be vaccinated. LESS DAMN STRESS. One thing I am getting is not having an egotistical maniac as President anymore!!!!!!! 

7. What dates from 2020 will be etched upon your memory, and why? March 11th.  I've written about it at length here but that is what I will always think of when I think of 2020. 

8. What was your biggest achievement of this year? Not being admitted to a mental hospital. Seriously. 

9. What was your biggest failure? Succumbing to stress all the time.  Drinking too much.  Spending too much money on restaurants.  Not finding a way to feel fulfilled without the things that normally fill my cup. 

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? I got sick (thanks O Bear!) with some sort of stomach bug big time in January.  I had immune response to both of my shots in Sept/October and I got food poisoning in October.  Other than that, I feel like they were all super minor and the fact that none of my household peeps got coronavirus is pretty excellent. 

11. What was the best thing you bought? my new house :) 

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? Owen.  He handled the pandemic and the mask wearing better than anyone.  The summer with him was hard but since he went back to school, he's been amazing.  

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? DONALD. J. TRUMP. He is such a child.  I hate him so much.  BYE FELICIA. 

14. Where did most your money go? House. Renovation. Buying Adam a new car. 

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Being done with the house!!! 

16. What song will always remind you of 2020? I can't remember the name of it but it's some song that comes on XM chill and it reminds me of the random days when you'd get in the car during the hard core shutdown and it was apocalyptic with no one else around and every business closed.     

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: a) happier or sadder? b) thinner or fatter? c) richer or poorer?

a) way sadder, I don't have words to even describe this.  I have hope for the future but man, I really did not see the bullshit that was 2020 coming.  I'm getting better at getting out of the black hole but I don't have that same innocence that I did at this time last year.  This is going to be the defining moment for our generation, our world war, our depression.  

b) ugh, way fatter. I gained so much weight. 

c) probably richer.  Our house is worth infinitely more now and we started screwing around with the stock market and have done really well.  

18. What do you wish you'd done more of? ordered salads, traveled, saw my family more

19. What do you wish you'd done less of? crying, having sleepless nights, being generally depressed

20. How did you spend Christmas? My in-laws and mom where here in Houston.  We had a great Christmas Eve dinner, opened presents on Christmas morning and then caught a plane to Las Vegas.  Enjoyed Christmas night at Mon Ami Gabi and got to enjoy a beer while watching live music at the Cabaret at Paris... it's the little things, live music was super hard to come by in 2020.  

21. Did you fall in love in 2020? not really

22. What was your favorite TV program? The Crown

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? Oh yes, it's not really a story to tell online but oooh boy, yes. 

24. What was the best book you read? I think I read some books? I have no idea. I'm finding this question exhausting. 

25. What was your greatest musical discovery? blah

26. What did you want and get? a Louis (except I can find a way to even be salty about this, ha, I was supposed to get it in Paris)

27. What did you want and not get? travel, for my kid to go back to school last spring

28. What was your favorite film of 2020? HAMILTON!!!! (except we watched it the day we were supposed to be seeing it at the Hobby Center, see ALL MY HOPES AND DREAMS WERE CRUSHED BY A VIRUS)

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 39.  Our house was almost done and they were there doing a TON of work to finish it so we stayed at the Westin Memorial City in an amazing suite.  We had dinner at Killen's STQ and I went to bed early.  I did get a haircut (woo!) and enjoyed a really fun brunch with a friend. 

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Having never heard the word coronavirus. 

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept of 2020? Daytime pajamas and nighttime pajamas.  Blurred lines. 

32. What kept you sane? HAAA. NOTHING. I was not sane. 

33. What political issue stirred you the most? This question really sucks for people who've just lived through the actual most ridiculous election cycle.  At least Trump lost, that was my only concern. 

But if you want to assume that BLM and women's rights are political issues, I'd say that stuff stirred me quite a bit, however, I don't believe that either of those are political.  Same with public health.  That is all human rights and human decency stuff. 

34. Who did you miss? Most of my friends and family.  I've come to realize that I completely suck at being a virtual friend. 

35. Who was the best new person you met? What is a stranger?  What is it like to meet new people? 

36. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2020. 
Pandemics suck.  I guess I learned how to wear a mask?