Looking Forward

It has been quite a month. I missed two days but it has been a good experience to write every day and think back on my life and the experiences I've had that have been important, good or instructive. On this last day of November and my blogging extravaganza, I want to look forward to the future and list what I hope to experience someday.

In no particular order:

1. Europe. I really want to go to Europe and do some serious exploring. Bring on Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. I want to see the Nuschwanstein castle, eat pizza next to a canal in Venice, climb the Eiffel Tower, eat French cheese, see the Matterhorn, visit the Sistine Chapel and swim in the Mediterranean Sea. I'd love to go back to England too and see it all over again.

2. Celebrate our first Christmas in our new house. This year is so weird because we're moving right before the holiday so no decorating, no time to bake, no setting up the electric train or the advent calendar and no huge Douglas fir in my front room. So I am super excited for next year and how fun it will be to decorate a new space, put lights all over our new house and make Christmas Eve dinner in my double oven.

3. Family trip to Disney World. I can't wait to introduce my kids to this magical place. I love going there so much on my own and I can only imagine how much better it will be with my kids who hopefully will love it and feel the magic just like I do. My kids are pretty excitable and enjoy new experiences so I anticipate it being a pretty amazing trip. Just a few more years!

4. More time with extended family. I hope that as my kids get a bit older that it will get easier for us to travel and spend time with family. Right now I feel like a traveling circus when we hit the road with our two pack and plays, our high chair, our suitcase of diapers and wipes, our bottles and formula, our blankets and pacifiers and reading lights and stuffed animals. But someday it will get easier and I hope that means we will get to spend more time visiting my sisters and good friends and people who don't live within a 20 minute radius.

5. Temple dates with my husband. It will be fun when our kids are all in school and we can have an all-day date on his Fridays off. I especially look forward to being able to go to the temple without paying $70 for babysitting. It sounds like such a great way to spend the day together and then it won't take away from family time in the evenings, which is already so limited.

6. My kids getting baptized. I love having little kids. It is a lot of work but it is simple and straight forward for the most part. So I'm not rushing for them to grow up at all but I think it will be a pretty special day when they each get baptized at age 8. I am excited for them to make the decision to follow Jesus Christ and officially join the church. I clearly remember the day I got baptized and I'm excited for my kids to have that experience and to share it with them.

7. Someday helping out with parents or children in some kind of family group. I will have to find the right fit but I think it would be cool someday to help teach a parenting class or in some way protect or help children growing up in bad homes. This is not a very defined idea for me yet but I feel drawn to helping improve our society by helping families succeed.

8. Long term, I hope someday to own a home on the beach. I would love to wake up to the sound of ocean waves each morning and hope to spend hours reading on a deck overlooking the ocean. I hope to swim in the waves and watch lighting storms over the water and never ever see a shark.

Thanks to the loyal five readers I have who kept me going this month. It has been a fun journey and I appreciate you sharing it with me. I have much for which to be grateful and have experienced some wonderful things in life and it has been good to remember. Now it is time to move on....quite literally. I'll be back in January!