August 2010 Progress

Completed in August: 2/101
Current Total: 26/101

5. Read 101 books (63/101).
I read 5 books this month, bringing my total to 63.

74. Visit 5 places in the NC region I've never been to before (4/5).

We've just gotten home from a week at the beach in Emerald Isle, NC. I've put lots more photos on my main blog, but we really enjoyed the beach here. It was so uncrowded, even on the last week before school started back. We are hoping to make an annual family beach vacation, and would definitely visit Emerald Isle again!

7. Take Liam hiking.

This morning, I brought Liam hiking at Umstead State Park. It is a wonderful state park right here in the middle of the Triangle that Bill, Lacy and I used to hike at all the time before Liam came along. We chose an easy, 1.4 mile loop and set off.

Liam really enjoyed that our trail led alongside a stream!




We saw a hawk, some squirrels, and several of these millipedes:

Liam did great, and enjoyed looking at various leaves and pine cones that had fallen along the trail. There was a slight miscommunication where he thought we were hiking to a playground, and he was disappointed when he realized that was not the case, but he enjoyed himself anyway. He got tired about 2/3rds through, and I carried him for a little while.


Snack time at the lookout deck



This was a lot of fun, and I hope we can do it again soon. I have so many wonderful memories of hiking with my dad and sister when I was growing up, and I hope to create some of the same memories for Liam. I wish I could have brought Lacy with us today, it felt wrong hiking without her, but I didn't think I could handle the two of them by myself. Maybe next time, we'll go on a weekend so that Bill and Lacy can come along too!

14. Try 5 new foods, 18. Eat at 10 local restaurants, and 100. Try Indian food.

Bill's parents had Liam over for dinner tonight, so Bill and I seized another opportunity for a non-munchkin-friendly meal. We headed first for Waraji for sushi, but for like the 3rd time in a row, they were closed when we got there. I am SO done with them - must find a new sushi restaurant! Anyway, we decided to try Azitra in Brier Creek for Indian. I've always wanted to try Indian food, but was afraid I wouldn't know what to order and had been waiting around to go with someone who knew their way around the menu.

In the end, I don't know what we were waiting for, neither of us had ever had Indian before, but we did just fine on our own LOL, and it was really good! I got chicken tikka masala (because I'd heard of it before haha) and Bill had chicken curry. We also got an order of naan bread. It was all delicious! We will definitely be eating here again.

July 2010 Progress

Completed in July: 0/101
Current Total: 24/101

5. Read 101 books (58/101).
I read 12 books this month, another record - I am on a total book reading binge right now! This brings my total to 58.

I am a year into this challenge, and should be at least 1/3rd of the way through my list of goals, but as you can see, I'm only about a quarter of the way through. Time to step it up, or I'm going to be owing a lot of money to charity when this is over LOL!