25 Before I'm 25

Well, my birthday was Saturday and I turned 24. I'm getting too old bleh. Dan and I went to breakfast (in the afternoon of course, gotta sleep in on your birthday) at Denny's for a free grand slam. Then we went to Seattle to go on the underground tour. It was way cool. When Seattle was first founded, it was built about 15 feet lower than it is now. Since it's right on the edge of the tide, they had a lot of problems with sewage draining since it was all dependent on gravity. Sometimes (and this totally grossed me out so I apologize ahead) the sewage would be coming down the one and only 6"x6" pipe for the whole town, and the tide would basically block the other end of the pipe and sometimes travel up the pipe. So there were forces coming from both directions. When this happened, if someone flushed their "crapper" a geiser of sewage would shoot up out of the toilet about 4 to 6 feet high. Freaking gross. So between that and a huge fire, they decided to rebuild the city 15 feet above where it originally was. They didn't tear down the old city or anything, just built right on top of it. Some of it still remains so that's what we toured. It was a little creepy but cool. Then we went to the 35th floor of the Smith building for a lookout. I got to practice using my new camera a lot so that was nice. Pictures to come. (Lauren--it's a Nikon D3000.) Then we finished the day with Red Robin and The Office. One of my favorite birthdays.

Our talks went pretty well yesterday and we're glad they're over. A couple in our ward (we knew them from over the summer) invited us over for dinner last night, so we went and it was really fun. They're at least 10 years older than us so I was worried I would seem lame and childish but we had a great time. They are expecting their first baby after a very long wait, so they are so excited and we're really happy for them.

Well, I warned Lauren that I'd probably be stealing her # before I'm # idea because I really like it, and it'll give me some fun goals to keep myself busy with. So here's a list of 25 things I'd like to do before I turn 25. (I can't believe that's the next age I have to turn, that's halfway to 50!!!)

1. Get good enough at photography to do paid sessions. And do a few.
2. Since we live near Seattle and the west coast, learn to like seafood (or at least try it a few times).
3. Read more. At least one book per month.
4. Write my life history up to this point.
5. Lose 20 pounds.
6. Run a 5K.
7. Be more diligent about temple attendance and go at least twice per month.
8. Take voice lessons.
9. Crochet something awesome.
10. Start and complete a sewing project.
11. Come up with a better system to organize food (we have very little storage space in the kitchen).
12. Go on at least five hikes (not the biggest hiking fan but we live so close to so many hiking spots).
13. Do better about sharing the gospel. Step out of my comfort zone and invite someone to church.
14. Put more of an effort into doing my hair, or cut it.
15. Don't complain as much--be more positive.
16. Keep our bedroom tidy. (I love that word!)
17. Make new friends.
18. Plant something as close as I can to a garden on our porch.
19. Do better budgeting.
20. Do family indexing at least twice a month.
21. This goal I'm not posting yet in case I can't finish it within a year. Haha.
22. Write more frequently in my journal--at least once per month (I know, it's bad).
23. Stay diligent in my scripture study.
24. Do fun and/or productive things on Saturdays.
25. Brush up on my Spanish and maybe take a refresher course. Especially brush up my gospel-related vocabulary since there're so many new members/investigators that are Hispanic in our ward. Start reading the Book of Mormon in Spanish and get through Mosiah. (I know that's not hefty but it's hard for me to read the BoM in Spanish! Takes forever haha)