My 26th Birthday Today (and 30 Before 30 List)

Today is my birthday! I am 26. It feels weird, but this year has definitely been better leading up to my birthday than last year. When I turned 25, I panicked. It did NOT feel okay to hit that "milestone", and I had a small quarter-life crisis. 26 is different because THIS IS MY YEAR. This is the age I will finally marry my handsome fiancé. This is the year for all sorts of exciting things!

Just for funsies, here are two pictures of my on my REAL birth day and one from last year when I turned 25 (at my favorite restaurant in Colorado Springs, Amanda's Fonda (superb Mexican, EXCELLENT margaritas, and fantastic rum cake):

In honor of my birthday, I decided to compile a 30 Before 30 List. Basically, these are 30 things I want to accomplish BEFORE I turn 30. Get it? I've got four years to achieve the following.

30 BEFORE 30 List

1. Get Married (less than a year!)

2. Travel to Europe

3. Get something published somewhere

4. Take a photography class

5. Finish writing a second novel

6. Skydive

7. Paint walls inside a house

8. Travel to South America

9. Sell *more* items on Etsy

10. See a movie alone in a theater

11. Have a baby

12. Run a marathon

13. Learn how to sew (simple things)

14. Host a Christmas dinner for more than three people

15. Travel to Africa

16. Create a cookbook of my favorite recipes

17. Visit 10 states I haven’t been to

18. Become fluent in French

19. Start learning German

20. Go out to dinner (at a real restaurant) alone

21. Swim with fish (terrified)

22. Try going vegan for a month (already vegetarian)

23. Pay for a stranger’s meal

24. Participate in a Bible study with other women

25. Go on (another) hot air balloon flight

26. Ski a “blue” run

27. Adopt a dog (hopefully a high-energy large breed)

28. Travel somewhere alone

29. Teach in a state other than Colorado

30. Live in (at least) three different states

So, what do you think of my list? 
Would you have anything similar on yours? 
Have you done any of these things?
Do you have any advice for me? 

One Year Older

Today is a very special day. Someone I love very much turns another year older today. Any guesses?

That's right -- my incredible, wonderful, supportive, amazing, super-handsome fiancé turns 24 today!

Happy birthday, Cadet Lovemuffin! 

But in all seriousness, he is my rock, and I am SO happy to have spent his 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, and now 24th birthday with him! 

I didn't make something for Dan for once... it's surprising to even me! I actually bought him a gift. At a store. A real store. Isn't that crazy?! He's going to be shocked only because he has received nothing but homemade things for a long while. Oops. 

I will be meeting him for a marriage class at our church and then taking him out for a birthday dinner tonight... but we both have really big days ahead of us tomorrow, so that'll have to do! :)

Also, one of my students has a strange infatuation with Dan. She loves writing letters to him, and she gets SO excited when he writes back to her. I told her this morning that it was his birthday. She asked how old he would be, so I told her 24. At the end of the day, she brought me a giant card she had made for him. I blurred out her last name and some of the personal part! 

Earlier, I wrote this post before I met up with Dan... here's a picture of the birthday boy with his celebratory ice cream at Texas Roadhouse!