25 by 25: Let the FUN begin!

Since today is my birthday, I am starting a fun, year long adventure. I am sure y'all have heard of these types of lists before, but my inspiration came from some fellow blog friends. Miss Football, Almost Gypsy Soul, and A Desert Girl each did one of these lists last year before thier 30th birthday and like all good blog ideas, I am borrowing it. So here it is, the 25 things I want to complete from now until my 25th birthday.

1. Graduate with my PharmD and become a practicing pharmacist.  This one is pretty self explainatory, but definitely my number one goal for this year.
2. Complete a craft project once a month. I have a constant list on my phone of craft projects I want to complete, so this one won't be too hard and a lot of fun!
3. 25 Random Acts of Kindness. This one will be completed the 25 days preceding my birthday. Besides that, it is pretty self explanatory.
4. Send a surprise in the mail to a loved one once a month. I probably have a million things I have pinned on Pinterest that I want to make, plus I love sending people things in the mail. It always warms my heart when I receive a letter or something unexpectedly in the mail so I want to reciprocate the felling to my friends.
5. Travel to 2 different states. I have been to 23 states, so I want to add 2 more to get me to an even 25 before my 25.
6. Anonymously pay off somebody's electric bill during the winter.  I think I heard about this one on the news my first year of pharmacy school and I just remember thinking what a great idea that was. Since I will finally have a job that I can afford to help somebody out like that, I am very excited for the opportunity.
7. Volunteer my time where it is needed. This one is pretty open to variability. I just want to spend some time volunteering and giving back. I am not quite sure how or where I plan on volunteering my time. So if y'all have any suggestions of good opportunities, I am all ears.
8. Knock off 5 bucket list items. This one is going to be fun! There are so many options to choose from, where should I start?
9. Try 12 new restaurants. Sometimes I get stuck in my rut and don't explore with anything. I go to the same restuarants I always go to, eat the same things I always like, and don't venture out. So here we go with 12 new restuarants.
10. Make blessing bags to keep in my car. This one is all over the internet and Pinterest. We also made some of these for CPFI (Christian Pharmacist Fellowship International) and they were a huge hit. Here is a link that explains the general idea of them.
11. Run a race. Last July I made a goal for myself to learn to love to run within the year. I have gotten to where I enjoy it now, but I have yet to run in an actual race. I did do a virtual race last Thanksgiving, so I guess that kind of counts.
12. Pray a voiceless prayer. This one was on Miss Football's list & I fell in love with the idea. I mainly just want to work on strengthening my relationship with God so this is really a two-part task I am looking forward to doing.
13. Call a loved one once a week. This was actually my G-Ma's idea and I love it. Now when G-Ma suggested it, Papa informed me that it couldn't be 5 calls a day to my Mom while I learn how to cook. Of course the first thing I had to do was inform him that I knew how to cook, then I added it to the list.
14. Try 24 new recipes. This one obviously came from the challenge listed above. Evidently somebody is vastly underestimating my cooking skills. Perhaps he did not remember my skills I picked up during 4-H favorite foods contests. 
15. Watch a new movie each week. If y'all know anything about me, you know that I am a huge movie fan! I am always interested in checking out the latest movie, but 52 new movies will certainly be a challenge and a little piece of sanity for me to look f0rward to.
16. Redesign my blog. It is in a desperate need of renovation. Enough said.
17. Buy a new nail polish once a month. Everybody has that one thing that they do as an instant mood booster; mine happens to painting my nails. I have been slowly trying to improve my nail art skills and I think this will be a fun way to work on that.
18. Paint a piece of art (probably a skyline). During my rotations I had in T or C last year, I met a patient that was absolutely adorable. He used to be a musical composer that organized an international concerts for over 15 years. Well after he hit his 90s, his hearing gave out on him. One day he came home and his wife had an easel set up with a picture and told him to paint it. After he stopped admitting his lack of confidence in his painting skills, he finished the painting; since then he has had a sweet past time hobby. So since I have an insane obsession with skylines, the inspiration was born.
19. Adopt a new soldier. I adopted a soldier for the first time last year and absolutely loved it. It was definitely one of my favorite things I have done. It was a great way to give back to those who risk their lives to protect our freedom and ended up being the highlight of my week each time.
20. Plan a trip to Europe. I have planned on visiting Europe since I was a little girl, so here it is. Now for those of you *cough*Miss Football*cough* that have been to Europe, I will take suggestions on all the hot spots to visit. I may not be able to go to Europe this next year, depending on a job and what not, but I want to get the trip in the books for sure.
21. Apply for the Amazing Race. O-Chem Friend has wanted to apply for the Amazing Race as long as I have known him. Well obviously over the years and having our relationship develop, I have also became interested. With that being said, we are going to apply for the Amazing Race! The application process is a little different than I was expecting, so I will certainly have to do more research, but I am very excited about it all!
22. Jamie Eason Live Fit Program. This year I have been working on getting my happy butt back into shape and this program I have heard lots of good results about. This one I am planning on completing after I get settled in to a town & job.
23. Find a financial planner. As y'all know, I am about to become a big girl with a big girl job and along with that comes responsibility to start paying off stuff like student loans and what not (but whose keeping track) :) Since I am going to be going from a student financial status to a pharmacist status, I figured I should get some hep with 401K and stuff.
24. Explore a city I have never been to. The name pretty much gives it away, but I haven't decided yet which city to visit. I am kind of leaning towards Washington D.C. right now, but I am still up for suggestions.
25. Donate money to a St. Luke's Children's Hospital. I think since I decided I wanted to practice in the health care industry, I have had a connection with St. Luke's. Now that I have (or will have) a job, I am excited to start donating to an awesome cause.

Alright now that I have it all listed, let the fun begin. Each month I will post a blog catching y'all up on everything I have completed that month.

This little gem I stole from Almost Gypsy Soul:

I reserve the right to add, delete and amend this list however I see fit throughout the year.

Bring on the Super Bowl Baby

I am just slightly behind on my blog posting and picture posting via facebook, I apologize. Laker Lover was kind enough to point it out to me that I still have not uploaded pictures to fb from October.. yikesss! Luckily I have access to fulltime internet now so I have been playing catch up. If we are friends on fb, you already got picture overloaded.

Since the Super Bowl is tomorrow, I guess I better talk about my trip to Denver to see Peyton win the AFC Championship game! Here we go folks . . . 

 

Check out the photo-bomber behind me. Haha

As for the most recent adventure, we, Laker Lover, her dad & I, went to the AFC Championship game in Denver. Yep, that's right, feel free to be jealous. So here's how it went down. . . 
 
Friday ~11:30pm
As LL & I were getting ready for bed:
LL: Dude, why didn't we think about going to the AFC game? As much as you love Peyton Manning & with it being in Denver, it was dumb of us not to look.
Me: I know, we really dropped the ball on that one. Well lets look up tickets just for the heck of it and see how crazy they are.
*LL typing away on her phone & believe it or not still finds tickets*
LL: I found some tickets that aren't too crazily priced. What do you think?
Me: *Trying to make a logical decision and not a irrational one* Well it would be an absolute blast, but that's kind of crazy us going tomorrow. (Now mind you LL had to work from 2-6pm, so we wouldn't be leaving until 7pm at the earliest.)
LL: I know it is, but heck we are only young once. Plus how many other chances are you going to have to see Peyton play. (Earlier in the week there were stories about the clause in his contract that could potentially end his career after this season if he does not pass vigorous tests of his neck.)
Me: You're right, let me sleep on it and we will decide tomorrow morning.
 
Saturday
The entire reason we were in ABQ for the weekend were to take our composite pictures for pharmacy school which were schedule at 1 pm. 

After the pictures, ready to hit the road!

So while we were getting ready for the pictures, we were seriously talking about going to the game. She called her Dad and got his opinion (which he decieded to come with us) and I called my parents to get their input. My parents told me that if it was within my budget, I should definintely go! With that being said, we started planning the trip. Miss Artesia was sweet enough to cover LL's shift at work, LL's Dad printed out the tickets for us, and agreeded to meet us in Las Vegas, NM. From there we all headed up together. We made it to Colorado Springs before we stopped for dinner and a little shopping fun. We all ended up getting a new coat, mine just happens to a pretty teal color.

After dinner we made the short treck to our hotel and checked in for the night. Luckily for me LL & her dad used to live in Castle Rock so they had our game day routine already planned out. So the only thing left was to take a picture in our Peyton gear & teal accent. :)

Sunday

Before we knew it, it was time to get up & get ready for the big game. After we got ready, we headed down to the light rail. It made things so much nicer than having to fight traffic and find parking. Into the city we went, stop by stop picking up a few more Bronco fans along the way. By the time we got to the stadium we had a car filled with blue and orange pride. We poured out of the car and followed the crowd. Along our way we found some places to get some beads and a logo painted on our cheek. After we got to the stadium we did a little pregame exploring and picture taking before we got in line to head in at 11.

 

 

Once we made it inside we went down to the bottom deck and snapped a few shots close to the field. We got to see some of the players warming up, like Eric Decker, no big deal. Well while we were down there, camped out by one of the locker room tunnels I might add, guess who walked by? Yep, you guessed it, John Elway. Let me repeat myself, John Elway, one of the best NFL quarterbacks. Now I am not a die hard Bronco fan (y'all know its all about my boy Peyton & the Colts), but come on, John stinkin' Elway walked passed me; pretty cool y'all pretty cool!

 

Down on the field.

Eric Decker. NBD.
Between him & Wes Welker they are probably the only two players
besides Peyton I would recognize. 

I got spotted snapping pictures. Oops.

John Elway.

About an hour before kickoff we headed up to our seats and started listening to the stadium coming alive. The energy was unreal! Every seat had an orange pom pom and by the time they started announcing the players, there was a sea of orange flinging around. By this time I felt like a kid on Christmas times about a million. I had just went to the bathroom and no joke felt like I could go again. Then they announce Peyton (Do you guys like how I feel like I am on a first name basis with him? Haha) the crowd errupts and I had a mild panic attack, in a good way of course.

 

Peyton running out. The field went crazy when they heard his name. Naturally.

& his first time out of the field. It was game over after that.

After the we won the kickoff and elected to defer, it was on. Tom Brady and his crew came on to the field. Mind you, I can appreciate a good athlete when I see one, but I sure do not like Brady or his coach for that matter. In fact we had a few Pats fans sitting infront of us at the game and that was the source of my trash talking. I did still keep the trash talking polite, but I can't say the same for some of the people around me. There were people in their 70s that were talking some serious trash to the few Pats fan scatter through the stadium. It was quite hysterical. This one lady in particular was giving it to the poor fans, especially when they started keeping quiet because lets face it, Tom Brady is no Peyton Manning; on or off the field. I mean seriously, how could you not like Peyton, he is a class act, but thats a topic for another blog.

That crazy lady I was talking about. 

The Fray.

 

Final score: Broncos 26, Patriots 16. Suck it Brady.

 

By the time the game was winding down, the crowd hit an entire different level of loud. You could feel the excitement pulsing through the stadium as Peyton (and I guess the Broncos too) captured the AFC Championship. We stayed around for the festivities, then made our journey back home. It was by far one of the best weekends/36 hours of my life. I got to see one of my sports idols not only win a game, but head to the big dance. I would say that is a pretty fair Bucket List item checked off!

Now the only thing left to say today is,

GOOOOO PEYTON!