Well hello there!

I realize that I said I would be posting every day, but see, I've been gone for two weeks.  And I had every intention of posting while I was gone, but I was having way too much fun!

So, where does that leave us?  I have 30 before 30 posts to post, and I'm going to keep posting those, but I'm not going to do 1 a day, because there's more I want to say to you besides my list!  I've recently started cooking a LOT and I want to share with you about that, and I've been doing a lot of little projects, too, and I want to share about that.

There's more to life than just what happens on a list, but I'll get my list covered eventually.  :)  Meanwhile, I'm starting on my new list to hit before 31. 

And you can tell everybody that this is your song...

#2. Publish some music.

This is one I didn't actually accomplish.  However, I did absolutely everything in my power to accomplish it, so I'm checking it off.  I sent off a piece to a publisher, and actually never heard back from them.  Although they promise to reply back by the 6-8 week time point, they didn't.  That's a little unprofessional if you ask me, especially since they ask for you to wait to send your piece to anyone else until you hear from them, but that's life I guess.  

This is still one of my goals in life though, so I haven't given up on this one.  I'm going to continue to write (and arrange, which I LOVE to do), and one of these days, I will be a published composer!  

Tell me music friends - is there any need for an on-demand arranger for the random instruments our small churches have?  That's something else I've been pondering lately - offering my arranging services to other music ministers.  Well there you go - sorry this one wasn't more exciting!

I want to go far away to a new life on a new shore line...

#21. Take a trip with Kyle.

#22. Miss a Sunday of church.

I'm grouping these together, because they were grouped together in real life!  I hadn't missed a Sunday of church since October of 2009, so I was far due for a weekend away!  Plus, we had been through so much the past few years, we really needed a weekend away to just be us for awhile.  So, Memorial Day weekend we headed out.  

To Grapevine.

We figured since we just moved there, we can now go back and visit!  Sunday morning, we slept in, had a lovely lunch at Fuzzy's, did some shopping, and headed off to the Gaylord!  We had a blast!  It was wonderful to get away for a day, and we really enjoyed getting a couples massage, eating a really nice restaurant "outdoors", where my allergies wouldn't be bothered, and visiting the new waterpark that had just opened that weekend!  It was really a wonderful time away, and much needed.  

I'm just a cheeseburger in paradise...

#16.  Try a new recipe every week. 

It's no secret that when I got married, my repertoire of food prep was very limited.  This is nothing against my parents in the least, but in the country, we just didn't eat much else besides meat and potatoes.  Add that with being poor for quite awhile, and there you go.  This was one of my favorites on this list.  I became obsessed with trying new recipes.  In fact, I quit posting about it, because almost everything I was trying was new.   Even when I had a week where I couldn't cook, I was trying new things at restaurants!  Kyle would suggest cooking one of our usuals, like spaghetti or taco salad, and honestly, I just didn't want it.  I wanted something different and new.  My new found fun has continued, and now that we are settled in our new house, I'm cooking more new things (which I hope to start featuring in this blog after the 30 before 30 is done!)  Here's a few things I cooked this week (and there was some great cantaloupe at the store, so we had some every day):

I've got the world on a string...

#24. Learn to play the hammered dulcimer.

I got some push back on this one.  Kyle didn't care that I had wanted to play this for a long time, he wasn't crazy about letting me do this.  We looked into renting one, taking lessons, and well, none of these things were really possible without me moving to a state where I needed to also churn my own butter.  So, we ordered the dulcimer.  When I opened the box, I stared down at all the strings and thought, "What in the world was I thinking?!"  I wasn't sure I would be able to do this.

Now, I'm still no dulcimer pro, but I've learned a couple of songs, and learned the main strings, and I'm learning some new techniques.  I mastered one song well enough to be able to play it at church on June 26th for our Bluegrass Sunday!  I look forward to using it in worship more! (Stef and I staged these pictures, but here's me in action!)

With nothin' on but the radio...

#10. Clean out the clothes I will never ever wear again, either because they won't fit,

or no 30 year old should wear them.

I already blogged about this here. Of course, this is no longer my closet, but all that stuff got transferred neatly into my new (although smaller) closet.  What has been fun, though, is putting more things IN my closet.  Since I've been losing some weight, I'm enjoying picking things out again, and I'm enjoying my clothes!  Happy for me, sad for our checking account! 

Work it, make it, do it, makes us harder, better, faster, stronger...

#1. Lose weight.

Now, I didn't lose as much weight as I would have liked to, but I achieved a better goal, I think.  At the end of April, Kyle and I made some decisions.  We weren't living the healthy life we wanted to live, so we made some changes.  We committed ourselves to eating better and working out on a regular basis.  It's really hard.  Its's still hard after a few months.  I like to eat, and I hate to run.  I like being skinny though, and if I'm honest, I really do feel better.  So - here's the photographic evidence I promised!

At Christmas:

On my birthday:

 So not a huge weight loss, but I'm more toned and happy to be healthier!

Oops...

I totally missed the weekend on my posts.  My bad, guys.  I'll leave you with three posts throughout the course of the day, so watch for them!  First up: 

#12. Kyle

You didn't really think I would write a whole post on this one did you?  Pshhh...  :)

With so much drama in the l-b-c, it's kinda hard bein Snoop d-o-double-g...

#5. Throw Kyle a great 30th Birthday Party.

I already blogged about this one when it actually happened, but I just wanted to touch on it again.  I threw Kyle a ghetto party for his 30th birthday.  It was an absolute blast!  The costumes were hilarious, and the food was, well, trashy.  This was our last big bash in our old house, and it was really fun to bring the ghetto to our little white suburban neighborhood.  Kyle and I had a blast going to Wal-Mart and picking up fake tattoos, press on nails, and wife beaters, and I had fun trying to cover up my tattoo that wouldn't come off for church the next day! 

All in all, it was VASTLY different from my 30th, but so much fun!  

Want to design my book cover?

Want a chance to design a book cover?  :)

Send me a cover design or just a pitch by Wednesday, July 13th, and I'll pick the winner by Friday the 15th!  Here's the details:

Book Title: To Hymn We Sing
Subtitle: A Collection of 53 Devotionals on Hymn Texts
Author:  (me, duh.)  Michelle D. Gibson

Here's the template for the cover!  (Use the 5.5 by 8.5 cover template)

http://www.instantpublisher.com/covertemplates.asp

The winner gets a copy of the book, extreme notoriety among your friends, and a $20 Starbucks card.   Can't wait to see your designs!  Email them to www.michellegibson.net!

Today I finally overcame trying to fit the world inside a picture frame...

#19. Take at least one picture every day. 

This is one I didn't think all the way through.

Really, Michelle?  One picture every day?  Seriously.  The goal behind this one is that I had really stopped taking pictures.  Due to the "rough years" of our life, I didn't want to document anything.  It was depressing and I didn't want to take pictures of it.  I did well for awhile, then I realized I was taking pictures just to take pictures.  Well, that wasn't the point at all.  So I started doing what this was intended to accomplish - take pictures of my life!

Here's a little sample of my picture taking:

Please don't stop the music!

#4. Write a business plan for a music studio.

This is going to be a fairly boring post.  The more I thought about this, the more I realized: I didn't want to do it.  My long term goal is not to be running a full store music studio.  I like the size it is now!  So, with that, I decided I was happy where my studio was, and I wasn't going to change it.  I do leave you with a picture of my adorable studio from our Christmas recital.  :)

Shopping for labels, shopping for love...

#25. Watch the entire series of Sex and the City.

Seriously?  What in the world was I thinking of when I decided on this one?  I don't have time to watch that much tv in six months!  Since I couldn't fit all that tv in, I decided on the next best thing:

I watched the movie. 

Yes, I know, it's not what I planned on, but sometimes, adjustments have to be made!  The point of me watching this was to watch ladies in their 30s being fabulous, and the movie was a good reminder.  I did, however, promise Jenica to watch all of the shows before I turn 31!

Girls Just Wanna have Fun...

#8 Start a once a month bunco group.

This one took a little while to get together.  In fact, we started this on June 30th - the very last night of my 20s!  If you aren't familiar with bunco, it's a dice game usually played by a group of women.  You roll the dice to get points and there's a lot of switching tables and screaming and wine.  Normally a group is 12 people, but to start out, we only had 6.  It was a blast!  We had wine and munchies and lots of fun!  I can't wait for the next one!

My heart is drenched in wine...

I know I said I was going to write about losing weight today, but I have some great photographical evidence for you, and my friend that has them is on her anniversary vacay, so for now, you get a different one.  Besides, my blog, my list, I write what I want!

#15 - Decide on a go to cocktail.

I love wine.  I really do.  Not in an "I can't live without it" way, but in an "oh, you make life so much sweeter" kind of way.  It's great with any kind of dinner, on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, or just as a wind down after a long day kind of drink.  

For me, it has to be white wine, and I prefer it to be a little sweet.  Riesling is my favorite!  When trying to come up with what my go to cocktail was, I tried to think about something I always thought to order that was mostly available.  Wine was it.  I enjoy it so much, I had a wine party for my birthday!

They say it's your birthday...

The big 3-0 has come and gone, and I have to say, it was a blast!  In fact, I'm still celebrating.  I promised a blow by blow blogging of my list, so I'm going to start a little out of order: 

#30 - Say goodbye to my 20s in style!

Thursday morning, the day before my actual birthday, I came into the office to find this:

My super sweet coworkers had decorated my door!  I want to keep this up all year!  Thursday night held our very first bunco night (more about that in the bunco post!), and it was a blast.  I had so much fun with the girls and went to bed happy and content about my last night as a 20 something.  

Friday morning, I woke up early (I'm old now, that's what we do), and started the day off with a massage, a brow wax, and a shower.  Steffi met me for lunch, shopping for the perfect birthday dress, and a little mani/pedi.  When our hubbies got home from work, we had some birthday tacos at Fuzzy's, and then it was party time!

Yall know I love me some wine, so what better place to have my birthday party than a winery?  I decided to have a small and classy birthday bash year, so the winery closed down except for me and about 15 of my closest friends, and we got to talk, reminisce, eat wonderful cupcakes, and drink some delicious wine!  We stayed up way too late and the day was jam packed, but jam packed full of fun.  I'm excited to get to continue birthday fun today with my family!

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post:  #1 - Lose weight!