15 Things for 2015: July Check-In

Hello and happy July 1st! I'm pumped for this holiday weekend. 3 day of relaxing with friends and family sounds marvelous.

Here's my progress report on my 15 Things for 2015 so far:

1. Try 6 new recipes that aren't desserts (and post the review/recipe on here).Finally got this to 4! I put my new Skinnytaste cookbook to good use and made her Bangin' Good Shrimp. It was delish, quick to make, and the sauce (which was to die for) was only 3 ingredients! I definitely need to try out another one of her recipes for this month.You can see the other recipes I've made here, here and here. 
2. Read 5 new books. Read 10 new books. I finished my 5th book last month, so I want to up this to 10 for the year. I think this is definitely do-able since N got me a Kindle Voyage for my birthday. I was so anti e-reader, but I can officially say I've seen the light! It's the perfect size, lightweight and it looks exactly like a book page. I'm kind of obsessed. 
1. Bossypants by Tina Fey
2. Is Everyone Hanging Out With Me? by Mindy Kaling
3. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins (seriously, SO good!)
4. First Frost by Sarah Addison Allen
5. The Vacationers by Emma Staub
3. Try something that takes me out of my comfort zone. I could probably name off two big ones for me: pushing myself skiing (hello black diamond runs!) and flying 8 (yes, freaking 8) times over the 6 day trip for work to Puerto Rico, Barbados and Trinidad. I'm still thinking there's an even bigger one though that I'd like to get to this year...
4. Take pictures for at least 4 family functions. Two down, two more to go. I plan on taking LOTS of pictures for my nephew's first birthday this Sunday! Helloooo baby picture overload. 
1. Family Ski Vacation - Colorado
2. Little Brother's Graduation
5. Hang pictures of family/friends on the walls (this sounds simple, but our home has had nearly bare walls...for almost 2 years). Completed! 
   
6. Send a birthday card in the mail to 3 6 friends/family members. Halfway there! I had sent 2 cards previously, and in June sent my BFF in Minnesota a b-day present and card. The time spent at the Postal Office waiting in line was totally worth the sweet text she sent me after she got them!
7. Do an act of kindness. I paid for a person's coffee behind me a couple weeks ago, but it felt a little too easy. I'm keeping this one as incomplete for now.
8. Visit 3 places I've never been before. Complete! Our trip to NC was 7 days of pure bliss. I'm kicking myself for not writing a recap, but we had the most amazing, relaxing time with our friends. My next trip will probably be to Boston to visit N while he's training for his job up there, but I've been before so sadly this can't go on the list. 
1. Trinidad
2. Barbados
3. Puerto Rico
4. North Carolina
9. Follow a clean eating or whole 30 plan for a week (hopefully longer, but baby steps, right?)LOLOL. Yea, this hasn't happened. It needs to, but all the prep work for a Whole 30 diet (even if it's just 7 days) is a little intimidating. 
10. Work back up to running a 5k again, straight through. I think I've done 3.1 straight on a treadmill, but I can't remember. I'm regularly running at least 2 miles straight through, albeit slow, but I need to start pushing myself more to do the full 3.1.
11. Blog at least 24 times. Pretty sure this is complete? I'm too lazy to check, so I'll verify next month ;)
12. Clean out/organize all of the closets in our house. We haven't done any more in the last month or two, so I think we still have 2-3 more closets to go.
13. Surprise my husband in some way. I surprised N for our anniversary. For our 5 year we got each other bikes, but a week or so before our anniversary I found out one of his favorite bands is coming to our town. I bought the tickets and stuck them in the card, and he was definitely pleasantly surprised! 
14. Do a house project.  Done! We bit the bullet and got our house painted, plus added some new shutters to the 2nd story. I wish we could afford siding, but I was hoping that at least painting the house would make it more modern looking. I can't say I was 100% in love with it at first, but the new color has definitely grown on me!

    

    Before

    
    

    

    After

15. Go visit a friend that lives in another state. Still need to do this one! I'll be going to NYC, Atlanta or Minneapolis before the end of this year, NO exceptions!

-A