Re-Evaluating...

...the '30 Before 30'.

And, I'm realizing it has all backfired.

When I started 3 years ago, I wrote, "I think it's easy to put boundaries around our life and to imagine that our life might (or should) look a certain way at a certain age or point in time. I know that for myself, I had certain expectations about what my life might look like when I was 30. True, I still have four more years until I turn 30 and a lot can happen in four years, but I don't want to live life holding onto an expectation."

And by certain expectations, I meant...get married, buy a house, and start a family.

Well, to my surprise, those things happened.

I was recently single when I came up with the idea of 30 before 30, but waited a few months to start. By that point, I had just started dating Jason. I still never would have thought my life would change so much in 3 years.

And that change....

Well, it has interfered with my '30 before 30'.

In the first year of my '30 before 30' I accomplished nine things on my list.

In the second year, the year I got married, I accomplished three things.

And, this past year, the year I bought a house and had a baby, I accomplished zero things. (I did buy a camera that I can learn photography with and I did eat at 2 new ethnic restaurants, but those are only partial completes).

So, my life has taken a whole new direction.

Just because my life's where it's at today doesn't mean I can't still do the things I strove to accomplish on my list.

However, some things aren't that realistic anymore...

My time is much more limited compared to when I was single, and I can't just go on fun adventures whenever I want.

Here is my list as it stands:

Travel

1. Austin (completed June 4-6, 2010)

2. Boston
3. Thanksgiving in New York

4. Greece

5. Canada

6. Cruise (completed January 2010)

California Tourism

7. Alcatraz

8. Wine tasting in Wine Country (completed January 9, 2010)

9. Monterey Bay Aquarium (completed April 7, 2010)

10. Hearst Castle (completed August 8, 2010)
11. Lighthouses of California (from San Francisco to Santa Barbara)

Adventure

12. Skydive

13. Hike Half Dome (completed June 17, 2010)

14. Run a half marathon (completed October 3, 2010)

15. Triathlon

16. White Water Raft

17. Hot Air Balloon
18. Ski in another state

Intellectual/Spiritual

19. Read The Chronicles of Narnia ('Attempted' Summer 2011)

20. Memorize a chapter of the Bible
21. Take a Bible class

Entertainment

22. Sharks Game (completed November 20, 2010)

23. NBA Basketball Game (completed December 31, 2011)
24. Live orchestra/symphony
25. Circus
26. Eat 30 ethnic cuisines that I have never had before (Added 9 new countries in 2011 and 2 new in 2012)

Personal Development

27. Cooking/Baking Class (completed October 2011)

28. Learn to sew

29. Start a blog (completed January 1, 2010)

30. Learn Photography (bought the camera in 2012)

I turn 30 in 13 months and have a 3 month old.

Don't see a trip to Canada or Greece in that time period...and certainly not going to make it to both.

But, I'm okay realizing I'm not going to check every item off in the next 13 months.

Are these still things I want to do?

Yes.

Are they things I'm still going to try and do?

Yes.

Am I gong to do them all before I'm 30?

No.

But I hope to do some in the next year.

And the rest...

They will just be the starting point to my '30 AFTER 30' list.

Gotta keep on living...living to the fullest.

Eat Around the World - Germany

It had been months since Jason and I went out for an 'exotic' meal at an ethnic restaurant (mostly due to the fact that there were only about ten foods that actually sounded edible to me for a 3 month period - thank you pregnancy). But, come May, I was starting to feel much more like myself, so we planned a day date to the city and decided to hit up an ethnic restaurant while we were out there.

I have been having mini-cravings for sausage, so we decided to do a German restaurant. Neither one of us have smart phones (keeping it real, folks), so we brought my iPad with us and were going to figure out the restaurant once we got into the city. Unfortunatley, my iPad was not getting good service, so we went to the Hyatt, pretended to be out-of-towners staying at the hotel, and asked the front desk for a good German restaurant. They highly recommended Suppenküche in Hayes Valley (Yelp review here). 

We were welcomed by a huge crowd and an hour wait, which is always a good sign. The restaurant totally reminded me of Germany: it was loud, crowded, and had a bunch of large tables where you sat with others (do not go here on a first date...no privacy and you can barely have a conversation due to the noise).

I enjoyed an entertaining visit to the bathrooms while we waited. This gave me a good laugh.

Once we were seated at our table (with two other random couples), we enjoyed looking at the menu. I got a kick out of the beer menu, which reminded me of my trip to Oktoberfest in Germany. The guy at the bar behind us was actually drinking one of the boot beers, and we had a great time cheering him on and watching him finish his TWO liters of beer.

 

I settled for the 1-liter.

 

Just-kidding. No drinking for this pregnant lady...this was circa Oktoberfest 2006.

For dinner, I ordered the bratwurst.

  

It was almost as good as the real-deal out of Germany! (Again, circa Oktoberfest 2006).

Jason ordered the wiener schnitzel. 

Both were quite tasty, but neither compared to the apple turnover we had for dessert. Yum!

 

Overall, I would give the restaurant a 9 out of 10. I mostly rate it down because of the ambiance, but I guess it gives you a good flavor for German culture :)

2011 Recap

Well, here we are again...kicking off another new year and looking back on the one just past.

2011 was great and a very special and memorable year. Lots of change for sure! Last night as we were ringing in the new year, Jason looked over and said, "Do you remember what I said last New Year's Eve?" I responded, "Yeah, you said 2011 was going to be a great year." We then looked at each other and said, "It sure was."

Some 2011 highlights include:

January

Must have been wedding planning all month...

February

My bridal shower

Turned 27

March

My bachelorette party -wine tasting in Napa

April

Our April 2nd wedding...definitely the highlight of the year

Followed by our honeymoon to Maui

May

Finally able to relax and settle into our first place together

June

Celebrated my friend Kirsten's engagement in Tahoe

July

Our niece Adalynn April was born

Jason turned the big 3-0

August

Annual family trip to Tahoe

Started my 5th year of teaching

We switched churches and got plugged into a small group with other young married couples

September

My friend Kristina's bachelorette party to Santa Barbara

Jason's cousin's wedding
October

Our friends Matt and Mary then got married

Grammy turned 100

Took my first cooking class

November

Kristina's wedding

Started leading the young adults group at our church

December

Our first Christmas together as Mr. and Mrs.

2011 also threw us some tough curve balls. The first was when Jason's mentor (him and his wife also did our pre-marital counseling) was diagnosed with brain cancer in May. Then, the next month, Jason's mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. Both came out of nowhere, but we have seen God's hand of grace covering both of these situations.

With the new year also comes by blog-o-versary. Which means it's time to check in with my 30 before 30. Well, this year was a mini-fail with the 30 before 30. It's funny because I came up with this idea when I was single and had recently ended a relationship. I didn't want to get caught up into thinking I needed to get married, buy a house, and have 2 kids before I was thirty. There are so many other great things to focus on. Hence, I started brainstorming things I wanted to do before 30 (besides those indicated above).

Funny because by the time I finished writing my list of 30 things, I had already met Jason, and we had been dating for a month or so when I started this blog. I was still all about my 30 things, though. That first year I checked nine things off my list!

Well, then this year came, and I got married. And...I only checked three things off my list (and I had intentionally not put 'get married' on the 30 before 30). Mini-fail because I'm now 'behind' (in the sense that I should have half my items done since I'm at the half-way point to 30...welcome to my math teacher brain). But, not a huge fail because I did have one major (and great) event in getting married and then learning how to live life with someone else. Plus, a lot of the items on my list cost $, which was lacking after paying for half our wedding ourselves and then setting up our place.

So, I guess my plan is kinda backfiring on me. But, I'm still moving on with my list.

Here is the updated list with what I accomplished this year and my changed items from the previous year. I definitely have a few more things I want to change, but I haven't finalized those quite yet.

Travel

1. Austin (completed June 4-6, 2010)

2. Boston
3. Thanksgiving in New York

4. Greece

5. Canada

6. Cruise (completed January 2010)

California Tourism

7. Alcatraz

8. Wine tasting in Wine Country (completed January 9, 2010)

9. Monterey Bay Aquarium (completed April 7, 2010)

10. Hearst Castle (completed August 8, 2010)
11. Lighthouses of California (from San Francisco to Santa Barbara)

Adventure

12. Skydive

13. Hike Half Dome (completed June 17, 2010)

14. Run a half marathon (completed October 3, 2010)

15. Triathlon

16. White Water Raft

17. Hot Air Balloon
18. Ski in another state

Intellectual/Spiritual

19. Read The Chronicles of Narnia ('Attempted' Summer 2011)

20. Memorize a chapter of the Bible
21. Take a Bible class
*Deleted Read 5 Classics*

Entertainment

22. Sharks Game (completed November 20, 2010)

23. NBA Basketball Game (completed December 31, 2011)
24. Live orchestra/symphony
25. Circus
26. Eat 30 ethnic cuisines that I have never had before (Added 9 new countries in 2011)

Personal Development

27. Cooking/Baking Class (completed October 2011)

28. Learn to sew

29. Start a blog (completed January 1, 2010)

30. *Learn Photography* (new)

I am looking forward to 2012, which I'm sure will be full of unknowns, uncertainties, and surprises, but rich with our God's love and mercy.

Cooking Class Completed!

Well, it's been a light year when it comes to checking items off my 30 before 30, but I completed my second item of this year...I took a cooking class!

My friend's mom was hosting a beginning cooking class through the Livermore Rec Center. That sounded like a fit for me. Plus, it was pretty inexpensive compared to other cooking classes I had researched. She sent out an email about the class in August, and I totally forgot about it until a few days before when she sent out another email asking if I was still interested.

So, I jumped on board! The cooking classes were held each Thursday during the month of October for 2.5 hours each.

Here is a brief summary of each class:

In the first class we made puffed pastries. I couldn't believe how easy they were to make. We sampled one filled with cream cheese and salsa that can be served as an appetizer, and then we made dessert puffed pastries filled with a vanilla pudding and topped with chocolate. Delicious! I will definitely be making these in the future. We also made a crook pot pulled pork that was marinated in beer. We roasted garlic and carmalized onions and added those to our sandwiches. So flavorful! We also learned how to cut up a chicken. I've decided to continue to go with the pre-cut chicken...

Class two was on focused on fish and biscotti. We made a chocolate almond biscotti, which is great for the holidays. We also made two different fish recipes.

The third class was pie class! We each made a pie from scratch. This was my first time making a pie, so I was very excited! Some made apple pie, others pumpkin. I went with apple because neither Jason or I like pumpkin much...and apple is Jason's very favorite. My sister's have both made apple pie for Jason...but as his wife, I had failed to do so. Until a few weeks ago! Apple pie is actually quite easy to make. The hardest part is the crust, which I might cheat on in the future and go with the pre-made :) Part of the reason why the pie was so easy was because our teacher had a food processor that slices the apples up in seconds. Might need to invest in one of those - we used it all the time in our class. Here is my first pie:
Our last class was a mixture of a bunch of things. We made sushi, baked brussel sprouts (definitely were covered in olive oil, butter, and seasoning), more fish, and practiced with pie crust again (focused on doing a lattice top, which is how I made my pie). We took home our pie crusts so that we could make another pie...which is easy once the crust is done.

It was a great class, filled with yummy food, and lots of cooking/baking tips along the way. Glad to check another item off my list!

Eat Around the World - Chile

Last weekend we had our first 'eat around the world' experience with some friends! We actually have friends that are as adventurous as we are when it comes to trying crazy cuisines!

Our friends, Brandon and Mary, actually found this restaurant themselves. We were super excited for Chilean food because it wasn't a cuisine we had on our list to try.

The restaurant was called Valparaiso (Yelp review here) and was in Berkeley (like most of the restaurants we have been to).
Right away, I loved the ambiance of the restaurant. It was probably one of the best that we've experience (Jason had to tell me to put my camera away).
Jason and I split two entrees. One was Pollo Bahia:boneless chicken thigh sautéed in coconut milk, tomatoes, onion, bell peppers, and white wine. Served with rice and black beans. This was extremely flavorful!
The other entree was Chorrillana: fried potatoes (french fries) tossed with onion, eggs, and beef sautéed in red wine. It actually tastes much better than it looks! It was kinda like an egg scramble...with french fries :)
We also got a side of fried plaintans, which were so good...(even though they look a little 'interesting')!
The four of us shared two desserts: Torta Milhoja (a Chilean specialty pastry layered with walnuts and caramel milk) and Nino Envuelto (a Chilean pancake stuffed with manjar -caramel milk). Both were very good, but the winner goes to the Torta Milhoja. Delicious!

All in all, we had a great time. Loved the ambiance and the food was good. I wouldn't say that the food is great though...giving the restaurant a 7 out of 10.

Eat Around the World - Indonesia

It had been over a month since we had tried a new ethnic cuisine, so last Friday we set out to explore a new country. We didn't really have anything in mind specifically, but we were thinking Asian. Both of us wanted Mongolian barbeque, but we weren't able to find a restaurant that looked really good.

We ended up deciding on Indonesian and headed to Jayakarta Restaurant in Berkeley (Yelp review here). The restaurant was really crowded, and we were excited for some new flavors.

We ordered four entrees, all of which were very different. For noodles, we ordered mie tek-tek: egg noodles sauteed with fried eggs, strips of chicken, vegetables, and spicy sauce. This was by far our favorite! So flavorful!

A yelp review we read said that the satays were good, so we ordered the assorted sate with chicken, pork, beef, and shrimp. They are basically like kabobs with a peanut sauce on the meat. These were probably my second favorite item.

For one of our main dishes we went the chicken route and ordered ayam panggang bumbu rujak. Say what? According to the menu, this is barbequed chicken marinated in their special gravy of peanut and coconut milk sauce. This item was almost too flavorful for me - too strong. I felt like I was eating potpourri. Also, the chicken was not boneless, so it was kinda a pain to eat over rice.

Lastly, we ordered babat goreng kecap: beef deep fried and crispy, then sauteed in sweet soy sauce. This was a big disappointment. When we read deep fried and crispy, we thought there would still be some beef left. Wrong. The beef had been fried to crispy strips of...crispy strips. There was literally no meat left.

All in all, we gave the restaurant a seven (good). It was not amazing, but we enjoyed most of what we ate and would go back. The noodles by far blew everything else out of the water!

Chronicles of Narnia

My summer activity list included reading all seven books in the Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis. This was something I put on my 30 before 30. Since I grew up in the church, I think people were shocked to hear that I hadn't read the Chronicles of Narnia. I'm simply not into fantasy. But, I had seen movie The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe and since I enjoyed it, I thought I would also enjoy the book series.
Wrong. One word sums up my 'attempt' to read The Chronicles of Narnia...FAIL. I couldn't do it. I started the series the first week of summer with the first book, The Magician's Nephew. It definitely started slow for me, but towards the end, I enjoyed it because of all the symbolism of creation and sin.

The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe was probably my favorite read...most likely because I had seen the movie, knew the story line, and had an idea of where everything was going. There was tons of spiritual symbolism, and I loved the image of Aslan as God and Redeemer.

The third book, The Horse and His Boy, was just no good. I could not get into this book. I dreaded reading it. It took me a few weeks to make it all the way through. I think I had such a bad taste after this book, that it tampered my experience for the rest of the endeavor.

When I started reading Prince Caspian, I was glad to see the original characters reappear. I felt like I started to get back into the story...but that didn't seem to last long. I struggled through this book, and by the time I finished it, I was depressed that I still had three more books left in the series.

I am stubborn though, and I was determined to read all seven books because...well, I had said I wanted to read the series before I turned 30. So, I picked up The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and started reading away. By this point, school was about to start back up, I was busy, and the time between readings began to become longer and longer. It took me close to a month to get through this book, which made it hard to get into.

Five down, two to go. I can do it. I started The Silver Chair, got about 50 pages in, and finally said, "I quit." I was so tired of dreading the book that I was reading. The whole point of my 30 Before 30 is to do things I'm excited about, and if I'm no longer excited about doing something on my list, then I shouldn't keep doing it.

The Chronicles of Narnia just wasn't for me. Too much fantasy and description. I'm too ADD to follow it. I did enjoy the spiritual symbolism, but not enough to read the last two books.

I have officially moved on and decided to go the classic route soon. I just bought two Jane Austin books (since reading some classics is on my list). But, before I tackle that, I'm going to spend some time reading a few books that I have been looking forward to reading for some time. I just started The Help and am loving it so far. It's great to read a book that I don't want to put down.

Eat Around the World - Burma

Over a year ago, Jason and I headed out to Alameda for an evening out. Neither one of us had really been to Alameda, and we had heard that it was a cute little town. Someone had recommended an Italian restaurant to eat at, but we wanted to walk the town before dinner. As we were walking around, we stumbled across Burma Superstar! (Yelp Review here) and saw a big crowd hanging around outside the restaurant. We took mental note of the restaurant, so when we came back a few months later, we were all excited to try Burmese food. However, the wait was super long...and we were hungry, so we settled for a restaurant serving New Zealand cuisine.

We were determined to make it back to Alameda though so we could eat at Burmese Superstar. Well, it took us a year to get back there, but in May of 2011, we had our first taste of Burmese food, and it did not disappoint! On our first visit, we ordered their signature salad: the tea leaf salad filled with "urmese tea leaves, tomatoes, lettuce, dried shrimp (or vegetarian), fried garlic, sesame seeds, peanuts, and split yellow peas.” They bring out the salad with all the ingredients separated and then mix it together at your table. Delicious!

For our entrees we ordered garlic noodles, pork curry with potatoes, and the fiery beef. The fiery beef (pictured below) was by far the best entree we ordered. Don't let the tofu freak you out (or order it without), but I don't even remember the tofu.

After our first week of being back at school, Jason and I wanted to treat ourselves to a meal out. We talked about going somewhere, and in my head I was thinking Burma Superstar...and then Jason suggested it. I love it when that happens...we are finding stuff like this happening more and more often. The two really do become one upon being wed!

So last Friday we headed back out to Alameda for take two of Burmese food. We made sure that we didn't get any repeat items from our first go. Instead of the tea leaf salad we got the rainbow salad: 22 ingredients, including four kinds of noodles, crispy fried garlic, diced potatoes, tofu, dried shrimp, fried onions, green papaya, roasted chilies, crushed yellow beans, cilantro, won ton chips, cabbage and a tamarind dressing.

As our server said, every bite tastes a little different, and she sure was right! Our entrees were sesame beef (strips of beef lightly fried with a sweet and tangy sauce. Topped with sesame seeds) and spicy & crispy chicken (deep fried chicken breast in a sweet, tangy, and spicy sauce with chili and garlic...and they don't go easy on the garlic!).

Sesame Beef (Above)
Spicy & Crispy Chicken (Below)

Winner of the night was the sesame beef. Delicious! We can't wait to go back (we were already talking about what our visit #3 picks will be). We give Burma Superstar a 10 out of 10!