Today is my 28th birthday! Weee! Happy birthday, self.
I’m happy to say that I’m super excited about my 28th birthday this year. Why? Because getting older is AWESOME. You read that right. When I look back over my years of life, I can 100% honestly say that each year has been better than the preceding year. I am confident, more smarter (haha), excited about my job(s), love my new husband and family, and am just really excited about what the future holds.
Bring it on 28! Here are 29 to-dos to accomplish before I turn 29…
1. Buy a house. ‘Nuff said.
2. Secure another freelance job OR get published in a major media outlet.
3. Write 100,000 words. This is probably easy for most people. I know many people write 50,000 in one month during NANOWRIMO, but, trust me, I’m no novel writer. This is one of my top priorities for the year!
4. Become a mom… A fur mom. I can’t wait to adopt a big, black doggie when we buy a house. And then name her Daisy. And then constantly talk to Daisy in a baby voice. I’m that person.
5. Go to one blog conference. Plan to accomplish this with the Financial Blogger Conference in October!
6. Get involved in a local social media or blog group. Blogging is such a big part of my life, I would love to develop a group of local friends that I can geek-out about blogging and social media with.
7. Finish those books. Seriously. This is out of control. I’m notorious for starting books and never finishing them. I want to either finish them or decide to not read them and put them away (because why force myself to read a crappy book if I don’t want to?). In this picture, I actually have finished The Pioneer Woman and The Happiness Project. And this isn’t the entire un-finished book list. There are more lying around my bedroom.
8. Make real connections with 3 bloggers/writers/etc. I’ve made some great connections in the blogging/social media world over the past several years. I feel like many of you are my “real” friends and I e-mail with some almost daily! Connections are extremely important (and rewarding), so I plan to make an effort to make more real friends. <— Haha, just read that last sentence alone. LOL. I swear I have real friends. Anyyyways, moving on.
9. Buy a grill and learn to master it. I love grilling. We can’t have a grill on our wooden apartment deck. Super lame. Can’t wait to buy one when we buy a house! (Notice all the stuff I plan to buy when we buy a house? Ha ha. Good thing we saved a new house fund for our new house. Am I right? AMIRITE?)
10. Vlog at least once. I have plans for this, but right now their not for this blog. For the newbies, Vlog = video blog.
11. Learn to bargain-shop and find good prices when furnishing/decorating our home. My husband and I are in such a good place with our finances. But I still get such a high from finding a good deal. I love that that feeling stuck around even after I’ve found financial balance. Anyways, I don’t want to just go to the local furniture store and pay full price to furnish our home. I want to find unique, classic, NOT cookie-cutter decor/furnishings for a good price.
12. Run a lot.
13. Lift a lot.
14. Pray a lot. Notice a trend here? 
15. Get a full-body skin check. I love sun, sun loves me. But I don’t think my skin appreciates my sun worship.
16. Figure out my CPEs for my CPA. I need to earn like 4,569,403 CPE credits every year to maintain my CPA designation. I have yet to earn 1.
17. Confession. I am terrified of Confession. I need to do it.
18. Buy nice, quality sunglasses. My eyesight is awful. So bad that I don’t even qualify for lasik anymore. Lame! 
That kinda scares me and people have been telling me to get quality sunglasses for the longest time. Plus, I squinted through my $10 Target sunglasses the entire 2 weeks that we honeymooned in Mexico. G has high-quality sunglasses and there is SUCH a huge difference when you put them on. If I’m going to splurge on any designer item, it might as well be one that protects my eyes!
19. Create a list of “Balance Mantras” for B&B … and put them to use. <—Huge.
20. Buy an iPhone. The Samsung Intercept is the crappiest phone ever known to man. I’m not joking. DON’T buy it. When I get an incoming call, it often locks up completely. Hearing that the iPhone is coming to Sprint in October was the 2nd happiest day of my life.
21. Purchase business cards.
22. Create a personal website I can be proud to direct potential clients/employers to. Take a web design class. It really frustrates me how behind I am (in the blogging/web world, anyway) on website design. If I work on the web, I need to at least know the basics.
23. Go to the beach. Then sit, sip (a drink), and relax. (We’re planning a vacation to either Mexico or the big Los Angeles next summer in honor of our first wedding anniversary.)
24. Yoga. Do it more. Seriously. No excuses. Just do it, Amber. (When you’re 28, you can start talking to yourself on your blog. You just can.)
25. Create a peaceful and useful outdoor space in our new home. This is something we don’t have in our apartment that makes apartment living such a bummer. I love being outside and a great outdoor space is our biggest criteria in our first home. I have grand plans to jazz it all up and make it awesome.
26. Make ridiculously bad-for-you, homemade cinnamon rolls. This recipe. Probably for Christmas or Thanksgiving.
27. Get a massage. For real! I know many people do this regularly, but I never do. The husband and I enjoyed a couple’s massage on our honeymoon and it was epic. Need to get one in my 28th year at some point.
28. Learn to forgive. Because people have issues. Okay, that didn’t sound very forgiving. That’s why it’s on my list.
29. Volunteer! Probably at church. I need to get some sort of volunteering in my life. I’m so blessed! Must pay it forward.
Thoughts? Concerns? Encouragements? Leave them in the comments!
About B&B
Great list! Plus, making them public will hold you accountable!
Let’s discuss CPE – I’ve been a CPA for 6 years now, so I got this down. Also, I can’t say enough about how awesome blogger conferences are! I’ve only been to one (20SB Summit) but I loved it and got so much out of it!
Yes, let’s discuss CPEs please. We need to schedule a gchat. I have no idea where to start.
Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Happy Birthday!!! Hope you have a wonderful day, get to eat cake, and do something fun to celebrate.
Great list of goals! I just had my 27th birthday and made a list of 30 goals to accomplish before I turn 30 (so, longer list, but also longer time frame to accomplish them!)
I really like setting goals; even though I can get frustrated if I don’t accomplish them, they help me be more productive with my time and energy.
Grilling is on my list, too! I am renting a little house and have always wanted to try grilling, so I bought a cheap Weber grill. I am still in the early stages of figuring it out, but I think it’s fun to try (plus, I have ingredients for s’mores…).
Grilled food tastes sooo good!
On the subject of Confession: at my church, they always call it Reconcilliation, rather than Confession, which emphasizes God’s love/mercy/your renewed relationship rather than the sins committed. It might make it less intimidating to think of it that way.
Wishing you lots of success with your goals!
I think they technically call it Reconciliation at our church, too. Whoops. And I think you’re right — that phrase is less intimidating. Thanks for an awesome comment!!
I am not Catholic, but one of the things that I find most beautiful about Catholicism is the concept of Confession. I love the ritual of it, the anonymity, the belief that by truly repenting you can be absolved of your failings and made new and whole again in the eyes of God.
Wow, beautifully said!
Already super excited for the vlog. Do it NOW!
oh i have grand plans for it. you’ll be the first to know.
You are so hilarious, Amber!
I want to be your real-life friend
haha, I try.
Ooooh exciting list! My favorite may be the vlog. Can’t wait for that one! I was just drafting my 30 before 30 list to publish on my birthday. Great minds think alike.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMBER!
Happy Birthday Amber!
You should do a vlog tour of your new house when you get one!!! Two birds with one stone, baby!
And doesn’t your office offer courses to get CPE credits? I don’t remember if you work at a CPA firm or not.
Yes, the offer some CPE credits but I haven’t been able to get to those classes this year.
Happy Birthday!
Volunteering for the church is admirable; I used to do more of that than I do now, and I miss it.
One other volunteering idea is, if you like going to the theatre, if you volunteer as an usher, many theatres will give you free seats for the show you’re ushering for.
Happy Birthday! ( a day late I know LOL)
I love all of the goals… They are def items that I would like to do for myself
Happy Birthday! Great list and I agree with Valerie. A vlog of the new house would be great! Enjoy your day.
2 votes for a new house blog. Consider it done!
Happy Birthday! I love these types of lists.
But just a constructive comment: While these are some great ideas, you should define them more specifically to make them “goals.” For instance, instead of “run a lot,” you can make your goal be “Run 3x per week” or “Run a 10k” (because how do you define “a lot”?) You’ll be able to more easily say you acheived your goal becuase you can track the specifics. Anyway, good luck with these!
Thanks! I’m not sure I agree with the X number of times. Definitely works for some people, but not for me. I already run/lift a lot. I just wanted a reminder to continue these things during the year. Sometimes when I add constrants to a goal, it stresses me out. But I definitely see where you’re coming from and think it probably does work better for most people.
Excellent list. AND–I had not heard that Sprint was going to finally get the iPhone!!! This is potentially dangerous news for me.
Nice to know it is now an option! Can you believe I have been a loyal Sprint customer since 1997?!! (The year I first got a cell phone.)
Hey great post! I love this idea! Good luck with everything and keep us posted on your progress!
Happy Birthday!
2 days late, sorry. 
Yaaay! Happy Birthday to you!
Husband and I get our sunglasses at Costco. High quality at reasonable prices. Gotta love it! As for forgiveness, I always try to remember that Jesus himself said that we must forgive in order to be forgiven. Straight from the mouth of my savior, so I gotta do it.
Happy belated birthday, Amber! These all sound like wonderful goals, and I wish you the best in accomplishing all of them before August 30 of next year
Aww, thank you so much, Sharon!
Happy belated birthday! I can totally relate to several of your goals. There are several books that I’ve started, but never managed to finished. I’ve even tried re-reading a book I didn’t finish. Still hasn’t happened yet. And I’m definitely with you on working out more, praying more, and volunteering more.
As for the CPE classes, I get CPE catalogs and mailings all the time. I also know that state CPE societies generally offer classes. Are you a member of yours? Here’s the info for Kansas http://www.kscpa.org/professional_development
I *think* I’m a member. Not sure. My license is actually in Missouri, so I’d have to check that out. Thank you for the tip!!
Will I see you at FINCON11?
Ah, yes! I forgot that KC is split between MO and KS. I still have my license in MO and am still a member of the MSCPA. They’ll definitely have CPE classes. Though I always got my hours through work, so I’m not sure how the classes are. Here’s that link if you’re interested. http://mocpa.org/cpe/default.aspx I don’t think you have to be a member to take the classes, but members usually get a reduced rate.
And yes! I’ll be at FINCON11. I’m in Chicago now, so it was an easy decision
See you there!
Wow Amber, that’s quite a list! I think it’s great to have a lot of goals, but I think it’s good to just slow down a bit and look around, enjoy your life!
All of these books that are you reading are books that I have either read or plan on reading in the next little while! Too funny!
Great minds think alike
Happy belated Birthday!!! I hope you had a wonderful day, and I love this list!!!
Happy Belated! I love this list, I have been meaning to do something similar, but am too nervous that it will be completely overwhelming and won’t get done. Keep us posted!