22 Goals for 2010

We have spent some time talking this week about our 2010 goals and what we would like to accomplish. As we start our third season with the Sail22 Box Trailer, we are looking forward to a busy 2010. Some of our goals are personal, some are business related and some are just random. So, here's our list:

1) Finish the Bus Barn: This has been a labor of love by Ed's Dad. We have three barns at Sail22 headquarters in Culver, Indiana and this is by far the one with the most character. Bill started renovating it when Ed bought the house in 2007 and put in a new concrete floor that year. Since then, he has come up with some great designs for it, framed it out, added a new front door, some windows, steel siding and built a workshop. For 2010, we want to finish the barn...which means raising the roof, finishing the inside, complete with loft, kitchenette and bathroom.

2) Finish Garage/Man Cave: Lets face it...the Sail22 F250 doesn't fit in the single car garage, so it might as well be the "Man Cave". Luckily for me, Ed put in a door from our side porch to the garage this year, so I can now get there without going outside. We keep our bikes, paddle board and golf cart here, but we want to actually put up some drywall, put in a durable floor and maybe add a few windows so Ed has a place to retreat to when he wants to tinker on our toys.

3) Remodel Back Porch into storage, mudroom, office area We have an unheated oversized closet in the back of the house. We need to make it functional space for us and are thinking about making it extra storage for the kitchen, a small office area and a mudroom this spring.

4) Finish Side Porch: We started this project last spring and made a ton of progress. We basically need to put the finishing touches on the trim and find a rug. In 2009 we put in new windows, ceiling, lights, painted, door to garage and floor.

5) Paint all trim in the house that needs to be painted: Ed's Dad did a great job installing lots of new baseboards which are primed, now we just need to paint them.

6) Redo white guest bedroom: We decided to go with a surfing/beach theme for the upstairs bedrooms. One of the rooms looks great, the other needs some work. We bought new sheets already, but want to paint it, find some furniture that matches, etc. The white has served it's purpose...and was definitely better than what was there before.

7) Organize bedroom (closet, clean out clothes, buy dressers, laundry sorting). We are the worst when it comes to our bedroom. We travel so much that we are much more comfortable living out our bags than we are with having a closet, dresser, etc. So, this year, we're going to sort through our clothes, donate what we don't use, buy a dresser or two, clean the closet and try using them.

8 ) Quotes on bathroom redos Both bathrooms need to be redone. We have ideas and have talked about them, we are just a little afraid of what it may mean to rip out the bathrooms in a house that is over 100 years old. Did I mention that our master shower is under the stairs!?!

9) Find Dining Room Chairs We have some...they just need to be replaced.

10) Organize Front Closet Our front closet has a bunch of office supplies and lots of sailing gear we don't use. We started the process of cleaning it out by having a custom built desk made for our living room which should be done in February. This should help us be more organized. Cabinets, filing drawers, shelves...whohoo! We also sorted through our spare gear and have boxed it up to give to the kids at Box of Rain, one of our favorite youth sailing programs. If you have extra gear you want to donate, let us know and we'll get you connected to them. We heard that sometimes many of the kids do not have the proper gear, so they can't sail. Sail22 wants to make sure that is not the case. Do you have anything you can donate in your spare gear?

11) Power wash house & clean all windows...self explanatory...

12) Take a trip to a new country This was a goal I set for myself in 2007 and now it is a Sail22 yearly goal. We have been very fortunate to visit Trinidad & Tobago, Grenada, St. Maarten and Barbados in 2009. Potential events that could help us with this goal are Etchells Worlds in Dublin, Ireland and a J24 event in Bequia.

13) Take a photography class Always more to learn. I want to work on figuring out different techniques and become a pro at using Aperture software.

14) Run a half marathon This is one of my goals. I ran the Newport Breakers marathon in October 2007 in 4:16:12. Since then, I haven't really enjoyed running and I can't say I felt that great when I finished that one which hasn't made it easy to love again. At the half way point, I felt great. I think it's a good distance to try and get back to. Ideally, I'd like to do it in under 2 hours. Time to get an iPod touch and fire up my Nike+ account again which really helped me track my mileage. Also, I'm thinking about using a coach. More to come on that.

15) Road bike & mountain bike more on a regular basis Both of us really enjoy biking, we just haven't had a regular plan for doing it. I finally got a mountain bike again this fall and went once. Ed has been busy tweaking my bike into a much better bike with carbon handlebars, a different stem, new pedals, bar ends, grips, (and this week he upgraded my frame too!). I have an awesome Rocky Mountain Element, so now we can mountain bike together. Ed's nephews and brother are also mountain biking, so we have more company. We both have road bikes and just need to get out more and use them.

16) Move stuff out of storage I put almost all of my belongings in storage in November of 2008. I wasn't really sure where life was taking me and where I would be long term. Now I know. :) We are planning to move things in the spring from storage to Culver, keep what we want to and find homes for anything we can't use.

17) Build Deck We have a great area in the back of the house and would enjoy it more if there was a deck. Ed has some ideas...

18) Launch AlwaysHappyGear.com and blog at AlwaysHappyLife.com We've been working on the logos for this and are getting ready to launch in the first quarter of 2010. Stay tuned!!!

19) Organize & shred anything we don't need Sail22 generates a lot of paperwork. We try to be as green as possible and say "No thanks" to receipts, extra papers, etc. We have moved to being a paperless company with regards to our billing system and receipts.

20) License and find a nursing/NP job in Indiana. I have been looking for a nursing job in the Culver area for a long time it seems. I recently discovered a great children's hospital in Ft. Wayne and a few NICUs in South Bend.

21) Eat healthier on the road. We are definitely guilty of eating because it's easy at a fast food restaurant versus eating healthy meals when we are traveling. We've started to try and pack a cooler with at least lunch and some fruit for when we start out. Definitely trying to eat a little healthier out to dinner too.

22) Set aside time to do more active things 4 times/week. We figure we are usually able to get our act together to go meet someone for dinner or drinks, so we should be able to do the same with going for a run, bike ride, paddle board, walk, etc.