Pre-Baby Bucket List

I have intermittent baby fever.  Before we got married I thought I would want a baby right away, even knowing that Pete would like to wait 2-3 years.  I am however not getting any younger, so waiting that long if I can help it is out of the picture.  I also have this unwarranted fear of not being able to get pregnant too which could royally screw things up.
We had an amazing summer planning the wedding and celebrating with friends and family.  And now we are enjoying ourselves going to happy hour, daydreaming up future trips, and most importantly-sleeping in on the weekends. 
And so I said to myself, 'self, let's wait a little bit before the baby thing.' And I was fine.  But then both of our sisters had babies recently.  And they're oh-so-cute and oh-so-squishy and now I kind of want a baby sooner rather than later.
But I still do realize there are some advantages to waiting, and there are some things I'd like to do before giving the baby thing a try.

• Get our own damn place to live.  Hubby & I are still living with my parents, but that's because you can't move in the winter in Minnesota. So come springtime we are outta here-apartment, townhouse, house-house, cardboard box-we need to learn how to live with just each other for the first time ever.

• Learn how to cook.  And I mean several different meals that are made from scratch, not boxes.  And I also need to stop being afraid of cooking meat.  A sub-goal of this is regular meal planning as well.

• Lose weight.  This is not only a regular goal of mine, but I know I need to be my healthiest in order to nourish a baby and then to set a healthy example for the kidlets.

• Get off the meds.  I've been on an antidepressant now for almost 3 years and I want to be completely medication free for a pregnancy.

• Learn one sustaining skill, such as sewing or knitting.

• Tackle my credit card debt. My school loans will be with me until I die, but I would like to completely rid myself of my unnecessary debt burden.  And with that, I'd like for Pete & I to continue to work on our budget, and then actually stick with it.

• Go on a real honeymoon with Pete.  We called Florida our 'mini-moon' because it was just an easy trip that saved us some money, but we would really love to go on a bigger trip out of the country.

• Buy one ridiculous purchase that I won't be able to justify once I have a baby.  This will either be a beautiful, expensive purse, or some sort of Tacori jewelry item.

Is all this going to happen before we have a baby? Who knows.  But it's nice to have some time to ourselves right now to go to dinner on a whim or plan a long vacation just the two of us.  Like everything else has, it will happen as it should.