Stella Garcia Photography

I have started to work on my bucket list, but a lot of things are still pending.

It might make things a lot easier if it started to rain money or if I lived to be 140!

Here’s the to do list for my life:

Read the whole Bible | Go on a Safari in Africa | Scuba dive | Go fishing with my dad | Ride a camel in the desert | Learn to Tango | Get Canadian citizenship | Run a 10k | Try escargot | Take a road trip across the U.S./Canada | Ride a bicycle | Visit Salzburg and go on “The Sound of Music tour” | Take a cruise in the Mediterranean | Own an art gallery | Grow vegetables |Go berry picking | Write a children’s book | Be fluent in French | Set foot on all continents | Setup a scholarship fund | Stand atop the Great Wall of China | Host a pool party | Have a dog again | Get DNA tested to find my true genealogy | Visit Cape Breton |Attend the summer Olympics | Finish the family tree | Live in a house with a window seat | Own a bed and breakfast | Paint something that I actually like |  Make my own tree swing | Go on another silent retreat | Do something artistic with tiles | Use my work to improve lives | Repay my parents for college tuition | Learn how to cook Thai (Tom Yum Soup, Curry and Pad Thai) | Participate in a giant food fight | Get pregnant | Be a good mother | Go camping in the backyard | Teach my husband Spanish | Take at least one photograph that travels the world | Volunteer with Habitat for Humanity | Visit my friends in Europe | Write a novel | Grow my own spices | Own land | Throw a block party | Pay off all debt | Buy a cottage in the countryside | Write a million dollar check to a charity | Give a speech in front of thousands | Road trip through Italy | Go to China | Send a family Christmas postcard | Make it a habit to have lemonade on the front porch swing on warm summer nights | Buy a house | Paint a wall all by myself | Go to Disney | Celebrate our 50^th wedding anniversary |Have a big wedding anniversary party | Spend St. Patrick’s day in Ireland | Travel by train | Make my grandmother’s banana nut bread| Hang a hammock in the backyard | Make my own sushi | Ski again | Participate in a theatre production | Plant bulbs in a public space | Shovel my neighbors driveway for a season| Sing at a karaoke bar | Spoil the grandkids | Write a song | Hike to the top of a mountain | Take a hot air balloon ride |Rent a house on the beach  |Surprise our loved ones with a free trip | Build a treehouse | Sleep in a treehouse | Take a self defense class | Go to Carnaval in Brazil | Design & print a wedding album | Enter a swing dance competition | Go skinny dipping | Make my own Christmas ornaments | Retire | Start an annual event | Have plenty of room for guests in our home | Form a workplace with people I love | Make my own wine | Donate my body to science (Lyme Disease research) |

Seems to be quite a reasonable to do list to me.

Maybe I’ll think different when I reread it tomorrow!

I initially moved to Ottawa to fulfill a one year work contract and never thought I’d stay longer than that.  Adventures have always been welcome in my life, and  I viewed my stay in Ottawa as one more adventure to scratch off the bucket list.

But Ottawa surprised me and it didn’t take long before I decided that I wanted to make this my permanent home.

The most amazing thing is that even after living here for a few years, I continue to be surprised. I am pleasantly surprised by the fantastic people that live here, the constant cultural displays, the marvelous small community feel, the amazing festivals, musical offerings, great libraries, funny comedians, talented musicians etc.

I want to share with you a recent discovery which is worth a blog post and makes me love Ottawa more, it is called: Awesome Ottawa.

Have you heard about Awesome Ottawa?

It’s a pretty simple concept. You submit an awesome idea. If the trustees think your idea will make our city a bit more AWESOME they will chose it and you’ll get $1,000 in cash to make it happen.  One idea is selected each month.

Start thinking and spread the word.

To send your idea go to: http://awesomeottawa.ca/apply/

This is the 3rd (and last post) in the series about the “Seeing is Believing Bus Tour” organized by United Way Ottawa.

To read Part 1 CLICK HERE

To read Part 2 CLICK HERE

Among the many social services that United Way supports is the Boys and Girls Club on Pinecrest, so we also made a stop there on our “Seeing is Believing Bus Tour” to get a better idea of what they do. The Boys and Girls Club currently gets 20% of its funding from United Way.

The Boys and Girls Club provides services for over 4,600 children and youth in our city. More than 600 kids are registered as part of the after-school homework program!  There are 8 locations in Ottawa with facilities that truly amazed me. Two of the clubs in Ottawa even have swimming pools where they teach kids how to swim in order to prevent drowning. The Club is moving towards removing all membership fees for kids so that no child has a financial barrier to be a part of the club.

The Boys and Girls Club that we visited has a recording studio being funded by local company Cadence. They also have a gym, many classrooms and a common open area with pool tables. We visited the rec room which is generally for the older kids and has comfy furniture, several computers, a bookshelf stocked with books, and even a big screen TV that was donated to the club by Daniel Alfredsson.

I was blown away to learn that all these services are available in Ottawa! The Boys and Girls Club are able to be such a great support in the community because of the wonderful people that volunteer with them.  Just last year 1,000 community volunteers donated more than 20,000 hours of their time!!!  Isn’t that amazing? It made me feel like I need to do more with my free time.

I already signed up to start volunteering in January.

Have you?

If you want more information about the Boys and Girls Club of Canada : http://www.bgccan.com/

To view the website of the Boys and Girls Club of Ottawa go to:  http://www.bgcottawa.org/