Future me

I often think about the future.  I have been asking myself a lot lately what I want to do and be.
Here's what I have come up with: (I realize it's not proper to end with a preposition, but 1} I don't want to fix that and 2} it just doesn't sound right to me)


* Mom. The kind that raises kids who know they are loved, can make good choices, and are kind to others.


* Gardner.  I would be delighted if I could grow most of the produce we ate.  I love the idea of being more self sufficient.


* Crafty.  I want to feel comfortable with tools/saws/drills/etc.  I would love to whip up a hutch or ottoman.  I would also love to repaint/make over furniture.


* Artist. I recently started playing around with watercolors.  The biggest problem is that I want to be really good right now.  I don't want to have to put in the time.  Lazy, I know.


* Well rounded.  I'd like to know a bit about enough things that I could relate to or connect with anyone.


* Fit.  This is kind of like being an artist; I want to be amazing, but I don't want to put in the time.  I'd love to enjoy running.  I would love to be able to say that I have run a marathon. Yet I don't want to have to experience any discomfort or exert myself.  (I should probably add 'motivated' or 'dedicated' to this list...)


* Happy.  Seems easy enough, but that can be really tricky. It's really easy for me to focus on the unjust  depressing or sad things that come my way.


* Rich.  Honestly, I know I would make a superb rich person.

* Fun.  I feel like I'm not as fun or crazy as I used to be.  I don't know how much of that is due to age, and how much is because of other factors.


It is so easy to fall into the monotonous routine of life.  I go day to day.  I go to work, come home, eat dinner, watch Netflix, think about the productive things I could or should be doing, spend time on my church calling, occasionally go to the gym, go to bed, repeat.  And then when I am not content I wonder what I should change.  I guess I need to start working on the things on my list.  But first I think I am going to take a little nap.

Hawaii!

About a month ago I sat down and spent 2 hours writing an amazing post with detailed stories of my trip to Hawaii.  I finished it up, went to post it, and it disappeared.  That made me so mad that I almost divorced my blog... but I didn't...and now here I am.  Although blogger deleted all my hard work and writing it did save the pictures I had uploaded [in a weird order] and the first 3 sentences to a draft.  So that's what I'll be posting along with a lits of what I did on my trip to Maui.  

My husband wasn't able to get any time off from work this summer.   I had the travel bug and even though Tanner wouldn't be able to join me he game me his well wishes in planning and taking a trip!  Such a good man, that husband of mine!

Here's what my trip consisted of:

- Crossing off 2 life goals--going to Hawaii and riding on a Submarine

- Eating a LOT of REALLY tasty food and desserts

- Hanging out on the beach (although I only got wet once!)

- Going snorkeling

- Reading a lot (while on the beach)

- Going to a swap meet

- Driving the Road to Hana which was incredible!

- Going zip lining on Haleakala 

- Visiting a black sand beach

- Being squished on the plane because I'm so tall

- Driving around in my zippy, yellow rental car

- Going to a Luau

- Visiting an aquarium 

- Getting familiar with my map as I adventured in a new place

- Wearing my new purple and orange swim suit

- Going to the movies 3 times!  And seeing the strangest movie: Moonrise Kingdom

- Sleeping a lot

- Having an incredibly hard time finding the church building, then going to church

- Eating more.  The Shave Ice is to die for.  And I ate the most amazing fish taco of.my.life.

- Face-timing with my family while they were together for Sunday dinner.  Thank you Apple!

It was a good, good time!

Tidbits

Here's a recap of my life through the holidays and last couple months:

My brother got married to the most WONDERFUL girl that we just love!

I got some TOMS.  2 pair actually.  These beauties and a pair of brown herringbone.  Love them! 

The DOZENS and DOZENS of rolls my mom and I made for my brother's reception.

Thanksgiving at my great aunts.  Eat lots of food.  Play volleyball. Repeat. (Intermingled with random things like stacking 3 people on top of each other...)

Made gingerbread houses per our annual tradition.  Our pretty much rocked this year!

*    *    *

I've also been really busy with church, eating healthier, loving my nephews, work, and being a good wife!

Against my consent

You know that saying "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent"?


That Eleanor Roosevelt was a pretty brilliant woman.  And yet I am confident that she never took her car to the mechanics... 


Those blasted mechanics don't seem to care one bit about my consent! 


My car (Stella) has been leaking and leaving oil in my driveway (at least it sure looked like oil to ME).  


A couple nights ago--after a warning light appeared on my dashboard--in the dark of the night, with a flashlight, I went out to check the oil in my car and is was LOW LOW LOW.  I asked my husband to pick up some oil on his way home and put it in.  He obligingly did so.  (Over the summer my car basically ran out of oil and I was paranoid that it had happened again.)  Much to my pleasure the oil he added caused the 'Maint Req" light on my dashboard to turn off.  I thought I was finally starting to gain a little mechanical knowledge.


Well...  I took my car in for an oil change after work today.   That puddle that I just KNEW was oil in my driveway... fluid I was SURE was oil... Was actually transmission fluid...  That plus the fact that I misread the oil stick (I don't even know what that thing is called.  Why did I think I knew anything about cars?) made for a car with TOO MUCH oil.  


Too much oil + broken transmission + mechanics looking at me like I didn't know a thing + not my consent = me feeling inferior.

Tom time

It's Toms time.  I've been thinking about it for a loooooong time and I'm gonna get them.  

I'm just not sure which pair to get.  Help me out?

Choice #1  Brown herringbone

Choice #2 Classic and natural

Choice #3 Go with almost everything in my wardrobe (and look at the animals inside!) ...yet kind of boring

Choice #4  My favorite color, but not as versatile. 

Choice #5 I feel like this is a boring choice, but I really love the grey.

There are some other super fun choices, but I think my first pair needs to be a solid instead of patterned.

What do you think?  Which pair gets your vote?

Time

After listening to Ian S. Arden talk about using time wisely and hearing the bishop in my ward talk about staying busy with good things I have been thinking about what I spend my time on.


To say that I have been slacking when it comes to exercising would be a gross understatement...  I did okay over the summer, but when I went back to work when school started I had less time.  I kept thinking that after I got in a good routine and settled into this school year I'd have more time. 

Guess what...  That never happened!  In fact the opposite happened--I got a fairly time intensive calling and had less time than before.  Yet despite that I still managed time to watch TV.  



I have decided that I need to cut out most of my TV watching.  This past week I have watched substantially less than I am used to.   This week is October break and I thought this would be the perfect time to start down the road to being fit again.  3 weeks ago I started doing yoga with a friend but that was only once a week.  Yesterday I power walked to my brother's house (He lives 2 miles from me) and today I rode to my parents' house and back (14 miles).  Last night I also decided to stop eating deep fried foods and sweets until Thanksgiving.  I'll need a slice of pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving.  Time to get healthy!


And you know what?  I feel pretty great!

AZ beauty

 I watched this a couple days ago on a friend's blog.  I didn't think too much of it at the time, but it keeps sneaking back into my mind.  Take a look.  Enjoy!

 

"Landscapes: Volume 2 is the second of a three part series (probably). Every frame of this video is a raw still from a Canon 5D2 DSLR and processed with Adobe software. In Volume 2 I again show off my beautiful home state of Arizona and I also made several trips to Utah. This video has some iconic landmarks that we have seen before. I felt that showing them again with motion controlled HDR and/or night timelapse would be a new way to see old landmarks."