Time stands still for no man...or woman...

Last year was a year of embracing life.

This year is a year of change.

I'm married and I love my husband very much!! I'm very blessed in every area of my life! I am excited and scared of the future ahead of me!

All the same, there are times when I close my eyes, and see the days of my past...

...days of my youth and summer nights, The Simpsons reruns and taco bell at 3am....

...days of my crazy fan-girl ways, late night trips to the beach and endless laughs...

...days and nights of international movies, Rockband and Ihop....

My heart is full of the joy of those days. The memories so sweet, but never to be had again....

...like a favorite dish at a restaurant that has gone out of business and you can never sample again...

Life is ever changing and will never stop, even for me.

To my all of my friends:

Thank you for the good times we have shared. I wish I could properly convey with words what they will forever mean to me, but alas, it is not possible.

You were my friend then.

You are my friend now.

I pray you will always be my friend in my future.

Nostalgic romanticist...that's me.

Modern Day Translation

I have a moment, so I thought I would write about something that has had me in hog heaven lately! Google Translate. Can I just say...AMAZING! Ok...so I know, I am the slow one on the block, but still...give me a break!

Why is Google Translate so important lately? At least a year ago...or maybe like two or almost three...I forget...I found a crochet pattern of a girl that I wanted to crochet. After several searches in vain, I FINALLY found it! I was in dithers! And with it, I found the Blog of the author and have been one of her faithful blog stalkers ever since. I immediately ordered her book and had it shipped to me...all the way from Sweden! However, there was a wrinkle in my plan..(and you being the smart readers that you are can probably see it already)...the pattern and the book it comes in are all in Swedish. I don't know swedish...sigh. And for the longest time, the book has sat on the shelf not being used. At one point or another, book two and three from the author were also added to the shelf. No...I didn't know how to read swedish yet...but by golly I loved her patterns and someway or another, it was going to happen!

Well, I am here to tell you folks, that dreams DO come true! With the help of Google translate and the language changer on my my keyboard of my laptop (I am sure there is a technical term for this, but I don't know it and am too lazy to look it up right now), I can type in Swedish and get the English translation!! While it may not be exact, it's fairly close and I can gather what the author is saying.

So with this handy dandy modern day Urim & Thumim I can turn this:


Större Amigurumis
Storleken på amigurumi beror förutom på mönstret, så klart, även på vilket garn du väljer. Många vill virka stora och gosiga amigurumis och blir lite besvikna när deras figurer i slutänden inte blir mer än 25 cm långa, och frågar efter större mönster. Visst kan man göra mönster på gigantiska figurer men vem orkar virka ett huvud där ett varv är på 150 maskor och det sen ska upprepas 10 gånger?
Men, det finns en mycket enklare lösning! Använd ett riktigt tjockt garn så får du en väldigt stor figur men behöver inte jobba lika hårt. Leta efter ett garn där nål storleken som rekommenderas är större än 8mm, amigurumis virkade av sådant garn kan bli mer än tre gånger så stora som de virkade med tunt garn. En annan fördel är också att det går snabbare, du har ju mer att hälla i. Nackdelen är att det går åt mer garn men det kan man leva med när man sen har en jättestor kompis att krama.

And you get:

Larger Amigurumis
The size of amigurumi are not only due to the pattern, of course, also on the yarn you choose. Many people want to crochet big and cuddly amigurumisand get a little disappointed when their characters in the end no more than 25cm long, and asks for the larger pattern. Sure you can make patterns on thegiant figures but who dryers crochet a head where one turn is 150 stitchesand then be repeated 10 times?
However, there is a much simpler solution! Use a really thick yarn so you get a very large figure but does not work as hard. Look for a yarn in which theneedle size recommended is larger than 8mm, amigurumis crocheted of this yarn may be more than three times as large as the crocheted with thin yarn.Another advantage is that it is faster, you have more to pour in. The downside is that it takes more yarn but you can live with when you then have a hugefriend to hug.


You see what I mean? It's pretty fantastic!!!


I am going to start work on my first swedish translated pattern and will post the outcome! So Excited!!!


But seriously...can we just marvel for a moment about being able to understand what something says in another language with just the click of a button?? It's like I found the decoder ring at the bottom of my Cracker Jack box! Huzzah!! Oh and I found this pattern and it made my day even better!!


Cheers!

The Rundown and The 60 Day Hump

Wow. I am not really sure how it happened, but is it April already?? It feels like just yesterday that April felt a million light years away!

Ok, down to business the results of my 2011 New Year's Resolutions and the year Rundown:

1) Prayer & Scriptures Daily ~ While I did really well on the prayers, the scriptures were a bit harder, but I am picking them back up a bit more lately. Must improve.

2) Temple Attendance ~ not as good as I would have wanted, but I still made it a few times...in fact, there was a time where I was going once a week...sadly, life took over and I am back to trying to make it a priority.

3) Attend all church meetings and fulfilling callings ~ on this one, I feel like I deserve a gold star

4) More Services ~ They can't all be gold stars...

5) Get to the gym....eat healthier....*cough*

6) Go back to school...nope! Sure didn't do anything near this one!

7) Date ~ This one I did and rather well I think...but more about that in the rundown

8) Be possitive, confident & trust ~ While I don't really believe this deserves a full gold star, I would be happy giving it a silver!

9 & 10) Try new things & Travel More ~ I feel like I did fairly well here considering I traveled outside the country for the first time, which was pretty big for me. Two birds...one stone...awesome!

11) Stop caring what others think ~ Check! It seems the older I get the less I give a rat's brown butt what you think of me and what I am doing! As long as I am keeping the comandments and living how I feel it good for me, then I feel pretty good!

Treats from 2011 or The Rundown:

I decided early on that this year was going to be MY year! I was going to be awesome, feel awesome and do awesome things!

First and foremost, Trevor came home off of his Mission and while I was just sick with relief and gratitude for him being home...thiking that things would be awesome and we'd hang out...etc...he had other plans in mind! Lol. It's scary how much these boys grow into their own men while they are out serving the Lord. It soon became evident, that while I was family and loved...I had better have other plans, because he had plans like crazy with friends and what not!

Good thing I did too! February not only brought my big 3-0, but this year for my gift to myself, I went on a cruise! I traveled for the first time outside of the United States and went with Mark, Rocio & Gina to the Caribbean! I was a little unsure, again, how someone of my palor would so out on the sandy beach all day long, but did you know that if you lather enough sunscreen on, you can spend a week in the Caribbean and not look like it when you come back? Huh, neither did I, but it's a true story folks!

I finally moved out and rented an apartment with my friends Tricia and Kylee. Good times were had and I found a resurgence in my reliance on myself! While it was a short arrangement, I really loved living with these girls! In August, I made another move to a shared townhome with my now roommates Erica and Emily. It's been a great place to live as well and I am proud to say that I have taken full advantage of the hot tub while living here.

Now on to the bigger stuff for 2011...one of my goals for this past year was to date and boy howdy did I date! Around the begining of June, after having a short fling, I signed up for online dating on eHarmony as well as LDSMingle.com. While there were a few contenders, some fantastically bad dates, and a guy that would much rather have my photo than actually meet me...one guy stood out over the others!

I started dating Chris July 23, 2011 and we have pretty much been together everyday since. In August he helped me move to my new place and helped me get things arranged. When we went to Ikea and I had him help me move things from one display over to another to see how they looked...he took it in stride and didn't complain once! In September, we drove 13 hours in the cramped back seat (affectionately called "The Nest") down to Yuma and back for Eliza's baptism. We shared the fantastic stargazing at 5 in the morning and it felt like a little bit of heaven. In November, we had Thanksgivings with family and friends and in December we started getting serious about the idea of getting married. Christmas was wonderful. Never have I had such a loving, caring and thoughtful man in my life!

And New Years Eve, while visiting Temple Square before they took down the lights, in front of the Christus statue, he asked me to be his wife for this life and the life to come!

He makes me laugh more than anyone, he keeps me sane, calms me and helps me have fun! I am one LUCKY woman!

So that was my fantastic 2011! I think it most definitely was MY year and 2012 will most definitely be OUR year for Chris & myself!

What will the remaining 3 quarters of 2012 bring??

This is the part of the post that explains The 60 Day Hump. 60 days. That's all I have left before I am officially a wife!!! Gah, where DID the time go??

Well, so far the calendar looks like ~ April 25 engagement pics, May 9th Bridal/Groomal pics, June 1st is the Party (reception, or whatever!) and June 2nd is the wedding!! SLC Temple here we come! This will be followed by a mini honeymoon, but we are hoping to have a full fledged cruis honeymoon later in the year (can you tell I had a good time on my first cruise?). In the mean time, I still have to finish the guest lists, get invitations printed and sent out, find a place to live and move, get my place rented out, find Chris something to wear at this crazy shinding....the list goes on and on I assure you and with only 60 days left to do it in....yeah....

Here's my reasolution list for 2012:

1)Daily scriptures & prayer
2)Get out of debt or seriously reduce debt
3)Keep budget
4)Diet, stretch & exercise daily
5)Better at callings
6)Stop bitting my nails for good
7)More temple attendance
8)Bear my testimony more
9)Do more geneology work
10)Read all of my religious books that I own (this one is fairly lofty...so it might be on my resolutions for while)
11)Be more organized and keep my room clean (I have issues with this one)
12)Blog a bit more than I have in the last year

Happy 2012 to all you people that got your New Year Post up WAY before I did!! Keep smiling! :D It's going to be a glorious year!