You Learn Something New...

So I learned a valuable lesson this weekend. Well, I guess "valuable" is a relative term. If I plan to buy a ton of sausage in the future, it will probably be valuable to me. However, considering that the fact that I don't typically buy sausage in the first place is what put me in the position to learn said valuable lesson... Well, the knowledge might be wasted on me. But it sure gave me a laugh. And Julie too.

See, Julie sent me a recipe to try out some time. So tomorrow night, we are having Three Beans and Sausage for Monday Meal. The recipe calls for 1.5 pounds smoked sausage. So I went to the grocery store on Friday afternoon, and I went straight to the meat section. I knew what I was looking for. There was the hot bulk sausage. There was the regular. Ah... But where was the smoked? I looked. And I looked again. To no avail. So I finally caved and went to the meat counter. I asked if they sell smoked sausage. They replied that they do and the gentleman stepped from behind the counter and picked up some pre-packaged sausage links that had basically been right in front of me. No, I proceeded to tell the kind sir. No, I need the ground kind, like hamburger meat that I have to brown up and mix with beans. Kind of like a chili. I got a couple of puzzled looks. They asked me what I was making. I explained. I even admitted I don't usually shop for sausage. So they very politely explained that there is no such thing as ground smoked sausage. Oh. So I happily took the links (which they raved about) and went down to some aisles and called Julie. You know, to verify. I said, "So the smoked sausage in that recipe... Is that ground meat or is it in link form?" She got quiet for a second, then said, "Wait, what?" I repeated the question. She said, "Links. Why? Did I write ground?" I said, "No, I just had in my head that that was what I was looking for." Well, we had a good laugh about that, she and I. And probably the two nice guys at the meat counter did too. So, now I know... No such thing as ground smoked sausage :). (And if you didn't already know, now you do too :)).

I'm also making cheese and onion cornbread to go with the dinner. Lea is making rice and some sort of veggie and dessert. Those will be a surprise when I get there. Yum. Of course, I'm not able to find buttermilk cornbread mix here. They don't have Martha White stuff (though I know exactly what it looks like, because I bought her blueberry muffin mix often in the early days of marriage). I'll tell you like I told Julie: the problem with cooking Southern (out of the cookbook I checked out of the library called 1001 Ways to Cook Southern by Southern Living) when you don't live in the South is that you can't find half the ingredients! Her reply: Move out of Yankee-land and come on back home! (By the way, this Southern talk might help clue you in to the movie quote for the week-ish).

In other news: I totally hate Verizon at the moment. Possibly it's because they are trying to force everyone to upgrade to the phones that require a new (more expensive) service plan... Who knows. But my cell phone service has been spotty all afternoon and evening. No texts, no calls. I'm annoyed. Highly annoyed. I can't even tell it's in crappy mode until I try to send a text or call out. Christina and I are going to Best Buy tomorrow to see about getting me a new phone since I'm still within the time frame. But I don't think it's my phone. My mom's is doing the same thing. And hers is nothing like mine. Except, according to Christina, they are both analog only phones. Stupid data plans. I'm seriously thinking of just going pre-pay. Because this is getting ridiculous. There's my soap box.

I have checked out all the episodes of My So-Called Life on DVD from the library. It makes me feel old. I can't believe it's been over 15 years since I was watching it on MTV (when I could sneak on the channel when the 'rents were gone... ;)). (I never called my parents 'rents, by the way. I just know my dad reads this and thought I'd give him a raised-eyebrow experience :). I am, however, serious about the MTV thing). I remember when that show was really pushing the envelope. My how tame it seems now...

I went to a church game night activity last night with my friend Wendy. It was pretty fun. We played PIT. I had played it once before way back in 2006 with my wonderful Dothan friends Stacy, Brian, Brian, Becky, Kristy, and Jerry. It was fun back then. I had forgotten how to play it. I was reminded last night. And it was way fun last night too :). Julie... Next time I visit you and we have 5 people or more, I'll have to purchase PIT and we shall play. You guys will like it :).

And last, but most certainly not least.... I'm laughing already... So I was out in the 700s shelving books yesterday. I came across a book of Dilbert comics. Dilbert cracks me up anyway. I think he is pretty much spot-on most of the time. Just the cover made me laugh so hard... In fact, every time I think about it, I laugh. Seriously, Dilbert is a genius! I love the biting sarcasm and sharp wit :). Here's the cover. Maybe you'll laugh too :).

I'm still laughing :).

Necessity

I am amazed by how much I have learned, not because I wanted to, but because I had to. Because there was no one there to do it for me.

I remember one time, shortly after I moved here, I had to drive to Tacoma to take some tests for a job for which I applied. And in order to get to Tacoma -- at least the short way -- I had to drive over the Narrows Bridge. Which has a toll booth. This was before I had invested in my good-to-go pass that now sits nicely beneath my rearview mirror and just deducts from an account whenever I cross the bridge (which is rare). So at that time, I had to stop and pay the toll the old fashioned way. It was probably October, so it was cold. And rainy (it is Washington State, after all...). And my window doesn't roll all the way down. And even as far as it does go, it goes very slowly. So I started way back to press the "power" button for my window to lower it so I could pay the toll and not hold up traffic and be that person. And so as I drove with my window lowering, the wind and the rain and the cold came in. And I was already nervous. Tacoma is a big city, and I'd never been there on my own before. And I started crying there to myself, thinking, "I shouldn't have to go through these things alone!" But, I got over it. And I paid the toll. And I found the library headquarters. And I passed all the tests (including the Spanish one, by the by...), and I made it safely home.

And maybe I shouldn't have had to go on my own. Maybe (no, definitely), it would have been nice to not be alone on that journey. But it was either go alone, or don't go at all. And so I went.

The same is true of going to Tuscaloosa.

And so I have found that, sometimes, out of necessity, we do have to go alone. And in some way, we grow from that. We become stronger because of it.

Here are some things I have learned out of necessity:

• How to change a toilet seat (remember Julie?).
• Where to put coolant in my car.
• How to replace a heating element in the oven (yeah, this was a fun exercise tonight...)
• How to use epoxy to replace a torn out sideview mirror.
• Never to let the oil tank for the heater get empty.

I'm sure there are more. Those are a few. It would be easier if I were married, or my dad was nearby. I could pass the job on to someone else. But I guess I wouldn't really learn that way, and there's nothing wrong with learning more. (And it's always nice that I can call my dad and have him talk us through the steps and tell us what we need to make sure we're doing to be safe...).

Of course, when I'm in the middle of a frustrating task, I usually spout off (like I did to my dad tonight over the phone) that this stuff is "man's work" and I shouldn't have to be doing it ;). He just laughs at me.

Yep... Sometimes we learn more out of necessity than we ever actually wanted to learn. But it's probably good for us :).

Cravings

Do you ever randomly remember something really, really awesome you have had in the past, but can't get anymore? And then you have a craving for that thing? I know I have :). And I have done so a few times recently... So here are a few of my random cravings. And where I first tasted the wonderfulness that is them :).

ojaldras (oh-hall-drus) from the BHS cafeteria. This is basically fried bread dough. I had one when I went back to Panama in 2008. It wasn't bad. But it still wasn't what I remembered from Balboa High School's cafeteria. In 9th grade, we had a long break between our 2nd and 3rd period classes. And so pretty much every day, Sergio would go downstairs to the cafeteria before class and buy himself an ojaldra. And he would come and share it with our little group of four (which consisted of me, Michael, Sergio, and Tamarra). I can still remember the smell of ojaldras. Man oh man do I love those things...

O'Charley's Loaded Potato Soup. I know I could get this again if I had an O'Charleys somewhere in my vicinity. But I don't. So for now, it's just an unfulfilled craving. Hence the potato soup I made last week. The stuff I made was good, but not nearly as good as the O'Charleys soup is, in my opinion. That stuff is just cheese soup with potatoes floating around in it. I used to savor every single smidgen of it.

Roast Beef Sub (?) at Italian Express in Dothan. If you live in or near Dothan and have never had this, do not miss out!! Oh. My. Gosh. You get the sandwich and it comes with fries. And the only way to order it -- the only correct way to order it -- is to say: gravy on the sandwich and on the side. So that you have gravy in which to dip your french fries. Healthy? Yeah, no. Delicious? Oh you betcha. I have had this culinary wonder pop into my head a couple times recently. Next time I go to Dothan, I'm definitely hitting up Italian Express. Hopefully it's still there :). And still as good as I remember.

Corn Dog Man Corn Dog. Only from the corn dog man at the Peanut Festival. Do I usually have a craving for hot dogs? No. But this is another unhealthy, but fabulous treat. And hey, you can only get it once a year (and that's IF you live in the vicinity of the Peanut Festival -- which I do not). So you might as well. I used to go to the Peanut Festival only for the fair food. Yeah, I rode the rides. At first. Until one time I saw some of the ride people pick up a metal piece of something from under the ride we'd just finished, he looked at the piece, looked at us, shrugged his shoulders, and tossed it aside. Hmmm... Never really felt safe on those tear down, put up in a new city kind of rides after that... Hahaha.

Publix Brand Mint Chocolate Cookie frozen yogurt. One of the best discoveries I made in Tuscaloosa. Luckily, I haven't had to wait quite as long to satisfy this craving. Julie has gotten it for me every time I have gone to visit her. That stuff is so yum. And half as bad for you. So you can either enjoy half the guilt... or twice as much ;). Hahaha.

Sweetarts. Particularly the chewey variety. I just had some last week from a box of 80s candy April sent me for my 30th. And I've been craving them ever since. I have searched in 5 places so far, and have not had any luck finding anymore :(. I don't know the first time I had chewey sweetarts. But I remember one time, in 4th grade, our teacher would have like a 20 minute break during Host Nation when the Host Nation teacher would come to our class and teach us about the culture, language, etc of Panama. (Many days we played Heads up 7-Up in there... and not sure how that related to Host Nation, but...). Anyway, Ms. Freund (my teacher -- it's pronounced Friend) would allow us to bring change and she would buy us stuff from the vending machine in the teachers' lounge. I always asked for the package of the regular sweetarts. Because they lasted the longest. My mouth is puckering up just thinking about sweetarts. Anyway, I don't know when I'm going to get some big sweetarts -- chewey or otherwise -- because I can't seem to find them anywhere. Boo!

And here's something I can't crave, because I've never actually had one... But fried twinkie. I wish I would have tried that. Again, fair food. Haha.

So there are some of my unfulfilled cravings... How about you?

Mondays Marvelosos!

Yeah, so Marvelous Mondays doesn't end up being alliterative when translated into Spanish. So I'll just break out some Spanglish.

Today was a marvelous Monday. Just all the way around. The weather was warmer (probably high 50s). The sun was out and beautiful. Everyone was chipper and laughing and joking and having a grand old time at work. And, of course, it was Monday. Which almost always means Marvelous Monday Meals. I've decided I'm going to compile a cookbook from all the recipes we have made. And so we had to take a group picture with our plates. Our little plates. The big ones would have taken up a lot more room. Plus we didn't use those tonight. So in the back row, we have Chuck, Dan, Xavier, and Morgan's friend Megan. Front is Lea, Morgan, and me.
And let me say, tonight's meal did not disappoint. It was, once again, marvelous. Just in case you were curious, I'll tell you what the menu was: Cheddar Potato Soup, salad, home-made yeast rolls (my first attempt ever, and they came out great!!!), and for dessert, Fudgy Peanut Butter Cup Pie. Oh my, it was fabulous. My only complaint is that it was heavy food. And I seriously thought I would puke if I had to look at more food for about an hour and a half after eating dinner. So we waited that long to eat dessert. Perhaps next time I won't have 4 yeast rolls (but they were so good!) and will only have 1 ladle of soup (though my bowl was only half full, even with 2 ladle-fulls). So we just started watching season 4 of Scrubs and allowed all that food to settle. And once it was settled enough, we had our dessert. Because you simply can't not have dessert on Monday night :).

I also learned something important about yeast rolls... You can make them ahead and freeze them before you proof them. I was nervous about doing this, since I had never even made rolls before, so I didn't know if it would work, and I really didn't want to ruin them! But it worked, so that was great too :).

And yesterday, we took Desiree and Emily to church. I think they are my favorite part of my week. My mom picks them up in the mornings, because goodness knows I don't get up early enough... And so when they come in to Sacrament, Emily sees me, and wants me to pick her up. She then spends the next 30 seconds with her arms wrapped around me as far as she can reach and her head on my shoulder. And then she's ready to look at books or whatever. What a sweet girl. And Desiree informed me yesterday: "Just remember Aunt Hila... I love you more than a diamond." I love, love, love these girls. More than a diamond ;). Much, much more than a diamond.

White and Nerdy

Today was a pretty cool day. Nothing majorly awesome happened, so I'm not sure what makes it so awesome. Other than the fact that I listened to Weird Al Yankovic in my car all the way to work, which made me smile. Maybe that's the recipe to a great day: start it out with some Weird Al :). Hence the title of my post today. You can watch it/listen to it here. Definitely not my favorite Weird Al song. So I'm going to link a bunch of them in this post.

Perhaps it was the Weird Al that reminded me of the days years ago when we went with my mom to Diable Elementary School when she worked with the special ed department and had to help set up the classroom a few days before school started. We would hang out and spend the days there. Since she got military store priveleges with that job, she would usually reward us for having to be in school before school actually started (since we had to be with her) by getting us lunch at the commisary. Which was way exciting for us, since it was when the coolness of Microwave Magic food came out. Anyway, we were kids, you know. Easily bored. So the things we had for entertainment included playing with the toys there (though they were way below our ages), playing Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, and wheeling in the tv and VCR to watch Weird Al videos. The three I remember the most are Fat, Like a Surgeon, and Hey Ricky.

And maybe that is why I was already in memory lane mode at the library. Because I remembered this random fact about my life. I don't even know what elicited the memory. But I smiled at the memory. Oh wait, I think I do know! I was thinking about Weird Al songs. And this one came to mind (favorite line here is: "now I'm being chased by some irate velociraptors, well believe me, this has been one lousy day" (wouldn't that be the understatement of a lifetime ;)). And that made me think about the actual book Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton, which I read for the first time in 7th grade. Which made me remember sitting in this office-type area on the second floor of A building. This is where students could make phone calls or whatever. I remember sitting in there waiting for my mom to pick me up, and I'd be reading Jurassic Park. And then I remembered that I was probably sitting there waiting, because that was the year I had joined the Craft Club. Which I think lends iself well to the title of this blog post anyway :), as though I needed help fitting into the White and Nerdy categories :). But anyway, I remember cross-stitching a gift at the craft club meetings for my friend Jessica that said "Old Friends" and had a doll, a bunny, and a bear on it. That was the year Jessica had moved away from Panama, and she and I had been the best of friends. And at that point in my life, my best friend moving away was the worst thing that had ever happened to me. Funny the things you remember.

So knowing Brad shares my love of Weird Al songs, I texted him with some of the more hilarious lines from the songs. Such as:
"Made from brontosaurus, baby, not moo cow!"
and
"Of course we stopped for more pickled wieners now and then."

So yeah. I went to work. I went to the grocery store. I went to a baby shower for a girl from church. I came home, and am currently waiting for the dough to rise on my first-ever attempt at homemade yeast rolls (wish me luck, because these are supposed to be for Monday Meals :)). Nothing was excitingly abnormal today. Except Weird Al. Whose name says it all :).

Hard Won

Sometimes lessons in life are hard-won.

Like: Don't walk down newly mopped (and therefore still wet, since it's cold and the floor isn't drying quickly) steps while looking at a text on your cell phone and not holding onto the railing and not paying attention to the wet steps, because you forgot about them. You will learn, the hard way, that this can cause a slip (especially in treadless flip flops). And it will result in a bruised left butt-cheek. You can call me bruised-butt :). It hurts more tonight than it did yesterday when I slipped or all day today. Weird.

Like: Make sure you check the oil level in your 300 gallon tank that is used for the oil furnace that heats the house. Don't assume that, because you filled it in May, it will last through the whole winter, especially if it's a particularly cold winter. Because it won't. And you will learn that on a Monday night that drops into the 20s and the heater is blowing cold air. And you will get oil delivered the next day. But by then, unbeknownst to you, you will find that, because the tank was basically empty, air got into the lines bringing oil to the oil burner and now it will not ignite. And since it's winter and Tuesday night brought 5 inches of snow, the furnace people are slammed, and they can't make it out to fix your furnace until Thursday. But you also learn that there are wonderful people who will always help in any way they can. There is Bob who will come by and see if he can figure out the problem. There are Lea and Chuck who lend 2 space heaters so at least you won't freeze to death. And we learned a lot for the future, that's for sure! I'm certainly a ton more educated on oil furnaces! Which are a popular form of heating up here, especially in older homes.

So that's how my week has been going. Hahaha. Although, I guess if I would turn off the space heater in my room and go ahead and freeze, I wouldn't feel the bruised butt, because it'd frozen and numb!

Anyway, so I started pondering -- though I don't know why -- that idea of hard-won lessons. Sometimes we learn things in life that cannot be learned without going through an experience to get you to that point. Perhaps not the above two examples (though I think they are more impressed upon my mind because of how I learned them), since I could have learned those without experiencing the not-so-fun part. But there are things in life we learn only through going through tough stuff.

Because there was a time I was pretty sure about everything I wanted in life. But it turns out there were details I had never even considered. And it turns out sometimes those details matter. A lot. And sometimes it takes a while for those details to dawn on you. For example...

I have never pondered before the sideview mirrors on a car. But after I foolishly tore up mine, I was telling Lea that maybe my next car will have to be one with the kind of side-view mirrors that fold in (in both directions) when some fool driver smacks them on something :).

On a more serious note...

I thought I knew what I wanted to do with my life several years ago as far as a career. I was going to go into a very scientific field. But as I took classes that were required to get that degree, I really did not enjoy it. And I got a C in one of the classes in which I really struggled. Had I not taken that path and tried it, I wouldn't have known how much I didn't want it. It wasn't a bad path. I just don't think it was the right path for me. And knowing what I didn't want helped me to figure out better what I did want. It helped me to realize what really mattered to me. What mattered to me was not being a career woman. What mattered to me was being a wife and mother. I didn't see that scientific field lending itself to what really mattered to me. But until I started down that path, I hadn't even thought about any of that stuff.

I have suddenly realized just how significant that is. Where I have often felt like I failed, maybe it wasn't a failure as much as it was an opportunity to learn. And if I learned something, then I didn't fail. With every experience, I learn more and more about what is important to me. And as I do this, my likelihood of success will increase.

Life is a great teacher. And just as I did not enjoy that C I got in Differential Equations, I don't really enjoy "failing" at certain things in the school of life either. But sometimes things just don't work out. And when that happens, I am figuring out (finally) that the best thing I can do is learn from it, figure out what I really want and what really matters based on what just happened, and go from there.

And know that next time will be better :).

So there's my two cents!

And p.s... I think the quote I have on my blog right now -- about the winds of change -- is very appropriate to this post. So if you haven't noticed it before, check it out :). I think it's one of my new favorites.

I Wish...

I wish 2 ring pops would help to cure what ails me. (Emily had a minor ear infection, and there was little I could do for her... except offer her a ring pop or two...)Who's with me?

But oh how I love that baby.

Another Stupid Moment From the Nilla Life

So I have shared before that I have done some really really stupid things. Tonight was no exception. The real kicker is that this all happened because I was trying to prevent something else from happening -- again. And in the process, I made my car even more ghetto. I bet you had no idea that was possible... But it is.

So the last few days, the rain has returned. And so has my swimming pool floorboard. But at least it meant I didn't have to worry about my car freezing shut. So I haven't parked it below, partially beneath the carport. But tonight, the temperatures are supposed to get close enough to freezing that it's supposed to snow and rain. I didn't want to take any chances. So I went outside to move my car down. It was already dark outside. I opened the gates. One side I blocked open with a brick. The other side, I didn't. I thought it would stay open, since it usually does. The minute I got into my fogged-up car, I saw that the side of the gate on my driver's side had shut. But I thought, "Eh, I can nudge it open slowly with the rear of my car and it shouldn't be a problem." I just wanted to get this plan done and over with and get on with my evening. And so the plan was going along well. I backed down slowly (barely able to see through the fog and condensation clinging to all my windows (on the inside)) and I bumped the gate open. Success! Until it wasn't open wide enough to clear the side view mirror. And I didn't know this would really matter until it was too late. Something snagged. Badly. And I heard a horrible cracking sound. I thought it was the gate at first (it's wood). Oh no. Such a thing would have been far too much in my favor. Nope. I tore up my mirror. It was hanging by wires. Glass is cracked. It looked like this:
And Jon tells me I need to get two-part epoxy at a car parts store, so I will do that tomorrow. However, I need to go to work in the morning, so I have to make it work for me for a while. Enter duct tape. Not much I can do about the broken mirror itself. But at least it will stay inside it's little hole. And hopefully the apoxy will work. But any way you cut it: my car is officially even more ghetto than before. And if I don't go ahead and laugh about it, I will cry. Yes, it was my fault. I should have made sure the other side of the gate would stay open by finding a brick for it also. But I was impatient (that trait is starting to really cause me problems). The kicker is... If my doors wouldn't freeze shut, I wouldn't have been doing this to prevent the freeze and this wouldn't have happened.

But... We just keep moving on. Just one more story for my memoirs... Hahaha.

Blanketed Success

I don't generally put the Marvelous Monday Meals on my blog. But I think we did such a great job with our Chinese night last night that I am :). Below you will see our first course: egg drop soup.

Then it was on to the main course of the meal. We had orange chicken, cauliflower fried rice, and chicken chow mein. Also store-bought spring rolls. But for the record, everything else was made from scratch! I think we did an awesome job! Oh, and notice the chopsticks? I actually managed to get food in my mouth with those! It was a proud moment ;).

And of course we finished up with fortune cookies (homemade!). Making these brought plenty of memories, let me tell you. We had no clue what to expect, and with our first batch, we laughed hysterically when we folded in our self-made fortunes and it looked like a mini skinny pankcake! Surprisingly enough, though, they did harden up. Lea's husband contributed a few fortunes as well. She laughed when she read one of them and showed it to me. It said, "You will find money, but you will not be able to keep it." She said, "Geez Chuck. Just put a bad fortune in there..." I laughed and said, "Well you watch girl, I'm going to manage to get that one." So we continued our baking of fortune cookies and we had more fortunes than cookies, so some fortunes got left out. So at dessert, we passed around the fortunes. I opened my first one (and it looked like what you see below... I ended up eating some paper, since it was stuck to the cookie and wouldn't come off...) and my fortune said, "He who learns to laugh at himself never runs out of things to laugh at." Hahaha. I actually put that fortune in. Then I got my 2nd one and opened it. We saw quickly that it was one with Chuck's handwriting. And as I read it, I laughed out loud. Because yep. Out of 14 fortune cookies and 19 fortunes, not only did the "bad" fortune wind up in a cookie... It ended up in my hands. Just like I predicted! Hahaha. We all laughed so hard. So the fortune cookies were more chewy than crispy, hence the difficulty in separating the paper from the cookie... But they weren't bad. Kind of like a Chinese sugar cookie, as Chuck said.

Lately, overnight lows have been dipping way into the low 20s. This has wreaked havoc on my car as I indicated. Turns out it's not only freezing the locks, but also freezing the doors. So Monday, I was only successful in getting the passenger door open (until the car thawed out), so I had to crawl in through the passenger side. And this was after I parked it as far under the carport as I possibly could (there's a lot of junk under there). So last night, I decided to try a new tactic in addition to pulling in as far as possible under the carport. I covered it with an old quilt. I tucked in my car for the night. (Because by 9:30, my car already had ice on it).

And guess what: It worked!!!! I had no problem getting into my car this morning! Yay!!! So guess what else? My car is tucked in again tonight. I'm half tempted to read it a bedtime story and see if it won't plug up its own coolant leak (which I found today). Hahaha. If only it were that easy...

Out With the Old, In With the New

Happy 2011! I'm still in my pajamas, and I woke up at 9:30. So, so far 2011 has been perfect ;). Hahaha. With the entire day free to do whatever I want (and that includes staying in my pj's all day), I figure it's a good time to re-visit my 2010 goals, hold myself accountable to them, updating the blog world at large on my overall success for the year, and set new goals. I find that I really enjoyed updating my blog about where I was as far as meeting the goals I set for myself. And so I will be doing that again this year. But first to the update:

Out With the Old
In 2010, I set a goal to:
Liken the scriptures. I did not do well with this at all. I will have to try a different tactic this year. I read scriptures daily. But I so easily content myself with "surface reading" rather than really applying them to my life.

Go to the Temple more often. Well, I can officially say I went to the Temple more often in 2010 than in 2009. But only by 1 time. But I have started going with a great group of ladies each month, so this should improve.

Become more humble. Pretty sure I failed on this one. And pretty sure Elka was right when she told me to be careful to ask for humility. As indicated in the previous post, 2010 was a very hard year full of very hard occurrences. Most of which I can't understand. And I probably should have used them as learning experiences. I probably should have tried to gain humility from them. I don't think I did. I think I became more bitter. I am not including this on my 2011 goals. I don't think I want another year like this one. I may get it anyway, but since I'm not really awesome at dealing with it and becoming humble, I don't want to look back and say "I should have been more humble, since I asked for it, but I failed at that" again this year, since I have to acknowledge that very thing for 2010.

Build My Savings Account. I did this. I met my goal for what I wanted in my savings account. And despite the fact that I had to wipe out several other funds to take care of the essential stuff that popped up this year, I haven't had to touch my savings.

Be Debt-free. I succeeded in this. I remain debt-free. And I have been successful for a year in using my credit card for monthly purchases and paying it off each month. All the benfits of points, none of the bad stuff like interest charges. I'm liking this. It helped me get a lot of stuff this past year for free.

3 Months Food Storage/Necessities. I did not do well with this. I have a hard time wrapping my mind around what I need to get, like how much and what.

Start Gardening. I did this. And I really enjoyed it. And though my original goal had been to only grow tomatoes and cucumbers, I also grew acorn squash, green bell peppers, and strawberries. I got a crop from all of them (though admittedly, the strawberries were not plentiful this year, since it was the first year for them). I got an especially great crop of tomatoes. And I enjoyed fresh tomato salsa (which I am totally craving) and we made home-made Ro-Tel! We still have 3 or 4 equivalents of a store-bought can frozen for use.

Walk. I have continued to do this. At one point, I was walking about 5 times a week between walking with Lea and walking with Sue. However, now I have only been walking with Sue 2 times a week most of the time. It has been good for me. And I have enjoyed it immensely, the walking with friends.

Lose 20 pounds. I'm not completely finished with this goal. But I am very close. I have lost between 14 and 16 pounds. Technically I only have 4 to 6 to go to meet my goal. But to get to where I was most of the time in Tuscaloosa, I'd have to lose about 6 to 8 more. It has not really been hard for me. I think it's just a mindset, really. So I anticipate the remainder of the weight will come off easily enough. And I'm okay with it taking a few months. I'd rather lose it slowly and maintain it. One thing I'm particularly happy about is that I maintained -- and even lost -- through the holidays!

Trim apple trees for production. Well it turns out this task needs someone who is not an amateur. I trimmed off a few branches here and there, but it's a way more massive undertaking than I can do with mere hedge-trimmers. We are hoping to have someone come out to trim them in the next month or so, since they say it needs to be done during the winter. But I will report we did get some good parts of apples from the trees. And we made a few apple crisps (and still have some apples frozen to make future apple crisps).

Get a laptop. Done. And it does everything I want. Woohoo!

Accept that there are some things I cannot control. The fact remains. I still don't do well at accepting it, though. Enough said.

Go someplace new. Did this. Twice. I went to the Oregon Coast with my mom in August. And I went to Savannah, Georgia with Julie. Ironically enough, that means I saw both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans this year within a month. And while this was not such a shocking occurence when I lived in Panama (since only 50 miles of land separate the two oceans), it's a much huger undertaking when living in the U.S.

In With the New
My goals for 2011:
Attend the Temple monthly. I will probably do better with this if I am specific rather than just saying "more often." And also, the ladies I go with and I have set a specific date each month, and this will help us all be available and therefore more apt to be consistent.

Read scriptures for 30 minutes each day. Again, putting an actual time-frame on this will help me, I think.

Write in my journal weekly. As a teenager, I wrote in my journal daily. It was mostly just the details of my every day life. But I have looked back on my journals at times in the past and appreciated knowing what I was doing and such back then. I think that is partly why I have such clear recollections of some details of my life back then. Most especially my crushes ;). These days I write in my journal mostly when I'm having a rough day. And my journal is filled with my emotions and feelings now rather than the daily happenings of my life. And both are good (the happenings and the emotions). I just think if I write more often, that there will be a better mix of the two.

Write 30 minutes a day. As I mentioned before, I noticed my writing ability was better in Tuscaloosa when I wrote more often. And as I also mentioned before, I have heard many writers say that, if you want to write, you need to write daily. I have a lot of ideas for things floating around in my head. But they aren't doing me any good there, so I need to do something that will.

Continue adding to my savings account. I have a goal in mind for where I want to be at the end of the year. I don't feel it would be appropriate to list it here, though. So I will keep this one vague and general.

Become organized and stay that way. Once I get all my files and stuff into order, I need to make sure to keep them that way. I don't need to put aside "to be shredded" papers. I need to just shred them immediately. Otherwise, I never get around to the shredding pile and it becomes clutter.

Achieve at least one of my "bucket list" items. This one may be tricky. Most of those items cost money. And I don't really have extra of that. And some of them require other things to happen first, and I don't necessarily have control over that. But I can always set the goal and try, right?

See a new place. I'm adding this to my goals again. Because I want to eventually see all 50 states, so I need to see a new one every once in a while, right :)?

Lose about 8 more pounds. This will help me complete my goal and reach my "I'm happy with myself" weight.

72 Hour Kits. I have a few odds and ends already collected, but I need to organize it, make a list of the things I don't have, and get it prepared. What is this for? Well, this is in case of an emergency that would require me to evacuate my house for some reason. Earthquake for example. It's good to have what I need for survival for 3 days.

3 to 6 months food storage. I'm adding this again. Because I really do feel it is important. I just need to find a better way of achieving it. And part of what I will do to achieve it is to really sit down and think about what I need to survive. I think if I pick it apart and break it down, I will be successful.

Expand my garden. Not making it bigger so much as just having a bigger variety. I will not plant 60-something tomato plant seeds this year. I will not plant 14 tomato plants. I will plant 4 and I will do cucumbers again, and acorn squash. Also pumpkin, jalapenos, green peppers, and lettuce. Most of these I will try to start from seeds I got from last year's harvest. The tomatoes, however, I will buy new seeds. Because I will not be growing the big tomatoes again, as they don't typically do as well. Not enough ripening time here for them. So I'm going to try roma tomatoes and grape tomatoes. Someone recently said, "Learning to garden when you need to know how to survive is not the right time to learn. You need to already know before you NEED to know." So true. So I am learning. I'm learning what works for my area. Also, I want to try a winter garden next year as well. Why not grow things year-round if possible?

Spend less time online and more reading. My goal is 30 books this year. There was a time in my life when I conquered that goal of 30 books in 3 or 4 months. But that was a long time ago. I read 21 books in 2010, so I think I might succeed in making 30 this year. This means I need to give more time to that (reading) and less time on the computer. I am tempted to limit myself to twice a day checking of my email and facebook and blog stuff. I'm not sure if I can succeed in that, though. But I do need to cut back on computer time and increase my reading for pleasure time. Because I love love love to read. And I have enjoyed delving back into the book world in 2010, as I have almost doubled the number of books I read in 2010 from 2009. Plus if I manage to read all 30 books to meet my goal, I will have finished most of my "to-read" list :).

Some of these are big goals. And so I am hoping to actually implement this year the idea of breaking those goals down by month. And by week if necessary.

It feels good to see the things I accomplished in writing. It doesn't feel so good to know that I didn't conquer all my goals. But that's just part of life. And so I start this new year off fresh. I have new goals (some of them are kind of like the old ones), and I try again. But because I succeeded in several areas, I know I have done good things for myself. I know I have improved in at least some areas. And I hope 2011 will allow me to improve in more areas. Because I am quite imperfect. But I can definitely work toward being perfect, even if I never make it in this life.