29 by 29...

At the beginning of the year I decided I wanted to do 29 things by the time I turned 29. The time has come and gone and here is my list of what I got done! I tried to blog about most of the things as I did them. I completed 15 of the 29 (some of them are halfway done). So... not wonderful, but not bad! Better than not getting anything done all year. I discovered that it's hard to know at the beginning of the year what your year is going to be like. When I made this list I was living in my in laws basement, no knowing where I would be living or what I would be doing for sure. Some of my priorities changed during the year. Such as.... I don't have "plant a garden and learn to can" on this list but that has taken up a majority of my time this past summer/fall. Either way, I feel very accomplished for doing some of these things. Some of them have been in the works for a long time or were on my bucket list and are now done. So I'm happy with it!

1- Go on a hike to Lake Mary
2- Make a hexagon quilt - bought the stuff for it... but haven't started sewing
3- Make a quiet book for my boy
4- Run in a race (5K or half marathon... either way!)
5- Grow my own basil and make homemade pesto from it
6- Make an apron for myself (I've honestly never done this) - nope
7- Lose 30 lbs or get pregnant (cause if I get preggo I probably wont be losing the weight this year) - I'm checking this off... because I did get pregnant, just didn't work out. I only lost 5 measly pounds though.
8- Do all of the temple work for 5 ancestors (I'll explain this better when I do it) - halfway there
9- Find a great lipstick shade I really love Cover Girls outlast lipstain. That's my go to everyday.
10- Add 5 new items to my Etsy shop - sadly no...
11- Participate in a craft fair - nope
12- Finish the quilt for our bed - Halleluja!
13- Organize and re-label all of our files - halfway there
14- Build a toy barn for my boy
15- Go on a date to The Little Acorn, where I first met my husband - We did it but we went through the drive through... does that still count? Sure!

16- Do a 30 day sugar fast - HA! No...
17- Organize all of my recipes into a binder - nope
18- Take my boy to see the Buffalo's
19- Take a yoga class - As fate would have it my bff invited me to go to a class with her a few weeks ago and I did! It was wonderful and I hope to go again soon.
20- Write more consistently in my personal journal - funny story here. I hid my journal in a super sneeky place so that nobody would find it and read it (we had a few babysitters come over and I just didn't want to chance it) but then I couldn't remember where I hid it and couldn't find it until last week. So no...
21- Get some house plants, and not kill them - I have one plant and it's not dead yet... so I'm counting it!

22- Pay off all my medical bills - sigh... no. We did pay off our car though.
23- Learn how to use different saws and get more into woodworking
24- Organize a "command center" for my home
25- Go to Yellowstone for our 10th year of marriage (this is where we honeymooned) - nope, maybe this year!
26- Finish the stupid Santa cross stitch that I've been working on for the past 8 years!!! - and frame it for Christmas - NO!!! DARN!
27- Exercise at least 4 days per week - Yes... until I hurt my knee. So for half the year I did.
28- Organize my pantry better - I don't have pantry so no
29- Do my hair in different ways other than straight down at least once a week - Well, I decided a few months ago that I was sick and tired of washing my hair everyday and waiting for it to dry. So I started washing it every other day... and it's going pretty well. On the days that I don't wash it it's usually in a ponytail, messy bun, braid, or I curl it. So I'm counting this as a yes.

Command center...

 I'm not a very big fan of the stacks of paper that seem to accumulate in my house. I would even say I downright hate them. I love the idea of a command center in my home that has all my important things right there where I can see them and find them. Here us phase 1 of my command center.

I walk by this little wall so many times a day. The main things that this one houses is my calendar and my to do list. I print my calendar off of word every month. It's simple, I can scribble all over it. It helps keep the three of us more organized. I found this awesome to do list from Wit & Whistle which I love! It was very simple to put together and I'm a sucker for mustard colored anything.

 I bought this magnetic board from Roberts a while ago and really love it! I painted the border black when I bought it and hated it. So recently I sanded off the black paint, stained it a dark wood color, and painted on the chevron print. I love it now! It makes me super happy. I used this template for the chevron which was really helpful. Just a word of warning if you try this, don't be a cheapskate like me. Buy the frog tape!!! Don't even waste your time with blue painters tape because it is $2 cheaper. You will regret it! Also, don't use cheap craft paint. I started with that and it looked awful. I ended up going with the sample can at Home Depot that is paint and primer in one. Much much better. I had to re-sand and stain the bottom of the frame because I was too cheap to do it the right way the first time. Trust me on this one...

The other little wall in my kitchen is going to be phase 2. I was going to put up a frame with chicken wire in it to hold my bills, coupons, etc on this wall. Well... the chicken wire is in a mangled heap in the backyard right now with a beat up frame. It did not go well. So I'm scratching that idea and going to find something like this for the wall. The moral of the story is, sometimes crafting ideas go bad in a bad way. For me I would say it happens about 25% of the time. No worries... take a deep breath and figure something else out. But for now the wall will remain naked and my bills and coupons will remain in a stack of papers on the counter.

 

How do you manage stacks of paper in your house from taking over and swallowing you alive? Please, do tell...

Quiet book...

Here is another one of those projects that I've been working on for years..... Something you should know about me, I'm really great at starting projects but not so great at finishing them. I usually have about 10 projects in various stages of being done sitting around at all times. It's frustrating. I don't know why I do this to myself! So please don't think that I'm actually super productive and getting all these things done at record speed. I am not. At all. I just gave myself a self imposed deadline so things are magically getting done around here. And I'm about to pull my hair out. Anyway... here is the quiet book.

Now the truth as to why this has taken me so long is that I didn't just make one quiet book... I made two. One for my boy and one for my niece.

You see, my sweet little niece is the big sister to triplet babies. So I felt like it was my responsibility as the "aunt with only one kid" to make her a quiet book too. I'm glad that I did! The joy I felt as I sat and watched her play with it and smile at each page yesterday was worth all the time it took to put this little book together.

I wanted this book to be one that could be added too. For the covers I used duck cloth and used a freezer paper stencil to put the first letter of their names on it. The sides have rings so that pages can be taken out and added whenever it's desired.

All the pages are 10 x 12 thick muslin that are sewn together with the edges fraying. I like the rustic look.

The first page is one that I came up with myself. It's the lets go to bed page.

Little mini quilts with little mini people dressed in jammies, ready to go to bed. I took pictures of the kids and then printed them out onto iron on paper and ironed them onto some muslin. They both have a favorite book and a special blanket that I made little replica's of for this page.

Here is little "a's" page.

Blankets snap on and the pillows are removable with Velcro.

Next page are farm animals with removable heads. FYI this one can be a little bit rowdy in church {oops}.

Again I printed the pictures on iron on transfer paper and ironed them onto the fabric. There is Velcro on the back of the animals. {If anyone would like me to e-mail them my word document for the pictures let me know! All the pictures are from Getty Images}.

Hanging clothes on the line. Little tiny clothes pins and a vinyl laundry basket at the bottom.

Counting the beads.

Weave your own pie crust.

Check out the apples! I was really happy with how those turned out.

Fishing page. This was my most difficult page by far! And the reason why they sat in a drawer for so long...

My husband said that I couldn't put a fishing pole by fish in a bowl because you don't fish for fish out of a bowl. But I had already made the bowl and didn't want to change it so I went with it anyway. The eyes on the fish are stick on magnets and I was planning on just having something metal on the end of the pole to pick up the fish. However, the eye magnets are super weak and I could not get them to attract to anything metal!

I ended up getting a super strong magnet with a hole in it to put on the pole so that they could get the poor fish out of the water. Sounds like a simple solution but it took me about 9 months to come up with it... sheesh.

Build a pizza. Here is the crust with the top not sewn down and a snap holding everything else inside.

Inside we have sauce, pepperoni, pineapple, olives, mushrooms, anchovies (why not), peppers, and cheese (everything is cut out of felt here).

This page is a messy one with lots of little pieces but it is one of the favorites to play with I've noticed... some messes are worth it aren't they?

There is all the I've gotten done. I have great intentions of adding more pages to the book someday, but that is on hold while I find my sanity from this one.

Unfortunately we've also discovered that our IPOD touch is a great quiet book for church, and doesn't take any time to make. But they are not as cute now are they...

Hope Valley...

 There are a few things in life that I really strongly believe in...

I believe one should eat butter instead of margarine.
I believe that hot baths and walks in the mountain are healing for the soul.
I believe the best way to mop a floor is on your hands and knees with a bucket of vinegar water.

I also believe in handmade quilts.

There is nothing else quite like sleeping under a handmade quilt. I've yet to sleep under a store bought one that was nearly as comfortable or satisfying. Maybe it's the love that goes into hours upon hours of quilting it... I'm not sure. But they are wonderful! I've been very spoiled and have benefited from other's quilting skills in the past. My sister in law Nicole made us a quilt for our wedding that we have used to shreds, literally. We had it shipped out to Hawaii when we lived there because we missed it too much. But we have used it and loved it over the past 10 years and it's now falling to pieces so it was time for a new one.

I first blogged about working on this quilt here. That was two years ago! So yes, this has taken me a long time to put together. The fabric and pattern are by Denyse Schmidt, the fabric is from her Hope Valley line. The fabric was inspired by the creative, homey economic era of the Great Depression. There is a very vintage-y feel to it and I loved it the moment I first saw it. I wanted to use fabric that wasn't too feminine and the blue, teal, gray colors were perfect for this. I also loved the name of the line. When I started getting the fabric for this quilt I felt like I was in my own hope valley era just overcoming my 2009 crisis. It felt very fitting, and I love that I now get to slumber with peaceful dreams under my Hope Valley quilt every night.

I've had the top done for about a year but was pretty nervous to quilt it. I tripled the pattern size so that it would fit our California King bed. It's pretty massive, and I wanted to use really thick batting so that it would be nice and warm for the Utah winters.

I didn't want to pay a fortune to have someone machine quilt it on a long arm machine, but there was no way I was just going to tie it. I was so nervous to do it on my own machine!!! I had spent so much time on this I really didn't want to screw it up.

What I ended up doing is machine quilting with my walking foot down each of the rows by stitching in the ditch. Then I started in the top middle and stitched in the ditch down the different pieces. It worked just fine on my machine! I don't know why I was so chicken and waited so long to do it. It's not perfect by a long shot... but it works for me and I'm really happy with how it turned out.

I decided though that binding a quilt is like child birth. You're almost done, you just have to bind (or birth) your quilt. But the only way to really do this so that it looks good is to do it by hand... which takes FOREVER! One centimeter at a time, by hand... until it's done. Then you swear you are never going to make another quilt again because you don't want to go through the pain of binding again. But again like childbirth you forget how awful that was and you start piecing together another quilt ;). My thumb still hurts from hours and hours of binding, so texting has been minimal this week (oh the pains of life huh?).

I'm so happy that it's done though. This is a huge project that I've been working on for so long, it's quite the feeling of accomplishment! And I may not be birthing another quilt anytime soon... but maybe I'll forget about how much I hate binding one day.

Antelope Island...

I've been wanting to take my boy to Antelope Island for a while now. It's a magical place... once you get past the smell of brine shrimp and salt water. Where else can you go and see buffalo roam around on an island in the middle of a lake? I've only been there a few times in my life but I really love this type of thing and knew he would too.

So we went for family night this week and took a picnic dinner to eat with the buffalo. We lucked out and found the perfect secluded spot where there were two buffalo feeding and roaming around pretty darn close to us.

We parked our blanket in the middle of the trail because I didn't want to get any closer to the buffalo ;). Turns out these two were pretty docile creatures. Just getting a little dinner themselves.

 And rolling around to get bugs off their backs. It's quite the ordeal, to roll around in the dirt when you're a buffalo. And loud...

Then this little dude decided that he was a baby buffalo...

We watched the sun set and turn the sky the most beautiful orange color...

Goodbye buffalo... til next time.

You know what else we saw on Antelope Island? Antelope! I don't know if I've ever seen an antelope out there before, but we drove along side this one. He was beautiful!

In a three day span we saw two tarantulas, coyotes, buffalo, antelope, owls, deer, rabbits, all wild... all outside in this beautiful state. Utah, you are so diverse and beautiful! That is why I love you...

13.1...

I've been holding off on posting about my race because I've been trying to get my hands on some pictures that were taken during the race. But... I don't know when I will get them and I don't want to forget how it was so I will post the pictures later.

I first had the desire to run a half marathon when I was sick and laying in bed all day from chemo. I don't know what it was, but the thought of being able to do something totally opposite from what I was currently doing was so appealing to me. Chemo (and cancer I guess, but it was really the chemo) was the hardest thing that I had done physically before. It was so exhausting. By the end of it I couldn't even walk through the grocery store. I hated that this once healthy body couldn't even walk around the block. I would lay there and picture myself running in a race, people cheering, my legs working hard... I decided that I wanted to do that someday.  

I made the goal to run in a half marathon at my one year post chemo mark. Little did I know then how long it would take me to recover from that. By one year I was barely starting to feel like myself again, let alone doing something like running. So I gave myself some more time. This spring when it started to warm up I started going on short little runs outside. It was hard... I was so out of shape. I couldn't even run one mile without stopping to walk. I told my friend C that I had dreams of doing a half marathon and she found one and signed up! I had no excuse now! But enough about training (I posted about that here)...

The Saturday before the race I met C and we set out to do 10 miles together. It was an awful run, the worst I've ever done. I made it 6 miles and then hit the wall. The only thing I can compare it to is running through gum. I think it was a mixture of running in the heat of the day and not enough water or something (meaning I didn't drink enough the day before and was already wasted). Plus I brought a sugar snack to eat when I started getting tired. That's suppose to give you a burst of energy so I've been told. Well, it had the opposite affect on me, and it was awful. So the furthest I had run before race day was 9 miles that was done the week before. I needed to add 4 miles onto that the next week.

I didn't do a cancer race, but that is why I personally wanted to do the race. To give cancer the middle finger so to speak. To prove that it didn't take my life away from me and that I could recover from that and do great things that I've always wanted to do. I made these ribbons for me and C to symbolize lymphoma. Lime green is the color for lymphoma (like pink is for breast cancer). I added the lace just because I love lace.

RACE DAY!!! The race I ran was on July 14th. I woke up bright and early at 4:30 AM. We slept over at my mom's the night before so that I could cut 30 minutes off my drive time in the morning to where the race was. I drove over to C's house and picked her up. Then we headed out to South Jordan where the race would be held. Half way there C had a small freakout... she had forgotten her race number! So we turned around, went back to her house and got the number. I am not a speeder, I like to be a safe driver, but I was driving FAST to get there in time! She felt awful, it was an accident. I told her that it didn't matter if we were 5 minutes late, we were going to do it anyway. But as fate would have it we pulled up to The District, jumped out of the car and got to the back of the pack just as they said, "Oh your mark, get set, GO!" We had made it with zero seconds to spare ;). And we were off!

The first 7 miles were great! I was feeling awesome. We got in a comfortable pace and stuck too it. There were quite a few big hills that I was worried about but my training paid off and we ran up those hills with no problem. I have a "thing" with halfway. For some reason halfway is hard for me. To have just done something hard and know that you have to do that whole thing again is never something I like to do. It made me think of being halfway through chemo. That was the lowest point I've ever had, to be halfway done and know that I had to do what I had just done all over again... awful! Lucky for me though I was still feeling pretty great and so the thought of running another 6 miles was okay at this point.

Around mile 8 the sun started to come up and it was getting hot out there. This is where the race started to get harder for me. Just as we were coming up to mile 9 I saw 5 familiar faces sitting on the side of the road. My mom, dad, brother Zach, sister Carly and my sweet baby boy were sitting there, cheering me on. There is something about seeing a child that you created, grew, birthed, and nurture every single day cheering you on in the middle of something so hard. I love that boy so much. He is the best thing that ever happened to me. I cried the rest of mile 9.

Mile 10 I was still feeling pretty good. But it was getting hot. I don't like to run in the heat, but I knew we were getting close to the end so I just kept trucking along. C and I acknowledged mile 10 as the farthest I had ever run before and did a little cheer as we jogged along.

Mile 11... I hit the wall. I don't know what happened to me but I slowed WAAAAAAAYYYYY down. Poor C, she is such a fit girl. I warned her that I was not going to be able to keep up my pace and I would probably slow down. She ran up ahead of me and would then start doing circles around me. She ran way over 13.1 miles that day! I think at one point in this mile I started walking. Started meaning I took about 5 steps before she turned around and said, "YOU ARE NOT GOING TO WALK! Don't do it Meg! Don't do it! Your legs are not going to fall off! You made it this far, you are not going to walk!" So I started running again... it was a slow run but I was not walking.

Mile 12, holy cow this is getting hard! I was so close to the end, I knew that I just had to make it down the hill and around the corner and I would be done! However, we turned one last corner and had to run up another hill! The tears started again, how could I have forgotten about this last uphill? I kept jogging, and ran up the hill. Hills are easier to run up if you don't look at the top of the hill while you are going. Just look at the ground, and go. When I got to the top of the hill I looked up and standing on the side of the road was my family again. My boy ran out into the road and gave us high fives. I so needed to see them again at the top of the hill, and there they were! I had one mile left and I was home free!

Mile 13... C's cute fiance and his mom road their bikes through the race and took pictures for us. They were there bright and early during our first mile and they were there for the last mile. I can't even express how amazing it is to have support when you are going through something difficult. It really does lighten the load. It was refreshing to see them and have them cheer us on. This last mile was so so so hard. C was still doing circles around me and trying to get to run faster. She literally dragged me those last 3 miles, I felt so bad! But at the same time I knew that I could not possibly go any faster than I was going. "Come on Meg, we have one mile. This is just a warm up, this is nothing, do it!" Through gritted teeth and I'm sure not the most pleasant expression on my face I said, "Corinne! I'm running as fast as I can!" HA! She left me alone after that! Poor C.

The last .1. We rounded the corner and I knew we were so close to the end. My legs were just working on auto pilot at this point. I was so tired, so exhausted, so ready for this race to be done! I grabbed my IPOD and tried to turn it to my power song to get me to the finish line but somehow I had turned it off and could not get it back on! So instead of finishing the race off to Black Eyed Peas I finished it to the sound of my breath, the sound of my feet... and that's it. We came around the movie theater at The District and saw the finish line. Finally, I picked up the pace a little and RAN through that finish line. We were done! We did it! I could not believe that we had actually done it! Okay, I knew C could do it, I couldn't believe that I had done this!

And I swore that day that I was never going to do that again! Seriously, that was so hard.  Really, please... if I ever say I'm going to run a half marathon again someone please remind me of this post and talk me out of it...

C's family and my family were waiting for us at the finish line. It was so awesome to have so much support! I didn't finish in my goal time, I was about 7 minutes off, but I'm just so glad that I finished at all and was able to jog the whole way.

When I got in the car to drive home the tears started and wouldn't stop. I bawled the whole 45 minute drive home and most of the day. I think for the first time in years these tears were completely happy tears. Grateful tears. Humble tears. I kept seeing flashes in my mind of a bald, sick girl laying on her couch day after day... dreaming about running in a race. I had done it. Two years later, I had done it. I'm no longer that bald sick girl... I can do whatever I set my mind to do! Except for run a full marathon :). I'm drawing the line there!

It was hard, it was tiring, it was a lot of work to train for, but I'm so glad that I did it. I can check this off my bucket list and remember again and again that I CAN DO HARD THINGS! Whether by choice or not by choice, I can do hard things. I'm so grateful for the awesome support that I have! I could not have done this race without C's constant support and encouragement. I could not have done this race without my awesome running partner Leesa who ran with me the last month before the race. I could not have done it without other people believing in me even though I didn't fully believe in myself.

*** I thought I would keep running after the race a few times a week. But the truth is I have not been able to run since the race. I went out for a run 4 days after the race and made it one mile. My "good" knee started hurting so badly I could not run another step. My knee hasn't stopped hurting since. I can't fully extend my knee without pain. I can't walk up or down steps without pain. I couldn't drive my car which is a stick shift without searing pain until a few days ago. It's been rough. My running days may be over for a while. I'm glad that I made it through the race without injury, but I'm paying for it now ;).

Basil = Pesto...

It wasn't that long ago when I was first introduced to pesto sauce. One of our friends mom's made the most amazing asparagus/mushroom/squash/noodle stir fry ever that had a pesto and cream sauce and I was hooked. It was divine!!! I really don't think I'd ever had it before, but I loved it. I bought my first jar of pesto afterwards to re-make the meal... and it was a bit pricey as far as sauces go. For an itty bitty jar, I was surprised. So I don't use it or buy it a whole lot, but I wish I did. Ever since I've wanted to grow my own basil so that I could make my own homemade pesto sauce.

Well, my garden pesto was finally big enough to harvest and start making pesto this week!

We spent forever picking it and forever washing it... but my kitchen smelled so good!

I gathered my ingredients. Lots of pesto sauces use walnuts but they aren't very nice to my mouth so I went with pine nuts... toasted that is (brings out more flavor).

Not pictured was the olive oil.

 I threw some pepper in there too, just for fun.

So simple to make! I made two batches (6 cups of fresh basil) which only filled half of my quart jar. Guess I need to get some pint jars for this. I'm hoping to bottle it and have it throughout the year. Look at that beautiful bright green color! It just doesn't look like this when you buy it from the store does it.

I'm going to make Tracey's famous pesto stir fry on Sunday and I'll share the recipe here. It's one of my favorites, and I can't wait to try it with my own sauce.

Lake Mary...

 #1 on my list was to hike to Lake Mary. This lake/hike means a lot to me. I have so many good memories there. 10 years ago I worked as a counselor at Brighton LDS Girls Camp. Every week we were to take our campers on a hike. Every week that summer I chose Lake Mary (there are several hikes in the Brighton area but this was my favorite one). The last week I had campers that summer I wanted a change of scenery, I wanted to go on a different hike. But when the morning came to assign hikes, I was forced to hike to Lake Mary. My directors assigned my hike LAST, and Lake Mary was the only open hike left. I was so upset I cried a bit. Totally frustrated. What I didn't know (that they all did) was that my sweet boyfriend was waiting by the dam of Lake Mary to ask me to marry him.

It makes me happy that I was able to spend that special day with so many friends that I had made at camp. The memory of this hike is so fresh in my mind. Standing in front of the dam and seeing Trent with a bouquet of flowers... It was pretty great.

So here we are, 10 years later, standing in front of the Lake Mary dam, where this whole thing started.

To be totally honest, the day we did this hike last week was a rough day. We'd been arguing all day about something. The day was really tense. We weren't super happy with each other. I hate days like this. We've been married nearly 10 years and still argue, still don't agree on everything, still have some rough days every once in a while. In an effort to save the day I suggested that we go on this hike at 4 PM, so we did. We hiked in silence most of the time. Letting the trees and birds and mountain breeze slowly work over us. I thought over our years of marriage, especially the past few that have been so hard, and was reminded of the little 18 year old girl who fell in love with this 22 year old boy. Sometimes I need to focus on just us, and not all the rubbish that creeps into our lives and gets in our way of really enjoying each other.

And how we have this sweet little guy to hike along this life with us. We are so blessed.

We saw two big bull moose by the lake, eating dinner. Such beautiful creatures!

I love this beautiful mountain lake. I wish I could live up here. We had the lake to ourselves in the early evening sunlight. It was such a healing hike for me in so many ways. this is the first real hike that I've done since finishing chemo. I keep getting better and better and that is so nice! I think it was healing for our relationship to go on this hike together, even on a bad day, reminding us of our beginning and our commitment to our relationship and life together. I think all couples need that reminder every once in a while. I can't wait to get back up there someday!