Rather than making New Year’s resolutions I’m re-doing my list of 101 in 1,001.

Triplux 101 in 1,001 challenge:

The Mission:
Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days.

The Criteria:
Tasks must be specific (ie. no ambiguity in the wording) with a result that is either measurable or clearly defined. Tasks must also be realistic and stretching (ie. represent some amount of work on my part).

Why 1001 Days?
Many people have created lists in the past – frequently simple goals such as new year’s resolutions. The key to beating procrastination is to set a deadline that is realistic. 1001 Days (about 2.75 years) is a better period of time than a year, because it allows you several seasons to complete the tasks, which is better for organizing and timing some tasks such as overseas trips or outdoor activities.

My end date for task: Saturday, October 1, 2011 – I found that date using this.

And finally, my list of tasks is located here. I plan to repost this link on the first of every month with an update of how things are coming along. (I will update the site otherwise, but just remind you all of it’s existence on the first of the month.)

Just playing with my new camera…

Just playing with my new camera…

Just playing with my new camera…

I bought my first can of coffee today. I got the biggest, strongest kind they had at the store. But I didn’t buy it to drink. The dried grounds are sitting all over my house in little bowls.

So the other night I get home from work, grab Harlow, run some errands, stop by a friend’s and go over to my mom’s for awhile. I get home and as I’m getting out of the car I here this weird beeping noise. Our house is in the middle of nature so there’s nothing nearby that could be beeping. As I walk to the house I vaguely wonder if it could be our smoke alarm. It was.

I walk in the house and it is full of thick, black, ugly smoke. I run inside, put Harlow in my room and run around opening windows while my grandmother was at the fireplace with a roaring fire going. Apparently she’d put a really big log in and bumped it against the fireplace closing the floo so the house filled with smoke. I got all the windows and doors open and the fans going but after 20 minutes my grandmother decided she’s cold so she closed up the house and went to bed. So I got up in the middle of the night to turn off the heater and open up the house (no point running the heater with the doors open). I was worried about carbon monoxide poisoning!

So now 2 days later I can’t even sit in our living room because the smell is killer. And it’s not just the smell… I seriously can’t breathe. I took Harlow to work with me yesterday because I didn’t want her to have to smell the fumes all day.

So after washing down all the walls in the front part of the house and using a steam cleaner on the furniture and still not being able to get rid of the smell I’m scowering the internet for other solutions. Fortunately there’s no ash to clean up- just the smoke smell.

So far I’ve tried cleaning, steam cleaning, boiling a huge pot of vinegar and letting the steam go through the house and lighting every good-smelling candle I can find and now coffee. Once we get rid of the smoke smell I’ll have to work on getting rid of the vinegar/coffee smell. It wouldn’t be so bad if I could convince my grandmother to leave the house open to air out, but when you’re old there is nothing worse than being cold. Apparently my grandmother can’t smell it at all.

Sleeping with all the windows open maybe be why I’m still not over my darn cold. Darn it!

I bought my first can of coffee today. I got the biggest, strongest kind they had at the store. But I didn’t buy it to drink. The dried grounds are sitting all over my house in little bowls.

So the other night I get home from work, grab Harlow, run some errands, stop by a friend’s and go over to my mom’s for awhile. I get home and as I’m getting out of the car I here this weird beeping noise. Our house is in the middle of nature so there’s nothing nearby that could be beeping. As I walk to the house I vaguely wonder if it could be our smoke alarm. It was.

I walk in the house and it is full of thick, black, ugly smoke. I run inside, put Harlow in my room and run around opening windows while my grandmother was at the fireplace with a roaring fire going. Apparently she’d put a really big log in and bumped it against the fireplace closing the floo so the house filled with smoke. I got all the windows and doors open and the fans going but after 20 minutes my grandmother decided she’s cold so she closed up the house and went to bed. So I got up in the middle of the night to turn off the heater and open up the house (no point running the heater with the doors open). I was worried about carbon monoxide poisoning!

So now 2 days later I can’t even sit in our living room because the smell is killer. And it’s not just the smell… I seriously can’t breathe. I took Harlow to work with me yesterday because I didn’t want her to have to smell the fumes all day.

So after washing down all the walls in the front part of the house and using a steam cleaner on the furniture and still not being able to get rid of the smell I’m scowering the internet for other solutions. Fortunately there’s no ash to clean up- just the smoke smell.

So far I’ve tried cleaning, steam cleaning, boiling a huge pot of vinegar and letting the steam go through the house and lighting every good-smelling candle I can find and now coffee. Once we get rid of the smoke smell I’ll have to work on getting rid of the vinegar/coffee smell. It wouldn’t be so bad if I could convince my grandmother to leave the house open to air out, but when you’re old there is nothing worse than being cold. Apparently my grandmother can’t smell it at all.

Sleeping with all the windows open maybe be why I’m still not over my darn cold. Darn it!

Stephanie

My friend’s mom passed away Sunday morning. I could not have been more shocked or sad. No one is sure yet why she died, which I think makes it even harder to deal with and accept. She was so young, and so alive. She was one of those woman that you want to be like when you grow up… fun, cool, kind, loving. Her daughters called her Honey Mommy. She really was that sweet. The last time I saw her was at the blessing of her brand new little granddaughter Presley just before she died. I’m sure Presley would have known her as Grandma Honey.

I can’t imagine how people face moments like this without the knowledge of the gospel. If this was it, if she were just taken from us, forever, with no explanations or promise or hope it would be devestating. Even knowing we will see her again it’s still heartbreaking to lose her. I can’t wait to see her again.

♥

People do not die for us immediately, but remain bathed in a sort of aura of life which bears no relation to true immortality but through which they continue to occupy our thoughts in the same way as when they were alive. It is as though they were traveling abroad.
Marcel Proust

Death is not putting out the light. It is extinguishing the lamp because the dawn has come.
Rabindranath Tagore

Stephanie

My friend’s mom passed away Sunday morning. I could not have been more shocked or sad. No one is sure yet why she died, which I think makes it even harder to deal with and accept. She was so young, and so alive. She was one of those woman that you want to be like when you grow up… fun, cool, kind, loving. Her daughters called her Mommy Honey. She really was that sweet. The last time I saw her was at the blessing of her brand new little granddaughter Presley just before she died. I’m sure Presley would have known her as Grandma Honey.

I can’t imagine how people face moments like this without the knowledge of the gospel. If this was it, if she were just taken from us, forever, with no explanations or promise or hope it would be devestating. Even knowing we will see her again it’s still heartbreaking to lose her. I can’t wait to see her again.

♥

People do not die for us immediately, but remain bathed in a sort of aura of life which bears no relation to true immortality but through which they continue to occupy our thoughts in the same way as when they were alive. It is as though they were traveling abroad.
Marcel Proust

Death is not putting out the light. It is extinguishing the lamp because the dawn has come.
Rabindranath Tagore

Stephanie

My friend’s mom passed away Sunday morning. I could not have been more shocked or sad. No one is sure yet why she died, which I think makes it even harder to deal with and accept. She was so young, and so alive. She was one of those woman that you want to be like when you grow up… fun, cool, kind, loving. Her daughters called her Mommy Honey. She really was that sweet. The last time I saw her was at the blessing of her brand new little granddaughter Presley just before she died. I’m sure Presley would have known her as Grandma Honey.

I can’t imagine how people face moments like this without the knowledge of the gospel. If this was it, if she were just taken from us, forever, with no explanations or promise or hope it would be devestating. Even knowing we will see her again it’s still heartbreaking to lose her. I can’t wait to see her again.

♥

People do not die for us immediately, but remain bathed in a sort of aura of life which bears no relation to true immortality but through which they continue to occupy our thoughts in the same way as when they were alive. It is as though they were traveling abroad.
Marcel Proust

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Death is not putting out the light. It is extinguishing the lamp because the dawn has come.
Rabindranath Tagore

(photo borrowed from Jen Gotch)
One evening exactly 12 years ago today I was baptized into the LDS Church. I can’t decide if that feels like a long time ago or not.

When I was in high school I met a girl named Michelle while we were doing a production of Annie. At some point she gave me a Book of Mormon and told me that “Nephi was hot.” I didn’t know what a Nephi was but kept the book and looked through it a little. The next year I took an art class and shared a work space with Laurette and Nikki and I knew they were Mormon. I remember I asked them once if they believed in God. I can’t remember which but one of them replied that the name of the church was The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, so yes, they believed in God and Jesus. I replied that I was just wondering. I really was just wondering.

A few years later when I’d graduated from high school and was going to school in Santa Barbara I ran into some missionaries. It was sort of a “typical” encounter I guess. They stopped me on campus and I was late for a drama class and said I didn’t have time to stop and talk and off I hurried. I didn’t get very far before I decided to turn around and talk to them for a minute and give them my phone number. I don’t want to sound corny by saying something like I felt like it was something I had to do or that I somehow sensed it was important but maybe on some level I did.

In an effort to keep this short I won’t go into details but I met with Elders Hodges and Alldredge over a period of several months and they taught me about the church and I asked probably a million questions. It’s hard to describe what I felt and what I thought during those months because it’s a time that is very dear to my heart and I don’t think I could do the experience justice.

And I don’t want to say that I “believed” the missionaries because it really had nothing to do with them. But I knew what they were telling me was the truth. Some of the things I already believed and knew. Some things I had to find out for myself. After much soul-searching and prayer I decided to be baptized.

That was December 31, 1996. It’s hard to say how my life would be different had if I hadn’t joined the Church, but I can say with all honesty that every good thing in my life has come from being able to know who I am and the plan my Heavenly Father has for me. It was a big change to make – not that there were things that I had to stop doing but more that there were things I needed to start doing and thinking about. If there is one decision in my life that I’ve never had to second guess or wonder if I’d done the right thing it is this.

“If I discover within myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world”
C.S. Lewis

There’s a lot more I could say but it’s New Year’s Eve! Peace out 2008!!