Going private

Sorry guys! I had to switch my blog from being private after some very creepy incidents. If you have a different email address you use to log in, let me know, and I will give that email "permissions". Thanks!

Updates and "almosts" and a guitar hero....

 So it’s my last day being in my 20s…umm..That’s weird to say! Where has this year gone (see previous blog posts hahah) What a decade it has been! I will write more of a reflective post later but this is just an update on the status of my remaining goals

~Temple- I will not be adding any more temples between now and my birthday. I will be visiting a temple on my birthday but it won’t be a “new” one.

~Conversions- I have found over half the conversion stories of my family but not all…when I wrote this goal I didn’t know it meant finding 38-39ish peoples info! It’s been amazing so I can’t be sad at all that I didn’t “finish.  Family history work is a lifelong pursuit honestly and this is just the beginning. I’ll continue to find all their stories and will post info about that later. It’s been good to know more about myself through reading the stories of my ancestors. It’s interested how the good and the bad personality traits carry throughout generations.

~Pet a crocodile/alligator. My friend, Mary, is just super cute. I got a text this morning saying “Check your doorstep before you go to work. Be careful it’s not in a cage”. I found this little guy in my flower pot. She’s just trying (like all my family, friends and coworkers) to help me achieve all my goals. I don’t know if it counts, but to make sure, I pet the toy alligator. I did attempt this goal with a real animal TWICE, and it didn’t happen. In Kenya, our hotel was very close to a croc petting farm; however, we were mainly only at the hotel on Sunday and I, therefore, wasn’t going to pay to get in to do it. In Louisiana the alligator farm was in the same little town as my friend, but it was closed for no good reason- those Southerners! So…this will have to wait for another year, but it’s on my actual “life list” so…it WILL happen

~Learn astronomy- didn’t happen and this is the only one I didn’t really attempt. I did love seeing the stars in the southern hemisphere in Kenya, but I wasn’t focused on identifying them.  

~Learn to play a song on the guitar…ok so I CAN play a song. I know how to play “down in the valley” and/or “He’s got the whole world in his hands” because  they both just use the G and C chords; however, my transitioning is not fast or smooth enough for me to officially “count” this. I have been practicing though and honestly my left fingertips HURT as I’m typing this to you now. I’m getting those needed calluses built up for more guitar learning to come! My friend, Brian, has let me borrow his guitar, named "Sexy", and I'm keeping her for awhile to learn more. That's right! I'm not bringing Sexy back anytime soon hahah. I took a class to learn the basics and Brian helped me a little more. 

~Perfect my cartwheel- that’s happening tonight (I’ve been practicing but will finish this with my best bud, Alisa, when I see her tonight WOOOHOO) (side note- this actually didn't happen =( my flight was delayed and I didn't get in till 12:05 AM on my birthday so....I didn't finish it in time)

~Rope an animal while on a horse- This isn’t going to happen, but I did make a brief attempt at my family’s ranch during a reunion this year….this is also on my “life list” so eventually it WILL happen. My coworkers offered this morning to “act as a horse” and I could sit on one and try to rope the other (because technically people are animals) but for fairly obvious reasons, I decided to pass on that. Love how they were stretching for me!

 ~Study Italian and be comfortable with basic phrases. K so I did start this but I’m not comfortable with phrases. I started it back right when I turned 29 and haven’t really worked much on it after the first month…

So there ya go! I have had an amazing year! Thanks SO MUCH to all the awesome family and friends in my life. I’ve found that so many people are willing to help me achieve whatever I want (not even what I “need” but random things) and I just feel so blessed (and lucky quite frankly). I appreciate everyone who helped me and for them giving of their time and talents to help make me a better/smarter/well rounded person, and of course to just have fun! Thanks to everyone….so long 20s and hello (in a few hours) 30- EEK!

Crotcheting... in a different way

So I began "learning" to crotchet back in November, when I went to Louisiana and visited my friend, Kara. I tried to practice but my hands just didn't feel right, and I didn't know if it was just the knitter in me, who needed to use two hands or what. Well my sister, Holly, has taught several people to crotchet and said she'd show me her way. It's apparently "very incorrect" but everything looks the same, you just hold the crochet hook differently. Well, it WORKED! I now know how to crotchet! I just hold the hook like I do a pencil, and it may look funny to other crotcheters but hey! My blanket (to come in my 30 IN 30) will look just as good as yours! (So just teasin' I'm nowhere near being expert or able to talk trash about my skills at all). Thanks sister hoochie for helping me and Kara for getting me started!!!! (I am aware the above square is flawed, but it's my first square and is still in progress). 

"HAPPPPYYY TURKEY DAAAAY"

So when I came home today, I found THIS scene. My awesome roommate has been bound and determined to help me achieve the goals I haven't yet achieved before 30. I had not completed "bowl a turkey". So she set up the Wii sports, and if that failed, we were going with her bowling game for 4-5 year olds (yes....she is that nice and sad to know I might be that desperate). Anyway, we started bowling around 10 and at 11:30 my turkey was accomplished (total wii sports time for me said 1 hour 14 minutes of play time to accomplish this goal). I got 3 sets of 2 strikes in a row before that happened and was almost resigned to bed time UNTIL.....

WOOOWHOOO! I've bowled a turkey! I do want to bowl one in "real" life but I'm takin' this as my loop hole because heck, it's MY goal list and I can loop hole what I want =).

Hiking the big ol' plateau in front of my house

So...it was a two day process for what ended up taking less than an hour, but I have now hiked to the top of the big ol' plateau in front of my house. I had been told where the trail "was" and that it was easy enough to take a 3 year old, so my sister and her friend, and all of their children, and I attempted it one morning. We could not find a defined trail so the kids and moms had to stop once it started to become steep. I made it ALMOST to the top but not quite as I couldn't figure out how to get over certain parts. I had to bag it until another day.

Well, then someone reminded me of a wonderful thing called "google earth" and I was able to see exactly where several trails were. Easy enough! Round trip it was less than an hour to drive to the "trail head" hike it, and return home. Nice! There really is a "defined trail" and it really is easy enough for my nephews. I will do it with them again on another day. Below are pictures from the first and second days.

A beautiful bald eagle...camera can't do it justice

Everyone waiting for me to get to the top

View from the top!

Can you find my house in these two pictures?

Do your best and forget the rest!

So I'm declaring myself done with P90X haha. Admittedly, I did not do workouts for 90 days straight, so my brother-in-law says it doesn't count, but I'm going to go off Tony Horton's philosophy- I did my best and will forget the rest! There are only 6 days I didn't do a P90X workout. I'm taking two official sick days out of those and think that's more than fair since I needed sleep very desperately, and I missed several Saturdays and a couple Mondays or Fridays around the holiday time (never once because I simply didn't 'want' to do it but always because I had a plane to catch at 6am and would've have to have gotten up at like 3am to do a workout or I got home from vacation at 4am and didn't have the energy to wake up a half hour later to work out and then go to work with no sleep). I was initially determined to "make them up"; however, after doing my workout this morning during my now 16th week, I'm super bored and losing my "quality" just because I want to get "quantity". This is not the Tony Horton way. He says, "Don't be a hero. It's quality not quantity." So, my form is going down south which means it's time to be done. I will say that it's not like I didn't exercise on some of those 6 days. I hiked for several hours a couple of those Saturdays but technically I didn't count those since it wasn't an "X-treme" workout.

Even if I didn't do 90 days straight, it's been a great experience. I do feel accomplished and I feel like I'm in better physical shape than I have been in a long time. I'm also kinda proud of myself by doing it by myself. I normally like to do these work outs in a class with other people, but I did just fine with pushing myself alone, and I didn't mind "oooommming" alone or just laughing to myself when I attempted something new. Now I'm wondering what to do next! It feels good to work out in the morning, but I don't know if I can keep doin' the 4am gig...I've gotta do something though...I don't wanna go down hill at 30 hahha.
So...farewell P90X. I'm sure we will meet again...for SURE after I have babies!
I leave you with some great quotes from Tony Horton- he was a great instructor despite being very repetitive hahhah
"You can do anything for 30 seconds" (and...I pretty much can!)
"Variety is the spice of life you don't need to go to the gym and do squats all the time" (amen brother)
"Don't be a hero"
"Get out of your head! Clear your mind and focus on the task at hand"

Holy cow! Shall we dance?

Pre-script. My brother is not a huge fan of posting his children's photos or names on the Internet, so I've chosen to post obscure pictures and to talk about his kids by birth order instead of name. So number one is the oldest #2 the second oldest- you get it. I did have one of my sister's oldest children on this trip as well and will refer to him as Ben, since she calls him Ben on her blog =). 

where's #1?...

so serious

My nephew, #1, has been taking ballroom dance lessons, and he had a competition this past weekend. He invited me to one of his previous competitions, but due to a wedding, I couldn't make it. I told him if he let me know when they were, I would make sure to come to one, and so I did. He did a GREAT job! I was so impressed with him and all those kids out there dancing- it made me wanna get out there and shake it! (I have taken some dance classes in my day and honestly love to dance, but I don't have real "skills".) He said he hopes to be able to compete at the BYU competitions next year, and I think he's probably on track based on what I saw with him and his age group. He did the cha-cha, swing and the foxtrot. Swing dancing it not his favorite, but he doesn't "mind" it. He has two partners- one for cha cha and fox trot and one just for swing. I asked him if it was "fun" at the end of the day and he said, "Yes and no. The one girl (he did a 'free' dance with) knew a different swing dance than I did so that was harder but other than that, yeah it was fun." I'm glad that my nephews and niece all enjoying doing different things and are growing in different ways to become the best people they can be. Great job #1! 

I decided to post this last video of the 'free dance' that they had. My nephew is pretty well hidden right in the middle, but I posted this because of the man who jumps in to dance with some girls, who apparently didn't find a partner for it. Go you sweet man!

After the dance competition, I took Numbers 1-4 and Ben to Wheeler Historic Farm. This was a selfish venture- I went to milk a cow for my 30 before 30. The kiddos were all told before hand, that was the purpose of going, and they debated amongst themselves if they really would milk one or not. Ben said he thought it would be "gross", and he didn't know if he was going to do it. I told him that fine, but that he could wait to officially decide until we got there. We arrived about an hour and a half before "milking" time so we walked around the park. It's really a pretty awesome place. Lots of things to do and see (more so in the spring or summer I've been told) and lots of room to just run and play and climb! At one point,  my mom and niece were walking far ahead, and I stopped to wait for all four boys, who had stopped to pick up sticks and play "soldiers/warriors/Jedi" (they all called it different things). While no one was looking, I just might have grabbed a stick and swung it around like a Samurai myself...just to see...and maybe I might have thought it was fun.... The 4 boys didn't judge me!



When it was finally time, the cowboy brought in Gabby, a Jersey cow, for us to milk. We had to purchase a one dollar token, which was not bad for such a different/random experience. As soon as Ben saw the cow he said to me "You go first and show me and then I can go". He was no longer concerned about its potential grossness (he later said, "That was so much fun! I wanna milk more cows!"-- glad he liked it).  #4 also leaned over to me, as the cowboy was instructing us, and said, "Aunt Natalie I'm a little scared of milking by myself....will you go up there with me?" I said "Of course!" and then Ben, overhearing said, "Will you go up there with me too?" So I milked first but then took up #4 and Ben- hence the ability to get good photos of them. #2 and #3 also milked the cow, but #1 was in his nice dance clothes and decided against it. My mom milked as well, but she's done it numerous times in her life so it wasn't new or anything to her.

So how was it?! It was gross actually. It was a way weirder feeling than I had anticipated. I can't really describe it...it was slimy kinda  

    but then not...but...I don't know how to adequately describe 

    it...something ya'll just have to get out there and do for yourselves I 

   guess! I'm not saying I wouldn't do it again, or be willing too if  necessary, but is it something I think I would enjoy? Eh...It is not difficult, like people say. You actually aren't supposed to pull up and down like you see in the movies (What?! the movies aren't completely accurate and can even be misleading! Who knew?!) except maybe once their milk is almost all the way emptied.

This is for my brother-in-law, Joe



It was a very quick trip (I wasn't even up north for 24 hours) but it was fun to spend time with the kiddos. I learned that one of my nephews is (and yes i'm quoting here) "SOLID on being a hired assassin!" We talked about what #1-4 want to be when they grow up and where they want to live. 1,3,4 all switched around but #2 is "solid"....hum..have I cause to worry? I don't know. He later said his brother, #4, would probably be the one to hire him to go after the people who steal his eggs (#4 wants to be an egg layer a.k.a egg caretaker/ artist/"teacher if he has to be"). Too fun! Love those kiddos!



so this is honestly the "best" picture my mom could take of me...I
commented to her about it after and she said, "You can totally tell it's
you!" I guess, but I'm super blurry?! Note for future- niece and nephews
are probably more skilled with electronics than mom









To create....

So i wanted to learn to build something from scratch- you know create furniture my house but something that would also be useful. I've never used "power tools" more than a basic drill or power screwdriver I have that runs on AA batteries =) This Christmas my brother-in-law and his brother were discussing this goal with me. It was decided that a picnic table would be fairly simple, yet I would learn about using the chop saw and power drills etc. After AutoCAD-ing it, we went and got all the wood, but we didn't start building it till a few weeks later. (Side note- you know what surprises me? we got redwood because the guys said it doesn't have to be treated wood and is better to eat off etc. Well when I tell people I'm building a table people have said, "So did you make it out of redwood so it's easier for being outside or something else?" So it's apparently this universally known thing that you make outdoor furniture out of redwood. Glad I'm now 'in' with this kinda thing and am also aware to what should've been obvious to me but wasn't hahah- hence the learning these things!) We did the top of the table and benches one Saturday and then the legs (aka the tricky part) a few Saturdays later. 

I have to give a huge shout out to my brother-in-law for being so awesome. THANK YOU JOE! He gave up a good chunk of two Saturdays to help teach me to do this and was super patient with my being a novice. He's a very good teacher. He made me do all the sawing, and I put in most of the screws, but I was certainly not "quick" at any of it, and we started with the basics. I will say that he had to do all the screws that needed to be on angles as well as the ones that held the legs into each other (there's a spacer in there and with three pieces of wood- even pre-drilling was just way hard and more time consuming when I attempted it).  We hit a few snags (some screws being too long, me not being as exact in my sawing, difficulties trying to stabilize the legs etc), but nothing that my brother-in-law didn't have an alternative way of correcting to make it work. He's just smart that way! He would tell me options for different ways to make it look and tricks that would make things easier for me, and I'd say, "Well which way's best?!" And he'd say, "It's your project so you pick." Honestly I almost always defaulted to him since he's obviously more skilled, I only nixed a couple things based off aesthetics. I appreciated him giving me options to chose though.  

I'm way excited to have the table and to start using it ASAP. I am part of a dinner group and once the nights starting warming up and it's still light out, I'm gonna have my dinner group eat outside with me. It will also be perfect for summer BBQs etc. Very functional and fun!

It was awesome to learn to use the tools and since my brain isn't very mechanically inclined I'm glad I at least know the basics for the next time I want to build something, though I have no doubt I will need Joe's help =). Let's just say there's a lot of little things you have to pay attention to that I am now aware of and I'm grateful! Now I know, and knowing is half the battle....

my roommate helped us
stabilize and 'eye' things 

my nephews came over to watch
the ending...they had to stay inside while
the saw was going

I'm including this picture only because
my BIL says I'm obsessed with butts

table completed!

Car maintenance 101

So I had it on my list to "learn to change the oil and air filter in my car". Well, I did that, and I actually learned quite a bit more. My friend, Trudi, (mentioned in previous posts- she's just super awesome and great at helping me finish my goals) and her family change their own oil, so when I told her it was on my list she said, "Oh that's no problem! I can show you that!". Though Trudi can change her own oil she had her dad, Kenneth (I don't call him that but I don't know if I should put first and last names on here...just in case) teach me (for the most part). He's super awesome, was a great teacher. And may I just say, I felt like he was kinda like my own dad teaching me this- just very patient and making sure I understood without being condescended when I really didn't get it quickly. I appreciated him so much, and I owe him and Trudi something big for sure!

Changing the oil in your car is honestly not that complicated or time consuming. I don't have all the fancy tools to do it as quickly and cleanly as they do it, but they did invite me to come over and do it now whenever I want to change it. Trudi had told me of a sale going on for oil and an oil filter (side note- I didn't know that there was an oil filter, and that you needed to change it until Trudi told me, which is sad, but why I'm trying to learn these things...and I didn't know what type of oil my car needs but now I do- 3 1/2quarts of 5W20 and no, Kenneth that's not too low of a number and really is the amount of oil I need) so with that deal, I can get an oil change for less than $20, and it would take me less than 30 minutes (now that I know what to do). Totally worth it! I may need a stronger person to get the oil pan lug nut off (though Kenneth later showed me a trick for that if needed) but other than that, I think I could do it- no problems!
Plus an air filter takes about 2 minutes to replace and you can buy one for about $5-$10. I've been charged over $20 for an air filter change before. NO LONGER! I will always change my air filter from now on! So much cheaper and not a hassle or big deal at all.

So here are some things I learned/ little tricks of the trade did Kenneth shared with me. I'm blogging these not only for those who may not know but also to remember myself =)

~If you put a little old oil on the gasket of the new oil filter, it will grip better and not completely fuse/ lock into the car so it comes off in the future more smoothly
~Oil tends to "project" quickly at first so you have to place your drain pan accordingly
~Lower the car off the jack while the oil is draining so it drains more quickly
~I learned that they make special oil filter wrenches and then learned how to use it
~Take the oil pan lug nut off with your fingers reaching just at the top of it so oil doesn't run down your arm
~I learned to use a socket wrench...kinda annoying that it breaks the "righty tighty lefty loosey rule but it's a quirk I now am aware of
~If you can see through you air filter it's doesn't necessarily need to be changed and you can try vacuuming them as well. The dirt may not be visible from the top of the air filter (since it's sucked up from underneath it) so you really should remove it and check it out.
Kenneth pointed out how to check all my fluids. I knew where my windshield wiper fluid needed to be put and do that on my own,  and I did know how to check the oil, but now I know I know how to check my power steering, brake fluid, and antifreeze as well!

And finally- something that I have never even heard of (though I don't know if that's saying much in this situation) is that you should put water in your battery! I've never been told this! I'm also going to start checking this periodically. Super easy and something that prolongs battery life. Sheesh!

Thank you Kenneth, Trudster and my roommate, Kristina (who came along to learn as well and help take pictures). I'm grateful to be a little more self reliant and wiser =)
P.S. No I'm not a wussy girl who didn't want to get oil on her. I came prepared to do so, but Kenneth uses gloves for things and offered me some, so hey, I used them.