oh my stars

i love reading. i love the escape it gives me! i love being able to be so absorbed in the story its like i'm living it. i just finished oh my stars, by Lorna Landvik. i loved it!
oh my stars is about music and love  and loss and discovery and adventure. the kind you can laugh with and cry with and cheer for.
maybe its because of my name, but sometimes when i think back on my life, i picture a garden. the life of Violet Mathers, landscaped. through a long stretch it is dark and weedy and full of withered plants that stick you or ones that never got to flower, but keep looking-you might notice a smattering of roses (my mother's touch on my face, her voice), some daisies (the way i felt in school when i won the fourth grade spelling bee), and look, a whole camellia bush (the first dress i designed and sewed)! and up a little farther, why there's barely room to walk, so lush and bright and dense is the flora. and those waxy white blooms scattered throughout my garden? gardenias, of course, which represent all the times i said yes in my life, even when it might have been easier to say no. so even though my garden's got plenty of roses, lilies, petunias, and pansies; poison ivy, dandelions, and cacti; the scent of gardenias is the pervasive one. i must say i'm proudest of these flowers, my badges of bravery, my choosing yes. oh, that? you would have to notice. those are stinkweed plants. they represent envy. yes, i know there are alot of them. but are you telling me if I strolled through your garden there'd be nothing but apple blossoms and orchids?

feb-march-april packages!

i suck at blogging ha ha!
i sent my dallin this for valentines day, which was also our 3 year anniversary :)

for st patricks day, i sent him GREEEEN things :) i'm so LUCKY to have him :)

for easter, i sent him an easter egg hunt in a box! ha ha :)

moms

last week, one of my closest friends' dear mother passed away. i was very close to her as well. yesterday was her funeral and graveside service. i loved when an aunt got up to talk to the grandkids, and explain about how they would be together again, saying: 'remember last year when we went to disneyland, and grandma said that was the happiest place on earth? well now she's in the happiest place on heaven and earth.' i am fortunate to have known such a caring and fun mom, who will 'adopt' you, when you look like her real daughter. you will be missed Mama LaMar. <3
i'm so lucky to have so many 'second moms' to look up to, but especially lucky and blessed to have the mom that i do. i appreciate everything she does for me, even when i look like a dork in red pants. she is an amazing woman, and definitely my hero.

1 year down!!

its finally here! january 19th. today is my dallin's birthday. and his mission year mark! i cannot believe its been a whole year! all day i've been singing ooohhh we're halfway there, ooohhhh livin on a prayer!
so true! 1 year left! and i have been living on constant prayers.
i am so thankful for everything my dallin does for me. i'm so thankful for my family and friends who support us in this. this time has flown, which just goes to show me that what we're doing is right. a missionary is someone who leaves their family for a short time so that others may be with their familes for eternity. a short time! only two years. and eternity is what we will get out of it :) i am so excited about having only 12 months left (it still gives me butterflies to think the number 12!). only 12 more months to get these wonderful weekly letters! i love how much we are growing together. i love my missionary so much and i'm so proud of him

ooohhh we're halfway there, ooohhh livin' on a prayer! take my hand, we'll make it i swear. oohhh livin on a prayer

january package

january package!
his birthday is actually also his mission year mark, so this was a double package!
i did a new sweater, and a yummy chocolate birthday cake, 2 0 candles, a birthday necklace, birthday banner, candy, and i collected encouraging yearmark/birthday notes from my family to put in there as well!

happy birthday sweetheart :)

52nd box of mac :)

today i had my 52nd box of macaroni and cheese!! my dallin gave me 104 boxes of mac and cheese for christmas before he left. i have one for dinner every wednesday night. i am now exactly halfway done! this is the best feeling!! i cant believe how much and how fast time has gone by. i love my missionary!! these are all the backs of the boxes, that he and i wrote the weeks numbers on.

happy new year!

happy new year! i cant believe 2011 is over! the best part is, i can officially say my dallin comes home next year! (january 2013)
here are my new years resolutions:
1: read my scriptures EVERY day
2: learn to wink better!
3: blog more. i definitely need to be better at blogging
4: learn to knit! i can crochet like a fool but i have never tried knitting
5: learn to make sushi
6: read some new books, not just my same go-to faves
i think i can tackle these!