year-end thoughts, and other things.

i cannot believe that 2011 is coming to an end. i don't often feel so sorry to see a year make it's way out, only to be replaced by yet another one, since i always have the same wonderment pass through my thoughts. always.

will next year be as good as this one was? better? or...worse?

i was joking with my dad tonight that we youngbergs like to worry about crap. not useful things, or logical things, but totally nonsensical things. you know, crap.

never fear: we are also pretty good at worrying about the rest too. we are nothing if not thorough. ;)

2011 was pretty dang good to us, after all. i wasn't all that excited about it at the beginning, as it truly tried our faith as individuals and as a couple. shay started the year having to choose between the new job he loved and was terribly excellent at, and continuing to choose to not work on sundays and do his best at keeping the sabbath day holy, which he is also terribly excellent at.

as a couple, and through prayer and counsel with each other and those who had influence over our lives, we decided that he would quit his job without promise of a new one and we would put all of our faith in the promises surrounding tithing and the lord's love for us. shay is, and probably will always be, much better at the faith thing than i am. i really like that about him though. :)

the spring semester turned out to be more than stressful. we struggled to balance our classes, and our relationship, and my job, and our callings, and life in general. i cried more than a few times and shay exercised the priesthood in our home as much as was needed. it made more of a difference than i probably will ever know, so i try to overstate my gratitude just in case. my husband's ability and willingness to worthily hold and use the priesthood is a blessing i don't have words to describe. as the semester got closer to ending, i broke down pretty regularly and wondered if maybe we had been lost in the mess of the universe. but again, that studly canadian was amazing and held the fort while i did my best to hold it together.

then, a week before the end of the semester, shay got a new job at a great company. and along with that job, a feeling of much needed peace settled in me and began to heal the stress fractures in my heart. my spirit began to feel a weak connection to heaven again, and i knew we'd be okay. we were really going to be okay.

as the months wore on, more and more changes happened. among those, we decided it was time for a new ward, new apartment, new start. we looked for and found an apartment where i felt at home, finally, for the first time since moving out. the apartment was built around the same time as the house i had grown up in, and much of the design was the same. i even arranged my kitchen just like my mom's and couldn't contain my overwhelming gratitude in the fact that i was finally able to relax in a place i felt like was my home. the first night in our new apartment, i slept better than i had slept the previous year and a half we had been married. it was so wonderful. and most of all, we felt like we had really been led to this place, which made all the difference.

we were blessed with much more direction in other areas as well. both of our jobs improved a lot and we were recognized for our efforts. we discussed many times how we really, truly liked where we were and what we were doing. we were both led in knowing what to do with school, and a few other investments we had been looking into. tender mercies flowed and the season of peace continued. though the down parts came, they weren't nearly the pits we had experienced before. we could feel the support we had previously needed so desperately. even as a few of my most treasured relationships changed and evolved through various circumstances, help was there and answers to many sincere prayers were given. i've really been blessed with the very best, most patient friends in the world. 

2011 will be a year i remember as the year we came out of the refiner's fire together, and as a bonded couple walked into the light of testimony and peace. i couldn't ask for a better theme for our second year of marriage.

2012, i hope you're ready for us petrones, 'cause we're ready for you. you've got a lot to live up to though. ;)

curtains or no curtains? that is the question...

guys. you guys.

i don't know how the flip martha stewart does it, but decorating is pretty flipping stressful. is it just me, or does every purchase and every decision feel like you are making a til-death-do-you-part commitment to your decor choices?

i think i have a fear of commitment when it comes to decorations. it's definitely affecting our home life. i'm always seeing something i like better, no matter how much shopping around i do beforehand! and it's not like you can hide it when you come home with a replacement..."no it's just visiting i promise, you'll always have a place on my shelf/wall/countertop..."

how does one make the leap and just go? are there blogs and/or books that help one with such things? or does one just suck it up and realize that it's okay to move on from certain earlier choices? or is one being, as i am sure that one is, much to muchly serious about this kind of a thing?

(pretty sure it's monday and things are always serious business on mondays.)

(i did make the purchase of an absolutely incredible mirror for the front room, and i'm quite positive we were made for each other, however.)

i have also decided that i am indeed among the loyal fan base of ikea, for both awesome home items and unbeatable swedish meatballs. woot!

on a side note, we went camping spur of the moment with wonderful friends and companions in mischief. i always think i'm going to hate spur of the moment decisions like that, until it's over, then i rarely feel the way i anticipated. weird? i think so too! only, camping is dirtier than i remember growing up, so obviously there's just much more dirt now than there was then right? right.

hello again.

alright alright alright.

so, a few people have been pretty vocal about my lack of postings lately (9 months?) and i confess it quite surprised me. i had no idea that people even read this thing? other than my dear, sweet mom (hi mom!) that is. and sometimes my hubby, who said that he reads it because he likes to know what i say about him on the internets (hi hubby!). it took me a bit to make the decision to revive it even still, on account of school eating my life away again in a week (sigh) and this summer being stupidly busy (i almost spelled busty...don't look too far into that) and basically, i really want to re-read harry potter for the second time this year instead of anything else (can't wait until october! pottermore!!!). but then i realized within myself: all these people saying i should post are probably just in cahoots with my conscience because this is pretty much the only way i journal anymore (i know, for shame!) and i really really really think that i should probably really be doing that all the time since i'm like a newlywed, and how often do you get to have the kinds of adventures/learning experiences i'm having anyway? plus, i really liked reading my mom's journal from when she and my dad were all lovey dovey and such (hi mom!). if she didn't know that i did that...well she does now! (this is fun) :)

so here's a snapshot of our lives over the past 9 months in 60 seconds (or longer if you're a slow reader, but don't worry...i don't judge ;)

*christmas was indeed awesome! i don't actually remember tons about it excepting that shay got a shotgun. i remember that because that thing sounds like death and looks like death and it scared me.

*we celebrated one year of being marriaged on january 22nd! yay for us! we bopped around town and went snowboarding, and i tasted the wonderfulness that is texas roadhouse for the first time.

*spring semester of school was a beast but i killed it anyway! shay and i took our first and probably last class together (humanities through the arts). i took a lot of notes and shay made a lot of jokes. we probably only passed because we're just an awesome team like that.

*summer started off with a bang when shay got a new job (whoooo!) and we decided we no longer liked our living establishment (no snakes for me this year!). so we looked around, and found the super de duper cutest apartment (pics coming later...after i get out of my creative funk and decorate). we also visited the red rocks in moab and went river rafting, and shay chased lizards while i tookereasy. then we bought bikes and discovered that it is still the funnest thing ever to ride down the middle of the street with your friends.

*my birthday was pretty cool, shay spoiled me bunches and we had a grand old time. then the fourth of july this year was pretty much my favorite ever. except that one time when i was really little and my dad let me help him light the fireworks for the first time (kay not really little, but really littler than i am now).

*shay's parents came to stay with us for a couple weeks and we had all sorts of fun together like park city where i went on the zip line and it FREAKED me out because i'm totally scared of heights but shay was all channeling aladdin and was like "do you trust me" and i'm like "yep" so then we zoomed over the ground at crazyfastmiles/hour and i was like "that was awesome" and shay was like "i told you" and i was like "whatever i'll race you back to the top sucker" and then we hugged and it was fun.

*we sold my little black prizm (tear!) to a kid going to college and bought a black honda del sol instead (oooooo!). i love this little car but shay loves it more. he's pretty much over the moon about it. that's okay though, because i think it's pretty dang sweet too! only sometimes when we're driving people want to race us all the time (hahaaaa...that made only just enough sense). but my little black prizm will forever be the capsule to so many memories during the craziest time of my life, and was a much better first car than i gave it credit for.

*my littlest sister moved away to logan for school, two amazing friends had babies (cutest little offspring ever!), i took a cake decorating class with kami (hi kami!) and i'm pretty much a master by now, we went camping for the first time and i also went to a spa for the first time (but definitely not last time!) and many more things have happened reminding me that life just continues to move forward at a blinding pace, and i love it more every day.

that's all she wrote for now folks! until next time, in the words of my ever wise and profound canadian: don't do drugs.