Santa Fe

I meant to post these pictures early last week, but I lost the cord that connects my camera to the computer. It had fallen behind the desk. Grrr...

Darby and I had a lot of fun in Santa Fe. The weather was gorgeous. Sunny and in the 60's every day. We stayed in a little casita, which was really fun. We really enjoyed watching cable TV :)

This was our bed. The flat screen TV swings out from the wall on the right.


This was our little kitchen. We enjoyed making hot cocoa and eating our yummy desserts from Cafe Paris.

We ate at so many good restaurants in Santa Fe. Our favorite was definitely Cafe Pascual's for breakfast. It's a famous Santa Fe place that has really great omelettes and breakfast quesadillas.

Our favorite day was the day we went hiking. We did a 7.5 mile hike up to a 9,500 foot peak. It was challenging, but not too bad. It took us about 4 hours, and the worst part was that I needed to go to the bathroom for about three of them.

This is the first picture we took when we got to the top. We couldn't figure out how to get the camera to work, hence the looks on our faces. When we saw this, we laughed so hard. We tried to take a better one...


I'm not sure if we succeeded. Oh well!


This is the view from the top. The town of Santa Fe itself wasn't that pretty (everything was brown), but this view was great.


Here's me on the way down. We had to walk down a bunch of slushy snow. I fell...twice! I think this was before I fell the second time.

Overall, it was a great trip. We both enjoy the same activities (eating, going to museums, walking), so we're good travel companions. It was definitely hard to come back to work. I can't wait until we can go on another trip!

The Blog Fast is Over!

Well my 40 blog-less days are over! I have to admit that I might have cheated a little. At first, I was only allowing myself one blog, 3191, which is a daily photo blog. I considered that a little different than a blog because it doesn't have words and is intended for a wide audience. After about a week or two, I started reading cooking and organizing blogs. I just didn't let myself read any personal blogs. Although I wish I could have stayed away completely, I was pretty satisfied with the experience. My productivity definitely increased, which made me feel better about myself. And the blogs I missed the most were those of my friends, not the random ones I read. I think I can cut out a lot of those completely, so I don't feel like such a stalker. I also enjoyed taking a little time every day to pray a prayer devoted specifically to one person. I think I will continue that. All that being said, I am glad to be back, and I look forward to returning to blog-reading, perhaps with a little more moderation.

My New Passion

I have become obsessed with getting rid of stuff. Knowing that I'm about to move inspired me to evaluate what things I have that are actually worth packing and unpacking. I HATE packing, so this is great motivation. However, I think I might be going a little too far. I mean, so far, I haven't gotten rid of anything really valuable or sentimental - mainly just old clothes and unnecessary trinkets. But I find myself constantly thinking, "What can I get rid of?" Sitting in church on Sunday, I was taking a mental inventory of all the items in my closet, trying to decide whether to keep them or not. I'm scaring myself.

I keep thinking that once I get my clutter under control, I'll be able to stop worrying about it. But now I'm wondering if I'll ever feel like it's under control. Is this a never-ending project? I don't want to turn in to one of those people who gets rid of everything and doesn't even have any pictures of their family. I get a high every time I find something to give away. What will happen to me when that high is gone? I'm an uncluttering junkie!

Evaluating all of my possessions has really made me think about the underlying problem, though. Why do I feel the need to acquire so much stuff in the first place? How much money could I have given away if I hadn't used it to buy things I would end up discarding in a few years? Or what one or two really nice possessions could I have in place of the million cheap things that end up breaking or wearing out? It's an interesting exercise. I'm definitely trying to evaluate every new thing I bring into my life from now on. I don't want to feel overwhelmed by my things and feel like I'm always in need of more space to store them. I want to be able to truly enjoy the things I have, and I think that starts with having fewer things.

Seattle-less

Well, Darby found out on Wednesday night that he didn't get in to UW. I'm still waiting to hear, but now it doesn't really matter. We were both pretty bummed because that seemed like the best option for both of us. But we know that we can be happy wherever we go.

We knew it was never a sure thing that we would move to Seattle, but it was still hard not to get our hopes up. For months, when I've pictured what our lives will look like next year, I've almost always pictured Seattle. Now, I don't know what to picture. If we both get in to UIUC, we'll be thrilled. But that is somewhat unlikely, given the competitiveness of the school. I'd be more than happy to go to UT, where I've been accepted. But Darby really wants to live out of state. He'd prefer Georgia, which would mean I would have to do the online program at UNT. So even though we've eliminated one choice, it seems like we have even more decisions to make. I'm trying not to worry too much about it. Maybe we will both get in to UIUC, and it won't be an issue. But it's still hard to let go of Seattle. Every day, I have to remind myself that we won't be living there. I didn't realize how much I thought about it until I found out it wasn't going to happen.

Of course, I know that there would have been downsides to living in Seattle, as well. The main ones being the distance and the cost of living. Plus, I told Darby, "Now we can just go to Seattle on vacation and not have to worry about school while we're there." I'm not totally certain how much God is involved in every circumstance. That is, I don't know if I'm ready to say that God influences the decisions of university admissions committees. But I do believe that he has a plan for us. I'm hopeful that we will be able to look back and see how he guided us to a particular school.