Saturday, September 20, 2014

summer endings

Summer flew by - I suppose it always kind of does, but each year, I'm surprised by it. It's still hot & humid outside, but a few of the trees are dropping leaves, the weather man is predicting cooler temperatures, and the zucchinis are slowing down.

Tim & I both had class all summer, but sandwiched it in 2 great trips. In May, we went to the Philippines to visit Tim's cousin Mike and his family there. We enjoyed touring their missionary camp and learning more about what they do, as well as relaxing on the beach for a few days! Last Wednesday, we returned from Peru. We visited Cusco, Machu Picchu, and Puno/Lake Titicaca with 8 other friends (from dental school). We had a great group of people and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves despite a few illnesses, climbing lots of stairs, and not really acclimating to the altitude.

Now we're back into the swing of things with school back in the swing of things with school in full force. My replanted tomatoes are almost ripe, and the leeks keep getting fatter. We're trying to wrap up a couple more home-improvement projects (a fire-pit and some deck deconstruction/reconstruction). There's a lot of landscaping that still needs to be done, but we've realized that there's no need to overly busy ourselves to meet an arbitrary time-line that we've made. Projects will continue in a never-ending fashion, and we'll continue to do them. We're both so good at being busy that we've had to remember to take time to just spend together as well as with friends and family. We have a couple of weddings left this year, but the main rush of them is over (9 down, 2 to go), so hopefully there will be more weekends available the rest of the year!

Even though I'm sad that summer is drawing to a close, my nose seems to be searching out pumpkin-y smells, and the idea of boots and sweaters ins't revolting, so I suppose I'll be ready for those chilly days soon enough.

Monday, March 31, 2014

spring fever

It's supposed to be 60 degrees here today. I'm so excited! I told myself I have to do all of my lectures/case studies this morning, so I can spend the afternoon outside. So here I am, procrastinating a bit on doing my lectures & case studies.

Winter has been long, and lately, I feel like I've been actively willing myself to be warm and refreshed every day - some days go better than others. School has kept me busy, and the last 3 months have gone by very quickly, but winter still has a very strong presence here, and I think it's time for it to go. I'm excited to get my garden ready, do some landscaping, run outside in shorts, and drive with my windows down.

Besides school, we haven't been doing too much. Tim took his boards (after 3 miserable weeks of studying) and passed, so we went for a long weekend in LA visiting a good friend and some family. It was warm, and relaxing, and there was a lot of wonderful food involved, so we had a blast. Tim also tried his hand at surfing, and realized that it's much harder than it looks.

Looking ahead, we have lots of weddings to go to this summer! Most of them are in Chicago, so that's nice! I went out and bought all of the presents for all of the showers & weddings we needed, and then 3 more people got engaged...people just keep falling in love ;) We're very happy for all of these family members and friends, and we can't wait to celebrate with them all!

Have a wonderful day!