Spring is in the air!

Today is the first day of spring, but it's been acting like spring for weeks now.  The temperatures are in the 60s and 70s during the day.  I already busted out my flip flops and put away the hats and scarves and gloves!  The best thing about spring is that there are flowers everywhere!  Lexington Park is full of dogwoods and cherry blossoms and they are beautiful!

Two weekends ago we went to D.C. to spend the afternoon with my cousin Jenny who was in town with her choir on their spring break tour.  These trees were breathtaking!

I thought they were cherry trees, but I looked it up later and they seem to be Saucer Magnolias.  Whatever they are, they are gorgeous.

The Washington monument through the trees.

I think Spring is my favorite season.  Fall is just as nice, but you know that the cold winter is coming, which kind of ruins it.  But in Spring you get to put away your heavy coats, you get more daylight in the evening, and everything is beautiful!  Fortunately I don't suffer from allergies or I might be singing a different tune.  Of course, such warm weather so early in the season probably means we'll have a really hot summer, but I don't want to think about that right now.  I'm just going to soak up as much of the beauty as possible and worry about summer later.  :-)  What's your favorite season?

5 things

Here's what's been going on recently.

1.  I got a goldfish from a friend who didn't want it anymore.  I don't know what his name is, but we call him Goldie. 

2.  I stopped running back in January because of shin splints and back aches, and started going to a Chiropractor twice a week.  It's been great and I've seen a lot of improvement in my back, but I'm scared to start running again because I don't want to undo the work we've done.  Plus I know by now I've lost my progress and I really don't want to start over from the beginning.  The only reason I would start running again is to finish my 5K goal, so I'm trying to decide if it's worth it. 

3.  I bought a Groupon for a 6-month subscription to a language learning Website called Livemocha.com, and so I'm trying to learn French.  French is hard!  But fun.  I'm really enjoying studying in a formal way again.  I love to learn new things!  Exercising my brain is usually way more fun than exercising my body.

4.  I'm still looking for a job.  I applied to a really cool Museum Interpreter job where you dress up in colonial outfits and lead tours around the Historic St. Mary's City museum, but sadly the position has been filled.  I'm being very picky about what I apply for, because I'd rather have no job than hate my job, but I am getting a little bit frustrated.  There just aren't many options for an English major down here.

5.  Despite not being able to find a job, I like it here.  I like how beautiful it is, I like how close to Washington D.C. it is, and I love our church and the friends we've made already.  God has been good to us!

The House Where I Grew Up

When I look at this picture, memories come flooding back to me.  Not just memories, but feelings.  Warm (well let's face it, hot) sun on my face.  The smell of summer, hot and heavy in the air.  Looking up at the dappled sunlight through the trees.  The contentedness of a child well loved.

Every aspect of the house tells a story.  The tree on the left is the one I tried to climb with a book and a baked potato in hand, to have a quiet little lunch on the bottom branch (sadly I wasn't that nimble and during the climb the potato didn't make it.) 

The porch swing is where we used to swing so wildly that it would hit against the bricks. 

The driveway is where we set up a basketball hoop and played Pig or Horse (I'll play basketball if it doesn't involve running.) 

The roof on the right is where we used to sit, even though we weren't supposed to, having climbed onto it from the air conditioning box and a tree that sat right below it. 

The top left windowsill is where I used to sit, again with a book, watching my filmy white curtains blow in the breeze into my blue room.  It's also where my friend Erin and I set up my boom box (remember those?) to play "God So Loved the World" by Jaci Velasquez out the window in an effort to "evangelize the neighbors."

That house, the huge backyard, and the cul-de-sac was the backdrop for circuses, Christmas plays (in which I was Mary and a computer chair with wheels was the donkey), gardens, newspaper ventures, lemonade stands, weird pets, and all kinds of imaginary adventures. 

Now it is just a house for sale, and who knows who has lived in it for the past 10 years.  But for me, it is the embodiment of a beautiful childhood.  I only hope I can give that gift to my own children someday, regardless of where we live.

My Bucket List

Everyone has a bucket list right?  A list of things they would like to do before they leave this earth.  Well I was flipping through an old journal of mine from September of 2010 and I came across my list.  It is heavily weighted toward travel, and that has always been the case.  In fact, just this week I set up a world map with map pins stuck in all the places that I have been and want to go.  Yellow is for the places that James and I have been together, Red is for where I have been, and Blue is for where I want to go.  I actually ran out of blue pins.  Go figure. 

In fact, I have often thought about whether or not I will get to see the world once I am in heaven, because I'm pretty sure I'll never get to see everything in my lifetime. 

Anyway, here is my list.

1. Visit every state in the U.S.  Layovers don't count, and driving through only counts if you stop at a major landmark while you're there.  So far I've been to California, Texas, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Washington, Minnesota, Vermont, Oregon, Utah, Colorado, Missouri, and Oklahoma.  (Did I miss any Mom?)  That's almost a third of the states and I'm almost a third of the way through my life (assuming I live a normal life and die when I'm old), so I guess I'm about on track. 

2.  See the major state parks/landmarks/cities in the country.  I've been to Niagara Falls, Yosemite National Park, Redwood Forest, Mt. Ranier and Mt. St. Helens, Washington D.C., Estes State Park, The Arches, Disney world, The Alamo, and some other smaller ones.  I would still love to go to New York City, The Grand Canyon, New Orleans, Boston, Yellowstone National Park, the Grand Tetons, and Mount Rushmore.  I would also like to see the Aurora Borealis.

3.  Visit Prince Edward Island, Canada.  Home of Anne of Green Gables. 

4.  Travel through Europe.  I've been to London for a week and it was amazing.  I'd especially love to see Italy, Greece, France, Spain, Ireland, Germany, Russia, and Turkey.  (Is Turkey part of Europe or Asia?  I forget.)

5.  Go to Australia.

6.  Go to Israel, Egypt, and Jordan.

7.  Take a cruise.

8.  Run a 5K - hrrmmm this one has been disappointing.  I got halfway through the training and had to quit due to injury.  Now I'm just dreading trying to start up again.

9.  Have children.

10.  Adopt a child.

11.  Buy and decorate a house.

12.  Go on a mission trip - I've done this, but I would like to do it again as an adult.

13.  Have a vegetable/herb garden.

14.  Complete a genealogy study - I started on this a while back but had to stop because I no longer had the time.

15.  Take an interior design class.

16.  Can my own jam.

17.  Make a difference in the world.

What's on your bucket list?

100 posts!

This is my 100th blog post!  Given that I started this blog last February, that's an average of 7.5 posts a month. 

It's starting to feel like Spring more often than not.  It's getting dark later in the evening and the temperatures are regularly in the 50s and sometimes in the 60s.  About once a week, usually on Sunday, it gets cold and then warms back up through the rest of the week. 

There are (what seem to be) lots of baby birds screeching behind our apartment.  At first I thought it was insects but then I noticed that there are several big nests in the trees.  I've seen hawks back there so maybe they are hawk babies.

Tonight I am making ratatouille as a side dish with salmon.  I doubt James will even taste it as it's mostly vegetables he doesn't like, but I wanted to try it anyway.

I miss chocolate.  Actually, giving up sweets has been easier than I thought it would be, but every now and then the craving hits.  Like right now.  And last night when we went to Olive Garden and they gave us those little Andes mints when we left and I couldn't eat mine.

Our dog cracks us up.  He's a daily source of entertainment.  Last night at 1:30 he sneaked into our room and jumped on the bed wagging his tail.  He's never done that before; I guess we didn't close the door all the way.  He seemed so happy to see us so it was kind of sad to make him go back out to his own bed.  To compensate, James let him in to snuggle with me in the morning.

Well you would think that I could come up with something deep and insightful to say for my 100th post, but instead I've blathered on about nothing.  Oh well, it's Friday and I don't do deep on Fridays.  Have a great weekend!