Operation Rice Bowl - Our Lenten Tradition

Thank you for your generous donation to the Operation Rice Bowl.

Your kind gift to CRS' Operation Rice Bowl will make a large difference in the lives of our neighbors around the world. It is through donations like your that we are able to continually support development projects in more than 40 countries. These projects bring clean water to communities, help farmers enhance their agriculture techniques to improve crop yields, provide credit training and encourage the growth of small businesses, teach families basic health and nutrition, and provide individuals with training and resources so that they can improve their livelihoods. Your actions today will assist our brothers and sisters overseas build a better and more sustainable life.

Sincerely,
Catholic Relief Services

Simple Woman's Daybook

Please visit Peggy at The Simple Woman for more Daybook entries!

Outside my window... it is dark, the wind is blowing, and the rain clouds are coming in.

I am thinking... about what I will buy Brian for his 29th Birthday!

I am thankful for... my husband, who cooks me dinner every night when I get home from work.

I am reading... One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp, Little House in the Big Woods Series

I am hoping... for some good news at work!

I am hearing... the sound of our Hepa filter and Brian typing on his laptop

Around the house... the floors are in desperate need of a steam cleaning. But we did take lots of boxes home to Brian's mom's house for storage so the apartment feels less cramped. We also have some picture frames to hang from our wedding!

One of my favorite things... LibraryThing and ThinkGeek.com

A few plans for the rest of the week: Celebrating the end of the quarter with Brian, maybe going out to dinner this weekend, and general relaxation. Oh! And hopefully a visit to the Zoo to see the new baby Golden Tamarin monkey.

Here is picture for thought I am sharing...

I Am In Love...

...with LibraryThing. That is all.

Happy Holidays!

Where Does the Time Go?

So much has happened in the past month - I actually can't believe I haven't written in so long. I have a lot to catch up on. Originally I thought I would just give each event it's own post, but I honestly just can't see myself doing that right now. I will try to summarize what has gone on in the past month.

On June 10, Brian passed his final exams for his Ph.D.!!! Here he is all dressed up on his big day. I'm so proud of him for sticking with it and trying his best.

I hit 100,000 miles on my car. Go me!

We visited my great aunt Karen and uncle Tom in Ojai, CA and spent some time with her new horse Molly.

Our first Santa Barbara festival since moving up here was Summer Solstice, which is based off of Carnival in Brazil. Brian was a little overwhelmed with all the craziness, but overall we had a good time.

I had my dress fitting on July 3, where I spent approximately 40 minutes waiting for the seamstress, but only 10 minutes in my dress. Which I guess is a good things, since it fit perfectly.

We spent July 4th at my godparent's house and at Tim and Dorsie's new house in Lakewood.

We brought our cats up with us finally to our apartment. It has been a transition, with Cinder meowing pretty frequently when we leave the room. We are working on disciplining him with a spray water bottle.

July 9-11 was spent in the mountains of Santa Barbara at Engaged Encounter, which is a requirement for us to get married. Basically it's the Catholic Church's way of making sure you really want to get married, because no normal person would sign up for this. You show up at 7:30pm on Friday night and don't get to leave until 4:00pm on Sunday. You spend the whole time writing in a journal and listening to people cry.

Okay, so it wasn't all bad - but it was too corny for me. Because Brian and I had been dating for 4 years, we had already gone through a lot of this. Most of the couples we met had only been together for a year or two. I can see how it would have been helpful a year or two ago. What I really hated was that it felt like summer camp, sleeping in these little twin beds and sharing a bathroom between 20 women. I'm sure if we had brought binoculars we would have been able to see our apartment from where we were. It literally took us 8 minutes to get home.

So that's been my past month - and this next is going to be even more crazy with my company putting on it's annual forum. I'm looking forward to this coming Sunday, where I can finally relax!