Purple's my favorite color

My favorite is Purple.

I'm not sure if you remember that years ago I had posted about how I deeply desired a pair of colorful, simple flats. Well, i discovered these for $12 at Target this week as I was making a midnight icecream run. 

Love. Them. Much.

These are my tulips. 

Cut Lilacs from the bushes in our back yard to put on the mantle.

They are in pickle jars.

Purple makes me happy.

mornings with Duvi

I really love this little guy. 

He turned 3 a few weeks ago.

He loves to eat ice. 

And he whines in the kitchen whenever we are cooking meat. He goes crazy for it. So we put some chicken skin in with his dinner. He is in heaven.

This doggy loves to make us happy. He has an approval addiction just like his momma. Which makes him pretty wonderful to have around and pretty easy to please. 

Duvi and I get to spend our mornings together. Landon wakes up a few hours after we do, so we get this time together just the two of us. When I go into the garage to let him out of the kennel in the morning, I hear his puppy tail banging on the insides of the kennel - he's happy to see me too!

He's so affectionate, he just wants to spend the morning nestling with me and getting petted. If I'm too deep into my work on the computer and somehow neglect him, he will walk up beside me and start licking my fingers while I try to type. It's annoying. Pretty soon, though, he goes and lays down outside of the bedroom door waiting for his hero to wake. Yeah, once I get hired somewhere, I will miss mornings with my pup.

A quick re-cap: 

Rock Climbing from Relientk on Vimeo.

This is an awesome video that John and Jon put together of our rock climbing trip last week while they were in town with Paramore. Landon and I had a blast with them and loved their show. It was definitely one of the most exciting and enjoyable days we have had in a very long time.

Landon is cooking dinner every night lately since he has completed his Spring semester (with straight A's btw!). I love that.

I spent the weekend with Mom and Janelle. We had a girls' weekend. It was wonderful.

We are making some difficult decisions lately. I am torn between what we need and what we need. We need to not be homeless and jobless and are very seriously on the brink of this. Of course we can work multiple part-time jobs in order to pay our rent  and utilities.... or we could just hold out on this plan for a few more months and live a little wild and adventurous. We don't really need jobs if we're not paying any bills. Unless we just want to stock up on money, which a lot of people see value in. This summer weather has me craving wilderness lately. Fiercely. I don't want a weekend away in the mountains where I sit around and pray about my job situation and brainstorm all that needs to get done for sponsorship come Monday. I want some real wild - deep in the mountains, with no agenda but to smell the trees and dip my feet into the rivers and watch clouds and stars and climb higher.

But I do get this way every once in awhile. I am used to packing up and moving and changing and once I settled somewhere for awhile, no matter how wonderful, the vagabond in me surfaces and I crave something less civilized.

sorry

sorry i've been an awful blogger lately. And I'm also sorry because I don't see myself getting more disciplined about this any time soon.

Things are crazy with my work with ACSI. Closing out my time with the program is time consuming and emotionally painful.

We are visiting family soon, which I am looking forward to. I will take a ton of pictures of my new niece and nephew to bestow upon you once we return.

Landon and I spent our weekend out of doors. Rock climbing again for the first time in six months was great. I love being within the canyons - so beautiful.

Our 10 month lease is up on our house in June, so we are starting to gear into the summer move mentality again. Although, we are so lucky this summer. This is the first move in the last 6 years that has not been out of the state. The idea of packing up a truck and taking multiple trips and spending less than thousands of dollars is exciting to us! We decided to move into Salt Lake City, if we can find a place. We're just a little too far away from the things that we are regularly involved in. It would be great for Landon to have a 15 minute commute to class and study groups instead of 30 minutes each way. But we're holding off on moving until I have a job, which isn't looking too promising for June. But you never know ;)

Right now I am at Starbucks, trying to compose a letter for ACSI sponsorship. I'm having severe writer's block, so I thought I'd just toss you a line, my dear faithful readers.

Twenty Five years ago my life was transformed.

 I became a sister.

It's an amazing  bond, sisterhood. To share a childhood with one other person, and have that person be your best friend, is a great gift. Of course we weren't always best friends. I used to pray to God to make my sister fat, because she was a perpetually skinny kid and I didn't want my guy friends to choose her over me. Jealousy is a common thing among sisters as close as we were.

And she was always better behaved, even though I am somehow the one with the approval addiction.

But we enjoyed/ tolerated every sport, every hobby, every instrument, vacation, family get-together with each other. Even to this day we remain so close - she is one of the few people who know me best and love me most. I am so grateful for her!

Happy Birthday, Kiddo!

Another lesson in marriage

Yesterday Landon and I had a conversation about his PhD program. He was telling me with excitement that one of his buddies from Trinity got into SLU's philosophy program. I asked him, "haven't you applied there before?". In 2004 when Landon sent out his first wave of applications he did apply to SLU and Notre Dame, and some of the other top philosophy departments in the nation.

You may remember that after his Masters in Illinois, we unanimously agreed that he would only be applying to PhD programs that were located in places that would offer us a life in the outdoors once again, hopefully the mountains.

And although this program at the U is good enough, it is not as high on the list as many others that he would have applied for had he not be toting around a wife who has an emotional and psychological attachment to mountains.

It never occured to me that our life here may not have been his ideal.

And, of course, I would never in my wildest dreams have set out for a life in Salt Lake City when I have the wealth of family and friends and mountains in Colorado.

But for us, our home here against the Wasatch Front is the merging of two lives, two desires, two worlds. It is perfect because it accommodates us both and we thrive here together, and it's a compromise for us both. It is a place that we have chosen in order to choose each other. I would rather be with my dear husband than with every other person that I love, and he would rather be with me (a happy me) than in a place that would hand him the keys to a future that is marked more clearly.  It's amazing that we are still learning how to live together, how to love each other these many years into our marriage.

My guess is that we will always be learning.

Yesterday we watched a movie where Elliott Smith is featured with multiple tracks. It made me think of my freshman year of college, dancing barefoot to Elliott Smith with my girls in the dorm hall, smelling like patchouli, eating Indian food, and singing our hearts out. Too bad he died the next year.

I've enjoyed him so much this morning and I have been such a crummy blogger lately, i thought i would share his genius with you as well.

I had an amazing weekend of Christian fellowship. When i phrase it that way, it seems petty. But in reality, there is something so deeply penetrating - in an encouraging and uplifting way - about being with other people who know and love God, and pursuing him together in worship and loving one another in fellowship. Hm, that also sounds weird. I am much more sensitive to the way that my religious beliefs and experiences sound since being exposed to strange sounding things in the culture here. And so far this sounds strange.

I'm not sure the theology behind Christian fellowship, except for what the Bible tells us. The Bible says that when two or more come together in Jesus' name, he is present with them. It also says that others will know that we are Christians by our love for one another. How mightily we have failed on this account, don't you think? We'd rather pick apart each other's doctrine than unite in loving and serving each other in Jesus' name. I am just as guilty. When Christ ascended into heaven after his resurrection, he left with his followers the Holy Spirit as a counselor, and Christians believe that when one makes the decision to acknowledge Christ as Savior and as God ("accepting Jesus into their hearts" - metaphorically), that the Holy Spirit comes into us and we are a new creation. Imagine having a room full of people that possess the Holy Spirit, wouldn't there be an undeniable presence there? God is present in our fellowship in a very real and very overwhelming way. And i am so grateful.

I was deeply touched to get to spend my weekend with Gospel Fellowship Community Church. I was invited to lead worship for their Sunday service yesterday morning. I love my current church, as you know, but I'm not sure if it is the size or the fact that we have multiple locations and services, Landon and I have not yet been able to connect meaningfully with anyone there.

Between church yesterday and our worship practices on Friday and Saturday, I was so encouraged by the hospitality of the people at this church. I had many meaningful conversations with so many different people. I had many people want to contact me later for rock climbing or lunch or camping - and they had only just met me! And the church was so delighted to have me visiting and leading the music in their worship service. What a beautiful Christian family. I begin this week deeply touched by my time with GF this weekend. I have not experienced a church body with this kind of love and commitment to Christ and each other in a very long time. I am so grateful!