Reclaiming the weekend

I love Sundays. It is my self-enforced break from my work and school labors. I may have some major group projects or tests on the horizon, but Sunday is off limits. My classmates and bosses know it, and they've learned that I'll always get my work done - just not that day. It takes a little self-discipline up-front when big things are coming due, but it's always such a relief when Sunday gets here. In many instances, it's my day to regain my sanity, and I think it shows in my demeanor throughout the rest of the week. (I've had classmates comment before that maybe they should give themselves a day of rest, too. I tell them it's a start, but there's a little more to it than that.) It's not that I don't do anything that day - I often spend much of my day taking care of churchy duties. It's just that I set part of my life aside - and the cares and stress that go along with it. I've been asked before if I can really afford to do that every week...in all honesty, I don't think I can afford not to.

That being said, this post is brought to you by AC's day of rest.

DC got hit with a snowstorm all day yesterday. It was delightful. I had been mourning the fact that I missed the last huge storm in December, so this was a welcome sight indeed. Naturally, when David suggested that we go to town to take pictures of the monuments and trees in the snow, I was immediately on board.

I didn't actually take many pictures. I let David be the photographer while I made snow angels and watched in delight as the big, fluffy, white flakes just kept on coming down.

We passed by our good friend Mr. Lincoln and I couldn't resist asking a passerby to document our 2.5-month mark since the last time we were there.

(It was so cold that I had to massage my face a little bit before I could make my mouth form a smile.)

Hooray for winter. Especially when there's snow.

The end.

School update: I really like all of my classes - even the ones that go until 10:30pm. A couple of them are going to be doozies, but I enjoy the content very much. I think I can pull everything off - in and out of school - this semester, but it means I need to be more disciplined with my time in the mornings than I was last semester. Please pray for Abby to have more discipline. Many garcias.

One year ago today...

I met David.

Did anything else big happen around here on January 20, 2009? I forget.

Adventures and Misadventures of Christmas Break

Perk to being in school: extra-long Christmas break.

Potential drawback: most of said break will be spent recuperating from school.

Despite that, it was great to spend some quality time with a small portion of my family and focus on the important Christmas-type things. Sadly, there were zero nieces and nephews in the house this year. I didn't know what to do with myself and all the quiet time!

David and I decided to celebrate the new year with a race. SLC has a 5K that begins at 11:30pm, and if you beat the new year to the finish line, you get a nice wooden commemorative plaque.

How could we refuse such an invitation for competition?

For the record, it was HARD. I can definitely feel the difference between DC and UT altitude. Living in the east has made me weak! The race started late, but we still beat 2010 by about half a minute. Aw yeah.

I used to always say that I would marry the first guy who took me to see the lights at temple square. As of New Years Eve, it hadn't happened yet. (I may or may not have tipped David off to this fact.) In any case, after the race we had plenty of energies, and wouldn't you know it, they kept the lights on after midnight! So we stopped by, still adorned in our running paraphernalia.

Guess that means I have to marry him now.

There was one misadventure of the break, although I don't feel totally right calling it a misadventure. Because hey, sometimes crazy bad things happen, but sometimes you get really really ridiculously lucky when it comes to the timing of said bad things.

Case in point:

* Bad thing: My hard drive crashed on my lappy the day before I left Idaho.

(Mac owners: if this pops up on your screen, run - do not walk - to the nearest Apple Store's Genius Bar. But be sure to schedule an appointment. Those stores are POPULAR. I asked Davy, my Genius assistant, if it was always so busy. He said, "Are you kidding?! This place is absolutely dead right now!")

* Luck: It was still under the extended warranty I got before school started (because I didn't want to have to worry about it while under "starving student" status).

* Serious luck: I took it to the Apple store in Salt Lake to get a diagnosis before I jumped on my plane back to DC, assuming they'd have to send it in to HQ and hoping and praying that they'd get it sent back to me by the time school starts next Monday. Within the next half hour, not only did they replace my hard drive (with an upgrade too, since they don't make 'em as small as they used to) and update the operating system (I can now get Boot Camp, hooray!), but they also cleaned out all the dust (which I've wanted to do since Kenya) and fixed some little cosmetic things that I was putting off until a later, more convenient date.

* Real real ridiculous luck: I got an external hard drive for Christmas - I think it was from Santa? Just two days prior to the crash, David helped me to back up the last year and a half of my life of pictures, music, reports, presentations, resumes, you name it - the first time I've bothered to back up my lappy since I bought it. I literally did not lose a single thing. When you're one semester away from finishing grad school, that's kind of a big deal. In case I needed more signs that I absolutely need to marry David, that one sealed the deal for me. Not like I was at all unsure before - I mean, he did take me to see the temple square lights, after all - but a little reinforcement is always a good thing.

* In summary: What could have been an extremely traumatic experience ended up being more like, "Oh, hum. Well, good thing I got that extended warranty!" (I do need to replace my MS Office for Mac software, but that's actually replaceable. I can handle that.) I love when blessings are so perfectly timed that you have no choice but to recognize them for what they are.

iHeart Mac.

Now, for my next act! I will attempt to hold two jobs, find a post-graduate career, train for a half marathon, complete a 15-credit semester, graduate, and plan a wedding - all in a mere 134 days - blindfolded, with one hand tied behind my back! (Read: I might fall off the radar for a bit.)

Here we gooooooooo....

A reenactment...

...of David's birthday surprise:

One of the David masks that me, his siblings, nephews, and niece put on before David got to his sister's house in El Paso (where he didn't know I would be):

What David saw when he walked in the front door:

(He actually missed his flight and was a day late, which meant more time to plan a more elaborate surprise and extra bonus day with the siblings and kids! It also meant hiding in quiet rooms and faking my way through a few phone calls before he arrived.)

His initial reaction when he saw us:

What he did when I took off my David mask and he discovered that I was actually in El Paso, not Pocatello:

What the kids did in response:

Yay for surprises!

The next morning, I was on the road back to Idaho. Totally worth it!