in all thy getting, get understanding

We graduated! (If you follow me on any other form of social media, I pretty much threw it in your face...) And it was amazing! It is definitely up there with the top 3 best days of my life. I really didn't expect to love it as much as I did. I felt proud of myself and incredibly proud of Landon. He was giddy all day, I think he finally realized that it was finally OVER. His nearly permanent stress line was wiped off his forehead and we went to bed without thinking about all the homework we had to do the next day.

I sure love this engineer of mine. We did it, Lando.

everything you gave and nothing you would take

my favorite song of all time.

on applications and jute rugs

My internet time lately is restricted to a. applying for jobs and b. looking for housing. The former always leads to me leaving myself excessive notes that read "call so-and-so on 11/29" or "send follow up email in the morning" and the latter always leads to finding the perfect apartment/townhome/house and then dreaming of what I'm going to put in it. You see, we are now 95% sure we'll be moving to the valley of the sun come April. Which is kind of ironic, I think. We've always said "we'll go anywhere!" so for things to be working out so perfectly for us to end back up in AZ just seems ironic. Ironic and also so exciting. Family! Friends! THE SUN! We love it there and no matter where we actually end up, we'll always love the desert, so if that's were we go, we'll take it. Anyways. All of our furniture was purchased used and then we've had it for nearly 6 years... that's just a nice way of saying I hate it all and we don't want to move it. I feel like the day I buy a camel leather couch will be the day I say "I've made it." Lofty goals, over here. So dreaming of buying furniture excites me almost as much as finding my future career. Which leads me too this: I cannot wait to be hired. I have, what feels like a million resumes out there and there are a handful that just make me giddy to think about. So many good options. I'm hoping that the dust settles over applications and interviews and emails and offers over the next few weeks and we can start making plans. Real life, grown up plans. Boo-yah.

p.s. all the beautiful furniture you see is from west elm (where else?)

gold bug

Lando has been begging me to go snow camping since we moved to the burg and we finally found a compromise. We heard about gold bug hot springs and I decided if I can sit in a hot spring the night and morning before and after snow camping, I would do it. We hiked in 2(ish) miles and set up camp, started a fire to warm up, and trekked another half mile up the mountain to the hot springs. The first photo is the springs, and the second photo it our view. They were *incredible. There were 3 different pools of varying temperatures with crystal clear water. There was a small waterfall you could easily sit under. There was a small smell of sulfur but not overbearing (like any natural other hot spring we've been too.) And that view! 

Believe it or not, the snow camping was not as horrific as I thought it'd be. I mean, it was brutal and I think I slept 2 hours the whole night and I'll never do it again, but it wasn't that bad. 

*So yes, the hot springs were incredible. The people there were not. It's not quite a long enough hike to deter the "bros" and their alcohol. And these springs are "clothing optional"- and wow was clothing optional.  Needless to say there were a few awkward encounters and some things I wish I could un-see. The fact that we went on Presidents day weekend didn't help either. I guess it was an experience, and man oh man, it still makes me laugh thinking about it.