Escape

Isn't this a wonderful photo? I think its enchanting. Today I'm dreaming of walking through this gate and exploring the woods and seeing some beautiful deer drinking from a misty stream. Thats a nice thought. Wouldn't it be fabulous to own property you could actually explore on?

Weekend

WOW! What a weekend. A baby shower, a buying of shoes for Europe :), hanging out with the family, oh and helping DELIVER A BABY! Say wha? Yeah, a dear friend of mine asked me to help do counter pressure during labor and I was thrilled to oblige. I had intended on just assisting in the beginning but when the baby arrived 18 minutes after we showed up to the hospital I was more than slightly involved. She was on her side and I was helping hold her legs up and leaning into them so she had something from which to push against. May I just say it was one of the more incredible experiences of my life. I want to at least finish my graduate degree before we start having children but this has seriously altered my laughable life schedule. It was amazing.
(amazing - jem)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ecdVEtYIK8
(amazing - kanye west) ha
http://www.youtube.com/watch#playnext=1&playnext_from=TL&videos=4uMc0eF_sm8&v=i5vL8lgNEBA

And don't worry about my feet. The shoes are great and I've got the Super Feet inserts. Its all good.

Europe

Its official. We are going to Europe in May! Actually April 30 - May 23rd to be exact. I will probably be posting periodically about all the details of the trip, especially when we return home. We finally nailed down all the places we are going last night. We have tickets for the bullet train from London to Paris as well. It goes 190mph. Thats some sort of crazy fast. Like to see Superman be faster than that train. Shah. Anyway, the list of cities goes thus: London, Paris, Versailles, Strasbourg, Heidelberg, Interlaken, Gimmelwald, Vernazza, Florence, Civita di Bagnoregio, Rome, Venice, Innsbruck, Fussen, Berchtesgaden, and Munich. Mostly in that order. We considered adding Prague but the logistics didn't quite fit. We decided to cut Mont St Michel (sad) because again it just didn't quite fit with the route and the logistics of getting to and fro at that point will probably be more stress than, well I was going to say than its worth but its definitely worth it. We just can't make it work this trip. Maybe next year.


And if you're wondering about the house...we are going to do an appraisal in late March or early April. We will try to refy and if we can't we'll just pay extra principal. Hopefully in two years it will all pan out. I've got Europe on my mind so I'm no longer worrying about the house. Ha.

worry

I hate worrying. Its probably why I hardly ever do it. Its pointless. It doesn't make you feel better. Most of the time it makes you feel worse. You seldom can change what it is you are worried about. The best thing is to figure how to pull on your boot straps and deal with it. But today I'm feeling worried. We aren't selling our house yet. We probably will move in two years or so. But we bought in the peak of 2007 and our house is not worth what it used to be even though we've put so much work into it. I love our home. LOVE IT. I'm so grateful that we bought it. We've housed 6 different people who needed a place to live. We've had many guests. We have meetings and events every single week and have for years. Its been a source of joy and learning and has enabled us to provide for others at a time in life when its hard to feel like you can. But besides all this, I'm pretty sure when we go to sell our house we are going to eat it in the pants. I'm not sure it will ever appraise for what we bought it for and we can't afford to shell out the 20k or 40k difference. Especially not with where it looks like we may be moving. We are young and a major credit hit like a short sell or worse a foreclosure could screw us for a very very long time.
So I'm worried. Ugh.

Longing for Spring

It rained yesterday. Rain is very unusual here. I have fabulous rain gear. I have a clear umbrella, a gray trench, and some bright yellow rain boots. I get so excited when it rains so I can sport my get-up. I have a bit of a cold so I didn't want to get out of my sweatpants and sweatshirt, so I just put the boots and the trench over them. In sum, I looked a bit ridiculous walking in a light misting of rain to the bakery down two doors but I didn't want to miss my chance to use my fabulous clear umbrella (and the sugar doughnut is worth looking dumb any day). My daffodils and crocus are already starting to peak up out of the ground! I'm sure there are many more cold snowy days ahead but today I'm just looking forward to spring!

I'm not in Kansas anymore

I went to Wichita for a few days to attend my grandmothers funeral. It was a crazy whirlwind trip consisting of scanning homework at Kinkos to email on the day of the funeral, accompanying the funeral congregation on New Age Baptist songs I don't know, and throwing up Zicam. Oh and did I mention the guy on the plane who sat in front of me reading his PORN mags the entire time. Yeah, straight up porno mags, a light read on the plane I suppose. What the? Anyway, I suppose there are a number of good things that came from the trip. I was able to see my family. I felt right at home with my extended family and realized how creepy genetics can sometimes be (for example me and all of my cousins have the equivalent of lock jaw at night and we all wear nightguards! now I don't feel quite as dumb). Also my family and I are all relatively similar in size and stature. So I'm normal Jo when I'm around them instead of little Jo. I was also able to cook a nice meal for my father (a bachelor of 20+ years). These were all lovely things. So now I'm back to the grind.