Lent

Fat Tuesday came and left, which means it's Ash Wednesday today - the beginning of Lent. For those who do not know what Lent is, please click on this link. Lent is basically the time period leading up to Easter (Holy Week: Last Supper, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ).
Initially, I wanted to give up chocolate knowing I would struggle with it, especially when I'm PMSing. However after further thought, I decided I will give up the internet after 5pm on weekdays. This means NO EMAIL, NO Blogging, NO Facebook, NO Tweeting. Not sure how I will survive??? I'm always connected. When J still lived in Montana, it would drive me nuts that I only could check my email once a week.
At work I'm constantly connected as well. Checking my emails, perusing different websites, facebook, blogs, tweeting...of course only when I'm on break ;) If it's not from a computer/laptop I use my iphone. At times J gets annoyed at me, for my constant need to check my email, facebook and twitter accounts etc. I can't even watch Tv, without being on my laptop or iphone. I doesn't brother me by all means, but I think J wishes I wouldn't constantly be distracted by the interwebz.  As for Saturday and Sunday, I'm allowing myself to be on the web for 2h only. Yikes! The 2h can be broken up as well: 1h in the morning, or 1h our in the evening, or 2h back to back.   Let's hope I succeed. One thing is certain it will be LONG lent season.

One Expensive Day Trip

Our day out at Crystal Cove turned into one expensive day trip. We decided to take the toll road down to Crystal Cove, thinking that we had enough change in my car. Guess we thought wrong, since we didn't have enough change to meet the required toll.  We were short a few cents and none of the cars behind us had extra change. The fine for not paying toll is $55. Keep your fingers crossed!!! We're hoping they won't send us a ticket, since we paid a partial toll. The pessimist in me says we're going to get a citation regardless, while J thinks otherwise.Despite that snafu, we tried to put that incident behind us. It was such beautiful day, and there was nothing we could do about the situation. Now on to the impressions of Crystal Cove:

 

  

 

I adore flowers, even though I'm allergic. Seeing these yellow flowers every where makes me super happy that Spring has arrived to Southern California! Can't wait for the weekend to roll around again, so that I can venture out and practice shooting all the different wild flowers and of course other subjects as well. Practice makes perfect, right?

Convalidation

Since I have soo much to blog about, all my post will be out of order.  As most of you know, J is a practicing LDS, therefore our wedding was preformed by a non-denominational minister. Unfortunately, the Catholic Church has some strict requirements, as to where a marriage ceremony can be held, and according to them we weren't legit. Lasst weekend J and I finally had our convalidation blessing, this means we are no longer living in sin =) Woohoo!!!! The Austin Family came up that weekend as well, and to be our witnesses.  Here are some photos from this da

Spencer and J - we had lunch at Mimi's Cafe prior to the blessing

Us with Deacon Fred

With our witnesses

Had to get  our photo taken with cute lil Spencer.

Bucket List

Oh my, I'm soo behind in blogging. Perhaps this weekend, I will be able to catch up on some of my blog post. I'm way over due. Anyway, I've been wanting to join the project 101 Things in 1001 Days. Basically it's unique way to challenge and to inspire yourself to achieve your personal goals in life. To read more about the project, just click on this link.  Well, since I haven't set up my 101 goals, I decided to do a similar project just on a smaller scale this year. Everyone knows that I have a big milestone birthday coming up in June. I'll will  be turning the big 30. Woohoo! Ok, ok, ok, I'm not quite excited about turning 30, but you have to make the best of every situation, right?! And thankfully, most folks don't think I'm 30 anyway. Yippie! But back to what I was saying, before I got side track about my own soapbox of aging. For this year 2010, I will attempt to complete 30 goals, that I've set for myself, in honor of my 30th birthday. At first, I wanted to have these 30 things completed prior to my birthday. A tad bit unrealistic, right?! Of course, it would be since we are almost into March already. Only 3/4 months time to complete my list. I don't think so. Besides, we all know I'm a bit more on the negative side, than optimistic. That trait falls upon J.  So enough of my babble on to my list:

1. Complete another 10K 
2. Complete a 2nd Half Marathon
3. Travel to Boston
4. Travel to Vancouver, Canada
5. Sign up for Photography Class
6. Learn a new foreign language (Italian or an Asian language)
7. Try to have one paying photography gig
8. Sign up for a Triathlon and complete it (signed up for one in Feb, but had to drop out since I'm still with out a bike. And you can' really compete in a triathlon without a bike)
9. Go wine tasting in Napa Valley
10. Walk across the Golden State Bridge
11. Watch the sunrise and sunset on the same day
12. Hike up Half Dome 
13. Have my High School weight back
14. Scan my old photos, and put all my negatives onto cds.
15. Read 10 books this year, 5 books have to literary classics
16. Turn of my cellphone/email for the entire day (this might be a hard one)
17. Attend a concert at the Hollywood Bowl
18. Payoff my Student Loan
19. Pay for someone else's order at Starbucks or a drive thru or during lunch at a restaurant [It's all about Pay It Forward =) ]
20. Photograph the same location, at the same time, during all four seasons. 
21. Take a Capoeira Class (Capoeira: Afro-Brazilian art form, that combines martial-arts, music and dance)
22. Volunteer at Soup Kitchen for a day
23. Find a new hobby, Photography doesn't count. (Perhaps mountain biking, since it's J. favorite thing to do)
24. Triple the amount in my/our savings account
25. Donate $20 each month to a charity
26. Get down to a 9minute mile, even better if it was an 8 minute mile
27. Volunteer for Habitat for Humanity
28. Love, love, love Dahila. Learn how to and grow Dahlias
29. Buy a new lens for my camera
30. Travel to NYC and attend a Broadway show

So that's my list! Shouldn't be too hard right, all goals seem pretty attainable. What do you think? Will I succeed?