Elephants!

There's something about the air getting warmer that makes me feel better--it's that promise of summer that always got me through the last weeks of school. So the weird thing right now is not having school. Ever again.

It's been strange (but cool) to sometimes have free time... I still kind of don't know what to do when Steve has to study, but I'm figuring it out.

Also, suddenly, I'm on a huge saving kick. (That may be the product of working at a financial planning company). Seriously, though. I'm suddenly really having thoughts--and often--like "I wonder how much we can afford to put in a Roth IRA per month?" and "How much would we have to save per month to have a 10% down payment for a house by the time we're 30?" It's kind of sick. But at least we'll be sort of prepared. I hope. I think that's a big concern for me right now, with grad school approaching for Steve and not knowing where we'll live, and how much it will cost to get through those years.

I'm figuring out other ways to make money, too, besides my job. I'm working full time, still editing for Steve's dad's magazine, and now I'm taking on a small tutoring job for a local family. I think I need to just relax, but I'm not very good at that sometimes.

BUT! I am taking on some hobbies, now, and it's pretty fun. I decided to try some baking, but so far all I've gotten to is brownies and these cupcakes:

They came out really well, by the way. And were iced with chocolate frosting.

I've also started (trying) to get in to scrapbooking. I've bought a lot of supplies, but as of yet I have no pictures to start with. I should really get on that. But I did make this super-cute envelope to send to my friend Kari. It was a business envelope but I embellished it with hand-cut...

PAPER ELEPHANTS!

:-)

Valen Times

Steve & I had a mini-Valentine's day yesterday. He had to work (we now "affectionately" refer to the restaurant as "The Pot") at 4:45, so we didn't do anything big. That turned out to be good, because of course everybody in North County went out to eat last night, and I'm not big on waiting for a table.

Steve gave me my gifts before he went to work--I got home from school and Steve had strung a single ribbon all along the perimeter of the apartment. When the ribbon crossed over something meaningful--a book we read together, our fishbowl, etc.--it had paper hearts taped to it that said things he loved about me or the apartment. It was adorable. So I got to walk through the whole apartment and see all the things that remind Steve of me. It made me so happy, especially because so many of them were just about goofy things we do together, like making "speed brownies"--we jump up, usually during a commercial, and run to the kitchen to make a batch of brownies as fast as we can. We divide up the steps so we are very efficient. We're getting our time down considerably with each round, too.

He also gave me a DVD set I really wanted of a Korean movie called Il Mare. It's the movie 'The Lake House' was based on, but it is way better. Anyway, I was pretty excited about that.

Then Steve went to work and I got to work on a bunch of homework. Ick. But I'm almost done with midterms, and I'm officially done with school for this week, so I'm feeling a lot better. I watched LOST with James, Mike, & Krystle. Steve got home about 10 minutes before that ended.

When we got home he called his mom to say happy Valentine's, and then I gave him my gifts. I bought him a copy of Gray's Anatomy (the actual anatomy book, not a DVD of the show) because he was ogling it in Barnes & Noble. He was really happy about it. I also made him a DVD of all his mission videos, complete with animated intro & menu. I was really proud of how well it turned out, and he kept saying "No way!" as he watched the menu I made, so that was pretty gratifying. Nice to get the effect you're going for.

It was pretty late, but since we didn't get a romantic dinner we cuddled up with some Martinelli's sparkling cider in champagne flutes and watched part of Pride & Prejudice (the A&E one; I'm a purist), so all in all, it was a very cute day. We're going to go to Ruby's for dinner on Friday for our special dinner, so that will be a nice carrot.