We went to the beach this afternoon, and I experienced a moment of nostalgia.

I want to have dinner our last night here somewhere I can see the ocean.

Of course, I'm trading ocean for mountains. Not a bad exchange. But I will miss the beach.

We bit the bullet and made our moving truck reservation today. We're picking up the truck down in Oceanside, because that little 50 mile drive saves us nearly $1500. Seems well worth it to me.

So now, all the reservations are made: we have flights to Denver for the first week in November plus a rental car and hotel for finding a place to live, Mom and Dad have booked their flights to help us do the actual move, and now we have a truck.

I guess this is really going to happen!

One cool thing about moving is that you get to start with a clean slate in a lot of ways. I'm really uber excited about getting a clean slate when it comes to the design of our new living space.

In preparation for this exciting new challenge, I've been doing some research and collecting some cool websites to give me ideas and inspiration for what we're going to call Lacy's "design on a dime."

• These articles on "rental renovation" have some really great ideas on how to make significant, but temporary, changes to a rental. In fact, this website it chock full of good articles like what not to scrimp on when decorating, how to find cool stuff on Craigslist, moving to a new city, and even the basics of color theory for those of us who are somewhat design challenged.
  
• Speaking of color, this nifty color scheme generator is intended for use by web designers, but I could see it having practical applications in home design as well. (I used it when designing the layout of this blog -- what do you think?)
  
• Apartment Therapy is a really cool interior design blog based on the concepts of the book with the same name. They even have free little 8 week courses to walk you through implementing the ideas from the book in your own home. I have got to get my hands on a copy ASAP!
  
• I'm also really excited about joining the freecycle network -- it's an online community of people who want to give their things a new home. Say, for example, I'm getting rid of a chair before we move. I could post it on the freecycle network, and if anyone out there wants it, they can come and pick it up for free! A much more sanitary method of dumpster diving.
  
• Finally, I'm keeping an eye out for cool sites like Re-found for ideas and products that might inspire me.

Have you got any great resources for design I should know about? SHARE!

Apparently, everyone has the same idea as us and wants to get OUT of California!

We've been looking online at moving truck rental prices, and everyone is having big sales and great deals if you want to move TO California -- apparently there is a shortage of trucks!

For example, if we wanted to move from Santa Fe to California (again), a truck would cost us about $300. But if we want to go from California to Santa Fe -- or Denver, or Boulder, or pretty much anywhere -- the same truck could cost as much as $3,000!

That's highway robbery, if you ask me (pun intended!).

I hate rental truck companies.

Finally! I've finished uploading and tagging all our pictures from our Colorado fact-finding trip!

To view of slideshow of all our pictures, Click Here!

In the meantime, here are a few of my favorites:

Here is Brandon, in front of the Capitol building, exactly one mile above sea level.


Some elk in Rocky Mountain National Park


Snow and doughnuts at the top of Pike's Peak!


Sherrif Brandon in Sedona, Arizona


And me, looking tired after a week of driving.

So, I do have a lot to say about our trip, but I was kind of waiting until all our pictures were developed so I could illustrate the story as we go along.

Brandon and I had a talk yesterday about moving and -- yeah. We're really doing it. We will be moving into our new place in the Denver/Boulder metro area by December 1.

This is a little bit terrifying.

Last night we went out with some friends from church, and one of the couples is also planning on moving to the Denver area because of a job change, so they were asking us all about our trip. When we admitted that we would probably (most likely, almost certainly) be leaving right after Thanksgiving, one of the women said, "But you can't leave before Christmas! The choir needs you!"

To be honest, we haven't made a whole lot of friends out here in sunny CA. I can probably count on one hand -- OK, I can EASILY count on one hand -- the number of friends I will miss when we leave. I can count acquaintances, like choir people and my writing group on two hands. But it's always hard to leave friends behind. I can't honestly say if I will keep in touch with any of these people once we are away from here, but no one likes to say goodbye.

I am NOT looking forward to telling my choir director that a) I'm leaving "before Christmas" as Kathy pointed out, and b) that I've joined a writing group that meets every other Thursday -- meaning that I will only be able to attend choir on the alternate Thursdays. I don't think he will be happy with me. (That and the fact that I have been avoiding him and church all summer to get out of singing a solo -- man doesn't take no for an answer.)

Of course, the good will hopefully outweigh the bad for our move. We wouldn't be moving if we didn't believe it to be so. But at the same time, change is hard for me. Especially monumental, 1,500 mile new state change.

It may be a little late for us, but I just found out that the Denver/Boulder metro area has been voted best city for singles three years in a row! Wow. That's a lot of singles.

Our road trip to the mile high city commences tomorrow morning early, though we won't actually make it to Colorado until Sunday. We're spending our first night at Zion National Park in Utah -- expect many photos to come!

I'm not sure if we're taking the computer or not, but there will be plenty of bloggage when we return, so stay tuned!

The Perseid, a meteor shower that was first witnessed almost 1,000 years ago, makes its grand entrance in August, and peaks on August 12th -- the first night of our Colorado trip and the night we'll be camping in Zion! The show starts at 9 p.m. and goes 'til dawn. At peak times, you might see as many as 15 - 20 meteors per hour. Locate the constelation Perseus in the sky -- that's the area of the sky where the shower originates.

I am so very much a child of the internet age. As soon as Brandon and I started talking about the possibility of moving to Colorado, we started doing research about it -- online.

Our approaches, however, are somewhat different. Brandon is more apt to search for crime rates, housing statistics, and employment/unemployment rates, while I prefer looking at tourist websites and, most recently BLOGS.

My favorites so far include the Elevated Voices blog, produced by the luxury magazine 5820, and the Colorado For Free Blog is really right up my alley. The first is a conglomeration of the news around and about Denver, while the second is exactly what it sounds like -- listings of things to do in Colorado for free!.

It's a whole new look for this blog!

Brandon and I have been happily married for 10 months now, and are enjoying married life more and more each day. I loved updating this blog with all of our wedding news, and I thought it would be fun to reinvent it as a place to talk about our next big adventure: relocating to Colorado.

Brandon and I have been talking for a long time about moving away from the Land of Fruits and Nuts (ie: Southern California) to somewhere we could really see ourselves settling down, buying a house, and maybe even starting a family. Colorado has always been at the top of that list for a lot of reasons, including that it would bring us much closer to both of our families. Our lease here is up at the end of November, and it seems like all signs are pointing to the fact that this is the time to GET OUT OF DODGE!

So the adventure begins next month with our week long vacation to Colorado to try to get to know the Denver metro area and see if it is really a place we could see ourselves living.

I'm so excited! It's really starting to feel real.

We spent the majority of the afternoon today working out our plan for our Colorado trip. Originally scheduled for June, it had to be postponed due to unexpected kitty craziness, so now we are planning to go the third week in August.

And I'm so excited! It's looking to be such a great trip. We're leaving Saturday the 12th and we're hoping to get as far as Zion National Park in Utah, where we plan to camp overnight. We're hoping to get in on one of their cool shuttle tours of the park before heading on to The Peck House in Georgetown, Colorado.

Georgetown is about 45 miles west of Denver, and one of Colorado's original gold mining towns, and The Peck House is a five star restaurant and bed and breakfast in the mountains. We're hoping for a really relaxing dinner and stay there Sunday night before heading to Rocky Mountain National Park on Monday morning.

We have a reservation at the Moraine Park campground and plan to spend Monday driving and hiking around the park. I am particularly excited about the prospect of summer "Campfire Talks" given by the rangers. Because I am a dork for stuff like that.

Tuesday we will head into Denver proper, probably by way of Boulder. We have a reservation at a hotel in Denver for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights. We plan to drive around the city, trying to get a feel for the different neighborhoods and where we might like to end up. We definitely want to spend some time downtown, probably in the area of the 16th Street Mall and LoDo, and we're also talking about making a visit to the zoo, the Natural History Museum, and probably at least one brewery.

Friday night we are hoping to stay in one of the camping cabins at the Garden of the Gods just outside Colorado Springs. They just look so kitschy and cute! We also hope to take the Pike's Peak Cog Railway to the top of Pike's Peak to get a panoramic view of the state before heading home.

Saturday we will head south, probably stopping in Flagstaff or Sedona, or wherever we happen to end up (no reservations for Saturday night) and on home by Sunday.

More details as we finalize them!

Our invitations arrived this weekend! We've been working hard to get them assembled and in their envelopes so they can get in the mail ASAP!

Things are happening faster and faster around here!

We recieved the invitations last night and started assembling them. They're very cool. I'm happy with the way they turned out, and today, I'm trying to order the announcements that will go with them.

We've also got the audio equipment rented, so their will be music and dancing, and Brandon rented a Jaguar for driving around on the wedding day.

Tres fancy.

The other big thing is that we're planning to sign up for dance lessons.

!!!

Very exciting. They're going to help us choreograph our wedding dance.

Somebody break out the video cameras -- this is going to be one for posterity.

=D

So, last night, we bought my wedding band! This is pretty much what it looks like:

It's just got little bitty stones in it -- I think not quite even a quarter carat -- but that's kind of why I liked it. Just a little bit of sparkle. =D We got it at the Zales outlet store, and I think we got a really good deal on it. Happy happy!

Brandon got a call that his ring came in, but when we went to pick it up, they had sent the wrong one. It wasn't the one he wanted. The poor girl knew it as soon as she took it out of the box. She remembered us, and she said, "Wait! That's not right!" I don't think it was her fault; I think the distribution center screwed up. Anyway, we're not worried yet. They said four weeks, so this was already much sooner than we had anticipated.

Anyway, SHINY! Look at the pretty! Nine weeks... I'm getting excited. =D

P.S. Does anybody know where I can buy a French newspaper? My bookstore suddenly doesn't carry them any more.

P.P.S. The girl at the jewelry store offered to clean my engagement ring for me when she was cleaning the wedding band. DANG! What a difference a cleaning makes! I've got to get me one of those to keep my bling blinging! Seriously. You can see this thing from outter space now! =D

Brandon and I ordered his wedding ring this week! It is titanium and white gold, and he seems very happy with it. It's supposed to take four weeks to come in, so hopefully we'll have it by the end of July.

Still haven't purchased mine, but it is less of an issue; platinum and white gold can be sized while titanium cannot -- hence the need to order a ring in the correct size.

Things are zinging right along with the wedding plans. We spoke to Father Riley on Sunday and have a tentative appointment with him this Saturday for our first pre-marital counseling session. I'm glad we finally got that scheduled, and I'm actually looking forward to having conversations with him. He's a terribly nice man.

I've also decided to have a Craft Party next month. I've invited some girls I know here in So Cal to come over to my house for brunch and crafting to help me get decorations and favors ready for the wedding. I'm really kind of excited about this, and I've started ordering supplies and thinking about what needs to get done and what I can get help with. I've got at least three different projects I know I need help with.

My friend Shelly says she has a good tailor and has offered to go with me for a fitting within the next few weeks -- which means I'd better get cracking shopping for my unmentionables to wear under the dress!

Also, we received the rental contract for the apartment yesterday. It's all in French. Time to dig out my handy dandy dictionary and do a little research -- talk about baptism by fire! What a way to get reaquainted with the language!

Nous avons un appartement a Paris.

*twirls*

Check out the apartment we will be staying in in PARIS!

It's walking distance from the Louvre and the Pompidu.

I'm all aflutter.

Angela, one of my fellow sopranos in the church choir, told me last night that she wants to throw me a bridal shower for all the choir/church ladies!

!!!

I was so SURPRISED! That is the sweetest thing ever, and we both squeed over it for a little while until rehearsal started.

=D

Now I *really* need to update our regitries!

I got this from the Travel Zoo website:

"The 4-Diamond Eldorado Hotel & Spa in Santa Fe just reduced rates during the popular summer season to $149 per night (regularly $229).

You can travel between Sunday-Thursday between July 11 and September 8. Weekends are just $50 more. The world-renowned Santa Fe Opera is in season during this time. And at 7000 feet, Santa Fe is usually cooler than other desert destinations. All in all, this is one of the best times of the year to visit New Mexico.

The Eldorado is just one block from Santa Fe's historic Plaza. Its Old House Restaurant was named by Travel and Leisure as their top choice for fine dining. The hotel also has the full-service Nidah Spa on site, a rooftop pool, fully-equipped fitness center and sauna."

Yes Mom, we finally did it!

Brandon and I went and turned in our passport applications today. We had to go all the way to the Orange County Clerk's Office in downtown Santa Ana, because that was the place that opened the earliest so we could go before work. Pretty easy all around, and we paid extra to get one of the passports expidited because we found out that we can't reserve any of the apartments we've been looking at without a copy of one of our passports. Hopefully we'll have it in about two weeks and then we can see about getting a place to stay in the city of lights!

Here are a few of the apartments we've been looking at. (I think the majority of the ones on that website have been furnished entirely from IKEA.) So cute! And such a deal!

And, as Allison pointed out, we'll always be able to talk about that flat we had in Paris...

;c)