The Laughlins

Mark and I have been emailing with Crystal (my second cousin once removed...or something close to that) on my mom's side and Seth Adcock, a guy that used to go to our church down here who is finishing up his M.A. at Hebrew U. We have been asking their advice on two apartments we are looking at in Israel. We are thinking that we will be going for the smaller, cheaper one, but I will let you know. We got Mark's financial aid letter this weekend, and he got a nice grant. However, we will still be looking to take out an educational loan for the time being. The hope is still that I will be able to work, but we want to be covered either way. Pending an apartment commitment and a loan, we are pretty set to go.

We hit REI's anniversary sale on Sunday and got some luggage straps, bandanas, and sunglasses for Mark. He bought me a Prana t-shirt as part of the "date" because he wanted to get me something. I love Prana. If I had an unlimited budget for clothing, I would buy Prana all the time. That brand epitomizes me...see the link on our link bar. Also, Mark and I had purchased Outdoor brand water bladders for hiking/being outdoors. We tried them in Yosemite for the first time, and they leaked and tasted (awfully) of plastic. We ended up buying two Camelbak 3.0 liter Mule backpacks/bladders for a grand total of less than $70 with shipping, so we are anxiously awaiting those :) In addition to all of this outdoorsy stuff, we went on two hikes in the last week: one to the waterfall at the Placerita Nature Center with Geoff and Leah and one to the AWESOME 30' waterfall in Tujunga Canyon with the Murrays, Leah, and Min. I will be posting pictures very soon, so look out for them!