Holidays and Miracles

The past few months have just flown by. I can't figure out what I've been doing, but I'm pretty sure I have been busy. I did two more weddings in Utah, both of which turned out really nice and in between helping Alexander with homework, planning Young Women lessons, and looking for jobs, we have celebrated a few holidays.

Halloween was sort of a sorry event at our house this year. We were invited over for dinner by a family who had been great friends with Alexander's parents. It was very enjoyable and fun to meet new friends. We got home not long after dark and I expected the trick or treaters, but they never came. We still have a big bag of 150 mini chocolate bars if anyone is hungry. We had no reason to dress up, so we didn't. I was sort of sad about that. However, we did carve ourselves a couple of pumpkins that we picked up at a great pumpkin patch and we dressed up Godiva for a good laugh. I wanted to get a cute fall picture with Godiva next to the pumpkins, but we found out that for some unknown reason she is afraid of pumpkins. It was sort of hilarious.

This is my frog:


This is Alexander's Homestar Runner Devil:


The Dread Pirate Black Fur:


On November 6th we celebrated Godiva's first birthday. I think I just wanted a good reason to throw a party. I baked a little cake and bought her a new toy. I tried to get her to wear a party hat, but she wasn't too keen on that idea.



Godiva has become a really fun member of our family. She has filled a little of the void due to the lack of children and makes our home feel not so empty. She is a very smart dog and we have become quite adept at understanding each other. She understands a large number of words and we are able to have conversations, of a sort. She is still very energetic and really enjoys playing fetch and tug of war with her rope. She is completely spoiled rotten and has no idea how good she has it and we don't even mind.

This is my favorite position that Godiva sleeps in:


Recently, we have enrolled her in obedience school, hoping it would help with her anxiety problems she has had since the big move. Her first day of class felt like a sort of answer to a prayer, as the two other dogs in the class were right around her same size and knowledge level. There is another dog, Weston, that is part border collie and his owner is a sweet girl close to my own age. I think that having Weston in the class really helped Godiva with socialization and she has honestly done a lot better the past two months since starting the class. The teacher is also a wonder-woman and I couldn't have asked for a better teacher who doesn't make me feel stupid when my stubborn dog decides she wants to lay down instead of sit.

On another note, I put up the Christmas tree and decorations a little early this year since I knew we would be going out of town. My dear husband seems to love Christmas music as much as I do (which is saying a great deal!) and has been indulging my need to blast it throughout the house. I love our tree and it always makes me so happy when we plug it in and see the shining lights and shimmering ornaments! :)

We felt so blessed when Alexander's parents invited us home to Utah for Thanksgiving on their tab, even paying extra so that we could enjoy good food and friends during our visit. My wonderful family adjust their lives to fit us in. Denise gave up her room and moved in with Natalie and Melanie so that we would have some privacy (bless her soul!). Both Alexander and I needed that wonderful break from reality and enjoyed spending so much time with those we love. We drove out to Utah so that Godiva could come as well. She was actually really good in the car and our trip out to Utah was smooth and quick, we left at 8:30am and arrived at 2:30am that night. Our trip back to Missouri was less delightful, as we left at 6:00pm and drove through the night, stopping for a few hours to sleep in the car in Denver. I think we looked like homeless people but I didn't mind. We drove through the rest of the day and arrived home around 7:00pm. I still have car-lag from the whole event.

We witnessed another miracle upon arriving home. We live in a two story duplex on the main floor, and the upper floor has been empty for a number of months, but the two doors are next to each other. We found that the door to the upstairs unit had been totally kicked in and someone had broken in. The motivation for the break-in is unclear, as burglers rarely need to kick in a door, perhaps someone was after a previous tenant or something. However, robbery isn't unusual in our area and can't be ruled out. The police said that some copper piping was stolen, but that's it. The miracle is that whoever broke in didn't even attempt to get in our door. I know that it was an answer to our prayers.

We will be going back home to Utah again in a few weeks to do a wedding and spend time with the family and friends again over Christmas. We know we are completely spoiled and are just lapping this up because we know that in the future we won't be able to go home this often.

Holiday Spice

I love the new VitalSmarts holiday video. The production team is fantastic and filmed this all in one take. I miss you guys!!

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jog

It has been a crazy couple of weeks since I last wrote. Things are going better for us and we are settling down into a sort of routine and familiarity with this place. We know where we grocery shop and that rush "hour" starts at 3:30pm.

On September 22, my sister Jen had her adorable baby girl, Hallie Ann (I am sure she gets her middle name from me, no matter what Jen says).

Alexander is doing well in school. He has already aced one exam and fired off two papers, lots more to come before Christmas though.

I went to a staffing agency a couple weeks ago. The woman was not very friendly and was sort of exasperated when I explained that I wanted a job as an event coordinator, telling me that there aren't any jobs in that field. I nearly stormed out, but decided to at least try to get my foot in the door somewhere. I grudgingly consented to take the skills tests that they force on you, though I was a bit too prideful to not be offended.

The first test was a typing test, but my hands were really cold and I was a tad nervous (it's been years since I've taking a typing test). My fingers shook the entire 5 minute test, so I assumed I didn't do too well. The next three tests were for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Each test had 20 questions (i.e. password protect this document in two clicks or less) and 25 minutes for each one. I finished the entire thing in less than 30 and I think I shocked the lady when I came out so early. She was visibly impressed though when she saw my scores, 63 wpm with a 99% accuracy rate, and expert levels in Word and PowerPoint. My Excel score was Intermediate, but she said that the test was geared for those with a strong background in accounting, which I have no experience in, and that I did better on it than expected.

Surprisingly, after my test this lady was much nicer to me, and told me that "lots of people want a job as an event coordinator, but now that I look at your resume, I see that you actually have the experience for it". Duh... didn't you look at my resume before? Anyway, she was very confident that with my skill set they would be able to find a good place for me. We shall see...

I guess it's no surprise that I had been having an emotionally difficult time out here the past few weeks. My family constantly talking about the tiny, cute baby just threw me over the edge. I spontaneously bought a plane ticket home and didn't tell anyone but my friend Melissa who agreed to pick me up at the airport. My sweet Alexander was so wonderful to let me go off and leave him alone for 5 days.

I arrived on Thursday morning and spent a couple of hours with Melissa before we went over to Jen's house. She was shocked speechless (which is saying a lot) and I had a fun time holding the darling baby.



While I was there, Melanie called Jen and asked if she could come over. When she arrived I answered the door. Melanie stood on the porch, mouth hanging open for a full 5 seconds before she suddenly threw her arms around me in a huge hug. I LOVE SURPRISES!!!

Later, Melanie drove me down to my parent's house. Apparently, my dad was on the phone with my mom when he looked out the window and saw me outside. He asked my mom why I was walking down the driveway, my mom replied that I wasn't. When I opened the door, Natalie, Denise, and my dad were standing there with wide eyes. Dad handed me the phone and told me to tell mom who I was. She didn't believe me, but she must have driven home fast because pretty soon she was home, running from the car to the house. You would have thought I'd been gone two years instead of two months.

The rest of the night consisted of hilarious greetings whenever someone else came home. McKay walked in the door looked at me, dropped his bag, and yelled "What the freak?!" It was fairly awesome.

I had so much fun with my family and friends and they were so nice to me, letting me use their cars and mess up their weekend schedules. I arrived at VitalSmarts on Friday just in time to go out with all the girls for Tara's birthday lunch, so I was pretty excited about that. Melanie had an extra ticket to the Saturday afternoon session of conference so I went up there with her and Denise and enjoyed the perfect weather. Sunday I cooked a huge meal of BBQ pork and beef with potato salad and baked beans. On Monday I was able to meet up with Jaclyn for lunch and see her gorgeous new house. Later Melissa and I broke all our previous records on the X-box game Lips and got #1 in the world singing the song "Kiss Me" by Sixpence None the Richer. YAY!!! The blood, sweat, and tears finally paid off there. ;)

It was hard leaving Tuesday morning, I already felt like I was home, but I knew that Alexander was waiting for me and I did miss him, so I sadly walked the plank, err, terminal to my fate and back to Missouri.

I have felt better since returning, like the visit refilled my spirits. I have so many blessings and am so grateful for all those people who love me enough to want to spend time with me. :)

Blessings and Trials

Sunday was my first day of serving as the 2nd counselor in the Young Women's Presidency. I admit that I was a bit intimidated even though I was super excited. I had no idea what the girls would think of me. My fears were a bit alleviated when they prayed, "and we are thankful for our new Young Women's...person". I couldn't help but smile :). There are currently five active girls, with three more coming in the fall. I am over the Beehives, so in a few months I will have a large class.

This presidency is amazing and they spend a lot of time making sure all their girls are getting what they need out of the program. I am quickly learning that the time commitment is quite extreme, something I could never have done back home in Provo with my two jobs. In fact, it will be a miracle if I can keep up with it all here. Activities are every Tuesday night with more activities falling on Saturdays. I have presidency meetings Sunday at 8:00am, missionary meetings on Saturdays at 9:00am, and various other meetings every Sunday at 2:00pm. On top of all that, there are supplementary things that the girls need, like an extra volleyball practice tomorrow night to prepare for the tournament on Saturday. Seriously, I was so wrong to think my husband was busy as Elders Quorum President. ;)

In other news, I painted a picture to release my creative tension. I like how it turned out, but am open to any suggestions or comments to better my skills.



Last Friday, my dog was trying to get me to play with her while I was on my laptop. She knocked it off the table where it was sitting and shattered the screen. We are able to still use it by hooking it up to a separate monitor, but it just seemed like one more hardship that we didn't need.

And now for a list of complaints I have to get off my chest in this week's rant:

First Topic:
We have resigned ourselves to the fact that most places we decide we need to go take us at least 25 minutes to drive to. This would have killed me in Utah. I was upset when it took me 20 minutes to get home from work in rush hour traffic. Now if I decide we need to pick something up at a specific store, there is a very good chance that we will have to drive to the other side of town for it. Apparently there are no department stores, electronic stores, or pet stores anywhere near us. I tried to search for a JCPenney (my fave back home) but they were all so far away, I couldn't even attempt to drive there without planning a two hour trip. UGH! I was spoiled living right by the mall in Provo.

Second Topic:
I am so sick of the bugs, spiders, and other gross things around here. Not only are they EVERYWHERE, but they are HUGE. Our Utah spiders having nothing of these monsters. Plus, tonight, in the purple lightening flashes, I saw two bats flying past me. It was sort of eerie.

Third Topic:
People who think I have all the time in the world and am sitting home bored on my butt. Just to set the record straight, I have many things that fill my time. I am searching and applying for jobs, helping my husband with homework, cooking meals, driving FOREVER to go shopping, and last but not least, catching up on all those things I haven't had time for in years like reading, painting, and playing the piano. However, a woman in my ward was convinced that I was bored and insisted that I come to help her with her home schooling co-op group thing for two horrible days, which leads me to my next rant topic.

Fourth Topic:
First off, I hate home schooling. I am trained to be an educator and spent many years in college learning how to teach children certain topics. It is rather insulting that parents, with no relevant education, presume to know how to teach kids everything from reading to biology. I have found that 90% of the time, the home schooled kids are poorly educated and socially awkward, and so are their parents. This co-op thing just proved my point even more. I was incredibly tempted to grab the mic and tell each of the foolish mothers how they were crippling their children with their own pride. Because, seriously, very few of those women had a college education and none of them seemed able to adequately teach pre-algebra, biology, world history, and Spanish, all at the same time.

Okay, I apologize for all the complaining, I just needed to get all that out of me. Thanks for listening. :)

Week #2: Adjusting

This past week was one of figuring out our place here in Kansas City. Now that the house was mostly arranged, I was able to focus on different things, like yelling at the city for not picking up our garbage, again, and feeding the missionaries.

Earlier in the week we accidentally found the public library near our home, so we went in and got ourselves library cards and I found two books for me to read and keep me from getting bored (just so you know, I haven't had time to start either one yet).

On Wednesday night I decided it was time for me to update my highlights. I didn't know a good stylist or have any idea where to go, so I decided I could figure it out by myself. I put it in my hair very carefully, making sure they all aligned correctly with my previous highlights. I waited the appropriate amount of time and then washed them out. When I looked into the mirror I nearly screamed as my hair was not the perky blonde on the box, but instead a putrid orange. I will admit that I cried. The next day I dyed my hair brown and it worked to cover the mess nicely. It was time for a change anyway.



On Friday we took the dog out for a stroll at a park about 10 minutes away from our home. This park is in a lovely part of town, with huge antebellum homes that were part of the Underground Railroad. The park was actually the site of the Battle of Westport, the last major battle of the Civil War west of the Mississippi. This was the first Civil War battleground I have visited and we had a fun time reading the markers explaining the battle and where the lines were. Godiva had fun running around and being scared of the huge geese in the pond.

At the park:





Friday night we fed the missionaries for the first time in our married life. I was channeling my mother's craziness as I hurried to clean the house and the car and fix the meal so that we could pick them up on time and make sure they were adequately fed. Somehow, in the mix of it all, I totally destroyed the dessert. I made brownies with marshmallows on top, but the brownies didn't cook evenly and the marshmallows burned on the half that was done. The other half of the brownies was literally runny fudge. I didn't realize my predicament until it was time for me to serve dessert. Obviously, I couldn't feed that to my guests, and I freaked out! Suddenly, I remembered that when my siblings were here, they had made brownie cakes (called that cause they ended up fluffier than normal brownies). I pulled them out of the fridge, heated them up in the microwave, scooped some of the melted marshmallows onto the top and served them with ice cream. Not even Alexander realized what I had done! So, thanks Natalie for totally saving my bacon, err, brownies. ;)

On Saturday, Alexander and I went to the Kansas City Irish Fest. It's the 3rd largest in the country and once we arrived we knew why. The festival was HUGE! It was in the courtyard of the Crown Center and at least 4 additional city blocks. It had 8 stages with different kinds of musicians playing at each one all day long and set up so carefully that you could only hear one of the stages at any given time, despite how close some of them were to each other.

They colored all the water in all the fountains green:



There were tons of vendors selling all sorts of wonderful things. We got really excited about the British grocery store that was selling all our favorite British foods and candies like Fruit Pastilles and Lemon soda (both my personal faves)! Good thing we didn't eat lunch before we went because there were dozens of food vendors and luckily for me they were selling meat pies and Scotch eggs and Alexander filled himself up with a sausage roll and fish and chips. Yummy! I would wager that the food rivaled what I ate in England, and was maybe even better.

Alexander thought he would be funny and wear his Scotland shirt. However, originally the word 'Scotland' meant land of the Irish.



On Sunday I was told I had been in the ward too long to not have a calling. Since it hasn't been announced yet, I won't tell you what it is until next Sunday. I will tell you that I was surprised and excited. :)

Don't forget to continue down to the previous post to see pics of my home. :)

Pictures of the House

Some people have been requesting to see pictures of my home, so I have included some pics of the rooms that are finished to quench your curiosity. Sadly, the bedroom, study, and back bathroom still look like a disaster so I don't have pics of those yet.

The Living Room, looking in from the dining room:


Looking in from the front door:




The Dining Room, looking in from the living room:





Today I made this floral arrangement, so now this and a green tablecloth sit on the dining room table:



Kitchen, looking in from the dining room (if you look carefully, you can see my laundry room and back door through the kitchen):








The Guest Bedroom:



My Craft Corner in the Guest Room:

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Our Front Bathroom (we actually shower in this one, but I do my hair and makeup in the back one cause the humidity gets so crazy). This bathroom is between 2 bedrooms (the guest room and the study) so it has two entrances:







Let me know what you think of the place. :) Tomorrow I will give an update of this past week's adventures.

1 Week Down, Eleventy-billion More To Go

We've been in Kansas City for 10 very long days. We arrived on the afternoon of the 19th after a long and tedious drive. We brought with us my brother and sister, Tyler and Natalie, and a friend, Carter. They were an enormous help with unloading the truck, cleaning the house, and helping the dog adjust to her new surroundings.

Surprisingly, Godiva did very well on the drive. She slept most the time and never made a mess in the car. She has also adapted well to this house but she barks more as there are a lot of barking dogs outside and the walls aren't very soundproof. We have decided to give her free reign here instead of locking her in the kitchen. She has taken this new responsibility very well and has become a fantastic guard dog, Alexander has never loved her more.

We have had an abnormal amount of trials getting settled. First, I lost my wedding ring the day we moved out of our house. It could be anywhere in Provo or Evanston. I am devastated, as right now there is no way we can replace it. Additionally, the house apparently wasn't quite ready for occupation. It had been a long time since anyone had lived in it and supposedly it was recently updated but there were multiple problems including a sewage leak, a hole in a pipe that could result in carbon monoxide poisoning, and the fuse box wasn't grounded which could result in the house exploding if hit by lightening, etc. We didn't get hot water until yesterday, so we went 9 days with frigid showers and boiling our water on the stove to wash the dishes.

We went to our new ward on Sunday morning. It is very small and they were overly-excited to have us move in. I think that nearly every ward member introduced themselves to us. Interestingly, nearly everyone has lived in Utah, or has a child at BYU, or some connection. The back of the Sunday program lists the numbers for the ward leadership and 4 of 12 were Utah numbers. It was certainly no surprise to anyone that we were from Provo. We were invited to sing in the ward choir and we found that there were only 8 members (including us).

Alexander is enjoying school. It's been a huge blessing that it is a mere 4 or 5 blocks walk. He has already impressed his professors and one has taken him under her wing and spent nearly an hour with him helping him with all the essentials and giving him helpful hints for his plans with grad school. She advised him that it is better to stay at UMKC for his PhD as he can cut an entire year off his studies. Plus, he would be able to cut out a 100 page thesis, which is a big deal. He still would have the 300 page dissertation, but not having to do the thesis would be a big help. We are considering the options, and it is very possible that we will take that route and do 4 years here instead of 2 years here and 3 years somewhere else.

We have decided to take an adventure once a week and do or see something different. Kansas City is HUGE so there is tons to do. Last Saturday, on Alexander's birthday, we went to the area he grew up in and saw his old home and elementary school. We found this really cool, kinda gourmet grocery store and found Alexander's favorite pies of all time there. We bought his favorite, strawberry rhubarb, and it ended up being the perfect birthday present. That night we also went to the Chinese restaurant that Alexander's family ate at for his birthday dinners every year. They now have a small local chain and there is one just 5 minutes from our house. The food was good and the atmosphere was perfect.

Yesterday our adventure was to go to the Nelson Atkins Art Museum. Let me start by saying it is ENORMOUS! We spent 4 hours there and only saw a very small percentage of everything on display. While there we saw 4 Monets, a Van Gogh, 2 Rodins, a Rembrandt, the contents of an Egyptian tomb, and ancient artifacts from Greece, Rome, and Persepolis. Additionally we saw a huge collection of medieval art that included stained glass windows, suits of armor, actual architecture (an entire cloisters from a monastery), and religious art from churches. Best of all, the museum has no entrance fee, so you can wander at your heart's desire and come back as many times as you want, which is good because we still have to see the sculpture gardens, the huge Chinese collection, and much more.

We miss everyone at home immensely and hope that you will continue to keep in touch. :)

Mid-Metamorphosis

Metamorphosis: a profound change in form from one stage to the next in the life history of an organism. We are in the middle, waiting to see what we become.

One week and counting and I am starting to get a tad panicky. I reserved our rental truck and bought plane tickets back to Utah for our moving helpers, so that's good. However, I still don't have a job (no one has even called me about all the ones I applied for, talk about a self-esteem crusher) and we don't even have a house to move into yet. Yikes! We are working with a real estate/property management agent who is sifting through the good neighborhoods for a decent place to live in our price range. He just called and it sounds like an extra miracle might be needed to get where we need to be.

My house is still a disaster and I seriously don't know how it will get all packed up. Why do we have so much stuff and where did it all come from?! I think I need to blame all those really nice people who gave us wedding presents.

On top of all those worries, I have two weddings to decorate this weekend. Yes, I know, you can say it out loud: I am a moron. Hopefully they go better than the one did last weekend (I almost ruined this girl's wedding day....for real).

Oh well. If nothing else, my life will be really interesting for the next few weeks.

YARD SALE

This past week I had to turn down a couple of requests for weddings and had to put a sad goodbye on the business website and blog. It crushed me.

In other news, we are having a HUGE YARD SALE this Saturday, July 31 starting at 8:00am. We are selling a lot of wedding things: centerpieces, vases, tablecloths, etc. We also have a really nice punching bag, lots of kitchen appliances (brand new electric knives, blenders, hand mixers) and lots of other things in great condition. If you are interested in anything listed, let me know. Also, pass on the word to your friends, we seriously need to get rid of this stuff. The address is 436 South 900 East Spanish Fork.

Summer 2010

I've been MIA for the past few..uh..months I guess. Life has gotten so crazy for me, I barely have time to reflect on any of it.

Back in May we were informed that Alexander got accepted in the Masters History program at the University of Missouri Kansas City. It's a wonderful school with an excellent program. This felt like an enormous miracle at the time and we were ecstatic. Then, suddenly, the realization of it all set in and I was an emotional mess for a few weeks. It struck me that we would have to move out of our lovely home, I have to quit my job, close the wedding business, say goodbye to my family and friends, and just leave. Ugh, just typing this makes me cry. Frankly, the whole thing is devastating to me.

Despite the random tears, I know that this is what we are supposed to do. Apparently I haven't learned everything I need to yet, so the Lord has decided to send me far away from my comfort zone. I know that it will be an adventure and that I will get a taste for a different kind of life. Maybe I will have more opportunities in Kansas City. I don't know; all I know is that I have to go.

To distract me, I have kept myself incredibly busy. I've had a lot of weddings that have turned out really nicely. Plus, we were able to go on a road-trip with our awesome friends out to Nauvoo. We stopped in Kansas City on the way to check out the campus and the city. It's a gorgeous place, and the school looks amazing. Hopefully that will compensate for what we are leaving behind. The coolest part of the trip was the tornado we saw in central Illinois.



I started packing the house up last week. I realized that I don't have many weekends left and most of those weekends involve weddings. I've gone into a sort of panic mode I think and Alexander is afraid I will throw everything out. A yard sale is seriously in order because I refuse to take a bunch of junk across the country with me.

Also on the agenda is searching for a new job. I have applied for 3 jobs out there that I would be perfect for, but haven't heard back from any of them yet. I expect to be applying for many more. Additionally, we don't have a place to live yet, so my stress levels are running rather high. I have nightmares of having to live in a tiny house full of cockroaches in a neighborhood filled with gang-bangers. If this should happen, I will probably fly home and sleep on my parent's couch for a while. ;)

In all seriousness, your prayers would be appreciated the next few weeks. Thanks for all the good wishes and support that have been sent my way and I promise to be better at updating this blog.

Yay Me!

I just needed to share a personal, yet major, accomplishment with all of you. I have been doing my own taxes (with the help of some software) since I was 18. In the past it only took a short amount of time to fill them out, submit them and then rack in the refunds. Last year was a tiny bit more difficult with the addition of the wedding business, but since we didn't make much money, taxes weren't really much of an issue.

This time around, however, I am pleased to announce that Elegantly Expressed had a great year in 2009 and we surprisingly made some money. I did not wish to pay more in taxes than I actually made though. Therefore, I spent upwards of 14 hours (2 whole Saturdays!) working on paper work, sorting receipts, adding up utility bills, calculating miles, etc. I then spent a couple more hours putting all the data into itemized deductions. In the end, I am pleased that my efforts paid off and I am actually receiving a small refund.

When I hit the submit button I was so proud of myself! I couldn't believe that I had waded through the financial wording and 30,000 documents to really succeed in doing my own taxes! I felt like this was a major big deal for the girl who nearly flunked pre-calculus in high school. Plus, it gave me hope that I might actually be capable of owning my own business.

I now understand what I am up against and have started a system to make it easier on myself next year. I am organizing my expenses differently and starting a new spreadsheet before the crazy summer hits and hopefully next year things will work out even better!

I don't usually pat myself on the back, but this time I can't help it. YAY ME!

Silly Anna

Alexander always says, "Silly Anna, Trix are for kids". Despite this or maybe because of it, I had Fruity Swirl Trix for breakfast yesterday.

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Just last week we got TV back in our house again after it had been absent for about 6 months and already I have a confession to make.

I stay up late to watch............. PBS Sprout. That's right, I watch TV for toddlers. Some of you may be thinking that it isn't so weird, that you watch it too. However, I am willing to wager that 100% of you are moms of toddlers.

Last night I had every intention to go to bed early. However, my husband turned on the TV and I ended up watching "The Goodnight Show" with singing muppets and British cartoons. I was enthralled. Apparently, when I am tired, I have the same mentality as a three year-old (coincidentally, Alexander has been teasing me about this for years). Anyway, my new favorite cartoons are Kipper (I love the baby pig, "Ahnold") and Noddy (I would love it more if the British accents hadn't been dubbed over by dumb American accents).

I think the moral of the story is that when you are buying me a birthday present this year but don't know what I would like, just ask yourself if a three year old would like it. If the answer is yes, then you can be pretty certain that I will probably adore it :)

A Little Too Eager

This morning I woke up and looked at the clock, saw that it was 7:30 and freaked out that my alarm didn't go off. I jumped out of bed and rushed to the bathroom to get ready for work. After getting half ready and as I was just finishing up my hair, I remembered that I was supposed to wake Alexander up so that the cable guy could come at 8:00 to fix our TV (we haven't had TV for 6 months). So I ran in the bedroom and yelled "Wake up! You have to get up and shower!"

"What? Not right now!"

I looked at the clock so I could tell him exactly how many minutes he didn't have to shower and saw that it was still the middle of the night. What? I was stumped. I guess I was just a little too eager to get up for work today. I just stood there in shock for a moment before I decided that I didn't want to be up that early and I got back in bed.

Seriously, I can't figure out how my eyes and brain did not communicate with each other. I could swear the clock said 7:30 when I woke up. I was happy for the "extra" sleep, but I did not appreciate fixing my hair twice this morning.

Deborah

Last Saturday I broke all my own rules and expectations and went with some of my co-workers to participate in the Rex Lee Run. This is a 5k/10k run/walk fundraiser that raises money for cancer research. Participants are also welcome to contribute extra in the name of a cancer victim or survivor and wear their name in the race.

I have never participated in a 5k before, not even walking. It goes against my most firmly held belief that other people don't want to see me exercise. However, since I have broken this rule quite consistently lately by attending my aerobic classes I figured I could walk a couple miles. No sweat, right? Well...mostly. I forgot my ankle brace and thus ended up slowing my very nice friends down. I did surprising well without the brace, but I was sore later.

My real motivation in doing the race was for my husband and honoring his mother in the race. I know a lot of wonderful people that I could have honored instead, but I felt they would understand.

Alexander's mother was Deborah Alvord Strub. She was an extremely accomplished classically trained operatic soprano and had a double master's from ASU in music and pedagogy.

After finishing at ASU, she traveled to England for four years to study voice under a very famous instructor. One night she preformed at the Hyde Park Chapel and was so outstanding that a certain young man, Peter, in the audience couldn't leave without speaking to her. Peter courted her the rest of the time she was in England but she was forced to leave when her visa expired. Distraught that he hadn't proposed while she was still there, Peter proposed to Deborah in a letter and mailed it to Arizona where she was staying with her family. When the letter arrived her family tried to convince her not to open it (they were afraid he would break her heart again). However, she did open it and accepted his proposal. He then came to the US to marry her.

Soon after they were married they had Alexander and then 6 years after that, Sebastian. Deborah was a devoted mother who magnified her talents as a voice instructor in the community as well as an organist and choir director in her church for many years.

When Alexander was a teenager she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, an incredibly painful and incurable disease. It starts as a tumor with no symptoms and by the time symptoms have developed enough for it to be found, it is usually too late for survival. Because of this, 95% of individuals diagnosed with pancreatic cancer will die within 5 years.

Deborah fought a brave battle, undergoing all sorts of treatments to stave off the inevitable. Regardless of her illness, she encouraged Alexander to go on a mission and so he left in October 2001. He was blessed to be serving in the Salt Lake City mission under Pres. Richard Hinckley (son of Gordon B. Hinckley). When his mother was very close to the end of her life, Alexander was given the special option to spend a few days with her living or to attend her funeral. He chose to see her and was quickly sent down to spend a few days with his family. His mother was so proud of her missionary and only lamented that she hadn't had time to teach him how to be a good husband.

What Deborah may not have realized is that with her entire life she taught her sons how to be great men. She infused Alexander with her love of music and family and taught him kindness, sincerity, humility, and compassion. She also encouraged him to go after his dreams and to take advantage of the wonderful things life has to offer. She taught him true forgiveness and repentance as she spent many months praying so that she would be ready to face the next step in her progression after death. Of course, with all of these wonderful traits, Alexander didn't need to be taught how to be a good husband, he was already great.

Deborah passed away on February 4, 2002 after battling cancer for more than 2 years. She left this earth too early for me to ever meet her, but I imagine that we would have been wonderful friends and that she would have helped me continue my own pursuits by teaching me voice and piano. I think the best compliment Alexander has ever given me is, "My mother would have really liked you". The first time I met Alexander's grandmother she played a recording of Deborah singing "O Divine Redeemer". I've never heard it's equal and it brought tears to my eyes.

So Deborah, in the time between now and when I meet you face to face, I promise to take care of your boy, Alexander, and to love him as much as you would have wished. The best way for me to honor your memory is to love those that you loved and to take care of them when you can't. I pray I can live up to the task.

Why I Need Breakfast in the Morning

Today I started out the day in a great mood, however, now at the late hour of 9:00am, I am ornery.

To be very frank, I hate lazy idiots! Sadly, there is nearly an entire team of arrogant, idiotic salesmen in my company who don't know how to use their brains effectively. For instance, this morning I get an email from a sales rep who wants to know the venue information of an upcoming training. That information is on our website, but whatever, so I tell him the name. I get a response back asking for the address, phone and website of said venue. HELLO!?! Do you not have the internet? In the time it took him to write the response he could have Googled it and found it himself (which is what I had to do to find the info).

I was very close to asking him if I needed to send an IT guy down to fix his internet. Instead I restrained myself and said "Everything is online and very easy to find, however, here it is:" Hopefully he read between the lines and saw that HE IS AN IDIOT, but because he is an idiot, he probably didn't see anything wrong with what he did.

Ugh. As a warning to you all: if you have a really stupid question to ask me that you could easily find the answer to yourself, do not even think of wasting my time, especially before I've eaten breakfast.

To Kiss and Tell

There has been quite a bit activity in my family regarding boyfriends, girlfriends, and dating in general. The biggest gossip concerns my youngest sister who has a new "boyfriend-ish guy" and had her first kiss this week.

When I talked with Nattie about her first kiss, I asked her how it was, did he have bad breath, were his lips chapped, was he sloppy? It was immediately obvious that I had kissed some losers in the past. I loved her answer though, so typical of the first kiss la-la land, "It was really good. I didn't notice anything else."

I have had some first kiss drama myself. On high school graduation day, we had a big party, like most schools do. A boy I had been friends with and with whom I had gone on several dates was there. We spent a good hour just talking on the grass. As the night waned on, I was getting more tired, but also more giddy/crazy (think: teenager). My friends were watching us from a distance and this guy thought it would be funny to stage kiss and then pretend we had really kissed. I personally thought it would be funnier to actually kiss, but I didn't say that. So, because I was silly and wanted him to like me, I agreed. He made me promise not to tell my friends it was a fake. Looking back, I totally don't get why we did it. The next morning my friends were all gabbing about our kiss when my friend Mel pulled me aside, looked me in the eye, and said, "You are a liar." And because I'm not a very good liar, my secret was out.

My actual first kiss was when I was a sophomore in college. I was 19 and completely flattered by a guy I had been dating for about 2 weeks. After one of those long days at school, he walked me to my car and kissed me. I thought it was good at the time, but 2 weeks later I wished I had never kissed him.

I like the story of my husband's first kiss best. We were on our first date and had spent the entire afternoon and evening together. We had taken a walk around campus and had ended up sitting on the bench by the bell tower. Alexander was sharing his heartache about his mom and family and I was overwhelmed at some of the things I felt comfortable enough to share with him. At one point we grew quiet, his arm around me as he stared off into the valley of lights. Suddenly, he turned and kissed me right on the lips. I was surprised and I distinctly remember the thought crossing my mind, "Do I want to be kissing him? Yes, yes, I do!" When we pulled apart, he got a shy grin on his face and said, "Well, I've never done that before".

"What?" I asked, "Never kissed someone on a first date before?"

"No, I mean, I've never kissed a girl at all before". Frankly, I was flabbergasted because his kiss was really nice. Not sloppy, not too long or too short, no chapped lips or bad breath, just really nice. I think that's why I married him. ;)

I think I would like again to experience that rush of adrenaline, of surprise, glee, adoration, joy, and giddiness that comes to a girl the first time she kisses a man she really likes. While I love every single kiss my darling husband gives me, it doesn't carry the same feeling of miraculous anxiety that our first kiss together did.

This quote brings that feeling to life again:

I ran up the door, opened the stairs, said my pajamas and put on my prayers - turned off my bed, tumbled into my light, and all because he kissed me good-night! ~Author Unknown