Busywork

Despite life not going quite the way I planned with getting a job and making lots of money, I have been keeping myself busy. The young women presidency was released but I was re-called to be the 2nd counselor again. I was pretty happy about that as I have really enjoyed my Beehives. They are so much fun to be with and they say the funniest things. Here are some of the things we have been doing recently:

Making Babysitting Kits: Actually, I feel like I may have taken too much on with this idea. I spent a lot of time typing up different forms and info sheets. I also painted the girls' names on their bags and created some foam stick puppets as an example of the craft we were doing to include in their kit. That night was a lot of fun and I relived a lot of my own babysitting memories that had been stashed away since I was a teenager.

(The stuff on the bags that looks like dust, is actually silver glitter.)






Tomorrow night we are painting simple pictures with acrylics. This is the example painting that I made to help fuel their ideas and to make sure the girls could do it in less than an hour:



Along with all the church calling stuff, I have also decided to bring a piece of the wedding business out here and see how it does. I am starting a chocolate fountain catering business and I have found some awesome kitchen space to rent. I am really excited about it, as I don't have that much competition. I just made the website live last week and am working on marketing strategies right now. You can check it out at: Elegantly Edible.

I have also been cooking a ton. Mostly to save money, but also because I have the time to do it. I've been working on some of our favorites and perfecting the recipes. I have created the most awesome chicken enchiladas ever and am working on some other new recipes. For Valentine's Day I decided to surprise Alexander by making his favorite German food. I made homemade spaetzle(cute little noodles) which he adores and costs a lot to buy at the store. The noodles were perfect! I was so proud of myself. I also made bratwurst and German potato salad. Here is a pic of Alexander's plate:



I also resurrected my Asian cooking and made my famous Thai red curry and some chicken tikka masala,served with basmati rice:



Last but not least, this juicy pot roast, complete with steamed carrots, roasted red potatoes, and divine white asparagus, served with a homemade gravy. I have to admit, I was in Sunday dinner heaven ;).


I've made a lot of other things, but I won't bore you to death with a play-by-play of our eating habits. Tonight I am making a green chili chicken salad that is an attempt to copy Bajio's salad (which we don't have out here). It's not exactly the same, but it does help quell my cravings.

I'm still applying for lots of jobs, and crossing my fingers that by some miracle one is offered to me. There is some potential with someone in the ward who is pushing the prestigious Nelson Atkins Museum to hire me, so hopefully that pans out. I would love working there! In the meantime, we welcome any prayers and extra cash you can give. Just kidding about the cash, the prayers would be nice though.

Alexander is doing an amazing job in school and is constantly impressing his professors. He is becoming known as an excellent scholar and has been excelling in all his classes, despite people saying that he has too heavy a load. I keep telling him that he has to get all A's so that he can get a high paying job and take me to Europe. I think he owes me ;).

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. :)