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 :)