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!