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 ;).

Four Years and Forever

I absolutely love my husband. On January 5, we celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary. I can't believe we have been married that long! These past four years have been amazing! Even though we have had our fair share of trials, I really think we lucked out in our happiness. If you know us at all, you will know that we are beyond perfect for each other. We complete each others thoughts and we make up for each others weaknesses. As Alexander said the other day, together we make an almost normal person :).

Alexander is a fantastic husband. He is attentive and patient and puts up with my odd requests without any complaints. He is a brilliant writer, intensely intelligent, and naturally witty. I hate going anywhere without him because he makes running errands fun.

I think my favorite side effect of spending time with him is how much I learn from him. He knows more about history (ANY history) than I could ever dream of remembering. He also loves music and knows hundreds of classical favorites and can accurately guess the names and composers when they come on the radio. Don't let his intelligence intimidate you though, underneath he is really quite silly and will go to extreme lengths to make me laugh.


I know this all sounds really cheesy, but isn't marriage supposed to be full of these lovey-dovey moments of pure bliss? I sure hope so! I am planning on this marriage lasting a whole lot longer, and I really need a few blissful decades to look forward to. In the meantime, I am appreciating every moment we spend together. It's only getting better! :)

Here are some of my favorites from that cold day four years ago.

Christmas 2010

Christmas is always a magical season for me and this year was no exception. We had a few Christmas miracles come our way and were able to spend the holidays with our family and friends in Utah.

Even though we were in Utah over Christmas, I still needed to put the tree up. The twinkling lights have always felt so comforting on the winter evenings.



Every year we get an ornament of our family. This year we were able to add Godiva. :)



While in Utah, we enjoyed a major snowstorm that dumped about 18 inches of snow on us. In the euphoria of the first snow day of my memory, my family couldn't help playing in it a little bit. It doesn't hurt that none of us could leave due to a downed power line trapping our cars in the driveway.



We were also fortunate enough to go to temple square with my adorable little sis, Nattie. We were lucky that it wasn't very cold that night.





As always, Christmas was wonderful and we were truly blessed to spend it with those we love.

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. :)