My Artist

I've always considered myself crafty and the "artist" of the family (which isn't very hard to accomplish in my family). I even took a little pride in my skills. And then one day I met Eric. We would go to Color Me Mine, and his project would always look better than mine. I eventually forced Eric to do projects WITH me so I wouldn't get jealous of his work and hate my own.

For example: This is the very first painting Eric has EVER done. Amazing right?!!

He is definitely a very talented boy! He painted this while he was on his mission and is now being rewarded for his work 4 years later because WE FINALLY GOT IT FRAMED!! And for anyone who visits us, we will have to tell you a funny little story about the date on this painting :)

I'm so glad I no longer have to look at this rolled up on the floor thinking about how it needs to be framed. And most of all, I'm really glad Eric doesn't suck at painting or else I wouldn't want it hanging up in my house. THANK YOU FOR BEING AMAZING, ERIC!

Which Dress Would YOU Choose?!!!

My beautiful sister Audrey is getting married on December 4th!! I'm a good little sister so I flew out to Florida last week to help her find a wedding dress (and because it was her birthday). PLEASE give us your opinion and leave a comment with your favorite number. Comments from anyone are welcome!! What dress would you pick if you were her??!!

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Audrey and I both got some much needed girl time this visit and decided to go shopping any spare chance we had!! This is our success story:

(Yes we take inventory on everything we buy and Audrey calculates how much money she saves on sales)

Der Bear (or Derek, as some people like to call him) even got to spend some time with us at Arigatos, my FAVORITE restaurant, when he wasn't busy escaping us to watch his boy shows.

The only complaint I have is that the foil boy wasn't the best at wrapping my leftovers. Audrey got a rose (which is appropriate because it's her middle name) and I got...well, I don't really know what it is. It doesn't have arms, feet, or a face. Audrey thinks it's Pikachu. She may be on to something.

It was an awesome trip and I'm excited to go back in December! Audrey is still trying to convince me to move to Florida. If she wins the lottery she is going to buy me a house. That may just be enough to get me there!

Visitors

On Saturday night we got some company!! Eric's mom, aunt, and grandma stopped by for a short visit while they were road tripping to nearby church sites. The local food was an added bonus, so that night we headed over to Arthur Bryant's BBQ in Kansas City. Food Network said it has awesome BBQ so we HAD to check it out.

Arthur Bryant's is the real deal BBQ place. Forget fancy restaurants. You order super fast and watch them slap on a pound of meat between 2 pieces of bread. It's kind of intimidating. And let me tell you, there is no polite way to eat this food. (I couldn't get everyone in the picture...whoops)

This was Eric's plate. He felt pretty fat for the next 24 hours. I don't think it's healthy to eat that much meat but...what's done is done.
The food was so much better than Jack's Stacks!! But my face felt SOOO greasy after leaving that place. I guess it's a small price to pay for legit BBQ.

Sunday after church we headed out to see some sites. Grandma got sick so she had to stay home. Here we are at Liberty Jail....right?

WRONG!! GPS lied to us. Apparently the little N that stands for north makes a BIG difference. So there we were in Missouri City. It's a ghetto little place that reminds me of Rathdrum, Idaho (where my high school was).

We were not about to stay there so we got out our books and GPS and tried again.

10 miles later and a few cities over WE MADE IT!! It was the very first church site I have ever seen.

It is one thing to hear about Joseph Smith being locked up in jail for 4 1/2 months and then it is another thing to actually see it. I figured, "Yeah, I could do it if I had to." But I don't think so. These men got served worse food than you would find in a dumpster (when they were actually fed), had one blanket each during the coldest parts of winter in a basement, and sat in the dark day in and day out. Talk about miserable.

After the guards fell asleep at night, friends snuck them what little items they could. It's not so easy with 4 feet of brick to pass things through.

I get bored watching TV for too long, so imagine just sitting there numb to death with nothing to do but think! I would drive myself crazy!!

I have a greater respect for the early church members and what they went through. I am extremely blessed with my life and I'm thankful for these little reminders :)

We had a fun little visit and can't wait for more visitors (hint hint).

And then there was one...

Today was Eric's first day of school!!! Look how excited he is :)

He's just growing up SO fast!! Starting his doctorate program and everything. I remember when I first met Eric he was doing his undergrad and didn't even have a major. Look how far that boy has come in 2 years! I am an EXCELLENT influence.

Even though today was Eric's first day of classes, he doesn't have any labs this week. So with all that chemistry, anatomy, and cellular something or another, he only had 2 classes today. And the great news is he is still ahead on his work! I'm crossing my fingers that that will continue once he gets actual homework and tests. Eric likes school so far. From his orientation yesterday, he is very happy to finally be taking classes that he is interested in--the body.

So it's just me at home now, and I've actually stayed pretty busy being an awesome housewife. I sent out some job applications but have yet to hear back from anyone. We'll see how it goes in that department and see what it is I'm supposed to do out here in good old Kansas. That's it for the update!

Esta Semana

When Eric and I visited Kansas in April to go apartment hunting, everyone would tell us to go to a place called The Plaza (not that Eric has any recollection of this ever happening). After being in the house for a couple weeks we decided it was time for us to check out the place where all the locals go.

The Plaza is basically a giant outdoor mall, well, more like a few streets lined with expensive stores and TONS of restaurant. We poor people go there to walk around and get some exercise. One thing I didn't know about Kansas is it has AWESOME architecture and great picture opps like here. Oddly enough, most of the cool buildings here happened to be restaurants and not stores.

Eric in front of a fountain (in the courtyard of a restaurant).

A shot of the little stores lining the street.

Me in front of a cool looking building (also a restaurant).

I'm sure we'll get some cooler pictures when I'm more in the mood for this kind of thing (unlike that day). It's definitely a place I'll be taking our visitors to go shop and eat!

As a side note: I'm working on becoming a better housewife and actually cooking some new recipes rather than what I make up in my head. Thanks to my mother-in-law giving me the recipe, I made some homemade mac and cheese!! Eric loved it :) and it wasn't even because he eats anything and everything; he genuinely liked it! Go me!

Obsessed

I am obsessed with the new look of my blog! I find myself going to it constantly even though nothing new has happened in the blogging world. The old design really bugged me. It just didn't suit my personality. I think this one suits it pretty well! So all in all, the hours I spent changing it yesterday were worth it. And yes, it took hours. I don't know why everything has to take so much time. It's a wonder how I got anything done when I had a job!! lol.

I've enjoyed these last couple weeks of nothingness. I've been working nights from home for my Utah job and Eric has been watching Harry Potter constantly. Together, we've been trying to get through Lost. I started back in May or maybe June and now we are almost halfway through SEASON 6 (the last season)!! It is so time consuming because the episodes seem to lead no where and new characters are constantly being introduced. I like it, but I am super excited to be done with it. I need a faster paced show like....Grey's Anatomy? Can't wait for my fall shows to start!

Much Anticipated

I've gotten a few requests to post pics of the new place. Things have been very messy but we FINALLY have half the apartment clean (not decorated). I wish I had one of those cameras that you scan the room and it takes a super long picture, but I'll have to make do!

When you walk in the front door you are walking into a hallway and on the left is the living room entrance. You probably can't tell, but it's super awkward with how much space the fireplace takes up and trying to position the couch with the TV so...we just had to float the couch and make the giant walkway to the dining room a little smaller.

Our little coat closet behind the couch.

Other view of the living room. I love our new couch!! It is SUPER comfy! :)

Turn the corner and there's the dining room, laundry room, and kitchen.

Our laundry room/pantry. Yes the dryer is to the left of the washer. Weird? I think so. Apparently when the builders mirrored the model apartment they mirrored EVERYTHING.

Our brand new dining room table and chairs!! Love it!

View from in the kitchen.

Kitchen. It's surprisingly a pretty good size and there is tons of cupboard space, which is nice!

Our second bathroom aka Eric's bathroom. I'm sad that he gets our cute shower curtain but there isn't a tub in the master bath. I guess I'll live with it.

And that's all you get to see. All you're missing out on is a bathroom and two bedrooms. By the way, our bedroom is HUGE! But not too necessary cuz we keep all our crap in the second room.

This place is a nice size for us, but I don't want to do too much decorating because...we're going to move again hopefully SOON!! I hate moving just as much as anyone so that's why I want to do it asap. We're on a waiting list to get into little townhomes and join our new friends. People at church call it Mormon Village because it's filled with young mormon families, chiropractic students, and (random) old Russian peeps. It's like a little mini Utah minus the Russians!!

We absolutely love it here! The ward is so welcoming and we've already made a few friends (which isn't the easiest thing for me). So if I think it's a welcoming ward, then it is. It's a very different dynamic from Utah. People actually care that you're new and want to get to know you. I LOVE IT!!

A Love/Hate Relationship

As we've been in Kansas I have noticed a few things that drive me nuts:

5. The awkward layout of our living room.

4. The taste of the faucet water.

3. I get tired after 30 seconds of being outside because it's so hot.

2. There is so much freeway construction that our second and third back-up routes are also under construction. It takes so long to get to other cities.

1. Outside of our balcony are pretty trees, however, we can't relax out there because of the annoying chirping/buzzing sound of the critters. It's the most annoying sound I have ever heard. (I'll post a video of it later)

And this is a list of the things I love about OP:

5. There are green trees EVERYWHERE! It reminds me of Oregon :)

4. I finally have a pool again!! We haven't gone yet, but I have my pool toy all ready.

3. Our bedroom is huge and there is quite a bit of space in the rest of our apartment.

2. Every store we would ever need to go to is on Metcalf (about a block away from the complex). As long as I can get to that street, I can get anywhere aka I don't have to understand all these freeways quite yet because everything I need is in Overland Park.

1. We are one step closer towards Eric being done with school!

On a side note, I want to thank everyone who sacrificed their time to help us move. We are so grateful for you!! We seriously couldn't have done it without you. Thank you so much and we love each and every one of you!!

The Yellow Brick Road

Today was our first full day in Kansas since the move. But before we moved we had to do one last thing in Utah...

We visited the Hatch Family Chocolate Store! For those of you who don't know, it's the place that the Little Chocolatiers own (the show on TLC). We spent $8.09 on mediocre chocolate and not too much of it. We didn't get to see little people or get on tv because they weren't taping. A little disappointing? Yes. But I WILL keep going back until I see little people.

On Tuesday morning we started our drive to Kansas.

It was a very exciting drive. Here are some of the highlights:

There were miles and miles of these windmills. They were HUGE. We loved the change in scenery that they offered us.

There were lots of OZ signs. Hurray for Dorothy and Toto in Kansas.

Last but not least I saw signs for Ellsworth, Kansas. This was very exciting to me because I love that song by Rascal Flatts. One day we'll go. There's probably nothing there, but I don't care.

Today was a very productive day. Eric and I bought a dining room table, dresser, couch, and mattress. It was our first time buying those items so we took awhile and probably drove the sales people NUTS. I'm exhausted and glad that it's over now. We did, however, see the biggest furniture store in North America.

Driving up to this store gave a very similar feeling as driving up to Disneyland. It's like this huge magic kingdom full of furniture.

This is no mall; it's one store and it's way bigger than IKEA. Who would've thought that it'd be in Kansas?!

After shopping we were tired and STARVING. One of our sales peeps told us about a really popular BBQ joint in Overland Park, Jack Stack. It was our first time ever having real BBQ food.

Since Kansas is known for its BBQ, we had pretty high expectations. Our ribs didn't have very much meat on it and I don't think we're used to our meat being so well cooked. Maybe it's something that you have to grow up with to think it's the best. We liked it and all, but it wasn't the greatest thing we've ever tasted. Of course we'll keep on going to different restaurants. I'm sure we'll have a favorite in no time, whether it's the awesome Japanese Steakhouse we went to last night or not. Gotta love having nothing in the apartment and going out to eat!!

...had a very shiny nose...

It starts with a little inspiration:

Then you CUT:

And SAND:

And STAIN:

And PAINT:

And WAA LAAAAA!!!

Two new and improved reindeer!!
Mine's cuter. But shhhh...don't tell Eric.