Much Neglected...

I know - it's been ages since I posted anything worthwhile here, and I guess I don't have an excuse, but what can you do? Here are a few highlights from the last month or so..

The Kansas City Zoo had free admission for all KC residents in October and November, so we took a trip a few weeks ago and had SUCH a great time! The weather was just PERFECT, and Ethan did really well, despite not having a nap that day.. We walked around and looked at all the animals, and he actually "got it" this time, so that was nice..

We ended the day on the playground for a half-hour or so, then headed home..

The first week or 10 days of November, we were all sick.. First it was Ethan, then Alec, then finally me.. I thought I had gotten lucky and missed out on the sickies, but apparently I was just a late bloomer.. At least I wasn't feeling too badly so I could take care of my boys.. {This is Alec feeding Ethan a crushed-up otter pop in an attempt to help get his fever down - real medical, we know, but you can only give a kid so much tylenol/motrin at a time, you know... }


The weather for the first part of November was SO gorgeous, so we kept the stroller in the house so Ethan and I could go for walks or to the park - which is only a mile away - while Alec was at school/work.. Ethan decided it made the perfect lounge chair...

At the park...

Perfecting the temper tantrum.. He really goes all out, these days.. Throwing himself prostate on the floor, kicking his legs, screaming.. Quite a show-stopper, that one..


Alec had a rare night off on Monday, so we went bowling with Brandon and Melody.. It was really fun, and as you can tell, we've got some mad skills...

{Amber, Alec, Melody, Brandon}

I'm still working with the Young Women, and we had our YW in Excellence night this week.. I made one of these clipboards for each of the girls.. I thought they turned out pretty cute..


We finally got Ethan in for another hair cut.. I think I'll probably do them myself in the future, but I wanted to try something different and wasn't sure how to do it.. Now I know, so the trick is just getting him to hold still for me to do it.. These pictures aren't the best, but isn't his little faux-hawk just the cutest? I'm still figuring out the right amount of product to put in, but I think he just looks so grown-up.. :D


Thanksgiving dinner at the church.. Of course Ethan had the spend the whole night with his BFF, but since Alec wasn't there, I was glad to have a little help..


And that's our life in a nutshell.. Alec's been super busy working on the musical version of A Christmas Story that the KC Rep is doing - hopefully Broadway-bound - so we haven't seen much of him lately, then he has a gig with the symphony starting up pretty soon, as well as a show at the school.. Oh yeah, and he has classes and homework to do, too.. Oh - and applying for jobs.. Needless to say, he's a busy guy, and Ethan misses him a lot, but we're getting by, and hopefully he'll be getting some big fat paychecks within the next 9 months or so to show for it.. Yeah - not likely.... ;)

I don't watch the news in this town..

So today we turned on the TV for a minute, and it was on a local station that was airing the news at the moment.. And what are the first 2 stories I hear? A 9-month pregnant woman was shot and killed and her boyfriend critically wounded 2 blocks from my front door and there was a robbery-turned-shooting at a dollar store about 10 blocks from my front door.. And these aren't isolated instances.. Seriously - why can't it all be about how the special-needs girl was voted homecoming queen, or that Jo Bob won first place at the county fair? {And when do we get to move again?}

I'm Married to an OLD MAN...

So it was Alec's birthday yesterday - the big 28 {whatever} and now he's convinced that he's an old man.. I told him we could talk more when he hits the three-oh.. It was a pretty laid back birthday.. We went to the Plaza Art Fair downtown.. Basically they close a whole bunch of the streets in the plaza district and have tons of artists set up booths to display their work and maybe make a few sales.. It was fun - we didn't stay for long since E wasn't cooperating and it was past his nap time, but it was nice to get out.. Then Alec was stuck home babysitting while I went to the General RS meeting.. Yay for him..

Things around here have been pretty mellow lately.. Alec's having a good time in school - doing lots of reading - but his class schedule is still pretty light, so we do get to see him a lot more than previous years - which we LOVE.. A few weeks ago, we spent a Sunday afternoon walking around the sculpture park at the art museum which was really fun to get out and do as a family.. Really, Ethan was just interested in running up and down the same hill over and over, but it was still pretty cute.. :)

The bug and I have been spending quite a bit of time outside of the house, which has been nice.. We go to story time at the library every week, and although he's still not sure what to do about all those other kids, we have fun... We also go to the park at least once a week, and he has learned to do slides all by himself.. Now that's all he wants to do.. {I did have a video, but for some reason, blogger hates me and wouldn't load it, so you just get pictures instead...}

In other big news, Alec and I were able to go on a date last weekend, which was SO great! We went to Into the Woods at the Kansas City Reperotry Theatre here in town, and it was just phenomenal! By far, the best show I've seen in a really LONG time! Moises Kauffman actually directed it, and there was a whole slew of New York actors that only one or two of you might have even heard of, so I won't bore you with the names, but needless to say.. I was in heaven! I've always known that I really miss doing theatre, but this one really brought it home for me.. Oh well.. maybe in a few years.. maybe.. Until then, I'll use my scrapping as a creative outlet...

Yes, I'm still doing that, and I even used some of my earnings to buy a new toy.. A Wacom Bamboo tablet. Basically, I use the stylus to draw on the pad - which is hooked into the computer via USB - and it draws on my screen in Photoshop. It's been super fun, and I've even created a whole new kit with it... {Inspired, of course, by my little helper bug.}

So, the "Way to go!" sticker, bathtub, dust pan, the black and white frame, the mop, bucket of suds, toilet, and several other things not shown... I drew! Yay! :D And of course I had to do a page with it.. ;)

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And a few other pages I've been working on this past week. {One of the perks of selling at the stores I do is that I can get their entire inventory for free... so I do..}

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Oh yeah - and I'm making a quilt, too, but I'll post that once it's finished.. It's more exciting that way.. :D So I guess that's it for now.. See you next time.. . :D

City Market

Well, we went today, and it was really fun! There were so many people, and so many vendors, it was a bit overwhelming at first, but we had a good time... and it wasn't too hot or too muggy, either. Here are some pictures of the day:

The neighborhood around the market...
You'd never guess this was right in the middle of downtown - right by the river...

Spices, anyone?

There were lots and LOTS of peppers...

There's also a more "commercial" vendor where restaurants, or stores, or whomever can get produce. Their selection, quality and pricing puts any grocery store to shame... $1 for a cantaloupe?!?

Our haul. Not much, but we'll be back!

The delicious dinner we had with our FRESH veggies!

Is it Art?

First off, I feel I have severely neglected this blog because I've been spending so much time on my scrapbooking stuff. But I'm learning a lot; I even set up my own non-blog-based website to sell from (with a whopping 3 sales totaling $11.25 - go me!) And Photoshop has become my new best friend. However, there are other things going on in our lives that you may - or may not - be interested in... which is why I'm posting twice today.

On Saturday we were all hyped up to go to the City Market - a farmer's market right in the middle of downtown that's open year-round. However, despite the fact that they're open every weekend rain or shine, when we woke up to rain, we didn't think it would be a whole lot of fun to trek around in it with Ethan... This made me very sad... :( I have been working pretty regularly - at least 3 days a week - but I'm still getting a little stir-crazy and was really looking forward to a day out of the house...with my family.... So, what's the next best thing? The art museum, of course!

Alec and I have been talking about going ever since we moved here (it will be a year ago this week) and have still never made it... So we went. It was pretty cool... Of course it's huge and we only spent about 2 hours, so there will definitely be another trip. Here are some pictures from the day:

I've always been one of those people who joke around about what makes something art... but I've got to tell you, when I walked into the Minimalist Display and saw this... it truly took the cake! In it's sad defense, though... close up, there is actually an evenly spaced grid of squares in every "shade" of black imaginable... you just have to look really close and squint a bit to see it...

What Alec and I both loved about this piece was the incredible detail the artist used to make it so life-like...

Check out how that glass and aluminum shines!

A boat Alec liked...

My favorite thing about seeing art in person is looking at the brush strokes. I remember the first time this happened. I was 16, and my family was at the Art Institute of Chicago. It was the first exhibit we went to - 3 or 4 Monets just chillin' there right in front of me... I just sat and stared - not more than 5 or 6 inches away from the canvas - for at least 5 minutes. I was pretty amazed that something so beautiful and painted so long ago still held remnants of its creator.. What a feeling! (On a side note - I learned yesterday that one of the "goals" of minimalist art is to take away all traces of the human artist. No brush strokes, there. No emotion. Although I think the lack of emotion is an enitrely new emotion in and of itself.. so there, crazies!)

Alec wanted a picture of us by the horse.... I don't ask, I just do... usually...
(The headphones were for the audio tour - some of the pieces had little recordings about the artist or the time period. One of Alec's professors did all the recordings for that.)

4th of July

Our 4th of July was pretty fun - although it got off to a bit of a rocky start (who really wants to be awake at 6:00 in the morning on a holiday?) But it was well worth it, because we went berry picking! There's a place about 45 minutes from KC that has TONS of berries - blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, etc. So we thought we'd check it out.

Ethan had a great time - as usual...

Alec was the master picker, since I was on baby duty.

The blackberries were pretty much picked out, which is sad, because although I think they taste like dirt, I think blueberries taste like mold, and I'd rather the lesser of the two evils. Besides, Alec prefers blackberries anyway.

Alec and his favorite bush: Little Blue

I need to repent for what I said before about blueberries tasting like mold. Fresh blueberries are delicious! I think I ate more than I put in the bucket. When we got home, Alec made blueberry waffles for dinner, and for breakfast this morning, I made blueberry muffins. Yummy!

We only picked about 2 lbs of berries - but only because Ethan was getting heavy, and the sun was getting hot. I'm going back with the Young Women on Tuesday, and plan on bringing more home. I can't wait! :)

The First Freeze

So, we've experienced our first Midwest Ice Storm. It actually hasn't been all that bad. It comes because of what they call freezing rain - it's warm enough up in the atmosphere somewhere to be rain and not snow, but when it hits the ground, it's cold enough to freeze it. However, the freezing part hasn't really been happening - at least on the roads. I guess the friction of people driving is enough to keep things wet and sloshy... so what ends up happening, is people walk on the road rather than the sidewalk, because the sidewalks are a bit hazardous. (And it's been a little weird to have to break the ice off your door handle before you can get into the car).

Campus was closed yesterday, and there was a chance it would be today, but sadly, no. Alec will, in fact, be expected to show up at his History of Design Technology final this afternoon.

One thing that has been kind of crazy is all the power outages that have been happening. We haven't been affected by it, but on Monday, the governor declared a state of emergency and sent the National Guard out with water and generators for the 90,000-some-odd people who lost power further south and west of us. Also, there is not salt to be had to melt the ice... Not only can your average residential consumer not walk into their neighborhood ice-melt-supply store, but the actual city of Kansas City itself is out of ice... Who knows when that will be taken care of... Not to be critical, but Alec and I both think that one bad night of ice should not deplete your entire supply of ice-melt... But what do we know, we're only used to those mild, non-icy Logan winters...

A City of Culture & Friends

So... After posting last night, I remembered a few things I had meant to include but forgot about...

Living in Kansas City has really been good to Alec and me. There is so much culture and so many things to do here. Over the last 3 weeks, we've been able to see a show a week - and luckily for us, we have connections so we haven't had to pay.

First we saw The Lieutenant of Inishmore which the university did as a co-production with one of the theatres in town - the Unicorn. (No, they don't do children's theatre). It was refreshing to see new faces and new content than what we were used to in Logan.

The following week, we attended Who's Afraid of Virginia Woofle?, which was being produced by the professional theatre company one of Alec's professors founded. There was some pretty amazing talent that night! It was definitely worth staying up late for!

And this last week, we went to the Kansas City Rep's production of Doubt. Ever since it came out in 2004, we've been wanting to see it. When we took our spring break trip to New York that year, a bunch of our classmates went and we felt really left out. Well, this one was worth the wait. I didn't love the actor playing the priest - not because of what he was accused of - but just because... Although the actress playing Sister Aloysius made up for it many times over. She was amazing!

We are so lucky to be here. It was definitely the right decision for Alec to continue his schooling here. The program is wonderful and the opportunities are endless.

***

Today, we also had the chance to see some old friends of ours. Melissa (Thorseson) Godfrey, who graduated with me, and her husband Matt were in town to see the Garth Brooks concert (jealous, jealous, jealous) and we met up for lunch. We haven't seen or talked to each other since 2005, so it was fun to see them. They're living in Omaha, a mere 2.5 hours away, and they're also expecting a baby at the first of the year, so we'll have to make it a point to see them more often.

As I was getting today's picture off the camera, I came across these. This is from when my sister, Erin, and her husband, Matt, came down from Des Moines over Conference weekend. Yes, that is both of our couches crammed into our office - soon to be nursery - because we had to watch it streaming online because we didn't have the right channel in our cable package that we thought we did.... Those were good times!

Everything's Up-to-Date in Kansas City

Well... Here we are!!!

After an extremely exciting (boring and long) drive from Utah, we made it. To make a long story short, we got into our apartment (finally) by signing the lease and then taking a first look at it. It's beautiful! :) It's in a building that used to be a hotel in the early 1900's. It's been a bit worn down, and unloved, and there were a TON of cobwebs, critters, and dusties everywhere, but we've made a little (1600 sq/ft) home of it. (The pictures are some of the beautiful architectural detailing of the apartment as well as our sunroom that I'm still at a loss as to what to do with).

We've spent most of our time here unpacking - Alec has been going to school and really enjoying it, so really I've done most of the unpacking, but we made a deal when we were still in Logan that since he did most of the packing while I worked, I would unpack while he got educated. (It's better this way anyway, because now things are where I want them.)

The cats are adjusting pretty well. They didn't like the drive or the hotel rooms one bit, and it took a day or so for them to decide this was an okay place to live. Max still gets a little lost because it's so big, but we never said he was a rocket scientist kitty. Sasha's favorite activity is terrorizing the pigeons that live outside our bedroom window, but as long as she stays inside, I'm okay with that.

We went to a KC Cheifs football game last week. One of Alec's professors has season tickets that he gives to the students when he can't make a game. They lost miserably, but it was still fun to hang out with some of the other students in the program.