pretty things tied up with strings.


Ben got done with school a little early today, so he came home and laughed with me over an awkward story.  We giggled like little school girls.  And now we're gonna go hit up that Charter Taste of St. Louis food festival in the park, and watch the BYU game with some friends!  Wishing you all a fabulous weekend!

little things.


Our living room gives us a view of the Mississippi,
and it's kind of fun to watch the boats and barges float on by.

Obviously I don't get out much.  ;)

(This picture made me think of my dad because it has a parking lot, bridges, roads, train tracks, metro tracks, and a river in it.  An engineer's dream...I think?)

Also, this past weekend we crossed over into Illinois when we missed our freeway exit and ended up in probably the poorest neighborhood I've ever seen as we drove 50 feet to turn around.  Someone with influence needs to pull a Jacob Riis move and raise some awareness.

So, so grateful for what Ben and I do have.
And especially grateful for our little view of the Mississippi.

our first apartment: part 2.

Hallway & Bathroom

(That closet on the right isn't a hall closet.
It's the only closet we have, so we keep our clothes in the hallway
and it works out pretty well.)




(ignore my hunchback-esque posture...)

Like our ghetto toilet? :)  The only really annoying thing about the bathroom is that the towel rack is only big enough for one towel, so the door has become our second towel rack.

Kitchen





a note & a quick update.

The past week has been a whirlwind of job interviews.  And now, the waiting.  Also, last weekend we hit up the Hot Air Balloon Race(/thing?) with some friends, which was pretty fun!  I hadn't been that close to so many of them before.

My wildest dreams came true last night, and I got my very first--and only--DSLR camera(!!!).  It was a happy moment, and now I just have to figure out how to use all these little features.

Today in church, we did something I've never heard of being done before.  For the last two hours of church, the Relief Society met together for a Visiting Teaching Conference.  We heard some talks on the importance of Visiting Teaching, watched a funny skit, and ate brunch while the men took over everyone's callings.  A pretty great change if you ask me!  ;)

And now something completely random, just because I can.
(aka - "Newlywed Mushy Stuff")


1.  The way you give your all when playing dancing games.
2.  Your crazy voices.
3.  How you walk in circles while talking on the phone.
4.  Your willingness to compromise.
5.  Your desire to do good and improve the world.
6.  The way you put up with my incessant talking.
7.  Listening to you sing.
8.  Your sweet guitar skills.
9.  How you like to eat healthy & workout.
10.  The way you can talk to anyone you meet.


(Photo by Maria Wood)

things & lists.

Things I'm avoiding like the plague, but think are cute:
1)  The bauble necklace.
2)  Mint skinny jeans.
3)  Pleated chiffon skirts.

Things I'm just plain avoiding:
1)  Scheduling a haircut.
2)  Dishes.
3)  Ironing Ben's button-up shirts.

Things I have a love/hate relationship with:
1)  The Ellen DeGeneres show.
2)  Drinking the recommended amount of water each day.
3)  Job interviews.

Things I despise:
1)  Spiders.
2)  Finding myself in a maze of one way streets (we're talking like 30 blocks, people) and not being able to get out.
3)  Not being able to understand what someone is saying.

Things I'm looking forward to:
1)  Mom and sister coming to visit.
2)  A certain job interview.
3)  Fall weather.  Fall clothes.  Fall foods.  Fall festivities.

Things that are unworthy of being in a post, but are anyway:
1)  I had a slice of homemade apple pie today.
2)  Fashion week is finally over.
3)  We probably eat too much broccoli, but it's just so good.

The end.

our first apartment: part 1.

This is for those of you who asked to see our apartment!  We'll start with half of the living room and eventually I'll get the rest of the apartment done.  (The other half of the living room just has a cabinet, floor lamp, and a pile of boxes until we get our couch next month.)













Some things are temporary until I can find better.  I'm definitely open to suggestions!  Also, I'm looking for cream or gold wood letters if anyone knows of a place that sells cheap ones... some Etsy shops charge $20/letter and that's ridiculous.

ramblings of our weekend.

Our Friday night plans to check out the Hispanic festival downtown were ruined by this crazy, huge rainstorm (Yay for tornados!).  Instead we met up with some friends, found a frozen yogurt place called Mr. Wizzard's in a sketchy neighborhood, and watched the Utah/Utah State football game.  Definitely a fun night!

(How I feel about this rain.)

Saturday, we made some treats for the ward picnic, watched the BYU/Weber State game with a group of friends, and ventured over to the Cardinals game.  Our next door neighbor happens to work for the Cardinals and gave us some extra tickets he had.  Score!


This morning Ben prepared a 20-23 minute talk an hour before church started, and was perfectly cool and collected during the whole thing!  There's absolutely no way I could do that.  (Our ward out here in St. Louis only has two speakers for each Sacrament meeting.  Meaning, if you're asked to speak, you have to fill 20-23 minutes.  It's great...sometimes hard to pay attention.)

Visiting Teaching out here is majorly different.  Back at home, I could walk a few houses down, knock on their front door, and be home 30 minutes later.  Here, you drive for 20 minutes, find a parking spot, have to be buzzed up to their apartment/loft, and then repeat for the next girl.  In all honesty, it's really, really great.  And I'm lucky to have such a caring visiting teaching partner and lovely ladies to visit.

We were invited over to a family in our ward's house for dinner tonight.  They have two sets of twin boys born two years apart.  Dinner was a party and a half!  And the cheesecake dessert was divine.

And right now, each time the Broncos make a touchdown, I get a high-five.  :)

i wish i was Greek.

With all of the storm "residue" from Hurricane Isaac, we had some pretty impressive rainstorms (and tornado warnings) this past weekend.  And then the rain continued throughout the week for no good reason.  Thanks to the break in rain on Labor Day, we were able to explore the city with some of our friends here and check out the local Greek festival!  Oh, was it ever sa-weet!  We stuffed our bellies with delicious gyros (new fav) and Greek fries, watched elderly men fill their bellies with some strong drinks, and thoroughly enjoyed hearing "opa" being shouted over and over and over while music and dancing commenced.  Who needs cable when you've got drunk people around?




After stuffing ourselves, we headed over to Wash U where Ben took us around and showed us what buildings he'll be "living" in for the next few years.



And now, two random pictures:

From our living room window, you can barely even see Illinois (across the river) with all of this rain!

We finally got serving bowls!