snow, Christmas decor, and ramblings.

// It snowed! It snowed! There's just something about the first snowfall that makes me giddy and even more excited about the upcoming holidays. Plus, giant steaming cups of hot chocolate sprinkled with cinnamon? I'm sold.

// Ben has been in New York City for the past couple of days, so I've been left to my own devices - which usually results in a lot of chick flicks, Honey Bunches of Oats for dinner, and crafts that involve glitter. This past weekend I dragged some of our Christmas stuff up from the basement (gasp - before Thanksgiving!) and got to work. It's a work in progress, but a start's a start. If only I could haul that Christmas tree up two flights of stairs...

// Yesterday I decided it was high time I put on my big girl pants and get myself over to Home Depot to buy some window insulation kits. These are the kinds of things I usually leave for Ben to do, but with him gone for a few more days and the apartment being a drafty 67 degrees on a good day, I took matters into my own frozen hands. I'm happy to announce that I can now insulate a window all by myself and it doesn't even look half bad! Feeling kind of invincible--and warm--right now.

// I'm sure most, if not all, of you have heard about the Ferguson happenings over the past couple of months. (Ferguson is 9 miles from our place.) Basically, it's the Trayvon Martin case all over again. The grand jury is supposed to announce in the next week whether or not the officer who shot Michael Brown is guilty, and regardless of the decision, major rioting and violence is expected throughout the city. If you're the praying type, would you mind saying a few prayers for the police officers and National Guard members that will be responding to the events, and maybe St. Louis in general as well? Thank you, thank you! Also, if you have any great 72 hour kit tips feel send them my way as I put ours together in the next day or two.

// Since I can't end this post on such a somber note, I have to share this video on how to lose a million dollars (and a car!) in a matter of seconds. Bless him.

home.

Tonight I'm feeling especially grateful 

for this little place that Ben and I call home.

city living.

We're city dwellers, for those of you who don't know.  We live a stone's throw away from the St. Louis Arch and love it!  Our apartment is on the 28th floor of our building (Elevators are on my list of top 10 favorite inventions since, you know, it's a 5 minute walk up those stairs from the lobby to our floor. And we all know I'm too lazy to do that each time ;)), and there's a rubbish chute on each floor.  (I feel so English each time I ask Ben to take the trash to the rubbish chute, ha.)  As you walk out of our building and walk down the street, you'll pass an Asian restaurant, dry cleaners, convenience stores, touristy shops, a bakery, Starbucks, a little bookstore, a store with things for left handed people (still confused about this one...), 5 star restaurants and steak houses, multiple hotels, and apartment buildings.  Oh, and we live right across from a high-security Federal Reserve building where they shred "retired" money.

We deal with crazy taxi drivers and large groups of tourists.  We deal with crowds for Cardinals games (baseball) and Rams games (football).  We deal with traffic for marathons, festivals, and your average everyone-meet-at-the-bar-and-go-crazy traffic.

But it's great.  For now, we love our tiny apartment with a view of the Mississippi River.

(Pictures from our fro-yo break and walk around the Arch grounds between LDS General Conference sessions.)

a week late.

We were lucky enough to be able to drive out to Denver to have Thanksgiving with Ben's family this year, and found that the 13 hour drive wasn't as bad as we thought it would be!  We are so grateful for our healthy bodies, schooling/work, a place to live, our families, and more importantly, our religion.

We spent Thursday getting ready for Thanksgiving, getting together with extended family, playing games, and eating yummy food.  Friday, we headed out to brave the Black Friday crowds and shopped for over 5 hours, napped, ate Cafe Rio (I about died and went to food heaven), and saw Wreck-It Ralph.  Saturday included another trip to the mall, more naps, some yummy Chinese food, and games with the cousins.  We spent Sunday in the car driving home and thinking of what we'd spend our money on if we were millionaires.  :)  It was a fun trip and both of us were grateful to get away for a little bit.

Recently, things have been gettin' a little Christmasy over here in our apartment...

and we are loving it.  I can see some Christmas cookies and Christmas movies in our future...

Happy December 1st!

sliced.

Well, it only took 2 1/2 months for this baby to come...

and then we noticed the delivery guys sliced it when taking all of the wrapping off.  Thank goodness for companies who will replace damaged items!

We're just glad we don't have to sit on the floor anymore.  :)  And I'm so excited to find more pillows and a painting to hang over the couch.

(Also, the color in that last picture is the actual color of our couch.  Seafoam?  The top two pictures are really quite terrible.)

And guys, be impressed.  I made banana bread for the first time, and I don't even like banana bread.

- - - - -

P.S.  See what I did there with the title?  It relates to both pictures?  Ha ha.  Okay, not funny...

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

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.

living room dreams.

The best part about living in this little apartment for a year, is the fact that I get to decorate it!  Right now it feels like everything is partially decorated, but we're slowly getting there.  Our living room is pretty empty, seeing as our couch doesn't get delivered for 9 more weeks.  Ha.

Without further ado, things our living room needs would look better with:

this rug

these flowers

this clock

(no, the picture isn't squished.  it's really that shape.)

this globe

this painting

And one day, one day I tell you, I'll march myself over to each store and pick up these beauties on my official "2012 Living Room Want" list.  Assuming of course that it's what I still want in 2025, because that's when we'll have extra money laying around for gorgeous rugs and fake flowers.  ;)

the first few days.

Well, we finally made it!  Over 23 hours of driving, one U-haul rental, and two cars later, we finally made it to St. Louis!  That, in and of itself, is an accomplishment.

Our apartment is small and cozy, and we were lucky enough to get brand new carpet.  Sorry for the terrible quality pictures, I left my camera in Utah and only have my phone camera right now.

After walking on the kitchen floor for 10 minutes, we realized that the bottoms of our feet were black.  So we put on grubby clothes and scrubbed that kitchen floor for 2 hours.  Check out the grout...

The manager for the apartments we lived at in Provo was a cleaning Nazi when it came to grout.  I never really understood why until now.  I guess you could say it's times like these that make us grateful for uptight ladies like Kathy.

The next day we decided to go explore a little bit.

We also took a tour of B's new school, Washington University.  Just have to say... they ain't got nothing on the BYU Grounds crew, but they've got everything on BYU's buildings.  The buildings are seriously so pretty!  No wonder tuition is $20,000/semester!  ;)  Kidding.

I guess eventually we'll have to unpack everything and put the sightseeing on hold for a day.

But being in a big city is too exciting for that.


P.S.  And for the record, I drove in a crazy rainstorm all by myself over 5 miles on a road system that resembles a bowl of spaghetti.  10 points for Lex today.