A bit o' spring cleaning.

Oh dang, my project this past week proved to be very time consuming. Also, I LOVED IT! I love to clean and organize. This week I sorted through:

-all the clothes hanging in my closet
-all the clothes in boxes or suitcases in my closet
-all the clothes in my drawers
-everything in the bathroom (make up, medicine, jewelry, you name it)
-our game/coat closet
-our bookshelf

Once I get started it's hard to shut me down. It's funny though, because James was all excited about "purging" his closet of the things he never wears and condensing the number of things we have to pack when we move. First of all, James is somewhat of a minimalist to begin with. Secondly, his purging lasted all of 10 minutes. I asked him if I could look through all the clothes he was getting rid of before he bagged them so that I could either 1) beg him to keep it and wear it if I loved it, 2) wear it myself (like his T-shirts that have sentimental value) or 3)"sew it into the T-shirt quilt I'm making" that is actually just in scraps in a basket and has been for months. I then asked James if he wanted to look through the clothes I was getting rid of (ya know, in case he places some sentimental value on one of my shirts). He said no.

Haha.... men and women.

I spent hours pulling things off hangers and out of drawers like "yeah, let's DO THIS! I don't need this. I haven't worn it in years. It's falling apart. I've had this since my senior year of high school." That attitude often quickly morphed into "well maybe when the weather changes I will want to wear it sometime. And maybe my feet will grow one size one day when I'm pregnant and then these boots will fit right." You can see why it took me so long. I will admit, I am a bit of a pack rat and extremely nostalgic and sentimental. I've written over two dozen journals....so there's this inherent "save this just because....." tendency within me...about EVERYTHING. But, as any of my roommates or husbands will attest, I am also a very organized person. My closet is and always has been color coordinated. Yay me. Woot.

Needless to say, I got rid of many things in those few hours, but I hung a few things back up.  I should have taken some "before" pictures but instead I just took a few of the "afters," and here's what you get:

"Super cool picture of black trash bags, Aleisha. So glad I'm reading this exciting blog."

This is kind of a big deal.

You can especially tell by this pic that I'm learning absolutely nothing in the lil photography class I'm in right now. (No fault of of the teachers, however.)

So it felt really nice to get my stuffs in order this past week. Ridding myself of expired medicines and free make up from my mission really made me feel like a new person. Haha. It was SUPER HIGH TIME.

This week my project is to FIND US A NEW HOME IN UTAH! Not sure why I'm yelling everything in this post. Must be from the excitement of organizing our whole apartment.

No, James and I are not buying when we move to Utah; we'll be renting for the next 4 years at least. But, we've narrowed down our preferences for town homes (mostly in the Draper area) and this week I'll set up appointments with the peeps who own them, fly to Utah, and my lovely mother-in-law will accompany me all day Friday as I try shoot for decisiveness rather than ambivalence in my quest for a nice kitchen (my "must") and a location on the east side of the freeway (James's "must"). Tally ho!

Spontaneous NYC Adventure

It's not ideal that James has to travel basically every week, but when his company pays for me to fly out to him instead of him flying home to me...and he's in NYC...that is a purty sweet dealio.

James is currently working in The Big Apple and on Thursday during my physics class I got a text from him saying "pack your bags baby, you're flying to New York tomorrow." Needless to say, I have no idea what else my professor said after that. Something about a Broadway musical I think....

My mom was a nanny in New York and I have often heard her talk about how much she loved the feel of the big, bustling city. When my parents met it was because my dad went out to New York to meet my mom (they were set up by my great aunt and uncle), so that's one reason I've always wanted to go.  I'd never been before, and after serving my mission in another BIG city (Buenos Aires, Argentina) I wanted to see a comparable city in the US.

All that being said, I was so excited looking out the plane window as we landed that I almost cried. I jabbered and jabbered with my cab driver about all I wanted to see and do and eat and asked for his suggestions. And I snapped lots of not-so-bueno pictures out the windows:

I met James at his office and we walked to our hotel. It smelled just like Buenos Aires; sweet roasted nuts, perfume, and cigarette smoke permeated the air. It looked like Buenos Aires; skyscrapers on all sides, honking cabs and buses making up the majority of  lane-disrespecting traffic, crowded sidewalks, restaurants and stores everywhere calling you in with their music, lights, and fashionable manicans.  I got totally mission-sick in the most wonderful way. It helped me realize that my mission was real and not just a dream. I used to live in a city like this. I felt like I was supposed to stop and contact everyone and quit gawking at everything.

We ate at Shake Shack, the burger joint suggested by my cab driver and most everyone on yelp and HELLO it was so delicious! My dessert was a concrete chocolate custard with marshmallow cream, peanut butter, and chocolate-covered pretzels.

Then we walked through Times Square, which I'll admit is NOT just like Buenos Aires....it's a totally amazing sensory overload bomb!! No picture does Time Square justice, but of course I took a million anyway.

 

 

 

 

 

On Saturday we got lunch at a delicious halal food stand that had a bigger line than anywhere else. $6 for a HUGE dish of bright orange rice, chicken, lamb, salad, pita bread, and yummy white sauce and hot sauce.We walked all around Central Park and then like another 30 blocks to our Broadway Musical experience with NEWSIES.

 

 

Bet you've never seen a picture like this before.

I love to kiss my husband, especially after several failed attempts at a good picture of my face head-on.

After much eye rollage when James turns on Newsies at home, I am now hooked.

I know it looks like NY pizza, and technically it was made there, but this is definitely not the pizza people rave about. Guess we'll have to go back and find the rul dul.

Now's probably an appropriate time to tell you that I lost my phone in New York City, since I realized I didn't have it right after I ate this pizza. I definitely stressed out about it and James of course was calm and patient as always. The next day after church we called Nederlander Theater where we watched NEWSIES and it was there so we just picked it up. And that was a happy moment.

On Sunday we went to church in the chapel that shares the Manhattan Temple and that was awesome. :) We took a subway to Brooklyn and then crossed the Brooklyn Bridge. And then we ordered room service to finish off the night.

About 1/3 of the ward was visiting at church.

 

You can see the new World Trade Center in this pic.

Manhattan Bridge...I believe

Statue of Liberty....I'm sure.

 

 

This Argentine flag made me happy.

As did Uncle Jack's, which is a steak house owned by the most annoying guy with the greatest NY accent on the Food Network Channel.

Totes yum.

This morning James and I didn't want the fun to end, but we flagged down a taxi and I left just as quickly as I came. And lucky James gets to stay for the week.

I'm Mildly Pinteresting

I think a spontaneous trip to NYC is a pretty good excuse for not finishing the two projects I planned to do this week. Also, I ran out of money in my "project budget" for the month. Basically it was just a little overly-ambitious of me to think I'd finish two crafty projects in one week when I don't really consider myself a very crafty person.

I did make my spring wreath, and here is what I came up with for $20 (wreath, flowers, flower wire, ribbon, wooden letter, paint, and door hanger):

$3 flower bundles at Walmart versus $16 flower bundles at Hobby Lobby. Wowza.

This week's project, which will not require any money is to start in on the moving preparations since it's a month and a half away. I plan to sort through all my clothes, bathroom hoopla, books, etc. and bag the stuff I really don't use. Hopefully that makes packing just a cinch easier, and it absolutely needs to be done.

Living the Wild Life

Prepare yourselves. I'm about to post some wild pictures of:

• a potholder
• a puzzle
• a binder
• a baptism 

Haha. As you can tell by what I take pictures of, I am a pretty cool cat. Let me tell you why:

This weekend (after some deep-fried foods, Keith Urban, and watching bull riding at the Houston Rodeo....there, covered that in a parentheses) at our ward chili cook-off I won 2nd place for the apple crisp I made and I won this awesome prize to always remember our awesome Texas ward. The activity also included cornbread and chili cooking contests, line dancing, jalapeno and pie eating contests, and everyone dressed in their Texas getup. Seriously the greatest ward with the greatest missionaries.....who were the ones to judge my dessert 2nd best.

 I finally finished this beautifully difficult puzzle! And by finally I mean...after less than two weeks of working on it almost entirely alone. I definitely devoted too many hours a day to working on this because I definitely think I have an addiction to a puzzle once I start it. Or just a phobia of getting to the end and missing a piece. Now to roll it up on my "puzzle mat" or glue it with my "puzzle glue." I really like puzzles....

 So I committed myself to my first "project-per-week-until-we-move-so-I-feel-fulfilled-with-how-I-spend-my-free-time" project this past week, and that was to put together an "important documents binder" of all mine and James' most powerful paperwork. See how fat it is? If I took a picture of the inside then you'd know our SS#s and bank accounts, so no, you can just behold its lovely green shell and delight in the fatness of its alphabetized and tabular innards.

In case you're curious or decide to make one yourself to clear out the drawers, shoe boxes, and bins of must-save paperwork I used the following tabs:

1. Bank
2. Car
3. Housing
4. Identification
5. Medical
6. Receipts
7. School
8. Taxes
9. Work
10. Misc.

This coming week my projects will involve developing a few talents that I don't currently have, namely, being "pinterest crafty" in making a spring wreath and learning to sew...something easy of course...like a RICE BAG for starters. I admire those who create lovely things that beautify their homes, but it seems I'm very cheap when it comes to some things and I'm also very overwhelmed walking into a place like Hobby Lobby because I want to try everything and don't know where to start and then I don't want to spend the money so I leave empty-handed. But not this week! Also, James bought me a sewing machine for Christmas and I was so thrilled about it but I haven't even used it yet. Again, because when I walk into a place like JoAnns I feel overwhelmed. And again I say, not this week!

As a more meaty appendage to this flimsy post about recent "stuffs", James and I really did have a memorable experience this past Saturday.

We were able to participate in the baptismal service of our ward's newest convert, Haribel! It was so exciting to us personally because Haribel has been taught by several sets of sister missionaries over the past 10 months since we've lived here and we've been involved throughout the process. I was honored to give a talk at the baptism and Haribel asked James to perform the baptismal ordinance. Both made us feel like missionaries again. :) The next day James got to stand in the circle as Haribel was confirmed. We caught Haribel paying his tithing only moments after he was baptized and the ward just seemed to envelope him in love yesterday at church. And James gave him a tie, which I thought was sweet. :)  We want to be better member missionaries and even though we helped some with Haribel, there's so much more we could have done and can do. We love our missionaries and are so grateful for how the gospel blesses both our lives and others'!

I totally meant to get that person's hand and camera in my picture.

Demasiado tiempo libre me vuelve loca!

So here's the yippy skippy on our life these days:

James is still traveling every week. And now he's studying for the GMAT a few hours each day (when he can) and then he has a three hour class every Saturday morning. He enjoys being busy. He's very efficient with his time and he's the best.

On weekends we still play super hard as we try out new restaurants, watch movies, work out together, sleep in late, and enjoy the awesome people in our ward.

We are moving to Utah in exactly two months!! So happy but also a little sad!! (My vignette about our time in Houston coming soon).  We're moving because James took a job at a start-up private equity firm in Draper called Tower Arch Capital. We did not expect to be coming back to Utah so soon, but we're really excited to be near family and the mountains, and the job opportunity is a really cool and unique one for James. We plan to be there for two years and then we'll head who knows where for James to go to business school. :)

Last week I quit my part-time desk job at a music studio  because of...stuff, so that freed up some time all of a sudden. Why didn't I just stick it out two more months? Because I didn't want to and I felt like it was best for me to leave when I did.

So unlike Mr. McKean, I currently have too much free time. That is definitely a subjective statement, as my Mom and James kind of laugh and roll their eyes (probably, although I can't see Mom through the phone) about me craving to be busier and busier. You would think what with a barfing four-credit physics class, a medical terminology class, teaching a few piano lessons a week, cub scouts, tutoring, the Insanity workout videos every day, book club books, my giant puzzle, and like a zillion other little things that I wouldn't have much free time, but I still feel like I do. And I don't know that I'm using that free time real productively.

I did submit my application to a Diagnostic Medical Sonography (fancy name for ultrasound) Program through Salt Lake Community College though which is exciting. I won't hear back about it until May or June, but if I get in that will be SWEET and I will embark on a two year journey this fall. I am taking the physics class and other class as pre-reqs for the program FYI.... just in case you thought I signed up for physics classes for fun. NAY.

So.....I started looking for work or volunteer opportunities here but most everything I've found is a misfit usually because they want a longer time commitment than two months (understandable) or because I'm not qualified or because I just choose not to work fast food. James is so kind to point out that I don't need to work more than my few piano lessons because with him working full-time and us moving soon it's not necessary, but since I'm not in school full time and I'm not raising children at home, I kind of feel weird being at home so much....and so tempted by Netflix. I feel like I want to be doing more, so I'm going to assign myself a project each week until we move and I will use my blog and you few faithful readers to hold me to doing those projects.

This week my project is to finish our "important documents binder." I have been wanting to do this for awhile now. I have the supplies but I just need to sit down and put things together. As organized as James and I are, we kind of just stuff all our important papers into bins or folders. I want all of them neatly tucked behind tabs labeled "medical," "identification," "apartment," "receipts," etc. We'll know exactly where to find things and if our house ever catches on fire we'll know what to grab...THE IMPORTANT DOCUMENT BINDER!! So anyway, by next Monday I commit to being done with this project. I sound like a missionary. Oh well.