The Lost Has Been Found!

I found the missing box! It was with kitchen stuff. A bathroom box in the basement hiding under my knife set and napkin holder. Isn't that how it always works? Anyway, these are the eyeshadows that were in said box and missing me dreadfully over the past month and a half. (This does not include the 3 or 4 sets in my makeup bag.) Yes, it's a lot. Yes, it's every color of the rainbow. But in my defense, I had a plethora of $3 coupons, so I waited for the makeup to go 50% off at either K-Mart or Osco and bought most of them for less than $1. So I was able to use my long-lost colors this morning and enjoyed it immensely. I also got a straw from Kwik-Star that did not have slits in both ends (they seem to have the worst quality straws that are split at both ends, pinching your tongue if you're not careful while drinking). Hopefully these are signs that this will be a good day. I'm counting on it.

Finding Things

My stuff is still in boxes. The clothes are mostly put away and organized and a majority of the shoes are findable, but other than that, a lot of what I own still sits in boxes in the living room. I'm still not sure where to put it all, and we've been busy enough that I haven't had time to really deal with it. But it frustrates me when I think of one thing I want and cannot locate. Like, for instance, eyeshadow. I cannot find the majority of my large collection of eyeshadow. Specifically my Birthday Cake and Glamourazzi ones. Every day I look somewhere. Most days I look in the same two boxes, hoping that miraculously something in those boxes will have changed in molecular structure and will now be the coveted eyeshadow of which I dream. Alas, it has yet to have happened. But I did find my box with most of my jewelry. Anklet season is upon us, my friends, and I could not be left behind.

So while the mystery of the missing ankle bracelet has been happily solved, the missing eyeshadows still suffer in limbo-land, waiting despondently to be used by their loving owner.

The City in the Middle

Okay, I typed this entire post with links and pictures, and it's gone. It was all nice and fun and happy, and now I'm ticked because I lost it all. I will, however, attempt to recreate it.

For seven years, I lived in Springfield, MO. My parents and brother (and for a while, both of my sisters) lived in Des Moines, IA. We found ourselves meeting occasionally in Kansas City to shop, to get fitted for our bridesmaid's dresses for Stephanie's wedding, to go to Worlds of Fun, and just to be able to see each other. Kansas City is awesome, from the Plaza...

...to the Hallmark Visitor's Center to Crown Center to Union Station...

to Kansas Speedway to Evening Extraordinaire, the place where I first discovered what would become my wedding dress...

All in all, Kansas City is one of my favorite places. And we are leaving to go there today! Tomorrow, my parents, Tyler, and Steph are coming to hang out, check out the Hallmark employee store with my Hallmark-employed sister, and whatever else we can fit in (we can spend hours in a Hallmark). And on Saturday, I get to see my awesome friend, Jodi!

I am very excited for this weekend! This city girl is going to try very hard to get her fill of the big city. Have a great holiday weekend! (This time, I'm copying the html code before I try to publish this; hopefully I won't lose it again!!!)

A City Girl in the Country

I wonder if I will ever get used to living on a gravel road...miles from a store...or from civilization...out in the middle of nowhere. I am a city girl, people. I was mortified when I moved to Waverly, a.k.a. Town Without a Shopping Mall or Super Target. What is that about? And now I find myself living in an old church where I have to beg my phone to get a signal so I can call someone. I don't know if this way of life will just become normal. Or will it always seem different, like it just doesn't quite fit? I love to dress up, and I have a decent collection of dressy clothes, but it seems there are few opportunities to wear them anymore. Maybe Matt can take me to Bourbon Street tomorrow and I'll go all out. Maybe dressing up every night to go to dinner on the honeymoon gave me a taste of that life. Can I still be a city girl even if I don't live there? I feel like I'm being asked to be something I'm not, that I have no choice but to morph into an overalls-loving, ponytail-wearing, tractor-driving, makeup-less woman, and sooner rather than later, please. Well, I prefer to stay a city girl, to dress up when it's not required, to love rhinestones on my toes and a collection of lip gloss that rivals even Estee Lauder herself. I think I just will prove everyone wrong by loving my life even if it's not what I had pictured for myself. God's plan is different and ALWAYS best. These are some of my thoughts these days as the changes of my life continue to move along at a lightning-fast pace and I struggle to keep up with them.

Here's one more of my dress-up pictures from the honeymoon - from our romantic dinner on the beach night (where the wind was blowing 60 mph).

So anyway, about the honeymoon...

We haven't had a chance to sit down with anyone other than our parents to tell about the honeymoon! I'll try to write a condensed version. We spent a week at the El Dorado Seaside Suites about an hour south of Cancun, Mexico. Here is a picture of our room - it was amazing. That's the king size four-poster bed, and they made a towel swan on the bed when we arrived (and a rabbit later in the week). You can see a couple towels on the bottom right of the shot - that's the edge of the jacuzzi tub. We had a TV with a DVD player which came in handy at night and on the day we were severely sunburned.

For the first couple of days, we slept in, put on our swimsuits, ate breakfast, then went to the beach to lay around. We swam twice, but it was hard to actually "swim" as the water was about a foot deep in most places. We took out a paddleboat one day and got a few far away shots of the resort. We also snorkeled at the resort, but with the shallow water, there weren't too many fish to be seen.

We took one day trip to Xel-Ha (they pronounced it "Shell-ha"), an ecological water park. The snorkeling there was awesome - very beautiful fish. It was so fun to just hold hands and swim around, squeezing each other's hands and pointing when we saw something cool. (Awww!! Sorry so sappy - I can't help it.) Then we went to Tulum and saw the Mayan ruins there. Matt loved it (I let him pick our day trip since none of them really appealed to me, but this one was only 20 minutes from our resort and the one he really wanted was a couple of hours, so I was definitely more interested in this one). The picture above is a wide shot from Tulum. It was neat; I wish I had room to post more of Matt's great pictures. One day he will make a webpage with all our pictures, so those of you who like pics can check it out. One story - when we got the Xel-Ha, they "ask" you to turn in your regular sunscreen and give you 2 small packets of "biodegradable" sunscreen to use (supposedly safer for the animals). Maybe it is, but it was worth nothing in the way of protection from the sun! We even paid $17 for an extra 6 ounce bottle so we could be well-covered and reapplied once. Still burnt to a crisp. What a joke - I was so frustrated that we tried very hard to keep covered and not get burned, and their crock of a sunscreen product sabotaged us. I would put up the picture of my back, but it's not completely decent. Anyway, my back still has the lines on it; I may be permanently scarred.

We have lots more great memories; just not room to share it all! I printed a bunch of pictures as well, so you'll have to come to our house, look at the pictures, and hear all the stories then.

Random Points

I'm doing a little advertising. My husband finally posted after, I don't know, a month and a half. It's not wedding or honeymoon pictures or anything (yet), but if you want to read his six weird things, well, you just should. That's all.

We got Dish Network at our house this weekend. I stalled as long as I could; since I've gotten out of the habit of watching TV, I have enjoyed it and really contemplated whether or not it was necessary. But my love of NASCAR got the best of me, and since my husband was gone for the Saturday night race last night, it would have been too depressing to watch it at the OP by myself. So I gave in. Hopefully I will not succumb to the "sit in front of the TV flipping channels and doing nothing" temptation. There's plenty to do, so I don't think it will be a problem. But we have DVR now, too, and let me tell you, that's pretty amazing stuff. I was hoping for a spectacular crash last night so I could rewind and watch it over and over as many times as I wanted. But it was a short track, so crazy crashes don't happen as much. Lots of them, but not big, spectacular ones.

I don't like being home alone. If you lived here, you might not, either. It's huge!! And the heat is officially off (we have a wood-burning furnace), so it's fuh-reezing right now. (Hopefully if it's freezing when it's 70 outside, it will be just right when it's 90 outside. I hope.) Anyway, it's just so big, and I realized when I was contemplating cooking last night that having the kitchen in the basement is pretty depressing. It's just so dark and I have no motivation to go down there and make something when it's just me. Maybe I'll get used to it. Who knows.

I no longer like sleeping by myself. It's only been one month, but it's weird to sleep alone. And it's lonely. I waited 28 years to have someone to sleep with (and I don't mean like that, you freaks), so I figure that's enough time to sleep alone without adding more days to it while we're married. I'm sure I'll get over it one of these days, but I may be one of those people who never really likes it when her husband is gone. You're all going to tell me that it's still the "honeymoon" phase, but I know myself, and it's possible that I just won't ever really like it. Unless I'm ticked. Even then, I still have a strange desire to be near him. I would think that logically if I was mad, I would want him to go away, but I don't feel like that. Weird. I'm not adding that to my weird list. It's already grown from 6 to at least 10 things in my head, and I'm less and less convinced of my own normality.

Wow. I rambled a lot. It's to make up for all the times I've been a blogging slacker. Maybe it will inspire YOU to write something, too!

Where I Am From

It's been a while since I started a draft of this post, but there's been all kinds of fun stuff these days over at Heth's blog. This one seemed very fun, so I'm going to try it. I hope you will, too!

I am from kerosene heaters, from Fords and homemade pizzas.
I am from three girls, one mother, and one father with one bathroom.
I am from blooming lilac bushes in the backyard every May, from the large climbing tree in the backyard.
I am from baking and decorating Christmas cookies and laughing loudly at everything, from Charles and Nora and Irene.
I am from the land of Sunday afternoon naps and "The Cosby Show" every Thursday evening, from coordinating dresses made by Mom every Christmas and Easter.
From "if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all" and "don't roll your eyes at me!".
I am from a line of lovers of Jesus. From some who committed their lives to Him at an early age and ones who have lived for Him for decades. From proof of His faithfulness through generations.
I'm from Des Moines and England, from roast beef heaven and breakfast dinner and the best mashed potatoes in the world.
From the buffalo nickel swallowed by Beth in middle-of-the-night sister games, the 32-mile holiday bike ride, and the broken arm resulting from Mom and Dad's late-night living room dance moves.
I am from the "Be Nice to Me, It's My Birthday" pin, from the box of pictures chronicling all major events in our lives, and from much laughter in reminiscing through them.