Last days of summer...

Yes, my friends, it is only June 5th, but summer is close to ending for us at the Jr. Buhler household.  Starting on the 9th, I will be taking two grad classes towards my Masters in Special Education and Adam will be working from 11:15 AM - 8 PM, Monday-Friday for the rest of the summer (though we are EXTREMELY grateful he now has a job....yay!).  Luckily, we've already spent some quality time with each other, family, and friends and have our vacation in August to look forward to as we work hard until then!

Some exciting developments this summer: We are no longer late sleepers or couch sitters!  That's right, we have started training for a 5K with a group at church.  We meet three days a week and run at 6:30 AM.  Adam and I feel so green...we even walk to the Institute where we meet (we are just across the street...but that hasn't prevented us from driving before).  I've never been a runner (despite setting the city record in the 7th grade girl's mile.......it was the first year it was open to 7th graders and I was the only one to compete....so it was me....for four laps....running very slowly.  The next year, someone beat it by about two minutes!).  Adam ran cross-country in high school, but hasn't run much since he tore his ACL (coincidentally when we ran together at 6:30 AM before our missions....let's hope our knees stay healthy this time around!).  I'm discovering running is definitely a mind game - I just hope to gain a tolerance/enjoyment of it.  On the days we don't run, Adam and I have been waking up at the same time and going on 45 minute walks.  It is a really nice way to slowly wake up.  Plus, we've discovered new places we've never seen in our neighborhood!

Instead of going home and crashing, Adam and I are reverting to our missionary schedule and love it!  We come home, eat, study our scriptures on our own, and then read together.  It has been awesome.  Besides, I have to be at work/school by 8:30, so it just makes it harder if I go back to sleep.  Getting to bed by 10:30 PM has still proven difficult, but we are slowly getting back in the habit.

On top of our early morning walks/runs, I am finally taking a dance class this summer!  My friend Brooke and I signed up for a jazz class at the Arts Center.  We've only met once so far, but already I am sore in places I forgot I had.  Dancing definitely works your body!  Plus, it is just so much fun!  I have missed it a lot, so I'm glad Adam was willing to sacrifice some of his photography savings to pay for it.  Yay, Adam!

So, that's us for the time being.  I got bored at work today and decided to change our blog a bit.  If you use Google Reader, you should just quickly look at our actual site.  It's nothing fancy (it's actually a PowerPoint slide), but I had fun pretending I know something about graphic design.

Oh, and another thing...

I remembered I wanted to mention this right after I published the last post.

A few weeks ago I was looking at job postings on the LJWorld website.  I noticed my computer was running a little slow but didn't think much of it.  On my Mac, I have a feature called Expose, which reveals all of my open windows on that screen.  It's really convenient for multitasking and switching back and forth between multiple windows in an application.  So I hit the Expose key and had to do a screen grab of what I saw:

Can you say pop ups?  29 to be exact.  I forgot to turn off the pop ups and look what happens!  Every time I clicked anything on the LJWorld website, a new window was created.  Looks like Netflix really wants our business.  So, just a word of warning, make sure you have pop ups blocked if you visit the Lawrence Journal-World website.

Congragulations and Congraduations

So, you know how some people revert to talking about the weather when they're talking with a complete stranger?  I find it's the typical topic of conversation when you're talking with the person at the check out in the grocery store.  Or maybe weather is what you talk about with someone you haven't talked to in a long time and want to fill awkward silences.  I'm not trying to do either when I mention how amazing the weather has been in the last month.  Kansas has about 4 weeks of good weather every year -- two weeks in the spring and two weeks on the fall.

  

Fortunately KU graduation fell into that portion of good weather for the year.  Karen Graduated from the School of Education with Honors and also received a Senior Leadership award.  Go Karen!  3 weeks later she'll start her Masters.  Go Karen!  Thanks to everyone who came to the party and an extra special thanks to those who brought gifts.  

Karen giving a thumbs up after receiving her "diploma" at the Department of Education Convocation.  The baby blue cords are for honors.

The "diploma" was actually just a legal pad of paper.  How lame is that?

Karen did receive a small Jayhawk statue for her Senior Leadership award.

After that, we all went to The Salty Iguana and Karen fit right in with the murals on the wall.

Yup, that's Karen in the huge Clown Sunglasses walking down the hill.

In other news, we're all relieved to be out of school.  I kicked it into gear and studied like crazy for finals and got better grades than I was expecting.  Two of my finals were on my birthday :(.  This was my last semester at JCCC and I'm very excited to start at KU this next fall.  A huge part of that is I will be working on the staff of the Kansan as a photographer.  It will be great fun to shoot KU events, especially the sports!

Lately we've been enjoying our evenings playing cards, board games, watching movies, the Champions League Soccer Finals game, and playing night games with members of our ward.  It's been a blast!

I have to run off and help Karen's brother David and his family move and next week I'll be helping my Grandmother move as well.  Lots of moving going on here!

Update

Summer is almost here...and we cannot wait!  After Spring Break we de-winterized our apartment (summer quilt vs. winter comforter, light curtains vs. insulated curtains, etc.), but w have still had to deal with the lovely Kansas weather - sunny and 75 one day, and freezing rain the next.  We're hoping it is now here to stay!

We are preparing for all kinds of changes too....I graduate in less than a month and begin graduate school and Adam is transferring to KU in the fall!  He's applying to work for the campus newspaper as a photo editor and photographer, which will be the best campus job for him!  I'll be student teaching next year, so we'll be living off of one meager salary, but hoping to get some good scholarships!  We've gotten a little taste of budgeting with one salary, since Adam's job let him go last month.  After applying for jobs (newsflash: turns out there ARE no jobs!), we've decided to just wait until the summer for him to work, then he can get a full-time, temp job.  Surprisingly, we've both been pretty calm about the whole thing and are grateful that we've been pretty frugal already!

Despite school and work, we're still able to have quite a good time!  This past weekend, we went with my friends Holly and Anna to an AWESOME burger place - The Burger Stand at Dempsey's....those of you in Lawrence, check it out!  Holly's brother owns it and cooks some amazing food.  These aren't your typical burgers.  They were awesome and we got them with sweet potato fries - yummy!  Then, Holly and I went to see The Billions reunion/final show.  We had been going to their concerts since middle/high school, so it was fun to relive it all.  We're also gearing up for our roadtrip to St. Louis in two weeks to see Flight of the Conchords LIVE!  We. Are. Stoked!

My Turn

G’day my loyal blog readers.  I haven’t made an appearance since January and for that I apologize.  I can give plenty of excuses about how life is busy and that I don’t have time and yada yada yada.  While that may be true to some degree, it’s all about priorities and making time for things.  I remember my Dad shutting down one of my many excuses as a teenager where I was complaining about not having enough time for something.  He wisely pointed out the amount of time I spent on computer games and reading photography magazines or playing with my camera and made me remember that it’s not so much a question of having time, but making time for what was most important.

Alright, with that out of the way, a quick update on the life at the Junior Buhler household.  Karen and I have been waking up very sore recently.  That’s right, we’re experiencing the bittersweet feeling one gets the day or two after exercise.  We have been very diligent with our athletic endeavors recently.  Karen went on this exercise kick on the tail end of her last sickness and dragged me into it as well.  I got a spouse pass for the KU Rec center and have enjoyed playing racquetball again.  It’s one of my favorite sports because no matter how hard you hit the ball, it can only go about 15ft in any direction.  Unlike tennis where you have to go chasing after balls you miss (or hit over the fence when you’re over zealous) racquetball keeps the ball close.  Karen is showing vast improvement as well.  She has gone from being afraid of the ball and rarely hitting it back at the wall to being able to score (accidentally, I’m sure) from time to time.  The racquetball courts are very popular.  Reservations have to be made early in the day for an evening match.  We found that out the hard way when we sat outside all 4 courts for about an hour and never got a chance to play.  Lesson learned.  Make reservations.

Last week was Spring Break and I spent the majority of it in North Carolina.  Work sent me to UNC Chapel Hill for sorority composite pictures.  A long time ago our family lived in the Raleigh-Durham area but I don’t remember any of it.  The only things I remember from North Carolina were the big trees in our backyard that beautifully framed the swimming pool I was determined to dig myself.  Oh yeah, this three-year-old was undaunted by such a grown-up task.  Later I found out that my Dad spend a full weekend filling in the holes before we moved to Kentucky.  Sorry Dad.  You’re a trooper!  My only other memory I have from North Carolina was meeting my imaginary friend Hodie on the beach.  For those of you not well acquainted with Hodie, he is a red Tiger from Pennsylvania.  He and I were buds.  Many an afternoon was spent with my loyal red Tiger friend that closely resembled Tony the Tiger of Frosted Flakes fame.  You all know, “They’re Greeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaattt!”  I really liked North Carolina.  I would consider living there some day.  Raleigh is currently the fastest growing city in America so apparently it’s a popular place.  I liked the plethora of great universities in the area.  It’s arguably the College Basketball Mecca of the US.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m a Rock Chalk Jayhawk for life but that’s some high quality stuff over there.  I also liked the trees and hills and green all over the place.  Oh, and don’t let the North in North Carolina fool you.  In real life, North Carolina is really very southern.  I’m not saying that’s a good or bad thing, it’s just southern.

In other news, we had dinner at my Grandmother’s to celebrate yet another of my Dad’s birthdays.  I’m not telling you which one because you won’t believe me anyways.  I love dinners with family so close.  Sorry Amelia and Kristen, we have quite the monopoly on the local family benefits.

Finally, I’m going to make an announcement.  I’m going to start a photography blog.  I’ve been meaning to do this for a long time now but I’m tired of not making the time to do it.  Most of my blog will be how-to and technical details of the photographs I make.  I’ve fallen in love with the website Flickr over the last 6 months and I find so many ideas and things I want to try and I would like to record my progress in the blog.  I will also give some helpful hints and suggestions to those of you who don’t know as much about photography.  If you want to check out some of my stuff, you can look at my Flickr photostream and read the descriptions of my pictures.  I’m all about giving detailed descriptions so others can duplicate the effect and learn from my methods.

Here’s my most recent work.  I should have been doing homework but this is just so much more fun. 

We still have a blog?!

Yeah...sorry about that.  We like to switch off weeks, but the past weeks (months) have been pretty busy and that just hasn't happened.  Now, I am supposed to be working on four major projects, Adam is working a photo shoot all day, there are piles of laundry to put away and dishes to wash, and I have discovered the perfect way to procrastinate.  BLOG!

So, back in January, my sister-in-law went into KC for a doctor's visit (she was about six weeks away from the baby's due dat), so I was watching the niecews.  Well, they left that appointment and went straight to the hospital....five hours later, we had a new nephew!  He was a tiny one, but boy, was he healthy!  Luckily Momma Jenn is doing much better now too.  So, that night, Grandma Carol, Uncle Adam, and I took Lilli and Bubs to see their new brother, Baby Buzz (his nickname courtesy of Julian...his real name is Emerson....so cute!).

He got to come home three days later so we brought over some welcoming outfits (though they were huge for his 4 lb. body!).  Adam took some newborn pictures of him and we've been able to watch him a few times - he's a keeper!

In February, we made the trek over to Topeka High to see Miss Rachel in "Beauty and the Beast."  The show was awesome, but Rachel was by far my favorite (no bias at all, of course).  She played the feather duster, Babette, and was hilarious.  

One Sunday in there, Adam's mom got real adventurous with dinner plans and invited us over to help make some authentic Chinese food.  We're talking sweet and sour pork and real eggrolls!  I have found my new calling in life.  And I outate Adam when it came to eggrolls (well, I tied, but that was way more than what he expected me to do!  I'm usually a lightweight).

This brings us to March!  My sister Deborah had introduced me to the artist Brett Dennen over Christmas Break and I had been hooked from the start (he's awesome...you will all love him).  Well, we found out he was playing at the Bottleneck for super cheap, so Debbie came up from Manhatten and my former roommate Brooke came with us too.  It. Was. Awesome.  This was my first concert post-mission, so I had forgotten that if they say it starts at 8, they really mean they will set up at 8:30, the opening band will play at 9:15, then they will do more set up and the real show won't start until it's past your bedtime.  Other than that, it was AWESOME!

This was my first time not to have X's planted on my hands, so I was pretty stoked.  We rubbed it in Debbie's face for a bit.

Did I mention I had a graduate class in Kansas City the same evening?  Oops.  It works out nicely when you discover the day before that the girls you carpool with had also gotten tickets for the same concert.  We just left early!

Here he is in all his awesomeness.  He bears a slight resemblance to Ron Weasley, but has dance moves like Beyonce.  It's awesome (the adjective of choice for this post).

Following this amazing concert, I gave Adam his CD's and assigned him to learn all of them and love Brett as much as I do.  He's getting there!

Two weeks ago, Adam got a major cold (the word cold doesn't even do it justice).  He was out of commission for over a week, but I was pretty stoked I hadn't caught it.  After all, my immune system is superior.  Well, pride brought me down.  And that cold.  I stayed home from church last Sunday and work and school on Monday and Tuesday.  I still feel pretty gross, but at least my head isn't swimming if I sit up.  In the midst of my sickness, I still managed to complete my brand new music video for the ward talent show (I'll post it on here once it has premiered...it's pretty awesome).  I also got a strange desire to exercise more.  So, for the first time since before my mission (almost four years now...), I went over to the Student Rec Center and worked out.  Four times in the past week!  Impressive for me.  There are some dance aerobics classes that I signed up for and we got Adam a spouse pass he can use until he is a student at KU.  We even "played" racquetball for our date last night!  I say "played" because after two minutes on the court, the score was 10-1, I got hit in the nose by a ball and started crying, and Adam decided it might be better just to work on hitting the ball than actually playing yet.  I love my husband.

Another reason why I love him - his photography skills (and bow hunting skills....).  For a scholarship I received, I had to send in a headshot and a bio.  Well, I didn't have any headshots that I really liked, so Adam came to the rescue.  I think we got the winning shot in two minutes, but Adam wouldn't put the camera down for another half hour, so we got lots of interesting pictures.  

California knows how to party!

In honor of our one year anniversary, Adam and I took the week to go visit my grandpa in (slightly) sunny California!  It. Was. Amazing.  My grandpa loves young love, so he worked really hard to make this a special trip for us.  We took lots of pictures, so I'll start posting them and narrate as I go!

After our close call with getting to the airport for our trip to Utah, we decided to play it safe and give ourselves plenty of time to make our flight.  It worked!  Unfortunately, the plane was almost full by the time it landed in Kansas City that Adam and I got split up and both had a miserable four hour trip trapped by the people next to us.  With that out of the way, we made it safely to the Oakland airport and were soon greeted by Grandpa, who after dropping off our luggage, took us to lunch at the Hickory Pit (where his breakfast club meets).  After a nap and catching up with Grandpa, he heard about Adam's love of seafood and took us to the swankiest place in town.  Adam and G-Pa got some kind of West Coast fish that was apparently really good while I walked on the wild side (for this Kansas girl) and ordered Alaskan halibut.  Not too bad!

My grandpa gave us his condo for the week while he stayed with his lady friend Jackie (no scandals...he slept downstairs, she slept upstairs...he made sure to make that clear!).  I love my grandpa for so many reasons, but especially his sense of humor.  This post-it note above the scale in the bathroom is just one example of it.

The next morning, he dropped us off at the BART station and gave us a map of San Francisco.  We tried not to look like tourists, which meant that we walked a lot in the wrong direction for 20 minutes before stepping into a Starbucks to memorize the map.  Our first stop was Chinatown.  Pretty cool, but it definitely had some interesting smells...I wasn't really excited to go back there for lunch, but Adam got some cool pictures.

While looking over the map, we noticed a few locations we wanted to check out: the "steepest street" and the "crookedest street."  They seemed to be fairly close by, so we began our journey.  And continued our journey.  I definitely was feeling the burn after 10 blocks of straight incline!

However, our detour was definitely a pleasant surprise.  We walked along Hyde Street (pictured below) for another 10 blocks, which was the most picturesque street ever.  We loved the trees lining the street, gorgeous homes, and cable cars still running.

After visiting the steepest street (which was very steep), we visited Lombard Street, the crookedest street.  It was beautiful!  We loved the brick road and gorgeous landscaping....we're just glad we didn't have to drive down it!

After our long walk/hike, we were definitely starving and somehow found ourselves in Little Italy (no complaints there!).  We found a cafe and ordered excellent panini sandwiches, then finished our meal with gelato.  Adam definitely picked the best flavors - fresh pear, guava, and pomegranate.  We then took BART back to Walnut Creek (just about three hours before the BART riots took place...talk about timing!).

When we got back, we shared our pictures with G-pa and had time to visit and relax, then back to eating - soup and salad this time...we had been eating a lot of food!  The next morning, Adam and I drove to Oakland and were able to go to the LDS temple there...the same one in which my parents got married!  It was really beautiful and a good reminder of the importance of families.  I love mine!

When we got back, G-pa's friend Jackie made us lunch - clam chowder and tuna/avocado sandwiches on Jewish rye (I'm telling you....this vacation really seemed revolve around food).  Adam definitely enjoyed the chowder while I really loved my sandwich!  Adam, G-pa, and I then took off on a scenic drive to get to an old auto museum.  I tell you what, those two boys went crazy in there!  I have to admit, there were some pretty nice looking cars.  We had just taught Grandpa how to use his new digital camera and he was just snapping away!

That night, we met up at a little Italian place with my uncle and aunt.  Adam had never met my mom's brother, so it was fun for everyone to get to know each other.  My grandpa introduced Adam as "Shorty Buhler" the entire trip...it was great.  We had a good time and good food.

The next morning, my grandpa had arranged for his buddy Skip to give us a limo tour of San Francisco.  What was supposed to be two hours turned into four - but it was great.

Adam and I fell more and more in love with San Francisco as we drove around its neighborhoods, parks, and sites.  There is so much to do and see!  We got some great pictures and did lots of brainstorming on how we could eventually move out here (you know...setting goals and making plans!).  We love it.

That night, my grandpa had made reservations for us at the Hilton right by the airport since we had an early flight.  We had some high hopes for the hotel, but were pretty disappointed when a day's worth of internet cost more than our monthly service at home.  Good thing we were close enough to get some from the unsuspecting Econolodge across the street!  We arrived the next morning safely in Kansas City, but were a little bummed our vacation is over.  Only three degrees, five years, and a whole lot of money to be saved until we can move there permanently!