Wish You Were Here

Mission and Marriage

The two best things EVER!

And I had the awesome opportunity to spend the last week in Utah with my sister preparing for her mission and my Sister Cannon getting married! It was amazing!

This will probably be a short, but sweet blog post. I want to include all my pictures from the trip, but will only share a select few. For more, view my public Facebook album here.

So, my sister Susan has been called to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Peru Lima North Mission...she leaves September 30th and is going to be AWESOME! She already knows the language, the gospel, and has the Spirit, so the only thing she needs is mission clothes! I could definitely help her with that. We spent our days combing through lots and lots of stores looking for cute, comfy, and modest clothes for Hermana Hoonie. And we found some great deals! My personal favorite was this cropped, short sleeved jacket for $7! Perfect for church and meetings in humid South America. Susan had a fun time trying to figure out how to wear it (she may be mad I'm showing the picture with her stomach showing, but I just think it is too funny!). After much convincing on my part, she bought it, wore it to church on Sunday (with a shirt underneath!), and hopefully loves it as much as I do!

We had a good time cruising around Utah together. I went to some of her classes, church meetings, neighbor's birthday parties, etc. We drove up to Centerville to see family, traipsed around the Orem cemetery to find family, made fake music videos to Ace of Base in the crazy yellow rental car, and made some good food together! I especially love this picture taken on a dodgy part of BYU's campus. If you can't read the sign, it's basically warning you not to walk around here alone after dark...we are just showing you why.

On to the marriage portion of the trip! My Sister Abigail Cannon married an amazing guy (who I met for the first time during the ceremony) and they are so cute and happy together and perfect for each other! I got to spend Thursday with her before all the wedding business took place, so it was a lot of fun. The ceremony was beautiful and amazing and reminded me how blessed I am to be married to Adam for time and all eternity! Love is amazing! Congratulations again, Abby and Patrick...we'll have to plan that Colorado camping trip!

Some of Abby's mission companions came to Abby's house a bit before the reception to help set up lights and decorations. We got asked to put the cake together, which included using frosting and coconut to hide the gaps between the layers...we were nervous but pulled it off! Here's my "last-born," Sista 'alladay and I hard at work. It's crazy to believe that she's been home for a year, when her first transfer was my last transfer. Time flies by!

Those of you who know my father will definitely appreciate this next picture. They've had this for at least 20 years, which means they had only been married for 10 years when my dad bought it! It's kind of strange to find this when you're looking for your grandparents...but my dad is right - when the time comes to need it, he's already gotten it taken care of! Thanks for doing all the work for us, Dad! I still wonder how this got brought up and if my parents went on a date to pick it out....you'll have to tell us the whole story, Mom!

A lot has happened and we need to blog about it before our big trip to London and Paris in two weeks.

The high point is that Karen got a sewing machine and has become rather crafty as of late. She made a quilt for our new niece Kendra Elizabeth Fuchs and couldn't wait to show the rest of you blog readers out there. Here are some pictures:

Not only has she made a quilt but she has several other projects planned in an effort to be cute and crafty while at the same time being self reliant and frugal. You don't have to tell me, I already know I picked a good wife.

Another high point was my first paycheck in more than 3 months. I finally got it after payroll telling me my check was lost in the mail, then sending me a check they said was good, but really there was a stop payment on it. So when another check showed up they told me that the stop payment was transferred to the other check and that the one I deposited would be alright. Then two days later our checking account was negative and I got charged for a returned check. Fortunately I didn't have any other major charges because of a reserve line that kicks in when my balance drops below a certain amount. So all those bills we paid off and checks we wrote and fund transfers went through just fine with out any more fees. Thank goodness for planning for the worst. The best part is that payroll is paying me back for all the fees that we racked up because they totally goofed up everything.

I don't necessarily hate my job but I certainly don't wake up every morning excited to talk on the phone all day long. Some calls I enjoy but most are just the same thing over and over again. For those who don't know, I work at a call center fielding calls for the Federal Student Aid Information Center which answers questions about the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and other general Federal Student Aid programs run by the Department of Education. So, I'm your resident expert on all things FAFSA and other financial aid stuff for college. While most of our callers are referred to their schools' financial aid offices, we can still help a lot. So anyone out there needing help answering a question on the FAFSA, or don't know why they aren't getting as much as they think they should, or hate that they still have to include their parents' income and asset information, you can ask me and I can explain everything.

Last of all, we are putting forth a greater effort to be healthy. Not only are we TRYING to exercise more, but eat healthy food too. We're taking a nutrition class put on by a couple in our church and they're helping us make a food lifestyle change for the better. Basically, eat as many fruit and vegetables as you can and avoid anything with trans fat in it. Obviously there's more to it than that but those are the high points.

And finally, Karen asked that I share a story about a dessert mishap from last night. So we wanted something sweet after dinner and started looking through a cookbook for ideas. We found a good Apple Dumpling recipe that looked easy to make and wasn't terribly unhealthy either. We set to work preparing them, we wrapped apple slices covered in cinnamon sugar in crescent rolls and then poured on an apple juice, brown sugar, and melted butter sauce, then had to wait 30min for them to cook and then 30min to cool. So, after all this anticipation we were very eager to eat a delicious-looking dessert. While eating them we both thought they tasted way too buttery and had a strange aftertaste. I finished mine but Karen couldn't finish hers and we both felt kinda sick after eating them. Before throwing away the leftovers I pulled out the wrapper for the crescent rolls and discovered that we used the Garlic Butter Crescent rolls instead of the original ones. We both felt like purging our stomachs of such a disgusting combination but instead went to bed with tummy aches and bad breath. This morning we still had tummy aches and some pretty gnarly morning breath too. The moral of the story is to read the label of your crescent rolls and make sure you buy what you think you're buying.

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!