Much needed update

So it's been quite a while since I've updated....

Since my last update a LOT has happened, here's the fast version:

WORK:
We had a recognition breakfast at the Ramada Inn for the Campaign Ambassadors this year. Scott was able to come to that, which was nice.

I also have received a more permanent, full time position at United Way, though they are calling it a Temp to hire because of the revamp and reorganization the office is going through, and have not decided on my official title yet. I have moved into my own cubicle/office and received a raise. 

HOUSE:

So the last week of our apt lease, things were getting stressed. They were back and forth on if we would close by the weekend and be in by Thanksgiving. We were biting our fingernails until an hour before the set close time, when we finally received the "OK". So we finally closed on the house the friday before Thanksgiving!

We then attempted to finish packing then we went to a Hunger Games Party. 

It was a lot of fun. Scott and I were from district 3 (the weapons district). So we all dressed accordingly to our district and had a "reaping" and then our own little hunger games. It was a blast. Then we all headed over to see the late showing of the second Hunger Games. 

The favors from the party was a kit with a little parachute on it, such a cute idea.

We didn't get home until 2AM, so we were exhausted the next day when we had to wake up early to pick up the moving truck. The truck was an hour late, so we were late getting back to our apt. where people from the ward were waiting to help us move. It was very nice having help because we got packed up and moved over to our house by like 1PM. 

We found out the first night in our house, that the pluming did not work correctly, so Scott had to fix that and it took about a week to get all the pipes working, but Scott did it. :-) 

SCHOOL:

Scott is into finals for the first semester of Law School. He's such a trooper! I can't believe that the first semester is almost over, CRAZY!

LIFE:

So Scott and I had our Thanksgiving using a hot plate, microwave, and crockpot (to cook the turkey). Because we do not have an oven/stove yet, and our kitchen is not functional at this time. We had a lovely day though and our enjoying being new homeowners (feels like we are newlyweds all over again).

Thanksgiving breakfast! Eggs, bacon, and orange juice.

Crock pot Turkey (a first but it turn out delicious!)

Lovely place settings that were gifts from our wedding, THANKS! :-)

I made up my own recipe for pumpkin pudding and it turned out fantastic! Gonna be part of our holiday tradition each year. 

I love spending time with him :-)

So our kitchen looks like this, so we have to do our dishes in the bathroom...

So many dishes from thanksgiving dinner...."sigh"

We of course had to do our tradition of going to the mall and getting a "Photobooth" pic on black friday, so here it is:

We also got some other stuff to help renovate and fix up our house for perty dern cheap. :-)

When we were looking for a Christmas tree, we only expected a little Charley brown Christmas tree with our budget, but we wanted a real one so we can continue our "ornament-made-from-the-trunk-of-our-christmas-tree-tradition", so we were determined. Scott found this one in a pile of Christmas trees selling for 16 dollars at Home Depot! It's 8 feet!!!

Topeka put on a "Miracle on Kansas Ave" Christmas parade and had a tree lighting ceremony. 

The Capitol downtown on our way back to our car. 

We have started decorating for Christmas!

We put the fake tree we got from my parents in our office (Blue and silver themed) :-)

Decorating our tree!

Scott putting on the shotgun shell star.

That's my boy! Haha!

GREAT NEWS

HOUSE UPDATE:

So we were able to convince the Seller (VA) to pay for the repairs needed for the home to pass the appraisal! Soooo awesome! This means we will have a fresh coat of paint on the outside of our house at no cost to us (we just can't pick the color). I'm so excited and hope everything works out and we can close on time!!!!


WORK UPDATE:

So this week has been a fun week at work. We had a meeting in Lawrence for the Hallmark headquarters. They actually had a "Little" from Big Brothers Big Sisters come and speak, he was soooo adorable it made the 45 minuet drive worth it. :-)

On friday we were able to have a tour of the Kansas Capitol, which is still under construction. Most of the places are still closed off to public, but we got a special pass. :-) Here are a few pics of how beautiful it:

The beautiful dome. We were able to stand underneath it, but they will be making a circular fence for the future when they open up the capital so no one can stand underneath it and have something fall on them. 

This is the Capital Library. Restored to it's original glory. 

The levels actually have glass floors!

In the Supreme Courtroom

I learned something new about law, the reason they call it "Passing the Bar" is because it's an actual Bar that the lawyers can pass in the courtroom once they're a lawyer. That bar closest to us in this picture is "the Bar" and Scott will pass it in 3 years. :-)

They have hand operated elevators still...kindof scary riding up on that thing.

Those round holes on the pillars are the original natural ventilation system that they kept.

They searched everywhere for lights like these and ended up getting them from Ukrain I believe? (can't quite remember), and they got hem originally without the stars on it, but they wanted to jaz them up and asked if they could add 34 starts, for the 34th state on each lamp. And the people did it for no charge....that's a lot of lamps in this room with 34 stars etched into the lamp each!

This is a window that originally was transparent through the round circle part, but since they had political figures complain about the harsh light in their eyes, they place a special paper on the outside to filter the light.

The only working original office sink they kept in the office.

The basement is like catacombs. But they are turning it into a visitor center. 

So much fun! :-)

This morning I was able to go to Dillard's (a store in the mall) United Way kick off. They had one of their supervisors get pied in the face, they had door prizes, jeopardy, etc. It was fun, minus the part I had to work at 7:20 AM on a Saturday. Haha.

LAW SCHOOL UPDATE:

Scott has been workin' hard and coming up on finals. I'm trying to keep him from getting over stressed with us having to move here soon and close on the house. 

The fall weather has actually been surprisingly beautiful out here. The trees actually have been turning some bright colors. 

Friday night Scott and I went to the JRC (law student association) dinner in Kansas City, MO. It was a very long drive but it was a nice night. The dinner was extremely fancy with salad, stuffed cheesy spinach chicken.... something, and delectable cheese cakes and torts for dessert. It was quite fancy, and I loved being doted on by the servers :-). We also had some great presentations and musical numbers. Elder Douglas L. Callister formerly of the Seventy, also traveled out to speak to us. He gave a beautiful talk about not becoming dependent on Google searches and still utilize paper copies of books, make a library that you use. And really enjoying beauties of music and the arts. I loved it, and we got to hand out with our new law student friends. They are all so great! Overall a lovely night.

Look at that handsome smile!!! :-) It was sooooo cold. Haha.

Stupid Blogger has an auto red eye filter, so our eyes look black and scary, but oh well.