So far the stories are nothing but heart-wrenching yet they are written so beautifully. Death, betrayal, adultery, mental illness - this book has it all. I'm intrigued to see how it plays out, and I'm hoping for a happier ending than in The Kite Runner.
A new week, a new book. After reading The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini in January, I immediately put his other novels on my book list. One such novel is A Thousand Splendid Suns. It tells the tale of how fate and war intertwines the lives of two women born a generation a part on separate sides of Afghanistan.
So far the stories are nothing but heart-wrenching yet they are written so beautifully. Death, betrayal, adultery, mental illness - this book has it all. I'm intrigued to see how it plays out, and I'm hoping for a happier ending than in The Kite Runner.
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It's amazing how fast 365 days can fly by. Based on the age old saying, "Time flies when you're having fun," I guess it's not a bad thing that our first year of marriage is now in the history books. Lucas and I are so blessed for how many great things happened in our lives this year. And while we have many happy moments, I won't lie to you and say every moment was happy. We are real people. We get upset, frustrated, annoyed, sad, etc. We each experienced all those emotions this past year - sometimes together and sometimes because of each other. With that in mind, there are several things I learned this year that I'd like to share. 1. One year is not enough time. No one is perfect. Everyone has an Achilles' heel. I hate washing the dishes; Lucas plays too many video games. We've both had the past ten years of adulthood to get set in our ways. Lucas pretty regularly gets on me about not doing the dishes because he doesn't like doing them all the time. I get on his case for gaming too much. I've realized that one year is not enough time to change them. We both want to break these bad habits. It's just going to take longer than one year. 2. Lingerie is overrated. Receiving a slew of nighties, negligees and robes at a bride's bachelorette party is practically a right of passage to get married these days. Don't get me wrong - I'm truly thankful for all the wonderful gifts I received. However, if I can be completely honest, they haven't gotten used as much as I thought. And no, it's not because we are too busy fighting over the dishes or having a power grab for the remote, but because it just doesn't get used. When the mood hits, there's just no time. 3. Say yes. The proposal and the wedding ceremony shouldn't be the last times you say yes (or I do) to each other. I once read that the key to a solid marriage is to keep dating your spouse. I think this is wonderful advice. When your spouse suggests to do something you may not be super keen on but you know they really want to do it, say yes. If you were still dating, you probably would have said yes without hesitation. Lucas knows I enjoy dancing while we wait in the check out lane at the grocery store, that I like to go out to the bars, that I love watching my Mizzou Tigers play football, that I love taking pictures. He doesn't necessarily enjoy any of those things, but he tries to do them for me to make me happy. He also just recently admitted he should say yes more. And so should I. 4. Do things just because. This takes saying yes to the next level. It's easy to get complacent in your relationship. It's easy to take your spouse for granted. It's easy to forget that today could be your last day together. Lucas knows how much I love back rubs, so when he just offers me one out of the blue, I gladly accept. When I write him little love notes in the morning, he sees how much I love him. It doesn't take much to show your love and appreciation for each other. It's the little things you do "just because" that makes every day better. 5. Keep the faith. I truly believe God brought Lucas into my life. We make it a center part of our relationship to attend church, pray together and try to show God's love to others. The foundation of a Christian marriage has been huge for us this past year. I know our faith will continue to keep our marriage strong during the second year of marriage and every other year going forward. What did you learn in your first year of marriage? I'd love to hear from you! The metro has some really wonderful restaurants. I make a poignant effort to eat at as many different places as possible. Going to one new restaurant makes me happy; going to two new restaurants in one week makes me ecstatic. After grabbing sushi at Wasabi Chi on Sunday, we took in a nice long dinner at Baru 66 in Windsor Heights to celebrate our one year anniversary.
Baru 66 has been on my To Eat At List for the past three years. It's a pricey place so we tried going last year during Restaurant Week. Reservations were needed, and they didn't have any openings. Here we are about seven months later finally sitting down to a meal I'd been so patiently awaiting. The menu options were divine. I wanted a bite of everything from the quail to the duck and the steak to the salmon. You could choose the "menu du chef" which included your appetizer, entrée and dessert of choice for $45. There were two daily specials that were four-course meals for $35. There was a bit of a catch in that we both had to do the $35 special or neither of us could. As we perused the menu, I was afraid of two things. 1) The food couldn't possibly live up to 36 months of hype and expectations brewing in my head and stomach and 2) The typical, smaller French portion sizes wouldn't fill us up. After much deliberation, I went with the menu du chef including French onion soup, wild Alaskan salmon with beets and bacon snow, and the salted caramel ice cream. Lucas chose the Saint Jacques scallop soup, the sirloin with fries, and creme brûlée. Holy moly. Who knew that salmon and beets would be so amazing together? Apparently Chef David Baruthio at Baru 66 knows what he's doing. But don't take my word for it, go taste it yourself. My two fears turned out to be completely unfounded. I walked away completely satisfied and completely full. Five stars! … and we do not own a house. I repeat, we do not own a house. The seller husband was very upset with our offer and didn't even want to counter offer. The seller wife was willing to negotiate. However, since they are going through a divorce they have to be on the same page. He wasn't willing to budge so we don't have a house. It was crushing to get the news. Our only option was to up our offer. We'd previously discussed we'd only go up another $3k. Well, that wasn't going to be enough to please Mr. Husband. So we just walked away. Maybe if it's still on the market in a month - because it's overpriced - we'll consider another offer.
Ahhhhhh! This is really happening! Lucas and I put in our first offer on a house today! I'm freaking out.
There is a lot that went into our offer price. We took into account comparable home sales in the area, information the seller disclosed to us, what work we need and/or want to put into the home and if we wanted the seller to pay closing costs. We felt the asking price was a little high, even though the sellers just had the home appraised for that value. More important than the asking price is the price we feel comfortable paying for the home. We felt in order to - one day - get our money back based on the money we put into it, we couldn't come in at full asking price. We actually also wrote a letter to the sellers explaining why we offered what we did. I have a million thoughts running through my head about how they'll react to our offer. They have until Tuesday at 5pm to respond so if I can make it through one night of terrible anxiety, we should have an answer. Lucas and I are willing to negotiate with them, but we are also fully prepared to walk away at a certain price point. It's all scary and exciting at the same time. I'm the furthest thing from an impulse buyer and sometimes parting with $100 is hard for me. We have thought long and hard about this, but it's still obviously one of the biggest buying decisions we'll ever make. Like I said before: I'm freaking out. Ahhhhhh! Whenever I get a craving for sushi, I know it's been too long since I've last treated myself to a handful of rolls. This past week I had one such craving. Lucas and I gave in and grabbed dinner at Wasabi Chi on Douglas just east of Merle Hay in Des Moines. Honestly, if my friend hadn't told me exactly where it was located, we would have driven right past it. But after polishing off four different rolls and two cups of soup, we'll remember exactly where it is. The Dynamite roll, which features scallops, was amazing, and Lucas couldn't get enough of the Spicy 2 in 1 roll. Well done, Wasabi Chi. Well done.
Weddings come in all shapes, sizes and styles. Well, unless it's a Wardenburg wedding. Wardenburg weddings come in only large and extra large. My sister-in-law Tessa did a wonderful job putting together a lovely wedding in just three months. She looked beautiful and classy while committing herself to the man of her dreams in a quaint Lutheran church in Chillicothe, Missouri.
Not only was it just my first time attending Tessa's wedding, it was also my first time videotaping a wedding. Before the ceremony I was getting some b-roll and cutaway shots when the photographer asked me if I shot weddings often. I said nope, this is my first. She tried not to act surprised. I like to think I did a pretty good job for a first crack at it; however, I won't know for sure until I start to edit. I'll keep you posted. I think it's so awesome that over my lunch I can watch live ballet just a few blocks away from my office. Lunch Unplugged is a secret gem in Des Moines. For a few weeks in the spring, these lunchtime performances bring downtown dwellers out of their caves to the beautiful Temple Theater. I have been meaning to get to a Ballet Des Moines performance for awhile. Instead of a full performance, Lunch Unplugged showcased one or two pieces from each dancer followed by a Q&A. There was maybe 100 people there. The theater can't hold many more people, but I would love to see it packed. Can't beat grabbing a sandwich at South Union Bread Cafe walking up a flight of stairs and paying $5 for an hour of entertainment. There are still two shows left in the couple week. Maybe I'll see you at there...
Trying to eat healthy but have a sweet tooth? Lucas went to the grocery store alone and came home with this little gem pictured on the left. You read that correctly: it's a cookie dough protein energy bar. Using cookie dough and protein in the same sentence is amazing. It tastes exactly like an ice cream sandwich minus the cold. It probably has more fat than it should, but it also has a lot of protein.
I was eating this at my desk when my coworker walked by, did a double take, and politely asked if I was eating a candy bar. I said no, it's a protein bar. She said she had to ask because I always eat healthy. I appreciate her perception of my eating habits but admitted that I do in fact eat entire candy bars from time to time. This just wasn't one of them. Thank you Aldi for yet another yummy product. I read an interesting article today that talks about how technology has re-wired our brains. One change noted in the article is that we create more. Technology has made it easier to be creative with all the design, photo, video, etc programs out there. Social media has also made it more worthwhile to be creative because we can share it with everyone, like this blog post, which is about wedding programs that - you guessed it - I created.
I designed the programs for my own wedding last year, but doing it for someone else for the first time ads that extra layer of pressure. This program is for my sister-in-law. Luckily, she wanted something classic and simple. I'm no InDesign pro (yet) so I told her I was up to the task. I crafted three different designs from which she selected the one pictured to the left. I told her I could go back to the drawing board if she didn't really like any of them. She was sure, though, this design met her wishes. Technology can sometimes get a bad rap. I'm guilty of it myself. I find myself saying things like, "Technology is wonderful, when it actually works." However, I'm willing to give technology some credit for inspiring and enabling us to better express ourselves through creativity. |