This is the time in life when we are suppose to live paycheck to paycheck, understand what it means to appreciate all we have and trust better things are in store...when we hit our 30s. Right? HA. This 20-something life is proving to be gut-wrenching. I thought I was over the days of feeling financially unstable but alas, it never ends.
The other day we were so excited to find out that we would be getting a 5% discount on our rent for the next 12 months because Deren works at a "preferred employee" company. We were happy to not experience an increase in rent like we thought we were going to have. No sooner had we celebrated this small victory than we realized Deren got an unwanted charge of $129.99 and $69.95 from something he had purchased online (another life lesson, but that is a different story). He spent most of the day on the phone with a TERRIBLE customer service rep who couldn't even find his account information! Talk about scam. Next phone call = USBank to report a fraudulent charge. He's going to try calling the customer service rep again Monday to get our dang money back. Word to the wise - don't order crap online. Chances are they are scamming you (okay, I might be a little bit of a pessimist).
To make matters worse, Deren went out to his car to find a ticket on his windshield while it was PARKED on OUR sidestreet. A ticket for expired plates. Okay, before I rant about my distaste for Missouri I must say at least we can AFFORD a $38.50 ticket for expired plates (unless of course we take yet another case to our lovely Missouri court system - they LOVE the Thompsons). OKAY, Here I go....
1. Most (aka ALL) people in the state of Missouri get a nice little postcard in the mail to remind their plates are going to expire soon. Not my husband.
2. I have been paying property taxes on my car for the past two years (another reason I do not like Missouri). Deren has not.
3.We have a strong suspicion Deren's car information has gotten lost in the jumble of property tax paperwork Missouri sends out at the end of each year. (that's right, tax is due 5 days after Christmas. How thoughtful.)
4. The states of Minnesota and Iowa put the MONTH and year on your plate tabs to give you a heads up of when they are going to expire. Missouri puts the year to let you take a 1 out of 12 stab when they might be expiring - the odds are really against you.
5. The proactive measures this state takes to keep their citizens 'in the loop' is appauling.
In the midst of all of this commotion my mom called to let me know my great aunt Eleanor had passed away on Friday night. We had a close realationship growing up, she was like a third grandma to me. Since moving to Iowa for college and to Missouri after graduation I hadn't seen her in a while but it still breaks my heart. Heaven has a new, precious angel.
Bad things happen in threes so we took it all in one day...we're done for a while, right? Right?!
On a positive note about our 20-somethings...this is the age of weddings. My good friend from college got married last weekend and we wrapped up our 2010 wedding season in Cedar Rapids. Lindsay and Levi had a beautiful ceremony and such a fun reception. As always, so fun to catch up with them and other friends we aren't able to see nearly often enough. Congrats you two!! Love you!
Another positive - a friend from school had two free tickets to the Zac Brown Band tomorrow night so I'm excited to head out to a concert with her! I haven't been to a concert in a long time! Thanks DeAirra!!
This post is feeling a tad bit bi-polar....such is our life right now.
Hey! At least we get some extra sleep tonight!!
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Saturday, September 4, 2010
So excited...
for fall!
We went out with a few friends last night for some well deserved adult sodas and somehow got on the topic of autumn, halloween and pumpkin carving. I decided to unveil the pictures of my AWFUL attempts at carving pumpkins. My first attempt probably since 7th grade was in 2007 when Deren and I first started dating and I'm going to blame my ill-talent on stage fright (but really I have no excuse). My second attempt was me giving my all - I'm TERRIBLE at pumpking carving. Our friend, Brian, got a kick out of the pictures - he couldn't stop laughing and his face turned purple (I'm pretty sure there was no oxygen supply for a good three minutes).
ANYWAYS...I want to share with you all, for your enjoyment and to have you all partake on MY excited for fall :)
This was in 2007 (the first attempt) :/
This was in 2008 - the second attempt! (mine is on the left)
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Summer Lovin'
...had me a blast!
That was lame. I apologize. I can't believe I haven't posted anything since MAY! My god. Sadly, the summer is coming to an end and fall (and my final) semester, of classes at least, starts on August 23rd. I'm looking forward to getting back to school and into the groove of class, seeing my friends, work, student teaching, etc but I would LOVE another three week summer vacation.
Our summer was fairly low key. I was able to work at my full time job this summer with Champion's club and I really enjoyed that. This summer I was able to network with a lot of case workers that had worked in metro area districts prior to becoming case workers not to mention I was able to pick the brain of a few special ed teachers in the NKC school district. I don't know why, but every time I had conversation with those ladies I felt positive about getting a teaching job in the spring. I was also able to stay working part time at Gymboree play and music. I love that job simply because of how different it is than Champion's Club. I'm able to play with 6 month old babies up to four year pre-k kids. Each time I went to work there I dove a little deeper into, what I thought, was a lost imagination :)
On top of the two jobs this summer I took one simple summer class: Community Immersion. It was a class that is designed to get us out in the metro area to see the diversity in Kansas City. We visited a juvenille detention center, an Orthodox Christian Church, and the Salvation Army kid's homeless shelter just to name a few. I would like to say that the Salvation Army and the detention center were 'eye opening' experiences but deep down inside I was kidding myself to believe that kids were not going through experiences such as the kids at those organizations. It did, however, solidify the fact that my empathy and patience for children far exceeds my patience for adults.
"If kids come to us from strong, healthy functioning families, it makes our job easier. If they do not come to us from strong, healthy functioning families, it makes our job more important."
-Barbara Color
Of course our summer wouldn't be complete without a few weddings and road trips home. We enjoyed heading back to West Point for a wedding of a high school/college friend of Deren's. It was a beautiful wedding and as always, fun to hang out with friends we hadn't (or even had) seen in a while :) This summer still holds many more road trips. Next weekend we're heading to West Point again for the annual Sweet Corn Festival. When I first started dating Deren I thought, 'oh dear god what I have I gotten myself into?! A SWEET CORN FESTIVAL?!' But, I must admit I enjoy the festivities of this small town Iowa tradition. We're hoping to squeeze in our one and ONLY camping trip of the summer on August 21st with some friends. This time we're planning a trip to Smithville Lake right here in the Kansas City area - basically for something new. Of course, that is if Deren books the dang thing. {Deren if you're reading this book the site homie!}
We're also heading back to Woodbury for a wedding of my brother's friend. They're getting married at the historical center in St. Paul. It should be a beautiful wedding and I always look forward to seeing my brother's friends. It might seem odd, but when I see those guys it's sort of like I'm hanging out with Eric again. We're also looking forward to my brother's memorial golf tournament on October 2 this year - another chance to hang out with all of his friends and remember the awesome life of my awesome brother. Last but not least, just to keep October fun, my college friend, Lindsay is getting married and we have some celebrating and bachelorette partying to do on October 9 before her wedding on October 30. As you can see August and October are busy busy!
That was lame. I apologize. I can't believe I haven't posted anything since MAY! My god. Sadly, the summer is coming to an end and fall (and my final) semester, of classes at least, starts on August 23rd. I'm looking forward to getting back to school and into the groove of class, seeing my friends, work, student teaching, etc but I would LOVE another three week summer vacation.
Our summer was fairly low key. I was able to work at my full time job this summer with Champion's club and I really enjoyed that. This summer I was able to network with a lot of case workers that had worked in metro area districts prior to becoming case workers not to mention I was able to pick the brain of a few special ed teachers in the NKC school district. I don't know why, but every time I had conversation with those ladies I felt positive about getting a teaching job in the spring. I was also able to stay working part time at Gymboree play and music. I love that job simply because of how different it is than Champion's Club. I'm able to play with 6 month old babies up to four year pre-k kids. Each time I went to work there I dove a little deeper into, what I thought, was a lost imagination :)
On top of the two jobs this summer I took one simple summer class: Community Immersion. It was a class that is designed to get us out in the metro area to see the diversity in Kansas City. We visited a juvenille detention center, an Orthodox Christian Church, and the Salvation Army kid's homeless shelter just to name a few. I would like to say that the Salvation Army and the detention center were 'eye opening' experiences but deep down inside I was kidding myself to believe that kids were not going through experiences such as the kids at those organizations. It did, however, solidify the fact that my empathy and patience for children far exceeds my patience for adults.
"If kids come to us from strong, healthy functioning families, it makes our job easier. If they do not come to us from strong, healthy functioning families, it makes our job more important."
-Barbara Color
Of course our summer wouldn't be complete without a few weddings and road trips home. We enjoyed heading back to West Point for a wedding of a high school/college friend of Deren's. It was a beautiful wedding and as always, fun to hang out with friends we hadn't (or even had) seen in a while :) This summer still holds many more road trips. Next weekend we're heading to West Point again for the annual Sweet Corn Festival. When I first started dating Deren I thought, 'oh dear god what I have I gotten myself into?! A SWEET CORN FESTIVAL?!' But, I must admit I enjoy the festivities of this small town Iowa tradition. We're hoping to squeeze in our one and ONLY camping trip of the summer on August 21st with some friends. This time we're planning a trip to Smithville Lake right here in the Kansas City area - basically for something new. Of course, that is if Deren books the dang thing. {Deren if you're reading this book the site homie!}
We're also heading back to Woodbury for a wedding of my brother's friend. They're getting married at the historical center in St. Paul. It should be a beautiful wedding and I always look forward to seeing my brother's friends. It might seem odd, but when I see those guys it's sort of like I'm hanging out with Eric again. We're also looking forward to my brother's memorial golf tournament on October 2 this year - another chance to hang out with all of his friends and remember the awesome life of my awesome brother. Last but not least, just to keep October fun, my college friend, Lindsay is getting married and we have some celebrating and bachelorette partying to do on October 9 before her wedding on October 30. As you can see August and October are busy busy!
Thursday, May 13, 2010
firsts
Deren is heading to bed and seeing as how I'm on "summer vacation" I'm on a whole new sleeping schedule now and, well, I don't really sleep...
On Sunday, May 16th we will be celebrating our 1 year anniversary. I'm in awe that a year has come and gone so quickly. It kind of caught us off guard. We didn't really make big plans to celebrate - we're just going out to dinner downtown and we purchased patio furniture for our new place. We're spending Saturday doing the Crawl for Cancer pub crawl with some friends and that's that! Nevertheless, here we are!
In our first year as a married couple we've settled into a new city, moved into a new house and we're starting to call it home. We've made some great friendships and some lifelong friendships fizzled away. People and things change I suppose. At this point in my life I don't want to surround myself with people that don't make me happy or don't reciprocate a friendship. The friends I've met here in Kansas City are fabulous and they have made moving to a new city such a delight. However, I miss terribly my friends from home and Iowa. The friendships I keep are ones of support and respect and I love you all with all of my heart!
As for my hunky husband of one year - I love you George and I'm so excited to be celebrating our first anniversary with you in Kansas City, MO (even though no one uses their turn signals and they ticketed me with a red light camera.)
On Sunday, May 16th we will be celebrating our 1 year anniversary. I'm in awe that a year has come and gone so quickly. It kind of caught us off guard. We didn't really make big plans to celebrate - we're just going out to dinner downtown and we purchased patio furniture for our new place. We're spending Saturday doing the Crawl for Cancer pub crawl with some friends and that's that! Nevertheless, here we are!
In our first year as a married couple we've settled into a new city, moved into a new house and we're starting to call it home. We've made some great friendships and some lifelong friendships fizzled away. People and things change I suppose. At this point in my life I don't want to surround myself with people that don't make me happy or don't reciprocate a friendship. The friends I've met here in Kansas City are fabulous and they have made moving to a new city such a delight. However, I miss terribly my friends from home and Iowa. The friendships I keep are ones of support and respect and I love you all with all of my heart!
As for my hunky husband of one year - I love you George and I'm so excited to be celebrating our first anniversary with you in Kansas City, MO (even though no one uses their turn signals and they ticketed me with a red light camera.)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
