Doctors Make the Worst Patients

One element of our weekend included a tour of the Festival of Nations, where people representing dozens and dozens of countries set up bazaars, sell traditional food, dance, etc. in Tower Grove Park. I absolutely love learning about different cultures. We met a woman from Iraq who wrote our names in Arabic, another from Russia, and a third from Japan. We saw dancing, tasted food, saw different traditional crafts, and explored all that the festival had to offer.

My personal favorite was the dancing. I saw Polynesian, Filipino, and West African:



James was thrilled about his name being written in Japanese, and petting the animals at the international petting zoo.

Emma enjoyed getting her hair braided by a beautiful woman from Senegal:

and learning how to make German bobbin lace:

 As for Andrew . . . well, looks like he is allergic to Burma. Yep. The day after the festival, were worried the itchy bumps that began to spread all over his body looked a lot like bed bugs, and he decided that if I woke up this morning with the same symptoms, it had to be so. Lucky for me, that didn't pan out (phew!). After refusing Benadryl cream and a consult from my allergist uncle (who happened to be at my grandma's during a video chat last night), I got a text from Andrew today saying the doctors working with him in the radiology department had him sent down to the ER:

It must have been something in the Burmese food we ate. Sorry, Andrew :( Thankfully, he is on the mend.

Seven Years

This weekend we celebrated our seventh wedding anniversary. Andrew planned a surprise date, and pretty much knocked it out of the park with this one:

Dinner at Top of the Riverfront

This awesome, claustrophobic capsule that takes you up in the St Louis Arch

Atop the arch

Looking down on a Cardinals' game from 633 feet up in the St. Louis Arch

 

Yes! He totally scored on romantic points. Thank you, Andrew for being the love of my life, and sharing in adventures for the past seven years, and many, many more to come. I love you!!

Sunday Synopsis: Three Weeks

Okay, any chance I can catch you up on the past three weeks in three minutes? I'll try to move fast or it may never happen!

Fourth of July in downtown St. Louis:

Ran a 4-miler with my friend Rachel (simple race, sure, if you haven't taken a MONTH break from running to move across the country!!)

Parade down Market Street:

Airshow over, under, through, and around the famous arch!

Fireworks under the arch at night:

It was AWESOME to experience so much of the city in one day. Thanks to our friends Rachel and Jesse for showing us a good time! :)

Playgroups

I have great outing options for me and the kids through church, a medical organization (WUMCHA), and just informally with friends.

(WUMCHA Welcome Brunch on the top floor of Barnes Jewish Hospital)

So far we've done Frisco Train Shop:

The wading pools at Tower Grove park:

The wading pools in Citi Garden (right in the heart of downtown St. Louis)

(Can you see the arch in the background? I love it!)

 Grant's farm, with a very eclectic collection including elephants, zebras, Texas longhorns, camels, and the famous Anheuser Busch horses, to name a few. It's like the Wheeler Farm of St. Louis, but much bigger. There's a tram ride in, and James kept standing up. The tour guide repeatedly called over the PA for a little boy in a blue shirt to sit down. Took me a moment to realize who! We particularly loved the elephant show where the front row is kindly provided with umbrellas to protect them from the shower of water the elephant sprays out of his trunk!

Concerts for Children in the Piper Palm House in Tower Grove. Emma was chosen from the audience to conduct the string quartet! :)

Botanical Gardens. In my top three favorite things about St. Louis (along with the arch, and, hmm, maybe the zoo, except we haven't made it there yet!)

FYI, we haven't paid a dime for any of this. One of the many reasons St. Louis is such a great place to live!

Home and Garden

"Reclaiming the land," as my dad would say, is happening in our backyard. We have so much natural growth, things LOVE to grow here in the Midwest. We have pulled out bags and bags of weeds, Virginia creeper, tree shoots, etc, in hopes of cleaning up a bit and discouraging the mosquitoes and chiggers. Sad little James has a dozen mosquito bites on his face today, even after we bathed him in deet during a yard work session yesterday. Andrew has mowed and trimmed, doing a beautiful job, and James (with his love of cords and all types of electronic appliances) begs, "More mower, Daddy," "More trimmer, Daddy," every time he sees them in the garage.

Emma has LOVED biking back and forth on the sidewalk in front of our house. She said just yesterday, "Little girls need time to ride their bikes." :)
Decorating is moving slow, but I promise to show photos when it's somewhat "done." After five arrangements in the kids's room, I finally discovered one that was functional, cute, and really opened up the space in there. Andrew spends every spare minute sanding the boards he purchased to build a small swing set for the kids.

Emma is our little outdoor explorer, catching "rolly polies," fireflies, and just yesterday, a toad. :)

 

A friend shared some African violet leaves with me, and they have since sprouted roots, so I repotted a few, hoping that from one leaf, many flowers will grow, just as with one friend, many more friends and experiences will grow with us here in St. Louis.
Our most recent addition arrived yesterday:

Now Andrew's life is complete!

Library

I LOVE libraries, I always have. I remember Andrew and I going to a local library in college for a date, I love them so much. Well, we are within reasonable walking distance of two libraries--one city, on county--and we are loving the library programs. We have been participating in summer reading where the kids earn prizes for minutes logged. We are finishing out the summer here with just over 600 minutes for Emma. We hope to get more next year when we can start at the beginning, instead of half way through. We also love the summer "Wacky Wednesdays" with an hour-long children's entertainer. One week it was Juggling Jeff (Google him, he's awesome), and some wild bird sanctuary that showcased tarantulas, owls, rats, a python, and a vulture. Pretty exciting stuff. Emma's not scared of anything, but  for me--with our kitchen littered with dirty dishes (plugged sink, waited a week for the plumber) and my wild imagination--I had to make an excuse for James and me to step out as they dangled the rat in front of our faces.

MUNY
St. Louis is home to the oldest and largest outdoor theater in the nation, the MUNY. We had a FABULOUS night at Les Miserables. I loved Javert's voice best of all, and it was neat to hear him sing and swear by the stars under the stars. :)

Swimming Pool
Can you believe you get all this for $4?? I felt like we were in a full-blown water park. The kids love the lazy river, we went around half a dozen times. One of my top three favorites!

(Emma is on the slide)

Grocery Shopping
The last time I moved, adjusting to a new grocery store was perhaps the hardest part, and I think that is the case for this move to St. Louis. I never really considered myself a foodie, but it's crazy how many stores I have to run to to get everything we need. Prices are ridiculous! So, we go to Aldi, a penny mart that only takes cash, you bring your own bags, and a quarter to use the cart. The first time I went in, I thought it was way to ghetto, but they have good food for SUPER cheap (milk is a dollar less than anywhere else) and great imported German chocolates to keep the kids happy while we shop. :) However, they don't consistently carry all produce, just what is local, fresh, and cheap, so I have to run to a separate store for something like a jalapeno or cilantro. Also, I don't prefer items with sugar or salt added (yogurt, applesauce, tomato sauce, etc.), so we have an extra trip for these things. To think, my previous grocer had inexpensive items, along with bulk foods (I can't find bulk bins anywhere here), whole wheat options in pastas, flours, etc, all for an affordable price. Oh! How I miss my Smith's Marketplace!

Congratulations if you made it this far! Sorry to ramble on. I love the adventure of the move. It's great to take different streets and go exploring around town. A few weeks after living here, Emma asked, "Mom, why aren't you using Siri [iPhone GPS]?" I proudly responded, "Because I know how to get around without her!" We are, in short, getting around great, and having a wonderful time. :)

Sunday Synopsis: The Move, Best and Worst

I'm hoping to turn over a new leaf with the move, a regular blog post each Sunday, called my Sunday Synopsis. I will try my best. This week's Sunday Synopsis isn't of the most recent week, but I hope to move in that direction. My topic, The MOVE:

Top 10 WORST things about our move: 

1. Ed, our HORRIBLE loan officer, who lost documents, persistently wrote incorrect information, encouraged us to sign contracts with errors because "we were getting into the house so cheaply anyway," who delayed our closing once and almost cost us closing all together, who made us sit for four hours at closing while the title company corrected all of his errors (which we had corrected weeks before), and who asked for our email address the day before closing, after near-daily email communication for 30 days.
2. The truck breaking down in Denver and the requisite "drug screen" for our loan application, which necessitated Andrew driving 24 hours straight from Denver to St. Louis, consuming approximately 100 oz of Dr. Pepper, and staying awake for 40 hours prior to our closing and moving in.

3. Getting lost in a torrential rain storm while racing to set up a bank account (something Ed told me about over the phone while I was driving somewhere in Wyoming), and stuck a block away, due to traffic signals that lost power in the storm.
4. Washing machine drain popping off and spraying a full-sized load of water into our brand new basement.
5. Permanent "Emma," proudly written on our mailbox, front door, brick, and flower pots the morning after we moved in.
6. DMV run around with 2 kids, 2 days, for 2 hours

 7. Realizing that our moving truck was not quite as big as we may have needed, resulting in a massive tetris operation, where we dismantled much of our stuff (some of which won't go back together now), and thus, leaving behind my jogging stroller :(

8. Calling the police in a panic when Emma disappeared for nearly 45 minutes. After three officers showed up (including the sergeant), all the neighbors walked the streets calling her name, and the head officer offered to call a helicopter, a nice policeman found Emma "asleep" under the crib where she was hiding after being offended by James. (By the way, we did search the house thoroughly 3 times calling her name constantly before calling the police. Welcome to the neighborhood! :) very embarrassing . . . )

9. Car theft at Walmart parking lot. While Andrew was sitting in the moving truck just after arriving in St. Louis, a sedan screeched out of the Walmart parking lot, followed by two police cars. The occupants jumped from the vehicle and ran, officers drew guns, and tackled the individuals who were subsequently surrounded by other police vehicles with flashing lights. Welcome to St. Louis!!!

10. Having to jump Andrew's car numerous times just to get it out of the hospital parking garage (his third day of work), and subsequently jumping it to get it from repair shop to repair shop to get the best deal in parts and labor. Thank goodness we towed it from Utah!!

Top 10 BEST things about our move:

1. Having an amazing husband who has worked incredibly hard through the entire move, making sure the truck made it here, the house closed, going to work while completely exhausted from all the craziness, coming home and being the family favorite around here, and, SUPER cute. Take a look:

2. Driving across the beautiful Midwest plain states and two of the worlds best kids in the car!

3. Visiting family and friends along the way who were so generous, so welcoming, and whose kids were a wonderful release for ours after being cooped up in a car all day.

4. Being greeted by "fairies" glowing and dancing about in our yard, making our first night (and every night here) magical.
5. Squirrels and trains. Emma and James LOVE to watch the trains pass our house and the squirrels scamper across the yard.

6. Unpacking my kitchen dishes to find NOTHING broken, and everything fits into beautiful cupboards that seem to have never been used before (plus room for my china, vases, extra flower pots, pretty much everything!)
7. Regina and Julie, who bypassed Ed's errors, and got us our $500 in the contract, and closed on time!
8. My flower pot making it all the way across the country.

9. Walking distance to Grant's trail, the library, and a playground, all from my front door, a yard for my kids to run and play in, and Daddy's amazing tire swing!!

10. Being blessed daily by the help of others, be it a meal, advice, a game for relief, packing and cleaning help, watching my kids, a comfortable bed to sleep in while ours is packed in the truck, loading and unloading help, flowers from a new friend in the ward, chocolate at my door the morning after I moved in because someone knows moving is stressful, welcoming neighbors who happen to knock just after my washing machine floods and have a fan to loan for the carpet to dry out, and on and on.


We love you and are so grateful for all you have done to help us on this wonderful (and sometimes crazy) adventure!! :)