House, Kansas and Holiday Update

I'm a little behind the times with what we've been up to so this will be a kind of random post. Many people have asked me about the house and the flies and Kansas. The house is okay, it's really not that bad and it beats an apartment and we love the area, and it's probably nicer than anything else in the price range so we're liking it. The flies are gone for now. I'm told they're dead but I don't understand how if all the flies die in the winter they magically repopulate themselves. It doesn't make sense to me. If they have hatched little fly sacs or something that can survive the winter then I want to find those and kill them. But I can't, and with the buzzing gone I really haven't thought about them much. Kansas is great! We are still liking it out here. We miss our families but it's been really fun to experience living in a new place and we love the area we are in. We look forward to the day we have a house and a yard that we care about and can spend our time doing this:

With the flies pretty much out of the way I don't have much else to complain about, except that sometimes the walls hate what we put on them and decide to revolt.

We actually went home for Thanksgiving and Christmas this year. I kind of failed to mention that we went home for Thanksgiving previously. It was a quick trip and we ate a lot of healthy food.

Our neighborhood is really cool, and during the holidays this street just down the road does a candy cane lane that is apparently pretty popular because limos were constantly taking people down it and if you're riding in a limo you are clearly someone in the know.

We didn't have the luxury of being able to fly home for Christmas so we drove. It was such beautiful scenery!

We left on Thursday afternoon before Christmas and drove to Cheyanne, WY. When we got up the next morning I was a little nervous about the temps.

But it ended up being perfect weather for us the entire time we were home. It didn't snow at all and it was actually pretty warm. We were glad we didn't have to deal with any snow storms. We ended up driving 2850 miles and spent 47.5 hours in the car during our 10 day trip. It was WAY too much time to spend in a car. We will be flying from now on. While we were home we did a lot of this:

We almost bought this but then decided it wasn't wise (we've been budgeting, I'll write a separate post about my disdain for budgeting).

We attended a Jazz game which was the highlight of the trip for both of us. We just love the Jazz. For those who thought I was obsessed before it is just getting worse.

And now we are home and getting settled back into a routine. Oh and Jeremy is loving sporting all of his reflective running gear.

Occupy KC 2011

Merry Christmas from the Harts!

From our Occupy camp to yours, wishing you the best this holiday season! And yes, we did actually go to the Occupy camp to take these pics. For those wondering if we are actually Occupy supporters...I'll have to leave you guessing on that one!

Flies: 2 Denae: 0

They may have won the battle but they will not win the war.

I do not know how they are doing it but the flies have not been defeated. I first thought I had them with the duct tape on the windows. But then, to my horror, I opened our back door and found them lining the door frame. I threw up in my mouth. That very night I had Jeremy double line the door with weather stripping to keep them out and I thought I had them for sure. But then today the temperatures were up in the 60s again and they returned.

I think the windows are installed improperly and they are somehow able to come and go as they please. OR they live in the walls and are just simply taunting me. I hate them.

Monday Night Football

For Halloween we went to the Monday Night Football game to see the Chiefs play the Chargers. Melanie and Ashwin were able to join us for this event and it was everyones first NFL game. It was so, so great! The game was great, it went into OT by a miracle and we ended up winning. But, the main reason it was awesome was because of the people. Missouri's finest were out and about in all their Halloween glory. We ate at the gas station Oklahoma Joes before the game just to get in the spirit. When we got to the game we were surprised to see that people just pull their cars up on the curb on those little islands of grass and pretty much park wherever they want. The tailgating was in full force by the time we got there. And the alcohol was flowing freely. And because it was Halloween the costumes, oh the costumes, were entertaining and interesting. I think my personal favorite was the girl dressed as an Indian, as in native American not as in from India, that guy was with us, anyway she was dressed as a lingerie wearing indian and when she walked up the stairs if you were below her and looking up you got a nice shot of her behind. Classy. I also liked the girl dressed as a cheerleader who had possibly just been mugged and her clothes were torn and hanging off revealing parts we didn't want or need to see and her delicates. Again, classy. There were also mullets a plenty, real and pretend. Best of all were all the drunk people and their crazy conversations and clumsy high fiveing skills. For example the refs reviewed a touchdown and said it wasn't a touchdown and this girl turned around to Melanie and yelled "WTF is that?" Blame that one on the ah-ah-ah-ahl-cohol. Overall though we had a great night even though it was super super late for me and I feel like death today. If you are wondering why I am blogging so much it is because I figured out this blogging from your phone thing and I don't have to use the computer and upload the pix so it just became about 95% easier.

St. Louis

This past weekend we made a quick trip east to St. Louis. We left Friday after work and made the 4 hour trip that night. We got in town just in time to see the blimp flying over Busch Stadium during game 7 of the World Series. We wanted to go to the game so bad but the tickets were crazy expensive. We ended up going to a restaurant called the Shaved Duck where we watched some of the game. After dinner we went to our hotel and watched the Cardinals win game 7. On Saturday we got up and headed to the St. Louis temple, which was the purpose of the trip. It will sure be nice when the KC temple is done and we don't have to drive so far. After the temple we went to The Hill neighborhood which we heard has a lot of good Italian places to eat and is famous for their hand made toasted ravioli. It was delish! After lunch we headed downtown to the arch. The arch is crazy! I was surprised at how big it is. We got tickets to watch a movie on how it was built and Jeremy tells me it was really interesting as I slept through the show. I needed a nap. After the movie/nap time we got to ride in these tiny little booths up to the top of the arch and take pictures of the view. It was really cool. After the arch we went to Union Station which was kind of run down, I would equate it to trolley square in SLC. And finally we hit up Ted Drewes frozen custard before the drive home. It is one of the famous stops along route 66 and very popular. It was a quick but good trip to St. Louis.

Flies!

I don't know what it is about this place but I swear it is infested with flies! We get flies in our house all the time and I am going crazy. Literally. I sit and watch the windows for large chunks of time trying to understand how they get in. I think they are coming through a little slit in the window. Jer says it is for venting. I don't care what it is for I hate flies and will do anything to get rid of them. So, I am duct taping the windows.

The Country Club Plaza

We had an enjoyable Saturday riding our bikes to The Country Club Plaza in KC. It is about 7 miles away. It is a really trendy area with a lot of stores and shops. There was also a park we rode around that had this random playground like work out equipment. It was pretty funny to see people seriously acting like they were working out on it. And yes I did take a picture of the little person we saw because I love little people! I also took a picture for my friend Melissa of the wedding party we ran into because whenever her and I would be out on an adventure we would always run into weddings. But it didn't really work cause I was far away and the picture came out dark. Sorry Meloose! On our ride home we rode through the most amazing neighborhoods. I think we saw three country clubs so you can imagine the houses. They were like plantations. They were so huge and had huge lawns. We decided we will live there some day. Also, did you know the KC area has more fountains than any city in the world except Rome? Well, we do. And we saw a lot of those today but I didn't take pictures of many as it is not safe to camera phone and ride your bike at the same time. Another fun fact about KC is that it is NOT flat. I repeat, not flat at all. Very hilly. So yeah, don't be thinking our bike rides involve no effort. These are some of the great things you'll get to see when you come visit! Oh and the homeless people, there were lots of those too.