There's no place like home... There's no place like home...

 

Well, today Joe and I (me, the native Kansan) experienced our first tornado! I was driving home on my lunch break around 11:00 AM to have lunch with Joe and the music stopped mid-song and the robot recording guy told me to take cover for a tornado!! Kinda freaky! It was pretty dark out and it was raining hard, but nothing looked unusual especially since we have been having so much rain lately. Well, then the tornado sirens went off. If you don't know what those are they are basically a foghorn thing on a big high pole that rotates around on top and makes this loud semi high-piched warning sound. If it's facing you it's super loud. I have heard it a decent amount because they set it off on Wednesdays to make sure it works, but I don't hear it often foreal! When I was a little girl, I used to see the sky change to crazy colors every now and again... green, yellow or orange. This time I SAW a real tornado and there were no crazy colors! I burst through the front door to tell Joe what I heard on the radio, but he had the news on -- I'm sure it was on every channel! There had been a touch down about 20 minutes south of us and the wall cloud was quickly headed our way. It was already to where I work -- I had called to let them know what I had heard on the radio and my boss said that everyone was gathering in the bathrooms to take cover. Joe called me to our back door and there it was! We had a huge funnel cloud that appeared to be on the ground although we couldn't see since trees were in the way. Joe took a video of it (here is the link to the video!)and I took a couple pictures! I started to line the bathtub with pillows (which after the fact Joe thought was hilarious) since we live in an apartment and have no basement, but the funnel moved away from us. *PHEW*! According to the weather people on TV, the tornado did touch down several places around us although the only damage done in the entire metro area that I know of was a few headstones were knocked down way south of us. Us Kansas Citians had a crazy little adventure this morning that was both amazing and terrifing, and I think I can speak for a lot of people when I say how grateful I am that all my loved ones are safe and to be safe myself. Oh, and don't be afraid to visit!! :-)

Annnnnnnnnnd we're married!

...And have been for almost A MONTH! I apologize greatly for the silence on here, and promise to do better from NOW ON! :) All you former brides will understand, right? I guess I can't blame it ALL on the wedding and post-marriage life organizing... We don't have internet at our place (can I say how much I miss my wireless?!) and now our laptop has met his death :( Cracked screen. For now, I gotta utilize my time at Sunday dinner at my parents :) We're lucky to live so close to family. Or I guess it wasn't luck. We chose to live here.
Well, anyway, to catch everyone up on the last two months-ish...
I actually did survive the planning and everything turned out well. We are all moved into our new (and first home) here in Kansas. We live in our humble little one bedroom apartment, and are loving it. It has been so fun making it home and home-y. I'm still taking care of infants full-time and Joe is workin hard in the hot sun (which has been off-the charts the last two or so months) selling pest control for Homeshield. If anyone in the area has a bug problem or want to prevent a problem, hit us up and Joe will hook you right up.
We haven't gotten our professional wedding photos yet, but our fantastic photographers, Sherrie and Jay posted a few of them on our new blog so I'm including the link. Check them out -- They did an amazing job on both our engagements and our wedding pictures and they are so, so fun. I 2000% recommend them to anyone in the KC/Omaha area. *Disclaimer* Some of the photos they posted include my special ed smile. Doh! Oh well :) When we get the pictures, we will for sure post a bunch! Keep your eye out for them.

Wedding Photo Sampling :)

Lots of great news : )

So as of late...

- My sister has picked out a name for her baby girl, whom she could be HOLDING in the next six weeks. LOVE! I, like, rrrrrrrrrrrrrrreally want to tell what the name is, but I'm not sure if she's announced it publicly yet. Rest assured that the name is perfectly adorable. We are all SO excited for Melissa and to meet the little lady.

- My friend from high school, Justina, just had a baby boy.

- We bought the plane ticket on Monday for Joe to fly in from Portland (he starts his pre-wedding job there next week) in less than a month so we can get all the fab wedding items done that we need to do together ie: ENGAGEMENT PICTURES which we are taking on our EXACT ONE YEAR anniversary. (You don't have to tell us. We know we're adorable.) Also, loved ones have started to ask where we are registered or to let us know when we actually are putting things ON our registries (details, details). Joe and I will be registering the week of May 9 at Target and Bed, Bath and Beyond.

- We get married in 3 MONTHS from... [drum roll please] TODAY! Woohooooo! Things are really coming together, and we are beyond excited.

- My DRESS is on its way and I am both nervous and out of my mind thrilled!

- I received our reprinted and this time PERFECT announcements on Monday! I am pretty relieved that the company agreed to reprint them and that they turned out this time. What a blessing.

- It's officially SPRING IN KANSAS! All the trees are in bloom and the grass is so green. If you have read my other entries about being sick of winter, then you know how happy I am about all of this. : )

Well, I think that's about it. We sure hope all is going well for you and yours.

Forget That Groundhog

I am ready for spring NOW! It has been an extremely cold and snowy winter in Kansas City. Neither one are something I care much for. I'm willing to put up with winter and I love that Kansas City has all four seasons (unlike in Rexburg where there are only two and winter stretches from about September through May or June and either involves huge quantities of snow, negative temperatures or both), but this much snow has gotten old! I demand springtime! So I am changing our blog background in protest. And encouragement. No more snowflakes. :)

Exciting News

Joe has a new brand new niece (His first one!) who was born this morning at 9:25 to Charlie and Amy Tulikihakau. She was 9lbs. 3 oz. Sounds like quite a healthy baby! It is traditional in Tongan culture for the sister of the first born baby in the family of the baby's father to name the baby (Sounds complicated, but it's not really!). Joe and Charlie's sister, Sekola, named the little one Lineti Mele Feinga Tulikihakau. She was named for their mother who passed away several years ago. Sekola was a stinker and wouldn't tell anyone what name she chose for the baby until little Lineti was here, but she chose a beautiful name. Here is a picture Joe sent me of him holding Lineti! I wish I could have been there, and I can't wait to meet her soon!

The picture isn't great quality -- it was taken with a cell phone -- but it is precious none the less! So tiny and perfect!
Meanwhile, here in Kansas we are in the middle of our THIRD snow storm in just two weeks. We don't usually get much snow, so this is crazy! The high on Friday is supposed to be -2! Yuck! Joe is somehow jealous. Who would think an island boy would be a snow bunny! He loved every minute of the snow when he lived in Provo, Utah where it snows all the time! I can't say that I'm a fan, myself. Too bad he isn't here to shovel it! :-) The back deck had snow on it that was about knee deep and we are supposed to be getting up to five inches more. It started snowing around noon and has been snowing steadily since. I got a call saying they were closing early at work today and that I wasn't needed today, so I got the day off. I was told to watch the news tonight to watch to see if I have work tomorrow. My sister has a snow day tomorrow, which  would have been her first day back from Christmas break. Winter is definitely in full effect in Kansas City! Oy! I help it all melts soon!

xoxo
Bren

Having a Good Attitude

I heard something great in church today I wanted to share. In Relief Society, a sister was giving the lesson on being positive and told this story:

There was a woman who had cancer and was losing her hair due to chemotherapy. She woke up one day and looked in the mirror and found that she has three hairs left. She smiled and said, "I'm going to braid my hair today!" She did and had a great day. The next day, she woke up and looked in the mirror. That day she had two hairs left. She smiled and said, "I'm going to part my hair in the middle today!" She did and had a great day. The next day, she woke up and looked in the mirror and only had one hair left. She smiled and said, "I'm going to wear my hair in a ponytail today!" She did and had a great day. The next day, she woke up and looked in the mirror and had no hair left. She smiled and said, "I don't have to do my hair today!"

I will have to be honest and say that if I had three hairs left, I would not be smiling nor would I braid my three hairs. I think I would have shaved it all off a long time ago and gotten a wig. (This shows my vanity: My wanting to  look like I have hair being strongly outweighed by how creepy I think wigs feel. And are in general. Same thing with fur. I don't know - It's a sensory thing.) I hope this story made you laugh. It was a great reminder to me to be positive even when things get tough. I hope you are all staying warm! And if you have warm weather, I am JEALOUS! It's FREEZING here in Kansas and won't stop snowing! It's beautiful though! (That's me being positive!)

xoxo
Bren