Our Project.

When we moved into our apartment we had nothing, not a thing.  I had been living in my employers house for a year, so I had my clothes and an old chair I'd picked up off the streets in NYC.  Mckay had a little more than what I did, but I had a "no bachelor" rule.  Meaning, the old black lacquer IKEA dresser had to go (replaced with an antique 1960's mahogany dresser, Criagslist find!).

So we had nothing.

I was looking on Freecycle for a desk and came across a broken-down, rained on, falling-apart beauty.  Only the picture was tiny so I couldn't really get a feel for the condition it was in, but asked for it anyway.  On a Saturday Mckay and a friend went to pick it up and came home with quite the piece of junk.  "What have I done?" (my thought).

But Mckay said, "Let's make it our project!", and so we did! And I am so thrilled with the end result.

 First, we cleaned.  We wore down two sponges until they were garbage worthy.  Yes, Mckay pulled out his headlamp, which was both cute and funny, but also practical.  {See, we didn't have a light source in our living room until we'd been living in our apartment for a month and I finally went and bought us a lamp.} 

 Then we stripped.

The stain that is, we stripped the stain off, with very strong chemicals that burned my skin when the breezy November morning blew it up into my face.  It was a gooey mess, but so worth it, the wood was completely untreated by the time we finished that part.

 Then he sanded the body and I sanded the drawers.  That took us hours, it was great, noisy, messy fun.

 I was so stumped on how to get rid of all the sawdust, we had serious amounts of it everywhere.  Then I had a brilliant, resourceful idea & brought out my hairdryer (good thing it is so powerful) and got rid of the first layer quite easily.  After that we had to wipe it down many, many times.

 Next, my man put nails and screws all over it to make it strong again. We accidentally let the top of the desk sit between two chairs for a few days and it caused some warping of the wood, so he had to fix that for us. 

The last step, paint.  Bavarian creme.  1 pint.  4 coats.  A light sand.  Knobs.

VOILA!

It's love.

He's kookoo for kimchi

-We've been quite sick around here. Last week I was bed/couch ridden for two days feeling like I'd been run over by a truck. Mckay nursed me back to health, then he got sick, but with somewhat different symptoms, and then I re-got sick. Now we both have matching nasty, gross colds. Cute.

-I have a pet now. It's a little darling bunny. Okay, it's not really my pet. "No pets!!!" is actually the text I got from Mckay when I told him I had a pet bunny. That was before I clarified that it was an outside bunny-now he's cool with it. So really there is just this bunny that hangs around our yard and I like to pretend it's because she loves me. I did give her three carrots today to buy her love. And named her Rosie the {my} bunny. I chose that name because M has vowed to veto "Rosie" when/if we have a girl babe, sad.

-On Sunday Mckay made me dinner. It was the very first time he's ever cooked for me. (He counts last December when he made french toast for my family while we were visiting Logan, I don't.)  He decided to make Korean food (he served his mission in Korea) and enlisted the help of our good friend Jong Seung.  So I relaxed while they steamed up my kitchen.

Ever heard of kimchi (it's the red, wilted veggies in the pan above)? It's basically fermented cabbage and other vegetables. Korean people LOVE it. More than love, they're a little obsessed.  They cannot live without it. I was listening to NPR a few weeks ago and the price of cabbage had spiked for a few weeks and people were paying $10.00/cabbage. If you live in Korea you eat kimchi every single day (!!!???).  Not kidding.

Our finished product.  Here we have Mckay's favorite Korean dish, kimchi bokumbop or kimchi fried rice if you will. It was a fantastic dinner.  I was hesitant and worried that I wouldn't like any of it, but I actually ate everything off my plate. The meat was my favorite, it was incredible. The rice was good, minus the kimchi was a little strong, but it's an acquired taste, so they tell me.  The pancake looking thing is a potato smashed and fried with green onions, yum! Also some pot sticker type thing. Impressed? I was.

It was fun to learn so much about Korea and hear a few of Mckay's mission stories.  The only thing I wasn't crazy about was the smell of fried, fermented cabbage that filled our home for a few days. Next time we'll cook at JS's house. Yep.

-Lastly, I came home to an Autumn themed package from my Mama. It was so wonderful, totally brightened my day.  She sent us a jar of her canned peaches (a fave), apricot jam, fall colored dish towels, microwave pop-corn on the cob (cute!), and some pumpkins for decorations. She's the sweetest.

reception.

 so. much. fun.

the happy dance?

yes.

temple.

they arrived. i got home from work super late and i was totally drained. i checked my email, hoping for a pick me up and VOILA, there they were. so many of happy feelings & 700 pictures to look through. i sat on my couch way too late into the night clicking through each one of the proofs.

they were divided into two catagories, temple & reception-

he's climbin in yo window

Mckay was Antoine Dodson for Halloween.
 HILarious.
If you haven't seen this clip, go here.

The original plan was for me to go as Kelly Dodson (his sister) but that didn't end up happening.  After I put his make-up on I did my own, put on my pink tee and belt, and just felt stupid and weird.  We didn't have any wig for me so I just looked like an oompa loompa.  Last minute (like we should have been at the party by this time) I threw on my costume from Mckay's 28th birthday party {this} and we flew out the door to a couples Halloween party as Antoine Dodson and some funny 70's house wife.  Whatever.

Mckay won most original Halloween costume.

And then he performed the Antoine routine for everyone. Oh how I wish I could post a video of that. I was crying.  It was probably the most hilarious thing I've ever seen him do.  (Second only to his dance to "Toxic" by Brittney Spears later that night on the Wii, wish I had a video of that too.)

He really wanted to pass out candy this year, so on Sunday we sat on our balcony in the freezing cold waiting & waiting for the kids who never came.  Mckay was so disappointed, he'd even made sure we had the "good candy".

He kept saying things like, "Doesn't Glenbrook Road sound like a good road to trick-or-treat on?" and, "Maybe people around here never give out candy so the kids don't come...".  Finally, deflated and shivering and sick from candy, we retreated inside.  

Our friends came over shortly after and we watched The Nightmare Before Christmas, which I had never seen before.  Mmehhhh, the boogie man creeped me out & I felt bad for Sandy Clause.

Now that Halloween is over, I seriously cannot believe it's November.  We're excited for Thanksgiving, even though neither of us especially like Thanksgiving food... & after that CHRISTMAS!!! I may have listened to one Christmas song in my car the other day (Joy to the World) even though I have a strict (eeehhh) after Thanksgiving policy.  I couldn't help it.