A Great Day at the Art Museum

One thing I love about Kansas City is that the art museum is FREE! A couple of Sundays ago Tim, my sister, Gavin and I went to the museum and had a really fun afternoon. We only got through the first floor - we plan to go back soon and see a little more. Why not, it's free!

Below is one of the pictures my sister took of one of the paintings. I was really impressed what she could do with my very basic digital camera.

We took turns holding Gavin. He slept most of the time so it was pretty easy.

Do you think we look alike? Some people confuse us and others don't realize we are sisters.

Mom always knows best!

Fall Garden

Since I don't start my new job at Harvesters until next Tuesday, I got inspired to take this week and work at the garden at Cherith Brook. They had a good garden throughout this summer with lots of okra, tomatoes, and peppers, both mild and HOT!!! The HOT ones are my favorite. Most of those plants are still producing, so I used the tiller yesterday to build some more beds.

Today I headed over to the Kansas City Community Garden and spent a whopping $3 on seeds and seedlings. Just wait until you hear all that I planted for that $3!

Collard Greens
Cabbage
Broccoli
Turnips
Radishes
Spinach
Tatsoi (an Asian green)

It's a week or two late for anything else, but all this stuff should make for a great fall crop. I'll post pictures soon.

The Wreckers

Last night we went to see The Wreckers in concert. The Wreckers are Michelle Branch & Jessica Harp. Jessica actually went to high school with Trinity here in Kansas City, so they did a free concert for the hometown crowd. It was a lot of fun, and it was even cool outside! Fall is almost here in Missouri, and it is wonderful. If any of you Southerners down there need some relief from the heat, our pull-out couch is ready for you!

More good news!

I had a job interview for an Americorps position at Harvesters, Kansas City's food bank. I was actually seriously considering another job working with refugees, but the Harvesters interview swayed me more that way. Just a few hours later they called me back and offered me the position, so I thought about it and talked with a few people last night and decided to accept it today.

I don't yet know everything I'll be doing, but I will be a Nutrition Education Specialist, going to after school programs, churches, community centers, retirement communities, etc. to teach cooking classes about nutrition! I think it will be a lot of fun as well as enable me to make lots of connections around KC for possible job opportunities in the future.

So, Trinity and I both have jobs now. I feel like we can finally relax and get settled in our new home. And that is a good feeling.

Good News!

While interviewing for different positions, I have been doing temporary work at a nonprofit called American Humanics. I have really enjoyed working there but knew going into it that they didn't have any openings. Today when I went to work, I was pulled into the President's office and told that the current Executive Assistant had gotten engaged and was moving to Chicago. Then the amazing happened - they offered me the position! After talking it over with Tim at lunch, I accepted the position this afternoon.

The main focus of American Humanics is to train nonprofit leaders. They work primarily with colleges and universities, students and nonprofit organizations. I will be the assistant to the President and the Board, responsible for the day to day financials and other general office management. It is a great opportunity getting to do similar things as I was at the League but on a much larger scale. The office environment is great and my co-workers are all really nice.

I start training tomorrow morning. So after three weeks, I am no longer unemployed. YEAH!

Some stories

Instead of trying to remember everything that's happened in the last 2-plus weeks, here's a few stories:

I had been having a particularly hard time with this whole transition - I spent three or four days out of our first week here pretty much out of commission from sadness and anxiety. But I got to feeling much better last week. I talked to Bob (our Atlanta counselor) the other day and he helped lift my spirits a lot, and I've found a wonderful community center nearby with friendly people and treadmills to give myself some good strong exercise to get the endorphins pumpin'. I even forgot my iPod there the other day and when I rushed back 2 hours later in panic mode to try to retrieve it they had saved it at the desk for me. And we supposedly live in a bad neighborhood!

We visited a great old church last Sunday morning that reminds us a lot of our dear DHBC. They are a small congregation with an old, huge building (and locked front doors!), but they are doing much for this community. The similarities were both comforting and saddening at the same time. And we went and helped with their homeless ministry Monday night. We also attended our first neighborhood association meeting last week and we are very excited about participating in that and serving this neighborhood.

It's been HOT here in KC, as I know it has been pretty much everywhere else we have friends and family. We've had highs over100 most of the time. And we're still holding strong with no air conditioner! We've actually gotten remarkably used to it and now we're cold pretty much anytime we go anywhere else now. I went to a conversation about church planting with CBF MO on Friday and I wore jeans and layers because I knew I'd be cold at the restaurant, and sure enough I still was even with my layers! It hasn't been too bad here though - our apartment is basically ALL windows, which helps so much. Our bathroom is another story though. Every time I go in there I leave soaking wet and it's not because I take a shower all those times either!

We'd love to hear what's going on with any of you - just random stuff like this. Andrew & Jim both e-mailed me last week about anything that was on their minds or that they had been up to, and Trinity and I both really appreciated that. We'll talk to Y'ALL soon. (I didn't like to say that when I lived in the South, but now that we're here I've been saying it in honor of y'all down there!) We miss you. Love, Tim & Trinity

Before & After

We've still got a few rough edges here or there that need some work, but we're making some great progress. Even if you can't tell from the pics, it sure does feel more like a home now than a storage shed!

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Moving In

We arrived in Kansas City around noon on Wednesday and immediately started unloading the truck. We had lots of help which made it go a lot faster. Thanks to everyone who came to help us unload and unpack.

Our new neighbors, Chris and Katie, made a Welcome Home sign for us


As you can see the truck was packed very FULL

Getting Settled In Kansas City

We are both pretty exhausted but are finally getting settled here in Kansas City. It has been a very busy week and I am excited to share with y'all about it. Wednesday was spent moving in and trying to make the apartment livable. My family and some of our friends came over that evening to help us unpack. Thursday morning we took Twister for a walk up to the local Ace Hardware store to get some keys made and other things for the apartment. We did some more unpacking We tried to get the car stuff switched over to Missouri but realized that would take awhile. That night we went to Community Dinner at Cherith Brook and afterwards Tim, Chris, Katie & I sat at the table in our front yard for a couple of hours. It was nice to sit down and take a break from unpacking. Friday morning we had breakfast outside and took another walk with Twister to explore a different direction of our neighborhood. We did some more unpacking to get our stuff out of Mike's room so we could go pick it up in the afternoon. Mike is all moved in and things are coming together.

I start a temporary job on Wednesday as a receptionist and Tim is going to start looking on Monday. I have one interview on Monday and hopefully another one with the State of Missouri Department of Social Services next week. I am glad to have the temp work to hold us over until jobs come through.

We have met some neighbors and lots of people wave and say hello. We are definitely starting to feel more at home. I better cut this short because Merci is coming over for our first slumber party and I need to move some more boxes out of the way - the unpacking never ends!