The Newest....

Member of the Wiltz household...

Kito, a Yochon, Yorkie Bichon mix. Worn out after a busy day...

Mr. Kito right after coming home from the pet store, before we took the adorable little bow out...

Jeremy could hardly stand it. Boy dogs don't wear bows, apparently.

Now, if we can just teach him that outside is the place to relieve himself, we will all be much happier.

More on Kito's story and an update on our life later. Just wanted to get the introductions out of the way.

Lead Me

I heard this song on my way home from work yesterday and loved it.

When I was searching for the song, I was exploring their website and happened upon this prayer

Prayer for Wives

Heavenly Father, you have called me to honor and serve my husband in grace, humility and love, and yet I so often let worry, insecurity and fear overshadow that calling. Unburden my heart from worry and expectations. Teach me to relinquish control of my life and marriage to you, for only you are strong enough to carry and sustain it.

Lead me to a place of deep trust and intimacy with you, so that I would seek no emotional fulfillment elsewhere, but would bring to my relationship with my husband a rich overflow of confidence and strength, making of our home and marriage a peaceful, restful haven. Show me how best to love my husband, supporting and respecting him, praying for and trusting the work of your Spirit in his heart and life.

Give me the wisdom to value what is eternal, so that I might be truly content with my present circumstances, and not fretful or anxious over family decisions and finances. Teach me to be beautiful as you define beauty. Let me ba a creative and enjoyable friend and companion for my husband, gracious and kind, gentle in disagreement and quick to forgive.

Only as you lead me will I become the woman and wife that my husband needs. So lead me, O Lord. Amen.

AMEN!

They also have a Prayer for Husbands and Prayer for Your Children & Grandchildren

http://www.sanctusreal.com/

Chicago and Girls' Weekend

A week after Jeremy and I returned from Disney World, I left for an interior design expo in Chicago for 5 days. Again, lots of walking, but we couldn't pass up the chance to do a little tourism in the evenings.

Waiting in line for the Ferris Wheel at Navy Pier.

The view from the top of the Ferris Wheel at Navy Pier.

Buckingham Fountain while we waited for the Art Institute free hours at 5 pm.



A Black Hawks helmet on the lion outside the Art Institute after they won the Stanley Cup.

The Friday I returned from Chicago, my sisters and mom came to Kansas City for some girl time. We spent a lot of time taking pictures of my beautiful little sister for her senior pictures. We also managed to get a little photoshoot in for Carmen and the three of us together.

I think the pictures turned out beautifully. Carmen took most of the pictures while mom and I offered suggestions for poses and ensured that Val was lookin' good, not that she needed much help.

I love these shoes, and this picture!

These are the unedited pictures. Carmen has edited and cropped some of them on her blog.

Other than taking pictures, we ventured into an Architectural salvage store, through the Farmer's Market downtown, and to my favorite fabric store in downtown Overland Park.

I think we decided that we need to make a Girls' weekend atleast an annual event.

Disney World

A couple weeks ago, Jeremy and I went to Disney World for a week of fun.

It was great to get away from the daily grind for a while, and spend some quality time together. I enjoyed the spontaneity of the trip, but I kind of missed having a routine.

The pictures are out of order, but they give a decent overview of the trip.

Waiting for the Parade and Fireworks at Magic Kingdom.

Our first full day at the park.

We were very ambitious and spent the whole day walking and figting the crowds.

The first night, we went to Downtown Disney where we found a store that let you build your own potato head. These became a gift for Hannah's second birthday.

We ate dinner the first night at Planet Hollywood in Downtown Disney.

We spent the least amount of time at Animal Kingdom, but still managed to do most everything there. We came back to the park for a couple hours just to get this picture.

It rained every day we were there, so we spent lots of time in these ponchos.

Epcot

For our anniversary, we ate at an African restaurant, Jiko, at the Animal Kindom Lodge.

The service and food was wonderful, as well as the atmosphere.

We decided we need to make a point of taking vacations more often, even if it is just a couple days.

We Made It!!!

This is not the most flattering picture of me, but it's the only one we have from the half marathon race (there will probably be more posted this week on the website of me in pain and agony during the race). It was a chilly start, but turned out to be the perfect weather. The first 9 or 10 miles went great. I have been having problems with my right foot, and it started hurting after the first mile, but I had accepted that I was just going to have to deal with it. We were on pace to finish between 2:05 and 2:10 until the tenth mile when I got a super painful cramp in my side. Jeremy stayed with me through my run 50 meters - walk 50 meters - whining pattern for the next three miles. I thought we were never going to reach the finish line, but alas we made it! We finished the race, and we didn't even get last. The verdict is still out on whether I will ever do another one, maybe if I get this foot thing figured out.....Jeremy says he is going to do a full marathon sometime. I can't imagine running 2x the distance we did! It gives me 100x more respect for marathon runners! Our final time was 2:23:55. Jeremy even let me cross the finish line first so I beat him by a second. What a guy! :)

The most beautiful part of the day.... gettin a 45 minute massage and Cheesecake Factory afterward!

Stay tuned for an update on our home improvement project. We finished it last weekend!! ... other than some minor details...

TGIF

Four day work weeks always seem to be longer weeks than five. I wouldn't trade it, but Friday never seems to come fast enough when we have Mondays off. I guess that's pretty typical of every week, but anyway...

Today was an even better Friday than usual. I got home at 2:00 due to an electrical fire in the basement of the Federal Building. After the plane crashing into the federal building in Austin yesterday, it made me kind of nervous when the fire alarms started going off and the burning smell spread throughout the building. (Sidenote: the IRS doesn't work in the same federal building that I do) I was in a meeting with a product representative on the 4th floor(my office is on the 5th floor) when the lights went out around 12:15. I thought it was just the occupancy sensor that had gone off in the conference room, but I looked out in the hallway and the whole west end of the floor was without power. Nobody seemed to be panicking so we continued talking about rubber flooring in a dimly lit room. About ten minutes later, I faintly heard sirens going off and saw people heading toward the stairs with their coats and bags. One of the security guards was at the opposite end of the building and shouted down the hall to us that it was a real fire. We have quite a few false alarms in the federal building so nobody gets too shook up when sirens start going off. So Nicole(the other interior designer) and I ran upstairs and grabbed our coats and other belongings and headed down the stairs. The further we went, the stronger the smell and smokier the stairwell got. Still nobody was in a real hurry. We made it outside and saw about 50(very little exaggeration, if any) emergency vehicles surrounding the building and blocking off the street in a 2 block radius -- fire trucks, ambulances, police cars, and all.

We all stood out in the rain/snow/sleet for about 30 minutes before they dismissed all of us to go home for the day. Pretty anti-climactic, huh? I'm glad it was nothing more than a small fire, but thankful for a few hours off work.

On a less serious note, since I got off work early, I had time to go to the grocery store before it became a zoo. HyVee has Kellogg's cereal for 50% off, plus some online coupons, making for some pretty great deals. We got 6 boxes of cereal(the biggest size in all of them) and a bag of Stacy's pita chips(free coupon from becoming a fan on Facebook) for $10.54. I looked at the receipt and we saved over $16. I am not a frequent "coupon-er" but I love a good deal! It kinda makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. :)

We've got a pretty eventful weekend planned with more wedding shopping, a trip to Crown Center for a Coterie Theatre show, K-State basketball, lots of Olympics watching, and hopefully the arrival of a new nephew! Can't wait to have a baby boy in the family...

Agglomeration

I am sorry I am not very good at this whole blog deal. I guess I feel like we don't have many exciting things going on that everyone really wants to take the time to read about. We don't have kids or pets... yet to talk about, but I will try to do better at documenting the little things that get us excited. I know I've said that before, but what can ya do? I don't know what we would do if we did have kids right now. I feel like we would be running around like chickens with our heads cut off, even more so than I already do.

Speaking of running, Jeremy and I are training for a half marathon. I know I've said that before too, but this time I think it's really happening. I have actually started to enjoy running. It's been encouraging to go run 5 miles and actually feel good during and afterward instead of complaining to Jeremy the whole time. I think he enjoys it a little more this way too. So, we are signing up for the Olathe Marathon on April 10th if any of you want to join us or watch us stumble over the finish line! Let's all pray for beautiful weather on race day! It would sure make it more enjoyable.

As for the house, we are still loving home ownership. The house is kind of a mess right now as we are finishing the basement. Jeremy's brother, Alex came down a little over a month ago while Jeremy was still on break from school to help frame, run electrical, and hang some drywall. They worked so hard and got a lot done that we could not have done ourselves. Carrying the drywall in and down the stairs proved to be enough of a challenge itself. I had to become okay with having the house be a disaster during the time they were working and it's still pretty messy with lots of dust throughout the house. I haven't gotten too motivated to do a thorough dusting because in a few weeks, one of my coworkers is coming to teach us how to and help us tape and mud the drywall. That, and I don't feel like we've had much time at home to do so. Oh well. Hopefully some of that will happen on my 3-day weekend coming up(thank you President's Day!).

After the drywall finishing, we are hoping that it goes faster. We ordered carpet tile for the basement that I am very excited about! One of the many perks to being and interior designer is getting discounted finishes like that. It was a discontinued pattern so we got it for 88 cents/s.f.... commercial grade carpet tile!! That's much cheaper than broadloom that you can get at Home Depot and it should last forever... or close to it.

Area after coming down the stairs where the tv will be.

Looking back toward the stairs. Closet under the stairs.

Future play room to the left of the stairs.

Play area and storage room

Adding to the messiness of the house, I have temporarily moved part of my craft room to the living room. Jeremy was so sweet to offer to bring my sewing machine downstairs and set it up on the card table so that I could watch tv, hang out with him, and not feel so isolated upstairs by myself while I work on my sewing project. What is the project? I'm so glad you asked. Now don't get suspicious, no bun in the oven, but it is a cloth book for our future children. With all the blogs that I read, I have come accross "quiet books" multiple times and thought they looked so fun. I am finding out that they are also very tedious and I may have gotten in over my head. I guess I have plenty of time to work on it before the little ones come. As I am working on it though, it is fun to think about our kids playing with it and using their imagination along with learning their alphabet. :) These pages aren't finished, but they have the most progress out of any of them. I will try to post more pictures as they get more complete. Most of these idea were not my own. I compiled a lot of them from looking at multiple blogs.

Apple - half of it folds back.

Barn(sorry it got turned) - inside the barn doors are 3 finger puppets, pig, chicken, and cow.

Clock with hands that move

Dog on a leash

Nest with eggs that have little felt chicks inside.

Shoe that will eventually have shoelaces to tie.


Now for the most important part, Jeremy and I are trying to plan a vacation. This will be a first for us other than our honeymoon. We are on a budget, and are up for going anywhere from Colorado and doing outdoorsy stuff to going to Washington D.C. and spending the majority of the time sight-seeing and getting educated. Anyone have any suggestions?? I would love to hear about some of your favorite places to go.

This weekend other than celebrating Valentines day with my favorite person in the world, I get to go wedding dress shopping with Jeremy's sister and mom. I am so excited to get to be a part of this special time with them! I guess that's it for now. I will try my best to do better at this whole blog deal. I'll set a goal of once a month for now.... :)