new calling and then some...

Yesterday I was called to be the new ward chorister...which serves me right. As soon as I heard the current ward chorister was moving soon, I immediately started teasing Wade about the fact that they would need a new one and they would probably call him. Weekly, I would say, "Soon that's going to be you up there..." Psh. I don't even know how to lead music.

We finally got a couch, which turned out to be to a ridiculous endeavor. We were confronted with 3 problems.
1-no large transportation (and a couch wouldn't exactly fit on the subway.)
2-tiny winding stairs and hallways
3-lack of time
So we rented a Home Depot truck hourly, drove down to Ikea, got lost 2 times, bought the couch, brought it back to the North End, turned on the hazard lights on our "NO PARKING" street and kept a close eye as to not get towed or ticketed, as we hopelessly tried to get the couch through the building's front door. I'm guessing we were quite the sight, especially since I was whining the whole time, and I quote, "WAAAAADE, its too heavy. I can't do it. I just can't." Poor guy has a wuss for a wife. So we ripped all the cardboard/cushions/lining off the couch, somehow got it up the stairs, only to find that it WOULD NOT fit through the front door. So we left it in the hallway for two hours while we took the truck back and rode the subway home. Good thing we had a genius neighbor who told us how to get it inside. Now we don't have to sit on our kitchen chairs to watch TV! hurrah!

Everything is going well. Except for the fact that Wade tricked me today at the grocery store and traded our 1% milk for Vitamin D. Which disgusts me. Of course I didn't notice until we got home. His punishment? SKIM MILK. FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE.

Here are some pictures from our recent excursions:

This is our precious home away from home.

This is the pumpkin festival where they had over 30,000 jack-o-lantern's all lit up.
It was amazing!

This is our delicious fried dough...

...at the Head of the Charles Regatta races.

Here we are pretending we know how to play instruments.

This is our new favorite restaurant. Best chips and salsa ever!

This is the fruit my mom bought for us. She went crazy at the farmer's market.

This is at the Old North Church, which just so happens to be right in my backyard. And yet, I still never managed to go over there.

Mike's Pastry, famous for their cannoli's. But personally, I find them to be repulsive.

official declaration

I have become a city girl. How can I so boldly declare such a thing? Well, today I successfully found my way from the doctor's office (more blood sucking...), to TJ Maxx (I desperately need a pea coat), to the Boston Public Library (I can't wait to start borrowing books!), to the UPS store (fingerprinting for my new job), to the grocery store, and then carried everything home, switching from the Orange Line, to the Red Line, to the Green Line...

all by myself.
without even getting lost!
i know, i know. amazing.

Such newfound success has put me in a good mood, motivating me to tell you that today I am so grateful for...

ikea couches
smart doctors
getting a new job
wade
my grandma
(who calls me on a regular basis to check up on me)
fall weather
space heaters
(due to the fall weather...)

grapes
redbox

Stay tuned. I have much to catch up on. My mom came to visit this past weekend and I saw more in this city than I've seen since the entire time we've lived here. It was fun to have her and her friend Annaleesa here, and we're so glad they could come! We miss them already! We're already counting down the days until Wade's parents come...six to go. We can't wait!

i finally did it.

I can't really explain why it has taken me so long to do this...
maybe it's because I'm my own harshest critic.
But gosh dang it, I want to be a photographer.
and I've got to start somewhere right?

kalipoulsenphotography.blogspot.com

there's not much on there yet, but I'm hoping to update often.
comments are welcome...and so are criticisms.

I emailed my entire ward out here and told them I wanted to take their family pictures for free to get some good practice in.
Little did I know, I was taking on quite a big job. I am now trying to schedule about 16 families/newborns/kids within the next two weeks before I start my new job. I'm so excited though! The weather has been great and the leaves are starting to turn colors, so I should hopefully be able to get some good ones.

our daily entertainment...

a review of our first month

We've experienced a few interesting and life threatening things...

the first being the time I almost blew up our apartment. I'm new at the whole gas stove operation. Wade has explained to me many times that I need to always make sure I turn the knob off when I am finished, because gas is still spewing out. Well, somehow as I was doing my wifely duties of cooking dinner, the fire burned out while I had it on low. I just assumed it was off. We ate dinner and then went on a search for a Sears to buy a new vacuum bag. We were gone for maybe 2 hours. When we came home, you can only imagine what our apartment smelled like. Yes...gas. We quickly opened all the windows and turned on the fans. While I was in the other room calling my parents and panicing, Wade did the one thing he wasn't supposed to do, and turned the gas off (which has to bypass the spark before reaching off). We're lucky this place didn't explode.

one day, as we were walking in an unfamiliar part of town, we heard a very loud and obnoxious siren from somewhere up above. Not only did it scare the heck out of us, we also thought that the world was under attack. Seriously, I thought it was the end. Well, it just so happened to be that the ground was just splitting in front of us and raising so a boat could pass through. A BOAT, people. Boats just randomly sail through the roads at their own free will. I can't say that siren won't scare me anymore, but at least I will know that the world is not caving in on us.

We took a journey out to the middle of nowhere on Friday, to the Boston Temple. We quickly learned that being car-less is kind of a problem. We took a taxi from the train station...and then we didn't have enough cash left to get back when we were done with our session. So we bummed a ride from a cute couple, who comes down from New Hampshire twice a month to work in the temple, back to the train station. phew.

After we got off the train from going to the temple we were, of course, dressed in our church clothes. This seemed to attract some unwanted attention. A scary guy stopped and stared at us on the street with an evil look in his eyes and then started walking with Wade, who was behind me. He said, "Hey don't I know you?" Wade was confused and said, "No dude, I don't think so." Then came the reply, "Yeah. You go to Harvard don't you?" Coming from a guy who CLEARLY didn't go to Harvard, Wade realized that this man was giving him a hard time about being dressed like he was and was quite upset about his status in life. We are grateful that nothing else happened and that we were able to get home safely. I was worried that we were going to get robbed. Then I realized that we own nothing worth any value and all he would have gotten was an empty wallet. ha ha.

The most exciting part of our week was a cute package we received in the mail from Miss Jennifer Banks. Oh, how we love her.

After hearing about our lack of grocery stores, she mailed us all our favorite goodies, including rainbow chip cake and frosting, mashed potatoes, cereal, popcorn, brownies, spanish rice and jello.

Inside was a card that was so cute and hilarious, so I'm including what she wrote:

Dear Kali (and Wade of course),

I'm so glad that you made it to Boston safe and that all is well! I absolutely love reading your blog and talking to you and hearing about all of your adventures. I am sorry you have a bug infested apartment and that you don't even have a real grocery store near you. I promise you I no longer take my Walmart runs for granted (I bet you don't hate Walmart as much now, do you Wade? :)) Anyway, since you can't go shopping for real, I just wanted to send you some treats to brighten your day and say I love you and miss you. I can't wait to come and see everything I have heard about. It sounds like so much fun. Good luck with school and finding a job and everything else going on in your lives. I pray for you constantly and hope you will let me know if there is ever anything I can do for you! Love you tons, Jenn

P.S. Please kill all the bugs before I come.

It definitely gave us a much needed boost. I'm so grateful for her thoughtfulness and friendship. Viva! I love you! and I miss you so much!