Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Stuff that is up

So, I'm sure that Sarah will be happy to continue telling the great story of us, so I'll leave it to her. Instead, I thought that I'd interject, hopefully not unwanted, with some more recent news. I HAVE been given permission to write in this blog, after all, so hopefully that's ok.

So, we've been living in Arizona since before the wedding, but certainly since after it. Life here is better than I'd expected by a pretty fair amount, but still is... what it is. It's awesome that Laura and Joseph (Sarah's sister and brother-in-law, for anyone that is reading this somehow without knowing that. I guess there could be some people) are here, cause otherwise we wouldn't really know anybody. I am not a fan of that. As it is, we aren't exactly overflowing with people to spend time with. We still haven't been read into the ward yet, due to my confusingly foot-dragging last (BYU) ward's... foot-dragging. But we WERE extended callings yesterday (Sunday). Sarah's records are in the ward, so she's able to get whatever calling they want to give her, even if she hasn't been read in (I guess), but, since mine are not, they had to find a calling that you can give to non-members or (as I suspect people with updated ward lists bearing my wife's, but not my name on it might imagine I am) ex-coms if they wanted to get things up and running with me.

Fortunately, I happened to mention to my bishop that I have experience directing choirs. I promise that this was not in some kind of seeking-after-calling situation. He'd offered me a chance to come down and check out his company and interview for a job (more on that later) and while we were chatting over the lunch he took me out to, I happened to ask, out of pure interest, if we had a ward choir. He responded as any good bishop would, with his own question- whether or not I knew anybody in the ward that had the skills necessary and/or the experience of choir directing. I responded truthfully that I have admittedly limited experience, but experience nonetheless, and desire to boot, in the field. He seemed very excited about this concept, and, lo and behold, that very Sunday a calling was extended to me. I was curious about how they could do such a thing if I weren't a member of the ward yet, but I discovered this clever loop hole which they have utilized later. I'm pretty excited- I love music, of course, and it has actually been my dream for a long time to be a choir director. It's why I was studying Music Education for my first year of college, and the only reason I regret my decision to switch majors. It's what I thought I was going to get to do, and what I was extremely disappointed I was NOT going to get to do when I got called as ward music chair in my last ward. So this is pretty exciting. It's PRETTY daunting, considering that there has been no choir in over 9 months, so I'm basically starting one from scratch, and Christmas is in (gasp) less than two months. But I'm excited, nonetheless.

Sarah, incidentally, was also extended a pretty cool calling, although it super lamely means I only get to see her one hour of church. She's been called as the Sunday School teacher for the 12-13 year olds, who happen to apparently all be girls. That's a pretty neat calling, and she says she's excited about it, which is good. It's kind of like teaching primary minus sharing time, I think. Hopefully, I will be periodically called upon for various fill-in-style reasons. That would be fun for me.

ANYway, what else do you wanna know? Quit pestering me! Ok fine, I'll just tell you.

So Sarah's been doing FREAKING AMAZING in school. ALL A'S. She hasn't gotten a single grade on anything below an A. She's so fantastic, they should name the school after her. Also, she's loving up her amazing internship at LDS Family Services. Working very hard, and learning lots. I'm so proud of her. I'll let her talk more about that stuff, though. On to me again!

So it took me a month of marriage to find a job, but I did finally get one at JC Penny's, which is actually surprisingly enjoyable, considering it's mall retail. It's only part time, and the plan was that I'd look for another part time job to increase my value in this family somewhat and get ready for who knows what while I still can, before going back to school in January. But I never really did work all that hard on looking for anything else. Which is good, because it would have all been in vain considering that I was pursued and offered a job by my bishop last week at his metal fluids supply company. I know what you're all thinking, "Cuyler, do you feel as if you're dreaming, breaking into the impossibly glamorous world of metal fluids, about which I know so so much??" And you would be right. Except that you asked a question, so that's totally illogical.

So, apparently there's this thing called metal fluids. I guess, from what I've been able to gather from my bishop (and now boss), anything that is metal requires some kind of fluid to make it, operate it, maintain it, and basically do anything else with it. If it's metal, fluid is somehow involved. But it's apparently not usually water. Who knew? Probably my sister- she seems to know everything these days, and my Dad- who has always known everything, and my Dad's dad- same as my dad, just longer, and maybe even my Mom's dad- you just never know with him. He did design weapons or some trash like that for the coast guard. But certainly not me, and probably not many of you. So there's all of these machines out there using fluids, or making other machines with fluids, or oozing fluids after I stuck a stick of home-made dynamite in the exhaust pipe of the semi it was driving while trying to terminate me. And somebody needs to supply those fluids to the people who own (for now) these machines. Well that person is, apparently, often my Bishop. Star Metal Fluids is a major metal fluid supplier nationwide, but especially in the Arizona general area. And after these fluids are supplied to these machines (though obviously before they become sentient and rebel against us and seek to destroy our race) I guess that the levels and consistencies and... whatevers of the fluids need to be checked and serviced periodically. Well Star Metal Fluids does that too. Somebody has to go around to all of these clients and check on their... fluids... I guess. I haven't really learned very much about this yet- Bishop assured me that wasn't a problem. Well that person is me. I don't have to fix it, just report the problem if there is one. Also, I have to build relationships. That's the most important part, apparently. Building relationships with the customer. That, I know I can do. I might even build some relationships with the machines, you know, just in case. Don't worry though, I'll betray their trust in me for the good of mankind. Shoot, they can probably access google and read this. And everything else. Man, they already know all of my weaknesses. We are seriously in trouble in the event of a machine uprising. Way worse than they ever imagined it in the 80's, before google and whatnot owned the rights to- and all of the information about- our existences. Crazy.

Anyway, I'm deciding now whether or not to stay on at Penny's and work myself to death or not. The new job at Star is for much more money and way more hours, so I'm definitely taking it. It just depends on whether or not I want to have more than Sundays off during the week, or if I want to work from 8-4:30, with travel time having me out of the house from 6:45 AM-5:45 PM and then go straight to work at Penny's from 6-9:30. Also whether or not I want to go home for thanksgiving, which I can't do if I stay at Penny's. I'm pretty sure I'll leave them, but we'll see.

Besides that, the Giants won the World Series, and I had to work for the last game. I'm seriously sad about it, but of course, very happy that they won. I just wish I could have shared in the excitement some more. I'm like, almost crying about it sad. But it's a definite mix of emotions. I'd say pretty good split half and half between happy that they won and sad that I didn't get to be as much a part of it as I'd have liked. Whatever. I'll live, I guess.

So that's probably it for now. Sarah should write more so she can include more stuff about herself. Her life is way more exciting and impressive than mine. She's just dang amazing, plus she made unbelievable burritos for us tonight, so... how can you top that?

Peace, all!

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Our Story a.k.a the longest post ever ;)

So we're finally up and running! Now let's just see how good we are at keeping this updated. Well there's probably not a better way to start a family blog than with our very own story (for any of you who don't know it already... or those who love it so much because it's so wildly romantic and you just can't get enough of it). Enjoy!

Cuyler and I met on August 22, 2007 in the LDS Missionary Training Center. Cuyler was headed to Houston, Texas and I was going to Knoxville, Tennessee. Luckily we were both called to speak spanish and ended up in the same MTC district. Over the following 2 months, we spent practically all day, everyday in a tiny little classroom with 10 other missionaries. Over that time we became very good friends. At the end of October we went our separate ways to the mission field, but kept in touch over those 2 years with an occasional card or letter.


I returned from my mission in March of 2009 and quickly returned to college life in Utah. The following August I knew my MTC Elders were returning home soon, and so I sent Cuyler (and a few others) a letter to his home in California, so it would be there when he arrived. When he found my letter he was thrilled (as you can imagine ;). I had included my number in the letter and so he called me soon after. When he moved to Utah the next month, we met up at a CES fireside. When I saw him I couldn't get over how grown up he looked and especially how handsome he was. However, I actually had a boyfriend at the time, so I was reluctant to spend time with such a handsome man. Over the next four months we had occasional interaction, including a double date with me and my boyfriend with Cuyler and my roommate Janae. When my relationship ended at the end of December, Cuyler was the first to notice my sudden changed relationship status on facebook, and did not hesitate to offer a shoulder to cry on. I was pretty excited to have him paying attention to me, and so we began spending multiple days together each week. We enjoyed one another's company and became even better friends, but I was still recovering from a broken heart and therefore, was not ready to jump into a new relationship (although no doubt I had a HUGE crush on Cuyler). We continued to be friends, each dating other people but still spending time together quite often. We did lots of fun things together including the Festival of Colors. Doesn't that look fun?

Eventually I had a decision to make. It was April and I was moving to Arizona in a month and a half, but found myself falling in love with Cuyler and I didn't know what to do. He had started making some moves (holding my hand, cuddling, etc.) and I really liked it. I realized I did not want to lose my chance with such an amazing guy who was my best friend by this point, so I found the perfect moment and gave Cuyler a great big KISS!!!! :) I think I caught him a little off guard, but he didn't mind at all ;). So we FINALLY became an official couple (after about 3 months of spending so much time together) and life was blissful.

One of our favorite things to do together before and while we were dating was to go to the temple.

From then on Cuyler and I were never really separated, other than when I was at work, he was at school, or at night when we had to go home. We spent almost every weekend for the next month and a half taking crazy road trips together to see family and friends. We went to St. George, UT a few times as well as Phoenix, AZ, Idaho Falls, ID, and Logan, UT. It was such a fun time for us!

This was on our road trip to Arizona for my nephew Austin's baby blessing, and for Cuyler to meet my family :)

Then we went to Idaho to visit my bestie Megan and we also got to see one of Cuyler's mission companions, John. On our way back down to Provo we spent the day in Logan and visited my mission president, one of my mission companions, Mary, and another of Cuyler's companions, Lance and his wife Brittney.

Check out these "irresistible" guys :)

Finally the the end of May came and it was time for me to move to Arizona for school. I was SUPER bummed to leave Cuyler. We made plans to see each other a few times that summer, and then he would probably move down in the fall,we'd eventually get engaged and then hopefully get married in January or so. So, we took our final road trip together... We loaded up Cuyler's truck with all of my junk and headed down to Arizona.
On the way down we stopped occasionally to take pictures. At sunset we stopped at a bridge that overlooks Marble Canyon. It was so beautiful! So Cuyler set up the camera to take a picture of us, but when he walked over by me he suddenly got down on one knee, and...


HE PROPOSED!!!!! :)
I was not expecting this AT ALL but I was soooo happy :)
That weekend, we got me all moved in to my new apartment in Tempe and then we headed back up to Utah for me to get my car and the rest of my stuff. We stopped at the Hoover Dam on the way back up (that's what those lights are in the background... it was hard to get a good picture in the dark).
So, we spent the summer talking on the phone and skyping, and made every possible excuse to take trips to see one another. I think there were about 5 trips total over the 3 months we were apart.
We got to spend our birthdays together :)


We even got to take a trip to San Jose, to tie up loose ends with our wedding plans and spend some time with Cuyler's family. This is us at the Santa Cruz boardwalk :)

At the end of August Cuyler FINALLY moved to Arizona and we got married a few weeks later (but since this is the longest post ever, we'll save that story for another day :)

Friday, July 2, 2010

Hello!

So, this is the maiden blog. Hope everybody enjoys it. Hopefully this will help us keep in touch with all of the peeps. An important (and hopefully fun) game that everybody can plan is trying to guess which one of us, Cuyler or Sarah, is writing each entry. It should be obvious. Cuyler is ridiculous, and probably has worse grammar. Actually, that isn't true. Let's be honest.

Guess who's writing this one.

SOOOOOOOOO That'll probably do for now. We're still figuring out how this site works exactly. Cuyler has a xanga account, but it's different. He doesn't know how this works. Sorry.

Sarah wants to make a new first entry after we figure out how to do this for real. We'll maybe do that, so enjoy this awkward, bumbly one while you can. (that should be a hint).

Love you guys!