Writing and Teaching

So I'm a published writer! YAY for me! Jordan tried to convince me to put my stories here on the blog, but I think it will be easier to just post the link to the website. Here it is:

suunews.com

Easy enough, right? I'm pretty sure if you search my name, you'll be able to find the stories and articles I've done so far this year. Don't miss my story on the religious panel and matching opinion article, as well as the opinion article on dating and matching scathing comments from readers. I thought it was in good humor, but apparently it is easier to offend people than I thought.

Emma just finished her first practicum in the block, meaning she took over a class of 4th graders all by herself for two whole days! She is so brave. She'll be going to Price in a few weeks to do the same thing, and I won't see her for an entire week! =...(

Thankfully the newspaper has taken over my life sufficiently that I should remain fairly occupied for the duration of her absence.

I was planning on doing the newspaper thing for the rest of school, but Emma and I have prayerfully decided that I'm going to shift back to my original plan-- radio! The plan is to give up this particularly insufficient source of income/insatiable consumer of time job for a better paying one, and just do the radio practicums and gun for a payed internship over the summer. I'll still write of course, there's nothing wrong with a bit of freelance to supplement an income, but we'll see how well it all works out in the long run. That's about it for now, if we remember to update this thing more frequently we might get some more random funny stuff. Yay Autumn, BOO Winter!

So, Emma had planned a "kidnapping" for over a month, and never revealed her plan to me. She didn't even tell me what direction we were going until day of! We had an awsome day date and stopped at Cove Fort, went through the Manti Temple where we met Julie B. Beck and her husband, and watched the Mormon Miracle Pageant. SO AWSOME!! She's such a sweetheart.

Cove Fort Wagon ride!

ahh... simply Celestial.

This... I'm not sure what this is... but it was definitely fun!!

UTAH SUMMER GAMES!!!

Boogie Nights

So Brennan comes to me and whispers, "Can I build a giant cardboard slide on the stairs?" We were tending our niece and nephew. I said okay if you promise they wont die or go to the hospital!

Emma wanted to donate her hair to locks of love. The epic hair cut!

Emma's culinarily contrived birthday brownie pig, by Brennan

Easter Eggs!!

Honeymoon pics

We had a wild honeymoon... oh yeah, and we saw some animals too.

We are now Bremma forever more

The deed is done! We are now husband and wife, for all eternity. Be still my heart! Life is great, and we hit the grind hard after our amazing honeymoon, which was full of great lessons on how to take what comes and love it.

We left Cedar City early Saturday the day after our wedding and fortunately beat the insanely massive storm that closed down the interstate on top of Jordan and Jaicees (sorry guys) So that was good. We were able to stop at the Timpanogas temple to see the sealing of a family I worked with and one of the Elders from my mission, which was sweet. The first minor kink in the plans came when we stopped at the Melting Pot in Salt Lake, which is apparently more popular than we thought cuz they were booked solid and we didn't think to make a reservation. However, I must say the Olive Garden was a most EXCELLENT substitute, and that I plan on ordering the chicken and shrimp carbonara from now on.

We finished the LONG drive past Rexburgh and into Montana. During the last exhausted leg of our journey we managed to get pulled over for speeding (emma was being VERY distracting =), run over a cat, and get lost in West Yellowstone before we pulled into our cabin very late. We lounged in our quaint lil' cabin all of Sunday and then tried to explore the park on Monday. Upon approaching the entrance, the signs clearly indicated "No Wheeled Vehicles Allowed Beyond This Point" even though there was a plainly paved and painted road emerging from the melting snow. We stopped in town to ask how to get in the park only to be told "You Don't. It's closed till April." Okay, so that's kind of a major kink in the plans. So we simply enjoyed the town's local dines, the bear and wolf reserve, some rented movies and books... but mostly we just enjoyed eachother's company. ;D

After the open house in Moab, it was back to reality. Our house currently looks like the aftermath of a tornado in the Home/Appliances section of Walmart. We've got one more month of school, name change, financial aid, taxes, SCHOOL...

It's just marital bliss!

It's the final countdown...

Two weeks from today, the sun will rise on our new life together as husband and wife.
YEAH BABY!!!

A peaceful relaxing weekend? Depends on how you look at it...

It all started when Emma's parents bought us a mattress for our new apartment. Its a lovely little place, actually the basement of a house, but quite quaint. We've got a nice big yard with an outdoor fireplace, and a HUGE garden in the back with an antique tractor to run (reminds me of home)! So anyway, our first furnishings were the queen bed and a free rug, "a wedding gift to you from Rocky Mountain Furniture!;D" Emma is to live there for the next month, and I for the last two weeks before we are Wed.

After moving in Saturday morning, My roommate Zach and I headed out to help one of our ward members unstuck his truck from the bottom of a canyon. It was the result of not following spiritual promptings according to his talk the Sunday before last. Anyway we started at noon with about 20 strapping young men, pushing, grunting and shoving in the snow and mud as hard as they could and let me tell you, we pushed that thing forward at the screaming pace of exactly one foot per hour. To make an excruciatingly long story short, one broken come-along, a 9,000 pound winch and 6 hours later we had successfully given Alice (the truck) back her freedom at the mere expense of our backs and the feeling in our faces and digits.

Meanwhile, Emma was stoically continuing in her current role as preemptive breadwinner for us. Yay for bread! Love ya hon. ;)

Sunday we enjoyed a family fast, church, and breaking the family fast at Mom Hulet's house with hamburgers and baked potatoes which were G-E-W-D GEWD! Yus indeed. I also received a call from my landlord telling me he had been able to miraculously sell my contract in the middle of the semester after all and that I would need to move out the next day. While I would no longer have to pay an extra $275 until the end of the semester, I was now homeless. Hooray? I negotiated my way into an empty room in my current house for just another month, keeping me from taking over Emma's old room in the Sunshine House.

As the evening started wrapping up we began loading Emma's car with gifts from the bridal shower to unload at our apartment. Now you would think I would've learned what not to do to prevent getting stuck anywhere after my experience Saturday, but being the manly man I am, It takes more than an experience like that to learn me anything. I was certain that I could escape the untouched snow NEXT to the driveway when I drove twenty feet into it. Why not park in the driveway? I blame Emma for turning my brain to mush whenever I'm around her.

After killing the car trying to unstuck it, waiting for it to unflood after trying to restart it, some failed watercolor experiments ("It's wetter than a dog... that's wet!"), and some more pushing and grunting (and LOTS of praying) we were headed back to Cedar a bit later than originally anticipated, and EXTREMELY tired.

Monday consisted of early work for both of us (I finally got a job cleaning at the college) me frantically emptying my room, and Emma frantically finishing homework. We decided to make ourselves sick at the end of the day by halfing a large five-buck Pizza and some Raspberry Lemonade. Mmmmm.

Life sure has its ups and downs, doesn't it?

Engagement Pictures=D

Here are some of our most favorite engagement pictures. Brandi took these pictures at the St. George Opera House. It was really fun. If you are wondering why we are screaming in the picture of us wading our feet. Its because the water was FREEZING!!