Brian

                                                            Brian is in the middle


I've been meaning to post a blog all day about how life isn't fair for taking Brian and how saddened and angry at God I am, but instead I figure I should talk about how great he was and is.

First I heard from Brain was am email that Susan forwarded to me after telling him that we were engaged. He was so bubbly and excited for her and stoked that we were going to wait for him to come back from his mission to be able to attend. His email was full of "wow's" and "yea's". I could tell how much he loved Susan and how truly happy he was for her.

I got to go along with Susan and tom and Kathy when they picked him up at the airport. He was a turd; rather than coming down the escalator like the rest of the missionaries he snuck around another stairway and tried to sneak around the crowd of people to surprise his family. Susan spoiled that plan by discovering him. He laughed it off and threw his arms around Kathy.

All the way home he muttered things such as "where am I?" "what is this place?" "where are the trees?" Susan reached out her hand to him and he put a pass-along card in it and said "Jesus came to the Americas." I was being dumb and he'd mutter "who is this guy?" Whenever his mom or dad called him "Brian" he'd correct them by muttering "Elder Kelley".

I have dinner twice a week at his parents house where he stayed for a while after coming home and I'd get to laugh and joke with him and play card games and watch him try to cheat all the while directing his signature 'ssssssssssss' at his mom.

Brian moved in with us for a couple months to be closer to Provo. I remember nights of playing Mario while giggling like idiots and screaming in fright at the unexpected traps in the levels all the while with Susan laughing at us.

Of course he came out to Nauvoo with us when we got married and he made the trip hilarious. From climbing on statues to making friends with everyone out there to stealing Susan's cowl and parading around to being the self appointed cake-cutter/drink filler at our reception he just kept everybody laughing and happy.

Brian was a joy. He was truly a happy kid and he was beautiful and he knew it. Everybody was Brian's friend, they just didn't know it yet. The world is a darker place without him, and I am lucky beyond belief to have known him and to be able to see him again.

Second Verse, Same as the First

SO, back to the cruise...



Our third stop was in Belize where we decided to take an excursion. Most were expensive and not things we'd think we'd do but we found one to the zoo for about 60 each that both of us thought would be fun. It was cool. After a bus ride of an hour or so we got to the Zoo which was a fenced off section of jungle in the middle of nowhere. The thing I liked about the zoo was that instead of paddocks and cement like in America the Belizians fenced off sections of jungle and left dirt and gravel paths between the different enclosures. So basically all of the animals were in their natural habitat with trees and bushes and creeks etc. there were some really cool animals that I haven't seen in any zoo's here and the jungleness of the place was awesome.

This is one of the paths in the zoo.














Is to for Jaguar.






We had a lot of fun there and got to see cool animals and hold a boa.

Next stop Grand Cayman

Cayman is one of my favorite places in the world. I've been there 4 times now and I absolutely love it. We took an excursion here as well and went to the turtle farm. Incredible. We got to see the breeding tank that had hundreds of huge turtles, we held the little yearlings and got to get in a holding tank and play with them. it was awesome. Of course I had to try the turtle burger at the bar. Susan was horrified.  As seen in the picture if you rub a turtles neck he gets all sorts of excited and arches his neck back for deeper rubs. They were so cute.

After a couple days at sea we were back in Miami and not too long after back in the old UT. It was fun, we kinda maybe wanna sorta go again.

 

It's a Good Life on a Boat

Been a while ago, but Susan and I took our honeymoon in April over her spring break. We went on a cruise to Cozumel, Roatan (Honduras), Belize, and grand cayman. While the trip was incredible it was overshadowed by being able to be with her 24/7 as we had not had any "us time" since we were married. After a whirlwind of travel and wedding and reception it was right back to work and the real world. For that reason this trip was amazing.

I've been on a few cruises before so got a good deal on a balcony sweet that was midship on the 8th deck: Close to everything; minimal rockage from waves; big enough to spend time in without claustrophobia. It was fantastic

Left: our room. Right: our view aft.




It was also nice to have a balcony to stand on without having to share room with thousands of people.

Our first stop was on Cozumel. I love Cozumel, the beaches are incredible; white sand, clear brilliantly blue water, English speaking attendees... Anyway, we got to the beach before anyone else so got a front row beach chair and hung out for a few hours. I snorkeled and played with baby jellyfish. Susan  walked on the beach with me and otherwise had fun away from the water.

 Top Left: gearing up to snorkel. Top Right: My lovely Lady
 Bottom Left: our beach. Bottom Right: Baby Jelly.

We decided, after several hours, to go back to the ship and it was at that point that other people began to show up in force. Until then there had only been around 20-30 people out with us. Awesome :)

I won't go into how incredible the food was, or how plentiful, on the ship. Suffice it to say that we wanted for naught and I gained 12 pounds.



Second day was Roatan. Again we spent time on the beach. Again we were earlier than anyone so had fun before other people came out. The flowers and plants were the highlight of Roatan for me.

Susan got brave and got in the water! Then jumped on my back and had to be towed back in to shore when she stepped on some icky seaweed.

In my next post I'll talk about Belize and Cayman :) TTFN
              

Ooh baby baby, bababy baby,

Don't get too excited about the post, it's not an announcement.

Susan and I have been discussing children and our hopes and fears for child-rearing. As such we've been discussing names for said future offspring. I'm fairly confident my parents won't like the names. They're not standard biblical names and might be construed as strange. Susan has thought of some first names which I love and I'm picking middle names that she's getting used to. The middle names of course being after some of my favorite characters from literature. And by literature I mean fantasy books. And by fantasy I mean magic and quests, not soft porn for lonely old ladies. Ixnay on the abioFay.

So let the wild rumpus begin; the names I like as middle names are: Kaladin, Matrim, Kvothe for boys; Moiraine, Lothlorien, Vin for girls.

Petibo?

SO, I didn't get the second job... But the one that I do have is turning out to be more enjoyable than I would have thought. That's not to say that the work itself isn't mind-numbing, but I work with some fun, nerdy people.
It's kind of nice to wear a firefly or battlestar t-shirt and have people know what it is. Weirdly, and the reason this entry is titled the way it is, my supervisor knows my little sister. He just happened to ask me one day if I was related to a Rachel Deardeuff. Funny.
But I guess the Mormon world is a relatively small one.

The continuing story of Bungalow Bill.

For those of you who don't know I was laid off about a week before I got married. Phenomenal timing, I'm sure. Since then I have been looking for a job, but for one reason or another (okay, really just one reason) I haven't had any luck at all. This week however I have had 2 interviews. YEA. One was at the place that laid me off. BOO. They did offer me the job though, starting on Monday. SO, I am going to go there and start just in case the second place doesn't want me. I want the second place. It's a better job, and it's doing (IMO) more important work. So I'm hoping on the second and going with the first. I have plans to start up my snake breeding business again once I can afford to and once I have a place to do it really, so that will be a few years in the making. I can do a small time operation here, but really we'd need a much bigger house so I could devote a basement or garage or spare room to it.

Anywho, hope along with me that I get the second job and can start being a productive individual and husband!

And I think it's gonna be a long long time...

Wow, it has been a long time since I blogged. Doesn't bother me too much as (as before) there haven't exactly been clamorings for more posty-posts.

Regardless, a lot has happened. I won't write about the stresses and other things, but I will say that I have moved back to Utah (which I swore never to do) and I got married (which people swore would never happen).

Wait, what the what?! Yep. My Silly Susan turned out to be my absolute soul mate. She is perfectly everything that I ever wanted in a Girl/Lady/Wife (yes, I capitalize random words to draw emphasis to them. Don't judge) and on top of all that she is my very best friend. I cannot describe enough how amazing and stunning a person she is, so I won't try. (sorry Master Yoda)

As well as getting an incredible, incredible Lady, I married into an amazing family as well. Tom and Kathy (her Mom and Dad (not respectively, silly)) are amazing. I love them, I couldn't have picked/asked for better in-laws. They're fun, funny, extremely nice and kind to me, and share many of my passions and hobbies. Her brothers and their wives (Andrew(Andy?) and Alli, and (hey) Alex and Megan, and Brian (not married(yet))) (Booyah! Triple closing parenthesis!) are all fantastically fun and sweet as well (the wives are sweet) and all seem to accept me as well. I lucked out incredibly on the in-law department.

More ramblings about the last several months, apropos to nothing of course: We have 2 cats and 2 snakes and are planning on getting 2 dogs, so my pet obsession is still healthy. Our ward is the Kolob ward, which I find pretentious. We turned a spare room into a library. Woot.

I Think that's all for now. I'll be back I'm sure. Any one that happens to read this, thank you, much love.