April 2010

A few exciting things have happened in the last little while.

A few days ago, Matt and I went to his uncle's cattle ranch to help out for the day. We had our respective responsibilities: Matt- wrestle the calves into the shoot, Laura- once the calves are branded and tagged, give them shots.

It was such a fun day with Mark, Susan and the cousins. We got to ride horses, eat some freaking sweet chow, and learn that it's fun to work on a cattle ranch... For the day. :) We also finally got sunburned. We've been waiting for that.

Susan got some awesome pics of the events, so I'll be sure to load those once I get my hands on em.

Secondly, I've had an exciting 2 weeks, art-wise. A couple of weeks ago, I submitted 2 of my Black & White photos (from the B&W film photography class at UNLV) to an art magazine here at ISU, Black Rock & Sage. The magazine is comparable to The Vagus Nerve at UNLV. Well, I'd been turned down plenty of times regarding my artwork, so I was getting myself ready for rejection, again. Well, We got back from Utah for Easter and I had an email waiting in my inbox congratulating me for having my photo chosen to be published in the magazine! The magazine will be coming out soon, and when it does, I'll post a link to the online version of the issue.

AND THEN, if I wasn't excited enough already, some more good news cam my way. I also submitted a few of my paintings to the Undergraduate Exhibition Show that ISU puts on once a year. I went down to the gallery a few days later, where they posted all the works that would be featured in the show, and LO AND BEHOLD, Laura Cutler was on the list!!! If you have read my blog, you'll know that I had a post a few months ago that went over my life goals. Well, one of them was to get my art in a gallery. Well, check.

I called Matt AS SOON as I read that my work was accepted, and he was very excited for me. What a wonderful guy. He surprised mr by taking me to dinner and then to the opening of the show.

Proof that my shiz was here... In a gallery.

I was excited. But I was sure no one was watching when Matt snapped this pic...

Later that night, we went over to our friends' house. On the way to their house, we always see this house...

And Matt wanted me to add the caption, "How fast is your house?" or was it "My house is faster than yours..."

I don't remember...

9 a.m. class was cancelled...

Well, I can't tell you of a better feeling than coming to school and seeing that the class that you hate the most is cancelled. Well, let's be honest, there are many better feelings, but for this exact moment, it's the best.

Well, I figured it was a good time to update you all on what's been happening in the life of the Cutlers since the last post. Again, there will be more photos than commentary... You're welcome.

We left off with Christmas and Matt's first day of work...

This is just a nice view of what Idaho sunsets look like when Matt gets home.

For Family Home Evening a few weeks ago, we took Grandma Cutler bowling. She is crazy. She is 90 years old and is as sharp as a Cutco. We had a blast with her that night, and went over to Rupe's for a couple of Root Beers afterwards.

Sorry for the lame blurriness of the photo. The lighting wasn't very good, and let's be honest, no one looks good with the flash on em.

Action shot!

Matt was such a good sport...

Matt=PB, Grandma Cutler=LC, Laura=TL

You got it. Grandma Cutler not only got a strike, but she beat Matt!!!! :)

Matt took me fishing on Saturday (The 6th of March). He knows that I LOVE fishing so he surprised me one morning and took me fishing! I really have only fished up on Cedar mountain in little lakes that are stocked... But this was different! It was sooo pretty and it was such a nice day! We didn't catch a dang thing, but it was still a lot of fun. Matt started to get restless and annoyed with the recluse fish, so he made fun out of when there was to push into the river. You can imagine the rest.

Cracked out lake. Pretty awesome looking.

Inspecting...

Close up of the cracks.

After fishing we drove around to look at stuff. Right next to the cracked out lake was this bed of munga munga. It looked weird right next to a winter wonderland... Matt got extra excited because this crap is his favorite color.

Every once in a while we will line the window sills with peanuts. We love to watch our little buddies come up to the window and take their prizes.

I thought it was neat that the little doobies come right up to the window and don't give a dang who is watching and how close they are.

I was trying to be inconspicuous when I first saw them, but them realized they didn't much care if you were close to them or not.

A few other things that we've been up to...

• I don't think I posted that Matt and I got callings in our new ward. Well, we got called as Sunday School teachers for the 14-15 yr olds. They are such a blast!!!!!

• We substituted for a class, spoke in church, got callings and spoke at a fireside for youth in the first 4 weeks of living here.

• Matt's mom, Grandma Nate and I all attempted making tamales for the first time. Cindy (Matt's mom) made some AWESOME filling while I squished up the corn meal tamale mix stuff and Grandma Nate helped us spread the stuff on the corn husks, stuff em and fold em up. They were SOOOOO FREAKING GOOOOOD!!! We had a blast that night and I think we'll be doing it again very soon...

• We went to Africa Night with Cindy and Steve. We had some awesome ethnic food (kind of like the food that you see in Indiana Jones when the plane crashed and he ends up in that village...), saw some neat dances and saw some sweet A clothes that they wear in Africa. We went to a little diner after that for some pie and we laughed hysterically for about 39 minutes about different FarmVille scenarios... Don't worry. You had to be there.

• Matt is enjoying his job, and I'm loving being a house wife and going to school... Don't ask when I'll be done with school. The answer is never. Hahaha

• The other night, Matt and I were getting ready for bed when he realized that we didn't make banana bread for his boss... Yeah, he needed to bribe his boss into letting him switch 2 days of his work schedule so that we can go down to New Harmony to hang out with my family for General Conference and Easter. So we jumped out of bed and spent the next hour of our lives making banana bread. We were tired the next morning, but Matt gave his boss the bread, and now we are ret to go to the ranch!!! :)

That's about it. Any questions? Oh, and no, Stacie, I haven't any pictures of the yellowed tree yet, but I can assure you that the tree is probably dying right now... :)

Can you guess what this is? I thought it was pretty sweet looking.

While I'm waiting for class to start...

I know that many of you are anxious to receive some pics of the Cutlers as we have embarked on a new adventure in IDAHO.... Well, the time has finally arrived my friends. That's right. I have here for your viewing pleasure a plethora (nice word, visually) of pics ranging from (of course) Christmas in Vegas with the fam and friends, to Matt's first day of work and every random photo that I have in between. So, without further adieu, let the games begin. We'll start back at the beginning of December and work our way to the present.

I worked at the College of Engineering at UNLV before we moved and I got really close with my boss, Christine. She was kind enough to have the 'work family' (Matt, Me, Vik, Kush and Iani) over for dinner before graduation. We had a wonderful dinner and after, we went and did a few things that you just need to do if you're in Vegas

We went to the M Resort to see the largest Christmas tree in America!!

And then we went to the LAS VEGAS SIGN!! Classic.

SUCH A FUN NIGHT! Thanks again Christine!

Then in mid-December, we went to my parents' house to have Christmas. Matt, Hunter and myself were all not going to be there for the 25th, so we had a half Christmas a little early.

My dad got Matt a Glock. Yes, if you are wondering, he plays with it like he's a bad a.

I don't know why, but my mom seriously wanted a Snuggie for Christmas, so we got her one! She was thrilled. Like I said before, I don't know why.

Every year, Waddy has a special ceremony that goes on at the Wadsworth home. It's the setting up of the Waddyville. Waddyville is his Christmas town that he cherished and plays with all season long. I make fun of him for it a lot, so this year, I decided to do something kind, and I made him a sign to hang over Waddyville. AANNDD, I think he liked it.

We didn't want to leave Brittany out with all the Snuggie fun. Only this one isn't a Snuggie. No, it's worse. (Is that possible? Yes.) This, my friends, is the Hugglie. We re-named it the Fugglie. Same difference. :)

My niece. I took a few photos of her for Christmas, and there's really no other reason that I've posted them than for your own viewing pleasure. I just think that she is freaking CUTE!

Little Fartsack.

Gosh...

She going to make me want kids sooner than I really do. No kidding.

We were getting ready to move, and wanted to see just how much Matt is obsessed with cheese. This is all the cheese that we had in our fridge at one time. It's a sickness. I'm trying to get him to see a doctor. :)

What a hottie. Seriously. He's hot.

This is James Nott. He went back to school at 72 to try to get is Doctorate. He completed in 4 years, and finally graduated with a Ph.D. in Engineering at 76. He was an outstanding graduate for all of UNLV.

And here's another stud of UNLV. Now, I don't usually brag about anything, but I'm going to take a minute to brag about my husband. He was one of the 7 (out of 3,000 graduates) UNLV Outstanding Graduates. Not only was he that, but he was chosen to be the Outstanding Graduate for the entire Mechanical Engineering Department as well. Pretty neat eh? He has about a 2-3 minute segment in graduation where he stood up and all of his specs were read. Among some of them were the he served on the Rebel Pride Council and was in charge of Rebel Premier, he was a Senator for the Engineering College, and Senate President. He was also UNLV 2008 Homecoming Que... King. :) I'm pretty proud of his hard work.

As soon as we moved to Idaho, we went to see Avatar 3-D with our friends Matt and Cassie. This movie was seriously freaking sweet freaking sweet. Go see it. In 3-D. Now.

Let me preface the next couple of pictures with a story. On Christmas Eve, we went over to our cousins' house. The Lovelands. This is probably the coolest family that you'll find this side of the Mississippi. Well, we played some Mario Kart and opened some presents, and as we were about to leave, the topic of snow came up. I stated my sadness about not having a white Christmas. (I just moved 600 miles, and the one things I was excited about was having a white Christmas. But it hadn't snowed substantially in Idaho yet. Well, the Lovelands were all very kind to me, ensuring me that next year would definitely be white. Then we drove home and went to bed (watching It's a Wonderful Life, of course) We woke up the next morning around 8:30 or so to this....

We had only been in the house for a few days, and someone already TP'd us?? Wow. How low can you get. Well, that is what I felt until I opened the door. There was a sign on our door that read, "Wishing you a very Merry first white Christmas" The Lovelands woke up extra early and came to our house to make sure that we had a white Christmas.

Needless to say, we love them a whole lot. :)

And this is what out first Christmas in Idaho looked like. Matt wrapped the one on the right. Could you tell?

And finally, to round off the picture-fest, we have my punkin on his first day as a 'real boy'. I mean man. Haha This is on his first day of work. At 5:30 am, let me remind you.

We've had such a blast being with Matt's family up here in Blackfoot. We've had plenty of Pit games, and we've even gone to a Blackfoot High School basketball game, where Matt became the star of the student section by yelling things like "#42, you need to cut your hair!" and "Brokeback Mountain" :)

Well, anyways, I hope you're enjoyed this edition of 'It's about time I update my blog with things that have been going on around here' Stay tuned for the next episode entitled 'Probably not as interesting, and definitely not as many pictures'

Well, despite what the title of this post is, I didn't finish before class, but the post is here. Now bring on the comments.

:)

Blackfoot.

YYYEEEAAAUUUHHH!!! We have arrived. We are in Blackfoot at this exact moment. Well, we've been here for a few days.... But we are loving it! I know that I have no pictures up, but I will soon. Well, I will when there is something to take a picture of. Sadly, there is no snow yet... Don't worry, I'm upset as well. It's 12 degrees and there is no snow? Useless cold... Anyways, I just wanted to update this crap and tell everyone that was wondering if we got up here safely... We did! More updates to come.

And pictures of course.

Something interesting to blog about.

That's right my friends. I have found something relatively interesting to blog about.

I would like to share with everyone why it is wonderful to be married to an engineer.

When we were first married, Matt got a job a Long Building Technologies. When he was there, he ran across a bunch of office supplies that were getting ready to be thrown out. I stress the "getting ready to" so that you don't think that he's a dumpster diver. I mean, the guy's HECKA resourceful, but come one. Give him a little credit. So anyways... He saw that there was a paper shredder in there, and though to himself... I'm going to fix that. So he took that broken shredder home. He sat and the kitchen table with a cap full of vegetable oil, and maybe an hour later, he was shredding some of our old documents. Yeah, he was pretty proud of that.

Next, when my great-grandmother died, she gave me her old OLD piano. This thing is from the mid 20's probably at the latest. So one night, at around 11 or so, Matt decided to start playing the piano. It wasn't some dainty David Lanz shiz or anything. This was like Phantom of the opera (DOOOOOOM DOM DOM DOM DOM DOOOM) status. So I told him to use the soft pedal cause we have 3 neighbors connected to our townhouse. And 2 of them are old. And I didn't want to deal with the broom stick against the wall episode. He told me that it didn't work. I was like, "well crap" and that was the end of that. But he insisted on pulling the piano out from against the wall, taking off the back of it and tinkering with it. In a matter of minutes, he fixed the soft pedal, and it still works like a charm. Amazing. He didn't think it was a big deal. Whatever.

THEN, yesterday afternoon, we got home from church and our house was freezing. He felt the air vent and realized that it was blowing out cold air. Obviously he wasn't having any of that, so he went into our tiny closet, pulled out his tools and went to town on the furnace. I was in the kitchen making dinner, so I couldn't tell what he was doing. He started to pull out all kinds of crap and laid it on the living room floor. I wasn't about to get into the infamous conversation that starts with, "What the hell are you doing?" So I let him continue. I wasn't about to lose faith yet. Well, he was working away, and at one point I heard the vacuum turn on... Hmmmm. Well, a few minutes later he told me to stand under the vent and check to see if there was any warm air coming out of it. He flipped the switch and voila! Heat.

He's going to save us a lot of money one day. Maybe he already has.

I love him. :)

Other than that, most of you know that Matt and I are moving to Blackfoot, Idaho in 2 weeks. We're doing as little as possible to get ready for that. Hahaha. I don't mean that we are terribly lazy. I just mean that the company that he is going to be working for is paying for people to come into our house and pack our shiz up. Yep. I don't have to wrap even a single dish. Hallelujah.

So besides that, work, finals, Young Women/Young Men and getting ready for Christmas, we have nothing to do.