Good Fun & Good Cause

Two of my very favorite people in the world came to Bloomington this past weekend, pretty much making me the happiest I have been in a long time. Hillary & Stebby arrived from Ohio just as I arrived home from work on Friday, making a great end to a long week.

Like the lazy bums that we are, we spent a lot of the weekend eating, swimming and playing in the lake, and bar-hopping, but we also chipped in some of our time on Saturday afternoon for a good cause: the "Tribute to John 5K" that was held in Mitchell. It was the first year for the event, which raises money for a scholarship in memory of John Box, who passed away this summer and played football with my brother back in high school. Most people decided to walk or ride (bikes, horses, you name it) the 5K, so Josh, Stebby, Hillary, myself, and a random & ripped old guy made up the runners. (Maybe we were the only ones brave/dumb enough to tackle the heat.) We got a big kick after the race of telling people that the four of us placed in the top four spots, which was completely true. I was fourth, of course, and proud of myself for at least beating this older gentleman. That is, until we started talking at the finish line and I discovered that it was already his second race of the day... he had already raced in Brownstown that morning! Sweet. I love running, but I have never claimed speed as one of my attributes, so it's all good.

Nevertheless, it was a very HOT HOT HOT (the race was at 1:00) but good time and I will leave you with a picture of the top four finishers!

Attention Golfers: Watch Out!

I would definitely consider myself pretty athletic. While I am not always the absolute best at every sport I try, I’m usually at least decent. Well, I found a sport in which “decent” would be a stretch for me: golf.

Fortunately I’m not planning on going pro anytime soon, so I should be OK. On Saturday, Gearry and I hit the driving range and then the putting green here at Eagle Pointe for the first time since we moved here. With a golf course for a backyard I figured it was about time I at least attempted to swing a club. I had only been to a driving range once before, back in high school, and I was – to put it politely – not that great. It turns out that I am still… well… not that great. Gearry plays 18 holes periodically, but we’re both a little challenged when it comes to golfing skills. This made for a dangerous time for those around us, but a fun time for us.

The putting green was a little more relaxed, of course, and a little easier since I’ve played quite a few games of Putt-Putt over the years. Gearry and I turned it into a contest, of course, betting a variety of things based upon who got closest to a given hole. For the big bet, I won the first time, somehow he convinced me to have a rematch, and – of course – he won the second time. Therefore I get the pleasure this entire week of taking Colby out to potty when he wakes us up for a bathroom break at around 5:30 in the morning. Usually Gearry takes him during the week since I am working and he isn’t right now, and I take him out on the weekends. This week, though, it’s all me.

While Gearry is still waiting for his business deal to go through he has been home on the weekends. This is a change of pace after working in an industry the last nine years where he rarely had a weekend off. We’ve been taking advantage of these weekends together to enjoy the lake and just spending time together without any interruption. It has been fantastic, and while we are both ready for his business deal to finish and for him to get started on that project (he makes a good but very bored househusband and me being the bread winner is scary!), I know we’ll both miss our Saturdays together. Fortunately we will both still have Sundays, which were pretty much made for church and being lazy and playing outdoors. Time is going so fast, I just want to enjoy every moment of it as much as possible!

How I Spent My Summer

You know those essays teachers make you write or those speeches they make you give the first day back-to-school? The ones titled, "How I Spent my Summer?" Well, this is the first end-of-the-summer in about eighteen years that does not mean the beginning of the school year for me. It's a little sad, a little nice. Nevertheless, I thought I'd still give you my "How I Spent my Summer" in the form of a picture:


Hammock, lake, book, bare feet. Yeah, it was a fantastic summer. Living at the lake has turned out as great as we had thought it would be. Although -- to be honest -- we actually spent the majority of my summer wedding planning, getting moved into our house, doing projects on the house, and working, we tried to make as much time as possible to hang out down by the water, swim, read, and otherwise just enjoy the outdoors around our new place. The picture above is probably the epitome of happiness for me, if Gearry was on one side of me and Colby on the other. The hammock, of course, is not that big ;)

So, while we are talking about happy feelings and happy days, I guess I should finally reveal my great job news that I mentioned last post. I started working at AuthorHouse on July 23rd. While I didn't get the position I really, really wanted (I found out later they hired internally, so that made me feel better) I did get hired for a different position. Although not in my desired realm of copy writing/copy editing, I was very thankful to essentially get my foot in the door. Last Friday, however, I got the shock of my life when the head of the promotions department called me into her office and... offered me the position I have wanted all along!

Turns out that when the position opened up again (the person they hired had to be promoted to a slightly different role) the head of my department had approached her and told her that I would be a great candidate and that he thought I would be much happier in that role (the one I am currently in is transitioning into a much more hardcore-sales role... definitely not me at all!). He is a great guy who really helped me out getting into AuthorHouse and who knew all along that a writing/editing position is what I really wanted. I can't think him enough for his unselfishness and for looking out for me. Once he told her it was OK to ask me if I was still interested in the position, she jumped on the opportunity, which made me feel really good. Of course, I said "yes." That whole foot-in-the-door approach definitely worked for me... a LOT faster than I ever imagined!

I begin my new role on September 4th, writing full-time as a Press Release Specialist. About 90% of my time will be spent writing press releases for our upcoming books. The other 10% will be spent peer-editing and working with authors to make any changes they see fit to the writing. If you are not into writing or English, this probably sounds super-lame. For me, however, it is perfect.

After That Brief Interlude...

I had full intentions of posting far before this, but I was trying to hold out in order to post pictures from the Irish Festival to go along with my tales of that awesome weekend. I still don't have those pictures, so I'm going to postpone that post, but regale you with some other great pictures in the meantime.

These pictures I refer to, of course, are our professional wedding pictures, which finally arrived in the mail yesterday! We had viewed the proofs online, but we finally received the actual printed proofs and our CD of the proofs and digital negatives. I am excited because this means we can finally get our photos ordered to go in the three empty frames that have been hanging over our fireplace since we moved in back in May/June, just waiting!

Things are good in life right now, although extremely hectic. I am still adjusting to work, although there has been a HUGE development in that... more details to come in a later post. Gearry is still working on his business deal, so he has been alternating between helping out his friend Tim renovating his house and playing house-husband, trying to enjoy his time off because we both know once the deal is finalized he is going to have zero free time for the first month or so. Zero. Nada. Zip.

So, about those GORGEOUS photos? I'll post a sampling (of the 3oo-something) of our favorites. Enjoy!

A Lot Can Happen When You Get the Irish Together...

... or so they say. While Gearry and I try to enjoy each day in our lives and not wish any of them away, we are counting down the moments until this Friday after work when we hop on our motorcycle and head to Columbus, Ohio, for the weekend for the Dublin Irish Festival!!

Columbus is home not only to the festival but to three of our favorite people in the world: my bestest girlfriend Hillary, her fiance Christopher, and my other bestest girlfriend Stebby. We are very excited to hang out with them all weekend and very excited that they asked to come in for the Dublin Irish Festival, which we have been told is fantastic! What could be better than a whole day with great friends, excellent drinks & food, dancing, craziness, and fun Irish music? Christopher particularly loves "Flogging Molly," an Irish punk band that is headlining the concert on Saturday night. They call their music "jig punk," so you know it is going to be interesting!

We'll provide a full report upon our return, of course. We are hoping to leave by 6:00 on Friday which should put us in C-Bus around 10:00, just in time for a Friday night out! Saturday is the festival all day, and then Sunday we're all heading to the awesome Northstar Cafe (organic, fresh, super tasty, & some amazing fair-trade coffee!) for brunch before we head back here to the lake.

Done!

At 5:00 p.m. today I officially ended my training week! Of course, I am no where even remotely close to being an expert in my new field and will continue to ask many, many questions, but I am done with my official training and begin in my new role on Monday. The week flew by, although I am exhausted! It's not like working 40 hours a week isn't something that almost everyone does (or even many more hours!) but it's just rough adjusting to such a different schedule from what I'm used to. It'll be no problem soon.

Nonetheless, the week was great and I am excited to be on my own Monday, as well as finally get my desk, computer, etc., as I have been floating amongst the members of the department all the week, rolling my lonely little chair from cubicle to cubicle with my little notebook, ready to take notes. Yes, I know I'm a dork, but notes always help, especially in a situation where there are so many little details you want to get right.

Below is a staff picture from the AuthorHouse website... I have no clue when it was taken, but you can at least see where I work:


- Stacey

New Beginnings

I must say that I love sitting on the newly finished porch at night because it gives me the feeling of something completed. The relaxation that it gives is immense because at night you can hear the crickets chirping, the birds calling, and feel the cool night air push away any humidity in the atmosphere. Stacey and I really have no doubts about living all the way out here at Eagle Pointe because even if you work a lot the benefits of living in such a relaxing environment are countless. I can't tell you how many times we have told each other when we walk at night how much this place seems like a vacation home. The plus side to that comment is that the same feeling can last all year.

Also, some people told me that our relationship would be different after we lived in the same household, but really it hasn't changed much for us. I still feel that we are the same people before and after. It's just that we get to call each other husband and wife. We had a strong connection before we got married which is something that most people don't. I couldn't be happier with the decisions that I've made and I could say the same for Stacey. Just watch well be an old married couple before you know it!!!!!!

- Gearry

Adjustments

Since I wrote last I did something... I can't put my finger on it... oh, yeah! I turned 23 and started my first "career" job. It's been a big week so far, and it's only Tuesday!

So my birthday was Monday but Gearry and I celebrated on Saturday in anticipation of me being exhausted on Monday, and that was a good plan! Monday after work I was absolutely wiped out just from thinking so hard all day, trying to learn all these little details that I will need to know in order to do my job. Mental exhaustion turned to physical exhaustion and I was ready to crash by the time I got home at 5:15, but we managed to drag ourselves to town to enjoy some tempura, sushi & wine at Domo, our favorite Japanese place. We crashed into bed shortly thereafter, Gearry having also worked all day helping out his friend Tim on his farm, where they are doing some outdoor work and also some renovations on Tim's house. So, the actual birthday, not terrific but not bad... hopefully just signifying another day older and wiser and better as a person.

My job is going well. This was day number two and I have already learned a ton in just 16 hours of work. There is a lot more to learn, however, before I am ready to take over the position (next Monday!) so I have lots of observing and practicing and "studying" to do these next three days. It is a very corporate-America type job, cubicles and all, but I really like the job, and the people in my department (there are only 6 of us) seem great; they've been fun to talk to and very helpful answering my billion-and-one questions.

I know it will take awhile to adjust to this new schedule when for the last two months I have been going to bed super late and waking up super late, like a total-just-turned-ex-athlete-ex-student bum. It's been a nice vacation, but readjusting to this whole getting up early thing is rough! Haha... lots of coffee for me! Starbucks donations welcome ;)

- Stacey

Just Like the First Day of School

In the two days since finding out I had been hired by AuthorHouse, I've decided that starting a new job is just like getting ready for the first day of school. I start tomorrow and the mixture of excitement and jitters I'm experiencing is something that I've experienced before, but something about it is also different... I think it is the realization that I'm not in school anymore and that I am officially entering the working world. This is the beginning of my career, not just a summer or part-time job to make money. It's scary and nerve-wrecking and yet kind of fun. Yesterday and today I even went shopping for cute work clothes, just like shopping for cute back-to-school clothes. Luckily the dress code there is right up my alley (despite the professional environment, jeans are OK!) and it was fun picking out new outfits. It's funny how much clothing can affect 1) how other people view you and 2) how you feel about yourself. So, there is no doubt about it that I am going to look good... now I just have to worry about performing well! *Fingers crossed* I am going to relax tonight (as I am now, sitting out here on the back porch with Colby & my laptop & a Diet Coke), get to bed early, and make the best of a scary/nerve-wrecking/fun day to be had!

- Stacey

Great News, Great Day!

Big news here in the Young-Caudell household: I finally landed my job! Well, so long as I pass the drug test I took yesterday but, trust me, there shouldn't be any problems! I had another interview on Tuesday and received the call on Friday for a position at AuthorHouse, an international book-publishing company headquartered here in Bloomington. This was my top choice organization to work for, so I am very happy. They have to get me trained pretty quickly because of an employee who is leaving at the end of next week, so I actually start on Monday, my birthday! I don't mind though; finally having this piece of mind and this responsibility to look forward to is a good birthday present.

In celebration of the job news and of my birthday (I will turn 23 on Monday but I will be working all day) today is an official Stacey Day. Gearry woke me up this morning with french toast and omelets from our clubhouse here at Eagle Pointe. We ate it out on our back porch (which looks fantastic now that it's done, by the way!) and enjoyed some iced coffee. Next on the agenda is a trip to town for some shopping... Gearry is obviously doing whatever I want today since shopping is probably the last thing on his list of things to do for a great time. I'm not a huge shopper myself, but I'm mostly excited about getting some cute new clothes for work. This afternoon we plan on hanging out down by the lake, laying out and swimming and such. And this evening we have a 7:00 reservation at one of our favorite restaurants, the Story Inn in Story, Indiana.

- Stacey