Ryan and Emily

Hi Cod/'Allo Cod April 25th

2010-04-30T13:47:00.000-07:00

Hi Cod

Ryan: It's difficult to think of anything undesirable that happened this week. We had such a great time--OH THAT'S RIGHT Arizona just passed SB 1070. Yikes AZ. We saw a protest and everything. I suppose we shouldn't be surprised at the kinds of things people in government are doing down here since it appears from everything we've seen that all state business is being handled by a elite group of nine-year-olds using Dell laptops donated by Phillip Morris to access only a select few internet sites sponsored by the FOX news network. I don't know what's going to happen but I kind of feel like I'm living in Red China, and I mean super red (the caption reads: Take the traitors, spies and the capitalist Liu Shaoqi and kick them out of the Party FOREVER!). If I don't publicly renounce my preference for cane sugar soda, sans-hormone meats, sustainable power, making corporations pay to mine gold on public land and a curriculum free of Texan-intervention that something untoward is going to start happening. Of course we know nothing of the fear and horror of the days under Mao's Red Guards but the amount of specific power and instruction given to the police force feels dangerous.

Emily: SB 1070 is lame times a thousand. Not to mention having to talk about it with everyone at work who thinks it's a great idea. They stop talking about it as soon as our Hispanic co-worker comes into the room, though. Classic. Aside from what an expensive mess this bill is going to turn out to be, this week was great! So this Hi Cod is short!

'Allo Cod

Ryan: This weekend we celebrated our one year anniversary in Tuscon of all places. Em once said she was glad we were so low-key and I have to agree. But don't worry, we're finding spectacular stuff amid the mundane. First the music was great. The Avett Brothers played a great show and made me feel like seriously wearing those cowboy boots Em's brother Jared gave me. Rogue Wave on Saturday night was great too, the crowd was a little lame and took a little time to warm up, unfortunately by that time the room was also quite warm and stuffy, but good times nonetheless. Now food. Oh my goodness. We went to a French restaurant called Le Rendezvous and I had the most delicious salmon I've ever had. I might blog about the flavors there is simply not enough time right now (it's late and school refuses to start any later than usual). All I will says is that when I tasted the red bell pepper bisque Em ordered I may have teared up a bit. Glorious.

Emily: Um, everything is my 'allo cod this week.Work was good, home was good, and this weekend was our Tucson getaway! Tucson is like St. Louis, only much, MUCH smaller. But they have a shopping district similar to The Loop, called 4th Avenue, and I bought two skirts from a very reasonably-priced thrift shop. It called itself a vintage store, but was carrying an Xhileration Raincoat from Target. Is 2008 vintage already? The food was great all weekend; we ate at the Blue Willow for brunch, then Le Rendez-vous for dinner. French food for the most delicious win EVER. I've never had such delicious, expensive food. I could eat that red bell pepper bisque every day for the rest of my life. I commented to Ryan that my favorite foods from every culture are soups: Vienna=Mulligatawny, Mexican Food=Tortilla Soup, French=Oh, that delicious bisque! The Avett Brother's show on Friday was absolutely amazing, as expected, and as always. They have never let me down. Ryan and I dealt with a bit of disorderly drunkenness from two girls in front of us, but it didn't even matter. Our hotel (Hotel Congress) was adorable, albeit very noisy. Not much sleeping, but a lot of kitschy greatness. Rogue Wave sounded amazing live, and the lead singer, Zach Rogue, was delightfully strange and confident. Ryan and I had a great time. I would do it again every weekend if I could! The drive home after the Rogue Wave show was difficult for me, I'm a sleepy passenger. Trying not to sleep is hard. But we made it home, slept comfortably in our beds, and are quite content to be home.

"Saturday Night and I ain't got nobody"

2009-11-07T22:23:00.004-07:00

Well...nobody delivering pizzas or anything like that. Also no one knocking on our door to give us money wrapped in chocolate. You know if you were a murderer that would probably be a good way to get caught.

I mean you're like, "Hey I brought you some chocolate. You should eat it. There isn't any poison or other things on the money so just eat it off and like it."

We're pretty happy today. Conferences for most of the morning but I got me some new glasses.
I can't find any cool pictures of them because we didn't take any and the actual frames won't be ready for a week but I will get them up because I know you're dying to see them.

R

Getting things done

2009-11-03T21:44:00.004-07:00

Emily has very quickly accrued a lot of jobs and they're keeping her pretty busy. But we've noticed that none of our posts on the blog are getting any comments so what I should really say is Emily has a job at Walmart and a job at Arby's.

Yeah. That's right. Her first job is just to mop up tears of all the people who shop and work there.

That is kind of a whole shift thing, but thankfully she mixes it up with tarp duty. You see occasionally ( and I use that word as playfully and flippantly as possible here) patrons of the Mart will burst right out of whatever makeshift spandex contraption they are passing as attire that day and it's Emily's job to rush in with a tarp to cover that which should always, always be covered.

Then of course there is the Breakroom disruption and overall morale managing (proof that getting a college education will take you far in life: MANAGEMENT!). It is her responsibility to make sure all games of Connect Four end in a tie, all rounds of Jenga end after the third turn and that nobody can turn down the television which is always blaring Judge Judy. But of course the bulk of her work focuses on following associates around and encouraging them to make their daily quota of 50 positive references to Walmart and the Walton family, whilst strongly discouraging conversations about their personal lives and things that make them happy.

WORD.

Her second job with Arby's is mostly just making sandwiches.

My job has been pretty lame.

Slayed un dragon with a marker.

But I am hoping for some inspiration for my new book about keeping the buttons of your shirt in line with you belt buckle and the hitch of your pants/jeans. Our outing this weekend should provide me with ample opportunity to research.

R

Can you wish someone a Happy Halloween in the Temple?

2009-10-30T21:37:00.010-07:00

I feel something stirring in my tummy-town, it could be anticipation for the wonderful toasted raviolis Em is making right now, it may be the instant noodles and pickled cabbage I had for breakfast, but it just as easily could be determination to participate in our new initiative to write on our blog more often.

St. Louis family need not worry we don't plan on enjoying these raviolis at ALL! But we will eat them in the spirit of preparation for our December visit home.
I was going to write a whole lot more but this picture took to long and Emily fell asleep half-watching Sleepless In Seattle.

We played Racket Ball today. Yeah Emily tried to hit me in the face three times. Also she cheats. And Cheaters never prosper, as can be seen from Emily's eye tonight at 11:20. She was so tuckered out she went to be before me.

Halloween tomorrow. We made plans to have our friends the Stinochers over to play Beatles Rock Band, interspersed by bouts of terrorizing neighborhood children and candy eating.

(ps who does Paul think he is? No shirt, no shoes=Tetanus)

We're Americans.

Today we went to the Mesa Temple and reveled in the chance to get away from the stresses of this week and take solace in the peace and stillness of that place. As we were leaving Emily said goodbye to a woman she met today and after wishing her a good weekend she said, "Happy Halloween." We then turned to each with this face:

and wondered if wishing someone a Happy Celebration of Death, Ghouls, Spirits, Monsters (and for some reason a slutty version of every single costume idea you can think of) Day was appropriate as we left the Lord's House...

But then we remembered that Halloween is ALL about candy and we felt pretty good about ourselves.

R

Tis the Season

2009-10-27T22:28:00.007-07:00

I've recently received a request to update this blog every day. While I can't promise that our lives will be exciting enough to constantly update, I can promise to try to do better.

First order of business:
IT'S HALLOWEEN! Well, almost. We have/are celebrating the upcoming holiday in several ways:

(1) Ryan celebrated his 28th birthday with a costume party! Ryan and I went as Jack and Sally Skellington, and we went all out. Ryan made a paper mâché Jack Mask, I made a yarn wig and my Sally dress, and we bought a suit from Goodwill the afternoon of the party and were literally sewing it together as people got to our house. Rushed, but worth it.
EXCEPT for the fact that the only other people who dressed up were our new good friends, the Stinochers. God bless 'em.
We ate strawberry cupcakes, we played Rockband, we played Scatergories, we watched Community and Parks & Rec. A good night all-in-all.

(2) We bought candy to give to Trick-or-Treaters, but we just ended up eating all of the Kit Kats. So, I bought some more Snickers today. Bring it on.

(3) We carved pumpkins in our likeness. Well, Ryan successfully carved a pumpkin in his likeness, I forgot to give myself a face. So. yeah.

In other news, I officially have a job, but a different job than originally anticipated. Read on:
Pt. 1: Job I thought I had = Full-time, one-on-one para at Elementary School.
-arrived to school after an entire morning of orientation only to be informed that the student moved to California over the weekend ("I'd rather be dead in California than alive in Arizona!"--Lucille Bluthe)
Pt. 2: Job I now have = 3.25 hours a day, working with different students throughout the week.

Good enough.

Ryan has been sick this week, the details of which I will not elaborate upon. He is seemingly on the mend, and I anticipate a full recovery, and no H1N1 business. Phew.

I joined a gym that came with 2 free sessions with a personal trainer, and I couldn't use my arms for the next three days.

In closing:

Elementary School Fail.

New House! New Everything!

2009-08-31T20:49:00.006-07:00

Arizona is hot. Dry hot. Like someone is throwing a hot, wool blanket on top of you as soon as you walk out the door. But, the heat aside, it's really quite beautiful. There are far more leafy trees here than I anticipated, and the cacti are very brightly colored. It's definitely different, but we love it.

The new house is almost completely put together. Two weeks isn't so bad, right? We got the kitchen, living room and bedroom painted, and all of our furniture moved in. Ryan put together our final pieces today: our coffee table and desk/bookshelf.

The only thing we need to do now is finish unpacking all of the boxes in our office/second room!
When it's all assembled I'll take you all through the house, pictures and all :)

Work-wise, Ryan has started back at ASU, and I'm writing an Arts & Craft column for Phoenix, Arizona's Examiner.com. I'm not making much ($0.01 per page view, ha ha) but it's nice to be writing.

Tonight I made lentil & brown rice tacos, which we ate with spinach, salsa, sour creme and cheese. Oh man. It was so good.

Yum.

Until next time!

Emily & Ryan

The Rest of Our Lives Will the Moments Accrue

2009-08-02T16:33:00.003-07:00

Yeah, it's been a while. So, what's been happening in our lives? What do we, the Robbins, do with our time?

Well, ever since we moved to Utah I've been working vigorously on my degree, and I'm pleased to announce that I will be graduating August 13th with a BA in Print Journalism!

Ryan has been a busy bee working on reformatting, editing, and illustrating a Chinese textbook for ASU, where he will soon reign as supreme commander of all Awesome. Yes, I meant to capitalize that.

Yes, we're all work and no play. But THAT'S not true! We spend a lot of time at the lake skipping rocks, we go for a lot of bike rides, we play croquet, we play frisbee and we play Word Challenge on Facebook! Oh, and by "bike rides" I mean, Ryan pumps up my front bike tire, we ride around until it goes flat again, Ryan pumps it back up, and we ride home, and upon returning it's flat again. I NEED A NEW TUBE!

In other news: I'm not pregnant. And we're moving to Arizona in TWO WEEKS! Oh the joys of a new house! I'm going to turn it into a project. In between searching for a job/internship I'll be painting rooms, shopping for cheap kitchen/living room furniture at Savers, reupholstering chairs, sanding and re-finishing all of the ugly furniture I've purchased, and making lamps. Charming.

Here are some pictures of our past 2.5 months of marriage:

One-Month-Anniversary:

Nikki and Brendan's Wedding in Wyoming:
Being married is great.

Us

2009-05-04T21:32:00.005-07:00

Wedding Suit Alterations

Emily's Wedding Dress

Gift & Registry

2009-04-03T11:40:00.004-07:00

Yes, the rumors are true. Ryan and I have registered for gifts and things. If you feel so inclined to bestow your love on us in the form of material goods you can find things that we want/mostly need at the following places:

Bed Bath & Beyond
The registry is saved under "Emily Hudson and Ryan Robbins

Wedding UT 05/15/09

Registration Number: 8270156

Target
Search for "Ryan Robbins"
Our Registry ID: 013175400000905

ACTUAL ST. LOUIS RECEPTION LOCATION

2009-04-03T11:11:00.011-07:00

In the immortal words of Gob Bluth,

"I've made a huge mistake."

The address for the St. Louis reception is INCORRECT on the wedding announcements.

Please forgive me this gargantuan gaffe and drive yourselves to this address on May 15th at 6:30 p.m. :

Lake St. Louis Community Association

100 Cognac Ct.
Lake St. Louis, Mo 63367

the Web site is: lslca.com

Directions from the Ring Ceremony at Boulevard Park:

Driving directions to 100 Cognac Ct, Lake St Louis, MO 63367

3.3 mi – about 8 mins

Boulevard Park

2550 Lake St Louis Boulevard, Lake St Louis, Missouri

1.	Head northeast toward Lake Saint Louis Blvd	135 ft
2.	Turn left at Lake Saint Louis Blvd	0.9 mi
3.	Turn left to merge onto US-40/US-61	1.0 mi
4.	Turn right at Dauphine Dr	1.1 mi
5.	Turn left at Cognac Ct/Cognac Dr Continue to follow Cognac Ct	0.3 mi
6.	Slight right to stay on Cognac Ct Destination will be on the right	92 ft

100 Cognac Ct

Lake St Louis, MO 63367

Map!:

LINK TO BIGGER MAP

Driving directions from St. Louis (or any location east of Lake Saint Louis, Missouri:

5.	Merge onto I-70 W via the ramp on the left to Kansas City	36.4 mi
6.	Take exit 214 toward Lake Saint Louis Blvd	0.2 mi
7.	Turn left at Lake Saint Louis Blvd (signs for Lake Saint Louis)	0.1 mi
8.	Turn right at S Service Rd W/Veterans Memorial Pkwy	1.2 mi
9.	Turn left at Deloire Dr	0.3 mi
10.	Turn left at W Savoy Dr	0.2 mi
11.	Turn right at Guyenne Dr	0.3 mi
12.	Turn right at Rue Grand Dr	0.1 mi
13.	Turn right at Cognac Ct	315 ft
14.	Slight right to stay on Cognac Ct Destination will be on the right	92 ft

Driving Directions from the west (any place west of Lake Saint Louis, Missouri)

5.	Merge onto I-70 E	208 mi
6.	Take exit 212 for MO-A	0.3 mi
7.	Turn right at E County Rd A/MO-A/MO-Y/US-61	171 ft
8.	Continue on Freymuth Rd	0.6 mi
9.	Turn left at Picardy Dr	0.2 mi
10.	Turn right at Rue Grand Dr	0.7 mi
11.	Turn left at Cognac Ct	315 ft
12.	Slight right to stay on Cognac Ct Destination will be on the right	92 ft

This is where the party will be both figuratively and literally.

Please love me.

--Emily

Sensation!

2009-03-29T22:15:00.015-07:00

Apparently those who visit the blog need something a little more sensational in the way of posts before they will leave comments. Don't you realize that comments on blog posts are one of the easiest ways to validate friendship and prove that you care?

Don't you?

So here is a series of sensational pictures with my thoughts, and later Emily will add her thoughts as well and label them with green font:

This is the Sensationa-bull. Look at those harns! I bet he shops at H&M for slippers. What a sensation, Bulls in slippers!

I met this bull in Austria. He won't eat yellow flowers because he's afraid of poison. Also he can tango.

This is the Sensationalawnpony. Him's bum is white? Perhaps he played the thief and the baker beat his boney bottom. Nobody likes a pouter, pewter pony.

This Black Beauty-inspired lawn sculpture scares children and steals their hard-earned Halloween candy. What a bully.

These are the Sensational Williams Brothers. Remember the Boxcar chitlin? Well when these fellows moved into the car on the opposite track there was a knife fight, guess who lost? Yeah, the children did. They were only kids after all.

What Ryan didn't tell you is that after the Williams Brothers triumphed in a knife-fight blaze of glory, they sucked out the Boxcar Childrens' essence. Though they sacrificed their souls, they are now immortal and living in Budapest.

This is the Sensational Covergirl (that's what it said on their website). Check them spangles out! Ned and Larry flash their pearly whites and Suzy-Grey strikes a Peter-Pan Pose. RODEO of LOVE!

Ah, yes, the Rodeo of Love! This is where we met, right Ryan? From the moment he noticed me, loping around on my dappled Jeanette, silver chaps glistening in the stadium lights, Ryan couldn't get me out of his mind.

This is the Sensational Hacksaw Jimmy Duggan. Legend says that two-buh-fer was actually Abraham Lincoln's wooden leg. Jimmy found it in the cupboard of a cabin in the Everglades. Also it sings camp songs.

I know Jimmy Duggan. He's an excellent ballroom dancer. you should see him tanzen the polka! Also he speaks fluent German.

These are the Sensational Six. Apparently they're time travellers (once again their words not mine). Emily, got anything to say?

I met the Sensational Six on a time travel journey to 1942. They were doing a bank job, petticoats and all. I shot the sheriff and we bonded over glasses of mauled cider and cornbread cakes.

This is just..."What? You love these slappy-drums too!" "Yargle! The Sun is rising with my toast!"

Mmm...toast.

Spring Break!

2009-03-12T21:06:00.005-07:00

I'm up visiting Utah for a few days during ASU's Spring Break. The drive was undesirable, lots of snow starting from the pass on the 20 all the way to Nephi...

Nevertheless I arrived safely and spent the last few days at Robert and Lynda Stratford's house. The Stratford's are awesome. Lynda is an amazing cook, Emily and I could stare at Simon all day long and Robert is better than us (well me at least) at every single game in existence. Somehow I managed to win Colloseum today, and I didn't cheat no matter what anyone says. Yes, I held may have accidentally held on to 15 crowns of the realm for a turn but I say may because I'm not really sure if I did or not. Regardless, I had enough money and promptly rendered unto Ceasar what was Ceasar's.

I typed "E tu Brute" into Google's search window and this is what I got.

Emily's been feeling a little under the weather these last few days, after the ice skating incident, and we'll probably spend the next few days on the couch recooperating whilst watching movies and making up new words like bottlecopter.

I don't have classes on Friday

2009-02-27T13:21:00.006-07:00

This many days until we're married.

Let the countdown begin!

I'm getting kind of tired of the beard

2009-02-26T22:40:00.003-07:00

I think I am going to let the beard take a vacation for a while. For those of you are rejoicing you should know I have every intention of growing it back for the wedding!

TAKE

THAT!

Below are some thumbnails I did of how I'll look with a mustache. You see, the mustache grows in so slowly that I can't shave it off. So I will keep it for the time being. It took some Photoshoppery but here are the choices. Handles or No handles. Place you votes. You have one day.

Counting down...

2009-02-10T15:50:00.002-07:00

May is never coming and May is approaching at warp speed. With only 2 months-ish between the now and the wedding, I'm feeling surprisingly calm. And yet...unnerved...

Isn't there something I should be doing? I mean, planning a wedding is a big deal, right? I shouldn't have finished already...

Location?... check.
Reception hall?... check...
Caterer?... really? Ok... check.
Cake!... check!
Wedding party?... All members have been requested and have accepted the call! To be fair it wasn't a big feat on their parts, I mean... Ryan and I made it really easy on them by being so totally awesome.
Photographer? ...check! I hope...I haven't really heard from her in a while...

What is missing? Oh geez. Flowers. Haven't done that part yet. And the whole planning the actual day of the wedding hasn't happened either, but to be fair, if I plan anything now it will just fall apart in 2 months, so I've chosen not to.

Does anyone know anything about wedding flowers? Does anyone know where I can get free, living and beautiful flowers? Because that would be amazing.

Also, Ryan is doing an awesome job getting all of those other things taken care of. Man! I love him!

Success!

2009-02-08T01:00:00.003-07:00

After a few consecutive weeks of login attempts culminating in Emily resetting the password, I final realized that I was just not typing the last character of our password, thus rendering myself unable to log into this Wedding Blog. Did you see that? Yeah I capitalized it, and I did it because it means a lot to me.

Because I care so much I have to say that the small list of people following this Blog is somewhat depressing. Oh man! Why doesn't anybody care about us! At this point in the e-mail a pop-up should flash on the screen with a picture of a puppy being held hostage by some gang members with a caption that says: If you want to save this Buster you better subscribe to Emily and Ryan's Wedding Blog!

I don't have anything of substance to contribute here. Emily is doing most of the work because I've been kidnapped. What?

I did ask my very good friend Kenji to help us design the Wedding Announcement. You can see from my choice of more capital letters that I also care a lot about the announcements (this is just a general term usage so it doesn't need a capital A) which is why I asked Kenji, because he has a golden mind for design, which they don't give people anymore. He got one of the last ones.

I also purchased my suit. That was all me. All the way until my parents paid for it. But I did all the footwork and the alterations. All the way till the nice man working out of the back room of a really gawdy clothing store called Stash--pronounced Stawsh--which smells like old macaroni, actually altered the pants.

I will let the Blog know when I have accomplished other things of note.

Ryan

Engagement Pictures

2009-01-19T14:28:00.007-07:00

Pictures courtesy of Amanda Jane: Amandajanephotography.com

The First "Post" Adventure

2009-01-13T14:29:00.003-07:00

Friends. Family. Welcome to our blog! We shake you warmly by the hand! Ryan and I are very pleased that you stopped by to see what's happening in our lives. As for what purpose this blog will serve, we'll be sure to keep you updated about our lives, of course, and then we will also let you know about our Wedding Registration, Reception directions, dates, etc. And of course we'll be posting a never-ending stream of delightful pictures.

Dates You'll Need To Know:

May 15th--THE WEDDING! There will be a Temple ceremony at 11:00 a.m. in the St. Louis Temple, followed by a Ring Ceremony at LSL Boulevard Park at approximately 5:30 (check back for directions and finalized times)

The Reception will immediately follow the Ring Ceremony at the LSL Reception Hall, where there WILL be food. And Cupcakery cupcakes. Don't miss this, people!

Also, if you want an invitation, you should email me, Emily, your mailing address. Email me here: Robbins.Ryan.Em@gmail.com

Ryan and I are currently registered at Target.

Thanks for stopping by, and don't forget to keep checking back for updates!

-Emily

2009-01-09T20:47:00.001-07:00

2009-01-09T16:31:00.001-07:00

2009-01-09T16:22:00.000-07:00

2009-01-09T16:01:00.000-07:00