Kauai Honeymoon

I'm A Married Woman!

So, we got married, had a fabulous reception and just returned from a wonderful honeymoon in Kauai.

Check out our wedding day photos at: Brody Dezember Photo. The passcode is lauritzen and then just put in your email to view the images. Enjoy!









(Holly, I copied these photos from your blog seeing that I wasn't using my camera, obviously.)

4 July 2009

This was my first 4th of July with Kyle, seeing that I was in Ireland last year, and we had a great time. Family came over to swim, bbq and watch the fireworks.

Kyle's nephew being thrown across the pool, as usual

First time in the pool for lil' Kory

Kyle and Cheryl

Fun with glow sticks and long shutter speeds

Fun with sparklers and long shutter speeds

Can I Get a Hallelujah?

So this past Friday I attended the funeral services of a counselor from my school that passed away after a year long battle with cancer. The interesting part was that it was held at a prominently black missionary Baptist church, so there were a bunch of "Praise the Lords", "Hallelujahs!", and hands swaying back and forth. It actually was a very nice service but made me realize that I really didn't know much about this lady and that it seemed as though she had two lives/identities.

At school and in the district she was know as Ms. Daniels, where she has worked for 36 years. But the program had her last name as Daniels-Guerrero, and the pastor and all others who spoke, referred to her as Sister Guerrero. From small conversations I have had with her over the past 3 years I was under the impression that she was divorced, but pictures in the program and comments made led me to believe otherwise.

This all just struck me as weird and made me reflect on my life. Am I the same person at home, at work, at church, in all of my interactions with people? Do I have one persona during working hours and a different one for nights and weekends? The answer is No, I'm pretty much the same all of the time and am true to myself and convictions.

Camp Pendleton Mud Run

After much pain and discomfort this past week from the 1/2 marathon, Kyle and I finished the week with the Camp Pendleton Mud Run. This is a 10k run (6.2 miles) through the hills and swamps of Camp Pendleton in San Diego, with some mud pits, a resevoir, 2 walls, a tunnel, a steep muddy hill, and other obstacles to maneuver.

We had a great time and already are planning for next year. Any takers for a 5 person team?

My 1st (and possibly last) Half Marathon

Saturday, 6 June 2009, I participated in my first Half Marathon in Fontana, CA. It started at the Applewhite Campground in Lytle Creek, and was a downhill 13.1 mile run where we ended at Fontana City Hall on Sierra.

My goal time was 2 hours and 30 minutes. My actual race time was 2:08:30

Kyle and his mom did the 5K

Worth doing once, but the pain in my knees and left foot are killer.

Work Bridal Shower

So, last Wednesday a co-worker threw a Bridal Shower for me at work. I got your normal and basic house/kitchen stuff...

But I also got some fun, lacy, sheer, frilly stuff....
And I also got some yummy smelling/tasting things, items that are edible, and Glow-in-the-dark items which you can play various games with...like ring toss.

Wedding Website

Check out our wedding website:

kyleandcheryl.com

Help from my Nauvoo Peeps

I am trying to hunt down the addresses of a few more people from Nauvoo. So, if anybody has info on any of the following people, email me at sisterlauritzen@hotmail.com

1. Sarah Tanner
2. Patrice Pederson (Knudsen)
3. Ashleigh Braithwaite
4. Haylie Redder (Coats)
5. Cindy Niederhauser (Donnell)

State STAR Testing

I somehow had a lack of judgment and signed up to be the testing coordinator at my school site. So, top reasons I don't like the STAR test:

1. found out the day of staff meeting and 3 days before testing that the CAT 6 tests had been eliminated, which messed up our whole testing calendar.
2. found out that our principal was informed about the elimination of the CAT 6 but never bothered to inform us and even approved our testing calendar.
3. not receiving enough CMA test booklets
4. having to scrounge up enough boxes of pencils and then sharpen all of them
5. stupid teachers who don't read scripted instructions
6. teachers who are rude and demanding about changing the schedule to accommodate her
7. same rude teacher who was testing coordinator for the past 2 years and should know how difficult it is to change the schedule last minute
8. same rude teacher who put her answer documents in the scratch paper pile, which ends up getting thrown away in the end
9. stupid teachers who send students to the office during testing instead of having them finish and then disciplining them after the test
10. teachers who forget to turn in their test material at the end of the day
11. teachers who don't show up to school and don't tell anyone they were in a car accident or in jail for a DUI. Subs cannot proctor tests so when a teacher does not show up it makes us scramble
12. students who come to the Library for more time on their test but really are just taking advantage of the the situation so that they can be out of class
13. aides who show up to work late everyday which prevents them from escorting students to the Library for testing

Now that we only have one day left of actual testing I'm enjoying it and am getting into a rhythm.

I Love Engagement Pictures

If you want to see all of our engagement pictures go here and then type in my last name for the passcode.

Easter

After teaching my Gospel Doctrine lesson, I rushed over to Kyle's aunt & uncle's house where we had a fabulous Easter early dinner with his whole family and my parents.

Engagement & Groomal Pictures

Yeah for engagement pictures! Yeah for groomal pictures! Tuesday our photographer, Brody Dezember, flew down from Utah and we did some photo shoots at the San Juan Capistrano Mission. We had a great time and got some killer shots. Check out his blog to see some of the pictures. We will be getting an access code sometime next week to view all of the photos, so I'll get that out when I have it for those of you who care to see.

Cops & Thongs

So I have two funny stories in relation to the title of this blog...

Story 1

Two weeks ago I was driving to work, somewhat faster than I should have been, but not excessively, because I was running a little late. When I look in my rear view mirror and see a police car. He pulls up next to me for a second and then takes off. Whew! Glad he is gone, when I look in my rear view mirror again and there is a second police car. Oh man!! Next thing I know I see red and blue lights, I'm pulling off at the next off-ramp and rolling down my too dark front windows, all as I'm hanging up on Kyle and throwing my cell phone in my purse, seeing that driving and talking on phones is not allowed unless you have a hands free device which I don't like to use.

The officer asks for license and registration and proceeds to read my name of my license as I hand it to him, but he says something way off.

"Ah, Murillo. I know some Murillo's. Ya, he was from Moreno Valley or something. Do you know him?"

I'm thinking to myself this copper is crazy cuz my last name sounds nothing like Murillo. But I figure I'll go along with his game and see what if I can get out of this.

"I don't know any Murillo's sir, but my cousin lives in Moreno Valley and he is Ontario PD. " hoping this will be close to what he is looking for.

"No, no. Someone else. Do you know anyone else?" the officer probes.

Alright I think, if he wants to play like this I'll drop some others. "well, my father-in-law used to be the Chief of Police for Fontana, and my brother-in-law is a Sheriff for Rancho Cucamonga."

He negatively responds, "no, that's not it either."

I'm all out of connections by this time and I thought they were pretty big ones at that.

He then asks, "where do you work?"

I proceed to tell him I'm a teacher at _______ Middle School.

"OKAY, That's It!!!" "Hey Sal!!!" the officer yells back to the squad car.

Then it hits me, Sal, who is our SRO (School Resource Officer) assigned to work at our school is there behind my car. He comes strolling up to my passenger side and starts laughing at me. He says he will vouch for me and that I'm lucky he recognized the car his buddy was pulling over.


Story 2

I took a bag of mesh vests home with me to wash seeing that they can get a little ripe after 5 periods of kids wearing them for soccer. I decided to throw in some of my clothes to make it a full load and thought to myself as I did so- Make sure to check the vests before taking them back to school.

Yup, I forgot to check them and as I was handing them out to teams to wear, I noticed one of my thongs I wear to the gym for working out tangled with a vest. I grabbed the knot of vest and thong and stuffed them into my pocket before anyone really noticed what it was, at least I think so. Wouldn't be too good if word spread on campus that Ms. L showed her thongs to her students:)

Updates

Once again I had computer problems, only this time my laptop completely crashed and had to be re-formatted. I am just not having any luck with technology, but hopefully things are all fixed and good to go.

We took our nephew to an indoor inflatable jump place called Pump It Up and had a great time

Cheryl & Kyle snowboarding at Mt High.

It was not fun at all seeing that the snow was more like ice

Kyle and Cheryl at the Mission Inn

A cool picture of my brother Brian.

He is really good, isn't he?

Our new nephew, Kory Tyler

We went hiking in Newport Coast and Kyle ended up falling in this mud and landing

on that cactus you see on the ground. There were needles

in his leg, arm and hand.

The next day we went to the hospital to have a deep one

taken out of his hand.

Many Updates

So once again I have gotten behind in my blogging, but with a decent excuse. I moved. My roommate had to move out and after a mess of trying to figure out what to do, I ended up moving to a one bedroom apartment in the same complex. So my address is the same just new apt #. If you want/need new one, email me.

Then the day after I moved in I came home from work to find my bathroom, kitchen and dining area flooded with water. The adjacent empty apartment had a broken water line and was covered in 3 inches of standing water throughout the entire thing, which then seeped into my apartment. They had to cut out half of the brand new padding and then dry out the new carpet with huge fans and dehumidifiers, which are not quite, for 3 days straight.

Other than that I like my new place, except that the closet is about half the size as my old one:( But this will be where Kyle and I live when we first get married, unless we buy a house before then, which brings me to my next point.


With the California economy in the toilets as it is, my school district has to make up a 4.2 million dollar deficit. This means that my district has to make cuts, major cuts, and most of them are coming in the way of pink slips to teachers. After speculation and rumors my district finally came up with a list of 204 teachers that would be given the axe, and luckily I am NOT one of them:) So with my job intact Kyle and I are going to start the long and tedious but exciting house buying chore. We actually have found a house that we really like in the area that we love, and it is at a super price right now. So, wish us luck as we start this journey as first time home buyers.

Kyle and I hiked the hill/mountain overlooking Fontana a few weeks ago.

I mentioned in my last post that I needed to find aqua shoes for my wedding, and I did!

10 July 2009

I realized the other day that I don't think I have mentioned on my blog what the official wedding date is. So for all to know it is Friday 10 July 2009, in the San Diego Temple.



Wedding plans are going well so far. The reception site of The Historic Cottage at San Clemente State Beach is reserved and a down payment made. The only bad thing is that we are limited to 150 guests total, which means I get 75 and Kyle gets 75, which adds up very quickly especially when we both have decent sized extended families. Wish we could invite everyone, but we just can't...



Brody Dezember is our photographer and we are setting up engagement and groomal shots for April 7. He is also going to do our invitations and we already know what we want.

We have a caterer/decorator booked and ready to do all the tedious work of cooking, decorating, setting up, serving and cleaning up so that our families can truly enjoy the day.

I am borrowing a wedding dress from a good family friend of Kyles', and after having already lost 15 pounds it fits perfectly, which is great because it is free. The dress is hanging in my future mother-in-laws closet already. I also have a knee-length reception dress being made that I will change into halfway through the reception so that I can move around easier and not have to worry about getting a borrowed wedding dress dirty. I'm working on finding aqua high heels seeing that our colors are aqua with black and silver accents.

After the reception we will be staying at a vacation rental home there in San Clemente for 2 nights, which is reserved and deposit paid. We then will fly out on Monday to Hawaii-island of Kauai, where we will stay for one week at the Kauai Marriot Resort & Beach Club. Kyle's parents had a free week voucher and gave it to us which is very nice of them, so all we still have to pay for is the air fare, food and excursions.

We are not having bridesmaids/groomsmen, a cake, a DJ, flowers; all things which are nice but not necesarry in my eyes, or too traditional. I have a thing against doing the same old traditional thing that everyone else does because it is tradition or customary.

Long Time...

Sorry for the long absence but when you have a two week Christmas break you get out of the habit and routine, then half the time I didn't have my computer or external hard drive with all of my pictures on it because they were being worked on, or I am never home long enough to even get on my blog and update. Here are a few things I have been doing the past month:

Kyle and Cheryl- Christmas Eve

One of my Christmas gifts- a red leather jacket from Kyle's parents

Went to Dumont Dunes with Kyle's family

Went snowboarding with a co-worker and friends

Cheryl and Kyle at Ontario Reign Hockey

New Years' Eve

Jetty at Dana Point where Kyle proposed to me

Cheryl & Kyle at San Juan Capistrano Mission

Cheryl & Kyle at Castle Park for my birthday