Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Where I am at Now

Man, it has been a while

     Ahh... Where to begin. I just found the information for this blog again. After a couple years pretty much forgetting about it, it was a neat surprise to read my old blog post and see where I was at during that period of my life. I was surprised to see that my last blog post had 670 views! That is a substantial amount and it is cool to see that past Dalan may have had an affect on people's lives. Reading the last blog post I had to chuckle at my lack of grammar, and I am sure that when I look back on this post, I will chuckle as well.

      I am going to break this up into 4 different categories for those that are interested. This is more for me than anything so that I can remember these things in the future, and to be honest I should have done this a lot sooner than now. The four categories will be as follows: Family, work, education, and health.

Sooooooooo let's get started.

Family

     This is going to be jam packed with goodies! A lot has happened since my last post. Let's start with the most important, I got married! On December 13, 2014 (yeah that's right 12/13/14, be jealous) I got married to the most extraordinary women I've ever met. Kennedy Gayle Bryce....Now Kennedy Bryce Buhler! 

     We met in a very great way too. One day while at work I got stopped by a secretary for another school in the building. I had only talked to her once or twice before because she knew a missionary that I served with. She had a proposition for me, a girl from her ward had just gotten home from her mission in North Carolina and during her homecoming talk she had the impression that she needed to set us up on a blind date. I was willing, and about 4 months later I actually contacted Kennedy (I am a chicken) and we went on a date. I don't remember the date of the first date but I am sure Kennedy does... We proceeded to rapidly fall in love and got married about 4 months later, give or take a month.

     Here are some cute photos of us because Awwwwwww.







     We are also expecting our first son June 6th! Yeah, we don't mess around.. This has been a treat and a half to find out and prepare for. One of the many things that I love about Kennedy is that she is very thrifty. We have gotten everything we need in regards to decorating and furniture for the nursery for under 300 dollars. That is of course with super generous people in our lives. Especially our mothers. 

     I need to some pictures soon and I'll add them in soon. Some of you may be wondering why I didn't say he wasn't the most important thing that has happened to me and that is because I firmly believe that my priorities are 1. God, 2. Kennedy, 3. Children 4. Family and will continue to be in that order. If you want to show your children love, love their mother. She is the most important person in my life and although I will love my children very very much, she will always be my priority and I feel like that is what creates a healthy family.

     We are debating on the names of Theodore Russell Buhler or Greyson Russell Buhler. I think we will have to wait for him to be here until we know for sure what to name him. We only have to wait around another 5 more weeks! (tell me what you think)

     I won't get too much into my brother and sisters' lives but they are still a huge part of it and will continue to be so for as long as I live! They have blessed me with 4 awesome nephews that are adorable and/or awesome (David and Donovan) because they wouldn't like to be called adorable. Kayla and Colt have a genius of a child that is always surprising me with his greatness and Elijah is just the cutest kid ever with a big head like his uncle.

WORK

   




      I am still working at Alpine Adult Education part time helping with preparing people to pass the GED. It is a really good job and I have gained relationships with many people that will last a really long time. I always joke that I have like 6 moms because of all the counselors here that have an interest in me and that I look to for guidance and help.

      My daily routine involves tutoring people that come in and need help with their packets, fixing online brain honey packets, Working on projects for my awesome boss Kip, and introducing people to the GED and what it's all about/helping them get motivated to pass it. It's a pretty great job and I am very blessed to have it. If I didn't have it I wouldn't have met Kennedy and that would have been a major bummer.

     I just recently accepted and got hired for a part time 1 year long internship with Ancestry.com in their IT department. I won't start until May 2nd, but from what I can gather I will be working in their customer service building fixing their employees computers and network issues.

     I will be keeping my Adult Ed job and working both at 20 hours a week. This will be a good way to provide a reasonable income to allow Kennedy to stay at home and go to school and finish up her degree.


Education

As you might have been able to gather, I am studying IT at UVU with an emphasis on computer forensics and security. I am about half way done with my bachelor's degree and am taking the summer off for obvious reasons. 

What do I want to do with my degree do you ask? Counseling. Nah, just kidding. I want to work in Cyber Security or forensics for either the government or as a consultant for companies. I want to help people protect their information online so that they don't get their identities stolen, etc. There is a surprising lack of attention on this subject and I want the people I care about protected.

      A masters may or may not be in the future but I will definitely be getting different certifications in specific areas of IT to make myself more valuable to employers.

     Kennedy is finishing her degree in the next couple semesters (only 18 credits left) in Wildlife Conservation and I want to support her in finishing her degree so that she has that. We are planning on me being the primary provider and IT is a good area of choice to be able to do that so it'll work out I hope!

Another happy side note, We are debt free in regards to education and are only in debt on our cars! We are really proud of this.

Health

     This was the hot topic of my life for a while and it's still a prevalent issue. I think that it's just my lot in life and I will continue to deal with it and I am okay with that. I am happy, and despite getting constant sinus infections, and having headaches and being tired a lot, I am generally pretty great in the health department.

     About a year ago Kennedy was able to convince me to have another sleep study and found that I do indeed have sleep apnea. I will have a cpap the rest of my life and look like an elephant and that's totally okay. I am currently getting over a cold and it kind of stinks because when I get a sinus infection I can't wear my mask. 

<---- see elephant

    I am still tired a lot but I've learned to manage it and I have an amazing wife that takes care of me and helps me stay within my limits. I tend to like to push myself too hard, it'll be interesting to see what happens fall semester when I am working full time and taking 12 credits and have a new born... I have faith that it will work out though! Have I mentioned how amazing my wife is and how great she is? She is pretty great.


Conclusion

      Life gets better. I hope that people realize that. I am super busy, but super happy. I still get to do the stuff I love and am happier than I have ever been. I have new friends, old friends, and new family and they are all great. For those of you going through a hard time, I want you to know that God loves you, and help wants the best for you. He will always come through and if you will just ask him for help he will listen. The world has painted God as a bad "person", that if you believe in him that you are less intelligent than the rest, and it's sad to watch. Please do not fall into that temptation and lose sight of what is most important. I know that God lives, he loves us, and that he will help us and he's got our backs. If you ever need help people are there, I am here if you need it. 


I probably left a lot of stuff out, but you don't necessarily need to know everything in my life, so HAH!