Schaun's been hired! Sort of.

Schaun got a job! In Virginia. We just don't know when it starts. Hmmmm. Tricky. So, that means Schaun needs to look for a temporary job here in New York City. This is not the best time to be looking for employment. Not many people are hiring, and those who are either want employees with very specialized experience, or they want someone who can give a long-term committment. We thought it was ironic (in a sort of frustrating way), that having just received his doctorate a month ago, Schaun has now been filling out applications for Staples and Borders Bookstore. Oh, well. It's only temporary, right?

Schaun's Graduation

For those of you with whom we have not been keeping in touch, we thought we would do a few retroactive posts to inform you about what's going on in our lives.

Schaun finally finished his dissertation, and was awarded his Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from the Univeristy of Connecticut in December 2008. One of his advisors was kind enough to put him in touch his an academic publisher (Left Coast Press). Schaun reworked his dissertation into a book manuscript, and we are now waiting to see if the publisher thinks it is marketable.

The title of the dissertation was Everything We Don't Know about People. It was a critique of the way social scientists generally go about doing there work. He argued that social researchers don't often give people a reason to take their research seriously, and then offered an alternative way to study people, using his fieldwork in Kyrgyzstan as an example.

Wedding Day - Connecticut Reception

After the ceremony in New York, we travelled up to Rachel's parents' house in Connecticut for the reception. Aside from a 20-minute torrential downpour just as everyone arrived, it was a great (albeit hot and humid) day.

Rachel with her mom and some of our friends. Rachel's mom was proudly telling all, "Did you know this was MY prom dress?" Because really, it's all about the mother of the bride.

Rachel and her "oldest and dearest friend" Milla (our "best maid") with matchy-matchy flip-flops (not seen here) and bouquets.

Schaun and Rachel near the pond. The rain made for some dreamy lighting.

Schaun and Rachel in front of the house.

That's the tent in the background. That's a very in-love couple in the foreground.

You have to have dancing at a wedding.

Rachel and her father doing Don's famous fancy footworkin' polka.

Cutting the wedding cake (that had melted and lost it's top!) Good times. Good stories!

Wedding Day - Central Park

Central Park is one of our favorite places in the city, so we made a point to get some wedding-day pictures there.

That's 59th Street in the background.

Just a handsome picture of Schaun.

And a beautiful picture of Rachel.

Wedding Day - New York City

We were married July 19, 2008 in at the Manhattan Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The reveal! For the first time in public, Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler. This is us exiting the temple after the ceremony.

Rachel and her friend Deb-Deb outside the temple.

All our family and friends who made it to NYC.

Just us and our parents. Schaun's family has giant-like height which makes Rachel's look like a miniature people. We love the comparison.

Walking across Broadway.

That's the temple in the background.

Finally getting started.

We've been toying with the idea of a blog for months. In fact, this blog has been up and functioning--but without any posts--for a couple months now. We just never got around to posting anything. But all of that changes today! We're going to play a little catch-up by posting some of our wedding pictures from July, since a lot of people have been asking about them. Then we'll go from there. We're not sure how often we're going to post. It will be at least once a week, and hopefully always on the same day of each week. We'll have to see.