Stories of Jeff Excell #1

I have spent several hours of several days reading and rereading Lucky Number 8's post archives. I love remembering things we've done and especially the stories to go along with them. Today, while Eli is down for his nap, I have found myself wanting to write a story to add to the archives. This happens frequently. But being home all day with a baby has limited my stories to tales of flat heads and spit up. I have decided to fill my writing urge with stories of the past. Our history. This blog started when we got engaged and has only ventured before that point a few times. I introduce you to "Stories of Jeff Excell" which will hopefully have many parts and take you through a few of the highlights of our dating experience.

August 2007 was an eventful month. I had just spent the summer working for the Utah Junior Golf Association and was headed back down to Cedar City for my second year in college. I decided to room with my friend from high school, MacKenzie, again. When we were talking about where to live, I was very stubborn in my choice of Stadium Way Apartments. I didn't know why I was so set on living there. I just felt really good and strongly about it.

We moved in and met Leslie, Breanne and the other Sarah (better known as Downstairs Sarah). The first night we were there we went to a ward barbeque to meet our church leaders. We quickly noticed our ward was not filled with Stadium Way students, but instead with Cedar City locals. We were reluctant to commit to this ward because we wanted to get to know the people who lived around us. And we could not figure out why our apartment was among only a couple others to be mixed in with this ward.

After returning home from the barbeque, we threw around the idea of sneaking into the Stadium Way ward. I knew the bishops are told to be strict about ward boundaries for this very reason. I didn't want to cause a stir so I suggested trying our ward out because that's where we're supposed to be.

We might have tried out the other ward one week and got kicked out, I'm not exactly sure. But we did end up in the right ward at least by the second Sunday. We sat down and were surprised to see the guy-to-girl ratio was quite even. Maybe we could handle this ward after all. At the end of Sacrament Meeting, one of the members went to the pulpit to explain the two Sunday School options and where they would be located.

Kenz, Leslie, Breanne and I were quite gitty with back to school excitement. We were being obnoxious, loud, giggly, and freshman-like (and sadly, Kenz and I weren't freshmen). In no time, people were swarming the Gospel Doctrine class. The clusters of girls were chasing in the clusters of boys and we didn't really have our eyes on anyone in particular. We couldn't find four seats together so we decided to check out the Gospel Principles class.

There sat three lonely boys. I wanted to turn around because I'm not a big participator in Sunday School. But they spotted us and their excitement for fellow classmates was too hard to reject. The teacher said, "Come on in! Welcome to Gospel Principles. I'm Kyle and since there aren't a lot of us here, let's just take a few minutes to get to know each other a little better."

Nick introduced himself. Then I believe it was Kenz, then me. I said, "My name is Sarah Thomas. I'm from Bountiful. I like to run."
Kyle asked, "Are you good at running?"
"No. I like to run. But I'm really not that good at it."
A voice piped up from the other end of the row, "You like to run? I'm good at running but I hate it."
I thought that was weird. If he was good at running, why would he hate it? I would love to be good at running. The introductions continued. Breanne, Leslie, then came Jeff Excell. The voice from the end of the row.
"I'm Jeff Excell." Leslie interrupted. "Wait. Your last name is Excell? Like XL? Jeff Excell. That's such a cool last name." I remember her going on for a while about it. I was still thinking about his running comment. Kyle started the class.

We continued being loud and immature. At the end of the hour the bell rang and we giggled our way out the door. As I left I thought, "Wouldn't it be funny if one of those guys ended up being my husband?"