Season 4 Step 1: Thanksgiving Special: Step 1 Part 2

 Step 1 Part 2

For Thanksgiving, as they do every year (except for last year obviously), Pop-pop, Eva, and Zach came up from Florida. Similarly, my cousin Austin came from Pittsburgh where he moved shortly after last Thanksgiving. As always my parents hosted the dinner. Mom's entire family came including my grandpa and step-grandma (Nana) who moved to Columbus from New York only a few days before New York shut down. While I could talk about family stuff, something that is relevant to my goal for this season happened over dinner.

The Mitreys (my cousins) also came to Thanksgiving. The family consists of Melissa (Mom's sister), her husband Andy, and their children, Alex, Maci, Nicholas, and Ellie. We all ate dinner and when people were getting ready for dessert I saw Alex and Ryan sitting at a table. I sat down. Ryan knew what I wanted to talk about, so after he started the conversation, I explained the story to Alex:

In Step 1 Part 1, I introduced Izzy who was a co-worker at Kroger. Izzy and had I planned to move in together, fulfilling my goal for the season of moving out. Because of circumstances outside of our control, Izzy and I moving in together isn't going to work out. Shortly before Aspen took the offer to move in with Marshall in Cincinnati (The Goodbye Andersons Special), her mom, Barbara, tried finding a place for her in Columbus. As a result, when Izzy and my plans collapsed, Barbara gave me the contact information of the woman who was renting the apartments she had been looking at.

I sent an email to the apartment representative and scheduled a tour. After the tour, Dad and I crunched the numbers. “So you can definitely afford it,” Dad said, “but by renting you are just throwing your money away. Maybe you should talk to Ryan about going in on a house together.” Dad explained that once I move out of the new house we could either sell it or continue to rent it out. I thought it was a good idea so I decided to talk to Ryan about it at Paige's wedding.

Paige's got married the day before Halloween so I knew that I would have to write and record “The Legend of Walhalla” before we left for Florida. The day before we left as I was recording, the software I have been using stopped working. Because Ryan makes demos of songs for Cousin Simple, I also decided to talk to him about helping me record until I could figure something out.

As you may recall, I was a groomsman at my friend Greg’s wedding back in June. Since that was the only wedding I have been involved in as an adult I just assumed that the reason I was so busy that weekend was because I was in the wedding party. As a result, I approached Paige's wedding as just another guest and did not account for any other family engagements. In other words, I didn't have time to talk to Ryan until the morning after we got back and even then it was quick because we both had to go to work.

The next Sunday Ryan came over so I could record “The Legend of Walhalla” and “Paige's Wedding Parts 1 and 2.” I planned to kill two birds with one stone and talk about moving after I finished recording, but unfortunately I only got through “Paige's Wedding Part 1” Before Ryan had to leave. Thankfully Ryan came back the following weekend to let me record Part 2.

“Well,” Ryan said after I told him what was going on, “that's a good idea, but we should get Alex in on this because he and I were interested in doing this last year, but we were worried about being landlords. If you're living in the house that could clinch the deal.”

After I explained everything to Alex, he agreed to help. We did some minor research and we have a few areas in mind. While my original plan for this season was to move out at the latest by January realistically it's looking a little more like March. I know that this could also fall through, but I’m thankful that my family is willing to help!

Hope You had a Greattastic Thanksgiving!

J. Mitchie Ulibarri

Season 4 Step 1 Blog 25: Paige's Wedding Part 2: Doesn't Get Any Cooler Than That

 Paige's Wedding Part 2: Doesn't Get Any Cooler Than That

When Paige got my book, “The Greattastic Adventures: Miracle Child” she took a picture of it and posted it to her Instagram story. Along with the picture she wrote, “My cousin is a published author everyone! It doesn't get any cooler than that!”

On October 30th, 2021 I woke up at my aunt Eva and uncle Zach's house in Florida. I said good morning to my family, except Luke because he had to stay home for a soccer game, and then Dad and I drove to Windermere to help set up the reception. The reception was at Uncle Paul's parents' house on Lake Butler. We spent most of the day, working on putting the words “Mr. and Mrs. Beltz” on a greenery wall and collecting moss to use as decoration. By the time we had finished, it was time to go to the wedding.

The wedding was beautiful. When Paige walked down the aisle The way she and Naughstin were looking at each other was so pure I couldn't help but smile. After they were officially married, We got a few family pictures and then drove back to the venue for the reception.

The night started with a cocktail hour, during which time a dance instructor that they had hired, taught us how to do a basic dance. After we had finished, I went to mingle. 15 minutes later Paige and Naughstin entered the reception on a motorboat driven by Uncle Paul!

After that, the wedding party entered, and Paige and Naughstin had their first dance. We had dinner, everybody gave their toasts, the cake was cut, and an ice cream truck arrived. The DJ told us to all move to the dance floor and we began to dance the night away.

About 30 minutes into dancing, we were instructed to get off the floor so they could do the bouquet toss. When I got off the floor I stood next to Eva, Alexander (Paige's brother), and to my surprise his girlfriend Alexa. Eva and I prompted her to join the other women and she stood at the very back of the group.

“Alexa's going to catch it,” I whispered to Eva jokingly as I started recording. Paige threw the bouquet and it went right to Alexa! I'm so glad I was recording because after she caught it I got a close-up of her and Paige, and then one of Alexander, who was trying his hardest to process what had just happened.

When everything calmed down we returned to the dance floor. As I danced in the crowd with Paige and Naughstin at the center the only thing I could think was, my cousin is a married woman! It doesn't get any cooler than that!

Congratulations Page and Austin! Wishing you a Greattastic Life! 

With Love, J. Mitchie Ulibarri

I can't end this installment without talking about one other thing that happened. As the night wore on the DJ asked everyone who was attending to get on the dance floor so the photographer could get a group picture. As we gathered for the picture I tried to stay with my family. Mom said something to me and I replied. One of Paige’s bridesmaids, Abby, recognized my voice from my social media and the podcast, and she got so excited. “Oh my gosh, you're like a celebrity!” She exclaimed. Initially, her reaction caught me off guard because this is the kind of thing that happens to Ryan because of Cousins Simple, not me. Like yeah, it's Paige's wedding and Abby is one of her friends. Of course, she's going to know about Rules for a Greattastic Life, but it was just so surreal to meet someone who knows about me without me being directly involved. We ended up talking for a while and I realized that she really keeps up with what I do. It was really nice to meet a fan!- Hi Abby :)

Season 4 Step 1 Blog 24: Paige's Wedding Part 1: Naughstin

 Paige's Wedding Part 1: Naughstin

Back in “Can You Please Teach Me How To Dance?” my cousin from Florida, Paige Spears, got engaged to her boyfriend Austin Beltz. The problem is Paige has two brothers Alexander and you guessed it, Austin. To differentiate the two Austins, the Spears family started calling Austin Beltz “Naught Austin.” Soon the nickname was abbreviated to just “Naught” and my immediate family's personal spin on it, “Naughstin.”

I knew prior to the engagement that Paige was dating somebody, but I have to say I was a little bit frustrated when they got engaged. If you haven't been able to tell over the course of the series, I am a hopeless romantic and a perpetual third wheel. Because they started dating during covid and the distance between us, Naughstin was just a guy who showed up on Paige's social media to me and I didn't want to wait for our family vacation (or worse the wedding) to change that. I stuck it out, however, mostly because I didn't have a choice, until our family vacation.

On June 7 of this year, Mom, Dad, Ryan, Luke, Josh and I, made the drive from Columbus to Orlando. On the drive down my Aunt Alicia and Uncle Paul (Alexander, Austin, and Paige’s parents) informed us that Paul’s dad had passed away. When we got to the house, Mom, Dad, Ryan, Luke, and Josh went in and greeted Alicia, who was home alone because Paul had spent the day with his siblings. After they had said their hellos, Mom thought, Where's Mitchell? Before she could ask the question out loud, she got a phone call.

I had stayed outside to send a text to my then-girlfriend, telling her that we had arrived. I was about to hit send when out of the corner of my eye I saw the back end of a car speed by on the main road. My “sisters” and I got in a car crash one summer and the most traumatic part of that experience was the sound of the screeching tires right before the car hit us. To my surprise, there were no screeching tires this time, so I assumed the crash would not be too bad. I was wrong.

When I got to the scene, the car that had been hit was facing me which was in the wrong direction. The car that had been speeding was on the other side of the road and a girl about my age was being dragged away from it. At this point, I called Mom told her what was going on and that I was going to help. People were driving around the accident so before I got an opportunity to run across the street and help the girl, two more girls got out of the accident car closer to me. The driver of that car was having a panic attack, but her passenger appeared fine. Her passenger asked if anyone had called 911, just as the other car caught on fire.

“Is this about the crash?” The operator asked.

“Yes,” I replied.

“Okay, is anyone in the burning car?”

I got close enough to check and thankfully no one was. At this point, my family had joined the crowd of bystanders, and when Dad saw me in the middle of this chaos he ran to help me. As Dad comforted the girl who was still panicking, I saw the girl from the other car lying on the sidewalk next to (presumably) her boyfriend. I tried to cross the street to help, but Dad figured out what I was doing, stopped me, then walked across the street himself. I'm not going to tell you what Dad said he saw, but it was traumatizing. The police did say that they thought everyone was going to be okay though.

When everything had settled down we returned to the house, and Paul, Naughstin, and Paige showed up. That day was just a rough one for all of us, but because the day was so depressing and traumatic it was easy to see why Naughstin and Paige are perfect for each other. Through those dark and heavy emotions, their love shined through!

To Be Continued...