Showers of Happiness

It's finally down to one month until we are officially Phil and Katie Tiedeman! While I know that day will be beautiful and full of happiness, it's the steps that will get us to that day that are a little bit hectic and frustrating. But I suppose it takes a little bit of work in order to achieve a lifetime of happiness :)

This past weekend was a bridal shower here in the Springs. It was co-hosted by one of my bridesmaids, Sarah, and my mom. We had about 20 ladies (plus Baby Ian) here to help celebrate and it was such a great afternoon to sit and chat and catch up with everyone! One of the best parts of the day was seeing one of my old girlfriends, Jamie, whom I grew up swimming with on the club swim team. Unfortunately, the day was extremely hot and we don't have air conditioning in our house, but the three fans that we had going did an okay job at keeping things on the cool side (the downpour of rain also helped)!

One of the best parts of the day as well was when Sarah arrived with the cake. (Yes, I know that I love cake, but that's not the reason why it was the best part). She had picked it up from the store and the inscription read 'Congratulations Katie and Pil.' I guess they forgot to add the 'h' to Phil's name :) So, we had a good chuckle about that. Here I thought the only confusion with names was going to be spelling out my last name (Chmielewski) when I am changing last names after the wedding!

As for other details in our life, we're taking each day as it comes. I am preparing for my 10K swim on Sunday, so please pray that I make it out of the lake alive! I'm also trying to find motivation to start packing up some of my stuff so I can head down to Texas in a few weeks. Phil has been doing great keeping up with his 'honey-do' list. He booked our honeymoon tickets (to Jamaica!) and has arranged/signed/made the first payments for our first apartment. I think both of us are just ready to be done with this distance relationship and all of the planning through the phone, so we are definitely counting down the days!

on the road to happiness

There is so much to catch up on in the past few weeks!

As wedding plans continue to drop into place and we continue to battle the distance (both with our relationship having 1000 miles between it and the wedding/reception site being 1000 miles away from Katie), we battle with the elements and are finding ways to prevail :)

The only battle/rough patches that we have encountered thus far is Katie's bridesmaid dresses being ordered too large for each of the girls. Apparently, the boutique failed to inform the bride, as well as the bridesmaids, that they should order a size smaller than what the designer intended. So, each bridesmaid had the wonderful task of rushing to find alteration places that can fix the dress in less than 6 weeks. I figure if that is the worst of the planning, I'll take it!

On a much more positive note, Phil was able to come to Colorado and have some face-to-face interactions with Katie. He flew in on a Friday evening and left on the following Tuesday morning, but it feels like we accomplished enough items/activities that it felt like he was here for weeks! We were able to have dinner with some of Katie's friends, hit up a baseball game, take engagement pictures, drive to the top of Pikes Peak, pick out Phil's ring, talk about honeymoon destinations, discuss apartments to live at beginning in September, and Phil was even able to come to the summer camp where Katie is a director! Whew!!

As of right now, the next time we will see each other will be in mid-August when I move more of my things down to Texas. It will be a few days there finishing up plans and possibly moving our things into a new apartment, then it will be a few more days apart until we see each other in Minnesota for the wedding!

We are both very excited to see everyone at the wedding and have all of our friends and families near us to help celebrate our special day. We are very anxious to stop this long-distance relationship and finally be in the same city :)

Until the big day however, Katie will finish up with her wonderful job in Colorado Springs. Her last day of work will be August 22 and then she will spend a week getting things put together before heading up to MN. To help de-stress, she continues to train for her open-water swims. This Sunday is her 3K race and August 10 is her 10K race. Phil remains busy at the airport and dealing with all of the lovely people in Texas. He also has been busy making arrangements for the honeymoon and looking for new apartments for Katie and him to live in. Only 43 days left until the big day!

Summer Fun

I've decided that since things are getting very interesting in my life, I figure this is the best way to share the details with you all. While some entries (like the last one) may be long and full of details, others (probably this one), will just have updates and pictures that show what my life is like these days!

On Memorial Day, Tom, Bob and I ran the 30th BolderBoulder 10K race in Boulder, CO. Last year was the first time for me (the whole family walked it), but this year I decided to take the plunge and run. Mind you, I've never ran more than a 5K, so this was a big step for me :) All in all, it was such a great event and I highly encourage everyone to do the BB at least once. While the weather wasn't the greatest, I enjoyed having low/mid-50 degree weather so at least I could cool off some during the race. The three of us stayed together and I was the pace leader (since I was the least experienced with running and the most nervous for the race). We started out nice and slow but got faster and ended up finishing in 1:06. Not the greatest, but not too shabby either!

Other than that, life is getting hectic with summer camp, wedding stuff and random other details. I'm hoping that I'm not turning into a Bridezilla, but you'll have to ask my family (and Phil) if that answer is true :)

Long time!

Yes, I realize that at the beginning of this project, I stated that I would try to be good at keeping dibs on what is going on in the life of us, but as you can see, I have kind of taken a month absence. But, I am back and ready to rock out (so be prepared for a long entry)!

To catch up, wedding plans are continuing and to tell the truth, things really are going great (knock on wood)! Phil has ordered the tuxes, the guys are getting their orders in, our marriage license arrived, our invites are at my house, we are continuing with our modified marriage counseling and we both are slowly putting together the puzzle of getting married. We did hit a milestone in our marriage prep this past week-- we are now officially down to double digits for the wedding day countdown! It makes Phil and I so excited to know that in 4 months, we will be in Texas, settling into our new apartment and starting our lives as Mrs. and Mr. Chmielewski (oh, I mean Mr. and Mrs. Tiedeman)!

At the beginning of May, after many discussions with relatives and some days of planning, we decided to have a bridal shower in Minnesota. After thinking about it some more, we thought that since we were so close to Iowa, we should plan on having a shower there as well. Once details were organized, my mom and I headed out! Basically, this is what the weekend consisted of: 70 hours for our total trip, 30 hours of driving, 2 showers and one car packed to the brim! I had to work late on Thursday night, so after I got home, my mom and I got into our comfy driving clothes, and proceeded to drive all night! Crazy-- yes we were :) We got to Rochester about noon on Friday and later that night, I met up with one of my childhood friends (that lives in Rochester) to hang out for a few hours. The next morning, my aunt (and godmother) hosted the first shower from 10:30am-1pm. After everyone left, we helped clean up some things, finished packing the car, and drove to George, Iowa for the second shower. That one was from 7-9pm at the church that Phil attended as a child, so it was a great time to meet all of Phil's relatives and friends. After the shower, my mom and I headed to the Tiedeman's house to crash and then drove back to CO at 7:30am! Whew!

Other than wedding stuff, life continues to roll. Phil is staying busy with his job as they are starting to hire employees to fill some positions. And of course, he is staying busy doing all of his 'honey-do' lists that I am starting to assign :) I am in the middle of preparing for summer camp and this will definitely be a summer of learning (both in the educational sense, as well as the emotional sense-- please help me find patience)! I am very excited to return as a director of a summer camp for teens with disabilities as I know it will be full of laughter, smiles, frustrations, fun, emotions and whatever else :)

And the train keeps rolling...

Things keep on progressing and it really feels like everything is falling in place! I know we still have a lot to do on our 'to do list,' but I feel really comfortable with where we are right now. Phil has picked out the tuxes for himself and the groomsmen, I have ordered my bridesmaid dresses, I already have my dress and we have been looking at MOB (Mother of the Bride) dresses for a few weeks, so if nothing else, everyone will look fantastic!
I've been keeping busy in the Springs with my different training programs. It's great to have something to look forward to in the next few months to not only keep my mind off of things, but it's a great stress-reliever when things get a little frustrating. I am planning on completing my first 10K run on Memorial Day and then I figured it was the year of 10K's, so I signed up to swim a 10K in August. I'm not sure what I've gotten myself into, but it's been fun thus far and I know both activities will have a lot of great memories.
Phil has stayed busy with completing his (hopefully) last month of midnight shifts at the airport. They've been going through some changes and are hoping to hire more people in the next few weeks, so then Phil gets to give away his 'low-man on the totem pole' position to someone else :) As of right now, the next time we will see each other is at his cousin Sara's wedding at the end of June, but we're both hoping to squeeze in a visit before then!
I'm getting excited to meet and talk with my soon to be extended family, and my current family, at the showers next weekend. My mom and I are going to drive to Rochester, MN on Thursday night to be there for a shower on Saturday morning before driving to George, Iowa to have another shower there on Saturday evening. Then, we'll head back to CO on Sunday morning. Whew! We are hoping that everything goes well (traveling, road conditions, weather, etc.), so keep us in your prayers for the weekend of May 2-4.
That's about it for now. Hopefully the weather where you all are is as wonderful as it is here!

and the wedding bus continues to roll...

This past weekend was a success, if I must say so myself :) I was able to travel down to the dry city of Midland and spend a few (much needed) days with Phil. I left after a program on Thursday afternoon and arrived in Midland around 11pm, which is right in time for Phil to start his shift at the airport (he's been on the midnight shift for the past couple of months). I was able to meet some of his co-workers, grab the keys to his house and convince myself that I only had to drive another 20 minutes before I could fall asleep. The drive down there only takes about 9ish hours, but I was definitely ready for sleep :) The next day, I nicely threw Phil off of his typical sleeping schedule and allowed him to sleep for about 4 hours before waking him to go and register (by the way, he's camp-champ for the weekend). We headed to Bed, Bath and Beyond (the picture is of Phil holding the high and mighty registering gun!) and proceeded to have fun! After about an hour, Phil headed back to bed for a little rest while I explored Midland and potential job sites with a new friend that I had met online. Saturday was more wedding planning (invitations, tuxedo potentials, rings, etc) and a little bit more registering. Later that night we were able to go out to dinner with a few of his co-workers and then spend an evening just relaxing. Sunday we tried out a new church then headed back to Phil's so he could get a nap before returning to work later that night (he had Friday and Saturday nights off). After he left for work, it was bedtime for me as I was heading back to the Springs on Monday morning. When he got home Monday morning, I was packed up and ready to leave. Of course, the good-byes are always tough, but we know that the end is in sight and we are both counting down the days until we can both live and stay in the same city. After almost two years of doing the long-distance, the light at the end of the tunnel continues to grow brighter each and every day.

Was going through some old photos of us and I ran across these cute ones! Thought I would share them with the rest of you!

The one of us that is an extreme close-up is from the OAR concert in Grand Forks. The one where we have little bees on our shirts is from Phil's trip to CO and our dinner at the Golden Bee restaurant. And the picture that we are dressed up is from Phil's graduation in May 2007.