At last!

At last... I finally have my 'all-clear' to start work! After many days of waiting, numerous phone calls and filling out paperwork, I am set to work in the classroom on Monday. Oh happiness! I'm just excited to start this new adventure and to get out of the house (I'm sure Phil is ready to have me out of the house as well)! I will be working in a Special Education classroom with 13 students. There is one teacher and four aides (including me), so I'm not exactly sure what my duties are or how many students I will be assisting. It will be a new experience for me, as I have not dealt with students in the classroom before (only outside the classroom participating in recreation activities). But, I know that while some days I will be super tired, I will be able to come out of this job with a lot of experience and many stories.
Phil is ready to have a second income to the family and to finally be able to have the house to himself for bits and pieces. We will have to work with mixing schedules for the first few weeks (I will be 7:30a-4p Monday through Friday and Phil will be 3p-11p Tuesday through Saturday). I'm sure we will be able to make it work. I mean, we're finally in the same city, so now we won't have to deal with time zones, cell phones and random other messes.
As for other details, our house is decorated and ready for Halloween. We're not sure how we'll celebrate the day, as Phil works late, but I'm hoping that a lot of cute youngsters come to the door to show of their costumes and take away the candy that I'm sure I'll be eating :)
We successfully had our first house guest this past week. Phil's high school friend, Ross, was in town for an oil show, so he stayed at our house for a few days. Ross and I were able to go to the airport a few nights to have dinner with Phil (otherwise Ross would not have been able to see a lot of Phil) and then we spent the rest of the time hanging out at the house and driving around Midland. If anyone else is in town, we would love to have you (it got Phil and I into house decorating/improvement completion mode, but I know I could always find more projects for his honey-do list)!

Settlin' into our home

We continue to settle into our new home and get used to being near to one another for more than a few days at a time. So far, no major problems or injuires have happened, so I would say that we're doing okay :)

As for other details, Phil continues to stay busy at work while I continue to perfect my Domestic Diva skills. I have enjoyed using the new kitchen utensils and accessories to mix, bake, stir, whip and cook a lot of new recipes. We've also stayed busy with trips to Home Depot, Target, and Wal-Mart to continue the quest of making this apartment our home.

I did have an exciting week last week as I interviewed for a position in the Special Education classroom at an elementary school. The day after the interview, they offered me the position (thank goodness)! Unfortunately, there has been a lot of confusion with my paperwork, so while they thought I would be in the classroom this past week, I continue to wait for everything to get put in place. Cross your fingers that I'll be a working woman by the end of next week.

In the meantime, I've been perfecting my skills around the house. The biggest accomplishment thus far has been putting together some shelves to go over our fireplace (I'm pretty good with a drill, if I say so myself). We're still putting together our house, but for our first place, it suites us very well (although more kitchen space would be nice...). I also have started swimming with a Master's swim team, as well as volunteering with Special Olympics swimming. It's such a joy to be helping out with a program that serves the population that is so near and dear to my heart. There's only 5 swimmers right now, but each of them has such a great personality and attitude, so I'm loving the 90 minutes that I get to spend with them each week.

Other excitement to the Midland area was that President Bush made a trip here for a fundraiser. Phil was able to go out on the runway and be one of the main people representing the airport. President Bush was here for about 3 hours, but the week leading up to it, Phil was pretty busy talking with Secret Service and other personnel. Being the celebrity that I am at the airport (I am Mrs. Tiedeman, after all!), I was able to go up to the Operations office and see Air Force One land.

Hopefully the next time I write, I will have made a successful transition from Domestic Diva to an employee of the Midland School District :)

Top Ten Countdown

Phil and I were watching our wedding video yesterday and I asked him what he would always remember from that day. He listed a few memories and then I listed mine, and we thought that we would share our 'Top Ten' list with everyone, since a lot of people didn't get to experience all of the action and activities that went into 'Wedding Week 2008.'

Our Favorite Memories:

• Party Bus (the bridal party rode in a 14-person shuttle bus from the ceremony to outdoor pictures to the reception. All we can say is that our bridal party rules at Karaoke-- especially 'We Are the Champions').



• Speeches at the reception (Cousin Ben, Joel, Kari and Tom did a wonderful and amazing job).

• Joel having WAY too much fun with the dollar dance (we think he enjoyed dancing with everyone in Phil's line a lot more than he should have)!



• Sparklers (Katie didn't want bubbles or rice to be thrown for some pictures, so when she saw a picture of a wedding in which the couple walked under sparklers, she was sold). The bridal party held them over our heads as we walked under the line of brightness. Then, they had a competition to see which person's sparkler would last the longest-- nice job Tommy Chimo.
  


• The facial expressions on our bridal party's faces during the ceremony (everything from Kari's extreme and wonderful smile to Kayley's blank stare into space to Tommy's frown/smile magical act).



• Our ring bearers walking up the aisle and then getting a piece of candy from Joel (yes, our groomsmen asked if they could get a piece after they walked down the aisle as well).


• The parent dance (God bless the polka)!


• Joel using the bushes as a restroom during outdoor pictures (and Cousin Ben capturing it on Eric's camera).


• Elise (Phil's cousin) singing the Oscar Meyer Weiner song during the reception (in order for Phil and I to kiss, someone had to sing a song with the word 'love' or 'kiss' in it). Missy commented that Elise should get bonus points for singing a song at a reception with the word 'weiner' in it.


• Cousin Ben commenting that everyone had sat down before the head table during dinner time (it was verbally caught on our wedding video).

Phil's other favorites include: taking off the garter, seeing Katie walk down the aisle, and our first dance.

Katie's favorites: Daddy/Daughter Dance, having Hudson assist me with opening up my presents at my bachelorette party (Hudson: 'what's that?' Katie: 'Um, my pajamas?'), and seeing our bridal party camped out on Grandma Katie's living room floor putting together our wedding favors (Rachel: 'This is not acceptable. We can do better than that.')

And so many more! Those were just the ones that will always and forever make us smile when we remember them. Of course, the more serious ones of seeing our friends and family come together to help us celebrate is the greatest one of all :)

Life in TX

We're finally getting settled into our new home! After our drive from CO, we got here late Sunday night, unpacked everything and then tried to decide where things should go. Phil had Monday off of work, so we spent the day buying food, appliances, cleaning products and other day-to-day items that we will need. Tuesday morning I began the process of turning into Katie Tiedeman, but was quickly stopped by the state of Texas because in order to get a license, I have to have my actual social security card with my new name (I thought a receipt was good enough). So, I'll play the waiting game and anxiously look for my new card in the mail. Phil was the lucky one who got to go back to work and work a 7-day straight work week. While he's the productive one of the family, I stay at home and continue to problem solve ways to magically make our apartment bigger, or at least have more storage space :) I have applied for a few jobs, so once again, the waiting game continues.
I was able to skip town and head to Albuquerque to see my mom for a few hours. Phil and I had taken her van down to TX (since my little Civic really wouldn't hold that much), and as much as I love the storage options, I love my car a little more, so long story short, my mom was in Albuquerque for the week attending a nursing conference. Since it's only a 7 hour drive from Midland, it was a perfect place to meet and switch cars.
On another random note, since becoming Katie and Phil Tiedeman, we were asked to be Phil's nephew's baptismal sponsor. Declan (his nephew) was born at the end of June and Phil's sister Emily asked if we would be his sponsors!
That's pretty much been the only excitement happening in our lives recently. Since my job title for the week is 'Domestic Diva,' I'll be sure to post more details each week.

Lots of love,
The Tiedeman's

Wedding pictures

We're finally back from our honeymoon and we're getting geared up for our move to Texas, but I thought I would post some pictures of the wedding.More information, details of our new life as husband and wife and the other random tidbits to come from Texas!

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!