Merry Christmas!

We hope everyone is enjoying their day of celebration! Philip and I have had an amazing few weeks and we are so blessed with family, friends and everything else that is in our lives right now.

Catching up from last time...

We celebrated Philip's birthday November 5. He had the day off of work, so when I got home, we went out to dinner with some friends and then had some pie and ice cream. It was quiet, but we've realized that as we get older, it's just another day. I tried to make it extra special for him, but like he says, if he can drink beer, relax and go out to eat, it's a good day!

Thanksgiving was a little different this year. Philip had to work, so since a lot of his co-workers are in the same situation (being 20-somethings with no family around the area), we had a potluck at the airport. There were 8 of us that celebrated that night at the airport, and we dined on Gumbo, different salads, sweet potato balls, pies and ice cream. It was a night that we could all be thankful for so much. I had to leave the party a little early, as I am one of those insane Black Friday shoppers. Yes, I was up at 3am and met up with another co-worker of mine and her friends. Crazy, I know. But, it's all for the love of tradition and sales!

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, Philip and I flew to the midwest to celebrate 'Thanksmas' with our families. We spent a day with the Tiedeman's in George before driving to St. Cloud to meet up with my parents and my brother. It was a quiet four days, but it was just what we needed. I got in the Christmas season early and donated 9 inches of my hair to Beautiful Lengths (it's like Locks of Love). After our celebration with the Chmielewki's, we drove back to Iowa to celebrate with Philip's family. All I can say is it is much different celebrating with 5 adults (as we did with the Chmielewski's) to celebrating with 10 adults and 3 little boys (with the Tiedeman's). It was so much fun to see how excited the little boys got! Santa even made his way to the house early (we saw his tracks in the snow)! The trip went by entirely too quickly, but Phil and I continue to realize how blessed we are. We are so lucky to have such amazing families and we are anxious for the day that we move closer to them.

Unfortunately, our trip back to Midland was not all that wonderful. In a nut shell, we were excited to see about an inch or two of snow in Iowa, but we missed 'winter' in Midland.

However, our flight back was supposed to fly in during their 'winter storm.' We were able to fly into Houston, but once we arrived, we were notified that our flight was cancelled and we would have to stay the night. The next morning, we boarded our plane, waited 45 minutes on the runway and flew for about 30 minutes before the pilot stated we were turning around due to bad weather in Midland. Once we landed, Philip and I were informed that there were no flight to Midland until the next day. Desperate times call for desperate measures, so we went on a limb and booked a flight to Lubbock (2 hours from Midland). Keep in mind, we had no idea how we were getting from Lubbock to Midland! After calling all 8 car rental places in Lubbock, we thought we were going to have a $300 taxi fare back to Midland. Thankfully, two of our dear friends, the Thorton's (bless their hearts) came to pick us up. All in all, we were supposed to be back in Midland on Monday at 7pm and we got back on Tuesday at 10pm. I am so glad that Philip works at the airport and not me because I am not wanting to see an airport for quite some time :)

This year has been so full of blessing, memories and just so much more. Enjoy your celebrations and as Tiny Tim says, 'God bless us, everyone!'

Finally back in the game :)

After a few months of laziness, no computer in our apartment and hectic/random schedules, I can now get back to out beloved blog!

Since there is so much to catch up on, I'll just give highlights of the past few months:

August:

Phil and I did make it to New Braunfels for our little mini-vacation. We spent a day at Schlitterbahn Water Park, which was amazing. We also had a drink at the famouse Gruene Dance Hall later that night. The next day, we had planned to tube the river, but after spending the previous day in the sun, we decided to sleep in and leave a little early to take the scenic way back to Midland (yes, there's scenery in east Texas, we're just severly lacking it on our side). We stopped in the adorable town of Fredericksburg to have lunch and window shop. While the trip was short and sweet, it was worth it.

In August, we also attended Midland's famous Summer Mummers. It's a melodrama that is put on every summer and it's held at the old theater downtown. We went with a few of my co-workers, as well as one of Phil's co-workers. There is one main show at the beginning of the night and that's where the crowd gets into the action by 'booing' and throwing the popcorn at the bad guy as well as clapping and cheering on for the good guy. They sell bags of popcorn and it ends up being a huge popcorn fight (Phil and I are wearing some of our bags from that evening). Phil and I continued to find popcorn pieces scattered throughout our apartment for the next couple of days.

September:

The month of our first anniversary! We celebrated by heading to Lubbock to watch UND play Texas Tech in football. We went with two of our friend's from TX (that are Tech alumni) as well as another UND alumni (one of Phil's co-workers). On our way to the game, we stopped at Llano winery (which is right outside of Lubbock) for a little visit and tour. Then, it was on to the campus to see UND give Tech a little run for their money (hey, it's UND's first season in D1, so we didn't expect a lot, but it really was a great game).

The day of our anniversary, we relaxed and went out to eat, then came home to drink the wine that Sheryl and Warren had given us when we got married. Phil had made vanilla ice cream and colored it red to match the colors of our wedding and I made marble cake, as that's the one we had on our special day. The best part about the day-- Phil's ice cream ended up being peptobismol pink and my cake did not turn out marbel at all. Ah, memories :) We ended the night by eating dessert and watching our wedding DVD and just reminiscing about that wonderful day. It's been an amazing first year and I know that it's just going to get better!

At the end of September, I was able to fly to Seattle to visit my best friend, Kari. I planned it the same weekend that another set of friends would be there, so it was four days full of catching up, sight-seeing, walking, talking and having tons of fun! I was able to visit downtown Seattle, go to Pike Market, go sailing on a yacht, see where Kari worked, eat tons of fresh and delicious sea food and just enjoy the scenery (because they actually have some up there)!

October unfortunately started out on a sad note. On October 1, my Grandma Katie passed away. She lived an amazing life and all of us were so blessed to know her. Phil and I flew to St. Cloud and while it was good to see all the family, I wish it was for better circumstances. She will be remembered always and forever.

Too much!

That kind of seems to be the theme with our lives these days! It really feels like we blink and then it's already one month later! Or it could just be that we're getting old and I know that I just plain forget things :)

But, as for the Tiedeman's... life has been great! We moved into our new apartment at the end of July and so far, we love it! We stayed in the same complex, but just moved a few buildings down. Some of you may think that we're crazy for just moving a few hundred yards away, but if you had to deal with an interstate as your backyard for a full year, as well as college-aged kids living above you that don't care if it's 2am on a Tuesday because they just want to keep the party rolling, then you too would agree with our move. Currently, we live by the tennis courts and there are no major streets near us, so life has been peaceful. Phil has been a great husband and has been busy putting things away and hanging pictures (I've taught him well)! No, he's really been such a great help, as the past three weeks, I have been extremely busy at work, so while we were moving, he pretty much did the majority of getting things over to the new place. However, the best memory from the move would have to be Phil and I moving our mattress at 12:30am one night. Since both of us were working the evening shifts, we just thought it made sense to put the mattress on top of his car and drive it to the new place when no one was around.

Other exciting news is that I got a promotion at work! That is why I have been so busy-- I have had to complete my job duties for my old job, as well as the new one. Thankfully, my replacement is starting Monday, so today is the last day that I have to deal with all of that! It's really exciting to start this new adventure and I feel like it's a great fit. I am a Case Manager of 12 clients and it's a Monday-Friday 8-5 job, so I can finally have two solid days off! Once every 2 months, I will be on-call for a full week, so during that week, no phone calls on my personal cell please :) Just kidding, I'm just anxious to complete my first week (which is October 23-30).

Monday and Tuesday, Phil and I will be in New Braunfels taking a mini summer vacation. I haven't used any PTO since I started at MARC in April and so we looked at the schedule and Phil had Monday and Tuesday off, so we just decided that we're taking our only summer vacation. We're really not sure on exact plans for our trip, but we're just excited to get out of Midland and enjoy the east part of Texas.

My goal is to send everyone some cute little postcards with our new address on it... we'll see how soon that happens :)

4th of July

Just a few pictures from our adventures in George...




The Tiedeman Grandchildren (all 16 of them)











Phil's siblings (Alicia, Phil, Emily and Joel)















Grannie Tiedeman's
great-granchildren singing
'Jesus Loves Me'

Katie and Phil with Hudson and Declan

Memories

It's been awhile since we last wrote, but things here have been a bit hectic.

Unfortunately, Phil's grandmother passed away on July 2. So, for the 4th of July, we headed back to Iowa for the funeral. Thankfully, our jobs allowed us time off, so Phil and I left Texas on Saturday and spent three days with his family. While it was a tear-filled couple of days, there was some happy moments.

Once we arrived, the town of George was in full celebration for their 125th anniversary. So, off we went with Phil's family and enjoyed the festivities. We were also able to see Sheryl and Warren's new home, which they had just completed building. One word to describe it-- amazing! It was perfect for all 12 of us to run around and enjoy each other's company.

While the trip back to Iowa was not for the best of reasons, it really made Phil and I realize how much we want to move closer to our families. Yes, we are looking and trying, but until then, we'll continue to enjoy all the pictures and phone calls and learn to love Texas :)

We love you and miss you Grannie Tiedeman.

Minnesota trip

June 4-7, we went to Fergus Falls, MN for Kayley and Nick's wedding. Kayley was one of Katie's roomies in the Pink Lady house during college and Nick was one of Phil's roomies in the '3 Kings' apartment.

We left Midland in the early hours of Thursday morning and arrived in Minneapolis around noon. We had talked with two of our friends and coordinated flight schedules, so we all arrived within an hour of each other. So, we landed first and then minutes later, Kari arrived from Seattle. About an hour later, Rachel landed from San Diego, we loaded our things into the car and we were off! Since we were going through St. Cloud, we stopped for a quick visit with Grandma Katie and then made it to Fergus Falls about 6pm-- just in time for bachelor/bachelorette festivities! The girls headed to Zorbaz for dinner and drinks while the guys went to Kayley's uncle's cabin for an evening of grilling and beer!

Friday, everyone had a relaxing morning, then we got ready for rehearsal. Phil was an usher and I was a bridesmaid. Everyone learned what to do and where to go for the next day's activities and then we went to the groom's dinner. After dinner, Phil and I met up with my mom and Phil's parents. Both had arrived that afternoon and were staying at the same hotel as us.

Saturday started out early with the bridesmaid's hair appointments at 7:30am! But, everyone looked beautiful and the hair stylists did a great job making sure our hair would stay put, as it was a cloudy and rainy day. Things ran smoothly for pictures and Nick and Kayley finished up their outdoor pictures just before it started to pour. The ceremony was beautiful and the bride and groom did a wonderful job with everything! The reception was at the hotel that we were staying at, so we were able to dance the night away!

Unfortunately, Phil and I had to leave early the next morning to catch our flight back to Midland. It was a quick breakfast with our parents, some goodbyes and then back to the airport.

Nick and Kayley's wedding was such an amazing weekend and we were so blessed to be a part of their day. Even though we've only been married for 9 months, the wedding was a good reminder to keep things as new as they were on the day of our wedding. Whenever I think of our wedding, I think of the laughter and smiles and just the wonderful memories from the amazing friends and family that were there to support us. It was just a great couple of days for us to experience and we hope that we can continue to grow more and more in love, each and every day!

And Philip's turn...

The same weekend that Katie headed to CO, Philip headed back to Iowa for a friend's wedding in Des Moines. Unfortunately, he got a late start since his flight was cancelled, but everything worked out okay and he made it there only a few hours late!

Friday was the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, so he was the main man and showed everyone his amazing ushering skills :) Later that night, Sheryl and Warren arrived, so it was a few hours of catching up before heading to bed for the big day.

(The picture is of Phil and two of his best girl friends from high school-- Lindsey and Hillery)

Saturday was the wedding and Philip had a great time seeing all of his old friends from high school. His friend Andy was the groom and has been one of Philip's oldest friends (Philip has
many stories of adventures from childhood that include Andy). Philip kept saying how great it was to be back in Iowa (or as he stated 'it was great to be back in heaven'), but unfortunately, he had to head back to Texas on Sunday afternoon, in order to work on Monday.

(The group picture shows the George gang, with a few additional 'add-ons')

Because I had the camera for my CO trip, Philip's dad was able to capture a few snapshots of the weekend, so I could see what kind of trouble Phil was up to :)