Happy New Year!

Hope everyone's 2009 has started off with happiness, smiles and joy.

Since I last wrote, things down in Midland have been a whirlwind! After Christmas, Phil and I prepared for my parent's visit. They arrived December 27 and the week that they spent down here was wonderful, and very much what I needed. After they got to Midland, they stayed one night before taking me away to visit San Antonio and the surrounding areas. Phil once again had to work, but I think he was okay staying home to play with his new video games from Christmas :)

We arrived in San Antonio late Sunday night, so it was up to bed to rest up for the days ahead. Monday, dad had to work (those husbands and their work-- I guess someone's got to earn the money while the other spends it!), so mom and I met up with one of her friends (Kathy) that lives in the area. First off, Kathy took us to a bridal store so I could get fitted for a bridesmaid dress for my friend Kayley's wedding. After getting business out of the way, Kathy was our gracious tour guide that lead us through the craziness at San Marco outlets. One word to describe the outlets: AMAZING! There were so many stores and goodies-- I was proud of myself for not buying everything in site :) We spent about 5 hours there and maybe hit about 1/5 of all the stores. Whew! After the stores, we drove to the town of Gruene and walked through the adorable streets of this historic little town. Here are mom and I outside of the Gruene Hall (random interesting fact: the cover of George Strait's first album has a picture of him standing inside of this bar/dancing hall). Then, back to the hotel to pick up Bob and head to dinner at Red Robin (yum)! The next morning, mom and I met up with Kathy again while Bob stayed at the hotel to work. We toured the Alamo, took in the sites around the town and then spent the majority of our day at the riverwalk, just walking and taking in the scenery. With all the walking and long days, mom and I were exhausted, so Tuesday was an early goodbye to Kathy before returning to our hotel for a nap. After dad was done working, we once again headed into San Antonio for dinner and walking along the riverwalk.

Wednesday morning, we headed back to Midland. Dad had to work the afternoon shift, so while he stayed at our apartment, mom, Phil and I went to gather some things so we could decorate our apartment. We finally got our wedding pictures, so we bought frames for those, as well as a mirror for the living room. The boldest thing was painting an accent wall in our bedroom. Mom and I surprised Phil by choosing the color and painting the wall while he was at work, so I think he's still getting used to it :}

New Year's was spent at the apartment and playing Dominoes. We taught Phil the game of 'chicken feet,' and of course he had beginner's luck and beat us all! We all made it to midnight, celebrated with some drinks, made a few calls to friends and family, and then crashed for the evening.

My parent's left early this morning to head back to CO. I think their trip was entirely too short, but I'm sure Phil thinks it was just right :)

The next time I see them will be in May when I head back to CO for Tom's graduation (maybe?!?), so hopefully the time will fly by quickly.

It was great to have visitors, so if anyone wants to head on down to Midland, we would love to have you!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the south! While the rest of the world is being blanketed with snow, our one Christmas wish did not come true :( Instead of snow, Phil and I celebrated Christmas with 70 degree weather. But, we still had a lot to be thankful for, so we can't complain.

We had a lot of fun decorating our little apartment and for what we have, the house looks pretty cute. It helps that Phil has a smaller tree, so it fit nicely in between our fireplace and TV. We put up lights in our windows, put Christmas cards from friends and family on the unofficial Christmas wall, and Phil helped me decorate my first gingerbread house! We took the easy way out and got a pre-cut house, but I think we did a great job with decorating it!

As for the holiday, Phil unfortunately had to work this whole week, but we figured this was a time to start new traditions. Christmas Eve, Phil was at work, so I attended our church's service (since the congregation is only about 40 people, there is only one service), then waited for Phil to come home from work so we could open one present (I was the little kid that was waiting by the tree the minute he stepped through the door)! We made apple cider, opened one present each and then headed to bed (with visions of sugar plums in our heads)!

Christmas morning, we got up, opened the rest of the presents, ate Monkey Bread, then headed to a new church to attend their Christmas service. After church, it was back home to get into sweats and play with our new toys! Phil played his new Tiger Woods game for playstation while I camped out at the kitchen table and scrapbooked. Ah the life!

As for the rest of this week, Phil is finally on his Friday, so he is looking forward to his weekend. My parents are coming tomorrow (!!!!!), so today I will prepare (and anxiously await) their arrival.

We hope everyone had a safe and blessed Christmas! We'll post soon with our adventures of New Year's!

Wishing and hoping for snow

A lot of you may be wanting to strangle us for that title, but Phil and I have been bit by the snow bug and unfortunately, there is nowhere to go. Although, according to the weather forcast, we're supposed to hit temperatures in the teens tonight with a high of 32 tomorrow, so maybe we'll get to see flurries :)

As a side note, for those of you that recieved our Christmas letter, we obviously were not in the right state of mind and we stated that our 2009 was a busy wedding-planning season. No, we are not planning on getting married again (although another honeymoon would be okay with us). So, spread the news: Texas has brainwashed us and we don't even know what year we're living in :)

In other news, I am rejoicing because I am officially on winter break! I can't brag too much as Phil is on another 9-day stretch at work. Today, he is 3 days into it, so when December 27 rolls around, he will be all smiles as he does not have to report for duty at the airport for a few days. We still don't know what we have planned for our Christmas festivities. I think we'll do a Christmas brunch (since Phil works the evenings of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day), but I guess this is the time to start new traditions, so we're trying to plan things out. My parents are coming in one week and I am anxiously counting down the days until their arrival!

The past few weeks have been full of decorating, writing (and messing up) our first Christmas letter, wrapping presents, shipping packages (we have officially kept the postal service in business), listening to Christmas music and just getting in the spirit of everything. Oh, and of course, I am sick once again. I cannot wait until my body is used to Texas and school germs. This time around, it was a cough, headache and severe ear infection. Once again, I went to the doctor and got put on multiple medications. The cough and other aches are gone, but I still have difficulty hearing out of my ear and there is still some pain. The deafness has worked to my advantage in some ways since the kids were very excited for Christmas, so instead of talking, they thought yelling screaming everything was the way to go. If it was loud for me, I knew it was blaring for everyone else.

We also celebrated my entrance to the quarter-century club this week. We are now a household of 25 year-olds (that act like 10 year-olds sometimes)! Phil just laughs when he sees how excited I get for my special day. Here I am with my new bike that he got for me. I guess I don't have any more excuses to not train for triathlons :) Thank you everyone for your warm wishes, thoughts and calls!

We hope everyone is having a blessed holiday season. Hopefully you all should be getting our cards in the mail soon (we're still addressing some, but they'll get out-- don't worry)! Merry Christmas and have a safe and happy new year!

'Tis the season

We made it through Thanksgiving and now we're heading into the time for Christmas! This is my favorite time of the year and Phil is quickly figuring out that I am a child at heart. Everything is so exciting during this time and I am anxious for all the Christmas has in store-- from the beautiful decorations around town to the wonderful church events to the fantastic songs that everyone just can't help but sing along with. I love it all!
The first picture is of us after we completed all the cooking for our first Thanksgiving feast! We were too tired and exhausted to change out of our sweats, so we just ate as we were. So, not the most romantic or beautiful scene, but we were so impressed that we were able to cook everything and get everything done, I guess we didn't care what we looked like! We had the full feast of turkey, mashed potatoes (not out of a box!), green bean casserole, bread (homemade!), gravy, stuffing, cookie salad, pumkin pie and cinnamon ice cream (from our amazing ice cream maker). Whew! Yes, we had leftovers as lunch and dinner for a couple of days after.

To keep the Thanksgiving traditions rolling, Phil and I got up and went shopping on Black Friday at 6am! We were one of the first ones at Target and we loaded up on the things we needed then headed over to Kohl's, where Phil was an amazing husband and went straight to the back of the line so I could shop and not have to worry about waiting. Unfortunately, our Kohl's was not prepared for the events of the day, and while the line wasn't that long, we ended up waiting for 56 minutes. Ouch. But, after dropping our items at home, we left the car and walked to the mall to finish up with things (the mall is about 1/4 mile from our house). It was great to walk in the fresh air and even better that we didn't have to deal with the mess of parking. After the morning events, we came home, decorated the tree and the house, and I started wrapping presents-- yes, I couldn't wait.
As for now, we've stayed busy with random activities with our church, co-workers and just each other. Phil and I laugh sometimes because we know we were meant to be together. One night last week, we realized that we had not set up the tent that we got for our wedding, so we just set it up in our living room and had a camp out. It's so fun to have those random adventures and to have someone that loves to do them as much as you. If we had snow here, I'm sure we'd be the couple that goes out to sled down the hill with the little kids.
Hopefully everyone else is having a blessed holiday season. We got our Christmas cards ordered, the house is decorated, and I'm getting ready to start my baking spree of the season, so Christmas is all around!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!

We are so thankful for the love and friendship of everyone and we are so blessed to have been given so much to be thankful for. We hope that God has blessed each one of you as much as he has blessed us.

As for our Thanksgiving, today Phil is completing his 9-day stretch of work, so for our afternoon (he will be home about 4p), we are having some of his co-workers over for some appetizers, adult beverages and of course, watching the football games (Phil says that he roots for anyone that plays against the Cowboys!) and just having a relaxing evening. Tomorrow, we will have our real feast of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberries, bread, green bean casserole, cookie salad and pumkin pie. Yes, it is only the two of us and yes, we will be eating leftovers until we are green in the face :) I'm sure we will have stories and many memories to share of our first thanksgiving, our first big meal to cook and our first Black Friday shopping experience!

Last year in Midland, the town was 'covered' with a little over an inch of snow, but with the high around 65 today, I don't think we'll get anything but sunshine. I'm hoping the snow is just building power and we'll have a few inches of snow for Christmas (but not much later because I want my mom and dad to be able to drive down here on the 28th)!

Once again, happy turkey day to one and all and may you have much food to fill your stomach and many blessings to fill your heart!

time is flying by

Now that Phil and I are 'grown-up adults,' we can't believe how quickly time is passing us by! It seems like we just got married and moved down here a few weeks ago and when we realize that we've been in our apartment for 2 months, we can't believe it. It has been such a great experience thus far and we are so blessed with all of the opportunities and adventures that have come our way. While we are beginning to miss winter and real cold weather (down here, people don't know what to do when the temperature goes below 50), but we're both holding out hope that we'll be able to experience a white Christmas :)
Phil hit a milestone this week as he celebrated his one year anniversary with the City of Midland. He's been very busy at work and this week, he was the lucky guy to go in three hours before his shift to help oversee the construction project that was taking place during the nights. Both of us were very glad that he only had to get up a few mornings at 3am in order to make it there in time. Another thing that we're thankful of is that he is back to the day shift, so for the first time since I started working, we are both home around the same time in the afternoon, which means that we actually get to see each other when both of us are awake! This week, he's working a grueling 9-day stretch, so I don't think he'll be too happy when I drag him out of bed on his first day off (Black Friday). All in the name of love, I guess!
I also can't believe that I have finished my first four weeks at the school. There have been so many emotional rollercoasters during that time, but I think I am finally getting the hang of it all and the kids are getting used to my presence in the classroom. The only downfall is that since they are getting more attached to me, I am getting attacked by their germs. I finally am starting to feel better after battling multiple symptoms for the past 3 weeks. But, now that I'm almost in the clear, Phil has finally been attacked. I think we'll be sharing germs and diseases for the next year. I have to say that the best part of working with the kids is hearing the nicknames that they come up with. I thought that it would be easier for them to have 'Mrs. Tiedeman' instead of 'Ms. Chmielewski,' but they have proved me wrong. One of the little boys couldn't pronounce my name correctly after trying a few times to say it, so he just decided to call me 'Mrs. Cinnamon!' Well, the other kids have started to hear him call me that, so they put together cinnmamon and toast, so one student introducted me to his mom as 'Mrs. Toaster.' Oh goodness! Needless to say, I think I'll be letting them call me 'Mrs. Katie' when we return from Thanksgiving break :)
Everything else is also falling into place. We've found a church that we both enjoy and while it's a little bit smaller than we had hoped (congregation is about 40 people), we think it will provide us with an opportunity to get to know people on a more personal basis and we'll be able to provide a younger person's perspective (the majority of the congregation is middle-aged). The other night, we went out with a few friends and enjoyed (well, at least watched) the Odessa Jackalopes hockey game. Hockey down south just isn't the same as up north! But, it was fun to be back in an ice arena, so I think we'll be going to more games in the future.
Hope you all have a great Thanksgiving!

So much has happened since the last time that I wrote, I don't even know where to start! First off, I am finally employed! I know that being a Domestic Diva and CEO of Tiedeman Family was tough work, but I think the hubby and I would agree that being out in the community with people has done wonders for me! The best wonder of all is finding out that my immune system is not used to children or Texas germs. Yes, after being in the classroom for one week, I officially had a cough and here we are another week later, and I have a full-blown cold :( I am trying to fight through it, so hopefully by Monday, I will be super-charged and ready to go! The picture of me is after my first day of school :)

The next exciting thing is that Phil and I finally got to celebrate a holiday together! Yes, we know that Halloween isn't the most special or significant holiday, but when you've been dating someone for almost four years and you can count on one hand how many holidays you were together for, you get really excited about the small things. Unfortunately Phil had to work until late on Halloween night, but we still carved a pumpkin (there's Phil revealing what's inside our pumpkin), decorated and got some candy (wishful thinking that we would have little kids come trick-or-treat). Halloween night, we went to a party with a few friends (Phil came to that party after he got off work) and it was a great evening with a lot of fun decorations and costumes (I was a rag doll and Phil was a tourist).

After all of the Halloween festivities, we got to celebrate Phil's birthday! He has now entered the 'quarter-century' club and as of right now, nothing much has changed! He had to work the evening shift on his birthday, so I headed out to the airport to have dinner and birthday pie with him. Now we are taking a little breath before Thanksgiving and Black Friday activities (yes, I am dragging him out of bed in the early morning of Friday the 28th to do some shopping)! I mean, is there a better time than 6am and with a crowd of people to point out what I want for my birthday and Christmas?!? I'm sure we'll survive and I probably won't get him out of bed too early... at least by my standards :)

As for now, I plan on taking it easy for the rest of the weekend. Hopefully my immune system will bulk back up and I'll be ready to take on the kids for two more weeks (then, it's a week off for Thanksgiving Break)! I love school!