This is Freakishly Accurate of Us...

In honor of Waffle Monday and Flipping Friday...

Miss you all!

-Kada

My Grand (Abrupt) Exit from Graduation

Well I guess this is really happening! For those who don't know, my last day in Graduation was Friday! The charter school I was interviewing with back in March had a teacher back out a week before their classes started. 

Wednesday 4:00pm: the longest final interview of my life

Thursday 6:00pm: the principal called to offer me the position 

Thursday 10:45pm: I sent my letter of resignation to Margaret and Stacy

Friday: I gave Alex a crash course on reissued diplomas and tried to enjoy my last bittersweet moments on campus!

So Saturday morning I tried to throw my classroom together and get my first weeks lesson plans prepared! Is this for real? I still can't decide.

I am teaching two periods of 9th grade composition, two periods of 9th grade literature, one period of 8th grade composition, and one period of student success (which is basically a study period ). 

I am still working on beautifying my room! The last teacher didn't leave much to work with, but I have ordered a few things so far. I can promise the first week will be crazy overwhelming, but hopefully I can hit the ground running and keep up!

I already miss the people in Graduation so please update the blog and keep having the girl's night dinners!!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Rodeback

English Teacher Extroidinaire  

THE Top 10

 My assignment for the day...Check! (special shout out to THE Gatekeeper and the new owner of "THAT chair")

THE Top 10 Things About Marriage That No One Told Me

1. With marriage comes the  obligation to not hit your husband in the head while you are sleeping at night (Nick’s been considering a helmet as his next purchase).

2. The ammount of chick flicks you watch decrease drastically- Should this have been common sense to me? Most likely! Still was a hard hit and the withdrawals aren’t getting easier. On the other hand it is so much fun stocking up your movie collection. Take the hunt for Bourne Legacy for example. This magnificent movie came out while Nick was on his mish so obvs he needed to see it. Good movie, full of action. You’d think it’d be at your local Wally World right? Wrong! Two Wally World trips…..nada. The one. The only. The Best Buy!.....failure. On our last attempt, energy lagging, we find it! Where you ask? TARGET! Chalk one up for the red team!

3.  Making your husband happy means you can’t just feed yourself chocolate and nut bars anymore. I actually have to think of somewhat healthy meal ideas and well…. It ain’t easy!

4.  That your husband could possibly become your dad’s fave. That’s right. We went to Bear Lake last weekend and what does Nick get when we arrive home? Well a happy thank you text from my dad telling him what a great time he had with him! So what do I do? Well I wait for the same text a course! Does it come? No. No it doesn’t. Does my dad still love me? Yesh. Does he just love to text my hubby now? Yes yes and yes. It’s actually pretty cute :) 

5. How much fun it is being able to dress your husband however you want! It’s like having your own life size Ken doll! And how happy he is that you bought him something when really it was my lil treat because I got to go shopping!

6. Target shopping trips could possibly be a lone deal. Who woulda thought not all men like to shop at Target? That’s okay I Target on.

7.  That your husband could have an opinion on the Bath and Body Works scent you choose to have in your apartment. And all this time I thought men paid no attention.

8.  How much fun it is trying to get your hubby to like the same food you like…..like popcorn for instance! I have been going to drastic measures to make this happen. Like….eating popcorn every night….and everytime it’s raining….. or whenever we go to a movie…..and any other time I feel it is necessary.

9. Okay this next one’s a little hard to hear so if any of you are havin a rough day you may want to skip this thought and continue on to numero ten. I continue……That your hubby may not like Disneyland (GASP)! But don’t worry ladies! I have not given up hope! One day he will like that place. If it’s the last thing I do!

10. How much you fall more and more in love with your hubby erday! Seriously I thought I loved him before. With each day I gain more and more apreciation for the wonderful man I married and for the joy he brings to my life.

Anyways! Life is good! Love ya gals!

-         -  the Gski

Dylan's Story

Dylan Gehrig Swenson's Story

I am a little slow at posting this, but I am still getting used to life with two kids (and I had no idea how to post on a blog so I had to ask Kada!). A few days before Dylan was born Colby and I still didn't have a name. We finally decided to each list our top 5 names and compare our lists. We both had Dylan because we had previously mentioned it so we went with that. His middle name is from the baseball player Lou Gehrig (also where the disease came from but I don't really like to think about that). 

On July 22nd I went to the doctor for my appointment and  I was at a 4 almost 5. I was asked why I hadn't been induced. I said I would rather it happen on its own but if nothing had happened early the following week we would she file something. I went home and had more consistent contractions all night but they were really mild. At about midnight I had a bad contraction when I got up to go to the bathroom, and somewhat fell back to sleep for another half hour. At 12:30 I had another contraction and decided to wake Colby up to give him a warning. If I was really going to keep having contractions I wanted to take Jack to Colby's parents. I didn't want to be dropping him off at 3 in the morning or something. After being awake for about 10 minutes I found the contractions were about 3 minutes apart, so Colby said we were just going to the hospital then instead of waiting. He tried calling his family to give them a heads up that we were bringing Jack by and nobody would answer. He finally got ahold of his sister and when he told her we were dropping Jack off and heading to the hospital she asked why. Colby was so annoyed with her.

We checked into the hospital about 1:40 AM, and they said I was only at a 5. I was thinking at that point I would get an epidural because it seemed it would take a while. Within 10 minutes I was almost at an 8, so they called the doctor in and started to get everything set up. They asked one last time if I wanted an epidural but said it probably wouldn't kick in before the baby came. The doctor also said she wouldn't break my water until she was dressed and ready to catch him because it would happen that fast. She got ready, I was at a 10, pushed for 5 minutes and he was here at 2:35 AM. Very painful and terrifying, but I am glad it was fast and I didn't wait for the epidural. She said Dylan got here before they could process my paperwork! We had about a half hour alone then my parents showed up and then no more visitors until that afternoon (still didn't get much sleep though). We left the hospital on Pioneer Day and were greeted by parade crowds lining the streets when we got to Spanish Fork. 

A few things I have learned/re-learned having two children:

*I only had to get pooped on twice in one day to re-learn how to change diapers fast. 

*Maybe be a little more discrete about getting milk for a baby when you have a 2 year old. 

*The delivery without and epidural was an amazing experience, but I didn't realize how bad it hurts afterwards when they press on your stomach and do all they have to do. 

*I have an amazing husband who I wouldn't trade for anything. 

*Jack and I would not have survived without a nearly finished basement because I hardly dare take two kids to the back yard. We are both a little stir crazy.

*I will never dare live far from a hospital while I am having children. 

*I am hopelessly addicted to Dr Pepper. 

A Few More Tidbits About Hawaii

1. You hardly hear "Aloha". Once I left the mainland (aka the contiguous part of the USA) , I thought I was saying goodbye to hello, and hello to aloha! But actually, I hardly hear people say "aloha" out here in Hawaii... In fact, the only people I've noticed consistently using "aloha" are tourist operations such as resorts and surf board rental companies. They do this as part of their customer service, because it is sort of what people want to hear they come to Hawaii. 

Turns out that "hello" isn't necessarily a direct translation of "aloha". The literal meaning of aloha is “the presence of breath” or “the breath of life.” According to my friend, to great someone with "aloha" means that you acknowledge that God has breathed life into you. The word "aloha" shouldn't be tossed around as casually as "hello" is. Next time someone greats you with "Aloha", be flattered!

2. Houses don't have air conditioning. No kidding. I haven't been in a single house or apartment that has air conditioning! This is Hawaii- constant summer temperatures year round, and they don't believe in air conditioning... You better get a fan or you're going to melt. Fans are like heroes out here. I often walk all the way down to the grocery store just so I can experience the air conditioning. Walking into a grocery store has never been so lovely!

3. Makeup-less. I always wore makeup during my first couple weeks in Hawaii. But I quickly learned how annoying that is since I'm constantly getting in the ocean and it gets in my eyes, or it's melting off from the humidity and sweat. I quickly noticed that the locals don't wear makeup. So, I decided to do as the locals do, and just go makeup free. To add to that, I have also adopted the Hawaii hair look... Which means it is up in a messy bun on my head most the time, or just air dried and free to do what it wants. 

This has been quite refreshing because it takes the pressure off to look good all the time, but also, i feel like it creates a different meaning of beauty. There is less pressure out here to fit a certain look. I actually feel beautiful with no makeup and a messy bun. In the past when I went out to socialize with guys, I would have felt slightly uncomfortable knowing that I didn't have mascara or anything. Out here, I feel confident without it.

4. Tropical Storms. Whhhhooooaaaaa. In terms of nature, this was the most intense thing I have ever been through in my life. I had a few days warning from some casual conversation with other people, "Oh, did you hear there's a storm coming in this weekend?" I imagined that it would be similar to the July thunderstorms we have in Utah. Well this was veeeeery different. It started around 9 PM, and I was fascinated by the lightening, when it flashed, for a moment you could see all the waves in the ocean. It was beautiful and fascinating. But then I went to bed and woke up at 1 AM to experience actually BEING IN the storm! Literally, the thunder and lighting was right above my house. When lightening flashed, it lit up my bedroom like it was mid day. It was so bright! And when it thundered, the whole house shook. I live on a peninsula, which means I had a front row seat to all this. I'm not sure if it was as intense further inland. The next day, the beautiful blue ocean was a murky brown from all the sand and dirt that was turned up from the storm. It was kind of cool, I'm glad I got to experience it. 

5. There are no natural predators in Hawaii. No snakes, bears, tigers, lions, etc. So, the animals here are happy animals! :) These are cows from Kualoa ranch (where Lost was filmed). The burgers in their restaurant wonderful! I call them happy cow burgers. haha :)

6. Deep Fried Pork Ear. I found this little gem the other day. I guess this is a thing that people eat...? haha

7. Acai Bowls. They are divine! And I hear they are even better in Brazil! Haha.  They are acai fruit mixed as a smoothie and layered on top with granola, warm honey, and other fruit like bananas, strawberries, blueberries,and toasted coconut. 

Hope you enjoyed this! Miss you all! ALOHA! :)


-Kada

Ida-Freaking-Mazing-Ho!!

 Oh my Ida-goodness, I've missed you guys.  I want to update you on all the good things that have happened in life since coming to my Ida-Home.

1.  I wear pants with no zippers EVERY SINGLE DAY.  Pretty much, it means that I don't wear pants.  I'm not ashamed, and I feel like it will be like this in heaven.

2.  I get to wake up in the SEVENS!!!! GAAAAH!!!!! I stay up past eleven without drooling too badly on myself either.  It's a whole new life.  I'm such a rebel rouser.

3.  It is beautiful up here.  But so windy.  That's why you have to wear pants with no zippers, because they will fall right down.  We have been here a month but know we are loving the 'small town' thing they got going.  So many mullets, though.  And also a lot of...crack.

4.  Our new house is.... interesting.  It's smaller but it's cute.  Here's my living/kitchen room..... And lucky for you guys, I decided to take my pants-less self out of the background.

5.  We have a neighbor who has a GOAT.  A GOAT@!!  And he sits on his lawn chair and yells!!!

6.  I'm not going to lie... the transition to full-time-stay-at-home-in-a-new-weird-place is rough.  Hard, scary, rough, but equally awesome.  It's hard to know how to space the time now.  Hard to know when to put on my pants.  And I talk to myself a lot.  Good thing myself thinks I am hilarious.

7.  Did I mention I love all the space?  This is the view from my front window.  See how farmy it is??  FARMY!!! With goats!!!!

8.  These things right here... right above this... they are my reason.  They're helping me with interior decorating all the time.  They even colored my toilets.  I need to make them some new friends, though, because I'm SO tired of always having to be 'Batman's Weird Mom'.

9.  They have a Midget Market.  That's the real name of the place.  I'm not sure if they sell real midgets yet or not.

10.  Last but not least... what you've all been waiting for.... here is my purple shag carpet.  It is real.  

The only bad thing about this is how I miss everyone more than Lindsay Lohan misses her virginity.  People up here are so nice, welcoming and friendly... but it's going to take some time to find people who will embrace me in all my White Mountain Dew drinking, Fruity eating, Donny Osmond loving glory.  Bless your beautiful heads, and please come visit me.


Heart.

=The Pantsless Wonder

THE Quadruple Wedding

I say "THE" because there is only one wedding like this in the history of mankind. I am sure everyone has seen the Today Show footage or heard the ZHT spotlight on their way to work, but I am bringing you the inside scoop right here on the blog.

Grace is the sweetest bride I know which is no surprise because she is also the sweetest person I know.

Speaking of sweet, my husband said the Italian sodas, creme brulee, and chocolate mousse were to die for! (I had to throw in a quick food review for all the office foodies!)

I would also give the venue, decor, and overall atmosphere 5 stars!

I had a smokin' hot date and a gorgeous view.

Also, the service was awesome. 

It was a beautiful wedding with four adorable couples!