Finally a post

Prepare yourselves…this is a long one.

After the constant nagging of my mother, I decided to get caught up on our blog. Yes, I realize it’s been 3 months. And let me tell you, it has probably been the most eventful 3 months since we were married. Although it has dragged on for sure. I'm ready for the next 3 months to be over already.

I’ll try and make it short and sweet and a condensed version of what could be a novel I’m sure. No promises though. Feel free to break it up into 2...or 3 readings.

Leesa
• Finished student teaching!! I completed it at kevin’s old high school with a GREAT teacher! I’ve heard so many horror stories about people’s cooperating teachers being absolute nightmares and I am so grateful that I got along so well with mine. College is officially behind me. Until possibly a masters eventually.
• And I finished with a 3.598 (I round to 3.6!) GPA. Not too shabby for being married and working ffor 3 or the 5 years. I don’t care what anybody says, your grades DO NOT improve a ton after you’re married! That first semester after earned me my worst grades ever! Of course, it was the first time I ever worked in college, too. That was probably the real reason.
• Received my diploma

• And teaching certificate

• Went to Utah a weekend for jessica’s reception/nicole’s baby shower
• And then again after student teaching was done to pick up my dad at the airport, go to kelli’s concert and then dad and I drove home to Washington.
• I spent a month doing nothing except hanging out with the cutest boy ever. Seriously he’s my little toy. And such a ladies man ;)

• Kevin finished basic training in San Antonio, so I went down there for a visit the first weekend in may.

$1000 later, it was a very fun-filled, fantastic weekend. We even checked off Texas on our list of states to eat pizza in! (Every new state we’re in/visit we make sure we eat pizza there.) So far we have Washington, Oregon, California, Texas, Idaho, Utah, Florida, and I’m pretty sure we got Wyoming while we were there. I’m not sure if we got Nevada. Guess we’ll just have to go back! The place we went was even featured on "Man vs. Food". It was so good! We even got a picture with Big Lou Jr.! Even if he didn't smile...

• After a month of having nothing to do, I started subbing as a paraeducator. Way more chill than sub teaching and I happen to really enjoy it a lot.
• School year ended so I’ve had a couple of days of having nothing to do again and I have no idea how I went a month with nothing to do. I am already completely bored out of my mind. Shout out to anyone who knows of jobs for the summer!

Kevin
• Graduated from basic in May (barely missing honor grad-top 10% of graduates) and then went to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. Aka Fort Lost-in-The-Woods, Misery.

• We thought he would be there until the end of July, but he called after the first day of classes and told me that he won’t be done until August 27th. Cool. Apparently, the last month of school is what’s called “Uniques” and each branch splits up and does training that is unique to that branch. Right now he’s with Air Force, Army, Marines, and Navy I think as well.

• Of course he’s doing well and getting high 90s on all of his tests. Such a smarty pants. He’s hoping to get “distinguished grad” which is the top graduate from each class. So we’ll see if that happens.
• He’s made some great friends and from what I can tell is really enjoying it. Only 63 more days until he’s done! Whoo hoo! 9 weeks!
• He might need to be there longer, however. He got a paper telling him he needs to go to the dentist and get clearance before we get stationed. I’m pretty sure it’s because he still has his wisdom teeth. Yes, 25 years old and still has them. I’m hoping they will clear him and he won’t need to get them out and he’s stuck there for a week longer. We’ll find out shortly though.
• He’s had a sore throat for about a week so he went to the doctor today and they said they’re pretty sure he’s developed allergies. He was pretty upset about it. I have a hard time having TOO much sympathy for him since I’ve had allergies since I can remember. Our kids are screwed in the genes department.
• He’s also been to the doctor before while there for a sore ankle that just wouldn’t go away. Since they run about 3 miles 3x per week, it was really starting to bother him. He was told he has tendinitis in his ankle. I, for one, had never heard of that but apparently he has it. But then his roommate went because he had a sore knee and it was pretty bad and the doctor told him he has tendinitis too. So I’m not quite sure whether either one of them really does.

The biggest news as of lately is that a few weeks ago, Kevin called me and told me that he got his assignment  papers that states where you’ll be going, and you sign the bottom of them saying that you’ll go. They said MISAWA JAPAN!!

I about died. I didn’t believe him for quite some time. We hadn’t even talked about Asia until he told me he put Japan on his “dream sheet”. Of course we get sent there. OF COURSE!!! I’m very slowly coming over to the excited part of being terrified. I would have much rather gone to Europe, but I guess it’s not much different either way. Don't really have a choice of whether we go or not, so here's to Japan!

That’s about it as far as an update goes. I didn't really keep my promise of keeping it short and sweet and if you’re still reading this, kudos. I probably wouldn't be still. I tried really hard to make it entertaining with pictures and such.

Lately 2

Day 5

So I went running today. Well running/walking. I went around in the neighborhood where the Nii’s and Deru’s live. I’m pretty sure Scott yelled hi to me. That’s who it looked like at least. Does he live in that neighborhood or related to someone that does? Maybe it wasn’t even him. My eyes are getting worse L so it’s a strong possibility. Anyway, I went through that neighborhood and then over to the high school and then back. I was gone for about 35 minutes. So not too long, but a good amount.

Then I went and picked up the pictures that should have come in yesterday’s letter. As I was driving to wal-mart, there was the type of puppy that we want on the side of the road and he/she/it was just a little thing and it didn’t look like it had a collar. Oh man, I was so tempted to just go pick it up and tell your mom to deal with it. It was absolutely adorable. But on the way back, it wasn’t there anymore. I was pretty bummed.

Oh and on the way back from my run, I heard a woodpecker. He was super high up on a phone line and was just pecking away. It was so nice outside again today. It got up to 60 or 61 I think and way sunny. Not like down there according to the weather app on my phone.

I made dinner tonight and had to go to wal-mart again for some chicken and parmesan cheese. I knew this morning that I needed to get some more hair ties and forgot on the first trip so I was going to get them on the second trip, and of course forgot them again. So I took two trips to wal-mart and no hair ties. Awesome. Anyway, I made chicken fettuccini broccoli alfredo. So good!! Who knew you could make alfredo sauce with parmesan cheese, cream of mushroom soup and some milk?! Well, you can! It was so good. Definitely one to make in the future. You’d really like it.

Day 6

I forgot to tell you in yesterday’s letter that “Being Elmo” was on Netflix so I watched it. It was so good! We’ll have to watch it when you get back. I think you’ll like it. Also, we all watched Hugo on Friday night. Well, your family started it and by the time that I got finished with your letter, it was about ½ way over, so I didn’t really understand what was going on in it so I just laid on the ground and slept.

I started watching a show on Netflix called “Accidentally on Purpose”. It’s about a woman who has a one-night-stand with a guy that’s 15 years younger than her (37 and 22) and she gets pregnant from it. It’s a pretty funny show and I find myself laughing out loud at some parts. I only watched a few episodes but I think it’s one I’ll keep watching.

Day 7

Not really much went on today. I went to school (only teaching 2 classes instead of 3!) Then I went to the gym. Funny thing-it’s Monday, so we get out an hour early because of meetings and I completely forgot that it was we were done an hour early so about 20 minutes after school was out, I went ahead and told Tammy that I was leaving. She seemed confused, which I didn’t really understand, but as soon as I got out to the parking lot, k realized that I was leaving an hour early. Oopsies! I text her and apologized, but I wasn’t about to go back in. I figured I was already gone so there wasn’t really anything else for me to do. I thought it was funny. Such a blonde moment. Anyway, I went to the gym. I was so tired by the end of it. It wore me out for sure. I had to work off the row of brownie that I ate last night L

As far as the rest of the day, we had grilled cheese for dinner and I watched the bachelor. It was the final episode tonight and he picked the skanky model that didn’t get along with any of the other girls. She is just a horrible person, seriously. Supposedly the broke up about a month ago but got back together during the after the final rose episode. I don’t think it will last. Listen to me and my drama. Sheesh. I need to not watch these shows anymore. I finished the first season of Accidentally on Purpose. I think it is just that one season so I’m a little disappointed that there’s no more but oh well. Yes, I watched 18 episodes in 3 days.  Pathetic, I know. As I was flipping through show tonight, I saw How I met your mother. Let me just tell you, it was so hard to turn away from it. But I was strong and changed the channel. We’ll just get caught up when you get home.

Day 8

I hope you’re doing well! I had a pretty good day. Gail observed me and then Tammy did later in the day. They both went really well and I’m glad my observations are done. 11 more lessons!! So close! I also had my last meeting down in Pocatello and we went to Perkins and Gail bought us a piece of pie. Then I came home and there were tarts. I only ate 3 tiny ones though so I’m still on the wagon I think. I didn’t go to the gym today because of my meeting, though. Even though I can easily still go tonight-I just don’t want to. Simple as that.

I’ve decided that I have to get down to 140 before I can get pregnant. And I’m sure you probably just thought “yeah right” or “we’ll never have kids” but I’m determined

So that’s my reward for losing weight-getting to have a baby. I think it’s pretty fair.

So there'a huge amount of information (which doesn't even come close to the amount that I've actually written Kevin over the past week) but if you made it through all that kudos to you. 

Mostly this was for my mom since she's pretty much the only one who even ready this (and usually Jill, too.)

So there you go Madre, a blog update. I'll try and be more timely with the future ones.

Lately

So I figured since I do have quite a bit more time on my hands recently (the end of student teaching really is a breeze) I should probably update at least a little bit. Kevin is gone at Basic Training for the Air Force at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, TX and will hopefully be done the first weekend in May (50 more days!) Then he will leave to go to technical school, where he will learn how to do his job. That will take place at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri from right after Graduation until the 3rd week in July. Unfortunately, he will be done for both of our birthdays (his is next Tuesday and mine in in July) but he will be back for our 3rd anniversary. I'm already more than ready for him to be back. I've always done ok with just being on my own, but i've just gotten really bored recently without my best friend and go-to guy. It's going to be an intersting 4.5 months to say the least. 

Anyway, I figured since I've written him every day since he's been gone (8) I can at least find some time to  even just copy and paste parts of the letters that I write to him on here. Most of the stuff was really only directed at him, though, so I'll spare you all the details. So here it goes...

Day 1

We went over our work samples in our meeting today. (I have a meeting every Tuesday in Pocatello for student teaching) I have to write a final reflection and erase the students’ names from anything with a  grade on it but other than that he said it was good so I’m glad. My review is next Friday (16^th) at 4 PM so I will have to leave right after I’m done teaching 4^th hour. No big deal though. I only have 13 more days and then I’m officially done! How crazy is that!?! I love it!

Day 2

Today was a good day. School was a little boring but only 12 more days!! Woo hoo!! So close! The students in my nutrition/foods class all did really well on their test so that’s always a nice boost of confidence. Tomorrow I’m teaching about self-esteem in teen living. The lesson I have is really good. I got it from Tammy who got it from someone else and it’s a really good one so I’m pretty excited to teach it.

After school I went to the gym. Yay! I was only there for a little over a half hour. I wanted to stay longer but I needed to go to wal-mart to get envelopes and stamps so that I could mail you letters. I should just get a print out of your address so that I don’t have to write it out every time. But who knows. Anyway, I ran/walked a mile on the treadmill (almost as much running as walking) and I wasn’t even really winded after I was done. Hopefully I can make it more of a habit. I got to the gym at about 3:55 and there was absolutely no one there. I was all by myself for about 10-15 minutes. It was weird but I really liked it too. I also did some lunges, sit-ups, jumping jacks and like 20 seconds on the stair master. I wasn’t really feeling it today. But that’s ok. I’m going to try to stay longer tomorrow since I won’t have to go to wal-mart. I really wish the gym had a weight machine for resistance for thighs. I really liked using it up in Rexburg. Instead I just kind of straddled one of the exercise balls and clinched my thighs around it. It was pretty awkward, not gonna lie. Just imagine that. I was really glad no one was upstairs with me yet.

On another note, I think I jammed my right middle finger today. Or maybe last night. It doesn’t really hurt to move it, it just looks a little fatter than the one on my left hand and it hurts to bend it and press against it. I can type just fine and can move it around so I’m not too concerned I just think it got jammed or something somehow.

I talked to my mom for about 45 minutes tonight. Nothing really in particular-just whatever came up in the conversation. That’s about it as far as today went. Really good day, all things considered. I hope you’re doing well and that the yelling isn’t getting to you too much and that you’re remembering to call people “Sir” now J

Day 3

I forgot to tell you yesterday that I got the car washed. I knew it would take a while because when I got in line there were at least 5 cars in front of me. So I thought, ½ hour tops waiting. Yeah, the $7 car washes took like 10 minutes each! Some people got those (I’m assuming because they were longer than others) and others got the $5 one but I was still waiting in line for at least 45 minutes if not more. And as I’m sitting in line, I watch everyone pay for their car wash and everyone is paying in cash. I had a mini heart attack. I was going to be so mad if I waited 45 minutes and then I have no cash to pay for the wash with. Luckily it did take card so I was pretty relieved. But Mallory looks so good! She’s very happy to finally be clean.

Day 4

Today was absolutely gorgeous outside! 55 degrees and so sunny! It’s supposed to be like that all weekend too. Too bad it’s 45 and rainy in San Antonio L shouldn’t that be the other way around? But I’m not complaining! And at least it’s not too hot down there so you’re hopefully not too miserable.

I went ahead and bought my plane tickets for my trip. I figured that even if I need to change it for whatever reason, I just have to pay the difference of the 2 tickets.

Tomorrow is Dillan’s birthday party. I wish we could be there. Thomas and I face timed today when he went and picked Dillan up at my parents. He is so big now. It is precious. He’s the fastest crawler I’ve ever seen. It’s so funny. He’ll stand up with no problem, plop down to crawl 4 feet and then stand right back up like it’s nothing. He doesn’t really recognize me I don’t think. He just wants whatever phone he sees. His cheeks are still as chubby as ever. It’s adorable.

Today was my last day teaching Parenting/Child development. It will definitely be weird to have so much more time to prep lessons. Only 2 more classes and 10 more days! So crazy. It really did go by fast, but it took forever at the same time.

My finger (the one that was jammed) is starting to loosen up a bit. It’s about time. I mean it’s only been 4 days and I have no idea what even caused it. I’ve tried stretching it out and it seems to be helping but it still hurts when I press against it but hopefully soon it will be back to normal.

If you finished reading this whole thing, you're a champ. And if you read the other one of day 5-8, you're a national champ. 

Rambling update

Ok so this will be my first attempt at writing on the blog. Leesa has tried to encourage me a few times to do it and I have tried to stay away from it just because I don't feel like I really know what to say or write. But my mother-in-law left a message for Leesa that told her she has missed reading our blog. So I thought I would take it upon myself to write one so the pressure was off Leesa for now.

So why is Leesa so busy that she can't update our Blog? Well she is student teaching at Blackfoot High School!!!! Yay for Leesa. She is almost done with her Bachelor's from BYU-I. She has been with her cooperating teacher for about 3 weeks now and is really starting to love teaching. She used to always say that she never really wanted to be a teacher, but now that she has been getting classroom experience in a High School she has started to changer her mind. She did luck out in her placement to not have to teach much sewing. This was something that she was fearing quite a bit. The biggest challenge for her right now is doing Culinary Arts and writing her lesson plans. She spends hours on the computer outlining, creating, and perfecting her lesson plans. This is the one thing that she has not been enjoying, but she has been making many sacrifices (ignoring me) to get them done.

So there really isn't much more going on in our lives. We moved in to my parents home to try to save some money while we are transitioning. It has really been a big help, but it is harder than we thought going from a two bedroom apartment down to a single bedroom for us and all of our stuff packed in boxes in their garage. We tend to spend a lot of time to ourselves hiding out in our room. But it is nice to still have our own space.

Since we are living back with my parents we are now back in my old home ward. This is also a little weird going from a married student ward to our first family ward. Back in Rexburg Leesa was in the nursery and I didn't really have a calling, but that isn't the case now. We were called last week and set apart this week as Sunday School teachers for the 14 and 15 year olds. They were pretty unruly when we taught them today, but it will get better as time goes on. It is just odd teaching teenagers when there weren't any in our ward for over 2 years. But it is going to be a great blessing to the two of us.

Well I am not sure of what else to really blog about right now. There isn't much going on for me. I am just waiting to leave on March 6th for San Antonio, and from there I will head to Missouri for more training. Right now I am working at McDonald's in Blackfoot until I ship out for 5 months.

Hopefully this doesn't seem like I am rambling on, but that kind of happens when nothing has been posted for 3 months.

Officially a Military Wife...

And I'm not 100% sure exactly how I feel about it. 

So Kevin officially joined the air force about 2 weeks ago. Technically, he's in the reserves right now. He's just waiting for a job and to find out when he's going to basic. It sounds like it will be sometime in January or February, just depends on when a job opens up that he wants. He scored a 93 on the ASVAB, so he can pick whatever job he wants (Mr. Smarty Pants). He really wants to continue with engineering, just depends on whether a job opens up at the right time. We're not sure how long we want to be in right now. We're thinking probably 6 years right now because he can move up in ranks faster if he commits to 6 instead of 4.

He'll already start out as an E-3 (the third level for enlisted) but he'll still only be making about $20,000/year which is not a lot. However, I like the fact that it is a salary that goes pretty much directly to what you want (i.e. no rent/no medical insurance/food allowance, CHEAP to have kids) so that will be nice. His plan is to get his degree either online or, if we're stationed near a college, to get it there. I told him he has to get his degree and either become an officer or get out because you don't make anything when you're just enlisted. It just depends on where we end up. 

He really wants to go back to Alaska, I'm not too fond of that idea. Although I wouldn't mind sunsets like this:  

That's one thing I'll miss about Idaho. The sunsets.

I just don't know how I feel about living in a place that is completely dark all day for part of the year, and then the sun doesn't go down at all for the rest of the year. But we're also thinking Tacoma or Italy (if there's jobs open in those areas). But we won't know until he's done with basic/tech school I think. And depending on what job he gets, tech school could be up to a year long. And we won't know where tech school is until he gets a job. So our lives are still up in the air, only with a little more stability now. But that's about it as far as future plans go.

I'm doing pretty well in my classes. I think I have all A's so that's nice. However, I only have a few weeks of work left because the majority of my school work is towards the end of the semester, so I put my last day to be Nov. 20th and since I only work weekends, I only have about 5 more days left of work because I'm going to Utah for a conference for a class and then I have the PRAXIS. I am not looking forward to that by any means. A few months ago, I took a practice one without studying and I passed, so hopefully the one I take will be like that one. A few girls in my classes are having study groups a few times a week and I think it's helping. I guess I'll find out on November 12th if it actually helped or not. Well actually, I won't find out for a month after (when scores come out). Hopefully I pass though, because it's the only time it's offered before I student teach. And since you have to pass it before you student teach, I would have to fill out a "special request" form or something like that in order to still be able to student teach on time. But I don't think they would tell me I can't student teach once I already have a placement and everything. I would just have to take it while student teaching. I guess I'll just have to wait and see. I'll walk in the graduation ceremony in December and then Student Teach from January-April.

So ready to be done with school

But since Kevin will most likely be leaving in January, I want him at my graduation. However, that means that Thomas, Kelly, and Dillan won't be able to be there and that makes me really, really sad. I wish I would have just graduated on time in April. But it's too late now.

In other news, it's already snowed here once :( I was pretty upset. Although it seemed to be a fluke snowstorm because it's been in the 50s-60s every day since and it was probably 80 degrees two days before the storm. And according to weather. com it's not supposed to snow through nov. 1. At least that's what it said today. Who knows if/when that will change. 

Anyway, that's about it as far as our lives go. Very intriguing, I know...

These folks...

I've been thinking a lot about these 2 love  birds this past week. Mostly because they just got married and I am SO! excited for them, but also because every time I see them, I miss them. 

A. Lot.

Let me just say, it's about time they got married. They've been together/basically already married for over 5 years now. Just without the added benefits of actually being married.

There are so many memories with these two, and even more with just Emily.

When I was home for their wedding, I was going through all my old high school stuff so that I could bring it back to Idaho with me and I came across my high school yearbooks.

This is part of what you wrote junior year, Em.

"Thanks for all the times I vented to you about Austen! When I liked him & when I didn't."

That year was filled with so much (plays, New Years, Superbowl party, tanning appointments, and then Florida :)

Oh, Florida. Where you guys finally decided you wanted to be together-it only took you the entire year prior and then another month afterwards to make it official.

And now it's official for the rest of your lives :)

I wish I had more pictures of our memories, but these will have to do.

-Engaging in a TP war almost every weekend.

-Going dress shopping in Tacoma and writing down random quotes from that day. I wish we still had that list of quotes! -Most of them were from Emily-they usually were.

-And of course, no matter where we went, Austen was always there-Just one of the girls!

As I was sitting there watching the wedding, I'll admit, I was a little jealous of all the new people they had in their lives. I wish we would have stayed in better contact over the past few years :(

But, that is life sometimes.

I wish you two the best of luck in your new adventure! Marriage is definitely an adjustment, but one I'm sure you'll make effortlessly. I would offer you words of wisdom and advise on how to be successful,  but let's be honest, you two have basically got it all figured out. You've had years to figure it out :)

I love you both!! May your lives be full of love, faith, and family (emphasis on little Wiederspans, k?)
Congratulations Austen and Emily Wiederspan :)

Catch up

So I figured I should get caught up on what's been going on recently.

June-I went home for Kelli's graduation. The night I got there we sat in her room and talked and got caught up (a little too loudly apparently) and my mom came in to tell us we needed to be quiet. I also got to meet Dillan for the first time. He was even more precious in person. I got to babysit him for 2 days. I realized how boring staying at home can be. I will definitely have to come up with lots of activities for our kids when they come along. It was good to get a baby fix. I should be good for a while.

He's trying to get the monkeys on his feet :) I just want to eat him up!

Congrats Presh!!! (And yes, we did yell Presh from the stands)

June/July-Rexburg opened a water park at the end of June so on the second day it was opened we went with our new friends Jemma and Eric and had a lot of fun. Then we went to Applebees half price appetizers. Kevin made the observation that we now have friends that like to eat out as much as we do! This makes us very happy :)

Which brings us to another fun event. Last night Kevin, me, Jemma, Eric, and 3 other co-workers went down to Buffalo Wild Wings in Idaho Falls to enjoy some famous wings. Being the adventurous one that I am, I chose the two most mild sauces they offered. They were good, just kind of dry. The waiter was fantastic though. Eric mentioned that he didn't like the waitress that he had the last time he went and the waiter from last night (Richard) totally talked bad about the waitress as well. Next time we go, we'll definitely ask for Richard again. 

They have HUGE TV screens everywhere in the restaurant. A lot have sports on them, but several have interactive trivia that you can play. They even give you little tablets so that you can play. Way fun.

July-Amie came up and stayed with us for the weekend on her way home over the July 4th weekend. It was a really fun weekend and I was sad to see her go. We didn't fight once!! That's quite impressive for us. We went grocery shopping the night she got here because I was in dire need of groceries and otherwise we would have had nothing to eat. She helped me while I subbed in nursery and became best friends with a little boy named Cole. Sunday night we went down and had a BBQ at Kevin's aunt's house with his family. They did some fireworks before we left and a cop that lives across the street brought over some other fireworks that he had confiscated last year and let us use them. It was a lot of fun.
On the 4th we went to Idaho Falls! We introduced her to Rumbi Grill (so good!) and watched the firework show on the river and then didn't get home until 2 AM. I love traffic. Especially when I had to be to work at 4:45 the next morning.

The next night (July 5th) we still had some fireworks left over that Kevin had bought so we invited our neighbors over to watch them with us. It was a lot of fun. Although about 10:10ish we see this police officer pull into our parking lot and sit over by the mail boxes. We finished the fireworks just as he's heading over to talk to us. He asked if we were going to be done soon and we told him we were already done. He told us to just remember that there are people with young children around and the sound ordinance goes into effect at 10:30. However, our neighbors that we out with us have a 2 year old and an almost 1 year old and they were getting such a kick out of it. And it wasn't even 10:30 yet and they were still legal because the kind we were doing are legal on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th in Idaho. So I didn't quite understand what the issue was. I asked if he got a phone call, and he did. Good to know we have up tight neighbors. And if you are reading this and you called the cops, you could have just come talked to us. We're quite nice people.

I think I've mentioned before that I had said that nursery would be my ideal calling. I've been subbing in it for the last few weeks and actually got called this past Tuesday. It's a little more boring than I remember nursery being when I was in it, but that's ok. It's still pretty fun. 

And finally, we're leaving for Florida in only about 5 weeks. Kevin is already spending too much time researching things he wants to do down there. But we're both really excited about Disney World. It will be a lot of fun. Hot and humid, but fun.