Rod and Tan

Commercials

2012-02-04T17:16:00.000-08:00

I love commercials - not all of them, and never local commercials - but I enjoy watching them. Tanya gets mad because sometimes I stop while fast-forwarding through commercials to watch. Tomorrow is the Superbowl, which means we'll be eating while the game is on and watching intently during the commercials.

Oh, and also . . .

This weekend I saw these commercials for the first time, and I really liked them.

Both of them make me want to blow it all and go on a cruise ASAP.

And this one, with the new Fun. song (their new album comes out later this month!).

It makes me really really ready for Summer.

Sundance

2012-01-30T17:58:00.000-08:00

We hadn't been to Sundance for a few years, so when Rod's work friends invited us we decided to make it happen. We went down town early and picked up wait list tickets, ate some food, and then got in line. There were a ton of people there, but we made it in! The film was a documentary called "About Face: The Supermodels Then and Now". Read more about it here. It was really interesting.

Lemon

2012-01-28T10:56:00.000-08:00

I'm sure you've all seen sh*t girls say, sh*t Mormons say, or any other copy cat of that viral video. This one is our favorite. Bless you Liz Lemon.

January

2012-01-23T17:57:00.000-08:00

Recently my job has changed a little. The semester ended 2 weeks ago, so all of my Health classes have now changed to PE classes. So far it has been really fun. Basically I get to work out and play games with my students all day! This is my new office:

A couple weeks ago I decided to start a Dance Company at our school. Most of the girls have little to no dance experience, so it has been interesting. I love being with girls and doing something that I really care about.

Lately I have also been preparing for a Zumba class I will be teaching in a few weeks at our ward. I was certified about 2 years ago, but I haven't really taught since then. It has been fun to practice on my own, but I will admit I am a little nervous. Hopefully it goes well!

Rod has been really busy since he started his MBA program. He has class every Monday and Wednesday from 6-10. He works so hard. I'm glad that so far we have been able to keep our weekends intact. Hopefully his school work doesn't get too overwhelming.

R&T + C&A classing it up at the Texas Roadhouse.

Besides all of that, Rod's work just moved into a BRAND NEW building in Lehi (5 seconds from where we are building our house).

He is very happy not to be driving to Lindon anymore. Now if they could hurry up and build our house his commute would be really amazing. We can't wait!

Bull Hollow Way

2012-01-09T17:26:00.000-08:00

The construction on our house is officially in process! It has been fun to drive by and watch it change. Due to the awesome weather we've had lately it seems like they have been able get a lot done.

The approximate finish date is end of April. We really can't wait. Longest winter ever.

While we are waiting for our house to be finished we have been thinking about how we want to decorate. Over Christmas break Rod and I went to a salvage store and found an amazing old door. We have always wanted to make an old door into a headboard. Hopefully it turns out!

Christmas 2011

2012-01-02T16:18:00.000-08:00

I had to blog about Christmas before I go back to work tomorrow. I'm about to be very busy again! It has been wonderful to have so much time off. I got TONS of work done, handled insurance stuff, went to lunch (a lot), hung out with family, went shopping, exercised, learned a new Zumba routine (I'm teaching our weeknight RS in Feb . . . yikes!), played DK Country (conquered it), watched Mad Men (Season 4 is blowing our minds), and spent lots of time with my love on account of him working from home!

Our first holiday party was the traditional Freeman Christmas dinner with awesome present unwrapping game. Aunt Candy, Grandma, and Cheryl spoiled us with treasures wrapped 2-10 times. So much fun!

Next was the Rasmussen family Lion House dinner with the always hysterical white elephant game. The most coveted items of the evening were the Fabio life-size cutout and the Flowbee home haircutter. My personal favorite was Dave's jean stocking. . . classy.

Christmas Eve/Morning were spent with the Tapps. We watched movies, played games, and gave Winslow way too much attention.

After Christmas Rod's whole family came into town. Cheryl fed us gourmet meals, we played games, and even visited Jungle Jim's which has not changed since I was 7. We love these kids.

On New Year's Eve we went to C&A's. We ordered in Thai food and learned a new game - Agricola. It took us forever to figure it out, but we enjoyed it.

Of course we poured some sparking cider and I got a kiss at midnight. A successful NYE.

We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends and families.

Welcome 2012!

2011 In Review

2011-12-31T09:56:00.000-08:00

2011 was a wild ride. William and Kate tied the knot (who cares), earthquakes and tsunamis struck Japan, Michael Scott said goodbye to The Office, Osama Bin Laden was killed, 9/11 was commemorated, Steve Jobs passed, Wall Street was occupied, and the troops came home.

As 2011 comes to a close, here is what happened in our lives.

We rang in the new year hot tubbing and partying on Waikiki beach with good food and friends.
Tanya started her student teaching, which would be some of the craziest - and most rewarding - five months of her life.
We fell in love with the Hunger Games series, and are excited to see the movie on Tanya's Birthday weekend 2012!
We celebrated Valentine's Day seaside with a plenty of Mahi Mahi and Diet Coke.
Our love for Thai food increased exponentially as we discovered Phuket Thai in Mililani.
We became the proud owners of a MacBook Pro.
We took full advantage of the new running and bike trail from Laie to Kahuku.
The earthquake in Japan left Oahu in a state of emergency. We prepared for the possibility of a tsunami and spent the night in a cemetery behind the Laie temple. Fortunately, the islands were left relatively unscathed.
Our friendship with Jozie and Tommy flourished.
We went to Maui for Tanya's Spring Break. We spent a few days alone on our second honeymoon, followed by a few days with Jozie and Tommy. We went whale watching, swam with turtles, hiked, drove the Road to Hana, shopped, and enjoyed the delicacies of a new island.
I was scuba certified and overcame my fear of deep water.
I said goodbye to my job as the Marketing and PR Director of Sleep Center Hawaii. I had grown to love my job and co-workers, but was excited to move to the next step.
Tanya said goodbye to the students of King Intermediate School, excited (and nervous) to find a full-time (and paid!) teaching job in Utah.
We sold Suzi the Suzuki. We know that she is happy living out the rest of her life in paradise.
We had a lot of friends and family visit us in Hawaii, including Sharla and Dan (Darla), my sister Danielle and her family, Tanya's Grandma, mom, brother and uncle, my cousin Haley and her friend, and my parents. We loved hiking, beach hopping, touring, and eating with each and every one of them.
We had an amazing trip to Thailand. We were able to see temples, ride in a tuk-tuk, hike, swim, ride an elephant, shop like kings, eat like kings, scuba dive, get massages, go to Thai cooking school, ride an overnight train, and more.
We were able to see a little bit of Manila, Philippines and get another stamp on our passports.
We said goodbye to Oahu. It was one of the hardest things we had ever done, but knew that it was the right move for us. Now our goal is to visit often and eventually have a vacation home in Kailua.
We arrived in Utah homeless, jobless, penniless, and carless. It was time to start all over again.
We bought a Seven Peaks "Pass of all Passes" and took full advantage throughout the Summer.
We bought Oscar the Optima.
Tanya was offered a job as a Health and P.E. Teacher at APA within a week of moving home.
We went to our first Real Salt Lake game.
We went camping and hiking with our good friends Curtis and Ashley.
We lived it up in Lake Powell with the Rasmussens.
We re-discovered our love for campfires and ate smores almost weekly throughout the Summer.
We got really, really, really good at Mario Kart with all of the free time on our hands.
We learned how to re-finish furniture.
I got my dream job doing marketing for Zija International.
We bought our 2nd car - Ellie the Element.
We saw Death Cab for Cutie live from the comfort of box seats.
I was accepted into the University of Utah MBA program - I start in a week and a half.
We spent a long weekend in St. George just being together.
We trained for and ran the Provo half marathon.
Tanya's mom celebrated 5 years of remission from breast cancer.
We dealt with the drama and backbiting of Black Friday.
We house hunted for several months before deciding to build at Thanksgiving Point. We visited our lot the other day and they were digging the hole! It should be done around May!
Tanya was run off the road by an idiot and Ellie the Element was totaled.
We replaced Ellie with Mia the Kia Sorento.
We spent the holidays relaxing and partying with friends and family.

2011 was a great year - but 2012 will be even better!

At It Again

2011-12-29T23:06:00.000-08:00

America's sweethearts - at it again.

So what are you doing?

Happy New Year 'ma nerds!

#FirstWorldProblems

2011-12-25T20:47:00.000-08:00

We had such an amazing Christmas! More details surely to come . . . but right now I have a problem. One that Rod says is a First World Problem. I can't decide which cover to choose for my new iPhone 4S! A surprise gift that my husband gave me. I had NO IDEA. He wins, as usual.

Tough decision.

Christmas Break

2011-12-22T10:45:00.000-08:00

Aside from having a rough start to my Christmas Break (dealing with car insurance companies and a guy who is claiming he had no idea he ran anyone off the road), the last couple of days have been great. We met with the architect that designed our house and had our final meeting! It was really exciting to look over the plans and sign off on our future home.

We bought a new car. Since we JUST went car shopping in August, we already pretty much knew what we liked and what price range we wanted to stay in. Honda Elements (like my Ellie) are really hard to find. Honda doesn't even make them anymore. We looked on KSL and there were only 5 in the whole state for sale and none of them were as nice as ours was. We found Mia the Kia (Sorento) and she is a good replacement for Ellie. She is a 2011 (3 years newer), has a V6 engine, and has a fold-down 3rd row of seats - for about the same price as our old car. We are happy.

Amy, Ender, and Chloe have been here for about a week and it has been fun hanging out with them. Last Sunday we made sugar cookies.

The other night we went to Rod's work Christmas party. It was small - just the marketing/design team. We wore ugly sweaters (tanks G-ma Phillips) and played some games.

Our pile of presents is getting bigger by the day . . .

And finally, last night my mom and I went to The Nutcracker. We used to go every year, but we hadn't been for a while. It was beautiful. The Queen was incredible - audible gasps from me during her solo. It makes me want to dance again so badly. It was fun to spend the night with my Mom.

Merry Christmas!

Bad Holiday Tradition

2011-12-15T10:33:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately, our newest holiday tradition is getting into car accidents. Around this time last year, we were in this accident, when a car pulled our right in front of us on State Street the week before Christmas.

Yesterday, Tanya and I both left work and headed to our final planning meeting to choose the colors and finishes for our house. I got there early and was waiting for Tanya when I got a phone call from her saying that she had been in an accident and to come and help her.

She was driving on I-215 by Valley Fair Mall when a car came darting through traffic. He cut off another car and then starting swerving into Tanya. She moved to avoid contact with him, but he basically ran her off the road. She tried to get back, but lost control, went off the freeway, into a ditch, hit a cement wall, and was flipped around. The air bags went off and the car is totaled.

The driver that ran her off the road just drove away. Are you kidding me? There have been way too many bad accidents and deaths lately by hit-and-run drivers. How can you possibly do that? What if she had been seriously hurt and needed his help?

Fortunately, the other car that he cut off right before Tanya followed him, honking and trying to get him to stop. They even pulled up to him at a light, and were honking and trying to get his attention, and he just ignored them. They got his license plate, make, model, and a very good description of what he looks like. The police even have his address, and are going to try to find him. I really hope they do, because if not, our insurance will have to pay for all of it!

We are very lucky that Tanya is relatively okay. Her car could have easily rolled, or she could have been much more hurt when she hit the wall. Her neck really hurts, she jammed her wrist, and has burn marks and stuff from her seat belt. She is also shaken up and claims that she never wants to drive away. We know that God was protecting her. The bummer now is that she loved that car, and it will be really hard to find a replacement (they don't even make Elements any more). I guess everything happens for a reason. She's way more important than any car.

December 5th

2011-12-07T21:01:00.001-08:00

Monday was our 3rd wedding anniversary. I really can't believe it's been 3 years! I had a student ask me the other day what it is like to be married. She wanted to know if it got boring being married to the same person and seeing them everyday. I can understand her logic, but it is so crazy how it seems like the more time I spend with Rodney the more I love him. And when I think that I could not love him more, somehow I do. Sorry for the sap . . . I am just so lucky to have him in my life.

We celebrated mostly on Saturday. After spending the day picking out finishes for our new house, we went to an ah-mahzing dinner at Cucina Toscana. Neither of us had ever been there. It was so nice and really delicious.

We had dessert at home and exchanged gifts. Rod isn't really a greeting card kinda guy so I made him a slideshow with pictures from the last 4 years (dating, wedding, marriage). I also got him the cologne he wanted. He surprised me with a beautiful right hand ring and tickets to Kelly Clarkson . . . I'm not even ashamed of it.

here is the slide show . . .

Untitled from Tanya Rasmussen on Vimeo.

On Monday (our actual anniversary) I went to work as usual. I have one class of 7th graders that I am really close to and they figured out that my anniversary was that day. A couple of girls made me a PowerPoint presentation - yes PowerPoint - that was full of pictures of couples, cartoons, glittery hearts, and cheesy poems. It was addressed to "Mrs. Rasmussen and Husband". It was the cutest thing I've ever seen.

When I got home from work these were waiting for me

We had a nice dinner at home. I tried to make something that resembled our wedding dinner (mahi mahi, kahuku corn, salad, and sparkling cider).

I'm so glad that I have my boo. He is more than I could ever ask for.

Home Sweet Home

2011-12-04T13:16:00.001-08:00

This week was crazy! We've been house hunting for a few months now. We've put offers on several houses, but were always outbid. On Monday, we put an offer on a house in Herriman that we liked okay, but weren't completely sold on the neighborhood. On Tuesday, we put an offer on a house in Suncrest that we liked, but it needed some work and we weren't sure about living so high with the snow. On Wednesday, we found out that we got both of these houses!

Meanwhile, we had started to look into building a house. We always thought that building would be too expensive, but when it came down to it, it actually made a lot of sense. We had a big decision to make, and we needed to make it by Friday! To build or to buy?

We crunched the numbers, made spreadsheets, met a few times with the home builder, walked through the model and lot several times, and finally made the decision. We are going to build a house at Thanksgiving Point! My office is moving into a brand new building at Thanksgiving Point next month, and it's close to Tanya's parents and the freeway.

This is the house that we're building: (actual color may vary - depending on what we choose)

It has everything on our wish list, we get to choose exactly what colors and finishes we want throughout the entire house, and we played hardball to get a great deal on it. Yesterday we went to the design center and started choosing everything. It will take about five months to build, so we're already looking forward to May! As fun as it was looking for houses, it will be nice to have our nights back.

Tanksgiving.

2011-11-29T16:57:00.001-08:00

When I woke up on Thanksgiving I couldn't stop thinking about last year. Rod went surfing, we went to the beach, and then had a great meal with new friends and an ocean view. Some tears were shed for my former life, and then I remembered the best thing about living in Utah - our families. This year we spent our first Thanksgiving with Rod's side of the family. Between Ster and Cheryl being on the East Coast and us being in Hawaii last year, it was our first Thanksgiving together! We had fantastic food (Cheryl is ah-mahzing) and had a great time. We also had a fatty nap (Rod's favorite thing in the world) in preparation for our midnight shopping.

That night we went out to my parent's house to sleep over. Brock, Court, Rod, and I headed out in hopes of finding a cheap flatscreen TV. We went to Walmart first because the deals started at 10. We got there late and there was already some crazy stuff going down. People pushing and shoving for children's toys. We couldn't see any TVs, and we knew the real deal was at Target, so we decided to abandon our Walmart pursuits and head over there.

When we got there the line looked like this:

And the store wasn't opening for an hour!

We were pretty sure that we would not be getting a screaming deal on a TV, but we decided to stick it out anyway. It wasn't too cold and we were having fun talking to the people around us (you really start to bond standing in line together).

As midnight approached, some not so sneaky people were trying to get into the line. My brothers (half joking/half dead seriously) started telling these line-cutters to go to the end of the line. Apparently that made the 40 something moms behind us upset. They started telling us that we were terrible people and that we should try having some Thanksgiving spirit. I ignored them and told my brothers to stay out of it. These ladies would not stop heckling us! When the first lucky customer came out with her TV, the meanie mom (as we will now refer to her) started telling the guys that they weren't gentlemen because they didn't rush over to help her! That's when I told her to shut up. I lost it. She was a bully!

We finally got inside the store and thought we could escape her bullying once and for all. 10 seconds later she found us and started chasing us with her cart. She was literally ramming Rod's ankles with her cart! She then says to us: "I bet you guys aren't even married!" We informed her that we were and she replied "well that's too bad your husband doesn't own a razor!" Whaaaaat? We were so annoyed and confused. She then said "I hope you don't have kids!" We said we didn't and she said "Well I have 5!" Rod said he was sorry for her kids ha ha. She was crazy. Her friend then ran up to us crying and said "You have no idea what she is going through!" That does not give her the right to bully us! Then just when we were on our way home she shouts across the entire store "Don't beat your wife when you get the in car!" We didn't even turn around. I have never been so livid in my life. The whole way home I couldn't even figure out what just happend. We were all shocked. Not to mention we went home empty handed. Moral of the story: Black Friday is evil. I'm so over it and I will NEVER go again. No deal is worth that!

Besides all of that we had a great long weekend. We saw movies, played games with family, and hung out with friends. As we speak, we are listening to Christmas music (A Very She & Him Christmas is my favorite this year) and Rod is setting up our Christmas tree!

He's pretty darls. . . Even when he's frustrated.

House Hunters

2011-11-20T11:49:00.001-08:00

The time has come - we are ready to buy a house!

We've been perusing online for about 6 months to see what's out there. We've watched hundreds (literally) of episodes of "House Hunters," taking mental notes about what to look for, what gives a house value, and what our priorities are. In August, we started driving to a different area every weekend to get a feel for where we might like to lay down roots. In September, we started going out with our realtor (Tanya's Uncle) to look at houses.

The Good: it's a great time to buy, interest rates are rock bottom (supposedly even lower than during the great depression), and there are a ton of houses out there for a really good deal.

The Bad: because it's a great time to buy, it's so competitive! It seems like every house we are interested in already has multiple offers on it. Almost everything out there is a short sale, and many of them are not in great condition. Short-sale sellers aren't as motivated as they would be if it were a regular sale, and it can take a REALLY long time to go through.

Our Wish List: a master suite with large bathroom, lots of windows, a nice yard, a feeling of space (not being too cramped around neighbors), views, wood floors (these are hard to come by), 2 stories, room to put a dance studio in the basement, a gas fireplace, a porch, room to grow. We may not get all of these things, but there are some things we won't compromise on.

We have narrowed our search a lot and now know that we really like the Suncrest area of Draper (up on the mountain), Herriman, and Riverton. The first house we put an offer on was in Suncrest. It was a modest home with amazing mountain and valley views, but needed a lot of work. We were immediately outbid. We put an offer on a 2nd home in Suncrest, and it is at the bank right now. We also put an offer on an amazing home in Herriman this week, but we don't think we will get it. It's pretty much our dream home but it had at least 7 offers on it when we put one in!

We could be homeowners in a month, or it may take another 6. Whatever happens is meant to be. In the meantime, it's pretty much a big, crazy game of gambling and waiting!

No pictures yet - it's too soon - but we'll update if anything happens. Wish us luck!

My Only Offer

2011-11-13T19:09:00.001-08:00

We went to the Mates of State Concert last night. It was our first time seeing them - loved it! Their music is fun and I love that they are a couple. . so cute. Small venue made it even better! Cheers to a great night with friends.

5 Years

2011-11-12T15:53:00.001-08:00

This month marks the 5 year anniversary of my Mom surviving breast cancer. They say once you reach 5 years you are "cured," so it is a pretty remarkable milestone. I love my mom and I am so glad she was a fighter. We threw her a little party to celebrate. Congrats mommy!

In other news, Rod and I are having a lot of fun shopping for houses. We don't know exactly how soon we will buy. Could be soon, could be in 6 months. All I know is that it makes me really excited! We were planning on waiting a little longer, but the interest rates are just ridiculous right now. Even if we don't have any furniture, we'll have have a cute little house (and hopefully a cute little dog!)

We both love our jobs. It's so nice to make money doing what we love. I recently (slightly against my will) started coaching the girl's basketball team. The girls are sweet, so I've ended up liking it more than I thought I would.

Today's snow made it feel like Christmas. I have to admit I'm a little excited. I want to start Christmas shopping - especially at the new stores that opened so close to us. I refuse to wait in line to give a store money though, so we won't be visiting H&M for a little while.

Halvsies?

2011-10-30T18:39:00.000-07:00

This weekend we ran in the Provo Halloween Half Marathon. We have tried to be diligent at training and getting ready for this race, but after a long day of work, the last thing we have wanted to do is run.

This race was such a process - we had to drive down to Orem on Friday night to pick up our packets. On Saturday, we woke up at 4:40 am (ya heard) and drove back down to Orem, where we were herded onto busses. The busses took us up Provo Canyon near Sundance and dropped us off. There was a giant tent set up a field, where thousands of us waited 2 hours for the race to start.

It was freezing cold and not even the 50 porta-potties were enough for this crowd. All of the sudden everyone needed to use the bathroom before the race, and it was about to start. I barely made it through, found Tanya, got my ipod, threw our bag onto a truck, and the race began. We ran with Tanya's dad and little brother Court. I got separated from everyone right away and was not ready to start. Tanya ran with her dad and Court was ahead and smoked us all!

This race is fun because everyone dresses up for Halloween. It was crazy to see some of the costumes that people ran 13 miles in!

Tanya's mom and brother and my mom and sister were there to cheer us at the finish line

I always said I wanted to do a marathon, but after this . . . I'm not so sure (my face courtesy of Jozie Curtis)

The scenery was amazing and it slowly started to warm up as we ran and the sun did its thing. We ran down the canyon, through fall leaves and mountain views, past Bridal Veil Falls, and ended at Riverwoods.

For my work Halloween party on Friday I was Kanye West

On Saturday night (while hobbling around like elderly people on account of the race) we met up with Gentry at our latest obession . . . Sub Zero Ice Cream. Gent is moving back to Oregon and we are already missing her brains out. Tan and Gentry were roommates in Hawaii almost 5 years ago and have been close ever since. They love all things Roxy, music, the beach, and snowboarding. A Hussies reunion trip is already in the works for Tan's Spring break 2012. We love you G-try!

George

2011-10-24T18:47:00.000-07:00

This past weekend Tanya had Thursday and Friday off of work for UEA Break. We were in desperate need of a mini vacation, so we headed south to St. George. We enjoyed 4 days of Summer weather, relaxation, and time alone. We love a good road trip, and this one was great (minus the 2 hours of stop-and-go traffic south of Provo. It was taken down to 1 lane for construction and they weren't even working on it. Thanks UDOT!)

Our long weekend consisted of sleeping in every day, lazing around, eating out, shopping, going to a movie, swimming and hot tubbing, and movie nights.

We also went hiking at Red Cliffs.

There's a part where you have to hold onto a rope and use the foot holes, or else you will fall in the freezing water!

We went to the St. George Temple

And we went to the driving range and hit some balls

Now it's back to the grind . . . .

You're 50!

2011-10-22T22:49:00.000-07:00

This past week my dad turned 50! For his gift I put together a book with 50 reasons why we love him and included pictures from his life. In my search I found some cute ones that I had never seen before.

I love my dad! I am so lucky to have such a kind, patient, funny, and loving father. Congratulations dad! You're 50!

I Want That!

2011-10-21T08:40:00.001-07:00

Mind blowing.

Thai Lotus

2011-10-10T20:39:00.000-07:00

This weekend we went to a new Thai restaurant . . . an amazing new Thai restaurant. It was a hole in the wall but it was really good. We met up with my friend Tania from college and her husband Alex. They went to Thailand about 9 months before we did - they were actually the ones that helped talk us into going there. It was fun to reminisce about what an amazing country it is. If you love Thai food, I highly recommend Thai Lotus, you won't regret it.

Hot Cocoa

2011-10-07T21:17:00.000-07:00

Tonight was wear your slipper socks and stretch pants to 711 and curl up with hot coco while watching shows with your love kinda night.

and yes, I apologize for the outfit.

Welcome

2011-10-02T20:42:00.000-07:00

Fall is my most favorite season. I love the weather, I love the smells, I love the holidays and the food that are associated with it. I love that fall reminds me of school supplies (I have a secret love for school supplies - maybe this is why I always wanted to be a teacher?) I also love that it reminds me of wearing sweaters, boots, and scarves. This year fall is even more special because I didn't get one last year. I know it was only one year and I was in paradise and I could smell the ocean from my kitchen buuuuut I still missed it. I even tried to decorate our shack for Halloween, but it just felt wrong. This weekend we did lots of fall-ish things.

On Friday I made banana bread and we watched our shows. . . Another thing I love about fall is that all of our shows return! Happy Endings is the funniest show on TV. There I said it.

On Saturday night I hung out with my mommy. We did fall pedicures and made a craft together. It was fun to hang out while the boys were at their meeting.

This witch block represents my one and only Halloween decoration. When I was little, I loved helping my mom decorate for Halloween - in fact, it was tradition to do it during Saturday General Conference. Now that we are here to stay in Utah I can start my collection. Rod thinks it's silly and typical, but I think it's fun.

Conference was wonderful as usual. I love listening to the words of wisdom that somehow always turn out to be exactly what I needed to hear.

Welcome Autumn.

Mrs. R

2011-09-28T20:57:00.000-07:00

Things have been so routine lately. Part of us feels like we've sold out, as we devote all of our time to work. I guess this is part of growing up. One upside is that we wake up around the same time, get ready together in the morning, eat breakfast together, leave for work around the same time, and get home at the same time.

A few days ago I caught Tanya being cute on the way out the door.

I'm pretty sure she's the fun/cool/hot teacher at American Preparatory Academy. Tomorrow she has parent teacher conferences - so grown up!

We're always home by 4:30 with plenty more together time (usually talking ourselves into training for our half marathon or getting back into "our shows.")

Life is routine - and that's okay.

MBA

2011-09-15T16:38:00.000-07:00

Life is about to get a lot crazier - I just found out today that I am accepted into the Professional MBA Program at the University of Utah! And I'm starting in January!

Ever since I graduated from BYU, I have known that I wanted to go back and get a Master's Degree. This became even more important as I entered the real world and saw how competitive the job market is, even with a Bachelor's Degree. To do the things that I want to in my career, I need more education.

I took the GMAT last Summer right after I graduated, and I got a pretty good overall score. However, the math section was a little low. I thought I might have to re-take it just for that reason. I have been studying for the last two months and signed up to re-take it on September 21st. Meanwhile I applied for this program anyway, with my original score.

Now that I'm in, I have zero motivation to take it, and they DO NOT give refunds. Last Summer my friend Curtis took the GMAT around the same time as me. He had a bad accident involving his finger being sliced open by a fish bowl, and he couldn't even write. They gave him so much trouble for just trying to reschedule his test. Basically I just threw $250 down the drain, and I'm probably going to take the stupid thing anyway (all 4 hours) since I already paid for it.

Despite the GMAT drama, I'm thrilled. This program is perfect because it allows you to continue working full-time, while attending classes two nights a week. I will be crazy busy, but I think it's doable. I love my job and couldn't imagine walking away from it to go back to school. I was also adamant about going to a different school than BYU, to get a whole different experience.

Class of 2014 up in HURRR!

East Canyon

2011-09-11T15:55:00.000-07:00

We just returned from yet another East Canyon adventure. A place where time has been standing still since 1992. The outdoor scenery is beautiful and the company was wonderful. Rod's family is so nice to let us have the condo whenever there are weeks that have not been used and I personally have been up to this mountain retreat 3 times. Each time is different and always highly enjoyable. The junk food was at full volume and I think I speak for all of us when I say - the diet starts tomorrow. We ran into a snag when the pool/hot tub area was closed for lightning sightings. We waited patiently, but after a while the storm had stopped and the people who run the joint were no where to be found. FINALLY we were able to call the manager and she found the missing staff. Rod almost got caned by a stout and short tempered employee, but I think overall he would say the time in the hot tub and pool was well worth it. Thanks East Canyon! I'm sure we'll be back . . . as long as we are still welcome.

The only thing that would have made the weekend better would be my pink snuggie. Yes, this is currently my favorite picture. Thanks Ash.

Up At 4

2011-09-02T04:05:00.000-07:00

It's 4 a.m. and I (Rodney) can't sleep. This is upsetting, but I'll do a blog post and hopefully make myself tired again so I can catch another hour before the 6:30 alarm. Here's a random slew of what's been happening lately in our lives.

My Birthday came and went and I'm 27. 27 seems so old, but I don't feel too old so it's okay. Tannie knows what i like, so she bought me a black Wii!

Donkey Kong Country Returns = favorite game ever (possibly tied with Mario Kart). I grew up playing every Donkey Kong game that existed, and this one is like all of them rolled into one, then injected with steroids and acid, with 15 years of updated technology. Some nights, we get so into it that we have to remind ourselves that it's just a game.

Tanya is going to kill me for posting this. Sorry loves. She's so nice and always makes me whatever cake I want for my birthday. Remember last year's Funfetti incident? The one where our burner was left on and the cake that was supposed to be cooling was actually being burned from the bottom? And then when we realized what was going on, we moved it to the cool granite counter top to recuperate? And then the part where our Pyrex (and cake) exploded into a million pieces? This year she was determined to make up for it. I wanted pineapple upside-down cake and she even went to the store to get the maraschino cherries. Somehow the cake slipped and this is the result. Honestly, I don't even care how it looks, it was HANDS DOWN the best cake I've ever eaten. Thanks boo!

Our friends C&A gifted us this old window that they came across.

We've been searching for one for awhile now. We love it and think it fits perfectly with our other decor.

I heard this news today. What? It's kind of scary to me because I had 2 interviews with them in July and was a likely candidate to work for their marketing department. In the end, they actually didn't hire anyone for this position, and now I see why. I really dodged a bullet. Everything happens for a reason and I'm glad I didn't have to be a part of this PR nightmare!

Speaking of working, I love my job! I work with awesome, creative people. There are 6 of us in the marketing department, and we all get along swimmingly. I am in charge of the company blog, the company e-newsletter, the company's social media accounts, and any other copy writing that needs to be done.

After today, Tanya will have survived her first week of being a teacher! It hasn't been easy, but yesterday she commented "there's something to be said about working a 13 hour day and then being excited to go back the next morning." Touche. When she started on Monday, her brand new school wasn't even finished. Her classroom had no desks, no chairs, no bulletin boards, etc. She is a P.E. teacher and the gym is not done yet (and might not be until December). There is no grass planted outside of the school. She has been a trooper and loves having control over her own classroom. When she told her health classes that she would be their P.E. teacher next semester, they cheered. Yeah, she's that teacher.

We (along with everyone else) recently discovered Pinterest. It didn't take long to come up with a pinboard of future travel dreams.

Happy Friday and Labor Day!

RFR

2011-08-27T08:08:00.000-07:00

My love turns 27 tomorrow! I wanted to do a post dedicated to him and all of his awesomeness. Anyone who knows him knows how fun, sweet, caring, hilarious, and outrageous Rodney is. I am a very lucky woman to be married to such an amazing man. I love you boo! Happy Birthday!

Death Cab

2011-08-23T08:19:00.000-07:00

One thing I really missed while we were in Hawaii was going to concerts. Lately we have been making up for lost time. When I found out Death Cab was coming to Salt Lake I begged Rod to get us tickets, but I guess something about going to Thailand, moving home from Hawaii, and not having jobs made him a little hesitant. By the time we were settled and had some income coming in all of the GA seats were sold out. Yesterday I was feeling really sad that we were going to miss the show. Sometime in the afternoon Curtis called me and said that they had TWO extra tickets for cheap AND they were in a VIP box! We were treated like kings! We had great seats, free food, and drinks. PLUS we didn't have to stand for three hours in a sweaty crowd of people. It was amazing. Thanks again C&A! We had so much fun!

Even though we ate dinner before the concert the guys did not want to pass up free food. Rod was in heaven . . . buffalo wings, sliders, and mozzarella sticks.

They played a lot of older stuff and some of my favorites off of their new album. "I Will Follow You Into The Dark" made me cry, it was incredible.

I think we are spoiled now . . . I'm not sure I can ever do GA again!

First Day of My Life

2011-08-14T13:51:00.000-07:00

A few days ago Rod and I went to the Twilight Concert Series to watch Bright Eyes with C&A. Even though this band is not necessarily my favorite, one of their most famous songs has a lot of meaning to me. "First Day of My Life" was a song that Rod put on one of our Hawaii mixes back when we first met. I think I listened to this song 100 times that summer and it will now and forever remind me of Hawaii and falling for Rodney. It was really fun to hear this song live and to spend the evening outside with my love. Hooray for free summer concerts!

Party Rock

2011-08-08T20:36:00.000-07:00

Our cousin Jenna just finished this year's Rasmussen Lake Powell video . . . I think she's outdone herself.

PhatRas 2011 Party Rock from Rodney Rasmussen on Vimeo.

Uintas

2011-08-07T13:06:00.000-07:00

This weekend we took Ellie on her first camping trip! Curtis and Ash came with us to the Uintas and we had a great time.

It took us a long time to find a campsite, but once we did we had an amazing meal. Tin foil dinners and dutch oven peach cobbler at 11:30 at night! Being full, cold, and sitting around the fire we may have gotten a little slap happy. Add some diet coke and cinnamon bears . . . perfection.

One of our favorite things about our Element is that you can fold the seats all the way down and sleep in it! We tried it this weekend I was really surprised how comfortable it was. Reason number 105 that we love our new car.

The next morning we hiked Bald Mountain. It was freezing but really beautiful. We saw snow for the first time since December!

Sneak Peak

2011-08-05T09:12:00.000-07:00

I think I just peed a little.

Dog Days of Summer

2011-08-03T22:31:00.000-07:00

Here is what we've been up to lately:

Last weekend we went to St. George with Tan's family, and my parents were nice enough to let us stay at their condo. We originally planned this trip with the idea that we would go to Tuacahn, since neither of us have been before. As the trip got closer, we started getting nervous about buying tickets because we are broke. On the way down, I got a call and was offered a job I applied for (more on that later). We could breathe a little easier knowing some money was on the way (even though Tuacahn was sold out). We swam, went on a shopping spree for work clothes for the both of us, ate out, went to Captain America and Cowboys and Aliens, and played lots of games and Wii. It was a nice last hurrah before we get tied down to our jobs!

Here are some pool pics

Tanya's brother Court turned 17 on Monday. He's growing up so fast! We love spending time with him, he's sassy and cynical like us, and loves to party.

Our niece and nephew (hereafter known as "the nuggets") are still in town and we love it! They are darls X 2.

My job! I have been applying and interviewing for jobs like crazy since before we even moved home. I always thought my interviews went well, but I was also competing against 10-20 + people for every job I interviewed for. To add to that, I was not happy with the salary that many jobs were offering (welcome to Utah) and I let everyone know up front what salary I was expecting.

I was starting to get nervous as August was approaching, and I still didn't have any offers. Finally one job came along that I was excited about. They gave me a writing assignment to perform before my interview, and they loved my work. I interviewed, and it felt right. The only problem = the company is in Lindon (almost to Orem). Ugg. I hated commuting to my job in Hawaii. During the interview, they told me that they are moving to a brand new building in December at Thanksgiving Pointe. Problem solved! They called me on my way to St. George and offered me the job, at the salary I wanted!

The company is

I am working in the marketing department doing social media and online marketing as well as copy writing. Today was my first day and so far so good. This is a cool company and I already love my job. They gave me a new giant Mac with Adobe Creative Suite to use, I get to help re-brand the company and all the products, and the people seem cool. I think it was worth the wait.

Tanya also started training this week for her job. She's learning a lot, getting to know the people she'll be working with, and is excited to start teaching. School starts August 29th for her and she's teaching Health and P.E., grades 7-10. Unlike the other teachers, she gets to wear comfy gym clothes to work every day!

With both of us starting our jobs this week, we knew we needed a 2nd car. Car shopping SUCKS! We didn't have any idea what we would end up with. Tanya loves Kia Souls, but we have both always wanted a Honda Element. They are so cool inside and out. They are fun to drive and, well, it's a Honda. After lots of talking each other into it and pumping ourselves up, we bought our dream car! We are in love and she is our baby. Tan named her Ellie the Element. (FYI we named our other car, it's Oscar the Optima)

We have been feeling weird this Summer because we created an amazing life for ourselves in Hawaii, and feel like we were ripped away from it too soon. Now that things are starting to come together, we feel a little more like ourselves.

Furniture

2011-07-29T09:11:00.000-07:00

Ever since we got married, we always knew we would move to Hawaii, so we didn't dare buy anything bulky that we would have to store. The only furniture we own is our bed and our dining table. Now that we're back in Utah for good, we can finally start collecting things!

My parents' old bedroom set was up for grabs, so Tanya and I snatched up their dresser and nightstands. We decided we wanted to update them a little.

This is how they all looked before

Tanya got right to work (with a TON of help from her mom) sanding and painting and staining and sanding more (I helped a little when I could).

We got some sweet hardware from Anthropologie (the green ones were on sale from $10 each to $2.95 each!)

These are our nightstands

And this is our dresser and mirror

Ender & Chloe

2011-07-24T20:11:00.000-07:00

Our little nuggets are here and we couldn't be more excited!

Amy, Ender, and baby Chloe just got here from New Jersey and the party has already started. We went to a parade, had a picnic, and then to fireworks. We kinda love these babies.

Grandma Cheryl and Ender waiting for candy and other assorted goods that were thrown out at the parade

Bountiful sunset

Rod loves this one because it looks like a palm tree on an island with fireworks!

The next day we took Ender on a special date for his birthday. He loves cupcakes so we went to The Sweet Tooth Fairly and he chose a green funfetti cupcake. He licked all of the frosting off and he couldn't have been happier. I then let him try the lemon frosting on my cupcake and he said it was "too salty!" He was trying to scrape the icky flavor off his tounge so I let him rinse with a diet coke

(aunt and uncle of the year?)

So cute.

Duh, Winning!

2011-07-19T22:25:00.000-07:00

With my teaching job not starting until August and Rod still looking for work we've had a lot of time to be together lately. Even though he worries about getting a job all day every day we are trying to enjoy the time because we know it will never be like this again.

Exhibit A:

Baby Peach = Me

Diddy Kong = Rod

Just sayin'.

I promise this isn't all we are doing these days. I have actually been working at my school this week trying to help get all of our students assessed for the new school year. It's not a ton of hours, but it's good for now. Rod is studying for the GMAT, he became certified in Google AdWords, and he has had 3 job interviews in the past week with one more coming up on Thursday. I'm not worried about him one bit. It's a tough economy, but he is so smart and personable. He's going to make sure the job he takes is a good fit for him and the company is one he'll want to stay with for awhile.

In the meantime we are living with my parents. My brothers love it (maybe because of all the Wii?) and my mom feeds us (which is a huge blessing).

We will be moving back into our basement apartment at Rod's house soon. Cher Bear has also been providing countless delicious meals and offers us food anytime we stop by. We have great family taking wonderful care of us.

We are a bit transient right now, but I don't mind it too much. We've been living out of suitcases since the end of May! But like my mom says, we'll never be this free again so we'll take it for what it is.

Campfire

2011-07-18T21:43:00.000-07:00

Last weekend all of our tin foil dinner dreams came true. After driving up and down Big Cottonwood Canyon for quite some time we finally found a free fire pit. Curtis built a fire and we started cooking. Since we were short on time we had the s'mores as an appetizer - twas a good choice.

Fresh Air

2011-07-13T13:03:00.000-07:00

We've been trying to spend a lot of time outside lately. I love Utah in the summer and I'm SO glad we moved home in June instead of January! The other night we had dinner on my parent's back porch followed by S'mores on the BBQ. Nothing says summer like S'mores.

Last night we had a family party at my Uncle's cabin up Big Cottonwood Canyon. We've been going to the cabin since before I can remember and it brought back so many fun memories.

When I was really little we even had a kids club every summer. In order to be in the kids club you had to be a cousin and be able to cross the stream by jumping from rock to rock. The club still exists and luckily Rod passed his entrance exam last year.

Rod and I still have a craving for a camping trip and some tin foil dinners. We're hoping we can make that happen soon!

White Blank Page

2011-07-11T09:44:00.000-07:00

I love this song. And the tear on his face at the very end.

Drive-In

2011-07-10T23:11:00.000-07:00

This weekend we went with Curt and Ash to the drive-in. I hadn't been in years and it was actually really fun. We had chairs, blankets, diet cokes, and candy - twas perf. C & A were smart enough to put a mattress in the back of their truck, GENIUS! We watched Transformers 3, which was okay. The second movie was Super 8 (which we had already seen and LOVED) so we didn't stay for the whole thing. We're happy to have friends who like to do fun summer-ish things. Keep em' coming, keep em' coming!

Walking The Dog

2011-07-07T22:24:00.000-07:00

We're pretty much obsessed with this music video right now.

How did we not know it existed before?

Happy 4th

2011-07-05T22:19:00.000-07:00

Our 4th of July was very low key this year. We went to lunch with Rod's family and had a BBQ with mine that evening. We played games and lit some fireworks. It was fun to be with family and relax (we're really good at relaxing these days) . . . Let the dream summer continue!

I missed this smelly pup very much while we lived away. His name is Winslow and he is adorable. He wakes us up most mornings with a kiss just like this!

LP

2011-07-04T18:25:00.000-07:00

We spent the past week in Lake Powell for the Rasmussen family reunion. Despite some windy conditions at the beginning of the week, we ended up having a great time. The food was the tops, the games were non stop, the tube wars were competitive, the surf was always up, and the company was everything we could have hoped for and more. We have an unusual amount of fun cousins, aunts, and uncles.

Here are some highlights of the week:

Picturesque sunsets nightly

Xander is a one man show and kept us in stitches. He has a way with words and could talk ANYONE into taking him out on the jetski when he wanted.

We tubed until our arms turned into jello and we got tossed like rag dolls across the channel.

We did lots of wake surfing

We played Ticket to Ride at least 20 times

Cousins - right before jumping from the 3rd level

My Uncle Rod's houseboat is nicer than any house we will ever own in our lives.

Gang's all here! (for the most part)

Perfection

Let's do it again.

Kicking off Summa

2011-06-27T20:34:00.000-07:00

Tan's mom knew we would have a hard time coming home. She decorated our bedroom and immediately whisked us away to Cafe Rio to drown our sorrows in tostada heaven.

Our first order of business after moving home was finding a car. We sold ours in Hawaii and needed something reliable with good gas mileage that we could keep for a long time. After countless hours of scouring KSL.com, visiting lots of dealers, and test driving different cars, we settled on this 2009 Kia Optima. We are in love with our new "precious." It's roomy and a super smooth ride. We're still in the process of coming up with a name, and suggestions are appreciated.

I have to brag about Tanya for a minute. She was so stressed about finding a teaching job when we moved home. It's hard because there are only so many middle and high schools, and each one only has one or maybe two health teachers, so the odds are not good. She had an interview the day after we moved home and was hired 3 days later. She's the new health and PE teacher at American Preparatory Academy in West Valley! It's a classy charter school that is brand new (they're still building it). It was also voted Utah's charter school of the year. I'm so proud of her and I know the kids will love her.

Since we moved home, we've been to Sonic three times for slushies during happy hour. It's a summertime tradish that isn't going away any time soon.

On Saturday morning we went on a hike to Grandeur Peak in Millcreek Canyon with our friends Curtis and Ashley. It was the perfect day with blue skies and green mountains (except for when we took the wrong trail for a mile or so)

That night we went to the Real Salt Lake game with Curtash. It was the first time for Tan and I, and we had a lot of fun. We had awesome seats right next to all the action, and of course they won.

Today we FINALLY got around to using our season pass to Seven Peaks! We went with Tanya's little brothers and had a blast (before the crowds showed up in the afternoon). The half pipe slide = favorite.

Our motley crew

It can only go up from here . . . because tomorrow we head to Lake Powell!

Aloha 'Oe

2011-06-23T16:40:00.000-07:00

Saying goodbye to Hawaii was one of the hardest things we have ever done. Anyone who has spent a good amount of time there knows that it somehow becomes a permanent part of you.

After we came home from Thailand we spent four days living with our friends Tommy and Jozie in married student housing at BYU Hawaii. We are lucky to have great friends to act as our family while we lived so far away from home. They took such great care of us! On our last night we decided to take some pictures of each other at sunset beach.

We love you J & T.

There are so many things we are going to miss about Hawaii.

The view from our front yard

The view from our back porch

And everything else . . .

We have a lot of other places we want to see in this world, so we don't know when we'll get back to Hawaii. I miss it so much already - especially the smell of the ocean. We know it was the right time to come home and we are looking forward to the future.

Other updates to come . . . my teaching job, our new car, and Lake Powell next week!

The Grand Palace

2011-06-18T08:58:00.000-07:00

I promise this is our last blog post about Thailand. We ended up with almost 700 pictures that we loved from the trip, so this is the best we could do to narrow it down.

On the way out of the country, we had a 6 hour layover at the Bangkok airport. On the way into the country, my parents had arrived in Bangkok a night before us (they didn't have a night layover in Manila), so they had already gone to the Grand Palace and kept raving about it. They insisted on watching our luggage while we took the air train into Bangkok for a fast and furious walk-through. We finally made it, I bought some linen pants (men and women had to cover their legs) and we were off. We flew through this thing and it was pretty mind blowing. There are just dozens of ornate palaces, temples, and gardens all jam packed into a tiny area. Here are some highlights:

On the way home, we had another overnight layover in the Philippines. This time we went to Manila Ocean Park to pass the time. It was actually really cool! We saw tons of fish and alligators and stingrays and sharks. My favorite is the shark on the top right picture. Is his saw nose real? Tanya and I have always dreamed of going to an aquarium where you can walk through a water tunnel. Dreams came true!

Next up: Saying farewell to Hawaii

Koh Phi Phi

2011-06-14T03:29:00.000-07:00

After Chiang Mai, we headed south to Phuket and Koh Phi Phi. We flew this time, which was convenient. We arrived in Phuket for a night and stayed at a brand new nice hotel, but the town really wasn't anything spectacular (maybe we were just in the wrong part?) We walked around trying to find a restaurant for dinner and there was nothing but bar after bar and sketchy massage parlors. We finally found a perfect place with an awesome bakery. There were actually good bakeries and desserts throughout our trip, which was an unexpected surprise.

The next morning, we took a 90 minute ferry ride to Koh Phi Phi Don, an island out in the Andaman Sea. The boat ride was hot and miserable, but totally worth it. We read our books and tried to stay hydrated.

The island is incredible - lush green with crystalline waters. It's made of limestone and surrounded by other smaller uninhabited islands.

We finally arrived!

Since there are no roads on the island, we had to take a long-tail boat to get away from the busy harbor and to our quiet resort on "long beach"

We stayed in these bungalows

Our beach was nice and quiet. It had a few VERY small resorts and there was hardly anyone staying at any of them. We practically had the place to ourselves.

We even spotted a monkey on the beach

My Thailand travel book had a picture just like this on the cover. I used to pick it up and think "if only the water was really that blue." Here I am, eating my words.

There was basically one restaurant on the whole beach, and it was at a neighbor resort. We ate there about 6 times and it never disappointed. It was only about $2.50 for a meal there and the view couldn't be beat!

They had good pineapple fried rice

And banana pancakes with chocolate sauce

We think this is a cable car that they used to use to get up the mountain

Tan and I were reading on the beach and looked at each other to talk. This little guy had snuck between us and we both shot out of our chairs in surprise

One day while we were there, my dad and I went scuba diving. It was a lot of fun because we were almost the only ones in the group. This is one of the islands that we dove by

The coral there was amazing - much better than Hawaii. We saw spotted rays, seahorses, lion fish, box fish, eels, and even SHARKS! They told us before we left that they sometimes see them at the dive sites we were going to, and i was hoping we would see them. These pictures are actually from the Manila Ocean Park (we went diving too deep to take our underwater camera), but you get an idea of what we saw.

While we were diving, Tanya and my mom got seaside massages, drank smoothies, and relaxed. They were too relaxed to even take pictures.

It was fun to just play in the ocean. Even though we had been living by it for the past year, we are never sick of it.

After just three short days, we took the ferry back to Phuket for one more night before heading to Bangkok and then home. We did some shopping and my parents took us to a fancy restaurant for some awesome food and desserts.

Chiang Mai

2011-06-11T04:56:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Chiang Mai and it was a breath of fresh air. It is in the mountains in the northwest of Thailand. There was a lot to do and see there, and we both agree that it was our favorite place that we visited.

We stayed at a little bed and breakfast in a quiet hippie neighborhood. It was an old house that had been converted into a few guest rooms. It had awesome gardens and ponds and everything was made of teak wood.

The breakfast they had was perfect and we got to eat it in the garden.

That day we explored the area, did some shopping, and Tanya and I went on a date to get a couple's massage. It wasn't the Four Seasons, but it was only $5 for an hour and felt so good after our long travels!

Then we went out for dessert - a waffle with ice cream!

The next day we did another excursion. First we went to an elephant camp where we rode them through the jungle. Tanya and I rode the biggest one, and he had a full set of tusks! It was surreal and was a fun thing to cross off of my bucket list.

When we were done we got to play with the elephants and feed them bananas. They were getting greedy and trying to steal them from us! The baby one was especially naughty, he didn't like being touched on the head and would ram people if they bothered him!

After the elephants, we went to a hill tribe village. There were lots of loomed scarves and other crafts.

Then we hiked to a waterfall and were able to swim and cool off.

Then we hiked again some more to a river. They had rafts made of tied-together bamboo. They took us down the river on them and it was a serious balancing act. We were pretty much underwater, just trying to hold on for dear life. I'm proud of my 60+ year old parents. They kept up all with all the youngsters and were the only ones even close to their age doing all of this stuff.

That night we were ready for a change of pace food wise, so we found a little Mexican restaurant.

The next day while my parents went ziplining (once again, adventurous), we decided to have a romantic day, just the two of us. We started with a walking tour of old temples around old Chaing Mai

We ran into lots of kids who were on a field trip and wanted help with their English language assignment.

Then we went to a Thai cooking school and took a cooking class. This ended up being a lot more fun than we thought it would be, and it was the best food we had the entire trip (not to brag or anything). The food was quality. We learned a lot and at the end they gave us graduation certificates and a cookbook with all the recipes. We are excited to take what we learned and cook at home - if we can find all of the ingredients.

We made cashew chicken, thai basil, green curry, red curry, pad thai, spring rolls, and coconut mango sticky rice.

We ground our own curry paste

The ingredients were so fresh

After our cooking class, we went to a really classy spa and got a couples Thai balm massage. It was very intense (lots of weird bending and kneading and cracking our backs over their bodies) but it felt so good. We also got facials while we were there. At the end they gave us awesome ginger tea to relax our muscles.

Then we walked to the Chaing Mai Night Bazaar for shopping and dinner. They had amazing stuff for sale and we might need to come back when we buy a house and start decorating it.

Chaing Mai was our favorite place that we went, and was the perfect break between busy Bangkok and our next stops - Phuket and Koh Phi Phi Don Island!

Bangkok

2011-06-10T11:21:00.000-07:00

We just got back from Thailand. We had the time of our lives and are so happy that we went while we were living in Hawaii (already almost halfway there). We started planning the trip back in the Fall. My parents asked if they could join us, and it was fun to spend time with them since we've been living away from home for awhile.

The trip involved a LOT of traveling - 6 plane rides, endless taxis, tuk tuks, busses, a river boat, ferrys, long-tail boats, a 15 hour overnight train ride, and more. It was all worth it to see this beautiful country. There is so much color and culture. The Thai people are so nice and friendly, and the food was amazing - although we might not want rice for awhile.

While in Thailand, we went to Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket, and Koh Phi Phi Don Island. We went during the "off season," which meant it was blazing hot and humid, but there were no crowds ANYWHERE. We only saw probably less than ten American tourists the whole time, and not a ton from other places either.

Both coming and going, we had a one night layover in Manila, Philippines. I don't think I would travel all the way around the world just to go to Manila, but it was fun to see a little bit of a different country (and get another stamp on our passports).

Manila Bay

Baywalk in Manila

Our first stop was Bangkok and it was a big, crazy city. We loved our hotel though, it was tucked away in a quiet side street by one of the many canals.

Tanya and I went to see the Grand Palace, but it was closed for the day. A Tuk Tuk driver wanted to take us around the city to see some sights for 40 Baht (around $1.50), so we agreed. He was swerving through traffic and barely dodging oncoming cars, it was insane.

He took us to some temples. There are amazing temples and palaces EVERYWHERE all over the country.

Then came the catch. He started taking us to places like a jewelry store and a suit shop. You see, he got commission if he brought people to the shops. We was tricked. I actually ended up buying a suit because Tanya and I decided months ago that I should get one while we were there. For our wedding, I had my shirt custom made in Thailand and I love how it fits. They measured me for a suit and shirt and delivered it to our hotel the next day. I love it.

That night we relaxed with a nice cold

and the first of many amazing Thai meals

Sunrise over Bangkok

The next day we went on an all day excursion. We started by driving through rice fields

We went to the Bang Pa-In Royal Palace, where Thai royalty used to spend a lot of time. It had lots of cool buildings and gardens

Then we went to Ayutthaya, which was the capitol of old Siam hundreds of years ago. It had a lot of old temples and ruins.

That afternoon we went on a river cruise back to Bangkok, passing a lot more palaces, temples, and neighborhoods along the way.

That night we took an overnight train to Chiang Mai in the North. This is something I've wanted to do for a long time, and I was happy to cross it off my bucket list. We had pretty nice bunk beds and it was air conditioned, which was good since we were on the train for 15 hours! We played lots of hearts

We learned how to use this terrible toilet

and survived the night!

Riding through the countryside in the morning was beautiful.

Mas Invitados

2011-05-28T02:46:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago Rod's cousin Haley and her friend Julie came to visit. As always we enjoy having guests and showing them around. The first couple of days Rod had work and I was of course at school so the girls took the island by storm like champs on the bus. Props to these girls. . . they even got their hitch hiking on (sorry Robynn, I had no control). They also went skydiving!! Rod and I went when we lived here in 2007 and it really is amazing. I was so glad they got to go while they were here, we were super jealous but it was fun watching them do it.

Rod took them to the Maunawili Falls hike where they went cliff jumping.

They went Snorkeling at Shark's Cove

Turtle Chasing

And there was lots of delicious food involved - including Haleiwa Eats, complements of the girls. Mucho Mahalos ladies!

Dunzo

2011-05-24T23:50:00.000-07:00

Today I said Aloha to King Intermediate for the last time. I am SO glad to be done, but I was surprised at how sad I got when saying goodbye to the kids. They were swarming me with hugs, leis, and cards. It was so great and totally made all 20 weeks worth it.

Here is a pic of me and my favorite class

Next up:

Selling Suzie tomorrow (there is a 99% chance that I will cry and chase the car up the street)
Packing
Thailand
Saying goodbye to Oahu
Utah
Jobs?

I thought I would be ready to go home, but lately I have been so sad about leaving the island. Hawaii will always be a part of me. I already miss the ocean, our friends, our shack, our one horse town, and so much more. Luckily our futures are bright. I'm excited for what we have to come.

Rodney's Book Club

2011-05-21T09:38:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my last day of work at Sleep Center Hawaii. The past week was crazy as I had to find and train my own replacement since my boss is in Germany for two months. I was sifting through resumes, contacting people, and interviewing candidates. At the same time, I was on the other side, applying for jobs in Utah and hoping that I would hear back from companies I was interested in. I had two hours to train my replacement, and it was insane.

My coworkers threw me a little party, got me a lei and a balloon, and ordered California Pizza Kitchen for everyone. Sorry this picture is so blurry, it was taken on my phone.

Although I hated my commute to work and spending over 2 hours in the car every day, around January I got smart and started downloading book tapes to listen to. I listened to the following:

I only ever made it to book 3 in the Harry Potter series. When I saw "The Deathly Hallows" in theaters, I decided I wanted to at least read this last book. I really liked it, and the guy who reads it does an amazing job.

I had my doubts about this book. I mean, how can a guy cutting his arm off fill an entire book? I was on the edge of my seat (my car seat that is) and it really is such an amazing story. Let's hope I never have to drink my own urine, but now I know that if I had to, I could. I am also excited to see 127 hours (I'm a little behind).

Since I haven't been in school for a year, I am scared that my brain is turning to mush. I decided every so often I need to read a somewhat educational book, but that's boring. This is me meeting myself in the middle. This book had some interesting concepts and tried to relate economic principles to real life situations. My favorite chapter was all about baby name patterns (black kids vs. white kids, rich vs. poor, etc). It was written quite a few years ago, and it predicted what baby names would be popular soon. Madison, Ava, Emma, Bronson, Jackson, Grayson, and Chloe anyone?

Tanya talked me into reading this book. I tried to go into it with an open mind, but I really didn't like it. The characters are even more unlikeable in the books than the movies (if that were possible) and the voices of the readers drove me nuts.

This book had a few good pointers and did an okay job about motivating me, but I have very little respect for the author. He talks crap about his dad the entire time, and he acts like anyone can be as successful as him (even though he had a bunch of amazing opportunities dropped in his lap). Toward the end, I was really tired of being talked down to.

I started this book because I didn't know what else to read, it was on the New York Times bestseller list, and I heard there was a movie of it coming out. I really liked the concept of the story and the main character's description of life with the circus, but for me it didn't really go anywhere. There weren't very many twists and turns.

I loved this one. Tina Fey's classic writing style, pop culture references, and one liners kept me laughing aloud through many a commute. This is one of the rare exceptions where I would actually recommend listening to the tape over reading it yourself, because Tina herself reads it and that adds a lot of character.

I read this on the recommendation of our friend and my future marketing colleague Jozie. I would love to start my own company someday, and this gave me some good pointers. I'll need to listen again with a pen and paper and take some notes.

My favorite movie of all time = my favorite book of all time? Sort of. I really liked the book. It went into a lot more detail about the business and the scientific aspects of "Jurassic Park," which was interesting. However, I didn't much like the ending. The book followed the movie really well (or visa versa I guess) for the most part, up until the last few chapters. I felt like it kind of dragged toward the end.

My parents will be in Hawaii in 4 days. This time next week, Tanya and I will be spending the night in The Philippines. Then it's on to Thailand. We've been planning this trip since October. I can't believe it's so close to actually happening!

A Hui Hou!

2011-05-17T21:25:00.000-07:00

After next Tuesday I am officially a certified teacher. The past five months have been hard, tiring, rewarding, frustrating, hilarious, and inspiring.

I really want to remember everything that has happened this year while teaching Teen Health at King Intermediate School.

Here are the highlights:

The things they say . . . I could go on for days.

I teach 12 and 13 year olds, which is a category all by itself. Add to that the fact that they are Hawaiian 12 and 13 year olds . . . they pretty much have their own language. It took me a long time to get used to some of their lingo, but now I even find myself talking this way. My favorite Pigeon includes:

The fact that they only call me “Miss” not Mrs. Rasmussen, not even Mrs. Just Miss.

“Ahhh Miss, thas junk” EVERYTHING is junk (meaning bad, dumb, silly, gross)

“Da Kine” Whenever my students don’t know what to say, they say: “you know, da kine?” It’s what they use to fill sentences kinda like when we say “you know that thing?” It’s funny but frustrating because I never know what da kine means.

One phrase that I picked up more from the teachers that I work with is “Try”. Instead of saying “You better bring your planner next time” I now find myself saying “Try bring your planner next time” or “Try do your homework for once”. Sounds so weird, I know.

Scrap/Scraping = Fight/Fighting (which happens a lot at my school – usually two girls fighting over a guy)

The word “one” can be used instead of “a”. So . . . Instead of saying “can you bring me a book?” they say “can you bring me one book?” Still not used to this one.

“Oh Miss, I cannot.” They almost NEVER say, “can’t” it is always “cannot”. I really don’t know why.

Favorite Things:

· The students attempting to learn my last name – most of them didn’t even get close. Guess that’s why they called me “Miss”

· The Valentine cards my students made me

· Spending 80 minutes a day in a car with two other student teachers. We became very close and it was nice to debrief after school with people who knew exactly what I was going through.

· The group of girls that come into my classroom EVERY MORING to give me a hug and talk.

· The time the bridge flooded and I was 30 minutes late for school. The sub was teaching and when I walked in the whole class cheered. That was a good moment.

· Listening to music with my advisory class – this usually would lead to a sing along and/or dance off.

· Supervising the end of year dance – it was darls and hilarious.

· The rumor that I died when I missed ONE DAY of school. This really happened. Apparently there was a car accident and everything . . . they were all very concerned when I came back the next day.

· My students telling me that I am way too young to be married, asking what my husband’s name is, what he looks like, what he does, etc.

· The very troubled student that I somehow made a connection with – he loved talking about watches and tried to steal mine off my wrist on several occasions. He was good in my class after that.

· The day I perfected “the look”. I can give a crusty like you wouldn’t believe (or maybe some of you believe it ha ha!)

· The morning bulletin. A news program anchored and filmed by students that gives the morning announcements. It also usually features a short video filmed by the media class – made my morning every time.

· The looks on their faces when discussing the reproductive system – priceless. Also, the questions that followed.

· Watching my students do jumping jacks and then try to breathe through a coffee straw to experience what it is like to have emphysema. Hilarious.

· Walking around the campus and having students yell out “hi Miss!” it’s so cute. (This campus is gorgeous I can see green mountains and blue ocean out of my windows).

· The multiple times I brought students to tears – usually not really my fault, sometimes it was.

· Watching their faces change when they finally understand a concept. Amazing.

I know this is a lot, but I don’t want to ever forget it. I have such mixed emotions about my life right now. I’m sad to leave Hawaii, but so happy to see family. I’m sad to leave my students, but happy to be done with school.

Bring on the next chapter!

And please bless I get a teaching job!

I love this pic. . . the rainbow almost made my head explode. I couldn't stop looking while I was teaching!

A Day In The Life

2011-05-10T20:56:00.001-07:00

One of the many reasons we are sad that our time here is drawing to a close:

A Day In The Life from Rodney Rasmussen on Vimeo.

Happy Mother's Day

2011-05-08T13:37:00.000-07:00

This is dedicated to my mother, Pennie Tapp who loves Stefon.

Laters

2011-05-04T20:29:00.000-07:00

Today I put in my two week's notice at my job. It was a bittersweet feeling.

This was my first real job out of college. I have learned so much since I started. I have actually become close to the people I work with. I scratched and clawed my way to a point where I'm earning a fair salary. I finally know what I'm doing and feel comfortable with my job. I learned from my boss what to do (and what not to do) when running a business. I genuinely enjoy what I do and, for the most part, don't dread going to work when I wake up every morning. I get paid to go to networking parties and schmooze with people. I got to see every part of Oahu.

On the other hand . . .

I hate driving over an hour each way to work. Sleep disorders aren't the most exciting subject matter to market. Like I said, I had to scratch and claw my way to the place I'm at, and it wasn't all fun and games. I had to do some ridiculous things that were not part of my job title (walking my boss's dogs for example?) I've learned everything I need to from this job and I'm excited for what's next - whatever that may be

Beauty

2011-05-04T00:27:00.000-07:00

I'll sure miss this backyard.

Easterz

2011-04-27T10:57:00.000-07:00

We had the perfect Easter weekend. We both had Good Friday off, so we went to Pipeline and took advantage of one of the best beach day we've had in months, followed by dinner at Pizza Bob's in Haleiwa.

On Saturday we decided to paddle out to Chinaman's Hat. We hadn't done this since we were here in 2007, and it has been on our list. Tommy and Jozie joined for the excursion.

We traded between paddling two to a board, and the girls paddling and the boys snorkeling. Rumor has it that these waters are shark-infested! We didn't see any.

We made it past prickly bushes and up rock walls to the top of the hat, where we enjoyed 360 degree views of the bay.

When we got back to shore, we had a classy BBQ lunch. (Salt & Vinnies not pictured)

We played some cards . . .

We jumped off The Point (with umbrellas!)

Did some longboarding

And partied the night away (by which I mean we got personal pan pizzas and watched Country Strong, which wasn't that good.)

On Sunday we woke up to a surprise from the Easter Bunny. Sadly, our two favorites (Reeses Eggs and Cadburry Mini Eggs) were not a part of our basket. This is one of the many joys of living in a small town with one little grocery store.

We lazed around our house playing Words with Friends and catching up on our shows.

After church we had our friends back over for a traditional Easter feast. Deviled egg appeteasers, scalloped potatoes, asparagus, spinach salad, and the most amazing ham we've ever had. It was cooked perfectly with an orange glaze. Dessert was a pineapple upside-down cake.

Then we dyed Easter eggs.

Happy Spring!

R.I.P.

2011-04-27T00:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday something tragic happened.

I put a load of wash in and when I went to move it into the dryer I found that baby gecko had fallen into the wash and died.

I ran back into the house to tell Rod and as I was explaining what happened I burst into tears. I didn't expect to cry, but even now as I am typing this I want to cry. They are SO TINY! I just thought I needed to recognize this tiny lizard, Hernando on our blog.

Rest in peace little friend.

Goodbye Michael

2011-04-22T13:13:00.000-07:00

This made me laugh and cry. Mostly cry.
I love Will Ferrell, but how will it be The Office without Michael Scott?
I guess we'll find out.

The Joz Turns 25

2011-04-20T17:48:00.001-07:00

This past weekend we celebrated Jo Jo's birthday in Waikiki. There was shopping, surfing, swearing, more surfing, sunbathing, and tons of eating. Thanks for sharing your special day with us Joz! We're sure glad you got borned.

The guys surfed their brains out. Jozie and I hung out on shore chatting and swatting away pigeons and tourists all afternoon.

This is Phuket Thai. A Thai restaurant that makes all others seem like Panda Express in comparison (yes I know Panda Express is Chinese food, but you know what I mean). This food makes me way too excited for our trip in May.

Two thumbs up for this mini-vacay weekend.

Snap!

2011-04-17T15:41:00.000-07:00

We finally did it.

We got our dream camera!

I'm already so in love with it. It's a Canon Rebel T3i.

We decided we need to be able to properly document our island home before we move back to Utah, as well as capture the beauty of Thailand.

I can't wait to learn how to use it. I'm thinking about taking a class over the summer.

If you have any photography tips please share them!

p.s. Thanks Rod for trying to make this a secret. I'm sorry I ruin everything! You're the best.

Cat Babies

2011-04-14T23:55:00.001-07:00

They're back . . . it must be a summer thing.

When we first moved here, we started hearing what sounded like a perfect mixture between babies crying and a bag of felines being hit against a brick wall. We started investigating and found out that it was the stray cats that live under our house. Some say that they do it when they're in heat. Others speculate that they just get lonely when it rains.

Around October they left, possibly headed north for the Winter? However, this week they returned.

We've nicknamed them "cat babies" and at this point they're changing everything we ever thought we knew about them.

Scuba Steve

2011-04-11T22:54:00.000-07:00

Becoming scuba certified is a high priority on my bucket list. Even though deep ocean water actually scares me pretty bad, I figure there is no better way to overcome that fear than diving right into it (no pun intended). The cost has always deterred me, but when there was a Honolulu Groupon for $99 certification I knew it was meant to be.

This past week I did all of my classes and dives. The homework made it seem so complicated, but it all came together once we started doing it. We had two days in the pool, and then two days in the ocean.

Our first ocean dives were at Electric Beach. This is the one that has hot water being pumped into it from the electric plant across the street. It was so fun! The water was incredibly clear and we got shot up by the hot water. There were so many fish, but unfortunately no dolphins (which this beach is famous for as well).

Our second day of ocean dives was at Magic Island. The water wasn't as clear but we got to explore little underwater canyons and a turtle snuck up right next to me!

Next stop: hopefully running into a whale shark off the coast of Thailand! 6 weeks . . .

Visitors

2011-04-02T14:31:00.000-07:00

Last week some of my family came to visit. We stayed with them at Turtle Bay and it was so fun to be together.

We started our mini vacation watching Rod surf. I could do this for hours, he's getting really good!

There was some amazing snorkeling at Shark's Cove and Turtle Bay

Uncle Mark getting his snorkel on

Waimea Falls

On my birthday we went to Waimea Valley. It was gorgeous and so fun to just be together. My golden birthday (24 on the 24th) couldn't have been better.

Nerds

Somehow my Courtie grew a foot since Christmas. He's taller than me!

My darling Grammy

Dole Plantation - Yall'z

Jumping at Waimea

Chillaxing

I love you family. Miss you already!

Unexpected

2011-03-31T22:38:00.000-07:00

Today was a day of the unexpected.

We woke up like usual at 5:20. Rod left for work at 6:00 and my carpool picked me up at 6:15. 25 minutes into my 40 minute drive to school, Rod called me and let me know that a water main broke, a bridge was flooded, and the only road to town was completely closed off.

We decided to pull off into a neighborhood so we could decide what to do. We had no idea when the road would re-open and it was an hour and a half drive to go all the way around the island - yuck. Me fellow student teacher who was driving called her cooperating teacher and was told not to bother to come in. Unfortunately today my cooperating teacher was at a workshop and I was being left alone to teach completely on my own. A sub would be there to watch me but he didn't know what to teach. This meant I could not go home and would need to make the trek around the island. As luck would have it, we stopped right in front of another teacher's house from my school as she was getting ready to drive around too! I jumped in the car and we began our journey.

After we drove the 25 minutes back to Laie Rod called me again to let us know the road had been re-opened (he waited the entire time - over an hour). We decided it would be faster to turn around and drive back to Kaneohe rather than fight the traffic in Pearl City. Eventually we made it to school (40 minutes late) and the kids in my first period cheered when I walked in (it's moments like that. . .) It was a crazy morning but spending the day pretty much alone with my students was awesome. They crack me up and make me so excited to have my own classroom someday.

After this crazy day I was stuck at school without a ride home. Rod was sweet enough to leave work early so he could pick me up. We decided that since we were already in Kaneohe that we should go see a movie (it is often hard to want to drive 4o minutes or an hour to get to a theatre).

We saw Limitless and it was fantastic. The cinematography was amazing and the story was intriguing. There was quite a bit of violence, but I still really liked it. I love that Bradley Cooper looks like a strung out hobo for a good portion of the film - it proved that he's more than a "hot guy". Well done, good sir.

Here is a trailer just in case you have no idea what movie I am talking about . . .

Living on a island is amazing. I often take for granted how beautiful it is here. The inconveniences (like having to drive an hour to get to Costco/Walmart or being at the mercy of a two lane highway that often gets blocked) are for the most part trivial. We love this island, we love our one-stop-light town, and we (usually) love our shack on the Point. I am not yet ready to say goodbye in 2.5 months.

Sorry for the long story,

Mahalo for reading it. Goodnight!

Utah Photo Shoot

2011-03-25T23:21:00.000-07:00

Over Christmas when we were home we had a Rasmussen family photo shoot at Trolley Square. We had Tanya's friend Ashlee Brooke take the pictures and we just got the disc. Here are some of our favorites.

Mo' Maui

2011-03-20T02:31:00.001-07:00

We just got back from our week in Maui. It was the perfect break from school and work. We loved staying in an air conditioned condo with king-sized beds, sleeping in every morning, and exploring a new land together. We were happy to be joined by our friends Jozie and Tommy halfway through the week.

Way too many pictures were taken to squeeze into one blog post, so we made a slideshow of the best from our camera as well as J&T's. Highlights include:

Basking on beautiful new beaches and hanging out with a friendly monk seal and oversized novelty sea turtles
The Road to Hana and all of its twist and turns
Hiking through a bamboo forest to three different waterfalls
Great food including organic pizza, homemade banana bread, world famous fish tacos, fresh fish & chips, ono roadside fruits and avocados, and more than one pazookie.
Whale watching (yeah, they really jumped out of the water by our boat) and Tannie didn't even cry!
Lounging poolside and solidifying our friendship with J&T, BS 'n P style
Birthday shopping for Tanya - my favorite is her feather hair extension.

Maui 2011 from Rodney Rasmussen on Vimeo.

We were sad to come home, but happy that we have a beautiful place that we love to come home to.

Aloha

Tsunami

2011-03-11T10:22:00.000-08:00

Last night at around 9:00 PM we started getting calls and texts from friends around town saying that there was a really bad earthquake in Japan and that they expected a Tsunami to hit Hawaii at 3:00 am. We looked up videos of Japan and, as most of you, were shocked and saddened by the destruction.

We decided to head to Foodland grocery store with our friends Jozie and Tommy to check out the situation and get some provisions. It was pretty chaotic. The line was wrapping all around the store with people buying jugs and cases of water as well as stocking up on food.
A typical grocery cart - notice the Top Ramen and Vienna Sausages. Top priority.
While we were there, the town evacuation warning sirens started going off. Even the locals were getting pretty nervous at this point. It was an eerie sound and an eerie feeling. We caught it on this video:

Untitled from Rodney Rasmussen on Vimeo.

We didn't want to wait in line, so we went home and packed our car with what we had (Thank J&T for keeping us hydrated!)

We decided to go behind the Laie temple because it is higher ground and that's where a lot of people were headed. It was basically like a big tailgating party. We tried to sleep for awhile in the car, but it was super uncomfortable. At about 2:30 we headed up the hill to a cemetery/park that is right behind the temple. We lay under the stars and waited . . . and waited . . . and didn't really know what was going on. I guess it didn't do much damage because eventually we were given the OK to head home. Tan took this sunrise picture on the way home.

All schools and lots of businesses are closed today (we both had the day off already) so we're going to bed now. We are lucky that it didn't turn out to be much, although it was scary at the time. We are also happy that the airports will be up and running again soon, because tomorrow we head to Maui for the week! We will continue to pray for those in Japan.

Aloha

Couldn't Love Him More.

2011-03-10T19:26:00.000-08:00

I really love this boy.
He is the best I could have ever hoped for. Here are a few reasons why:

1. He makes me laugh . . . Usually until I cry
2. He takes care of me (sunblock, water, etc.)
3. He's good at his job (just got another raise and his own office!)
4. He makes me be nice when I feel like being mean
5. He LOVES vacations and he's really good at planning them
(Maui in 2 days!)

We're pretty much total BFF. I like it that way.

Joy Ride

2011-03-08T22:05:00.000-08:00

The town just finished putting in a bike and running path from Laie to Kahuku. It's the perfect place to safely exercise with a great view, and we have already taken full advantage of it. We recently went for a joy ride. We were originally going to ride to Turtle Bay in hopes of a Courtney Cox sighting (they were filming Cougar Town there) but ended up having too much fun along the way and didn't quite make it.

They also recently put in some huge windmills in Kahuku that are a sight to see. Hurrah for renewable energy sources!

Disney Channel Acting School

2011-03-06T09:48:00.001-08:00

Last night's SNL was actually pretty funny (considering Miley Cyrus was the host) and I'm not just saying that because I was all hopped up on diet coke

This was our favorite:

Three Things

2011-03-02T22:51:00.000-08:00

Here are three things I really love right now.

Ice cold Hawaiian Sun strawberry lilikoi

Kauai avocados the size of Rod's head. . . and the amazing guacamole he makes with it.

The sunrise I watch every morning while I eat breakfast.

It almost makes waking up at 5:45 worth it.

Nephews

2011-03-01T18:01:00.000-08:00

Last week Danielle, Matt, and their little nuggets Brenden and Asher came from San Fransisco to visit us. The trip had a bit of a rough start with Matt getting sick the night before their flight leaving Danielle to wrestle the boys on her own. Luckily after a couple of days Matt was healed by the island and they were able to have some fun. Here are a few shots of our darls nephews. . .

It was fun to spend some time with Danielle and Matt

When they arrived at our shack we decided that there really wasn't enough room for all of us. Thank goodness Rod and I have great friends like Tommy and Jozie who let us blow up our air mattress at their house and sleep on their floor! We owe them BIG!

Side note: On Friday night our air mattress decided to get a giant hole in it. We drove to Foodland at 11:00 to get some tape to patch it up, but it still had a slow leak. We woke up twice on the floor in the middle of the night and had to blow it up again (sorry Joz and Tom!) Around 7:00 a.m. Jozie woke up and told us to just get in their bed with them (they have a California King - a-maze-ing!) and I think if I wasn't so deliriously tired I would have refused. . . but I didn't. We laid there for another hour or so Charlie and the Chocolate Factory style. (For those of you too young to remember Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, both sets of grandparents shared the same giant bed) See picture below.

Even though It was a tired, miserable night Rod promised I'd laugh about it someday. . . and now I am.

We are glad the Peronas could come visit us! It's always fun to hang with you guys. We miss those babies already! Mahalo plenty.

A New Addition . . .

2011-02-27T11:18:00.001-08:00

We are excited to announce a new addition to our little family. We have been trying for a few months now, and we finally got the good news yesterday.

We are the proud owners of a new Macbook Pro!

We have been sharing a computer since we got married, and it has been rough. Since evenings are the only time we are both home, it's hard for us to both be productive. But that's all about to change . . .

Coconut

2011-02-21T01:02:00.000-08:00

The following random stories have 1 thing in common:

People think that life in Hawaii is nothing but sunshine and coconuts. Nothing can go wrong. All problems are wiped away and life is easy. Not quite. One time Rod complained on Facebook about how there aren't any good gyms around here, and our Aunt Robynn commented "just go lift up some coconuts!" She doesn't know this, but it has become a major inside joke that we bring up anytime something isn't going perfectly. "You have a flesh eating virus? Just rub some coconuts on it!"

A few weeks ago on "Off The Map" there was a guy with a life-threating blood disease. They ran into the jungle, gathered some coconuts, and did a coconut milk transfusion. I'm all about finding and making use of natural remedies, but come on . . . . really.

These beasts are real. They live on Christmas Island, and they are so big that they can crack open coconuts and eat them. Yikes.

"That's coconuts - you're super delightful"
- Phil Dunphy, Modern Family

Tanya inherited the following recipe from my mother. I grew up loving her coconut syrup, and Tan has been making it non-stop. It turns your average pancake into an out-of-this-world experience.

- Combine 1 cup sugar and 1 cup light corn syrup in a saucepan on medium heat until melted
- Remove from heat - let cool to room temperature
- Add 1 teaspoon coconut extract
- Stir in 1 cup whipping cream (un-whipped) until blended
- Serve and watch people's brains explode out the back of their heads!

Yesterday we went to a new restaurant called Phuket Thai. All four of the dishes we ordered were amazing, mostly thanks to the heavy use of coconut milk in Thai culinary creations.

I'm seeing a pattern here . . . .

Aloha Lahaina

2011-02-19T00:18:00.000-08:00

Spring Break is coming. . . I can feel it. I've been so busy teaching and I am SO ready for a break.

Thanks to Rodney's gracious neighbors from back home who donated one of their timeshare weeks to the cause, we are going to Maui for a whole week in March! It's been a goal of ours to visit at least one other island while we live here.

We should have known when Rodney got this fortune with his PF Chang's last week

We are very lucky

Mine

2011-02-14T23:23:00.000-08:00

Is Valentine's Day cheesy and overdone? Yes

Do we love it just the same? Yes

This one, she's mine. We enjoyed a nice seafood dinner seaside tonight and reminisced about our previous 3 Valentine's Days

As Of Late

2011-02-13T15:04:00.001-08:00

Here's what's been happening lately on 'da islands:

We re-discovered a childhood favorite: fudgesicles! There's no better way to beat the winter heat

We are 3.5 months away from our big trip to Thailand! Now that I've finished The Hunger Games books, I have been using precious beach time to research the crap out of this fascinating country. We cannot wait to eat curry daily, ride elephants, go snorkeling in water even clearer than Hawaii, focus our chi, and hang out with the folks.

Mark and I found a new favorite surf spot and a week later we brought the wives along. I love this place and hope to go back again soon

We have fully embraced the nautical/beach vibe and have slowly turned our shack into a home. Here are some things we've incorporated to make the transition:

Surf posters to cover our hole-filled walls

We continue to collect bottles that wash ashore. This is my new favorite. Before your junior high minds wander too far, RT stands for Rod & Tan.

We are still nursing our orchid plant, hoping for a second round of bloom.

Although we really really wanted to invest in the fine piece of functional wall art pictured below . . . We have settled for what was already there

And we even found decorations for our porch

Our favorite little nugget/vicarious nephew Bannock is busy fighting to keep big hotels from inundating the North Shore

We had a Fiesta for our friend Natalie's 23rd birthday and the food was fantastic.

Cheers to you, Natalie!

We all got a little shutter-happy

Yesterday was cloudy so we decided to long board the day away with Tommy and The Joz

Coke isn't even paying her for this marketing . . . yet

We are trying to spend as much time outdoors as possible these days. We live in a beautiful place and we want to enjoy what time we have left.

Aloha

What you Should be Watching

2011-02-12T10:40:00.000-08:00

Rod and I have a love for television. . . A love that we fully embrace thanks to our DVR and Netflix membership. Here are some of the shows (in our opinion) that you should be watching if you aren't yet. I've started with our newest addition all the way down to the classics.

I know we're like the last ones to starting watching it, but oh well. That's what Netflix is for right? It's so well done and so interesting. Rod loves the 1960's marketing schemes and I'm enthralled by the almost total lack of safety and health precautions there were back then. I mean seriously, what is the cigarette budget for this show?

Also. . . ever since his appearances on SNL I love Jon Hamm, even though his character is shady at best on this show.

This show is brand new this season. It's kinda like Grey's Anatomy (which I love but have gotten so behind on I'm waiting for the DVDs to save me) but it's set in the jungle of South America. If you love outrageous medical dramas, this show is for you.

The main reason we started watching was because it's filmed right here on Oahu! I drive past the set every morning on my way to Kaneohe. It's fun to see the place we now call home on TV, and to see how they make it look like the Amazon.

This is our 5th season watching this show and it never ceases to amaze. Yes, we fast forward through the shameless promotions for Extra Gum and Multi Grain Cheerios, as well as heart-to-hearts that last too long, but it is awesome to see these people grow up and shrink before our very eyes.

Phil Dunphy - 'nuff said

We hesitated watching this show because we were mad at Courtney Cox for what she did to her face - but our friends talked us into giving it a shot and it's now a favorite. It's like "Friends" all grown up. The characters are hilarious and they give us hope that we can still have fun in our forties.

Yes, this show is still a guilty pleasure. It is so well written that it has kept us enthralled for four seasons (mostly thanks to Chuck and Blair). I also love to oogle at the fashion. . .

Liz Lemon keeps us in stitches week after week.
"My mini fridge?! What about my fresh fruit. . . flavored toaster cheesecakes?"

This show took awhile to grow on us, but it was worth the wait. It's too bad it has been pushed around so much (to make room for crappy Outsourced and its too-easy jokes) but it's back and better than ever! I've been told by Rod and my family that I remind them of April. . . It's because I'm sometimes a crusty brunette I guess.

Although we love Joel McHale, he's still the least funny character on this show - so what does that tell you? The more outrageous the episode, the more we like it (the paintball war episode, the trampoline episode, the Kentucky Fried Chicken spaceship episode, the Dungeons and Dragons episode).

Michael Scott will be missed, but we are hoping that losing him will scare the writers into trying harder and keeping the show fresh - or going in a new direction. We still have hope (and are excited for a cameo by Will Farrell).

These next two are the best shows on TV that got canceled. I blame you, Charlie Sheen.

Yes there is a laugh track, but don't let that discourage you. Christine Campbell is the perfect mixture of Elaine Benes and Liz Lemon. Add in constant zingers from Wanda Sykes and you've reached perfection.

This show only lasted one glorious season. We watched it on TV and recently re-watched it over Christmas Break. All of the characters are clueless and hilarious. Once again I'm told by my family (and mostly Rod) that Selma Blair's character reminds them of me. . . apparently she rolls her eyes just like I do. I guess I need to learn to be nice :)

I promise we do more than watch TV, but when it's rainy or dark it's our favorite pastime.

Happy Watching!

In a Nutshell.

2011-02-07T22:00:00.000-08:00

It was a rainy day in paradise. . .

This was our day in a nutshell.

Every dollar counts
And every morning hurts
We mostly work to live
Until we live to work

Thank you Vampire

Love, Rod and Tan

I Want. . .

2011-02-06T11:17:00.000-08:00

How do I already have a birthday list? It's not even March yet.

Roxy is my one true weakness.

Torah Bright. Beautiful beach girl and a pro snowboarder. Can I be her?
I love the Roxy athletic line too. . . I need some new workout clothes.

I have a new goal. I'm going to borrow Jozie's longboard and practice until I get good enough to fly down The Point barefoot. . . maybe not that good.

But I do hope to own my own Roxy longboard some day (maybe one to match Gentry's?)

My current running shoes are clunky. . . I would love these. Light as air and so much better for kickboxing/zumba/step classes.

And as long as I'm being outrageous I'll put this on my list.

Imagine the pictures we could take in Thailand!
I'm dreaming.

Funny

2011-02-01T18:24:00.000-08:00

Today my mentor teacher was gone and I was left to fend for myself for the first time (there was a sub but he slept through most periods) . . .

This is my favorite highlight from today.

Darling student: Miss! Miss! What did everyone get on the quiz?!

Me: None of your beeswax

Darling student: Was dat? Beeswax?

Me: It means none of your bidnass

Darling student: OHHH Miss, you're funny

Seriously made my day.

Evacuate the Dance Floor

2011-01-30T14:17:00.000-08:00

We love weekends.

Here's a glimpse into the night life in Laie, Hawaii.

Bowling and Dance Central. . . twas a good time.

An afternoon with Tommy and The Joz.

Sunday Funday

2011-01-30T12:00:00.000-08:00

We Love Sundays . . .

Darla

2011-01-27T23:07:00.002-08:00

Dan and Sharla came to visit us last week. It was fun, relaxing, and gluttonous. They lived here with us the summer Rod and I met, so it was just a big, sandy walk down memory lane. They showed us a great time and even cooked us gourmet meals (it should have been the other way around). We love you guys. Mahalo plenty!

Friends.

2011-01-18T22:43:00.000-08:00

Monday was a wonderful holiday. The waves at Waimea were giant and the sun was glorious.

Dan and Shar made it here from the mainland and it's been a blast so far. Beach, eating out, and gourmet meals made for us by our guests.

Love this crew. Can we make up a team name please?

Loves my Shar Shar.

After some crazy rain, flash flood warnings, and temps in the high 50's last week (burrrrr!) It was so nice to spend the weekend in the sun. I remember why we live in Hawaii.