Party Rock

 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

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

I think I just peed a little.

Dog Days of Summer

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

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

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!

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.