Ironing...GOO

Ever since I was little there were only two...okay maybe 3 chores I NEVER liked doing (I'd pretty much run and hide anytime my parents told us we were cleaning the garage.) The first would be weeding. I HATE weeding. I used to tell my mom that I would clean the ENTIRE house as long as she didn't make me go out and weed. That's how bad I hated it. When I moved out into rental world, I never really had to worry about it. And I pretty much made sure I wouldn't have to worry about it when I bought a home with an HOA and the only weeding I'm responsible for is a little 2'x12' strip surrounding my patio. And even THAT I have a hard time wanting to maintain.

The second chore I tried to dodge like the plague was taking out the garbage. I hate taking out the garbage. I don't know what it is about it...but I just don't like doing it. When I was living with my old roommate we made a deal. I would ALWAYS do the vaccuming (the chore she despised) if she would ALWAYS take out the garbage. Life was great! And when I married Chad my roommate told him, "All you have to do is take out the garbage, and she'll be happy." And that was true, until...there was ironing.

Before I got married, I rarely...IF EVER-ironed. But...Chad-bless his heart- has a million and 4 shirts that need to be ironed ALL the time. Before we got married he would just send them to the dry cleaners. But at $50 a month, I thought it'd be smarter for us to just do it ourselves. ...I'm starting to regret my frugal-ness. In trying to be a good little wifey, I spent 4 hours ironing yesterday. FOUR HOURS!!! I almost wanted to quit and go outside and weed!

Ugh. My husband has a great wardrobe built up, but I'm about to throw out every shirt that isn't wrinkle free, which will leave him with less than 3/4 of what he currently has.

M.I.A.

Wow...So...I guess I need to apologize to those of you out there who actually read this thing. I haven't posted anything new for quite sometime and I kind of got scolded for that recently(Sorry Peggy;) I didn't realize it was even a priority to some. I again apologize for my slacking off. In all honesty...we haven't got much to report. But let's see what I can come up with...uh...

Oh! Chad and I have recently been on a diet. (I told you it's been a slow news month.) How come no one told us we had let ourselves go?!? We looked at pictures of us in Hawaii and we about passed out from the horrific photographic evidence of us at our "finest". Sick. Apparently those newly-wed blinders came on and we were totally content with being ignorant, fat, and happy. What were we to expect, though? I mean...come on, the workforce of Dairy Queen started to know us by name. They would say "Hey, Chad! Kandace! You want your usual?" (The invention of the Banana Cream Pie and Strawberry Cheesequake Blizzards was pretty much our downfall.)


So...get this...apparently diet and exercise really works! Huh. Who knew? Well...that AND banning ourselves from DQ. Chad has lost 22lbs and I've lost 20. Again. TOTALLY depressing that we even NEEDED to loose that amount of weight, but our home is now 42lbs lighter. Blessed day. We both realize we still probably have another 10-15 to go each, but hey, baby steps. P.S. We highly reccommend you look at a calender before committing yourself to the strictest of diets. Because dieting over holidays is NO fun. Depressing really. I doubt Chad has ever seen me more moody. I get cranky when I don't get my sugar. After witnessing me on sugar withdrawls, any pregnancy related mood swings should be cake for him to deal with. (These aren't coming anytime soon people, I'm just saying.)



Anyway, aside from this...we've just been living the dream. We work, Chad goes to school, I do laundry, we sleep and then repeat. Chad just got a promotion of sorts at his work, and he's been under a lot of pressure to acquire new certifications, so that's adding to his stress bucket. And while trying to not bug Chad while he studies I've been attempting to become more savvy in the garden...it's not going well. My thumb is far from green...as are my plants. Sad. I blame the soil.



Welp...It's a quick and pointless update...I don't even have a picture to go along with it. What fun is a post without a picture?!? It's not. I'll see what I can do to up the fun factor next time. But until then...this will have to do.
"It's all about a choice." -Chad T. Hatch

The Mans Got Skills!

Back in January I asked my little brother, Josh, to build Chad and I a head board for our bed. He had just graduated and he had a little bit of free time while he was looking for a job, so I figured, I could give him a little extra income and he could build me a bed! Little did I know, he was planning on getting engaged shortly there after. Engaged people don't have time to build head boards! Unless, of course, it's their own. So...needless to say...it took a little longer than anticipated, but it was WELL worth the wait!

I drew Josh a picture on the back of an old reciept, gave him a general idea of what I wanted, and he came up with this! He's amazing! My dad helped him a bit too. So a public THANK YOU to Josh and Dad! We absolutely LOVE it!

I know, I know, dark walls, I gave the explanation of this on my other blog http://www.kandyland0818.blogspot.com/ along with some wall art that helps break up the brown! But...this peice was too nice to go crazy color on. I had to go classic. So we stained it. Josh brought it to us like this...We stained it all and put it together, and we're SO excited to have it done! Now I just need to go find some cutsie light and bright decor to put on top! Love it! Thanks again Josh!

Honeymoon!!! ...6 Months Later

So we finally made it! We finally went on our honeymoon, and let me just say it was totally worth the wait! For those of you who missed the memo the first time, our honeymoon was initially delayed due to an unplanned incident involving snow skiing, insta-care, and Chad's leg. BUT broken bones heal! And we finally made it happen!

It was kind of sureal landing in the Honolulu airport. I still couldn't believe we had finally made it there. I mean, for so long all Hawaii had ever been to me was all those pictures you see in the brochures... Stuff like this.

....Not this. Our shuttle driver decided that the best route to take for all of us first time visitors was right through the slums of Waikiki. Needless to say...my first impression of Hawaii was a tad disappointing. Although the above picture was not of the slums, it was actually the sunrise view taken from the top floor of our super nice hotel (fyi: booking on Priceline is the way to go) at about 5:30 in the morning. Our internal clocks were still on Utah time which was 9:30 in the morning, but I digress...where was I....Oh yes! First impressions. Well you know that old adage "You never get a second chance to make a first impression"? Well, I think they made an exception for Hawaii. Downtown Waikiki may have left me wanting...but Hawaii as a whole, is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen.

With it being my first trip to Hawaii I wanted to see all the tourist-y stuff i.e. The Polynesian Cultural Center, Pearl Harbor, The Dole Plantation, etc... And thankfully, Chad indulged me, even though he has been to Oahu twice before.

The PCC was one of my favorite places we went. The canoe parade especially. SO fun! The Dole plantation and the super yummy pineapple ice cream was a highlight as well. One of our favorite parts was just cruising around Oahu and just seeing what we could see. North shore was great and we stopped at some gorgeous beaches and just chilled for a while and played in the surf.On Monday night we met up with our friends Lindsey and Jason and they were gracious enough to take us to a beautiful beach for Family night. We loved it! It was so pretty. Unfortunately, I was so excited to see Lindsey I totally spaced bringing my camera so I don't have any photographic evidence of this. Can you help me out with this Lindsey? You know you've got a good friendship when it's been years since you've seen them but it feels like no time at all. Thanks for the good time guys!

On Wednesday morning we met up with our fellow honeymooners, Lou and Phil, who had just gotten married on the 8th. As it turns out they were in our exact same hotel! Ha! Who knew? It was pretty handy for car pooling to Pearl Harbor and the swap meet though, which by the way is the PERFECT place to buy suvinors, SO much cheaper than anywhere else on the island. And it was SO much fun! We ran into a jam lady, Sylvia...or Sherry...I forget, but she makes her own jam. And it is GOOD! We got suckered into buying 3 jars of Jam, one of which was a "man jam" which Chad is ga ga over. BBQ's at our place this summer! These jams are great on meat! I know...it sounds weird, but trust us...you'll love it!

Wednesday we flew over to Kauai and started part 2 of our trip. In comparrison to Waikiki this island is pratically bare with habitation, but it is called the Garden Island for a reason. SO SO beautiful! Especially the north shore! Chad and I pretty much decided that when we are rich and famous there is where we want to retire. (HA...dream on.) THIS is the Hawaii I had pictured!

All the pictures really don't do it justice. You've got to go people. Find a way. Make it happen. Kauai is TOTALLY worth it. While we were there we went on a kayak trip up the Wailua River where we went on this GREAT hike to a secret falls, and we saw an old Hawaiian village. Way cool. And our great adventure was a raft trip to the Na Pali coast line! (that one opening aerial shot in Jurassic Park...yeah...we were totally there...just yesterday!) The raft trip was kind of rough...not going to lie. 35 miles in a little raft on the HUGE choppy ocean...my tail bone is STILL tender. BUT...once you get past that part of things...it's TOTALLY worth it. We were able to cruise right into some of these incredible caves with the bluest water you have ever seen, and we were also able to go snorkeling. A first for me. I was a little trepidatious about getting in because, me, a land locked girl all my life, has this thing about large bodies of water and the fish that swim in them. Kind of freaks me out. Okay...REALLY freaks me out. But I did it, and it was unbelievable! LOVED it! We were fortunate enough to see TONS of dolphins, a handful of turtles and even a Momma Whale with her calf! CRAZY cool!!! And it wasn't just a spout of water either. They gave us a whole show as they jumped and played. The baby would jump and then the momma would show him how it's REALLY done. SO amazing. I have a deep respect for the ocean...and the power that is in it. SO intimidating and completely awesome. This is one of our favorite parts of our trip.

We'd like to thank all the people who made this possible. #1) Chad's Aunt Heidi who hooked us up with buddy passes on Delta which saved us exuberant amounts of money. #2 Jason and Lindsey who showed us one of the most beautiful beaches where the locals go. #3 Lou and Phil for introducing us to the Shave Ice (mmmm...just talking about it makes me want one). #4 Delta Airlines for giving us first class accomodations on the night flight back (this is the way to go) and the lovely airport of Seattle, in which we currently sit, waiting for ANY flight to get us the rest of the way home. BOO on standby. And Tyler and Janet for being willing to be on call for local pickup back in our hometown!

Best honeymoon a girl could ask for!

The Josh & Heidi Wedding!

Oh the happy couple! Josh and Heidi were married on April 16th, in the Salt Lake Temple. And it was a gorgeous day for a wedding! And they couldn't have been happier, and we couldn't be happier for them!

During the sealing the Sealer turned to Josh and said "You've got yourself quite an incredible bride here." and Josh's entire face just lite up! He had the biggest most genuinely happy smile I've ever seen on my brother. I've never seen him so filled with complete and utter joy. I will forever and always love Heidi for the plain and simple fact that she makes my brother so blissfully happy. His entire countanence brightens whenever she's around and I find that incredible. He loves her so much and I am SO happy for them.

Here's part of the fam waiting for our turn for pictures.

Cute little Kua sportin' his pimped out suit! Walkin' with one of his favorite all time people Grandma! It's so cute, anytime he sees his Grandma he get's so excited! There's only 3 people on this planet who that kid will go out of his way for. His Mom, and his two grandmas!

Micah and Brittney, Tai and Kua. Lookin' good!

Tai playin' it cool!

Kua with Grandma and Grandpa
They do in fact Kiss!!! They just have a little bit of weariness doing it in front of people. There were about 4 public kisses their entire wedding day. One over the alter two which I have displayed on here...and one...maybe two more at the reception. And that's all we could talk them into doing.

But aren't they gorgeous! And check out those smiles! Welcome to the family Heidi! We're thrilled to have you join the clan! Thanks for making Josh so happy! Congrats you guys!

Zions!

So for my syblings spring break they decided they all wanted to go to Zions, the weekend before Josh and Heidi's wedding, and Chad and I decided to tag along. And although I was pretty sick and went through 3 packages and 1 full box of tissues in the matter of 3 days, we had a ball!

It was a balmy 78 degrees while we were down there and we were way past due for some good quality Vitamin D. We went camping in the South campground just inside of Zions. Chad and I have never really been camping together, so it was a first for us. We had to go buy a new tent and borrow a lot of stuff from Chad's parents. Which they may or may not let us do again. We kinda, sorta had a little accident with the tiny space heater they had lent to us. We had never used it before, and unfortunately didn't try until after dark, and because of this, we didn't notice that there was a cap on top of the burner. We lit it. Felt the warmth figured it was fine. A few minutes later however I turned and asked Chad if he smelt something burning. I pointed a flashlight over to the space heater and the plastic cap on top was bubbling. We're pretty sure it wasn't supposed to do that. So we turned it off and the next morning sure enough the cap was all sorts of melted and deformed. Sad day. Hopefully Ffej will find it in his heart to forgive us and maybe even let us borrow some of his camping gear again in the future.

We hiked some great hikes, and tested out Chad's once again functioning leg. He's healing quite nicely and he's getting really anxious to be able to run again, but first we're going to try and master standing on one leg with your eyes shut and not tipping over. For someone who's ever broken a leg...it's harder than it sounds, folks.

All in all it was a great family vacation. Can't wait to do it again!

Land of Makebelieve

Our Trip To Hawaii!!!

We had SUCH a FABULOUS time! I took everything I had to come back to the real world. In fact...some would argue...I still haven't.

This was our suite in Kauai where we stayed. It was kind of like out of a magazine! So sureal!

This is just down the hill from our suite. Chad and I liked to go for long walks on the beach after lunch. On one of our walks I found a coconut.
It's not every day you just...find a coconut lying around.

We went snorkeling a few times and it was incredible! The water was amazing! SO clear and blue.

We took surfing lessons and Chad was UNBELIEVABLE! Look at him rip up that wave! This was me after a gnarly day of surfing. I couldn't believe how sensational the sunsets were!!!

We went hiking up this GORGEOUS mountain and found a hidden waterfall and couldn't help but get in. We climbed up the side and dove off the top of it. Wow...This is definately something I thought I'd never be able to do.

And of course, you can't go to Hawaii without going to a Luau! That's Chad in the back...he's learning to hula. Pretty good, eh? Check out the toe point.

Talk about a dream honeymoon, huh!?! Even if it was a few months later. Big deal! At least we got to go!

And then...I woke up. Looks like I've been blogging in my sleep again. I think I just realized how long it's been since I actually posted anything and when I asked myself why...it's because the next thing I wanted to post about was our honeymoon...which has yet to happen. But it will, people! Next time I post about Hawaii...it will be the real deal! In the meantime...the land of makebelieve is a pretty nice place to visit, no?

John's Home!!!

My little brother came home from his mission and he got to meet Chad for the very first time! It was a little hectic meeting him at the airport but...it was SO good to see him again! John also got to meet Kua for the first time. But the one who tripped him out the most was Mandy. She has changed SO much over the past little while and he couldn't get over how grown up she looked. Anyone who knows John, loves him. He's pretty much amazing and we love having him back!

Group Hug!!!

John and the newest members of the fam.

Tai realized that waiting for Uncle John to get his luggage was obviously going to take some time...so he got comfortable...on the airport floor.

My Brother & Sister-in-laws Cute little Fam! Cute little Kua!

"Uh Guys...Chad fell Down"

So...do you remember that one part in the beginning of "That Thing You Do" when:


Well...it wasn't his arm...it was his
leg...and it wasn't leaping over parking meters...it was down hill skiing.

It was Chad's first time on ski's. He had decided (after quite a bit of coercing from his wife) that he was going to give skiing a go since it's one of my favorite outdoor activities and all of my family members are avid skiers. So...the day after New Years we went up to the Beav and took Chad on his first run down the hill on Skis. Sure he biffed it a couple of times, but he made it down Little Beaver fairly well, all things considered. After a few runs down the little beav, and a couple brief tutorials from me and my dad, Mr. Ski Patrol himself, my dad decides that Chad is ready for Gentle Ben. Now...don't let the name fool you. Gentle Ben is nice and all...but he's not as gentle as his name would imply.

On the first drop off Chad ate it pretty hard. He pulled one of those head first-kart wheels with a double lutz spin kind of wrecks. You know the ones I mean. Everyone who skis or boards has either had personal experience with one of these specific types of wrecks or have at least seen one happen from the safety of their lift chair and screamed out a rating on a scale from 1-10 based on snow displacement and the radius of their gear (poles, skis, hats, etc...) strewn across the mountain side.

He pulled the "Man" card for a while, and kept getting back up to try and finish the run. After 3 failed attempts and making it another 400 yards down the mountain...he knew something was wrong and opted for the "sissy" way off the mountain. Luckily my dad was skiing with us and radioed in for a toboggan. Chad said that was a once in a life time experience...and although the toboggan ride was fun...he'd prefer to never do it again.

We got down the mountain and made it to the Budge Clinic in Logan where we spent the next 3 hours waiting for the doc to tell us the verdict. After a few x-rays we found out that Chad had a "Mid-Fibular Fracture" And would be in a boot for 3-6 weeks and on crutches for the first half of that as well. Joy.

Oh well. What can you do? We feel pretty blessed that it was such a minor break. It could have been much worse. We're grateful it wasn't.

Chad getting his first set of x-rays. Note the baggy of snow in front that we used as a make-shift ice pack while waiting, and the green lead appron in the back...to protect the family jewels.

The demoralizing wheel chair. This was a breaking point for him I think.

The sign I noticed AFTER I took all these pictures with my phones...suckers. They shouldn't have kept us waiting so long...maybe I wouldn't have taken so many pics.

Hatch Family Christmas!

This year the Hatch family had some conflicting Christmas Schedules. Tyler and Janet were going to be over at the Grahams for Christmas Eve, and Zac and Andee were going to be in Hawaii (the nerds) and we were schedule to be up in Logan starting Christmas Eve, so we opted to through the Hatch Family Christmas Party a little early! But it was worth it! We had so much fun!

We started off at Bonnie & Ffej's for a really good dinner with ham and turkey and funeral potatoes. And let's not forget the REAL Ranch dressing. A must have for any true Hatch. None of that icky bottled stuff for us. No sir. Beeb and Heidi and the kids joined us and then we headed down to our place for games and desert!

I made some cinnamon rolls...which actually turned out to be just rolls with frosting on top because I didn't put in NEAR enough cinnamon -Note to self. The big hit of the party was the Cocoa! We brought out our Cocoa-latte machine we got for our wedding which makes THE BEST hot cocoa! Mmmm.

Such a good time! Having the party a week before Christmas made us all a little trunky. Work was definately not on the "Top 10 Things I want to do tomorrow" list.