Welcome to Earth!

My friend Allison at work (and my reunited 2nd grade friend) had a couple of babies on Tuesday! It was so neat to hold these precious little guys and to know that it was their first day here! Alden Jeffrey arrived at 3:32 a.m. and Ammon Zachary at 3:36 a.m. Both boys weighed 5 lbs. 5 oz. and are 18 1/2" long.

Allison & Ammon (I think:))

Adam, Allison, Ammon, & Alden (the "A" team!)

Mrs. Redd (Natalie) & Mrs. Peterson (Danielle)

Me & the boys!

New York City...here we come!!!!!!!

Extra! Extra! Hear all about it!!!!!! Elissa, Katey, Garrett, and I are all going to NEW YORK CITY! The plane tickets are bought, there's no turning back! (I had to interview them all personally to make sure we'd be okay to travel together, so far everyone has passed...) Yesterday was planning day! I am so excited to be going on a trip...most of you know I have this "little" travel bug that I can't seem to get ride of! None of us has ever been there (except for that one night that I had to sleep in the JFK airport...now that was an adventure!), so if you have any suggestions, please do share! We're planning on doing the touristy stuff for sure.

Oh, we also bought tickets for WICKED, wicked huh!!?!?!

WATER FIGHT!

On the eve of February 23rd, Nicole Kay Corpron (aka Loha/Crazy/Cracker) decided to attack me with a measly glass water! I got revenge! I zoomed to the bathroom, got ready, aimed and fired back! I'll have you know that this was at midnight! We thought for sure we would have woke the neighbors with our uncontrollable laughter! Good times, good times in deed! I love that Niki and I are both crazy and silly! Niki is such a fun roommate! Honestly, every night is a like one of those sleepovers that you remember from when you were 7!

I'm HAPPY on the inside!

2 ten page papers, 3 nights of 4ish hours of sleep, 22 report cards, 22 parent teacher conferences, 1 forgetful moment of leaving my purse at school and having to borrow money to put gas in my car, 1 morning of getting the apartment ready for the carpet to be cleaned, 1 fun night of LOST watching, 1 Friday night of class from 5-10PM and 1 Saturday of class from 8-4PM later...I'm alive! It's been a long week, but I've made it!!!!!!!! I'm actually in class right now, ssssssshhhhhhhhh:).

You know it's been a very long week, but it hasn't been as bad as I would have imagined. I feel blessed to have great friends who have supported me each day! Thanks for listening to me rant!

Brief glimpse of the sitcom

So my roommate Niki is writing a sitcom of our life together, LOL! She is so weird, but I love her stinkin' guts! I actually think it's really funny because we're both so funny all the time! You know you would watch it!!! Stay tuned for more...since Niki is lame and won't let the whole freakin' world read her blog, I cut and pasted this post of hers....if you want to read her blog just email me and I will email her because she is afraid of freaks (then why the heck is she friends with me!)

Beginning of Niki's Post:

I was all ready for bed, but I had to share a few moments.. This was a conversation Tiff and I had before she went to bed...

Niki: "Crazy ( a term of endearment I use for friends), you are one crazy girl."
Tiff: "That's how I cope."
Niki: "With what?"
Tiff: "With being me."

Another moment was we were talking about her homework/life and she said, "It's hell on wheels." Good times..

Ps Here is a pic of one of my favorite Sitcoms... other fav tv show's include: Prison Break, Lost, Mash, and the Cosby Show.
---
And that is the end of Niki's post...I'll be sure to update you all whenever she posts about our sitcom.

Tiffany is writing her obituary...

This is serioulsy killing me! I will live through it! What doesn't kill you will only make you stronger right?

I AM NOT happy ON THE INSIDE....

At this very moment, well obviously not at this very moment...what I 'm trying to say is that I've been working on a dumb paper! I'm complaining and I know it's not healthy...but really I just want to cry and since I'm up really late doing this annoying assignment I thought everybody should know. Why am I doing this again, please remind me!!!!!!!!!

Sincerely,

Sad & Frustrated in Utah

TAGGED AGAIN…Kristy decided to chase me back and I’m it again!

I decided to dedicate this Tag to my family…5 interesting facts about my family.

1. My family can watch Little House on the Prairie for hours! It’s the only show we all agree on. We seriously watch this every Thanksgiving day for hours on end. We also watch it on Sundays when we are all together

2. A few family nicknames:

• Mom & Dad: I like to refer to them as Ma ad Pa, but they hate it! My mom says it makes her feel old, but since we love Little House I feel that it’s appropriate. A lot of my dad’s friends called him Finley or Fin growing up.
• Me: As a baby my mom called me “Tiffy, wiffy, piffy, poo, I love you!” I also go by Tiff and Tiffster. My aunt calls me Wilma. (The nicknames my friends have for me will be saved for another day.)
• Leslee: I like to call her, “Les the Mess,” but she hates it, so I usually stay away from it. My dad calls her Lelly and I do sometimes too.
• Joey: He is known as “the favorite.” All of us kids agree he is the favorite, we think it’s a combination of his charm and good looks☺. We also call him Jo-Jo or Joey, his real name is Jeffrey Joseph.
• Aaron: Aaron likes to be called “Ron,” no one really call him Ron, we think it’s weird…he thinks it’s hilarious. A few of us call him “Air-bear.” Ryan likes to call him “Air-head.”
• Ryan: He goes by “Ry-ry” or “pest.” We love this boy, he’s our little class clown and we just can’t get enough of him.

3. Every 2 weeks for a while, all 5 of us kids got the chicken pox …I was 11 and I brought them home, my mom’s still mad at me…

4. I think we are all pretty good cooks! Aaron and Ryan like to create intersting Chineese recipes. My dad is awesome at cooking in the dutch oven and I've adopted his love for dutch oven cooking...he got me my own dutch oven for Christmas. Leslee and I both like to bake goodies. Mom's good at cooking everything...occassionally she makes some interesting things, my dad hates anything with tater-tots! And Joey is learning how to cook in Brazil!

5. A couple of summers ago we went to Flaming Gorge. We camped on an island, so we had to bring all of gear over by our ski boat, it took two trips. We found this rattlesnake in our campsite and Leslee kept referring to as a “Rattle Lizard.” We still call rattlesnakes, rattlelizards. On our way back to the “mainland” we decided we didn’t want to take two trips, so we packed all 7 of us on the boat with all of our gear, even my dads tent outhouse! We looked like the Beverly Hillbillies on water! I really wish I had a picture of this! Here is a pic of my family from vacation 3 years ago.

I now tag Niki! And anyone else who wants to be tagged too! You don’t have to dedicate it to your fam… I especially want to learn 5 interesting facts about Niki, try to find things that I don’t know yet….GOOD LUCK! I know you like the back of my hand. We should really try to contact Oprah or something to start our sitcom, we really are that funny! I know at least 2 people who would watch it!

DiD YoU FeeL ThE LovE?

One more single awareness day down, how many more to go? Haha, jk! So yesterday was an interesting day to say the least. The weather was horrendous! On my drive to school I received a text from my 16 year old bro. saying that all the schools in the district were having a delayed start due to weather conditions. Since I was already on my way, I got there way early and had extra planning time!!! Yay! I love being in my classroom! The kiddies loved it too! Only 10 kids in the whole school showed up at the regular start time. In a district not to far from here, about 60 kids had to sleep at the school because of the roads. People on four wheelers brought food to them. A bunch of teachers at my school were so greatful that didn’t happen to us. I told them that I would have welcomed the emergency! A sleepover with a bunch kids in snowstorm would have been a blast! Imagine all the games you could play and all the stories to tell and what a funny memory to have! Oh, when I was in the office, one of the secretaries was teasing that because of the two hour delay I would have to stay an extra 2 hours and I said “just because I have no one to love doesn’t mean I don’t want to love myself!” She started laughing☺.


Our class Valentine party consisted of Valentine Bingo, cookie decorating, and passing out our valentine goodies. To the left is a pic of the most creative valentine.... attached to the note is a bag of popcorn! The kids had a blast, they were so wound up! They were precious though, I love how kids can love so much! Today a little boy who’s been a bit stubborn with me lately gave me a hug…man, hugs make my job so worth while, even the rough kids have a heart, if only all adults had one☺, lol!

I went and saw the fam at night. Niki came too! We brought my family 2 liters each of their favorite sodas! Then we went to Niki’s fam. From there we went to a Valentine party, we only played spin the bottle for 20 minutes…just kidding! So how did the rest of you celebrate? Any romantic dinners? Creative ideas to share? I've always liked the day...regardless of circumstances...how about you, do you like this love honoring day?

Tagged by Tisha

I've been tagged by my friend Tisha! I've been asked to list 5 facts about myself. Anyway, here are the rules: 1. Link to your tagger and post these rules. 2. Share 5 facts about yourself. 3. Tag 5 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them). 4. Let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs.

MY FACTS

1. I hung up on a future NFL football player in college…Anthony Dunn. How it all began…I left some cookies on his doorstep with a note that had my phone number. I wasn’t hitting on him or trying to be “sweet on him” if you will, I was just inviting him to church. I didn’t really even know who he was when I left the cookies. Earlier in the week a different guy left a message on our dorm phone (I didn’t have a cell phone in college!) that said “Hi Tiffany, this is Dan, I had a great time with you the other night, we should do it again sometime.” I had no idea who it was. Someone was pranking me! I got a few more prank messages that week. So instantly when this guy Anthony called me up and was just wanting to chat because he’d received my cookies, I thought he was pranking me, and as lame as this sounds and I don’t think I should admit this worldwide…but who really cares, right? I said, “can you hold on a minute?” Then I froze, I couldn’t think of anything to say, so I hung up. I know…I’m lame, rude, mean, down right awful and in every sense of the word, a JERK! And now I’m regretting it…

2. In the fall I was dunked in the dunking tank in front of the whole elementary school! It was even on the news, unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to see it. I guess I was in for it because I told the kids that if they would meet their goal for the food drive, I would be willing to be dunked. Only a few teachers volunteered, it was hilarious! The kids were cheering “Go Finley!”

3. I was reunited with a second grade classmate 2 summers ago. Here’s how the story goes…I started teaching at Foothills Elementary almost 3 years ago. My first year I taught kindergarten. Then I moved up to second grade. That’s when I met Allyson. She and I were talking about when we were in elementary school. I lived in Kearns for a good part of elementary and so did she! We then figured out that we went to the same elementary school. We started listing off all our teachers and realized that we had the same second grade teacher! We even had a mutual friend who we both remember going to her birthday party and watching a scary spider movie. What a small world! Oh, and her mom also was teacher at that school, turns out she was my fourth grade teacher!!!!!!!!! I’m so glad to be reunited with Allyson! She is one awesome friend! We tell all of our second grade students that we went to second grade together and that we’re still friends.

4. I love making worksheets! Anytime a teacher gives me an ugly copy of worksheet and on I plan to using it, I re-type it and add more questions or activities. My co-worker/friend Allyson thinks I’m crazy, she says “why go through all that work?” I like my students’ work to look crisp. I think if they are using a crapily copied paper then they might not perform their best. I also don’t think it’s professional to send home papers that look like they were first printed on a dido machine used decades ago! I also think developing curriculum is fun. I like finding new ways to teach something. I especially love making chants/songs to help them remember things. I love to make things for around the classroom too. I made a new word wall in December and then I reorganized all the books in my classroom library, we call our library the “forest of learning,” because of our classroom theme. I think I used to be somewhat of a perfectionist, but not really anymore…I just like things too look clean and cared for, not necessarily perfect, I mean I do work with children who are 7!

5. The last fact you get to learn about me is…there’s a little old man at 7-11 that knows my name, my line of work, and my frequent bad habit! I was between the ages of 14-20 I gave up drinking soda. I was inspired by a funeral that I’d been to. I didn’t really drink it much before though. Each summer in college I would come home to Utah and stay with my fam. Both of my parents are addicted to Diet Coke, my mom more than my dad. I started drinking it occasionally and then made my mom switch to Diet Pepsi, which she loves now! I still didn’t drink it frequently. My first year of teaching I would get a drink every time I needed a pick me up, oh an my preference in Diet Dr. Pepper. The next year I started to get them more often like every other week. Now I get them a couple times a week! I realized how bad it was when the little old man at 7-11 got to know me so well! I want to quit, but I’m going to miss seeing that old guy a few times a week☺.

So there you have it, 5 things you may or may not know about me! I heard a while ago that you can have your blog published into a book, so I’m liking these tag things because they make great journal entries that give a peek a sneak peek into your life!

PS I think I saw lightning today! It was a bright, flashy light about in my review mirror, not far from my car as I was driving down I-15 today! I felt my car vibrate just a bit, but I didn’t see any cars collide or anything…what do you think? Can lightning occur during a snowstorm? And is lightning just a quick burst of shattered looking light? It was wider than the typical lighting photographs that you see.

So here goes, ready or not hear I come, the five that are it are: Kristy, Kym, Sara (since she never blogs anymore!) Laci (because she's new to blogging and she was my 4 AM exercise friend junior year), and last but not least Ixchelle (the mommy to be!) Click on their names to check out their blogs.

3 Times a Bridesmaid, Never a bride!

A while back, my dad reminded of the old saying “3 times a bridesmaid, never a bride!” At the time I think I’d been a bridesmaid twice. Now I’m up to three times! So guess what? Melissa, a good friend of mine who lives in Cali asked me to be one this summer! I’m honored! The best part is that I get to wear any style dress as long as it’s black! Which is my favorite dress color and it will be something I can wear again! YEAH! Now the reason I bring up that phrase that my dad said is because my dad commented that maybe if I’m a bridesmaids 3 more times it will reverse the bad luck. So if any of you are planning on getting married, I’d be more than happy to be in your wedding, LOL! Although, this summer I have some classes that I’ll be taking and I don’t know if I’ll be able to skip a day to go out for the wedding, everybody cross your fingers….I love Melissa and I really want to support her. I’m excited to see a Catholic wedding! The last wedding I was in was Presbyterian, well I think…I even got to give a toast with my apple cider filled wine glass☺.

Rita & I Celebrate Valentine’s!

Valentine's is a time to tell people you love them right? Rita and I made cookies the other day and wrote valentines notes for our friends. She loves to measure and mix! When I first picked her up she was asking me how to make the cookies. We had made them in the summer and she was trying to remember word for word what I taught her.

She remembered, “first, you cream the butter and the sugars…then you add the eggs and flour, right?” I was surprised that she remembered the first part! We had a lot of fun. Here’s a little clip of her as I she was getting the cookies ready for the oven. Isn’t she a sweetheart!

The Cutest Baby Clothes Ever!

Zoomed in...

My friend Allyson is having twins soon and I found these cute little shirts the other day! Shopping for baby clothes is so fun!!!! It makes me want to be cute and little again:).

Do you know anyone with a booger problem?

I’ve got quite the solution to this terrible bad habit! On Wednesday, one of my students came up to me and said (I’ll be using fake names to protect the kidos) “Miss Finley, Jane won’t let me play with her snap bracelet.” I replied, “why is that?” Very angrily he responded, “because she says I pick my nose and she doesn’t want me to touch it.” I simply told him I agree with her, I wouldn’t want someone playing with something of mine if they picked their nose all the time…he pouted for a little bit and then I told him to wash his hands and maybe she’d let him see it.

The next morning, he came in, walked straight to my desk and pointing at his fingers said, “look at my fingers!” I looked and saw Band-Aids on every finger! He told me that they would keep him from picking his nose! Go mom! What a great idea! So if you know anyone with the same problem, spread the good idea! LOL!

Bright Red Jamba Juice!

On Thursday I got LOST, not literally…well that’s debatable. I went to a party to celebrate the premier of LOST, the ABC TV show. It was so fun to be amongst other LOST fans! We even enjoyed Dharma issued rations!

Before going to the party, Katey picked up some all fruit Jamba’s for us. This is practically our only treat…. ☹! As most of you know my friend Katey and I gave up sugar, or rather “SWEETS” for 6 months, 1 month down!

After gathering some Dharma rations (a few veggies & chips), I grabbed my Jamba and went into the living room to get ready for the show. As I was about sit down, the Jamba slipped out of my hand, spilled all over the carpet and splashed everywhere! It all happened so quickly but for me it was slow motion …what a fool! I was so embarrassed to have spilled Jamba all over this guy’s (Katey’s friend Garrett) carpet! I kept apologizing, hoping that the BRIGHT red Jamba would go away. We cleaned it up the best we could, we didn’t have any “Resolve,” so Garrett got out the 409, and that seemed to do the trick, I don’t know though…. I’m sure there’s some red residue left there, maybe I’ll have to buy him some Resolve still…wow! I was so grateful that he wasn’t extremely mad at me. I must admit this isn’t the first time I’ve made such a fool of myself. I often spill on my shirt while eating, the first time I met my roommate Nat, I spilled right down my shirt and I said “get used to this, I do it a lot!” I just had another flashback to when I lived at the “Firehouse!” One April Fools day I had this brilliant idea to prank some single guy friends of mine. My roommies and I decorated their cars with Oreo’s, streamers, cans dangling from the exhaust, and we used pink lipstick we write phrases like, “Just Married,” “Together Forever,” “XOXO,” and “Congratulations!” When we got back to our house, I realized that I must have stepped in pink lipstick because I had made a trail of pink blobs all the way to my room! Sheeeesh!

Oh, after watching LOST, we played the Wii. I had NEVER played the Wii before, I was dying to play. Katey and Garrett helped me create a Mii character. It was funny having them decide what kind of hair, eyes, mouth, and nose I had! We played a couple games of tennis and a game of bowling. At the beginning I had no control of the control, I felt like my hand-eye coordination had gone a bit hay-wire. After a couple tries I got better…my student’s think I’m cool now that I’ve played the Wii. What a fun night! Another embarrassing moment to add to the list!