Seattle. Friends. Fun.

What do teachers do best on four day weekends...visit their good friends! I managed to see three really good friends this weekend, Amy, Cheryl, and Sara!

Amy and I had so much fun chatting! She showed me around Seattle and took me to the Space Needle! I miss teaching with Amy! She is such a cute little mom to baby Parker...she has so many books and fun learning stuff around her place! Oh, she gave me the cutest gift...I'll have to blog about it sometime...

Next I went to visit Cheryl! I don't think I've seen Cheryl since her wedding. I went to her baby shower and she introduced me as her maid of honor from her wedding, I felt pretty cool, I'm not gonna lie! She has a darling little toddler! She is currently potty training him, she's a rockstar mom and seems to know all the potty training tricks! I wish I could have spent some more time with her. She's having a baby girl next month!

Sara picked me up and we went to the Seattle temple, which was beautiful! I feel so blessed to be able to go to so many temples. While in the temple I ran into Bro. & Sis. Parnell from Longmont, CO! Sis. Parnell was my laural leader in high school, what a small world! Sara's husband had a fantastic steak fajita dinner waiting for us, ummm, yummy! Sara has 4 adorable kiddos! It was fun to go to a family ward, strange but fun! Sara also showed me around base, it was sooo cool. I really enjoyed seeing Sara and all the great things she's doing with her kids!

PS, Christmas Break

I forogt to mention that over the break I got to see Christy (Hoffman) Clarke and Stephanie Enrico! I just thought all my Greely Peeps would like to know that they are happy and healthy! Christy now has two kidos, darling! And Steph is teaching for Teach for America in St. Louis!

The Old Seminary Gang

Natalie, Wray, Me, Derek, Bryan, Taylor, Kathy, Katie

Living in Utah is quite awesome! You see, Mormons just gravitate here whether they like it or not:)! It's a bonus for me because I get to see all my old friends now and again! Last night a bunch of us who could make it, went to dinner! It was a blast! Who knew it could be so much fun to talk about the stupid things we did in high school!


Funny thing to share. A few months ago while baring my testimony at church, I saw guy in the audience that looked familiar...I tried not to make eye contact for fear that he would think I was crazy stalker, a common fear of single adults. Turns out he was doing the same thing! It was Bryan Hinton! We went to the first two years of High School together, then he moved to Kansas. I thought, what a small world! He was actually just visiting, but is in a ward that also meets in my building and does activities with my ward often. Then last Sunday I was walking down the hall and saw a familiar face and I said, "is that Derek Sorensen?!!?" And it was! He just joined my ward! Weird! I don't think I've seen Derek since high school!


So, all this running into people and talking to people who currently live here like Cathy Olivas, Wray Dix, and Carolyn Detro inspired a reunion of sorts! Carolyn wasn't able to make it, but we sure did miss here! It was fun to meet Kathy's fiance and Wray's wife! Both perfect matches that I would have never put together! Katie's married too, but didn't bring her honey, next time. I never knew Katie very well because she moved about the same time I moved in, but she came to girls camp and visited now and again, she's a riot!

Christmas Newsletter.

Dear Friends & Family,

It's Christmas! WOW! My mom was right, time does speed up when you get older! I decided to write this letter despite the fact that anyone who would read this probably already knows everything because they probably read my blog, but non-the-less, I started this tradition last year so here goes :)...

I spent the beginning of last year not eating sugar, but that came to a halt one day in April. It seems that sugar isn't everything and didn't affect my diet too much. I also spent A LOT of time at home and at school working on my capstone project for my masters. I'm glad to announce that I finished that project with flying colors and I am now a proud graduate of SUU, weird!


In May I ventured off, as I sometimes do, to a new land, NEW YORK CITY! Boy was that an adventure! It was so much fun to be with good friends and see some pretty amazing sites! I absolutely loved going to Ellis Island, I could have spent a few days there! I was also pretty impressed by the Empire State Building. WICKED, the musical, was fantastic too!

Then in July after my friend Molly and I finished up with our masters classes, we went on a 2 week road trip from Utah to Wisconsin! It was BLAST! We stopped to see friends and family along the way! After I got home, I turned around and got on another plane, this time headed to Disneyland...I know what you're thinking, this girls needs to stop playing and start working! Don't worry, I do feel guilty, but I also have ants in my pants and can't stop, I figure I should follow the advice of nearly every married friend that I have, which is, "live it up now before you have kids!"

In August, I unpacked all my teaching stuff at Taylorsville Elementary, where I now reside as a third grade teacher in Room 16. I am really liking it! Change is always hard but I think the pro's outway the con's with this one. I love having my very own classroom, none of that rotating business of a year around school. Learning the third grade cirriculumn has kept me busy and on my toes. Third grade feels like my nitch, I hope not to change grades anytime soon. I work with a great staff and wonderful students, the parents are the only disappointing factor...

For my fall break, I went with my mom and sister down to Sacramento and San Francisco. We had a great time! Laughing, gettting lost, yelling at the GPS, and meeting up with friends and family was awesome! We're thinking that we should go on yearly roadtrips from now on!

A couple of weeks ago I went to Chicago and hung out with Molly! We went to all the fancy stores, had the famous Chicago Pizza, and went to the top of the SEARS tower...I think I've been to most of the tallest buildings in the world now...I'll have to think about that one.

I took a balloon art making class this year, my students are quite fond of this new skill;)! My piano lessons have been kind of touch and go lately...between the masters and transitioning to a new school they got a little neglected. I learned a little more about myself this year, that's been good and bad, but mostly good, lol. I've learned that I love the temple and I love the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm excited to celebrate Christ's birth. I love this time year, where I can reflect on the Saviors life and make an extra effort to become more like him. I wish you all the Most Merry Christmas of them all! Thanks for being great influences in my life!

Love,

Tiffany

Jodi's Baby Shower

Jodi opening the gift Leslee gave her. Leslee made that blanket, she's a rockstar like that!

Leslee holding baby Isaiah!

Jodi is a family friend from way back! Leslee and Jodi have stayed in touch and have been friends since they were just little tikes! It's weird that Jodi has a baby now! I have one friend with 4 kids and now Leslee's friends are having kids...we are all growing up too fast, let's put an end to the madness!

Ladies Night...Relief Society Conference Tickets...

So I had 5 tickets to RS conference last night!
We were so excited to go!
Mom, Sister, Niki, Tasha, me!
We drove there early.
Not early enough.
Couldn't park anywere!
Drove to a chapel nearby.
Loved the talks!
I have a desire to fill my life with more service and to learn more and more!
We went to Chuck-A-Rama!
Ate Yummy Food!
Had lots of fun!
The End!

Miss Finley & Miss Radman GO CAMPING!

My students are going to have a hay day when they see all of these camping pictures! As most of you know, I have a camping theme and even have a tent for reading and stuff in my classroom...so naturally the kids know that I love camping and the outdoors!

This was a first for me, going camping with another teacher that is... I went with Tasha's branch, yep you read that right, BRANCH! There are branches all over Utah apparently...she lives in Sugar House and goes to a branch, weird. We went camping up by Kamus. It was beautiful up there! With all the leaves changes...I wish I had some pics of that, gotta love the foliage!

PS Ask me about our crazy directions some time! It took us like 5 hours to get there, just kidding I'm exaggerating, but it really was quite the adventure, let's just say a man wrote the directions, hehe!

The Method to my Madness...Explaination of the Blog Roll

Jerome has a question, "What honor do I get for being your Mustang Friend?"

My Response: "You are a Mustang because you are wild and crazy...just kidding! My friends are grouped according to what Era of life I met them in. For as long as I can remember I have always been in school. Each school has a mascot and because of my school spirit, I decided to group my friends according to the mascot associated with that era of my life! Thus my Dragon friends have been my friends the longest! Any new friends coming up will be Tigers!"

Nothing Like a Good Friday Night!

This is my mom when I told her that the fortune cookie she was eating had 300 Calories in it! She said "that is defiantly not worth 300 calories!" PS I have no clue how many calories are in fortune cookies, I just wanted to see what she did and I got the reaction I was looking for!

Friday night, Leslee, my mom and I all went to dinner. Then afterwards, Leslee, her friend Sarah, and I all went to a singles activity in Draper at Boondocks.

This IS the RIGHT PLACE!

This past Thursday I was finally able to go somewhere, I've always wanted to go...THIS IS THE PLACE monument!

"This Is The Place Monument marks the spot where the Mormon Pioneers first entered the Salt Lake Valley and marks the end of the 1,300-mile Mormon trail.It was here that Brigham Young stopped his carriage in July 1847 and, after surveying the desert valley near the shores of the Great Salt Lake, declared, "This is the right place." On July 24, 1947, exactly 100 years after his declaration, a heroic-sized bronze sculpture of Young and two of his colleagues was placed atop a 60-foot pedestal overlooking the Valley." Source: http://www.thisistheplace.org/

It was kind of late, so we didn't go on a tour or anything...so if anyone wants to, let me know (or wants to find me a hottt date to go with, hehe). It was amazingly beautiful up there, you could see the whole valley, and it just brought this subtle peace to my soul. Alanna and I talked about the importance of having an eternal perspective and making the best of what is here and now.

FO CO Reunion!

Camille--Kimmy--Elissa--Me

Fair on 9th & 9th!

I met up with Kimmy and Camille this weekend, my roommates from when I lived in FOCO, aka Fort Collins, Colorado! I love that city. Someday I would like to live there again! Elissa also hung out, she was practically our roommate too, plus she let me live with her my last two weeks in Colorado!

FO CO Roommates