Birthday Bash

Well, yesterday was my sweet sisters birthday. What a day it was! For the first time ever we threw her a surprise party. We rented out a couple of lanes at the local bowling alley and got pizza and pop, had cake and ice cream and just bowled for about two hours. It was so much fun! Tara was totally suprised! My brother and I met everyone at the bowling alley early and my parents blindfolded Tara and drove her around for a while then they walked her in and we stood there all quiet. Poor Tara hates blindfolds though and was pretty terrified not being able to see. Finally my mom stopped her, pulled off the blindfold and we all screamed surprise. She was so cute about it and just kind of said...Hi guys! It was funny! There were about 20 people who showed up. She got tons of great presents, she beat just about everyone in bowling with her score of 119, and she had a great time chatting with all her friends! All in all I think she had a great birthday. I heard her telling someone that it was the best birthday ever! It made me so happy to see the big smile on her face all night long.

Funny Travel Mishap

Ok, I just think this is so funny!! I had to share it with all of you! Remind me to be careful what I pack when I fly to Australia!!





hehe

Girls Night Out

What's more fun that a night out on the town with a bunch of your girl friends? I submit that there is nothing more enjoyable. What a good time we had, and I have photos to prove it!

We originally headed off to the Cheesecake Factory to enjoy some of that delectable goodness, but once we arrived we were informed that it was a 4-5 hour wait!! Yikes!! We ended up walking over to Macaroni Grill, the wait there was only about an hour and a half...much better!! While we waited we walked over to the bookstore for some frozen hot chocolate. Lisa and I approached the cute little worker girl behind the counter and asked if they had frozen hot chocolate...she had never before heard of such an item but as we described it to her she agreed to take on the challenge and create it for us...therefore, our treat became known as "The Experiment". I have to say that she did a great job at one point she offered us a taste test to see if it needed anything else...we told her to add a bit more chocolate, she did and it was perfect! She then gave our Experiment the full treatment topping it with whipped cream, white chocolate shavings, and a stick of dark chocolate! It looked so good I took a picture!

Finally after devouring our Experiment it was time to head back over to the restaurant for dinner. We still had to wait a little while for our table and were given Butterfinger shots and cheese bread while we waited. Yum! While several of us were contemplating stealing the ever so cute shot glasses the lights in the room started to flicker and we noticed some commotion going on in the center of the dining area. We soon discovered that it was the restaurant's 20th anniversary and they were celebrating by giving out free meals to different tables throughout the night. How fun is that!?! Speaking of fun, we were soon called out from the crowd and headed to our table where we found the tablecloth made of paper and crayons on the table!! YAY!! We get to eat and color at the same time, I like this place! As I was creating my masterpiece on the table the chef (cutie patootie Brandon) came over to the table and asked if there was a Tiffany at the table. I hesitantly raised my hand wondering how in the world he knew my name, he then showed me a drivers license for a 40-something year old named Tiffany and asked if it was mine...Um...nope... last I checked I wasn't 40 and blonde! Although this little encounter did lead to a nice bonding moment with the chef who told us he would try really hard to help us win the free meals. Throughout the night, we continued to eat, laugh, and enjoy ourselves. When the time came for the free meals to be given away he unfortunately didn't call our table number, but he did give us a little shout out..it was awesome! A few minutes later he came by and said he really had been pulling for us to win, but since we didn't he would give us the 2nd place prize and brought out free desserts!! Wahoo!!

Once again what is better than a night out on the town with a bunch of your girl friends, a cute chef, AND free cheesecake?? Nothing, I say, Nothing!

Root Canal's, Readings, and other Randomness

Well, I had to get my a root canal today. I've never had a root canal before, but I have heard horror stories about them. I was not looking forward to my appointment at all! I had imagined this entire appointment of pain and agony...to the point that I was pretty nervous to go. Well, I am happy to report that all my stupid worrying was for nothing. The procedure went perfectly fine, no pain at all. I'm just barely starting to come out of the numb stage and it's getting a bit achy, but nothing a few Tylenol can't handle. I'm just so excited that it is fixed and I can start to live without the pain my tooth has been causing me.

So, I've been reading these Twilight books and I just have to say that I am addicted. I'm just now starting on the third book. I find it funny that I am actually liking them. I never would have thought that I'd like a book about a girl who falls in love with a vampire. I've heard people talk about them for a long time and just rave about how good they are, but I just could never bring myself to read them...they just sounded so lame. Now, here I am raving about them on my blog! LOL I guess it's true that it never hurts to try a new thing...you never know what may come of it!

General Conference is this weekend and I'm so excited about it. It's going to be a bit strange at first without President Hinckley there, but I am so excited to be able to raise my hand and sustain President Monson as the living prophet on earth today. I'm also very excited to hear who the new apostle is going to be....not to mention to hear all of the talks and messages. I just love conference weekend!!

Ok, last but not least I have to talk about American Idol. I am so into it this year! I love Brooke and David Archuleta! Brooke is just SO cute and man David can sing! I also am really liking David Cook, he just keeps getting better week after week. I only wish that he weren't so cocky about it. I do have to say though that I really really don't like Kristy, she definitely needs to go home!

Happy Easter!!

Ok, I know it's been forever since I last posted on here. I'm sorry! Life has been sort of busy lately. I do have some good news though! I can drive again!! Yippee!! The main thing that has been holding me back from driving was my eyesight. When I had an episode and fell down some stair in October of 2006 I got a pretty bad concussion. I have been suffering from what is called Post Concussive Syndrome ever since, basically that means I've had a concussion for the past year and a half. My eyes were effected way bad, for a long time I've been seeing double sometimes triple of everything. Well, that is all better now! Yay! Since I can see again that also means I get to drive again. It has been so nice to be able to have this freedom back. I've missed it SO much! It's crazy how restricted you are when you can't drive. My mom bought me a little car..it's kind of a beater, but it gets me where I need to go, so I love it...It is a 1992 Honda Accord, it's actually in pretty good condition for how old it is. It only has 115,000 miles on it...which is AWESOME for a Honda!

So, now that I have a car it is much easier for me to get out to all the activities and good times with my friends. I've been gone a lot, running around doing this and that. It seems like my life became busy overnight! I'm looking at getting back into school. I'd like to work too, but I don't want to add too much to my plate too soon...the last thing I want is a relapse with my health. I'm keeping busy with my ward. In fact today I taught Relief Society and sang in Sacrament Meeting! We have a fun activity this Thursday I'm excited for. We rented out a theater and are going to see Horton Hears A Who...It should be way fun!

Well, today is a wonderful Easter day! I love it when Easter Sunday is such a nice day weather wise, it just makes me happy! We had a great Sacrament meeting today. Elder John Lasater spoke, he gave a great talk. One thing he said I absolutely loved, he said, "He loved you enough to die for you, do you love Him enough to live for Him?" What a profound thought and question for each of us to remember every day!! I love this gospel! I love Easter, and all that took place that first Easter morning. I know that Christ lives and he loves me. What a joyous thing to get to celebrate!

Friends

I wanted to take a second today to talk about how grateful I am for good friends. Friends can make such a difference in our lives. Most of the time our friends don't even realize the difference that they are making just by being a part of our life. They can help help you see what really matters in life. They teach you a lot about yourself because they can see things in us that we don't see in ourselves. As mortals we have a tendency to point out all the good in others but all the bad in ourselves...this is where friends come in and remind us of they see in us. Our job is to listen and truly take to heart the things they say.

I heard a talk today that pointed out how we can demonstrate our love for others without saying a word, but instead can be conveyed through a thoughtful smile, a heartfelt look, a listening ear, and a warm touch. Our eyes can say I care, I understand, I'm with you. Our ears communicate caring by listening in a truly open, non-judgmental way. By simply listening we invite friends to share without the fear of rejection. A touch speaks a lot louder than words. A friendly hug or pat on the back can have so much more meaning to someone than a bit of friendly advice. Even a simple smile can carry with it a heart full of love. I have found this to be true in my life and association with my friends. I only hope to be the kind of friend to others as my friends have been to me.

One of my favorite quotes about friendship comes from Elder Neal A. Maxwell when he said, "One of the reasons we love each other in the Kingdom is that our friendships are not friendships of initiation at all, but are, instead, friendships of resumption." (Neal A. Maxwell Quote Book pg. 132) I love this quote!! The reminder that we were friends before we met here on earth makes our friendship now even stronger.

Chances are if you are reading this you are a friend who has made an impact on my life. Thank you! I love you!!

Kindergarten Memories

For my writing class we are working on creating texts from our memories. Man, they are making me think. My assignment right now is to write a narrative about my favorite kindergarten memory! Ok, kindergarten was 20 years ago! I barely remember yesterday, let alone kindergarten!

I have been wracking my brain for days now trying to remember all I can about those days, and have found it interesting the few things that I can remember. For example, I remember "fruit art" day. My teacher had easels set up all over the room and we each got to put on a painters apron. We then took various kinds of fruit and cut them in half. I particularly recall using apples, oranges, and lemons. Once we each had our bundle of fruit halves we would dip the fruit into a bowl of paint and then stamp it onto our paper. The result was all kinds of bright colored fruit texture lines all over our paper. Funny huh! I also remember the alphabet characters. The classroom was decorated with letters of the alphabet that all had faces and arms and something that started with each particular letter. Each day or week or whatever when we would work on each letter my teacher would bring that particular alphabet character down and put it in the center of the chalkboard. Then one day toward the end of the year when we had finished we had an alphabet day where we each got to dress up as our favorite alphabet character. I don't recall which one I chose, but I do remember it was fun! Finally the last thing I remember about kindergarten was nursery rhyme day. This memory is pretty fuzzy, but I do remember that we all got to dress up and act out various nursery rhymes. I remember I got to be Little Miss Muffet!

So, these are my Kindergarten memories. I'm not sure yet which I am going to use for my assignment, but it has been fun reminiscing and recalling the innocence of childhood.