band days

Yep, I was in a band. We had sweatshirts made so it must have been legit. Our best concert was on a bed in Kim's room, though some might just call it a rehearsal. Our name, "Bag of Brownies." We wanted to go along with the food theme like the bands Meatloaf, Bread, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and The Cranberries. As you guessed there is quite a story behind how our band evolved; involving late night study session and brownie dough. Kim and I played the guitar and Kim and Amber sang. Sometimes I chimed in, but I didn't want my beautiful voice overpowering their voices, so I usually didn't use the vocal chords. My guitar talent is where it was at. One beginning Guitar class at Dixie State College and I am a pro. Our band wrote one whole song that some might put in the category of R & B or Heavy Metal. Long live "Bag of Brownies"!!

Thanks Kim, for the reminder of the good ol' days!

Did I mention

my friend named one of her headbands after me? I am so flattered! It is a featured item on Etsy.com. If you want your head to look like mine, you better get one!click on the picture to get to the site

Hockey for Halloween

Darren surprised me with what became the funnest Halloween ever! He got tickets to the Penguins game. Hockey is by far the most fun sports event to attend live. He some how got great seats and we were right in the action. It scared me everytime they slammed up against the wall, but it was also my favorite part. Thanks hon, I had a BLAST!

Best Halloween costumes go to Dax and Jacy (pilot and flight attendant) and my Dad (old, creepy guy)

today, i feel like this

true colors

When I was making my post yesterday, I was so disappointed with the lack of picture of Pittsburgh in the fall on google.com (we all know that I am a photo thief) that I decided to document my beautiful drive home from work. The picture in the middle is my favorite little tree at the entry to our townhouses and the one to the right of it is what I see when I walk out my front door. Love fall colors!
What would we do without camera phones?

Fall Festivities

Two must do activities in the fall are
#1 Attending a football game.
Even though we were at a Pitt game, I could feel the Steeler's Pride lingering because we were at Heinz Field. It was a perfect football day, a little cloudy and chilly enough for a sweatshirt. Go Pitt!

#2 Carving pumpkins.
I don't remember the last time I convinced Darren to do this with me, but I am glad he was a good sport because I had so much fun. Anya and Blake know how to throw a party, always complete with food and decorations and tons of sugar. Thanks guys!
The little tyke in the picture with me is Marina (Mike and Mad's adorable baby) I have known Mad since we were this age which makes it even more fun to see her being a perfect little mommy.

These are the 3 adorable girls that were born within a couple weeks of each other and it's so fun to compare and watch them grow. I have a love hate relationship with the fall. I LOVE the beauiful colors, I don't love knowing winter is around the corner and the air is cooler. But of course, nothing could be better than the fall in Pittsburgh! My favorite are the red trees.

Chocolate Lover's Paradise

Hershey is the perfect girly get-a-way; rejuvenating, beautiful, fun and most importantly, delicious!

We started at Chocolate World where we ate ourselves sick and purchased more chocolate than I could have imagined possible. The girls: top right picture

McCall, Jill, April, Kelly, Me, Helena

The weather was cold and wet and when we made it to Hershey Park, the majority of the rides were closed, still they were charging full price to get in. We found a loophole, the "shopping pass." They let you into the park for 45 minutes after you give them your credit card number and if you don't come back out within that time, they charge you full price. So, we ran in, ran to the open rides, of course no lines and ran out. FREE!!! We got pretty wet while we were there, but it was worth it!!

After warming up in the hotel's hot tub and eating a yummy dinner, we did all the girly things you can think of, including chocolate face masks. Some of the folk weren't so sure about them.

The next day, we headed to the amazing Hotel Hershey for a day at the spa. I treated myself to the chocolate pedicure and it was heaven. In the spa, we all wore robes and drank hot chocolate and sat in relaxing rooms and I loved every minute of it. To quote April, "Oh, ya"

After the spa, we found a cafe with chocolate taste testing. It was fun to try these chocolates from around the world. It was surprising that they all weren't absolutely to die for.

This trip, we could all agree was not long enough. I want to live in Hershey. I am sure they need dentists because of all the distributed sugar. Just an idea.

Side note: we saw this house in Hershey and someone said it looked like a chocolate/vanilla swirl house. How appropriate for the land of chocolate.

there has never been

a movie that has made me feel the way this movie did; inspired and full of love. it has definately made it to my top ten list, "El Tigre y la Nieve". if you loved "Life is Beautiful" you will love this one too!

some of my favorite kiddos

I love that there are so many kids around me! I love hanging out with them and acting like a kid with them. It's always fun to get them rallied up and not have to be the one to put them to bed.
We decorated cookies and played during Priesthood session a couple weeks ago. Love these kids!
Amber, me (with orange frosting on my nose), Xoie (love her, but she doesn't feel the same about me), Payton, Jane, Matt I don't know how I forgot to put these pictures on Darren's birthday post, but now I am making up for it. These were taken at the Dorny's house. Jane and I did makeovers, I wish you could see my green eye shadow.Notice the votive candle on the cake. I forgot birthday candles. Oops

If you felt bad...

...for Darren and his waffle maker gift, don't!

He used his birthday money to get himself a gift

Birthday Fun

The festivities started with Cirque du Soleil. At the last minute, my work gave me tickets and we were spoiled in a suite. It was a great show and thanks to the Wegeners for joining us. The next morning we got a call from the Dornys inviting us over for dinner for Darren's birthday. They are so great at these birthday dinners. They include us in all of theirs and I should have thought to have them over before they had to call us. I am a horrible person. Anyway, of course we took them up on it, Megan is an amazing cook. When we showed up, CJ and the kids had decorated Darren's seat, including this lovely collage.As we were eating Darren's favorite cookies 'n' cream ice cream cake, we decided to share our favorite things about Darren. He hates to be the center of attention, but we did it anyway. We started with cute Matt. "Matt, what is your favorite thing about Darren?" He said, "nosing." We all know he loves Darren, but was too busy eating his ice cream cake. CJ said, "he never says anything bad about anyone." Megan said he pays attention to the details and makes others feel good by remember the little things. I mentioned his optimism. I love all these things about him and so much more! It was a great night, thank you Dorny family for being so great to us!!
The next day was his actual birthday and we found a new Mexican restaurant to eat at, yum! I gave him his gifts to end the night. He was hoping for this when I handed him a big wrapped boxcan you blame the guy for being disappointed when he unwrapped this?maybe next year.
Though Darren doesn't like his birthday, I sure do. We did both have a blast of a weekend. I love my sweetie!!

my youthenizers

as a young women's president, i would like to brag about how great of job i am doing, unfortunately that's not the case. i can only get one girl to church and she is moving this week. i will be down to zero. but for journaling purposes, i wanted to document how cute the little youth group is in our ward. for mutual the other night, we carved pumpkins and it was a struggle to get everyone to hold still for a picture. so we have one fuzzy and one clear picture. the clear picture is the actual youth in our ward plus joseph (ym leader) and almost minus colleen, boo. the fuzzy one, if you can see in the back right side is dana, she used to be in our ward and broke my heart when she moved away from pittsburgh. why do the keep moving away from me?? i LOVE being in young womens, but it is sure different out here than where i grew up!

Happy Birthday!

My little D is getting so big. Love you

newest favorites

* Modern Family (tv show)
* Away We Go (movie)
* Alexi Murdoch
* dancing in stilettos (dance class)
* fresh peaches
* radom blog posts

* quote (I stole from my friends blog, thanks Rowleys)

“From woman, man is born; within woman, man is conceived; to woman he is engaged and married. Woman becomes his friend; through woman, the future generations come. When his woman dies, he seeks another woman; to woman he is bound. So why call her bad? From her, kings are born. From woman, woman is born; without woman, there would be no one at all.

– Guru Nanak, Raag Aasaa Mehal 1:473

it doesn't get sweeter than this

never thought...

... I would see muggles playing Quidditch, with sticks between their legs as brooms and a homemade goal. These people were dead serious in their game with onlookers gathering. I wish I knew what they were all thinking (players and audience). Strange!

baseball & bunco

just some of the things that keep us entertained

TALENTED Friends- For Sale

I have met so many talented women and I love to get their stuff out there because I think it is a great way to share what they've got, so they can continue doing what they love to do, and making some extra $$ on the side; hence the reason I started getting them to sell on the strip! Please support me by supporting them and at least checking out their stuff. THANKS and ENJOY!!

If you want me to give you a shout out and share what you sell on my blog, please let me know! I love supporting the arts, and especially supporting women!

G-20, you may have heard of it

My name is Tiffany and I LOVE action and excitement and last week brought it all right to my city. It was so exciting to hear the action from the window in my office and I just had to join the craziness. I checked out some protests, and chanted with a few (while embarrassing my co-workers) and had some conversations with the officers surrounding campus. Thursday, the University hosted a lunch for the European Commission President Barroso and then a lecture with the Russian President Medvedev and my office got to put it all together. By the end of the day I was exhausted. I was upset that I wasn't invited to the dinner that night where Obama was. It was at Phipps, my favorite place in Pittsburgh. That should have been enough to get at least an invitation. After all the drama, damage and everything else that happened, it came to an end, goodbye important people from around the world. Pittsburgh ROCKS!

Our set up for Medvedev, don't we do a fabulous job?

The craziest protest included 9 people hanging from a bridge, I guess you gotta do what you gotta do to get your voice heard

while the boys are away... what will the girls do? play of course!

The dental school hosted a Pirates Game night for the students and significant others weren't' invited, so...

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A GREAT Girls Night IN

(for the record, none of the pictures posted are from the actual night, they are stolen from google images and blogs)