Roommates!

So, I'm pretty sure I have put this picture on here before, but now I have an update! These are the ladies of Robison Hall in all of our Freshman glory, right after surviving our first semester at BYU. And this...

...is is all of us, reunited after about 5 years. Proof that you can and will survive college!
Four of us have graduated, three of us are married, two have served missions, and all six of us are living our dreams.

DISNEYLAND

Last week we went to the most wonderful place on earth! The Payne Family went on a trip to California to celebrate Graduation... Graduation from College, from a Mission, from High School, from having kids at home.... My favorite part was the firework show when Tinkerbell flies over the Castle. It was fun to be together as a family.
Thanks, Mom and Dad!

Gross

I met my first cockroach today. It was nasty. Apparently they are everywhere here in the summer time.

Grrreeeeaaaat.

Enjoy

Heather's Graduation

All three of us have successfully navigated our way through Alta High School (4 if you count Zak, but he couldn't be there).
Congrats Heather! I'm so proud.

In Other News

This movie is funny. It will never stop being funny.
"Be excellent to each other. Party on Dudes!"

Homesick

Stuff I miss about Utah:

• Rain
• Mountains
• Cozy
  
• The Y on the Mountain
• Billboards advertising "Modest Formal Wear"
• Billboards advertising " Modest Lingerie"
• Family
• Friends
• Ikea
• Fabric Stores- I know there are some here, but I have yet to find a close one.
  
• My long hair (I know that this doesn't really have anything to do with UT, but when we made the decision to move I was in no emotional state to get a hair cut but I did anyway and I am now stuck with this weird shaggy mop on top of my head. I blame Vegas.)

Stuff that I like in Las Vegas:

• 90 degrees and sunny.
• Swimming in the pool.
• Palm trees
• Our new apartment
  
• H&M
  
• Family
• New Friends
• The fact that things really aren't that different.
  

Dave's Wedding

My good friend Dave got married a couple of weeks ago. I was honored to be one of his Groomsmen, along with my brother Mason and our friends Adam and Peter. In High school, I had always been friends with the guys, and as a result, I have never been a bridesmaid. Dave and Sinda were so thoughtful to think of inviting me to be part of their wedding party!

"Groomsman" and her hubby.

Dave and his groomsmen at the Temple.

Congrats guys! What a cute couple!

Drivers Wanted

We are getting settled in to life here, and things have been going pretty well.

In our quest to become citizens of Nevada, we headed down to the DMV to get our licenses. According to Nevada State Law anyone under the age of 25 has to take the written exam. So, after waiting in line for 45 minutes I dutifully stepped up to the testing booth, swiftly failed and was invited to retake the test tomorrow after studying up on the Drivers' Ed Manual. Apparently it is important to know how many days you can spend in Juvi for underage drinking.

Awesome.

Zak made it up to the eye exam before failing miserably. The lady behind the counter silently shook her head in disbelief as he tried to dictate the top row of numbers. Now we have to find his glasses that are still packed in one of the many boxes around our apartment.

Look out for us people!! We are a couple of crazy drivers. Even the crazy haired tattoo guy down the street can get a driver's license, but not us...

We laughed for like 20 minutes and then went home to drown our sorrows in chocolate milk.

Now Broadcasting from a New Location

We're here and getting settled! A thousand thanks to all of you who helped to get us here. We could not have done it without you. Mostly thanks for still being my friends after seeing all of the stuff that I have accumulated and for cleaning my dirty apartment. Thanks for helping us move into our new home and for offering tips for finding a job. I know that we will be in good hands with our Las Vegas family members.

I feel a little bit like I went on vacation with my family and they forgot to take me home with them. But I know that we are supposed to be here right now and that we will be just fine once we get everything worked out. I told Zak that he had better get straight A's in school for making me leave my family and friends, so he will be busy studying for the next three years.

We're IN!

Orientation is in 12 days, and we move in a week. We don't mind the short notice, we are just excited to be going to Physical Therapy School!

He's Home!

Welcome Home Mason!
Here is the cool jacket I made for him.

Elder Mason!

My darling baby brother comes home from his mission in ONE WEEK! I am so excited to see him and to fill each other in on the past 2 years. He has been such a great missionary! I can tell from his emails that he has been working so hard.

A couple of people have asked me if we are going to pick him up. No. We are not. He has been serving in Montreal and this is what it looks like up there right now:

No thanks. I will be just fine with him coming home to us.

For anyone that is interested he will be speaking in church on Sunday, Feb 22 at 11:00 in Draper. Pass it on. Call me if you need directions.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! Here is a little bit about our Holiday:

We spent Christmas Eve with Zak's Fam. Here are some littles:

Later that night we lit 2 candles for our 2nd Christmas together. And Zak made our awesome PJs.
On Christmas Day we got to talk to Mason who comes home from Montreal in February. Yippie!
We battled the snow to visit the Klemms later that night.
For Christmas Zak got a snazzy new suit. I'm not sure about the Blue shirt with the brown suit, but hey- Bonus! I made the blue shirt in my class this past semester! I'm so proud!

Tag

I got tagged by Amanda and here are the rules:

1) Post the fourth picture in the fourth folder of the pictures on your computer.
2) Tell everyone what is happening in the picture, stories, etc.

Here is my picture. It is from my Floral Design class, when I was studying for a test. I had to memorize a bunch of different flowers. These happen to be my new favorites. I wish I had known about them for my wedding!

I tag anyone that needs a fun post.

18 Months!!

We have been married for 18 fabulous months!! It seems like we have always been together. Love you Sparky.

Tag

Five things I was doing 10 years ago...
1. Attending "Crescent View Middle Prison" as I called it.
2. Learning to play the Cello.
3. I cut my hair short, and permed it. It was an accident. I looked like Orphan Annie.
4. Dancing at Artistic Dance
5. Being best friends with Chelsea, Brittany and Erica.

Five things on my to-do list today...
1. Homework
2. Procrastination of Homework (check)
3. Open Sewing lab to get caught up on my projects
4. Find a sub for work so I can go to Las Vegas for my cousin's wedding
5. Plan my classes for my last (and I meant it this time!) semester at BYU

Five snacks I enjoy...
1. Peanut M&Ms
2. Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies
3. Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies
4. Canned Corn (Little known Fact)
5. Chocolate Covered Pretzels

Five jobs I've had...
1. Nanny
2. Payless Shoe Source Sales Associcate
3. Comfort Inn and Suites Front Desk
4. EFY Counselor
5. Student Athlete Academic Center Secretary/Mentor

Five places I've lived...
1. Sandy, UT
2. Draper, UT
3. 128 Robison Hall, BYU Campus
4. "The Rustic and Sophisticated Lodges and Glenwood," Provo, UT (This place counts as its own country)
5. Little Mexico, Provo, UT (Yeah, I don't get out much, apparently. Utah is my home)

Five things I'd do if I won a million dollars...
1. Buy a house
2. Go Shopping
3. Go to China
4. Go to Europe
5. Finish School

Five things that made me laugh recently...
1. The fact that I was listening to Christmas music yesterday.
2. Working in the SAAC late at night with Taylor
3. Penelope on SNL ("Well, I'm best friends with all the Muppets.... soo... I was invited to all their weddings... sooo... I have a time share on Jupiter... soooo... I probably know the area better.... sooo... I dated Tony the Tiger.... soo.. I broke up with him.... sooo...." " I have 99 speeding tickets.... soooo... I was driving faster..... soooo.... I broke the sound barrior... sooo... I went to the future.... sooo....")
4. Leisy keeping her pregnancy a secret until week 24!
5. Zak making fun of me for listening to Christmas music and wanting to set up my Nativity yesterday.

My Yearbook

1984

1958ish

1980ish

1996

1960
"Have a great summer! Don't ever change!
Smooches! Tiffanie"

he loves me

Everyone has bad days. Mine was yesterday.

Zak, being the sweet guy that he is, grabbed our hand vacuum that we use for our cars, and chased me around our apartment to"vacuum out my heart," to get rid of the bad day-bad feelings.

It worked.
Thanks Zak.

Flake (Warning: this is Ranting Tiffanie and should only be taken partially seriously)

This is where my graduation picture should be...

So. It is not news that I have trouble making decisions. We'll no- actually I make decisions and then I change my mind- that's the real trouble. Here is the latest:

Originally I was going to finish my classes in June and graduate in August. Then I think to myself "Whats the rush, lets take summer classes too." So fine. I was all set to graduate from college in August which is only a little bit behind the expected April 2008 graduation day that I had always planned for. I was applying for "Big Kid full-time jobs, I had told my awesome Student Athlete job that I was going to be done in August, I was getting everything ready to don the cap and gown when I get a great idea called "Lets stay in school LONGER!" As I was looking at jobs, and figuring out what the rest of my life would look like, I realized that If I stayed at BYU for another year, I would be able to go through the state to become qualified to teach Family and Consumer Sciences in high school. Ironically, this is something that in high school I promised that I would never, ever do, but now I am really excited about it.

Ok, decision made. I changed my graduation day 3 weeks before the big day. (This sounds strangely familiar to that one time when I was going to go to BYU-Idaho up until 3 weeks before I was supposed to leave for school, and then I changed my mind and came to BYU instead. Do we see a pattern here?) I started getting classes and realized that each one has its own 3 hour lab. As a result my schedule is pretty full and very sporadic. Because I was going to graduate and had told my job that I was leaving they had already replaced me, and my last day was quickly approaching.

So here I sit, on my last day of the job that I have had for 3 years, with more school and job searching ahead of me. I feel like a freshman that is just starting out.

This whole decision is kind of a slap in the face to my pride. For the past 3 years of college I have tried to explain to people that I did RESEARCH on families and relationships. I was NOT in the major that focuses on "Mom stuff" like cooking and sewing. Here I am and the extra classes that I am breaking my back to take are cooking and sewing. Just think for a sec about how if I had just swallowed my pride in the first place I would have been able to skip writing all of those research papers about Infantile Amnesia, How Eating Disorders affect families, and Teen Pregnancy, and I would already be happily teaching grumpy teenagers. (I really do like teenagers, they are my favorite age group, but they really are grumpy).

Sigh. I know things will be fine. I feel better now.