Mom's Utah visit

Previously, in the blog about my new bed, I mentioned that my Mom came to visit me for a week. It's true- She really did, and I am ashamed that I haven't blogged about it. For most people it's not a huge deal when family comes to town, but for me-it is!

After recently dealing with the disappointing news that my little brother, Jonathan and his wife, Cassie would be leaving Kansas and moving to Philadelphia, PA. I knew my Mom was having a hard time having all of her kids move away from the Kansas City area. (James & Krista left KS for Sacramento, CA in 2001, I left KS for Salt Lake City, UT in 2008, Kevin & Amy left KS for Las Vegas, NV this past January and now with Jonathan and Cassie leaving for Philly, it only leaves Martin & Breckann in KC with my parents). My Mom has been super sad to say the least.

For Mother's Day I decided to buy her a plane ticket to come spend a week with me. It was a fantastic idea! We had so much fun together. She was able to see some long time family friends from Kansas who moved out here to the Salt Lake valley last year. She also got to spend time with her sister who lives in Provo.

We saw a handful of shows as I treated Mom to tickets for Cirque du Soleil (I don't recommend it-overrated and too expensive), as well the 1964 Beatles Tribute band and the BYU Young Ambassadors, which was our favorite of the 3 shows.



Amy and Kevin came up from Las Vegas while Mom was here too. Amy is from the Salt Lake City area, so it was perfect timing for her to have her baby shower while Mom was in town. We all had lots of fun together! It was nice for my Mom to have a sneak peak into my grown up life as well, as I took her to a work conference with me, gave her a tour of the Shelter, showed her my office and juggled my normal work responsibilities while she was here. It was also fun for her to better understand my social life by seeing me run like crazy doing a million things everyday. (I think she was sincerely relieved to see that I don't spend my time locked in my room, knitting or petting kittens waiting for my prince to come). I loved the chance she had to attend a singles ward for the first time in her life. She had a hard time understanding that literally the 200+ people in the chapel were ALL single-no exceptions (I think she's used to the Lawrence University ward out in Kansas where there is a mix of marrieds & singles). She made me laugh. My favorite conversation of the week after attending church:
Mom: "Tiff, who was that guy on the end of the second row during Sunday School?"
Tiff: "Uhhh? I don't know? Was it Scott? Maybe? I don't remember. Why?"
Mom: "He was staring at you during the whole class."
Tiff: " Ummmm, Mom, everyone was staring at me. I was the one teaching."

I love my Mom. She's the best! I'm so glad she came to visit.

Wedding surprises

I was born in Eugene, Oregon. My family lived there for about a year after I was born and then we moved to California. I don't remember Oregon at all. I have always wanted to go back to Oregon, but just never seemed to get out that way for any reason.

Some of you may remember this story, when I met this cute girl, Debbie, and all of our adventures as we traveled America together.

Needless to say, I love Debbie! She is the British little sister I never had and after the enormous amounts of chaos dumped on her leading up to May 8th, I wouldn't have missed her wedding day for the world.


This isn't your typical "wedding" blog post, so I hope you will stay with me for the next 5 minutes it will take you to read this:

Quick "how they met" story:

Derek served the end of his mission in Congleton branch/ward in the England, Manchester mission (Deb's home ward). How convenient that right when Derek was finishing his mission, Debbie was also heading to BYU. He assured her parents he'd "look out for her" once they both were there. Did he ever! They started dating right away in the Fall 2008 and after a long and occasionally bumpy road-they were married May 8, 2010.

This is the part where it gets really good:
Debbie is from England. Derek is from Medford, Oregon. Derek was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints when he was a teenager. He is the only member of his family, so he's never really had a preference in which temple he wanted to get married, just as long as it was a temple. Debbie always dreamed of her wedding day: being married in the Preston England temple immediately following her fantastic civil ceremony/reception/party, fully equipped with all of her closest friends & family, who of course would be all decked out as members of her wedding party on her big day. (That's the way they do it in England). So, now for the catch...well just the FIRST of quite a few "catches," actually.


#1 Debbie being British + Derek being American = No wedding in England. Unless Derek wanted to leave Debbie in England for the 3 months after the wedding and come back to the USA to do the paperwork to bring her over, they HAD to be married in the USA. Oh the tears! Well, Debbie graciously sucked it up, and she and Derek decided they didn't want to spend their first 3 months of marriage on separate continents. They decided to be married in the Medford, Oregon temple. After all, the most important part was being IN a temple. It didn't really matter which one. No, there would be no civil ceremony in England, but by golly they would fly out right when school ended and they would have one heck of a party with all of the other wedding festivities in England on May 1st. Debbie's Mum and Dad bought the plane tickets to be able to attend the sealing in Oregon on May 8th, and the rest of her family decided the "pre-reception" bash in England would have to suffice.

Catch #2

Finals ended, and many of you probably knew about the Iceland volcano situation that caused problems with a lot of European travel in May. Debbie was nervous she wouldn't get home. In order to keep herself busy in those days before their flight to England (rather than constantly watching the volcano situation), Deb and Derek decided to get ahead on some immigration things and start some paperwork for medical stuff, etc. Good thing they did. Two days before leaving for England, Debbie received a phone call from a lawyer telling her not to leave the country.

Catch #3 Debbie could leave the USA, but in order to return she would need a VISA. As a BYU student, she had a student VISA, which would easily get her back into the USA. The catch- her wedding date would be within just days of her re-entry date into the USA, and therefore she would technically need a "Fiancee VISA." Why had no one told them this in the ridiculously frequent visits they had made to the immigration offices?!?! It wasn't as if they hadn't done their homework on the matter. The lawyer told Debbie if she went to England, YES she could come back to the USA on her student VISA, however, when the time would come for Debbie and Derek to do the legal paperwork for her residency, etc, the re-entry date and wedding date would flag as being too close together , meaning she had illegally entered the USA on the wrong VISA, since the dates clearly would show she had entered the USA with the intent to marry, not to study. The result would be thousands of dollars in lawyer fees, plus it would be on both of their records. The lawyer suggested they move their wedding date to August and apply for the Fiancee VISA. (Did I mention they were leaving for England in 2 days?)

Catch #4 They weren't going to change their wedding date. Debbie accepted the fact that she would not be going home to England AT ALL, or at least not until the end of the summer. She was still marrying Derek in the Medford temple as planned, and for her THAT was the most important thing. It was an added bonus that her parents already had tickets to be in Oregon, and that wouldn't change either. They would be there...and so would I!


I flew to Medford, Oregon excited to see Deb's parents again and excited to help in anyway they needed me. I anticipated it would be a quaint gathering with just a few of us, so I was ready to really get to work. I WAS SO WRONG!

Debbie's parents flew in, and for the surprise of a lifetime so did her sister (Jenny), her brother-in law (Nigel), Their two daughters (Lily and Abby), Deb's brother (my friend "Jazz"), his wife (Rohaise), Their daughter (sophia) and son (Sebastian), another brother (Ben) and his wife (Becky) as well as Debbie's best friend (and maid of honor-Rachel). Talk about tears! Holy cow. It was AWESOME!


Knowing both Derek and Debbie from England, Derek's mission president & wife flew in from Salt Lake City as another surprise. It was such a great day to be in the temple! Here were all of us outside the temple just after the sealing:


And for Derek's family, the ring ceremony was as beautiful as can be! I have never seen a church gymnasium transform into such a perfect wedding venue. GO TEAM!





Deb's Dad walked her down the aisle, her nieces were the flower girls, Rachel was there as maid of honor and everything was brilliant!


...and now they're living happily (and legally) ever after!

All grown up...

People had been telling me for awhile that it was time. I'm a small person, however, so I never really felt an overwhelming urge to have a big bed. A twin bed has treated me just fine over the years. That's all I've known ever since I graduated from a crib and I've been just fine. I also had the personal debate about not wanting to get a big bed now, because if I'm used to having it all to myself now, then if and when I get married, I will have to adjust to sharing it. But let's be honest, that's a stupid reason...it was time.

I have a rather large room. it's much more space than one person actually needs. Last summer my niece, Holly, came to stay with me for a couple of weeks. She commented to me that my bedroom (with the tiny twin bed in it) had enough space that we could put a tent up. I almost took her up on that idea. That would have been fun.

Speaking of people visiting me, that's one of the reasons I finally gave in and decided it was time. My Mom was coming to stay with me for a week and I wasn't going to put up a tent, I didn't want to make her sleep in my tiny twin and I didn't really want to sleep on the floor or couch myself. So I gave in.

I received a larger than expected tax return this year, so I went for it! I spent one Saturday afternoon mattress shopping and that was enough for me. I hate shopping. I hate spending money. So even after all of my "around town" investigating, I bought my brand new QUEEN SIZE bed from Costco.

It was a very exciting adventure!


Special thanks goes to: my roommate, Shannon, for getting me into Costco with her card, and to my friend, Dallas, for providing the truck and his muscles to move the bed from the store to my bedroom.


I guess this is what being all grown up feels like!

(Yes, I kept my twin bed. Why not?)

Cabo San Lucas Cruise April 2010

Last fall one of my co-workers (Kelly) heard about a steal of a deal for a 5 night cruise to Cabo San Lucas. When she told me about it, I couldn't resist..neither could our other co-worker Amy, and neither could my long-time friend and former co-worker, Laura. We started our 5 month count down and eventually, the day arrived!

I only got sea sick on the first night right after we'd left the port of San Diego and headed out to sea. My body hated me. I couldn’t eat ANYTHING-which was beyond disappointing since the food was one of the things I was looking forward to the most. I laid in bed as much as possible that night. the sad part was I had gone 40 days without sugar. Being too sick to eat that first night just meant I ended up going for 41 days. The next day, however, I happily partook of lots of food, and plenty of sugar! This was my official moment of reunion.


We were at sea that whole day. I laid in the sun, read a book, took naps, ate food, ate ice cream, soaked my feet, did Sudoku puzzles, ate more ice cream and enjoyed the reality of doing absolutely nothing.


That night was formal dinner night. So this was our little group-all dressed up!


The next morning we officially arrived in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Yipppeee!!


Kelly and Amy headed off on their own excursion for the day, while Laura and I hopped in a van that took us a few miles outside of town for our BEAUTIFUL 3 Bay kayaking and snorkeling adventure. It was amazing!

We kayaked with a group of about 20 other kayaks along the shoreline of the Pacific Ocean. When we stopped at Santa Maria Bay, I was pretty excited because I'd never been snorkeling before. I screamed a lot under water. It was just amazing! I was rather enjoying my day!


We returned to the ship for the night and with as much sun and exercise as I'd had, I ate really well that night. No surprise that I once again cleaned my plate even after having 3 appetizers, a main course and the usual 2 or 3 desserts.


Our second day in Cabo San Lucas, All 4 of us (Laura, Amy, Kelly and I) took a catamaran excursion together. It was a perfect day. Warm sun, cool breeze, the scenery was gorgeous. This is the famous Cabo arch.

The best part of this excursion was on the way back! Our catamaran crew had prepared a yummy lunch and the 4 of us were loving life on the top of the catamaran.

Not to mention we had the best seats in the house when we saw WHALES!!! I was so excited. I seriously almost cried. "See a whale in the wild" has been on my bucket list for I don't know how long. They were two humpback whales- a baby and a Mother.

It was seriously one of the coolest (and most beautiful) things I've ever seen in my life! (yes, this picture is from my camera.-courtesy of Amy. I was too busy jumping up & down with excitement to take a decent picture)

Cabo San Lucas is huge on tourism (as you can see from the number of cruise ships in port that day).


We did what most tourists do and used our last couple of hours to do a little bit of shopping around town. (AKA-bartering with the natives). I will forever be grateful I went on a Spanish speaking mission. It worked out in our favor a time or two! Amy & Kelly bought these fun hats while in town.


Luckily, we got all of our shopping done before hurrying back onboard the ship. We actually were able to watch the sunset at sea that night. GORGEOUS!


The next day we were back at sea for the whole day heading back to San Diego. Laura and I pretty much just hung out around the ship the whole day. We taught ourselves to fold towel animals, ate more ice cream, did some onboard shopping, and I even squeezed in my moment of stardom with a little karaoke.



We arrived back in the port of San Diego early the next morning and headed to the airport for a little standby time. The San Diego airport has the coolest chairs I've ever seen at an airport.

We had no major problems getting on a flight back to Salt Lake City, and that was about the time that reality hit us that it was all over.

*Sidenote....I've decided cruises are the best vacations. Not only is it all inclusive (food, lodging, shows, etc) but you are literally taken care of and waited on everywhere you go. It's pretty much the one vacation where you can come home and feel like you don't need a vacation from vacation. Know what I mean? I bet they even would have packed my suitcases for me if I'd asked. ok...maybe not.

Tipping the Bucket

I have $1. I have actually have a couple of bucks more than $1 (not a lot more, but I do have more.) I read this story and it warmed my heart. I don't have a lot, but I contributed a few "drops". I like its concept. I like the thought of a group of ordinary people coming together to do something extraordinary. (The world needs more ordinary people like us!) I also like BYU grads who do something with their visions and dreams. Good for them! Check it out and add a drop, if you can. It took less than 5 minutes.