Clocks, timer, hour-glass...

How do you judge your time with a person? For me I would say that a person's time in your life is up when you stop making memories with them, they don't leave your life until you stop thinking about them, and they aren't really gone then are they? They can still pop in and make new memories any time "The Fates" decide to be cruel.
But the real question is, Do you make every moment count? Every tick, drop of a grain of sand, digital-number-change.... do you use your time wisely?
Do you care enough about EVERYONE in your life to try and make every moment count? Or do you simply focus on one person to care about and leave all the others in the dust?
Do you love all your family the same? Do you try to find the good moments in everything you do? Is your time worth spending with other's? Do you respect those you love to let them make memories with you? Are you doing everything you can to make sure those you love stay in your life?

Makes me reflect in on myself....

Have you noticed how misconstrued family portrayal is?

When you see a commercial of a family enjoying meal time you see a Thanksgiving dinner, Campbell's green bean caserole, Roast, or pizza. (In reality Thanksgiving dinners are the most stressful because mom and the older siblings have been slaving away for hours, dad put the Turkey in to cook a tad bit late, and you have to deal with relatives who get on your nerves. And pizza is the easiest thing for parents on the run to buy so their kids won't start screaming when they realize they're hungry.)

Random food:
Twix can obviously freeze time so you can revise what you just said, while bringing your foot out of your mouth. (If anything you get a sugar rush from the chocolate and caramel mix, you start to talk faster which in turn confuses the other person into forgiving the insulting comment you just made.)
Take five is like a candy alarm clock telling you to take some time for yourself. (Enjoy the little moments in life, spend money on a salty, sugary candy that'll go straight to your hips or thighs.)
Dairy Queen Blizzards tells you to trick yourself into believing you earned a reward. ("Hey Bob! You just told your wife you cleaned out the garage so she'll let you buy me! Now you get to be lazy and feel good about it")
Hersey's kisses shows you that "kisses" love when you eat them! (I hope you enjoy being the giant from Jack and the Beanstalk.)
Hersey's bars tells you that moms love to share pure chocolate bars with their children. (Really they steal it from their kid's Halloween candy and eat it while hiding in their closet trying to have some "alone time".
Nutella=chocolate on toast that all your kids will eat. (Wait until they're teenagers, it'll change.)
Fruit roll-ups "fruit by the foot"! (Those suckers aren't even made out of real fruit.)
Motts apple juice= a juice your toddler will love, with all the nutrients they need. (Go let your toddler play outside on a jungle gym, in a nice sundress, and keep her perfectly clean.... I'm sure you'll be worried about what she's drinking when she starts crying that she's thirsty.)
Coca Cola, a soda so tasty even a polar bear will drink it. (NEWS FLASH! If a polar bear drank soda they'd kill over and die. Which isn't a good thing because they're an endangered animal.)
Pepsi= makes everyone sing and dance. (Even if it were true we already have enough musicals in the world without having double left footed people trying to keep tempo in a never ending can-can line.)
Bottled Water=pure, crisp water that makes you smile when you drink it. (I'll be drinking tap water thanks. You can give the bottled water to kids in Africa, China, and in the Downtown area of any city, they don't have clean drinking water so why don't you make them smile.)
Goldfish= "The snack that smiles back!"(Do you really think you'd have a smile on your face if you were going to be eaten and you knew it? PSSSH!!! I'd be one of the random fishes that happened to fall down the crack of the couch and you never see again.)


It's just interesting to me how simple things can be twisted into making a family think they have to be perfect in order to have happiness or contentment.....
You want to know what a happy family is? A happy family is= Dad having a day off work, a child telling you they love you, mom feeling like she has some free time to read a few pages/chapters of a book, enjoying a nice meal while sitting at the same table, and going on a family trip without fighting the whole time.
I hope we all can find the simple happiness that is there for us everyday.

Facts...

My family doesn't know me very well so I thought I'd let you get to know me a bit more....

(And yes I am catching up on not being able to post for a few months...)



1. I'm unbelievably self conscious.... i.e. if someone were to tell me that my shirt was a bit tight I'd freak out over my weight, my taste in clothes, my morals, and my ability to suck in my stomach.

2. I'm scared of singing in front of my family. Friends or strangers? No problem. But family, I get shaky and I want to run away and hide.

3. I'm a knowledge sponge. If I learn something I'll remember it.

4. I don't rush into things. If I'm going to make a decision that could affect me (i.e. buying shoes, lap top, picking schools, picking an occupation, signing a contract...) I learn everything I possibly can.

5. I'm scared of talking to other people because I don't want to sound stupid, mean, snobby, or spoiled. So I usually just keep my mouth shut.

6. My sisters intimidate the CRAP out of me. They always have and they always will.

7. I have to put make-up on for pictures, going out of the house, having guests over, or while staying at a relatives house because I wholeheartedly believe that I am plain and that make-up might help with that.

8. I worry about being able to take care of my family, my family's family, my friends, and my extended family... and I'm talking; emotionally, physically, financially, and any other way possible.

9. I'd rather go through the most excruciating pain than to see some one I know cry.

10. If I could, I would adopt EVERY; hobo, orphan, out cast, and elderly person without family I could.

And these are just skimming the surface.

Hot Chocolate...

A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were talking at a reunion and decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired.

During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work and lives. Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of hot chocolate and an assortme...nt of cups – porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite – telling them to help themselves.

When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor said:

“Notice that all the nice-looking, expensive cups were taken leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your stress.

“The cup that you’re drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was hot chocolate, not the cup; but you unthinkingly went for the best cups . . . And then you began eyeing each other’s cups.

“Now consider this: Life is the hot chocolate; your job, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life.

“The cup you have does not define, nor change the quality of life you have. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup we fail to enjoy the hot chocolate God has provided us.

“God makes the hot chocolate, man chooses the cups. The happiest people don’t have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything that they have.

“Live simply. Love generously, Care deeply. Speak kindly. And enjoy your hot chocolate!!!”

Teddy Bears...

When you're a child a Teddy Bear is a plush, stuffed animal that more than likely goes to bed snuggled into your arms, but by the middle of the night winds up on the floor or crammed down the crack between your bed and the wall.
Once you're grown up the definition of a Teddy Bear changes. It is now known as a big, broad man who snores like a chain saw.

A bit ago I found an adorable picture that changed my definition of a Teddy Bear forever...

Gemma has quite a few of these courageous little warriors posted up in her bedroom. And I won't be surprised if she does for a while. =]

God deserves a HUGE hug after that one....

It has FINALLY happened! We have a new place (new as in never experienced by us until now)! After Corey and I managed to hurriedly flee our last place of residence we were stuck in John and Angel's motor home which isn't bad but as Dorthy would say "There's no place like home." And really there isn't.
Luckily Corey and I had two friends who lived in a quaint apartment complex along with Corey's grandfather figure Don. We had an apartment lined up within three days of being back in Lovelock. The reason we had to wait so long to move in was because the old manager was moving away and she had to train the new manager before doing so. Lucky us! We were the new tenants she got to be trained on. =]
Anyways.... Today we got to do a walk through on our apartment.... two bedrooms, one bath, CARPET, patio, pool accessible, DISHWASHER, linen closet, spacious bathroom, spacious closets, PANTRY, CENTRAL AIR, WORKING HEATER, REAL LANDLORD, no spiders, no whore houses, floors are properly installed, no raw sewage backing up, the tiles in the bathroom aren't broken, the house isn't slanted, Corey can come home to me every night, healthy environment for Gemma, almost two hours closer to our hospital, far enough from John and Angel's that we'll have plenty of privacy, and it has a storage closet too! Heck I don't even care that the carpet is a greyish blue.  I'm so excited to move into our new place!!! And I'm so grateful that Heavenly Father saw fit that we get into a newer and healthier place before Gemma is born. =]
The best part of this move in is that I'll be able to organize and deep clean everything without it being such a hassel!!! YAY

2 of 2....

In Nevada prostitution is legal.. (great way to start a post huh?)
It's SO legal in fact that these "women of the night" even have houses.... like sorority houses only less publicly acceptable. In Battle Mountain there are two "Cat houses" with in the town limits. Both of these houses are with in a few blocks of our house.

"But Tiff how do you KNOW these are 'Cat houses'?" Well first off, when Corey and I moved here I thought it was a cute little preschool or something because it is so tastefully named "The Love-Shack" and those words were written in rainbow bubble letters. While we were driving around I pointed to this building and said "Oh how cute!"
"Babe, that's not cute it's a Whore House."
"A WHAT?!?!?!?!"
"A Whor..."
"I know what a Whore House is. Why is it here? In town? Close to where people live?"
"Easy access."
"SICK!"

Well as I was coming to grips with the fact that there is a "Cat house" with in a few dozen yards of our house my thoughts were interrupted by. "And this one is a Whore House too." These two houses aren't even two blocks apart!!!! So as if to give my denial a small ledge to hang onto before plummeting into that great black whole of belief and eventually the stiller darker whole of acceptance I asked, "Well how do YOU know that they are Whore Houses? And don't say it's because you've been in them." (menacing glare to emphasize my disapproval if his answer was in the affirmitive category)
"Ugh! NO! My Uncle Scott use to go to Whore Houses all the time, and once when I was up here with him he offered to introduce me to some of the girls."
"You said 'NO' right??
"Of course hon."


Anyways.... Every weekend these "Cat houses" will open for business on their business end.... that is to say that they have a bar attached to the house that they have open to the general public to bring in extra cash. And they play the most awful, twingy-twangy, red neck music along side awful Hispanic music... I love legal Hispanics but their music that blares, that heavy base with Spanish words that are sang/said way too fast in the first place just bugs the heck out of me.

So I'm sitting in bed (glances at clock) it's 4:37 AM and they are playing their music so loud that I can hear it over my air conditioner, 18" inch fan, and Corey's snoring. IT'S WAY TOO LOUD!  I seriously wish that prostitution was either out-lawed or a law would be passed for "Cat houses" to be at least a few miles outside of residential areas... I'd prefer the out-lawed part. Just because a woman has the plumbing to be a "Cat?" doesn't mean she isn't capable of getting a respectable job like all the morally stable women in the world. If anything "Cats?" are just making women's image as a whole lesser in value.



I hope they all get the flu... My sleeping hours would be less bothered.