there was a surprise waiting for me...

i went upstairs to use the (girls) bathroom.
the lid was down. so i lifted it up.
and screamed.
a cricket kept hopping up and down trying to get out.

i flushed him down the drain.

why didn't the first person think to do that?

Dear Campus Snow Shovelers...

Thank you for shoveling the walks before I went to work at 6AM. As early as it was for me to get up and get my day started, it must have been much harder for you. It was such a relief to walk on shoveled walks after trucking through what seemed like 4 inches of unplowed roads and sidewalks on my way up to campus. My boots were soaked up to the mid calf. I always forget about these experiences with winter. Maybe I'm blocking the memories out on purpose.

Anyways, you made my day a little easier (it is exhausting work walking through inches of fresh powder)

i wish i had a picture to show you all what I experienced.

11 days to encinitas...

you know it is going to be a great day at work when, as you change into your uniform at 6:30 AM, the key peg flys off your police belt, bounces up off the floor, directly into the toilet bowl.

happy thursday.


p.s. we won the flag football championship game last night. champions.

happy birthday dad!

Today is my dad's birthday.
I wish I could be at home with them to blow out candles and make wishes.

My dad is the best person I know.
He is the one that confronted teenage boys for me in high school when they told me that I wasn't scholarship material, like my sister (and I was devastated)
He is the one that has taught all of us to be generous, especially to those who need it most.
He is the one that drove from downtown San Diego to the San Onofre power plant in 35 minutes when I was on the side of the freeway after an accident.
He is the one that taught me to love John Denver and Marty Robbins.
He is the one that teaches me more about gardening each time I go home.
He is the one that has taught me the principles that have shaped who I am today.

Daddy, I am so grateful for you! Thank you for making me feel so loved all the time. Thank you for being the best example of living the Gospel that I could have. Each day I strive to be more like you. Happy birthday! My wish for you this year is that you and mom will be able to go to Cancun (I really think this could be the year...)

I love you so, so much! I love you forever.

winter schedule

i bought my very own gym pass.
i'm going to join the yoga, hip hop, and abs only classes.
the manager invited me to join him in his boxing lessons on tuesday nights. that would be sweet, right?

my new winter schedule is going to look a lot like this:
drinking lots of Stephen's hot chocolate (that I already bought at costco)
gym three times a week
lots of reading
dreaming about going home for thanksgiving and christmas

it's going to be a great 5 weeks.

tammy's in love

for the first time ever, i have found the song that brought about my name

my mom told me that she chose my sister's name from the Bible, and mine because she loved this song.
i'll take it mom.

ray on vinyl

Amazon is selling ray lamontagne on vinyl. For only $16.

as soon as I saw this I had a vision of me sitting down in my front room with the blanket I crocheted, a mug of hot chocolate (that I am going to buy from costco) on the small couch by the window so I can look out on the snow, lights, and people while I listen to a record of ray.

great vision, right? I totally think so. it makes me think of my sister up in the grandma house. i think she would have a similar vision.

I am determined to make this a reality.

Anyone know where I can buy a (inexpensive) record player?

p.s. I also want an otis redding record to listen to, preferably one that has "White Christmas" on it.

tink 1 and tink 2

halloween

I made my costume this year, as well as my niece's. They are matching (more pictures to come).
I've been very crafty lately, but I love it.
We are tinkerbell. Our wings light up and everything.

For some reason I have been very nostalgic this Halloween. When we were all young, we had a set Halloween tradition. After getting our costumes on, my mom would take our pictures in front of the big front door. After trick or treating in our own neighborhood (the fisher's always had the best candy - and decorations), mom and dad would drive us around other neighborhoods to trick or treat. But first we had to go to Grandma Hiner's house, where she always had orange jello and Halloween goody bags waiting for us. After we were done collecting candy for the night (Lance always got the most), we could go into the family room, dump our buckets into piles in front of us, and trade our candy until we were fully satisfied.

Two times, in junior high, I begged my mom to let me go trick or treating with my friends. I thought it would be more fun to go with them than my family. I regret that so much now. I would give anything to have two more opportunities to ride around in the car with my family, jumping out of the car to hit a bunch of houses and then meeting dad at the next corner before we did it all again. I wish I had two more opportunities to have my mom pose us in front of the door as she takes several because she wants to get the picture "just right". I wish I had two more opportunities to trade my candy with my siblings and let Spencer have all the kit-kats.

Happy Halloween!

david archuleta

i came across this and really enjoyed it.

just what i needed today

i have been working 12 hours today.
i am very tired.
but that all changed when Julene told me about Stephen.
Julene is my co-worker, but as her second job she works with a 45 year old down-syndrome man named Stephen (whom I love).
I asked her to bring him in tonight so I could see him.
She later texted me and told me that Stephen didn't want to come in because I would flirt with him and "he already has a wife. In heaven."

i could have cried, that touched me so much.
i'm so grateful for people like stephen that make things seem so simple and pure.

p.s. he came in to visit. he let his stuffed panda bear give me a hug. thank you stephen.

can i really do this?

I just realized that in 9 months I am going to be Ms. Dyer.
I will have my own classroom.
Be responsible for teaching 20+ youngsters.
Have to create and get all my lesson plans approved.

is it too late to change my major?

i can't stop crocheting.

trying to stay afloat

I'm drowning in school work.
It's really sad when you realize half way through the semester that you bit off more than you can chew. Because now there isn't anything you can do about it.

I actually have lots of things and stories to blog about.

maybe i will be able to someday when I actually come up for air.


but for now: anyone who has children in grades 4-7, have them read Heir Apparent by Vivian Velde. They will love it.
(i'm in a children's literature class. it is like heaven every monday and wednesday.)

big baby

here's to hoping that my first child won't be born weighing 19.2 pounds
like this one in Indonesia

his dad has a good attitude about it though:

"I'm very happy that my baby and his mother are in good health," father Muhammad Hasanuddin said Friday. "I hope I can afford to feed the baby enough, because he needs more milk than other babies."

dear travelling veterinarian:
thank you for coming to my house so that he could go in dignity.


i love you scout

I got pepper sprayed...

so for work i got pepper sprayed again. Since this was my second time, I had to do an "obstacle course" afterwards. I know it doesn't look hard, but after getting sprayed in both eyes with pepper spray, it is really hard to see anything. All you can think about is the liquid fire in your eye balls. It immediately swells your eyes shut, so I wanted to finish the course before I was incapacitated. This was for sure the last time I did it. Sam was kind enough to come along and film and help me recover after. Thought I would share with all of you...

made my morning

beyonce changing the lyrics of "halo" for this girl, Chelsea, who has leukemia. awesome.

Scout...

remember that night we brought you home as a puppy? you wouldn't stop crying all night, so i laid by your cage in mom and dad's bathroom and sang you "I am a child of God".

Thank you for always eating the rest of my peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that my mom made me for school when I didn't finish them myself. That way I didn't need to feel bad about wasting anything.
Thank you for walking quickly down the hall when I snuck you through the house. The faster you walked, the less likely mom was to see.
i still can't believe that Sunday night when you raced into the house, jumped up on the dining room table, ate a chunk of butter, and then ran back outside.
one night i went out to visit you in the garage. i was sad. i sat petting you on the step, and you came up and put your head on my shoulder and kept it there for a long time. i needed that.
i never could beat you in keep away.
you are the most beautiful dog i have ever seen.
thank you for always remembering me when i came home. i always knew i was loved by you.

you are an old man now. but it has been a good run. thank you for being in our family. i have no doubt that we picked the right puppy when we had to choose. maybe you and blacky can be friends now.
home won't be the same without you.


i love you forever.

v for vendetta

we won our first intramural soccer game last night.

Our team name is V for vendetta... we are coming back to claim our spot in the championship game, a place we should have been in last year.

one awkward moment: when I ran back onto the field in the middle of the second half, realized I was the only one playing defense, and yelled out "who is playing D with me?". My team then reminded me I was on the wrong side, so really I was playing super forward at the time.

good thing there are no off sides.

dear summer of 2009...

thank you for letting me have adventures, like going to hawaii.
thank you for a great job.
thank you for lots of family time.
thank you for letting me stand right underneath the stadium of fire fireworks. the ash in my hair was totally worth it.
thank you for sisters weekend.
thank you for letting me play with scout again.
thank you for teaching me how to crochet
thank you for letting this be one of the happiest summers of my life.

i will miss you.

but here's to fall.

36 years!

Today is my parents 36th wedding anniversary.

I'm so grateful for the examples they are, the love they offered us, the way they raised us, the siblings they gave me, and the things that they have taught me.

I was told that this song was their wedding song. I'm not sure if that is accurate, but I love the song anyways, and think that it is so fitting for them.

I love you guys! Thanks for being such great parents!

pizza pizza

i recently made my first pizzas.

nicole sent me the recipes.

they were delicious. i can't wait to try new types.

sam cut off my head on the alfredo picture, but i had to include it as a shout out to the 1000 "lance and nicole holding a pizza" pictures.

hilarity

i find this wildly entertaining

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ga-ULeG09QY

dear mary kay lady,

i know that you have been in the business for 23 years and that you are 60 years old, but i think it is a little unfair to play the sympathy card. you knew i would want to buy something from you so that i could help your business. i feel taken advantage of.

please don't ask me what my favorite products are and then write them up on a receipt and tell me how much that would be in "four easy payments". i didn't say that i would want to buy them.

please don't spend 30 minutes talking to me about starting up my own business after i have already told you that i'm not interested. and it is probably not a good idea to tell me that its so easy "all you have to say to a person is...."

...when that is the exact line you used on ME to get inside my house.

sincerely,
tammy

so i went to the midnight showing of harry potter....

...but don't worry, we brought our blankets we are crocheting to work on while we sat outside the theater waiting to get in.

p.s. can you tell who i am?

a REAL woman

i thought that when i learned how to crochet earlier this summer that i had earned my ticket to being a real woman. but i was wrong. i think i earned it last night when i made my very first roast, mashed potatoes, and homemade rolls dinner. granted, jennifer helped me with most of it, but it actually turned out great! i think my mom would be proud...

p.s. im starting to love learning how to cook new and exciting things

sisters

my sisters are my best friends. they always will be. i'm glad i have them to call for advice, laughs, sad stories, and countless other reasons. today i called R and talked her ear off for 30 minutes about an issue in my life. she listened to everything very sincerely and helped me not be so frantic. the whole time she had a baby on her lap, too. the last time i went up to emilia's she made a sandwich, with avocado. i needed that. rachel asks me for updates all the time on my life and she writes beautiful things that make me wish i could blog like her. jennifer takes me to the store at midnight to show me what i need to buy for the cafe rio dinner i was making the next day. julie gives me all her britney spears dvd's. nicole lets me eat the pizzas she and lance makes.
thanks for all you do for me. i can't wait for sisters weekend.

Fireworks and the Jonas Brothers

i got to work stadium of fire on the 4th of july. specifically, i worked backstage dignitary protection. i was assigned to sit outside of the jonas brothers' trailer and make sure that nobody tried to get in. i had to work from 6am to midnight that day, and we were not allowed to sit down at all. that makes your legs crazy tired. i was fully decked out in my police gear. i had to wear an ear piece, and a hidden knife around my neck (in case of an emergency).

i did get to see a lot of the brothers, and two of them spoke to me as they walked past. i am not very familiar with their music, but i do have to admit that they are beautiful boys. (note: boys, not men). I was so surprised at how little they are though. they are so short and skinny. all three of them. but they were very nice and very willing to interact with their fans, which i think is cool.

the swarms of screaming, teenage girls that they attracted was unreal. i have never seen anything like it before. a group of hundreds of girls started to gather at my gate, and i had to keep making sure they didn't push over the barricade and answer question after question as to whether i could "just let me talk to them for 5 minutes to tell them i am their biggest fan". I met so many of the jo bro's "biggest fans". girls were bursting into tears right in front of me when they *thought* they saw a brother entering or exiting the trailer. this picture doesn't even do it justice. the crowd got SO much bigger.

one girl very seriously tried to convince me that she was selena gomez (another huge disney star). she said to not freak out when she told me who she was and didn't want to ruin the concert by letting people know she was there. she just had to talk to nick jonas for 5 minutes.
i told her no.
(the fact that she was wearing an "i love the jonas brothers" t-shirt gave her disguise away...)

it was such a fun experience though. and the fireworks show was out of this world. if anyone is in provo next year, you have to watch the fireworks from stadium of fire. words wouldn't do them justice, so i will just leave it at that.

i'm grateful that i was able to celebrate our independence. i love America.

happy birthday nicole!

i am so, so happy that my brother married nicole. she is truly one of the sweetest, and most caring people i know. she knows how to make a person feel loved. i'm so glad that she is my sister. today is her birthday! so here goes the dyer birthday tradition:

nicole. i appreciate you because you make me pancakes and cry with me when i'm sad.
but you also have such a positive way of looking at situations,
and you are such a good influence on my brother.

my wish for you is that you will find lots of "classic" books to use in your classroom.

i love you

bambino!

Bambino Clark #2 is being born today. I am so, so happy. My sister Becca is an angel. She is so caring and patient and loving. She is such a great mom. Everytime I am around her and B-Man, I take notes on how good she is at parenting. I think it helps that B-Man is an angel himself. (seriously though, he is a gift from heaven). Bambino #2 has been a long process in the making. As an extended family, we have spent a lot of time in prayer that B-Man would be able to have a sibling. I have watched with awe at how Becca and M have handled this process. They are so full of faith and knew that somehow and some way, their family would grow.

Today I am so grateful for miracles and for answers to prayers. I'm so grateful that B-Man will have another "man" around the house. I'm grateful for the example of faith and endurance that Becca and M have shown me. I'm grateful for families and the fact that when one of us is going through something, we can all band together and go through it with them. dyer's are like that.

i can't wait to see this little man.

i love my dad

dad, i love you because:

you taught me how to thin a fruit tree. whenever you go to the grocery store you bring home cinnamon rolls and gum drops, and soda. you don't mind that every time I call, I cry. you gave me the "beware of wolves in sheeps' clothing" speech 10 times before I went away to school. you are the most generous person I know. you taught all of us to love johnny cash and john denver. you always call to check up on me just when I need to hear from you most.


happy father's day. i love you forever.

summer

you know it is summer when:

• you can sit on the grass and have bugs swarming all around you. but you still love it.
• baseball is back (major AND little leagues)
• you want to bike everywhere
  
• your dog gets sick from eating too many peaches and plums that have fallen from the trees
• you officially pack away warm clothes (big deal in Utah)
• it is light outside until 10pm
• hiking and running actually sounds like fun
• your family goes to the fair
• you are tempted everyday to go take impulsive trips to visit your sisters
  
• you have no plans. you don't know where you will spend the next few weeks, but you aren't concerned.

i can't wait to see what the rest of this summer brings...

on hard work

i meet the best people at work. people that are just good, good souls. i just made a new friend. his name is reid. he is old, but not as old as richard. he has worked at byu for the electrical shop for decades and decades. today i had to accompany him as he worked on a project. usually when we do this, we bring a book because nobody talks and it can get real boring. reid talked to me. so much that he didn't finish his project. he asked me what my major was. when i told him, he proceeded to tell me about his daughter (who lives with him) that just got a new foster baby and how he is already too attached to her, even though he isn't supposed to be. he started to cry when he told me that sometimes this foster child says "daddy" because she misses her parents. he told me that i should call his daughter and talk to her about foster parenting so i can write a paper on it. he told me all about the electrical wiring, power sourcing, and installing that needed to be done on this project as if i was his partner. but i had no idea what he was talking about. i just kept saying, "this is tricky". when i had to rotate back to one of the desks, reid walked part way back up with me. i told him that we could be friends now. he said "yeah like on that website where you become friends". i said "facebook"? he replied "yeah, my friend signed me up for it and now i'm hooked."

i think i'm going to add reid as a friend on facebook.

i noticed that reid's hands are cracked and callused. he works hard. i admire people that know how to work hard and put in honest effort. i think people in reid's and richard's generations know how to work hard. it was a part of the learning process. i love that.

hawaii

I just got back from a very last minute trip to Hawaii. It was perfect for so many reasons:

it was a perfect place to heal,
to reflect,
to try new things,
to be brave and bold,
and to appreciate beautiful places

...i think that out of all of God's creations, these are two of the most beautiful

on new friends

i have a new friend at work. his name is richard. at my job i have the opportunity to talk with lots of people. but richard is different. he is in his 80's. he always wears a hat. the kind of hats that men wore everyday back in the 40's and 50's. he comes in everyday to work on his special project - the Joseph Smith papers. but he always stops to talk to me first. he calls me tamara.

and i kind of love it.

for some reason i feel so attached to richard. maybe it is the fact that he works so hard. last week i came to pick up a friend from the library at 11:30 pm. richard was just walking out of the building. he had been there all day working. he told me that he told his wife that morning that he was going to be at work all day so she should go do something fun for herself. maybe it is the fact that he always stops to talk to me, even though he is holding a briefcase and his arms start to shake. maybe it is the fact that he asks me questions about my life and really cares about the answers. maybe it is the fact that after he walks past me, on his way to his office, he always looks back and smiles. or maybe it is the fact that he calls me by my full name and tells me every time that it is beautiful.

all of my grandparents have been passed away for a long, long time now. i miss them. i try to remember them and things that they taught. often times i wish that i had asked them more questions and asked more advice from them. but then i remember that i was still very young. every time i talk to richard i am reminded of them. i'm grateful that richard wants to be my friend and that he takes the time to talk to me. for some reason my day gets so much better when i catch a glimpse of his hat and briefcase walking through the glass doors...