Happy New Years!!! 2008

This year was really fun. We had some friends come over and play games, eat food and hang out and enjoy one another's company. We played Jeremy and my favorite game, Apples to Apples. We all watched the ball drop at midnight and banged pots and pans really loud. :)

Our group:
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Our Favorite Game:




Our friend Ben:






Kate and Kenny:


Also, I had some flowers delivered to my desk the Friday previous to New Year's. They were B-E-A-utiful!!! Look at the vase they were in. Thank you baby!







New Year's Day:
Jeremy's cousin, one of his best friends, Jake, came over and played Guitar Hero 3 with me. His daughter Kwinn came over too. She's a New Year's baby so Jeremy bought her some cupcakes. Isn't she adorable?



Jeremy and the dogs were all tuckered out:

Unofficially, Official!

The ring I picked out: (little did i know that this would change)

Yes! You read correctly. It is unofficially, official! October 11th 2008 is the big day. Here is a snippet of the big plans.

Wedding Colors: (main)Bronzy Red, Chocolate Brown, (accent)Orange, Yellow (Fall Colors)

Theme: Paris, France of Course

Registering at: Target, Bed Bath & Beyond (also changed, never registered. instead we just created a wedding website)

Wedding Ceremony (also changed to the joseph smith building): Salt Lake Temple I LOVE the architecture of this temple!!! It's so pretty. *We're hoping for an AM wedding, but can't schedule anything yet. Jeremy's been married in the temple before and his ex-wife is getting remarried in the temple. We don't know when though... So, we'll see how all of the paperwork 'works out'.

Reception: No Reception, just one big engagement party- TBA
**Dinner with family and a few of our friends**
(change again... ended up having an open house reception at jeremy's brothers)

Dinner will be held at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in the Empire Room.
*Right now, this room IS available, and I need to put a deposit on it quick because it's the first room to get booked. This room is beautiful, stunning! It goes along with my France theme. It looks similar to the Palace of Versaille. Gorgeous chandeliers, dark wood, high ceilings, large paintings, ornate detail everywhere. But, I'm hesitant to do so in case something changes. I need to find out what their 'change' policy is.

Hopefully this loads. It is a large file. Here is the video clip of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.


Our Wedding Cake: It's funny because right when I saw this cake I thought, "Yes, this is the one!" and it's funny because the name of it is, "Antoinette". Very fitting for our theme. (Marie Antoinette, Queen of France) Our cake will not have as many tiers because we won't be feeding as many people as what this particular cake serves.


Our honeymoon to Tahiti: As many of you may know, Jeremy served his mission in Tahiti. He speaks French, Tahitian and some Spanish. He hasn't been back since his mission, so it will be a fun reunion to see all of the families that meant so much to him. He will be proud to bring his Tahitian wife back with him. :) AND, crazy as this is, he knows my mom's birth mother, Hilda Wong, now Hilda Maratarangi. How crazy is that??


Jeremy is going to create a website for us. It will have all of our updates on it for the wedding. We're hoping to get the domain/URL www.jerandter.com Cute, huh? :) I will send it out when it's created.

Tara & Jeremy

So, most of you by now have asked me, "Who is the picture of that guy with you on your Instant Messenger?" For those of you that I don't talk to a lot, I have tried to call all of you and tell you what's been going on in my life. His name is Jeremy Green. He is in my ward, and although we never met at church, we met in my FHE (Family Home Evening) group. FHE is held at my house, and has been, for the last year. It has been a great opportunity for blessings as I've watched how holding Family Home Evening unifies the small family group in my ward. PLUS, I would've never met Jeremy had we not been in the "right place" at the "right time". :)



Jeremy is the one that gave me my Tahitian name from my previous blog... and that's kind of where it all began. ...Other than the fact that I wasn't quite diggin' him at the beginning. He just started coming around all of the time. Even when FHE wasn't going on, he would call and come over for no reason. He'd call to see if we could go to church, firesides, dog walks (because he too has a little dog like I do). He lives one building over from me in my complex, so it was extra convenient all the time. I remember looking at my phone every time he'd call and think, "Man! This Jeremy Green is calling AGAIN!" Sometimes I'd ignore his call, but I would ALMOST always call him back. He WAS in my FHE group, so I had to be nice, right? Apparently the other guys in my ward said I was giving him the wrong impression by merely calling back and that it told him that I was interested too. Really? I was just being nice.

But dangn't... Jeremy Green's persistence paid off. The little bugger grew on me and now we are pretty much connected at the hip. :) Jeremy found out the "background" of our "story" on Christmas Eve when my mom said to him, "Jeremy, I'm so glad you're persistent. Otherwise, you wouldn't be sitting right here with us. He looked at me and said, "What is that supposed to mean?" and my mom responded by saying, "Oh... Tara was going to blow you off." Wow! I didn't know what to say in my defense and Jeremy had a look of confusion on his face when he said, "I just thought you were really busy." lol

Some Pic's of Frank and Banks, our 2 kids.




Jeremy and I have known eachother for a short while and went out on our first date on Halloween. Jeremy was dressed up like a beer girl in a dress and I was dressed up like a mobster. I had been dressed up like that all day at work and changed in to the bare minimum of my costume to go out in public for dinner. Jeremy's roommates also dressed up like girls and we all went out in a big group. We ate at Chilli's and then went to a couple of haunted houses after. It was a really fun night.

Tara & Jeremy at his house before dinner on Halloween:




Me dressed up at work earlier that day with some of my co-workers:


Jeremy and I spent our holidays together and had a lot of time to talk about things. And although things were moving a long quickly, somehow it hasn't seemed quick. It's weird how things fall into place when you know it's right. My life has started feeling more calm ...and the funk that I've been in for the last year or so has started to naturally fade and my life feels like it's back to normal.

I Have This Guy!

More Graphics at pYzam.com

Christmas 2007

Christmas was so fun this year! I have to bum pictures of our Christmas from everyone else, because I neglected to bring a camera with me. FYI. I just started dating Jeremy Green and so far everything seems to be moving right along with us. Christmas Eve was amazing! I spent it with my Mom's side this year and usually spend it with my UT Dad's side because my aunt has an annual Christmas program at her house each Christmas Eve with dinner. We look forward to it each year so we can be with the family and center and focus our rememberance of the true meaning of Christmas and Jesus Christ's birth. Anywho, so this year, the Clarks were in town (my mom's sister's family). Philip just got home from his mission and was there. The Clarks have a foreign exchange student staying with them in Washington and he was there. The Grovers also came over as well as the Terry's (Jason's Family) and along with my good friend Jennie and new boy, Jeremy for a big Christmas Eve dinner. Afterward dinner we enjoyed one another's company and had a little program of our own. What I LOVE LOVE LOVE about this side of the family is how musically talented and inclined everyone is. There is nothing that touches me closer to the spirit than music. I even have a couple of video clips I will add on here for you to enjoy (although it doesn't include the entire number). Samantha and my mom sang, Emily played the violin, accompanied by my mom... Grandma Pat and Aaron did a violin duet, accompanied by Aunt Jolene and I played one of my favorite pieces from Jim Brickman, "Winter Peace". Everyone did such a good job and Emily has improved sooooooooo much on the violin. I was very proud of her.


On a different note, I was in charge of making Christmas breakfast again this year, because i did such a fabulous job last year! ;) (even though i waited until xmas eve to buy all the stuff i needed and ended up over at mom's at 5am stealing her groceries, but that's a different story) At any rate, I made the famous sausage omelet casserole which is a MUST ever year and picked up a few new dish traditions from my friend Jenya. I also made "Bubble Bread" which is when you put a whole bunch of Rhodes rolls in a bunt pan and put this yummy caramel marshmallow mixture on top with nuts and let them raise over night and cook 'em in the morning. And the other thing I made was a French Toast Casserole... I made 2 kinds: one from scratch and the other I got cinnamon bread from Kneaders and followed their recipe. YUM! It was a lot of work to make it all for 20 people, but Jeremy stayed all night, literally and helped me cook. We were cooking til 3am and then watched Frosty the Snowman. We fell asleep, woke up at 6am and used my oven and his oven to bake them all to be ready in time for 830am present opening at Humpherys. We rushed to the Grandma Jackie's and Bubba Dee's to open presents with them and the cousins (Rollins), then over to Mom's to open presents with Jason's girls, then over to Grovers to open presents with them then back to Humpherys to open presents with Kylan since he spent the morning with his mom. Fewwww... It's a busy day with "blended" families. At the end of the day we finally headed back to my house and Jeremy and I opened up presents with each other. I went first. :) I gave him a Dallas Cowboys blanket since they are his favorite football team, the last Harry Potter book that just came out since it's the last one Jeremy needs to read, and a book for Jeremy to write his music lyrics in. He mentioned to me once that girls only give gifts that they want themselves. So, I wrote in it that it was true... I gave him a blanket to cuddle with ME, a book so he could read to ME, a notebook for lyrics so he could write music for ME and about ME. :) Jeremy knew how much I missed my Xbox360. I was a Guitar Hero II fan if you remember in my previous blogs and even won the local radio station X96 Guitar Hero Tournament at the IKEA grand opening. Yes, it's true, I'm a nerd! *As a side note to this "tournament" story: Wednesday, May 23rd 2007: I beat out many guys at the all nighter in front of IKEA where me and my friend Angie and Dave slept out side in line, in a tent, so that we could be the first 100 in line to IKEA and win a chair. LOL. I was #86 and did in fact win the chair. It was such a freaking fun night. I won some Ipod accessories, concert tickets (which I sold to someone at work) and a CD. Then I got a free cinnamon roll or something and a t-shirt that said, "I slept with IKEA to be one of the first 100 in line". lol Fun Times! And don't forget the yummy swedish meatballs. (had to throw that in there) Anyway, my Xbox overheated and got ruined, so he got me a new one. Wow! This was a huge gift. I was kind of taken back by it. He also gave me a small box that said, "Tė-ora Poerava Nehenehe" and then again in English, "The Life of a Beautiful Black Pearl". In the box? None other than a BIG, beautiful black pearl set in a necklace setting. He had this pearl set just for me and has had it for the last 12 years, since his mission. I was sooo impressed with his thoughtfulness and how meaningful it was. Every girls dream! :)

Rick's Angels

I wanted to put a pic up of my boss and our team. We had department pictures taken for our monthly newsletter as a "Merry Christmas" picture...or should I say, "Happy Holidays" picture, to be politically correct. This is just one of the silly pic's we took. Since there are 3 of us b-e-a-utiful gals, we have started being referred to as, "Rick's Angels". My bosses name is Rick Redford. Yes, he is in fact related to Robert Redford. Can't you tell? He looks just like the young Robert.

Nunn's Park FHE

I've Been Tagged!

So, I've been tagged by Tammy which means I have to write a blog with 7 random facts about myself and then tag 7 other people to do the same thing. Then the people I tag are supposed to write a comment on my most current post... which will be this one. I don't think I even know 7 people that have a blog to tag, but hopefully the few that I DO will not hate me. :)

I just got home for the night and have had a chance to talk all night to Jeremy(1) and Heather. Since Heather talked over me a lot tonight (love ya Heath), I had the chance to sit and internalize what my thoughts and feelings were. Therefore, I probably have a lot of deep thoughts today for my "Seven" random things about me.

1. I have had many things in my life to give me reason to not believe in love, but I do and that is a comfort and relief.

2. Although I know that many people have heard me complain about my dating life to the point that they think I seem hopeless in ever finding anyone to get married to, I actually don't feel that way. I know that I've never been satisfied with myself in my own life to this point to allow that to be "the next step". I feel at peace and proud to truly KNOW for myself that there is someone out there for me that will be my partner in life to accomplish the things that I am supposed to in conjunction with his. I feel very calm knowing that my life is not meant for me nor is my purpose to be on this earth for anything less. I know that without that fulfillment in my life, it would not serve it's purpose here. What the actual purpose IS, I have no idea. But I have in fact felt that very strongly, and feel at peace about the unknown. That in itself is a huge feat for many.

3. I'm afraid of not being a very good parent and not being a consistent person in my children's lives. I see from many around me how much their childhood directs them for the rest of their lives. It makes or breaks you, but I guess that is all dependant on the person and how they have learned to deal with the challenges they've been given.

4. I LOVE Christmas and am putting my tree up tomorrow. As of tomorrow, my house will smell like pumpkin spice through the season, have a seasonal candle, be clean so that cookies can be made at a moments notice, christmas music will be playing at all times to set the tone/mood, and christmas drinks will be available at all times for all who come over. Working on Christmas presents is about to become a priority... right after my Christmas Tree party. You know... I must have a party for the erection of the tree. :)

5. I just re-read my profile on here and realized how much of a comfort it is that no one has it figured out. NO ONE! Even the people in your life that you have always looked up to and considered your mentors... they don't either. In fact, you probably do some things a lot better than even they do. Don't ever compare your 'worst' with someone else's 'best'.

6. Although my house is pretty clean on any given day, I always have a pile of clothes in my room. It's not just a small pile either. It's a gigantic pile. I don't know how it accumulates so fast, but it does. And if you can't see one when you come in, then it's probably because I've shoved it into my closet. On rare occasions you will find that every piece of clothing has been hung up, but that's probably only for the next 24 hours before the miserable pile begins again. My poor, poor future husband. He'll need his own room. I've been known to go to the store and buy new clothes merely because I can't find what I'm looking for in my room, or don't want to do my laundry and need something to wear right then. Awful isn't it?!

7. Because of all of the scary movies my dad showed me when I was little, to this day I still won't kneel next to my bed to say my prayers. And although I'm not scared anymore, I have mentally trained myself not to do that because I remember how scared I was when I was younger. I thought that there was a clown under my bed or chucky was going to get me. No siree... They aren't going to get me. :) No way!