ice skating 12.31.2011

I spent the middle of my New Year's Eve going ice skating with Katie, Hannah, and Austin.
I haven't been ice skating in over a year (and for Austin it had been a few seeing as he was on his mish for two lol) so we were super nervous to get on the ice. BUT.....after we made it on it was just like it hadn't been time at all and I fell right back into the groove of it. Austin fell too, not back into the groove, on the ice lol! It was fun, we raced, we taught Hannah how to skate (it was her first time!) and we tried out a few tricks-keyword tried lol! I had fun though and I'm proud to say I didn't fall on my backside, I gracefully caught myself lol!

Discgolfing 12.30.2011

Today I went with the Hemmert's and played discgolf.
took me sometime but I got the hang of it, just for my arm to get tired so I began to lose all over again ;p (me and my good timing lol)
It was fun to play and hang out with Austin, Jayden, and Katie....great laughs :)
Thanks for taking me with you guys :)

MG date night 12.28.2011

What do you get when you get together a half a dozen girls that are all alone on a random wednesday evening?
Oh just MG's touring around temple square.
Looking at all the couples and gagging out loud but secretly missing their man.
Smiling for photos all over the temple grounds
Getting all giddy as we tell stories of our men
Making new friends from all over.
Although we may be from different places and come from different backgrounds we all have a bond, a sisterhood that unites us and strengthens us and helps us get through this journey. I love my MG's :)

Ten years later 12.28.2011

Ten years has passed since the three of us friends have all been together.
It was so odd to see us as grown ups.
All moving on with our lives and trying to become the people we always talked about being.
Growing up is hard to do, people change, you lose contact, distance grows between you....life just isn't as simple as it once was. But when you have great friends like Cara and Natalie by your side it takes you back to the way it once was. Although our hang out was just for a few hours it was amazing to catch up and be like 5 year olds once again :)

Would you look at that!!! 12.27.2011

I hit day 199.

wow.

I've been literally counting down the hours till I'd hit this day, just felt like a REALLY big accomplishment for me. Sure its still 199 days away till he returns...BUT to an MG it means lots of things:

last triple number to hit.

seeing as this was right after Christmas-last Christmas without him.

New Year's is coming up around the corner-another one without him-check ;)

means I'm close to 6 months left.

once I hit double digits I'll be close to 3 months-can you believe that?

I remember the day I marked day 1 on my calender, I can't believe its starting to really fill up.

i love to wake up and see a new day get filled in (the days I'm really tired you can tell because the circles are horribly done lol)

Elder Schott-congrats for continuing your service to the Lord.

I'll see you soon love!

And thanks to my friends at The Beehive Organization on facebook (look them up & like their page)

They made me this, and its so true for me right now...its just days :)

Photo fun! 12.27.2011

We get kinda crazy at receptions lol. 

Jenna is crazy 

Cara is goofy

I'm....well normal ;) jk i'm silly too!

It was fun to hang out with these girls-nice to chat and catch up :)

*solution to end this madness: we need to get married ;p*

Heather and Douglas's reception 12.27.2011

Jenna, Cara, and I got to go to Heather's reception tonight (another MG that can proudly say they married their RM! woohoo!) So happy for you Heather! It was awesome to finally meet you lol (good timing ;p) but oh my goodness you are gorgeous! Such a beautiful bride! It was sweet to meet your hubby as well! Hopefully you had an amazing honeymoon! Congrats again to the happy married couple :)

Christmas at Dad & Crickets 12.25.2011

Christmas at Dad and Cricket's was super fun-Brooklyn got a kiddy car that she barely took her hands off (she loves it!) and Jaxson got a train table set that he's obsessed with! I'd say those two kids did pretty good this year lol! As for us adults we opened up our stockings which were awesome and filled with tons of goodies! Having Cricket work at a store that sales jewelry us girls get lots of awesome things :) Thanks for the sweet gifts and awesome times Dad and Cricket! :)

Sunday Best 12.25.2011

All dressed up and ready to attend church.

The Christmas program was amazing!

Lots of talented people in the Derb family ward

The spirit was so strong I loved it!

Christmas time is amazing, I love the spirit of Christmas :)

Christmas morning 12.25.2011

Watching my niece and nephew walk down the stairs to see what Santa had brought for Christmas was priceless. As they got closer and closer their smiles got bigger and bigger :) I love those kids!
Christmas morning was a blast, with 9 a.m. church we had to get up a bit earlier so we could get all our gifts opened before we headed out. Brandon and Korrine came over at 7:30 and we all opened up our stockings and our gifts! I got lots of clothes and goodies :) Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas PJ's 12.24.2011

Each year on Christmas Eve we get to open up one gift (its always our pj's lol) but I love it!

This year I got purple polka dot ones :) 

Now I'm already to head to bed and await Santa's visit!

Twinkle Toes 12.24.2011

A special visitor comes to the Derbidge house on Christmas Eve while we are away. His name is Twinkle Toes the elf. He left notes for Jaxson and Brooklyn to follow to find where he hid their Christmas Pj's (my bro in law is one crafty fella for thinking this all up!) It was awesome after we read the birth of Christ in the scriptures, and the book "The night before Christmas" as well as watched Joy to the World to watch the kids follow daddy around trying to find the treasure!

Jaxson and Brooklyn got so excited to see presents on their bed! Jaxson just loved his pj's-he grabbed them and ran over to me with excitement! 

Then we got to open ours up-I loved mine! :) Pj's are my favorite :)

Making Santa's treats 12.24.2011

Cinnamon rolls for Mr. Claus from Brooklyn & Jaxson

Britt and John helped them decorate the cinnamon rolls with the frosting, it was cute to watch!

I love being with the Derb's and participating in their family traditions :)

Santa got a sweet treat this year!

Smiles all around 12.21.2011

Shopping at Target, Walmart, Costco, Winco

Singing popcorn popping in the car-actions included

Stopping at Iggy's for lunch (yummy nachos)

Picking up delicious cookies at Paradise Bakery & Cafe

Coloring pictures

Swimming in the kiddie pool

Going down water slides

Grabbing frozen yogurt to end the night

A great way to put a smile on your face is spending the day with them.

Sperry Reception 12.20.2011

Tonight my mom, Korrine, and I headed back to our old city of Sandy for a reception.

Mercedie and Parker were married in the Salt Lake City temple for time and all eternity.

I grew up with her little sister Chelsie who happens to be engaged and getting married in two weeks but I leave the day before to go back to school :( 

So we celebrated two brides tonight!

The bride was gorgeous and her and her hubby have awesome dance skills!

I haven't seen Chelsie (center picture) in ten years I can't believe how time has flown by! She has grown up and is so beautiful now! (I'm excited to see her in her wedding photos!) 

*I haven't grown up as you can see ;) *

It was nice to visit with some of our old friends from Sandy-got to see my old friend Natalie too! 

It was nice to catch up with her :) I can't believe ten years has gone by!

 Makes ya wonder what it will be like in ten years??....hmmm....

Temple square 12.18.2011

Millions of lights.

Family photos.

The beautiful temple.

Cold hands.

Skipping around the grounds.

Watching the horses.

Taking in the spirit.

All the things I love about Christmas :)

Christmas bingo & gift exchange 12.18.2011

Every year my Dad & Cricket's side of the family gets together to exchange gifts (we draw names earlier in the year) and give gifts to the little ones and then we play Christmas bingo! My dad draws the ball and shouts out the letter/number combo. Everyone has to win so we get our initial prize. After we all win then we play once more for the grand prize-this year I WON :) I got a $25 gift card to Red Robin-date night anyone? haha jk! Then we do it where you are given the chance to keep what you got or change with someone else. I started out with a bracelet, then got traded for a purse charm and by the end I had my bracelet back lol :)

I love this family event, yummy food for breakfast, good times with the family and presents (target gift card and a bracelet for me!)

Christmas season has arrived :)

Little Brittany's wedding & reception 12.16.2011

My oldest childhood friend is now a married lady! I can't believe that Little Brittany (we called her that because my sister's name is Brittany too!) is all grown up and got married on Friday!

I went downtown with my friend Austin for my friend's wedding Friday morning, she had the BIGGEST smile on her face as she exited the temple hand in hand with her new hubby!

She came up and hugged me and it was just like we were 4 again playing dress up but this time it was not a game but real, my best friend got married! 

After we watched some the family take some photos Austin and I headed out.

Later that evening I had headed to my sister's house and her and her family left to go to pick up my mom from the Airport. After we headed to the Derbidge's Christmas family party and then up to North Salt Lake for the reception. Little Britt had a lovely hot coco and dessert bar which was delicious! Then came the toss of the bouquet-I didn't catch it (guess I'm not next to get married-shucks lol) Then the daddy daughter dances (she had one dance with her dad and then another with her step dad) after she and her husband did their first dance and then her hubby played and sang her a song on the piano-talented man!

I got to dance and catch up with her older brother Matt, its been so long since I'd seen him so that was awesome, it was awesome to see the whole family again :)

Congrats to Brittany and Ryan on your special day, becoming eternal partners is such an amazing thing-stay true to one another and say I love you each day!

Adventures. 12.16.2011

Today Austin and I got to go on an adventure! We drove to the Trax station by my Dad's house then took the Trax to downtown for my friend Brittany's wedding :) We made it downtown to Salt Lake City and ran around temple square to find which bride was ours lol but there was a lot of people getting married that morning so she was actually late (phew!) I didn't want to miss her coming out as Mrs. Barlow! Since we had some time to kill we waited for her in the waiting area, after we saw her and got some photos (that will be on another blog post). We walked around temple square, we went inside the tabernacle and got some photos and then we made our way to Gateway Mall to look around. Neither of us have been there in some time so it was quite hilarious to watch us try and find our way (me being from WA and him being gone on his mission for two years we were LOST! lol) and then we walked around in the different stores. Austin has NEVER had Starbucks (so I HAD to get him one) their peppermint hot coco is THE BEST :D We walked around Gateway holding onto our hot coco's to get warm because it was FREEZING! After that we headed back home on the trax and then we went to target for a gift for the reception and then back home! Thank you Austin for going downtown with me, I had a blast! :D

Out of all the things...12.13.2011

Tonight we did roommate Christmas. My two roommates were lucky enough to be done with finals on Wednesday so they were packed and ready to go whereas I was "lucky" enough to stay till Thursday...(really not so lucky). So we decided to swap gifts Tuesday night. And get this-out of all the things in the world you could get for someone, we all got each other scarves baha! It was pretty epic!

Carole got me a binder that she had prepped with lots of clear sheets so I can start putting together all of Nate's letters while he has been out on his mission. :D Then I got a scarf from Clara that she had made :)

Clara got a scarf from Carole and a lotion,body spray, and lip gloss set from me :)

Carole got a scarf from Clara and one from me lol plus lots of candy so she wouldn't have to go this holiday season without treats (she can't have chocolate!)

It was definitely a fun night, we toasted to apple juice (classy ;p) and chatted for a bit :)

Open Mic Night 12.9.2011

Tonight I made it out to my first Institute activity lol-before I go on don't think I'm inactive in church, I actually help plan and set up for all the activities I just have never been able to attend one of them thanks to school or pre-planned events other than church. BUT this time I got to go to it! I studied for my spanish final for a few hours prior to this so I felt quite confident in myself, well enough to take a break from it lol!
I have no talent whatsoever...not even in coloring as you can see-although I do think my Christmas tree turned out pretty nicely! But there are some very talented people that attend our institute and I was lucky enough to hear them sing, play, or crack jokes for me tonight! Add a little hot coco, some treats, and awesome friends and it made for a terrific night!!!! :)

Family 12.04.2011

A Grandma, a mother, a daughter, a niece. A brother, son, uncle. All different words that make up my family :)
I'm so glad that my Uncle Steve was able to come up to Washington this weekend for a late Thanksgiving dinner and that I was able to make it down from Seattle so that I could visit with him, my mom, and my nana!

December-can it really be? 12.1.2011

Has 12 months seriously gone by already?

Is it almost time for us to end 2011 and begin 2012?

Seriously?

I totally remember sitting in my sister's house last December on New Year's Eve looking at the missionary girl page on facebook that I belong to (best thing on facebook I swear!) and I remember clicking off rather quickly because all the girls that were going to get their guys back in 2011 were posting about how excited they were about it, don't get me wrong I would be too but its right then when it HIT me....the year of 2011 I'd go without seeing Nate. It was odd for me to think about it to be honest, the idea of not having his presence for a whole year seemed so weird-its like he wouldn't exist for a whole year (if that makes any sense) 

But we've gone through 11 months of that year already.

With December 1st here....it means bittersweet moments are headed my way:
 three more weeks of school.
two weeks of paying attention
one week of finals.
best friend getting married. (Brittany Erickson)
going to Utah to spend my winter break.
hopefully having a white Christmas,
consuming LOTS of hot coco.
seeing Temple Square with all the Christmas lights (my.favorite.thing.ever.)
new Christmas Eve pj's
listening to the night before Christmas.
reading the story of Jesus in the scriptures.
watching my niece and nephew wake up on Christmas morning.
spending time with my family.
relaxing for two and a half weeks.
not having to stress about school.
hanging with friends.
playing with my niece and nephew and all their new toys.
Christmas meals with the family.
getting some sleep (excited for that)
sparkling cider.
counting down to 2012
being able to say "I get my man back this year" on the missionary girl facebook page.
I.Love.Christmas.
Hello DECEMBER

p.s. Since its December and it is kind of a big deal ;) I need to post this....a WEEK from today Marlee gets her man back from his mission!!!! :) woohoo!

500 days of summer? 11.27.2011

Nope...not 500 days of Summer-however I do like that movie!

you could say its 500 days of winter though ;)

Sunday morning.

November 27, 2011

Marks 500 days of waiting for Elder Schott.

I can't believe its been that long to be honest.

 Yes some days I can't imagine making it to the next or to the end of this to be honest but at times I think its for my own good, if I didn't struggle I wouldn't be made stronger, I wouldn't see what I'm grateful for in life. 

someone once told me "if it wasn't hard it would be easy" the thing about easy things is...you get bored with them too fast, you lose interest sorta speak. When something is not worth fighting for people give up and get over it. I know this journey of waiting is hard...but I also know its because Nate is worth it. 

The sad days, where the tears just don't stop coming

The hand cramps from writing long letters.

The nasty taste from when you lick an envelope (its the worst!)

The lonely moments when all you wish is for a phone call, or even a simple text

The emptiness you feel when your hands are cold or you need comforting

 I'm almost onto my last spire. Time is passing....Each day is a day closer to seeing Elder Schott again. Its odd to think he will actually return one day-I mean 230 days left compared to 730 is nothing but to me the 8 months left he has is a REALLY long time lol. So it still kinda feels like that day next July will never actually come, but for the moment I am okay with being stuck in this time warp phase I'm in lol.

Isn't that such a perrty picture? 29 days to go till I'm in the "100's" :D

I'm "SORRY" 11.25.2011

I hate to post this.
But I must admit defeat. I lost the game I am most famous for in my family.
Tessa beat me every time at Sorry.
it was devastating!
I had no luck the whole game
She got all the "SORRY" cards, 11 (switch places) ones (which she always used to get me away from HOME even if it would get her closer to hers...she's evil I tell ya ;p)
Basically.....Tessa is the SORRY champion...congrats bud ;)

I'm the Jenga pro 11.24.2011

Just want you all to know that I am the jenga champion.

I beat Tessa over and OVER again....haha it was epic!!!

No butterfingers here-no siree!

I got skills-I'm the real ninja!

I can pull those sticks out lightning fast! like BAM! haha

Poor Tessa....don't you fret I'll teach you my ways ;)

BLACK friday 11.24-25.2011

Best night of the year happens after you are stuffed full of food

BLACK FRIDAY SHOPPING!!!

this is one of my favorite holidays lol

I love to watch the crazy ladies run around the stores grabbing all the good deals!

This year I got to give Tessa the experience for the first time :D (my mom and I may have scared her a bit though, it is quite a lot to take in lol)

We had to split up the stores this year because we had so many good deals to get! ;)

Tessa and I waited in Target's line-we got there at 10:30 and stood in line freezing to death till midnight. But don't worry we kept ourselves from totally freezing to death by listening to music and making up awesome dance moves-we are kinda known for that now ;p

After we hit up Target we booked it over to Old Navy to help out my mommie. Old Navy's theme was "Gobblepalooza" so they had these awesome 3-D glasses that we got to go around the store to see secret messages (ok kinda silly but at 2 a.m. and after no sleep it was a lot of fun lol)

After that we headed back to the house to rest up before our next adventure to Fred Meyer's at 5.

We left at 3:30 a.m. to go get in line, well my mom stood in line while Tessa and I sat in the car jamming out to music for the first little bit then decided to go wait in line on the other entrance of the store but there was like no one there so we walked from entrance to entrance instead (this is when the pictures in front of the store happened lol)

We scored some awesome deals this year while shopping, I remixed Christmas songs while waiting in line cracking both of us up, and got to spend the night with some awesome people :)

Thanksgiving feast 11.24.2011

Happy Thanksgiving ya'll :)

I hope your day was filled with lots of family time, yummy food and lots of relaxation!

I know mine was ;p

I brought home Tessa for the holiday which was awesome!

We went and saw Happy Feet 2-adorable :)

Ate lots of yummy food-mommie's cooking is the best (I got stuffed lol)

I'm grateful for lots this holiday season!

Thank you to my family and friends who are amazing to me :)

We like ninjas! 11.23.2011

Basically she is the COOLEST.
She has a laugh that is contagious.
She takes my stress away instantly.
I could talk to her all.night.long (which I did lol).
She is like a ninja.
But I'm a better poser ;p
Tonight was tons of fun, we spent hours listening to music and making up dances :)

Two spires completed 11.20.2011

Day 493.

 2 spires complete. 

237 days left. 

1 spire to go till I see you again!

Date Night 11.19.2011

So tonight I got to go out with my awesome friend Michelle. Michelle and I are lab partners in my chem class and we are both taking nutrition too so basically we spend a lot of time together lol good thing we get along REALLY well :)
Michelle is from Wenatchee and her boyfriend lives there and mine is temporarily out of the state too so we figured we should go out on a date night!
She picked me up around 5:30 on Saturday night and we headed to Southcenter mall to grab dinner and shop (because we are girls and that's what WE DO :)!)
We were searching around for places to eat and I saw BJ's Brewery and Restaurant....basically the best place on earth! I thought there was only one in Tacoma....BEST DISCOVERY EVER!!!! Michelle had never been so of course we had to go! We had their hand crafted rootbeer and shared a pizza and a pizookie (its a big cookie-basically a mini pizza cookie!) its delicious! the food was SOOOO good and the company was fantastic-we chatted the whole night! :)
Then we went inside the mall and shopped for a bit, we found a DownEast Basics 2nd BEST DISCOVERY OF THE NIGHT! (if you are from Utah or are LDS you know what this is but if you don't its basically a clothing store that has modest clothing, my favorite is the tank tops/camis because they are LONG which is always nice!) So we went in there and they were having a sale on accessories! SCORE! so we got headbands-now that its FREEZING in this state its nice to have while you are out walking!
Thanks Michelle for the much needed break from studying and awesome night! I loved shopping with you- it was tons of fun and you better believe another date night is in our future!!! :)

Service Project 11.19.2011

Today the LDS YSA got together and went to the Shoreline's Children's Center to help prep their land for winter-I think we may have been a bit late though because there is already frost out! (But better late than never right?)

We took out all the weeds, leaves, and trimmed down all the bushes.

Then we had a massive pile of dirt that we took and put all over the area.

 Here is the finished product of one side of the grounds, I'd say we did a pretty great job :)

 Then we moved onto what they call the dinosaur gardens...we got that all fixed up and ready to be played in again, well maybe in April when its a bit warmer out lol

 Then when all work was done we went and played on the toys-it was so much fun! Jackie (the red head), Tessa, Rachel (the squinter lol) and I made it to the top so of course I had to take a photo! ( I felt SO tall lol)

take it back to the 80's 11.18.2011

Tonight Carole and I went to our dorm's 80's night!

It was totally a spur of the moment thing (for me at least Carole had planned on going)

Carole was getting reading to go when she asked me one more time if I wanted to go with her...

 well I didn't have anything in my closet that is from the 80's but I got creative and put together an outfit from my aero (bright pink shirt), running shorts, carole's socks (matched my shirt which was cool), my awesome head band (it totally didn't look out of place with this outfit lol) and of course a side ponytail lol!

 They had decked out the walls with neon colors to make it look like we lived in the 80's which was sweet!

 I tried to be like Richard Simmons lol....

We totally rock the 80's ;p Tonight was a blast-they had a karaoke machine where we brought back to life all the songs from our childhood which was tons of fun! :D

The words of my heart 11.18.2011

Today I flipped over another page of journal to realize I was on my last page, where on earth did that time go-I started the journal (one on the right) right after I moved out of my dorm this past summer (June 2011) and now 5 months later I have completed it.
When I was little writing in a journal seemed pointless, I figured "NO ONE in the world would ever WANT to read what I'm writing" which at 12 or so years of age that is probably true, who am I kidding its probably true now...they say that your posterity one day will go back and read this (eh I doubt it) but if one of my kids wants to sit down one day to read what my life was like (or lack there of since I don't really have one) then I say go for it. To be honest the motivation to write in my journal is basically Nate (I swear he IS my everything!) I started to write in a journal right after he left (really because I have a bad memory so I wanted to remember what I had done the whole week when I sat down to write him on Sunday night lol) eh so my motivation might be a bit twisted but really all I have to say to that is "welcome to my life" ;p But hey its getting me to write in a journal at least lol.
I never really liked the idea of a journal because you don't really write to anyone-ok sure "your future children" but what if I don't have any lol then who is it going to? So I found it easier (for me) to make it out to Nate, so its kinda like it was before he left how we'd talk each night and tell each other how our day was...it makes it easier for me if I have someone to talk to! Yes I've already thought about the question what I'm going to do when he returns and I don't have to write him each week...well to be honest I have no idea but I do know that writing in a journal has become a habit (I've been doing it for 16 months I sure hope it has lol...you know you can make a habit in just 21 days!) So I'm sure I'll keep it up, maybe I'll still write to him in it, maybe I'll switch to once a week-who knows? But as Sis Bushman (wife of Bro Bushman who wrote the book Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling. they spoke to us at a fireside recently it was awesome!) said if you don't write it down it didn't happen! thats kinda my thinking with events, photo or it didn't happen lol more like I like to cherish memories through photos but hey it works :) So to my future reader of my journal whoever you may be I hope you learn something from it-if not its okay because my life is a bit routine and chaotic thanks to the stress of school and work! Well three down now onto my fourth :)

Guess who? 11.18.2011

This week at the Seattle Institute we got a special visitor! Can anyone tell who it is????

Elder Oaks :D

I was super stoked for this visit (my first up close and personal meeting of an apostle!)

I first heard the news from my roomie Carole who said it was a rumor going around...then on wednesday in my institute class (see I do attend!) I heard it from Bro Knowles!

Elder Oaks was coming to Washington for some leadership conference and was going to have an extra 30 mins to spare and wanted to come and talk to the YSA at in Seattle :)

 I raced from work on Friday morning so I could make it to the institute in time! I ended up deciding to skip my spanish class-yes I know its bad to skip class but come on its an apostle!!!! (cut me some slack)
Elder Oaks arrived with his cute wife and introduced themselves, then Elder Oaks said he would love to shake all our hands but he felt inspired to talk to us about some issues that cause the apostles worry these days. So sadly I didn't get to shake his hand or take a photo with him I did get some of him counseling us!

 His words were awesome-helping us prepare for the church to be made really the attention of the media with the elections and how to deal with it along with Satan's temptations that come along with media.

After he exited, I actually got to go up to his wife and talk to her for a bit-so I got to shake her hand and she was holding his hand when they walked in so it kinda counts lol ;)
I am grateful that I got to partake of this wonderful event, I'm grateful for being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Today was a great day and definitely one for the journal :)

whats 16/2? 11.14.2011

here is some math for ya'll...

what is 16 (how many months Elder Schott has been out)

divided by

2 (Nate and I) equal????

8 MONTHS to go :)

 Eight months till I see my best friend again, eight months till I get to be in his arms, seems like forever to go but to think I've done twice that already its really nothing! 242 days left...every day is one day closer to being with him but also its one day closer to the 100's (aka 199), may not seem like much to some of you but to a girl waiting for a missionary getting out of the 200's and into the 100's is kind of a big deal!

 I'm going to be freaking out in 43 days just to warn everyone lol you won't want to be near me when I hit double digits (aka 99 days) lol its going to be crazy!

Its crazy how time is flying by, today marks Elder Schott's 16 month mark, I have 4 weeks left of school for the quarter, christmas is in less than 2 months, its almost 2012...SERIOUSLY??? Well ready or not here goes another month :)