Meet Pebbles June.27-28.2011

Meet Pebbles.

She is Melissa and Tim Babcock's little girl (well not so little lol) but she sure thinks she is a baby So Melissa's grandma passed away so they headed over to Eastern Washington and asked me to watch their house and their dog. I went over Sunday night to get the run down of the house (good thing too because the alarm system and tv were super complex lol)

Monday morning they left and I went over to check on the dog-we played outside for a bit, she really loves playing fetch! Then I headed to go clean the field up from the firework show and after I came back and we played outside a bit then we chilled. I went and picked up my mom and we headed to the bookstore then I dropped her off to watch Pebbles while I went to my ASL class :) After wards my mom mom went home and not even five mins after Pebbles rammed through the screen door and broke it off! good thing she just popped it off the hinges and didn't actually break the screen! (phew!) I watched the Dilemma (good movie) then off we went to bed. As I was reading my scriptures Pebbles was situating her bedding, kinda cute to watch her position the blanket every which way till she had it the way she liked lol :)

Then came night time-they weren't kidding when they said she sometimes forgets she is a dog and is more like a baby....She woke up every two hours to move around then go back to sleep and with her tags on her collar I got woken up too! About 4 a.m. she jumped onto the bed with me and I was too tired to push her off so I let her stay and I wake up about five minutes later with a head near my chest, yup she was spooning with me (and for once I was the big spoon BAHA!) Then around 6a.m. ( I know these times cuz I kept checking my phone) she got up and crawled under the blankets to the foot of the bed where she stayed till 8 when she decided she was up for the day. I however could have slept longer but nervous she would go to the bathroom inside I got up to let her out...I kinda forgot about the alarm system which I just so happened to set off when I opened the sliding door (horrible wake up call that's for sure!) then I ran to the bedroom to grab the keys and turned it off! After her bathroom break we sat and watched Rio, well I sat there as she laid on my lap sleeping (go figure she got to take a nap lol) If you don't know I'm not a big pet person so having the dog lay on me is a HUGE step for me :)
Tim calls Pebbles his "little girl" and he isn't kidding lol, this dog forgets she is a dog half of the time and curls up on the couch to sleep or will crawl under your blanket so she can cuddle with you!

After she woke up from her nap I took her on a walk...ok she took me on a walk lol

Then we played outside for a bit, we ended up getting the ball stuck on the roof so I went and grabbed the ladder and got it off (who said short people can't do things?!?!) then we came in and she crashed on the floor (i think i wore her out lol) So as she slept I watched Kung Fu Panda and made Mac and Cheese for dinner -who said I couldn't live on my own lol!
House sitting was fun and I'm grateful the Babcock's thought of me to do it :) Pebbles and I had a great time spending the time together :)

Here is a video of Pebbles playing fetch-she recently graduated from doggie school so we practiced "sit" and "stay" :) She has this awesome dog toy which every pet owner should have its called "chuck it" its lets you pick up the ball to throw it so you can play fetch without actually having to touch the ball-which are gross by the way!

Sunday Best June.26.2011

Mommie and I in our Sunday best getting ready to go to church.

I love having church at one-gives me time to sleep in, have a yummy breakfast (made by the wonderful lady standing next to me), and get ready for church :)

I got to say the closing prayer today which was awesome :)

My beautiful mother :)

4th of July/ 1 year package June.26.2011

I can't believe I am FINALLY writing this post (this year mark has been a long time coming-I think I was thinking about this package even before he got his call lol)

So I like to theme my packages (call me weird -its okay :) ) But seeing as Elder Schott's year mark is a week after the 4th I decided to combine the two holidays (his year mark is a holiday in my book lol) and make the theme yup you probably guessed it "red,white, & blue"

I'm a big 4th of July fan-the hamburgers, fireworks, and hanging with my family is probably the best ever! Oh ya and in my family we always do 4th of July shirts from Old Navy, this year we got Nate his very 1st (he will have many more to come ;) ).

I sent him this photo in his box of me standing next to his chart-I'm just a few days away from hitting the top of my temple calender where then I will go from counting UP to counting DOWN :)

Here is his first t-shirt (excuse the awkward smile, I was slightly still trying to figure how to hold it when my mom snapped the shot lol)
Alrighty now for the contents :)

So I got the idea a few weeks ago when I saw the word incredible-I think Nate is pretty incredible plus it has the word "red" in it so it fit perfectly :)
Ok so for the

"red" section-he got a red tie, sweedish fish, red jello, red lei's, twix (his favorite) is written in red (two birds with one stone-ya buddy)

"white" section-he got 12 talks (on white paper ) with 12 different topics that we've worked on while he has been out (a different topic each month, its an amazing idea to do-I highly encourage it!) and a sticky note on them saying the field is "white" and ready to harvest, play-doh that was white (awesome find by the way!), the white box has red & blue bands inside of it (you know like the livestrong wrist bands but his said Freedom, life, and liberty (red one) and Institute rocks (blue one)), and gum

"blue" section- the Old Navy shirt obviously lol, blue jello, blueberry muffin mix, blue frisbee, and glow sticks!

Here is a picture of it all in the box (I was house sitting so my awesome mom put it all together for me and shipped it off -ps she also helped with the ideas for the gifts and sayings on each thing too:) she is a clever one!)

We ran up to the church bookstore on monday afternoon to grab some temple photos (it is what he asked for in his last letter-He doesn't have one in his apartment so we got him one of the Seattle Temple :) )
I hope he gets the theme lol but I truly do think Elder Schott is incredible :) He loves this gospel and the Lord with all his heart and is serving him so well and also the people of San Antonio. It makes me smile whenever I get an email or a letter from him telling me of a lesson he took part in, the Holy Ghost confirming the truth to someone, a baptism he participated in or a talk he gave in church :) I love him and I'm so proud of his willingness to leave his family, friends, and me behind to go out and be the Lord's hands here on earth for two years. One year down and one more year to go Elder Schott-keep up the hard work and return to me with honor :)

Doing the dirty :p June.27.2011

So the firework show I helped out with on Saturday night was amazing [see blog post about it!] and as everyone knows you make a mess you gotta clean it up lol! So monday morning I headed out to the church field where we had shot them off and found this: (hard to see I know but there was LOTS of little pieces hidden in the grass that I got to pick up! oh and you can't forget getting all the big chunks that flew out to the middle of the field!)

An hour and a half later-battery of ipod dying on me this is what I saw: :)
Fingers black (dang firework powder), me all hot and sweaty (70 degree weather+ work=nasty!), and rain (yup 70 and raining-only in WA!) made me excited to go and take a shower!!! :)

Firework show June.25.2011

So when a friend of our family John asked if I would help out with a firework show he was doing for the Single Adults (30+ singles) Conference-they were having an all day event for single LDS within our stake who have kids and at the end would be a firework show! I agreed and he picked me up Saturday noonish and we set out to put all fireworks in the container and then we drove over to the church and I emptied them onto the field and set it all up. My mom came and got me around 4 and we went to my Ward's activity [check out Price is Right CTR style post] and then I went to a friend's graduation [check out LeeAndra's grad party post] then around 930 when it was dark I went back and enjoyed the show :) Hope you like the pictures of the fireworks (I'm not a pro photographer but I'm learning how to get somewhat decent photos of the fireworks-working out the timing is tricky!)

Here is a video of the fireworks-Man they were huge and right above me (kinda scary at some points lol) but the show was awesome as usual and it was nice to see all my hard work be appreciated by all the single adults :)

LeeAndra's Grad Party June.25.2011

I've been graduated for a whole year-wow that sounds SO weird lol But with me having a year of college under my belt that means I get to attend all my friend's grad parties! This saturday after my ward's activity I went to LeeAndra Wheelock's party :) Ah man I remember all the seminary moments with this girl-we may have went to rival schools but we were awesome friends inside the church lol (common ground lol)

LeeAndra cracks me up :) (such a poser lol) This is her graduation display-her gown, some photos of her favorite moments in life, and her awards and that big thing in the front is what we like to call Death, Torture, what drives seniors to go crazy (or known as the Portfolio lol) But its basically your life story (well while in high school at least) in one book..so four years of your life packed into a book-your accomplishments, awards, struggles, hard work (I totally remember working on that-its a lot of work but it feels SO good to be done with that!)
Ah my buddy Dempsey-its been about a year since I've seen this kid-its so weird to go from seeing someone everyday to not seeing them for a year lol
So they had a pinata at the party and the Wheelock's dad called me up for my turn (i don't play baseball) I reluctantly went up there and tried my turn at swinging and was super excited that I ended up doing better than the one of the Wheelock boys (they all play baseball) Then it was Dempsey's turn (he is a cheater lol) then after he was done his little brother Benjamin turns to me and goes "ha Dempsey beat you" haha sad fact but true :(

The Price is Right-CTR Style June.25.2011

Mom and I went up to my ward building for our ward activity tonight. We played the Price is Right (Choose the Right) style. So my mom decided since we are Huskies after all (go UW woot woot) that we would wear our Huskie shirts :) We started out wearing our yellow Team BN West sweatshirts (yellow and purple are my school colors)-the sweatshirts came from the Relay for Life race we did in 2005 for my mom's old work BN West-but they have since merged and since we were going to a church event we decided to change the name (or make it apply to the event) and so we were called the "Beautiful Nephites from the West" ;) clever huh?!? The game was fun, I got called up as a contestant but sadly failed at each attempt to guess the correct price of appliances-my excuse was that I'm not old enough yet so I haven't had to experience purchasing them yet (just to let you know it totally made sense because the people who won were a husband and wife who have 6 kids-i think they got experience buying the fridge, washer and dryer, and tv-i however do not ;p)

The game was fun-hilarious to watch some people play the games (the games were ones that the Elders quorum had come up with so they were awesome!) then after we had dinner which was delish! :) Good night over all :)

Miss Charlotte JoAnne June.23.2011

Today Rasler came and picked me up and I got to go with her to visit Mrs. Patton (my old child care teacher) and her two month old baby girl Charlotte :) It was a nice chance to catch up with her on the drive up to Marnie's house (Mrs. Patton). We grabbed Taco Del Mar for lunch (which was delicious by the way!) and headed to the house to eat it and visit with Marnie :) It was so nice seeing her (she was on maternity leave when I went and visited last at my old high school) so it was awesome to catch up with her! And oh my goodness she has a precious little girl-she is so chubby and adorable :) and she smiled for me when I saw her for the first time! (made me happy :])

We sat and chatted for a bit while I played with this little princess :)

Here is Rasler (her name is Angela but I call her Rasler cuz that's her last name and I'm so used to calling her that from high school so it has just kinda stuck-its odd calling your teachers their first name after four years of calling them their last one lol) and Charlotte :) Or should I say Aunt Angela :) that's what she will be known as to this little girl!
We ran to pick up the Patton's dog at Pet Smart-Georgie was getting groomed :) But on the way there Charlotte held my hand as she drifted off to sleep -it was adorable I had to take a photo of it :) (p.s. i love how my ring is like bigger than her whole hand lol)
And you can't forget the proud mommy with her baby girl! I can't believe Charlotte is already two months old-she is sure a cutie :)
I am so glad that Rasler asked me to come along today-I had a blast :) It was so nice catching up with her and Marnie but also to meet little Miss Charlotte! I love hanging out with them & I can't wait to do it again :)

2 journals down...onto my third June.14.2011

I can't believe I am actually writing this...I keep looking at my journal in shock that I've actually filled it up! All my childhood I can remember two things being taught to me OVER and OVER again 1) remember who you are & 2) write in a journal. the FIRST one I took to heart-everywhere I went I tried to remember WHO I was, what I STOOD for, and what I WANTED in life and I KNEW that the ONLY way to get there was by choosing right actions. the SECOND however no matter how many times it was DRILLED into my head by parents, achievement day leaders, primary teachers,young women leaders, seminary teachers-it just wasn't happening, my life just wasn't that exciting-I did the SAME thing everyday it seemed so it seemed POINTLESS to write it down. So I didn't. Also writing "dear diary" or to no one seemed DUMB to me (no offense to anyone who does that) but to me it seemed like a WASTE of my TIME! So I passed...I started my blog and that's what I passed off as my journal for a good eh five years. Then I moved out and up to UW for school. I seemed find the IMPORTANCE of writing in my journal...well it started slightly before that, when Nate left and I had no one to tell everything I was feeling to anymore I began to write it down....and basically every night from there on that's what I do. I sit down each night before bed and tell Nate what my day was like--emotions, activities, accomplishments/failures...I swear once I directed my journal to someone (ya I doubt he will EVER read it but hey its just the idea) I had the desire to write in it. I have found 2 benefits to writing....#1 At the end of the week when I am writing Nate and I forget what I have done in the past week (which I tend to do often lol) I can just flip open my journal and WAHLA! its right there to help me out...kinda like having him back with me cuz that's what he used to do lol! and #2 I can go back and read it and reflect on how I was feeling about a certain situation and how I got through a trial...a few days ago I went back to what I wrote a year ago...odd to see how I've changed emotionally in a year (CRAZINESS!). I'm glad for the individuals in my life who have not given up to have me write in a journal. If no one ever reads it at least I know its benefited me in my lifetime :) So I thank you :)

WAYSAC activities June.18.2011

So saturday morning seemed to come super quick (mostly because I was only able to get 5 and a half hours of sleep lol) After the game starting late on Friday night and hanging out afterwards I didn't make it home till after midnight on well Saturday morning lol! Then Saturday morning my mom woke me up at 6:30 so I could be out the door with Steven at 7 for our 5k run :) So Steven picked me up and we headed on the freeway to the 12th and Pearl building...well we got talking and he kinda missed the exit (that boy can't multitask lol) so he got off at the down town Tacoma exit which goes right past the port of Tacoma...so we were just a bit off where we were supposed to be (sarcasm). Steven figured he could get us there by staying on the road...we ended up at a dead end (he was SO wrong lol) then we turned around and hopped back on the freeway (my idea in the first place lol) then when we finally made it to the church, luckily on time we got more bad news-due to the rain..oh ya forgot to mention that it was raining! the 5k got cancelled :( Ah man! But we went on the run anyways with anyone who had showed up. So the run was supposed to take place at Tacoma Community College in the forest area but since the race actually didn't go on there was no signs posted for us to follow. As we got running and everyone began to spread out I ended up by myself (the people I had been with decided to walk and I wanted to keep going) so ya well I ended up coming to an opening that had three ways I could choose. Not knowing which one I tried them all lol and lets just say my 5 mile run turned into more like a 10 mile one lol. Good work out though! My friend Steven and the guy who had been in charge of the run finally came and found me :) then we headed back and got breakfast :)

After that we headed into the Chapel and had the opening devotional. I was asked to conduct the opening song (in front of 500 people-eh no pressure lol!) then we got to hear from the counselor of the Seattle Temple presidency :) it was an amazing talk!

After came the classes:

1st one-Natasha and I went to the Women's self defense class. We learned the basics of kicking peoples butt lol-don't mess with us in a dark alley! :p

2nd was swing dancing. We got to learn the basic steps and then did them to music which was fun!

While Natasha was dancing, I was taking the photos (the teacher is the guy who does it at my Institute so I had learned it before and since there is always TOO many girls and NOT enough guys I sat out and just watched) But while I was sitting out Steven was outside writing his talk-for Sunday, talk about procrastination ;)

Natasha learning to partner swing :)

So after the swing dancing we went to the salsa one-that was fun, got to shake what my momma gave me ;)

Then it was time for the Amazing Race -around Tacoma (literally) Oh man what an adventure we went on! So the first stop from the church was the institute. then after solving the puzzle we went to the Kmart. Off to find Jefferson Place (later discovered that wasn't a street but a name of the park-that one was our own fault but hey we don't know Tacoma at all, this part of Tacoma at least!) After finding the park we searched for the people we were supposed to be meeting-they weren't at the location they were supposed to be. Then we had to get out of the car to play croquet. We all kinda failed at that lol. Off to the next location which was definitely a wild goose chase-the paper said to travel .3 miles after you turned right and you'd end up on 44th (we turned right from 6th ave-ya so we were slightly confused) we stopped and asked the police officers at the coffee shop for directions and they told us that the instructions were wrong and we had to travel more than .3 miles but more like 3 miles (so much for that!) So about halfway there the lady calls us and asks if we are on the way cuz she didn't want to leave us (we told her that her directions were wrong and the reason we were late was because we were following the rules-guess thats what ya get for being obedient huh?) then we found her and she told us our next destination was at the Rose Garden at Point Defiance Zoo...so much for staying in the 5 mile radius of the church -psh!

Then we had to run around the garden trying to match up the titles of the flowers to the boxes on our sheet-well guess what the boxes didn't fit the words (go figure right) so we were confused. Surprisingly enough we weren't the last group there haha and no one could figure it out! the lady came and we explained to her that it was incorrect (between you and I, I don't think she liked it very much that we told she was wrong) but she told us that the last spot was Owen Beach (there was no "w" in the options) so ya we were totally confused-apparently most people guessed it but since we aren't that familiar with the area we had no idea. We drove down to the beach and guess what we weren't the last group!!! my teammates got to snack on some donuts :) While I took photos of them with the ocean behind them!

Steven and cassie-Steven's way of showing brotherly love lol

Natasha, Cassie, & Steven in front of Owen beach :) Job well done guys!

After this we went over to Applebee's for dinner (2 for $20 people!) I got 3 cheese chicken penne :) yummy stuff!!! Then we headed over to the Tacoma Narrows Airport Hanger in Gig Harbor :) Yup we got to have a dance on the airport runway!!! :D The dance was super fun-we got to let loose for a bit which is always nice and I got to hang out with some of my friends that I hadn't seen in a while :) The night is definitely one to remember-we had a girl have a seizure and then on the way home we saw a six car pile up (all of which were adults that had come from the dance-at least we know that there wasn't any alcohol involved lol) but it was rainy and so that might have caused it-i hope they we were all ok! We got home safe and sound and off we all went to bed!!!

This weekend was super fun and I'm so glad I went :D It was awesome to hang with my friends and get to spend some time with adults my own age and of my same beliefs! Thank you Natasha, Steven, Cassie, and James for coming to this activity and making my weekend fantastic!!!

p.s. sorry for the LONG book but I had to fill ya'll in on my weekend!

WAYSAC Baseball June.17.2011

This weekend I got to attend my first Washington Young Single Adult Conference! This weekend was packed full with fun activities-first off on Friday night we (LDS from all over Washington State) went to the Tacoma Rainiers baseball game at Cheney Stadium. I opted to drive which was probably the first mistake lol (me+freeway+lots and lots of traffic=anxious me lol) so i was basically freaking out trying to get Natasha, Shanel and Steven over there before the game started at 7. After getting stuck in parking lots, running into Fred Meyer's to buy snacks for the game and then trying to find a parking place since everywhere was full we ended up parking in the Boy Scouts parking lot (always can rely on the Boy Scouts lol). We got our tickets, I got my free shirt :) and we found our seats, ok maybe we found my seat lol everyone else had different seats and we wanted to sit together! We sit down and the announcer says "game has been delayed till 8 due to traffic" (just our luck!) So to pass the hour wait we went down to grab our free hot dog, chips, & drink, and oh ya we watched the Mariners game on the big screen (we got to watch the game in "a baseball stand" so it was like watching it for free lol)

The game finally was underway at 8 :) Oh ya guess who the Tacoma Rainiers played??

Yup that's right-the Salt Lake Bees!!! Picking which team to root for was flip flopped throughout the night lol At the end the Salt Lake Bees (or as Steven called it..."those mormons" lol) ended up winning against the Tacoma Rainiers 4-3!

The baseball game was super fun (a long night but totally fun!) Steven is hilarious and always a joy to be around :) Shanel got goofier as the night went on too...she really was excited for the fire work show at the end!! Natasha doesn't like her photo taken so I never really got a good one of her but she is the one in the green hoodie lol! And Shea is on the left-he is from my University ward up at UW so it was cool to see him out of all single adults there! The fireworks were worth the wait-as most things are ;) Music and fireworks and then an awesome evening of chatting and goofing off :) Walking in the parking lots dodging cars lol -trying to get back to my car haha

11 Months down!!! June.14.2011

My oh my Elder Schott is growing so much it is insane!!! I love getting his letters and emails from his dad telling me all about his experiences while he is out serving the Lord in San Antonio, Texas. He has come so far in these past 11 months, his testimony keeps on growing, his gospel knowledge his expanding, and his confidence is getting greater! I love what the mission does to these young men, he is becoming such a wonderful man and I am so blessed to be a part of his mission and get to experience these moments with him :)

I ask each week for photos of him and he IS getting better at sending them, I'll admit that but he could get better lol... ;)

This is of his latest baptism, He is an Air Force Graduate, Rob is his name-he is awesome according to Nate so I'll take his word for it lol :)

This is Elder Schott's new companion Elder Ross-they both have the same first name (haha) Good thing they don't go by their first name or anything ;)
Elder Schott with Connie (new convert) and Freddy's (on date for baptism soon) kids, these two little girls always look so adorable in their photos...this is when Nate went to go say goodbye before he left on his next transfer. (isn't he looking tan???)
This is of the whole family (connie, freddy, and their four kids)...Nate grew really close to them in his 12 weeks he was in Converse, Texas...He was really sad to say goodbye but he promised me he would stay in touch (i taught him good lol)
So what else scares a missionary girlfriend more than nothing else???? Hearing the dangers her guy experiences while he was out!!! This doesn't scare me as much as other experiences he has had but still ...made me think "really Nate?" lol..made me think those two men are crazy out there! I just hope they stay safe!
Elder Schott....11 months down-1 to go! 30 days..i got this :) I can't wait till ya hit the year mark-it will be so awesome to finally be on the countDOWN instead of this whole countingUP thing ;p lol These past 11 months have been awesome and I really wouldn't have changed it for the world, I have grown so much since Elder Schott has been out. I love the fact that he is out serving the Lord and is being an obedient servant to him and to the people of San Antonio! Elder Schott keep up your hard work :)

Zack's Baseball Game

After Alec's game we walked across the field to head over and watch Zack's tball game. Man those 5 year olds can hit the ball pretty far!!! I was impressed :)

Oh and the best part of the night was watching how quickly they lose attention lol..you had kids drawing in the sand of the bases, chasing each other around the field, one kid even talked to himself while he was out there then did a few dance moves-ah too cute!

Zack was the kid who chased his friends around the field...I just had to get a video of it :)

Alec's Baseball game June.13.2011

Ember invited my mom and I to watch Alec's baseball game at 5:30 monday night! Our weather is being so bipolar-its70 degrees yet raining. Its raining and windy. How the heck is it raining in June...this is supposed to be my summer!!! AHHHH!!! I want my sun!!!!

Well back to the game...it was super fun and I'm so proud of Alec and how much he has improved since he started. With Coach pitching this year it makes it a bit more difficult but Alec stepped up to the plate and showed off his skills :)

Video from Alec's game...He is getting so good at hitting the ball and running!

Oh the times....

So what a week for calender photos :) hit the 400 days left mark and then the next just happened to be 399 Ya Buddy :) One more strip and I'm at the top hitting day 365 then it will be all down hill from there!!!!

Goodbye 400's Hello 300's :)