Elder Schott & Elder Taylor Jan. 31.2011

Got my weekly email today from Nate's dad and a picture came with it :) YAY I love pictures! Elder Schott got transfered this last week to Converse, Texas and this is his new companion Elder Taylor. So we live in a SMALL world-the two Elder's were talking and introducing themselves and discovered that they are both from Tacoma, Washington (they actually live about ten mins apart) and both were on their high school swim teams so that means that they swam against each other too! I am glad he has someone that he has common interests with-I think it will make it easier to live with for the next 6+ weeks with :) Love you Elder Schott!

Perrty Nails Jan 22. 2011

So Saturday afternoon after Carlye decided to wake up (literally afternoon-she got up at 1 p.m. lol!-granted we were up till 2a.m. hanging out) we went out to grab lunch at the Rusty Pelican! I ordered biscuits and gravy (Carlye's recommendation-which by the way was fantastic)

Afterwards we headed to go and get our nails done, Carlye has never had fake nails and I love them anyways so we decided to splurge and get our nails done! It was fun just sitting there and chit chatting as we got pampered! I love girlie outings :D

The Symphony Jan 22. 2011

One of the most AWESOME nights of my life happened this last Saturday! Tessa got tickets to the symphony for Christmas and invited me to attend with her!!!! We went all out for it and got dressed up (all fancy like) and went out to an "adult restaurant" called The Taste (no cafeteria food for us!) Oh my GOODNESS-can i say how delicious that food was?!?! To start off we got their homemade bread with these Parmesan chips (man if they ever sell those at a grocery store-i'm buying them!) So I ordered the angel hair pasta-which melted in my mouth at every bite! Tessa got Pork Chops-i even took a bite and fell in love with it!

Next we headed to get dessert at this place called Gelatimo! Gelato is amazing! I got Caramel and Lemone (yes I ordered it with an accent lol)-great combo, definitely cleansed my palate lol Tessa ordered Caramel and Pistachio-which wasn't half bad lol

Now onto the BIG event-So here's a picture of Benaroya Hall where the Seattle Symphony Orchestra performs :)

Tessa and I in front of Benaroya Hall

A picture from where we are sitting-oh my goodness our seats were awesome! And the symphony was terrific-they performed Mozart's music. I have a new appreciation for music, those people were incredible! I am so grateful that Tessa invited me-thanks again!

Tessa and I in front of Benaroya Hall-man was that a fantastic night!

Journal! Jan. 21. 2011

Delayed a bit I know :/ but I had a hectic week so now's my chance to catch up! So I can proudly say for the first time in my life (yes it took me 19 years) I have completed a journal from cover to cover :) Usually I start them and then the umph goes away and the habit is lost. But since Nate is gone and I write him each week about my life I like to write things down so come Sunday I will remember what I've done each day :) So Nate has been gone a little over six months so that means I have been writing each night for that long-(not trying to sound like I'm bragging I am just really excited that I have made it into a habit!) Thank you Nate for suggesting me to write in a journal each night :)

UW Gymnastics Meet Jan. 21. 2011

Last night Tessa came over from Seattle University to come watch the UW gymnastics meet vs California State with me :) Ok i'm jealous-i'll admit it those girls were amazing! I took Carlye's camera so I got awesome photos! (try like over 200-those girls do some incredible tricks!) They did four rotations of the four events (vault, balance beam, floor, and bars) and UW ended up winning overall and many first places in individual events -go DAWGS :) I had a great night-thank you Tessa for coming with me and even wearing purple to support UW lol

Art Class-Project 1 Jan 21. 2011

So I decided to get one of my VLPA credits out of the way and take an Art class with my roommate Carlye. We are taking ART 166 Intro to Design...which has been an awesome class so far-its cool to see the different styles of art :) So for our first project we got split into two categories (movement and connection) I got movement-just in case you couldn't tell lol!

I kinda wish it would snow again so that I could retake this photo from a different angle...:/
I can't tell which ping pong shot I like better...i used the second one for my class but I kinda like this one too :)
Caught one of the Elder's in action while juggling-i just need to reshoot him with a different background!

Caught Electra in the act of catching the pool ball

Thank you Electra for being my model :) this book one turned out awesome-my teacher loved it!
Who knew that cooking could actually be good for my art class haha...and yes i boiled this water myself lol..I just need to add some more colors to make it a better composition :)

The Stupid Jar has arrived Jan 18. 2011

Well its finally here :/ not sure exactly how I feel about it thus far...So let me explain the story behind the jar. So my roommate Carlye hates whenever she hears me talk negatively about myself (I am trying to work on it...hitting the gym everyday and trying to think positively about myself!) And so she got fed up with always saying you are stupid and she wanted to actually do something about it-so she went down to Paint the Town and made the Stupid Jar. So the rules are that every time someone says or does something stupid near it one must pay the 25Cents fee. So basically the moral of the story is for the next little bit until i learn my lesson about thinking positively about myself...either I am going to become super broke or be really quiet!

Fun Times :) Jan 14. 2011

So Eric came to visit Carlye hang out and once I got done with classes and work I got back and they were still here so I got a chance to chill with them :) While Carlye was doing something on her computer I played Eric in a game of jenga-ok so we had been playing for like ten minutes before we realized that we were playing wrong (ha yes we were playing Jenga wrong lol) we forgot to replace the pieces once we pulled them out..haha we were just placing them on the floor next to us lol (yup we are dorks)...after being made fun of Eric lost so we had to play again so he could win (only fair right lol) well after that we took pictures on carlye's webcam (its her favorite past time lol) Eric and Carlye did the monkey faces- and i thought carlye and i were going for smiles till she turned and stuck her tongue out on me haha oh well it was still fun :)

G.N.O. Jan 14-17 2011

Well actually it was more like girls night in lol..So i took two of my friends home with me to help house sit while my mom was over in good old Utah for my big bros birthday! With MLK day on monday we got an extra day off which meant more sleeping in and relaxing which is just what the doctor ordered :) Carlye is feeling much better after a weekend sleeping in a real bed (dorm beds just aren't good)!

We spent the weekend chilling in parkland and eating way too much junk food (dang hostess store) and watching movies (my neighbor buys most every movie that comes out so we hit him up for movies :D)

Saturday consisted of sleeping in-oh man does it feel nice to not wake up till 10 :D (granted we didn't go to bed till like 2 because we were watching the Lovely Bones which is an awesome movie) but hey sleeping in and then lounging around is fine by me! We hit up my old high school for their winter production (they did MASH) it was nice to see all my old teachers and visit with good friends! We then went to the mall to do what girls do best lol-shop! It was awesome! Took Electra to BJ's so she could experience hand crafted root beer and cream soda-we had a contest of who could drink more..she won-she ended up hitting 4 and I only made it to 3 :/ but hey that is still a lot lol! (and man was the bathroom calling our names on the way home-thank heavens for two bathrooms lol)

We started watching The Back Up Plan and then Natasha came over and we decided to go hit up Coldstone for dessert-ya probably not the smartest idea but I got a gift card to there and I never use them and since I had three other mouths I figured they could help me out :)

We came back and painted our nails as we watched The Craigslist Killer (David had recorded it for me!) that was intense-well actually that's a lie..I thought it would be better but I guess if they showed ALL the girls it would become the length of a Lord of the Rings film :p

We hit the sheets and had another amazing night of sleep-i personally loved sleeping in my mom's huge bed (definitely better than my normal twin size at the dorm lol) Sunday morning consisted of us sleeping lol and then Electra and I got ready for church (which was at 1) and Carlye started on her Calculus homework *yuck*. Church was good and it was nice to see everyone (its been about a month) WOW how the little kids grow in just a month!

Came back home and made Dinosaur nuggets and tater tots for lunch (yup you heard right and i know you're jealous :p) We ate that as we watched the Social Network-kinda of boring for me..seemed like it dragged on a bit and it totally made Mark Z. look like a jerk :0

Sunday night was awesome...we hit up the Marini's for dinner (thanks again Joe & Ember for the lasagna and delicious rolls) and played the wii for a bit and wrestled...which was hilarious :) Then we hit up the Quigley's for some air hockey and pool and then we finished off with dessert (shawna made her awesome oreo brownies- i LOVE those!!) Came home sunday night totally exhausted haha Carlye and I went to bed and Electra stayed up and watched the Other Boleyn Girl-she said it was good so I guess I am going to have to watch it another time lol :)

Monday was our day off so that meant another day to sleep in! My mom flew back in to washington and got dropped off around 11 as we were just getting up and lounging around :) We started packing up our things and headed back to UW-after we got back we hit up Safeway and got groceries (thank you Dad and Cricket for the Safeway gift card-it was much appreciated!)

Elder Schotts 6 month mark Jan 14th 2011

Today marks Elder Schott's 6th month of serving the Lord!!! Seems just like yesterday when he left (I hope that feeling lasts :D). Elder Schott I am so proud of you! I love getting your letters each week (highlight of my week!) and seeing how you are growing-your testimony just shines through them..I loved your quote in my last letter "it doesn't matter what he said we know the Book of Mormon is true and thats that!'' You are such a great example to me and I love you so much (for so many reasons) but one in particular is your challenge to me to keep up our reading each night while you are gone....23 more days and we will have finished the Book of Mormon-you are such a great support to me even if you are far away and I thank you for that!

Like you say at the end of each letter "Study hard and remember to stay strong :D''...I'll see you in 18 months, I love you Elder Schott!

Elder Schott with his best friend Elder Mosley when he entered the MTC

Elder Schott with his companion Elder Johnson

That mark is 6 months :D (close up of it!)

Elder Schott's calender board! Six months..

Brandon's 22 Birthday Jan 13. 2011

22 years ago my mommie gave birth to my BIG bro at 7:11 (no not the place the time!) I just wanted to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRANDON! I can't believe you are 22-that's like insane-(I still remember following you around when we lived in Sandy with my barbie doll as you and your friends played with G.I. Joe :p)....anywho! I can't believe what you have completed in your lifetime already-you surprised the whole family at your graduation being in the top 10% in math (dad was super proud & my jaw dropped lol) and then you served the Lord for 2 yrs in Mexico (awesome accomplishment & I LOVED writing you each week-you definitely helped me through some rough times, so thanks for always writing me back ;) ) And now you are in the Academy :) I hope you have an incredible birthday (wish I was there to celebrate it with you but just know i'm wishing you the best and that I LOVE YOU)-your little sis