Spoke in Church

We were asked to speak in church and it was going to be Derrick's last time at church, we had a nice luncheon for him going away and for his 31st birthday! What a fun day! We had cousins, friends, and family come! We were not expecting and big crowd but we wanted a place where even our close friends could come! Can I just say, we have the best friends in the world! We were sad that Derrick's parents did not stay for the party. I'll leave it at that! Frustrated, yes, disappointed, yes! In the end it is their loss and we had a BLAST!!

Cute Birthday BOY! 

Elder Kava

A hard day came when I realized a friend from my mission died! The second elder from NOM to pass away. He was so young!! Like they say, The Good Die Young! My heart hurts for his family, I can't stop thinking about him and our time in NoM, Nebraska Omaha Mission! Elder Kava was a gentle giant!! He was a huge Tongan. He was always kind to me and I wished we kept in touch after the mission besides through Facebook!!
If anyone knows the caterpillar from a Bugs Life... Well when I first met Elder Kava he made his hands short and waved them up and down and said, "i'm such a beautiful butterfly"! Well Hello!!! On this particular Pday, we were playing football! I am in no way a football player,  but i played because it was something to do as a zone! And it probably was cold. The elders always talked us into crazy stuff!! I asked Kava why he was not playing and he said he doesn't like football, and I said, your a big Tongan, how could you not like football!? Then I convinced him to stand as a line backer and explained his role! It was totally not him but he tried! And I loved that he would help his fellow missionaries!! 

We always had so much fun! He was just a funny guy that did not care what others thought of him, he was organic and everything he did was ALL HIM!

I remember when Elder Kava was asked to be a Spanish missionary for a short time! He was was just like Nephi, "I will go and do." I know this time in his mission was a HUGE struggle. He worked and learned the best he could! Even when he was not appreciated as he could have been! 

Elder Kava was in my district for a while and one time we played Apples to Apples! OMGsh I almost peed my pants laughing at this kid! He was soooooo funny! Another time we went to a playland like McDonalds but GINORMOUS AND Adults could go in too! Well our whole district went and we had SOOOO MUCH fun!!

Thanks for always being an example Elder Kava!
Until we meet again Vikatoa Kavapalu

July 13 - Dec 13

Warner Colorado July 2013

On our way home from our 8 day road trip we met up with Derrick’s family for a reunion. It was planned to be a fun family reunion before Derrick left! Derrick’s parents had a time-share in Steamboat Springs. We had a time-share there too, thanks to a good friend! To our surprise, Derrick’s little brothers did not come to the family reunion, No idea what happened there. Steamboat Springs is a cool place. It is similar to Jackson Hole and Park City. We walked the streets and window-shopped, went to the movies, enjoyed yummy food, found delicious candies in town, visited a restaurant Derrick remembers from his childhood, went to church, enjoyed a nice hike, crashed down the Alpine Slide, and watch a baseball game. Well, that baseball gamed turned SOUR when our car (we were sitting in) was stuck with a fly ball and smashed out the back window. I may have said a few naughty words out of sheer fear and I had glass in places that you could not image. What are the chances? We still had a BLAST! And we WELCOMED our beds after we drove home! 

My stupid skin

I have exema, it only flares up when it is hot. But essentially I get small blisters on my hands and feet. When the blisters pop, my top layer of my skin is gone and my hands are raw. THEY HURT and it is annoying! I am always happy when my skin heals! It just happens that after this trip to the south brought out this nasty flare up! 

Lehmans

Derrick’s cousins came to visit. They of course lit off illegal fire works, and I of course hid inside! We went to the drive In movies, played games and totally wish they would come into town more often! 

MOLLIE'S HERE!! 

OH MY I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS GIRL TO COME VISIT!! She brought some exciting news too! 

SOOOO HAPPY for them! She is going to be the BEST mom EVER! 

DisneyLand

I got to go to DL with my sister Cat and her family! We had so much fun and the kids were so good! I LOVE everything about Disney Land!

AJ’s wedding

AJ and RYAN got married! I love this couple! We were invited to be in the temple with them and it was a special ceremony. I can not explain what a privilege it was to be there with them! We had fun at their reception the night before and actually joined them at a reception in Idaho the following weekend. 

Work

Still loving my nanny job! These kids are soooo FULL of energy! I am happy this summer we were able to go to the splash pad in town often! 

Dad’s cat

We shaved my dad’s cat! Maddy was very upset and she looked so funny! She had matted hair and so it was neccessary!

She was not amused! 

Denver/Baby blessing

We drove to Colorado Springs for my sister’s baby blessing. It was funnish… the drive was long, one of my sisters was crabby, and we had a seedy hotel room(never have I clorox wiped a hotel room before)! And to top off the craptacular trip, Derrick’s sister-in-law called to tell us she and Derrick’s brother AJ was getting a divorce. There was a lot of sadness, ANGER, and hurt….. Super sad day for Derrick’s family. Our heat is with our SiL, we love her and she will ALWAYS be apart of our family. Divorce NEVER affects just the couple involved. 

Having fun in Denver

Ryker

It has been a LONG time since all of us sisters have been together! Love these ladies! 

Derrick's Job as a Grave digger ended abruptly when the owner killed himself. He did not get the last month of wages. OH JOY! Derrick actually liked installing headstones. TIme to move on! Derrick picked up a job in Ogden as a armed security officer. This makes for some interesting times. 

Comic Com

WORST EXPO OF MY LIFE! 

Think of all the Nerds that don’t know what deodorant it, place them in a smallish place, that had no cell service(pray you never get separated from your party), it was over sold and when you walked it felt like it was one big TWERKing party, NO PERSONAL SPACE!! The BIGGERST waste of MONEY! IF you wanted to stop and look at something from a vendor, it was nearly impossible! NEVER AGAIN! I gagged ALL day from the smell of poor hygiene! Oh and there were no rules on dress and costume, it might as well have been called PornEXPO. I saw more boobs and other body parts there than I’m sure I would be on a nude beach! WHY would parents let their kids/teens go? EWWW! UGGGG! NEVER AGAIN!!

CUTEST HUBBY EVER!!

BYU FOOTBALL! OMG I love football! Never miss a game if I can help it! Of course my dad bought me BYU chips to help start it off! 

Attended the What Women Want Expo with my Sister in Law Velda! Man I love that girl! Oh and her Lucky dog won a prize in the dog contest! WE had such a fun time! 

Rough patch

This is a hard post to talk about and I am not going into great detail but I just want to thank those that helped me through an extremely rough patch. My sweetheart was there for me all along the way and a few wonderful friends! I physically and emotionally was exhausted and drained. On top of everything that was going on, I found out that my thyroid was not working like it should and I now needed medicine. That explained how much I hated getting out of bed and how I had to drag myself out of bed and force myself to go to work! I couldn’t think straight; it was like my mind was in a fog! I ended up cutting all my hair off because I could no longer comb through it; I had lost so much of it anyways with the whole thyroid. I loved my long hair but I would honestly cry at the thought of combing it. It took 30mins for my and the gal cutting my hair to even get through it. THANK GOODNESS for modern medicine! When the medicine finally kicked in, I felt much better. Sometimes life it hard and we get in these “ruts.” I never asked to be there and I didn’t want to be there but I was. I was depressed; I felt emotions that I never felt before. Physically I have never felt that so terrible, getting up and moving was a struggle. Everything accumulated all at the same time and I felt burdened but never alone! I have the best husband and friends and with all sincerity, I felt God with me the whole time! Never once did I feel alone! I knew I would get out of this rut and be ok. From time to time I am saddened when I look back, I try my hardest to continue to look forward! God has given me so many things to be thankful for and I am! 

Got two new jobs

I never thought that the government shutdown would affect me until l I realized that my boss works from the government. Yep I was out of a job, so I advertised to babysit in the community. I got a weird message on facebook asking if I would want to sit with an older lady at night. Oh sure why not! So I started going there 3-4 nights a week for 3ish hours. We just watch tv all the while enjoying each others company! She is a sweet lady and I love chatting with her!  And my good friend Gaylene Bateman asked if I wanted to work for a company that caters and makes take and bake meals! It was amazing how the hours fit perfectly with my night hours and when the govt. started working again, all three would work perfectly together. GOD is so good! All three of these jobs are exactly what need!

Bought myself the CUTEST COAT! 

Cool sticker! Always good to vote. 

Early bday present

We decided we were not going to give each other birthday presents this year or Christmas presents, In hopes to take a trip in January before Derrick leaves. I have been dreaming of a camera for a very long long time (2yrs) and I just could not justify paying that kind of money for it. Well one morning I got an email from a daily steals sight and I decide to open it…… MY CAMERA was 70% off what it normally was!! We don’t even have a camera, besides our phones! So I sweet-talked Derrick into letting me get the camera. OH MY GOSH!! I LOVE IT! Oh and he showed up with this beauty of a BIKE! DREAMS DO COME TRUE!

IM SO SPOILED!! 

Birthday dinner!

Scrap booking

So I have been obsessing over getting all my pictures put together so I can see them! I HAVE A LOT! I started scrapbooking with my sister a few years ago, nothing smancy. I realized now that everything is digital and I never print any pictures off anymore. The last time I printed pictures was from our wedding 3 ½ years ago. So then I wanted to start digitally scrapbooking. I am being completely honest when I say I have NO crafty talent! So I have been waiting for my mom to help me digitally scrapbook but I couldn’t get her to find the time. I realized after waiting 6 months for her help, it was not her responsibility, it was mine. I blessed and released the stress of making the books perfect. I figured anything was better than nothing! So I started my first book about when Derrick and I met. I have decided to make a digital book to recap our years of marriage. 

When I’m done catching up than I will work backwards! MY MISSION will be my next project! it may not be fantabulous but it brings so much joy knowing that I have these treasures that help me remember everything!

Imagine dragons

Derrick wanted to go to imagine Dragons concert so off we went! We had so much fun! LOVE LOVE LOVE these guys! 

Family history

Derrick and I have felt for some time that we needed to work on our family history. Well we were strongly motivated when our ward set a lofty goal of finding 1200 people performing the necessary work! We wanted to help with this goal! I started looking at Derrick’s family tree and added one name at a time. I started asking my father-in-law about his family he said he might have some kind of genealogy book. Tears of joy as he gave me a book of hundreds of names! OH BOY! This gave us a good jump-start on doing Derrick’s family work! SO EXCITING! 

These two came to stay! 

It is not my fault when he is older and this embarrasses him! His choice! This young lady loves tubbies!! 

Jayden and Ally

Selling wood

My dad has the biggest heart! Knowing that we do not have a lot of money, he picks up truckloads of wood and lets us sell them and keep the money! When the weather was good, we would go and get extra loads to sell. The last family that bought our wood said they would buy all that we could get. It is easier to get wood during the summer/fall and the wood in the winter is hard to come buy. They said they would buy the wood all summer long. I think I know what I am doing to make a little extra money next summer! 

Thanksgiving

We spent the morning with Derrick’s family for Thanksgiving. Then we joined my family at Bill’s house. It is always fun to have Thanksgiving there! Bill actually asked us to stay the whole weekend if we wanted! FORSURE! Now that was FUN! Wes’ family came to visit and we all went to Hoogle zoo day after! I love our family!

This is in Bill's basement! Working off what we just ate! 

I got to see the beauty! Traughbers were here visiting from the Grand Tetons for the Holidays! 

Bethany!

My hair cut picture! 

STEPH'S DRIVE THRU CLOSED! 

Last time getting an ice cream! LOVE THESE GUYS! 

So much snow

You would not believe how much SNOW we have! I have not seen this much snow in a long time. IT IS REALLY pretty and fun!

Mormon Tabernacle Choir Concert! OMgoodness, they always put on an amazing performance.

This boy! Doesn't want to take off his gloves! lol

TEMPLE TIME

Happiest place on Earth and Love going with my sweetheart! 

Christmas Season

I was stressing out over this holiday! It turned out to be perfect! 

Christmas eve started out with a great lunch at Chuck-o-rama celebrating my sister Cat’s birthday! We went last minute shopping for few items and found ourselves at Tradder Joe’s! LOVE IT THERE, totally need to go back when there are not a million people there shopping for the big day.

This year we decided to stay in Morgan and not attend the Christmas Eve parties that we have in the past. Derrick needed worked at midnight and needed to stay close so there was not a ton of driving. We were invited to go to Jani’s house for Mark’s famous crapes! OH MY GOSH were they freak’n awesome! I wish he made them more often! Only Christmas EVE! After Layton serenaded us with the cello and Derrick with the harmonic we went home and went to bed until Derrick went to work!

Christmas morning Derrick came home and we opened presents at our house. Derrick got me a piñata bahahahaha and perplexed epic! And I got him gloves that he can use with his iphone! I was super mad leading up to Christmas because we agreed no presents and I stuck to it and he didn’t!! I am still mad because I felt like crap because I didn’t buy him anything!! We agreed NO PRESENTS because of our trip! So I told Derrick I would NEVER agree to this again! EVER! After my parents we went to Derrick’s parents and opened gifts. I feel awkward opening up gifts up infont of the person that gave it to you and the same as someone opening a gift in front of us from us… Oh well! We left there and went home to eat lunch… lunch that never happened and I was HANGRY! I hadn’t eaten since dinner the night before! My sweet sister stole me a large piece of ham and let me eat it! THANK YOU! We had an awesome lunch! Derrick laid down for an hour before we went to his grandmas house to hang out with his Aunt, Uncles and cousins! Oh and Derrick’s brother was there.

CHRISTMAS DAY

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Hung out with these two weirdos.