Stationery card

Meet Mr Blue Birth Announcement

Turn your favorite photo into a birth announcement.

View the entire collection of cards.

Baby Johnson

If you haven't already heard, Baby Johnson is scheduled to make his/her debut on June 1! 

Rockin'

This rocker has been my latest project. I picked up this baby at an estate sale last year and finally got around to putting a little love into it.

I feel pretty awesome.

P.S.

Did I mention that:

-We spent time in Utah this summer and it was lovely.

-We were able to fit in some time (not enough) on the river.

-Vance took his first licensing exam and pretty much rocked it.

Spring Break

I was feeling very disgruntled at the beginning of March when we decided to fore go a trip to warmer weather so Vance could get in some extra study time during Spring Break. I was instantly cheered up when Tricia, Doug, and Beckham decided to come for a visit.

We had a wonderful time but Vance and I were feeling bummed when we had to drop them off at the airport, so instead of driving home we just kept driving and went up to Madison to visit the Joy and John for the night. We had to keep up our Johnson/Burton Spring Break tradition.

We also had time for a overnight camping trip with Mary, Jonathan, and Colby so we could enjoy the temporarily lovely weather.

And we didn't stop there... we went on a day trip with some friends to the awesome Lincoln Museum in Springfield.

Even though things looked bleak in the beginning, we ended up having an awesome Spring Break thanks to great friends. Vance even managed to get some studying done. Now if Illinois would just start acting like it is Spring...

Laundry Woes

Our dryer is on the fritz, again. Vance decided to take things into his own hands and this is what I woke up to the other morning....

and this....

So I continue to dream about the day when Vance graduates from medical school because these beauties are going to be my present for surviving med school ....

and that is going to be one glorious day.

Week in Review

I don't write on my blog very much. In fact, Vance writes on here more than I do. I don't feel bad about that one bit. I post when I feel like it. Today I feel like it...

Let me tell you a little bit about this week....

I spent the evening of Valentine's Day watching a movie with some friends while our husbands spent the night at the hospital performing pelvic exams. Thank you medical school.

Vance made up for it with these beauties....

Today I took Gus in for his annual checkup and shots. Little did I know that I would end up leaving my dog (and lots of my dollars) at the vet so he could get a tooth removed. The vet told me that I would need to watch him today so that he wouldn't fall down the stairs or off the bed because he was still pretty drowsy. I thought she was being a little bit dramatic until Gus fell asleep, sitting up, with his tongue hanging out of his mouth.

(He has been in this spot without moving for the past 4 hours. I know that he's alive because of the snoring.)

Best news of the week....We made the decision to spend May and part of June in Utah while Vance studies for his first licensing exam.

Year in Superlatives 2011

Those of you who know me, know that I love spreadsheets, hyperbole and superlatives. They are the best...ever. Most of you probably don't know that I am a very horrible at journal keeping. I would actually hope that you all would think that I am pretty bad at writing in my journal. For some reason I have always simultaneously respected and been kinda creeped out by people who were my age who kept a daily journal. I mean what could have possibly been so important that happened in your life that it validated a journal entry. Don't get me wrong, if you are one of those people, then I have nothing but total respect for you. I don't mean to belittle it at all (even though it ostensibly might seem that I am doing just that). If you were consistent in writing in a journal then probably you would really develop your writing skills. That definitely is something to be desired.

Anyway I have never kept a journal, except on my mission, and I decided that I wanted to keep a journal this year. Instead of setting myself up for failure in trying to do a daily journal, I came up with an idea that just might suit me. I have decided to take my love of superlatives and spreadsheets and create a "superlatives list 2011" of my life. I will keep an updated list of the best and worst things that I experience throughout the year. I have decided to make this a public list if you are interested there will be a link on our blog for the remainder of 2011, to give you access to my journal writing experiment.

Click Here

Enjoy

christmas card

Fa LaLa Christmas Card

Customize your Christmas cards with Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

A Thanksgiving Smattering

10 Realizations from 1 and 1/2 Years in the Midwest

Here is a sampling of ten very self-indulgent things I have decided since living here in the midwest. They are really just a compilation of words of wisdom, thoughts, concerns and observations since living in this new and strange place and living another 18 months. They are in no particular order.

1. I hate Pepsi; Pepsi’s impenetrable Fortress Midwestern in Chicago is one of the worst things to happen to beverages in the country. People who prefer Pepsi over Coke just don't know any better.
2. I have decided that as a Mormon, it is too cliché to refer to Utah as Zion; from now on it shall be known to me as the Motherland.
3. Corn sucks; it is not as delicious as people think, it isn't all that cool and is WAY to much effort to nibble off of that worthless waste-of-space stump. We aren't barbarians, why should we look like ravenous beasts to consume a sub-par food stuff?
4. People get shuttled in and out of our lives for a reason; think how fortunate all of these people in the Midwest are to know Ali and me! We are super bad A--!
5. Midwestern winters are the reason why our ancestors lived as nomads. I seriously don't think Nature wants anyone living here for 6 months of the year. It's science.
6. I think that Ali and I are spoiled having grown up in one of the scenically diverse and beautiful places in the world. Corn fields, cows, trees and hills, while being pretty in their own right, are not even in the same universe of beauty as arches, peaks, canyons and mountain valleys. It just makes us not readily cognizant of the natural beauty around us. Thanks for making our family a bunch of terrain and landscape snobs, Utah! (If you are reading this and have your beefs with Utah, I dare you to come up with a compelling argument against how amazing the scenery is there.)
7. Dollar theaters are an important part of movie life in the United States. I firmly believe that some movies are absolutely worth spending $ 8-12 and seeing them in the nice theaters. Some movies are simply redbox films. The dollar theater provides that intermediate level of film quality to have its day in the sun. This means you Karate Kid with Jayden Smith and Jackie Chan.
8. I might rue ever expressing this but, if my future kid came home with a tattoo of something stupid, I would be much, much, much more disappointed with them for their choice of tattoo than I ever could be with them getting a tattoo. My only thought in this senario would be that I failed as a parent not teaching them to have better taste and creativity.
9. I am incredibly grateful that I think I am funny. Life is seriously better when I say something that I laugh at. Maybe no one else gets it/thinks it is funny, but at least I am happy--and it is all about me.
10. People don't understand cause and effect. Even educated, smart and successful adults! If you are reading this and thinking I A) don't know what I am talking about or B) totally agree with me about everyone except you then you probably have this problem. (I will be the first to admit that I fall into this trap sometimes.) People don't get that when they do something or say something or act a certain way that there will be consequences and those consequences almost alway swing back around and smack them in the face. Sometimes I think that God must find the things we do as humorous as someone who steps on a rake and hits them-self in the face.