She Thinks My Truck Is Sexy

5 Months!

2012-01-21T16:14:00.001-08:00

Max is five months old today! Some fun facts about our little monkey:

Weighed 12 lbs 9 oz and was 24 inches long on December 29th.
Sleeps like a champ at night! He will wake up occasionally during naps but since we started giving him some rice cereal, that doesn't happen so much anymore.
Hasn't had another episode of SVT since Thanksgiving weekend (and we didn't have to go to the hospital for that one).
Loves playing in his baby gym. Tries to put everything in his mouth and gets mad if he can't get something in there just right.
Has tough little legs. Prefers to stand up all the time.
Is close to sitting on his own.
Hates being on his stomach. Used to cry the minute we put him on his stomach. Now he tolerates it for a while and then just gives up and puts his head down until we move him. Not sure how he's ever going to learn how to crawl.
Loves spending time with his nanny, Jordan. I can hear Max talking to Jordan all day long while I am working. They have some pretty serious conversations!
Can't wait to rough-house with Daddy when he gets home from work.
Has the sweetest smile. His whole face lights up!

We celebrated Cory's birthday a few weeks ago.
Dressed up in his Santa p.j.'s on Christmas Eve.
Max and his cousin, Gracie.
Spoiled rotten!

This is Max's 4-month picture. I bought Max the Osh Kosh overalls so that he could be like his Great-Grandpa Porter.
I spent a lot of time with my grandparents when I was younger. Grandpa Porter wore his overalls every day while he was working on the farm. Grandpa took me everywhere with him: milking cows, baling hay, moving pipe, etc. He used to catch the baby chickens and bring them to me so that I could pet / hold them. I was always amazed that he dared to walk through all of those pecking hens to get to the baby chicks. He ate bread and milk and watched Mash every night after he was finished milking cows. Grandpa could play a mean game of baseball, too. I hope Max has a little bit of his Great-Grandpa in him!

Halloween, Blessing Day, Thanksgiving and Santa Claus!

2011-12-11T12:16:00.000-08:00

Wow! Times flies when you're having fun. I went back to work on November 14th and Max went into SVT that evening. Cue the guilt. So off we went to Primary Children's ER. They got him hooked up to all of the monitors and the IV team came in to insert a line so they could push the medicine to convert Max out of SVT. Those folks amaze me. The fact that they can find such a tiny vein is truly amazing. Anyway, in the middle of inserting the IV, Max started crying so hard that he converted himself out of SVT. Hooray! The doctor monitored him for an hour and then they let us go home. That was our shortest visit yet.

Three months old on November 21st.
Oops! This picture got out of order. Since we didn't go anywhere for Halloween, this was Max's "costume". He chilled with Cory while I handed out candy.
We blessed Max on November 6th. So many of our friends and family came to spend the day with us. We are truly grateful for their time and sacrifice. The blessing circle was so big - I think we had about 15 people up there. The outpouring of love for our little guy, from people that we care about, brought me to tears. And Cory gave Max a sweet blessing.

Thanksgiving with Aunt Emilee. A big thanks to my friend Linda for giving Max such a cute Thanksgiving onesie. In case you can't see, it says "Mommy's Little Turkey".
We had the Johnson Christmas party at Downata. Max didn't get to swim this year but he'll be out there next year for sure! He didn't seem to mind sitting on Santa's lap.
We also got to see Santa at the Hollingsworth Christmas party. I'm pretty sure Santa told Max he could have whatever he wants this year!

And Great-Grammie got to spend some time cuddling with Max.
Max loves his nanny, Jordan. We are all starting to settle into a routine. Did I mention that Jordan is my cousin? After all that time I spent interviewing nannies, I put a free post on Facebook and found out that Jordan was looking for a job. I could kick myself for all of that wasted time that I could have been napping with Max! It is truly a blessing to have someone that I trust caring for Max. There's no way I could ever take him to a day care. His eating and sleeping schedule is super strict because his medicine schedule is super strict. I don't know how a day care could manage that and keep tabs on his heart rate throughout the day.

Max loves to stand up. His little legs are so strong. He hates to be on his tummy, though. I'm not sure how he's ever going to get the hang of crawling. Max is also starting to reach for toys (with actual coordination) and has a pretty firm grip. He has such a sweet smile. We are still waiting for him to laugh. He's pretty hard to impress. He loves hanging out in his bouncy seat and kicking up a storm. Max usually goes to bed around 10:00 and will sleep until we have to wake him up at 5:00 to take his medicine. Too bad we can't just let him sleep until he wants to. Aunt Karen gave Max his first hair cut on Saturday. He just needed his ears lowered a little bit.

We have an appointment with the cardiologist next week. I hope we can make it until then without another trip to the ER. We woke up on Sunday morning and Max had gone back into SVT. Thank goodness we were back from Idaho - it always makes me nervous to be too far away from Primary Children's. I woke Cory up so we could start to load the car for the ride, and possible stay, at Primary's. I checked Max's heart one more time and he had come out of SVT on his own. He's been super fussy today so it wouldn't surprise me if he's going in and out of SVT. They will weigh him next week and see if they need to increase his medicine dose because of how much he has grown. And speaking of growing, we are finally moving into some of his 3-6 month clothes. At the last pediatrician appointment, Max was only in the 4th percentile for his age. His genes will prevent him from ever being tall but hopefully we can get him a little further from the bottom for his next appointment at the end of the month. :-)

Parenting 501 - Master's Level Course

2011-10-27T19:36:00.000-07:00

Our induction into parenthood has been…interesting. Perhaps there's no real way to ease into it but I feel like we've been drinking from a fire hose for the past nine weeks.

One week after Max was born, the Health Department called and told us that Max's newborn screening had come back positive for cystic fibrosis and a metabolic disorder. After two more rounds of tests, they finally determined that the tests were showing a false positive reading and that Max is fine. We breathed a sigh of relief when we found out the news on a Thursday afternoon. We had one weekend to relax and then our world was turned upside down again the following Tuesday.

Max was super fussy and would not eat. He pushed away from me like it hurt him to eat so I thought he just had a lot of gas or perhaps acid reflux. We cajoled him throughout the night and then took him to the pediatrician's office on Tuesday morning. Our regular doctor wasn't in but the doctor that we did see listened to Max's heart (among the other vitals she checked) and suggested that we go to Primary Children's Hospital. Max's heart rate was fast. The doctor suggested that it might be a build-up of gas in his tummy or maybe a mild infection that his body was trying to fight. So we got back in the car and headed to the emergency room. I wasn't particularly panicked - I figured we would be heading home in a few hours with some antibiotics or maybe some acid reflux medicine. Boy was I wrong.

We started out with one nurse and one doctor in the emergency room. Within a matter of 10 minutes, we had a team of 15 people working on Max. His heart should be at ~140 beats / minute - his was 277 beats per minute. And because it was beating so fast, it couldn't push blood effectively to the rest of his body so his major organs were shutting down. The IV team tried to get a line in his body for about 45 minutes before they succeeded. His veins were mostly collapsed because his little body was so dehydrated. The doctors tried to push two doses of a medicine that is supposed to shock his heart back into a normal rhythm but it didn't work because he was so sick. Cory and I had to sit back and watch while they hooked Max up to the defibrillator to shock his heart. They had to do it twice before he finally converted. It was horrible to watch Max's little body jump off that table when they shocked him.

It turns out that Max has something called Superventricular Tachycardia i.e. irregular heart rhythm. A heart has four chambers and each chamber has insulation between them so that the electric current from one chamber can't skip to the next one. In Max's case, the insulation didn't grow properly, which means that every once in a while, he has an extra heartbeat that jumps from one chamber to the other and causes his whole heart to go out of rhythm. The good news is that most kids grow out of it by the time they are one year old. In the meantime, Max has to take three doses of a medication daily that keeps his heart in rhythm.

We stayed in the PICU for a few days and then they transferred us to a regular room. We were released on Saturday and spent a few days at home before Max went back into SVT again on Tuesday. We have to check his heart rate a few times / day with a stethoscope and I noticed that his heart was crazy fast after he ate that afternoon. So back to Primary Children's we went. Thankfully Max responded to the medication they pushed into his system so he didn't have to be shocked again. We stayed in the hospital until Friday. They sent us home with a higher dose of medication and so far Max has been doing great. How fortunate we are to have a world class children's hospital in our backyard. The staff at Primary Children's is amazing.

I've decided that I should get the mother of the year award. I was tired and frustrated with a fussy baby. Turns out he was actually going into cardiac arrest. That's fantastic. We are so lucky that we didn't lose our little Max.

So many wires attached to his little body!
All snuggly in the hospital bed. It was tough to get him out to feed him and love on him. Inevitably I would pull a wire off and set off an alarm at the nurses station.
One month old.
All dressed up in our camo gear. Daddy is gone hunting this weekend. He really wanted to take Max with him...
Liking bath time now.

Our first time going to church (and we only made it to Sacrament meeting due to Max's feeding and medicine schedule). Max is 8 weeks old here.
After a hard day's work.
One of my friends gave Max these darling pumpkin p.j.s'. Here's Mr. Pumpkin Bum!
Two months old.

I'm still not sure what I think about motherhood. I'm still waiting to say it's the best thing I've ever done and that it's totally worth it. I thought I was prepared for how tough the newborn stage was going to be. Everyone told me how tough it was but no one told me that it is absolutely brutal. Of course, perhaps I'll have a different outlook on things now that we've finished three weeks of sleep training. Once Max got out of the hospital, he wouldn't sleep unless he was in my arms sitting upright. I lasted for four days doing that and finally had enough. So the first week was spent getting him to fall asleep in his crib on his own. The second week was spent getting him down to one feeding per night and the last week was spent getting rid of that last nightly feeding. Max still wakes up around 3:30 but he'll go back to sleep once I put a pacifier in his mouth. The world is starting to look a little better now that I can see it again.

Max went in for his two month check-up yesterday. He weighs 9 lbs 9 oz and is 21 inches long. He's in the 6th percentile for his age but considering where he started and what he's been through, his doctor was pretty impressed. We sure love him and pray that he continues to be healthy and strong. What a tough kid!

Max Cory Johnson

2011-09-08T13:19:00.000-07:00

Max arrived on August 21, 2011, at 1:58 p.m. He weighed 5 lbs 15 oz and was 19 1/2 inches long. Not too shabby for being exactly three weeks early.

I'm not sure why this turned out blurry but it's probably best that you can't really see how fat I am. We had to be at the hospital at 7:30 a.m. to be induced. I cried the whole way to the hospital. And through the admission process. And while they started hooking me up to all of the equipment. I really didn't want to have a baby that day. I wanted three more weeks (or better yet, five more years).

Dr. Langer prepared us for the long haul. She said that it would likely take 9-12 hours since this was my first baby. So we settled in with a movie and tried to relax. They had to increase the pitocin drip several times before anything really started to happen. I had only had about 10 contractions that I thought were mildly severe (maybe a 5 on a scale of 1-10) when the nurse came in and told me that if I didn't have the epidural now, I wouldn't be able to get it for another hour because the anesthesiologist was going into a C-section and would be tied up with that. I really didn't want the epidural at that point but didn't want to chance it so I went ahead and got it. The nurse checked me before the anesthesiologist started and I was dilated to a three. She checked me after he was finished and I was dilated to a seven. And about 15 minutes later, we started to push. Thank goodness I got the epidural when I did!!!

I'm not sure what I was expecting but pushing was more intense than I thought it would be. Max's heart rate kept dropping so we had to stop and let him stabilize before continuing. I later found out that the cord was wrapped around his neck twice, which is what was causing the problem. Thank goodness they didn't tell me that at the time! I pushed for about 40 minutes and then, voila, the doctor placed a screaming (rather blue) baby on my belly. We had been in labor for six hours. What a surreal moment. It probably wasn't until we left the hospital that I fully realized that we were going home with a baby. Everything was just a blur up until that point. He sure is a handsome little guy and we have loved having him in our home.
Shortly after delivery.First family photo.
Daddy got Max all strapped into the car seat to go home. I was so happy to leave that hospital! One of my friends told me that she loves being in the hospital because the nurses take care of everything and she feels like she is on vacation. What a joke! That hospital room door brought a constant barrage of people who wanted to pick at me or Max. I had to go home so that I could take a decent nap.
First ride in Daddy's truck.
And speaking of trucks, my brother and SIL sent us this darling flower arrangement. Cory, my dad and my brother all have black Ford pick-up trucks. So the card on this arrangement said, "we didn't want Max to be the only boy in the family who didn't have his own Ford truck." So cute!
This kid is a rock star when it comes to sleeping. We usually have to wake him up to eat. And after he's finished eating, he just hangs out and looks around. For a few nights, he kept me up all night and I couldn't figure out what was wrong. I knew he had a full belly and dry diaper but he would scream when I tried to put him in the bassinet. He would sleep like a champ in his swing, though. It took me a while but I finally figured out that he probably has a little bit of acid reflux and being propped up helps to keep his tummy settled. So we elevated the head of his bassinet and he slept great last night. Good grief! Let's hope the learning curve isn't that steep with everything or we are going to have "the stupidest parents ever" plastered to our foreheads.
Jared and Camille came to visit and wanted to see the bear rug. And since we had it out, Cory decided Max needed to try it out. The only regret: Max wasn't wearing camo at the time. You should see this kid's wardrobe. He has enough camo to last him a lifetime!
After the first bath. Which he hated. Typical boy.
Houdini ain't got nothin' on this kid. He can get out of a swaddle so fast! Another learning curve for the rookie parents. Max likes to have his hands out. Duly noted (after another round of screaming and parents who looked on with puzzled faces).

Ready Or Not!

2011-08-20T21:09:00.000-07:00

After two weeks of bed rest (which I didn't really do a very good job of), I went back to the doctor and there was no change in my cervix. He took me off bed rest just in time to allow me to go to Bear Lake with both the Johnson and Hollingsworth families. Both families wanted to have a family outing this year, both families wanted to go to Bear Lake and both families wanted to go on the same weekend. So we smooshed it all together and had a great time! I was so relieved to be able to go. I felt like I hadn't had any fun all summer and I desperately needed a get-away. If at all possible, I don't think we'll be doing another summer pregnancy. If I've got to be cooped up inside, it might as well be during the winter when you can't do anything here anyway.

The big kids are making a sand castle.

Gracie and Cory testing out the water.

Putting the finishing touches on the mermaid tail.

The Johnson girls made the trek down to Salt Lake to throw me a baby shower. It was so nice of them all to come down here to me! We watched "The Help", had great Thai food and Baby J got spoiled rotten. Thank you so much!!

I had a doctor's appointment on Wednesday and I knew my doctor wasn't going to be happy with my blood pressure. I've been taking blood pressure medicine since we were 20 weeks along. No signs of preeclampsia - just high blood pressure. I've been checking my blood pressure every night before going to bed and since last Wednesday, the readings have been climbing. I told Cory that it wouldn't surprise me if Dr. Langer sent us straight to L&D after our appointment on Wednesday. We even had our bags packed and everything. I ran like a mad woman on Wednesday morning trying to finish stuff at work, get several loads of laundry done, etc. By the time I got to the doctor's office, my blood pressure was 158/110.

Dr. Langer sent us down to the ultrasound tech to do a growth check. They think Baby J weighs 6 lbs. 14 oz and my fluid levels look good. The doctor said he could stay in there for a few more days until we officially reach full term. We are 37 weeks tomorrow and we are scheduled to be induced at 7:30 a.m.

Wow! The past three days have been a whirlwind. We've crammed what we should have done in three weeks into three days. Surprisingly, my blood pressure has dropped over the past three days. I must confess that it wouldn't hurt my feelings if they sent us home tomorrow and we didn't have to deliver. I've been slamming on the brakes harder and harder the closer we get to the delivery date. I'm not sure if I want kids after all. I'm still at the point where I'm saying, "it would be nice to have kids someday." I'm not sure if I'm ready to give up my life starting tomorrow.

Cory made a very nice dinner reservation last night and I almost cried thinking this is the last time we'll be able to do this without having to worry about a baby sitter and the house burning down while we're gone. I ran some errands today and cranked up my music. Might as well enjoy that for the last time, too. I really hope it's worth it. I really hope that when parents say, "it's the best thing you'll ever do," that that's not just some standard rhetoric that they tell themselves in order to get through the daily grind. I hope I bond with this baby. I hope it truly is a magical moment to hear him cry for the first time. I hope we don't suck as parents. Let's hope we don't screw you up too badly, kiddo. See you tomorrow!

Keep Cookin' Baby J!

2011-07-24T10:38:00.001-07:00

We've reached the 33-week mark. Hooray! Only seven more weeks to go…and it actually might be closer to four weeks. I've been going in for ultrasounds every two weeks so the docs can monitor my cervix length. At my appointment on Wednesday, my cervix had gone from 1.8 cm at the last appt down to 1 cm. But there's no signs of funneling or dilation. So I'm officially on modified bed rest for the next two weeks. They are hoping that my cervix will lengthen back out if I take some of the pressure off of it. What a pain! I can be up on my feet for 2-3 hours / day and thankfully the doctor gave me permission to prop myself up in bed and keep working. I am nowhere near ready to leave work for maternity leave. I just barely started training my team 1 1/2 weeks ago! Good thing no one at work can tell the difference between me sitting at my desk and me sitting in bed.

Physically, this pregnancy has been a breeze. Which is why, I suspect, I've landed myself on bed rest. I have a two-page to-do list and tons of energy to keep plowing through it. And that's exactly what I've been doing. Mentally - I'm done with this pregnancy. I'm tired of worrying about every little twitch and glitch that happens to my body on a daily basis and wondering if this is the moment when I'll go into labor. The specialist that I'm seeing wasn't worried enough to give me a steroid shot for Baby J's lung development. He thinks I'll keep carrying him for approximately four more weeks. And ever since my 20-week appointment when they first noticed the shorter cervix length, I've had it in my head that we would be delivering around three weeks early (no idea why). So here's to hoping that my intuition and the doctor's prediction are both wrong and that this kid stays in there until 40 weeks. Baby J currently weighs 4 lbs 5 oz and is very healthy and strong.

In addition to me going crazy, we may need to have this kid sooner rather than later if we want any of our dishes or other valuables to survive. I really thought that getting clumsy towards the end of pregnancy was just an old wives tale because I seemed to be doing fine. Not so much anymore. So far, we are down three (of my favorite) bowls, two glasses and one container of powder foundation. The foundation spill was probably the best. I've taken to carrying a box fan with me everywhere I go (in addition to blasting the AC). The fan is especially useful when getting ready in the morning. It helps prevent melting when I'm blow-drying my hair or trying to put on my make-up. When I dropped the foundation container, not only did it spill everywhere on the floor, but the fan also spread the powder all over me and the rest of the bathroom. Awesome.

Apparently I still look "cool". Two weeks ago I went to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things. This kid ran up to me just as I walked in the door and said, "Hey you look cool (at which point I glanced down at my belly and thought, really, I look cool??). Will you buy me some alcohol?" What on earth?? It took me a minute to process and then I just busted up laughing. No, I will not buy you any alcohol. Sheesh.

Cory and I have been attending some birthing classes. We've taken two and still have two more to go. We watched the infamous birthing video in the first class. Honestly, it wasn't as bad as I remember it being when I watched it 20 years ago in 8th grade health class. But my poor husband…Cory was certain he was going to throw-up. And I couldn't help thinking, really, you can skin a bear but you can't watch a birthing video??? I do not understand. I've already warned my doctor that she may have two patients in L&D if Cory goes down. She just laughed and said that they are used to watching the husbands pretty closely (if not discretely) during delivery. It's good to know that they'll keep an eye on him so that I can focus on the task at hand.

And speaking of the task at hand, it's definitely starting to become much more clear that there is no good way to get out this pregnancy. I've decided that I don't want to go through L&D. Surely someone can come up with something better during the next four weeks??? Or even better…Baby J can just stay in there forever more and we'll call it good!

Baby Shower

2011-06-11T21:31:00.001-07:00

I attended my "very first, real life, baby shower today". At least that's what Cory called it. This whole baby thing is starting to feel a little more real now. And I realize that it's probably a little early to be having a baby shower but it's virtually impossible to schedule anything with the Hollingsworth side of my family in the months of July and August. We couldn't even make it to the end of June because everyone's schedules were getting filled up.

My sister-in-law, Karen, made these adorable invitations. Don't mind the strips of paper - I'm just trying to protect the innocent.

My cousin, Courtney, was kind enough to host everyone at her house (she has a fabulous backyard!) The decorations were super cute and the food was amazing!
My mom made this fun diaper cake.

Ilene and Grammie are pictured here. Ilene made some darling receiving blankets and burp rags for Baby J. She is so talented!
Morgan, Britney, Bristol and Aunt Clarice.
Baby J definitely got spoiled. Thank you everyone!!
Karen, Paisley and Beth.
Thanks for sharing your beautiful home and backyard with us, Court!

Gunns and Guns

2011-06-04T10:30:00.000-07:00

Time really needs to slow down! First, I'd like to give a special shout-out to my sister-in-law, Ashlee, and her new husband. Mr. and Mrs. Zack Gunn got married in St. George on May 21st. It was such a beautiful wedding and we couldn't be happier for the new couple. And good news for the pregnant chick who tends to overheat quite easily - it was unusually cool in St. George and the temp on the wedding day was only in the low 80's. Hooray!

Baby J is getting big. We are just finishing up week 25 now. He weighs 1 lb 15 oz and is 12 inches long.

These are some pictures from the ultrasound at 21 weeks. Talk about guns on this kid! The ultrasound tech couldn't believe the "muscle tone" he already has. Baby J definitely has the Johnson arms.

Profile pic
Clearly we were keeping him awake. Big yawn!
Cute legs and feet.
Eyes wide open.
We've had a few adventures since week 21. During the ultrasound, the tech measured my cervix and said it was a little shorter than they would like to see (2.75 cm and it should be no shorter than 3 cm). Of course, I immediately started thinking about what an incompetent cervix could potentially mean. Early delivery, weeks in the NICU, delayed development and growth, medical issues, bed rest for me, possibly having to stitch my cervix up to keep the kid in there, we're not even close to being ready for this baby yet and I'm not even close to being ready to go out on maternity leave at work and on and on and on.

As you might imagine, by the time I got to the doctor, my blood pressure was through the roof! They measured my blood pressure a couple of times during the appointment and it remained stubbornly high. My doctor didn't want to take any chances so they said they were going to test me for preeclampsia. Scary!!! They sent me home with a jug to collect urine for 24 hours and told me to come back in two days for additional blood tests, etc. I went back on Wednesday with my jug-o-urine and they took several samples of blood. Thankfully my doctor rushed the test results and we knew by that afternoon that I wasn't even close to being in danger of having preeclampsia. I think your readings have to be around 500 (don't ask me 500 of what??) and mine were only at 245. But my blood pressure still wasn't back to normal so my doctor put me on blood pressure medication.

During this entire time, I tried to calm myself down but it seemed like the harder I tried, the faster my heart would beat. I really think it was self-induced hypertension. I tend to worry A LOT and this just sent me over the edge. Honestly, the entire pregnancy is such an unknown risk. Everything is out of your control and you just have to sit back and trust that your body is going to do what it's supposed to and work hard to keep this baby safe and sound.

I've been back every two weeks so that my doctor can continue to monitor my cervix. It's gone from 2.75 to 2.5 and then back up to 2.83 cm. And while I'm thankful for good medical care, I wish that we could just make a decision (do I have a problem or not?) and be done with it. But with a first pregnancy, you just don't know what's normal for your body. Maybe this is normal for me. My doctor said that with one of her last patients that had this issue, her cervix was at 1 cm for the last 20 weeks of her pregnancy and she carried the baby until 41 weeks. I really love my doctor - she is super calm about everything and has a way about her that makes me super calm (relatively speaking) as well. And thankfully she hasn't freaked out about any of this and put me on bed rest. In fact, I don't have any restrictions except for no crazy jumping up and down. Check.

The one good thing about all of this monitoring - we've been able to have an ultrasound every two weeks vs. just the standard two ultrasounds that you normally get during a pregnancy. It's been fun to watch Baby J grow. He had the hiccups during my appointment last Wednesday. So cute!

And remember that measles scare??? I elected to have some additional blood work done and it turns out that I am immune to measles. I'm just not immune to mumps. Guess we just needed a 4-week vacay from church (and life in general).

Quarantine

2011-04-25T04:19:00.000-07:00

I've been under quarantine for the past two weeks and there is no end in sight. Why, you may ask? Answer: a recent measles outbreak in SLC. My first doctor's appointment was at nine weeks and we had the routine blood test done at that time. The test results showed that I am no longer immune to the measles. I had the vaccine as a child but apparently it either didn't take or it has worn off over time. I really had no idea this was even possible or I would have been tested prior to getting pregnant. In any event, I brushed it off because I said to myself, "It's the measles. They've practically been eradicated in the States. I don't have anything to worry about." Fast forward to two weeks ago when we started to hear reports on the news about three high school students that had contracted the measles. I believe we are now up to nine cases. And each new confirmed case puts my quarantine period out by two weeks. That's because the measles has an incubation period of two weeks i.e. someone may appear to be perfectly fine for two weeks after being exposed and they are really a walking hazard to me. I can't get the vaccine again until after I deliver the baby. I've been told that at this point, I'm far enough along that if I did get the measles it wouldn't necessarily cause birth defects. But it could result in a miscarriage, still-birth or any number of other problems that I don't even want to think about.

What does all this mean? It means that I can't go to the gym or church or anywhere else where large groups of people will be around me in tight quarters. If I must go out to the grocery store or anywhere else, I should wear a mask. My hands are raw from washing them so often. I definitely feel like a freak show. The kids are the best. They aren't shy about pointing to the crazy lady (a.k.a. me) and asking their moms why I'm wearing a mask. The standard answer I hear: "It's because she's sick and doesn't want to get anyone else sick." No!! It's because I don't want you people to get me sick. Sheesh! But to be fair, I'd probably think the same thing if I was in their shoes. And so we wait. And wait. And wait for news about the next confirmed case. Thank goodness I don't have to go anywhere to get to work. And Cory is properly fumigated when he comes home every day...

And speaking of feeling like a freak show, because of the measles outbreak, I've finally had to break down and start telling people that we are expecting a baby. I had to explain it to some people at church and of course, I've had to explain it to the people who have been nosy enough to ask why I'm wearing a mask. And I must say that I am absolutely appalled by the standard reaction that I get. The first thing (and I mean the VERY first thing) people do is look at my stomach to check out the baby bump. Have I ever done that to someone?? I'm sure I have and I'm totally embarrassed. I will certainly make a concerted effort not to do it again. Maintain eye contact, people!!! If you must check out the baby bump, do it when I'm not looking. It's bad enough that you feel frumpy and fat for nine months but it's quite another thing to have everyone else fixated on your fatness too. Oh well. Have I mentioned that I'm a walking freak show??

The current dilemma for baby purchases is the crib (and other bedroom furniture). I went into Babies 'R Us two weeks ago to start browsing. After spending an hour looking at furniture, bedding and glider rockers, my brain was fried. I half-heartedly walked through the clothing section as I left the store but I ended up not buying anything. My head hurt too bad to think about what size of clothes I needed to buy for when Baby J is going to be X months old (i.e. long sleeve shirts or short sleeve, and how do you really know because he might be a super chunky baby and not fit into any of those 6-12 month clothes that I want to buy for next summer).

That same afternoon, Cory went to Cabela's. And brought home this:

Daddy purchased Baby J's first item of clothing. And it just so happens to be a fleece, camo snow suit. Cory says it's for bear hunting. Looks pretty warm and snuggly to me.

Baby J

2011-04-07T05:57:00.001-07:00

I'd like to announce the impending arrival of Baby J! He's due to arrive on September 11th. That's right - it's definitely a "he". I was so worried that this kid wouldn't cooperate with the ultrasound tech but we got a good view between the legs. You can see his cute bum, the legs coming out and all the right parts in the middle. :-) I drank a big glass of orange juice and ate some sugary Easter candy before the ultrasound just to make sure the kid was awake and moving in there.

So here's the story. Cory and I knew that we wanted to wait for at least a year after we got married before we even thought about kids. Before we knew it, 1 1/2 years had gone by and we realized that we weren't getting any younger. And wouldn't you know it - at that exact time, Cory lost his job. So our world stood still for several months while we decided which direction life would be taking us next. Once Cory got a job offer, we started trying to conceive. It only took two months. I was shocked. Everything in life seems like such a hurdle - nothing comes easy. I really thought we'd have to try to conceive for at least a year, then see multiple fertility specialists, go through three rounds of in-vitro and maybe, just maybe, we might get a baby after that. But no...only two months (and I really shouldn't count the first month since I was living in Idaho and Cory was already in Utah). Apparently this little one was in a hurry to get here. He's probably ready to knock us over the head for waiting so long!

But here's the thing...I've never (read: not even once) looked at another person's baby and said, "I want one of those" (which is probably why I'm 33 years old and having my first child). I have, however, looked at another person's four-year-old and said, "I want one of those." I wondered if I should feel guilty about that. Does that mean I'll be a bad mom? BTW - I still can't believe some crazy doctor is going to let us out of the hospital with an infant. *Ahem* But I've talked to several of my friends and they said they just had to suck it up and make it through the infant years and they are thoroughly enjoying their kids now. And others have told me that they enjoyed the infant stages much more than they thought they would. Let's hope I fall into that category.

As far as I'm concerned, this pregnancy has been a breeze. I haven't been sick at all, no significant body changes yet, no odor sensitivities, no major food aversions or cravings, etc. I was a little tired for the first eight weeks but I've got my energy back now. Don't get me wrong - I wouldn't want to change anything and have my head over a toilet bowl for the past three months but I will say that the utter lack of any symptoms does occasionally have me worried. I wonder if everything is still okay in there (I can't very well ask the kid and I can't feel him moving yet to confirm). I wonder if there's been a missed miscarriage. I suspect that this is only the beginning of my worrying for Baby J.

Many people have told me that they woke up one morning and couldn't fit into their regular clothes. I still don't understand how you can just "pop" like that overnight but I took them at their word and figured I'd better start shopping for some maternity clothes in the event this happened to me. I must confess that I cried all the way home after going shopping that first day. I could only bring myself to buy one pair of capris. I have read on these message boards about women who are excited to go shopping for, and start wearing, their maternity clothes. What?!?! Who in their right mind gets excited about putting clothes on that are going to make them look like a beached whale? I clearly don't get it - and will definitely have to work on getting comfortable with gaining weight. Not that I had a perfect body before but I was okay with it. I worked with a personal trainer when I first found out that I was pregnant. I wanted to understand what exercises were okay and what I should stay away from. I must confess that I'm sucking a lot more wind than I used to in my Zumba class and the stair-stepper machine really kicks my butt these days, but I'm trying really hard. Hopefully I can keep it up. I've gained 7 lbs so far. That's right, 7 lbs in 17 weeks. UGH! I want to smack those women who post that they've only gained 1 lb at 16 weeks. How??? What goes on the thighs must go off the thighs at some point. But I guess if you have to gain weight, it might as well be for a worthy cause.

Neither Cory nor I really cared about the gender of the baby. But we were both secretly hoping for a boy. And I've thought it was a boy from day one (don't ask me why, I haven't had any crazy dreams or anything). I think I have this "motherhood and apple pie" idea of having a boy as the first so he can look after his younger siblings. And of course, I think Cory's already been planning his first hunting expedition with his son. :-) We have no ideas for names. Really...nothing! I have lots of girl names picked out. This should be an interesting process.

And speaking of interesting processes, how on earth do people figure out what to buy for a baby???? Honestly, I feel like the biggest idiot. We have purchased a stroller so far, and that's only because a good friend pointed out a great sale online and after looking at Consumer Reports and reading all the reviews, we decided to go ahead and buy it. But I had to go into Babies 'R Us last week and figure out how to even USE a stroller. It really was "Stroller 101". For example, I have no idea how to snap the car seat into the stroller, how to adjust the straps, how to collapse the stroller, etc. And now we're on to decisions about cribs, pak 'n play ensembles, rocking chairs...and we haven't even reached the point where I can think about how to decorate the nursery. We are so crazy busy, and it's been easy to forget that I'm pregnant, that we have to remind ourselves that we need to get going on all of these decisions. The next 23 weeks are going to fly by!

I'm definitely excited about meeting Baby J but I hope he takes his time getting here. And most of all, we hope that he arrives safe and sound!

Aloha!

2011-03-09T05:21:00.000-08:00

I don't have many nice things to say about Cory's previous employer, however, thanks (in part) to them, we were able to take a trip to Hawaii at the end of February. Cory went on a business trip last March and he got bumped off of three different flights. He ended up earning $1,000 in travel vouchers. They expire after one year - and we certainly weren't going to let them go to waste. We decided we needed some warmth and sunshine - so off to Hawaii we went. We visited the island of Oahu.

Our hotel was on Waikiki beach so on day one, we took a drive over to the North Shore to see some of the bigger waves (and the surfers). It may not have been this exact spot, but back in 1992, I was here body surfing and lost my swimsuit top as I tumbled through the waves after falling off my body board. I didn't actually lose the top - I just ended up stumbling out of the ocean (gasping for breath) with my top down around my waist. Oops.

Cory told me that we could not do and/or see anything that had to do with history on this trip. Poor guy - our last two vacations did involve a lot of historical sight-seeing i.e. the Parthenon in Greece and the early settlers' farms in The Smoky Mountain National Park. I was, therefore, quite surprised when he said he wanted to go to the Polynesian Cultural Center. To be fair, we didn't spend much time in the villages at the PCC before heading to the luau so I don't think it was too painful. One thing that did make me laugh - you can definitely tell that the LDS church runs the PCC. The buffet-style luau was served on dishes, and with cups, that strongly resembled items you might find in every church kitchen around the world. :-)

We got up early one morning to go on a whale watching tour. It didn't take long to spot some whales. We ran across some right as we were leaving the harbor on our tour boat. They're not as pretty as Shamu, but stunning nonetheless.

This is one of the prettiest temples I have ever seen. Destination wedding, anyone??

We also visited Pearl Harbor (again, totally shocked given the non-historical-sights-mandate). Watching the videos at the museum and visiting the underwater tomb of so many (the U.S.S. Arizona) definitely brings tears to my eyes. So many have sacrificed so much for my freedom.

We went snorkeling in Hanauma Bay. This is one thing I absolutely wanted to do. I remember how much I loved it when I visited Hawaii last time - and it didn't disappoint this time around either. The sea life here is just amazing. It did take me a few minutes to get used to the snorkel gear. I found myself flailing in the water for a while before I finally calmed down and figured things out. Good thing no one was video taping that!

Cory really wanted to take a helicopter tour - we waited until the last minute to book the tour and almost didn't get to go. I'm glad we did end up going because this was definitely the highlight of our trip. Here is an aerial view of the temple. The pilot stopped to hover, and tipped the helicopter just right, so I could get some good photos.

Our pilot also took us back in to see the Sacred Falls. It is against the law, and apparently impossible, to hike back into the Falls so the only way to see them is via air. The pilot got us so far back in there and so close to the mountain, it almost looked like we were going to hit the wall. But he let us see straight down to the bottom of the Falls. Amazing!

Hanauma Bay from the air.
My cousin, Morgan, went to BYU Hawaii for a semester and she strongly recommended that we visit Giovanni's shrimp bus while we were over on the North Shore. The line was huge. Apparently it's quite popular. And I can see why - the shrimp were huge and super yummy!

On our last night in Hawaii, we drove to Turtle Bay to have dinner. We did catch a few sunsets but this one was probably the best. So sad to have to go home the next day...
I went down to the beach late one afternoon to soak up the few last rays of the day and happened to stumble upon the cast of "Hawaii Five-O" filming at one of the restaurants at our hotel. The video isn't the best since it was taken from my camera but you can see most of the cast. Funny how much smaller they look in real life. I hope this scene makes it into one of the upcoming episodes!

I'm Married to a Superhero!

2011-01-27T17:02:00.001-08:00

Just a quick add-on to my last post. I happen to visit teach the mother of one of our little Sunbeams. I'll call him "T". Little T has been scared to come to class. He came the first Sunday but didn't stay for very long. And his mom says he's been crying before church on Sundays because he hasn't wanted to go to class.

Last Sunday, T's mom brought him into the Primary room and sat him down next to Cory. I wasn't paying attention but I guess Cory put his arm around the little guy and said "hey bud". And that's all it took. T stayed for the entire time and was good as gold. But I didn't find out why until last night when I went to visit T's mom.

She told me that T thinks Cory is a superhero. Literally. I guess T is totally into The Incredible Hulk, Superman, The Titans, Knights of the Round Table, etc. The only way they can get him to enjoy scripture time is if they focus on the "war stories". Anyway, I guess after church, T told his mom that his teacher is a superhero. She tried to explain that it was possible that Cory is just a regular guy, but T was insistent. He says, "But Mom, he's so big and his voice sounds just like a superhero. I just know he is one." I about died laughing! What a cute little guy! I can get on-board with thinking Cory is a superhero. Maybe we'll have to take a cape to class one of these days. I know...not very reverent but it would be fun.

Sunbeams!

2011-01-24T05:08:00.000-08:00

Cory and I weren't able to fly under the radar screen in our new ward for very long. We have recently been called to be Sunbeam teachers in the Primary organization (teaching the 3-year-old class). Our first class was on Jan. 2nd i.e. the very first day when all of the new Sunbeams are coming out of nursery for the first time. Cue the madness.

Our ward has three nurseries (yes, Sacrament meeting is deafening). And subsequently, we have three Sunbeam classes. Cory and I have eight children (all boys!) on our roster - seven of them attend class regularly. I was just released from the Primary Presidency in our ward in Idaho and I must confess that I was hoping to get a break from Primary for a while. But poor Cory - he went from working with the teenage boys to working with those of a much younger demographic. The look of terror on his face that first Sunday was priceless. And to give him credit, I probably would have felt the same way had I been in his shoes.

Junior Primary that first Sunday was a complete zoo. The decibel level was probably close to a seven. There were sobbing children who were scared about this new experience. Wiggly children who weren't accustomed to sitting still and upright in their chairs for 40 minutes straight. A song leader who insisted on teaching a new song for the entire 25 minutes, which led to extreme boredom and cries from the children that they wanted a new song. And my poor husband got stuck sitting directly behind a child who was spitting up in the air and letting the spittle fall to the floor or land on his face. Cory kept looking down at his shoes and then looking at me - and I could tell he wanted to bolt out of that room as fast as possible. In the meantime, I'm wrestling seven children by myself because Cory was frozen to his chair.

We both had to give a talk in Sacrament meeting on the second Sunday of the year. Cory stood up there and told everyone that he wasn't scared to be standing in front of them giving a talk. However, he said he was pretty scared about going into the "lion's den" immediately after Sacrament meeting.

Fast forward to yesterday. When the boys file into the Primary room now, the first thing they do is run to Cory and give him a hug. They all fight to sit next to him. They are so proud to know Brother Johnson's name. And they profess their love to him all the time. I'm just an after-thought at this point. Let's be honest - it's way more cool to come to church and get a fist-bump from Brother Johnson. And that's just fine with me.

Happy Birthday, Cory!

2011-01-12T16:48:00.000-08:00

Happy birthday to my wonderful, kind, amazing husband! Guess what Cory got for his birthday today?? One of the shop guys at work backed into this truck. Nothing too serious - just a ding in the back quarter panel. For real? I thought we left our bad luck with accidents behind us in 2010. Apparently not. Maybe we'll beat our record of five car accidents in one year.

When Cory left the house this morning, he confirmed that I wasn't going to do anything crazy today, "like come to work and try to surprise him." I've done that in the past. I guess it was too embarrassing. Good thing I wasn't planning on doing anything nice for him today!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-29T06:33:00.001-08:00

Although it's late, I'd like to still take a moment to say that I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas. It took until the second week of December but I finally found the Christmas decorations (buried under the moving boxes) so we could decorate the tree.

We stayed at my parents' house on Christmas Eve. Grammie had a fun time opening Paisley's Christmas presents!

We spent Christmas afternoon with the Johnson's.

Cory cooked up some crab for a fabulous Christmas dinner.

We arrived back in Salt Lake on Sunday afternoon and the first thing Cory did was break out his Cabela's hunting game that Jaron and Karen gave him for Christmas. I must confess to being completely mystified by how guys seem to intuitively know how to work every video game without reading the instructions. They know what each button is for and how to navigate through the game. I had to ask Cory for help on how to use the Zumba "game" that I got for Christmas. And I'm still not sure that I've got it completely figured out.
We also invested in our first MAC computer. Both of our PC's were dying so we decided to bite the bullet. I've been extremely frustrated with the effort of learning a new operating system. I had to Google instructions for how to eject a CD from the CD-rom drive. Sheesh! Good thing I'm signed up to go to an "introduction to your MAC" class next week. I can also go in for any other classes they offer during the course of the next year. I have a feeling the folks at the Apple store are going to be seeing a lot of me...

I would also like to take a moment to express my gratitude for all that Cory and I have been blessed with. 2010 definitely ranks as one of the worst years ever but it certainly ended on a positive note for us. And I know there are so many out there who have challenges that I cannot even dream of. It makes me feel like a spoiled child to whine about my problems. 2011 has to be better, right?? I wish you all a very happy, blessed and prosperous New Year!

Seattle

2010-11-12T08:20:00.000-08:00

I went to Seattle for a conference and Cory came with me so we could celebrate our two-year anniversary together. I have been to Washington before but never to Seattle. It is absolutely beautiful! The Puget Sound is amazing!
I'm told it's pretty rare to be able to see Mt. Rainier (because it's always rainy and cloudy in Seattle). But we lucked out and had a beautiful day for sightseeing.

We ventured to the top of the Space Needle and took in the sights.

We visited the Pike Place fish market and had some amazing sushi for dinner.

We attended a dinner one night that was hosted by one of the suppliers at the conference. They had invited Jason and Molly from "The Bachelor". You can see Jason here and Molly is directly behind him. I have never watched "The Bachelor" but some of the women at the dinner were faithful followers of the show and were clearly awestruck! :-)

We Are Moving!

2010-11-09T06:11:00.001-08:00

Well folks, after three years (since Cory and I started dating), we are finally down to one house payment. We are moving back to Utah! The renters moved out of our house just in time for Cory to get a new job. He started work yesterday and seems to really like it.

Oh, and lest you think that life can go too smoothly for us, I'd like to squash that thought by reporting that Cory was driving my mom back to Preston on Sunday (after Paisley's baby blessing in Afton, WY) and hit a deer. They were in my mom's car - poor Cory felt awful. And that brings our grand total up to four car accidents this year...

Boston!

2010-10-24T21:50:00.001-07:00

As usual, I'm about a month behind. In September, I went on a business trip to Providence, RI. It's easier to fly in and out of Boston and then drive to RI. My colleagues and I had some free time for a team-building activity. My boss is from Boston so we asked him to give us a tour of his town. I have always wanted to go to Boston (in fact, Cory and I almost booked a trip there last year), and I was pretty excited to see all of the historical sites. We stopped in Concord first. We had the opportunity to see Ralph Waldo Emerson's house (this is the boat house), which was later lived in by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
And of course, you can't stop in Concord and not visit the site where "the shot heard round the world" is located. The writing underneath this farmer says, "By the rude bridge that arched the flood, their flag to April's breeze unfurled, here once the embattled farmers stood, and fired the shot heard round the world." How amazing that a bunch of farmers stood up to the mighty British army (and won!). What great sacrifices our forefathers made for us. Where is that same patriotism now when we need it most??

In order to maximize our time and see as many historical sites as possible, we took a duck tour. Our "duck" was Fenway Fanny. And our driver was a hoot!

Here we are cruising at a whopping five knots. The captain had her at full throttle! :)

We zoomed past Cheers. Which was okay by me - I've heard that going inside is highly overrated.

Al (my boss) knew about a great seafood place to have dinner. I had the best clam chowder ever! Here are my colleagues: Al, Donna (with her superstar glasses on at night), Carole and Joyce. I can't wait to go back someday and spend some more time exploring this wonderful city.

I'm An Aunt!

2010-10-09T08:03:00.001-07:00

We had a baby shower for Karen on September 11th. A big thanks for all who came and to Ashlee and Emilee for giving me so many good ideas! Here is the diaper cake.
And the cupcake rattles.

And more yummy treats!

I love my cute family!! We've got Courtney, Bracken (who is expecting a baby in January and looks fabulous!), Landon, Tracie, Afton and Brett.

The cast of characters continues. Here is Great-Grammie, Dorothy, Britney, some of Karen's friends (???) and Aunt Lee in the middle! :-)

The guest of honor. I should mention that less than 24 hours after the baby shower, Karen went into labor. But she said she felt good here!

The Grammie-To-Be and their cute neighbor, Erica.

Whitney and Maylin came all the way from Provo. Thanks guys!!

And here is the new arrival. Paisley Lila Hollingsworth was born on September 13th! She has tons and tons of hair, which works out great for her beautician mother who can't wait to start styling! Congrats Karen and Jaron!!

Teton National Park With The Johnson's

2010-10-04T11:26:00.000-07:00

Agh! I'm so far behind!! We went to Teton National Park with the Johnson family back in August. We had yummy food, nice visits around the campfire, fun hiking around Jenny Lake (pictured below) and lots of good laughs.

And don't mind this picture. It's out of order and I couldn't figure out how to move it. But I had to leave it in here - I just love Gracie's face. She had a blast on the slide! The girl has no fear!

We spent a day in Jackson Hole and, of course, had to have our picture taken under the antler arch.

We also had fun riding the Alpine Slide. I'm happy to report that no one flew off the track. Go, go speed racer!!

Recent Happenings

2010-08-17T20:59:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not, we have been doing other things besides wrecking cars. Here are a few of the highlights.

I had my 15 year class reunion in July. Wow - can't believe it's already been 15 years! We had a really great turn-out. Here is a shot of a few of those who came. This has been my favorite class reunion thus far. It seemed like people were less concerned with getting somewhere in life and more concerned with sitting down and having a good visit. I must confess that I went with the intention to only stay for an hour or so and I ended up staying for three. So great to see everyone!
I also attended That Famous Preston Night Rodeo. Translation: I ate a rodeo hamburger, a caramel apple and a churro in one night. That's what it's all about, baby!

While I was at my class reunion and the rodeo, Cory was busy hiking for 30 miles in the Frank Church Wilderness. He is still serving as the senior scout advisor for our church and he planned a great adventure for the boys this year. He said it was probably the toughest thing he has ever done in his life. And I believe it. I can still see the scars on his feet (they were rubbed raw even though his hiking boots were well broken-in).

I went on a business trip to New York / Connecticut, which in and of itself wouldn't normally be blog worthy. But...I got to hang out in Times Square and go see "The Lion King" on Broadway. Amazing! I love NYC!!

And most recently, we spent a weekend with my parents at Bear Lake. I had to take this picture to show Jaron and Karen. They gave this little egg cooker to Cory for Christmas last year. It made a pretty good omelet!!

Bear Lake is definitely one of my more favorite lakes. It is so pretty and blue. The only bad thing...the water never really gets super calm, so it's hard to ski on.

We did visit LeBeau's and have a fresh raspberry shake. We also picked up a flat of raspberries to bring home with us. Yum! And Cory got in plenty of fishing time...

You're Not Going To Believe This!

2010-08-08T19:49:00.000-07:00

Remember that hit-and-run accident we got in on Friday night? Well...our car got backed into at the church parking lot this afternoon. This cute little old lady just kept going and going and she backed right into our rear bumper. Ironically enough, it wouldn't have happened if Cory hadn't stopped to help another little old lady put her walker into the trunk of her car. If only we would have pulled away a few seconds earlier. No good deed goes unpunished. My insurance company was a little surprised to hear from me again today. They thought I was calling about the claim from Friday... Nope. Just two accidents in one weekend. That's it. From now on, we're walking.

Seriously??

2010-08-07T10:48:00.000-07:00

Cory and I went out for date night last night (sushi!!!) and on our way home, we got in a hit and run accident. That's it. I am officially over 2010!!! What a horrible year! They say bad things happen in threes, right?? I totaled my car (that was paid for - can't forget that jab in the ribs) in January, Cory lost his job in May and now this. So we should be done now. Good things are definitely on the horizon (I hope).

We went through a traffic light and immediately after you go through the light, the lanes merge down into one. There was a red truck behind us, so we should have had the right to merge in front. But no. This crazy lady sped up and then side-swiped us as she went by. And yes, we were in my BRAND. NEW. CAR. The one that I've had for five months. The one that has 4,000 miles on it. We pulled off to the side of the road thinking that she would stop but she kept on going. So I started yelling at Cory to follow her. We chased her down and after honking the horn for a few minutes she finally pulled over and got out of the vehicle.

She said she hadn't even felt the impact and thought that she had stopped in time. What?? And then she said that she was in a hurry to go pick up her daughter and she asked if she could just give us her information and we could deal with the accident report later. By this point, I had 911 on the phone and I said that I wasn't willing to simply take her information and let her leave. I wanted to do things the right way and have an accident report written up for the insurance companies. She started to walk back towards her truck and I thought she was just going to get her license and insurance information and try to get us to take it and let her go. Instead, she got in her truck and took off. I started screaming her license plate number at the 911 operator to make sure they got it down. What a freak!

The police officer showed up about 15 minutes later and took our statement. They found the registered owners of the truck and sent an officer to the house but no one was home. Supposedly they will continue to follow-up and try to track them down. I'm not holding my breath. I'm sure that we'll have to take another one up the rear-end and shovel some more money out the window to pay our deductible. I shouldn't be surprised. We're so good at that by now.

Jackson Lake

2010-07-25T20:29:00.000-07:00

We went to Jackson Lake in Teton National Park with my family last weekend. It wouldn't be a vacation without at least one mishap. We got a late start on Thursday night and all of the campgrounds were full by the time we got into the park. So we headed back towards Jackson Hole (it's about 30 minutes outside of the park entrance) and figured we would find an RV park for the night. We saw a pull-out just outside of downtown and we decided it would be fine to stay there rather than pay for an RV park (it was already midnight by this point). At 1:45 a.m., the police knocked on the door of our camper. Apparently we weren't outside the boundaries of the park and it's illegal to camp off the side of the road. The officer let us stay there until 6:00 a.m. and then we had to leave. Not much sleep that night!
But here's what we saw on day two. My parents brought their boat and we headed out on Jackson Lake on Friday afternoon. The lake with the Tetons in the background just takes your breath away. See that snow on the Tetons? Well, that's running straight down into the lake. Needless to say, we didn't get in the water much!

I've decided that you cannot count calories when you're camping. Steak, dutch oven potatoes, raspberry cobbler, kabobs, blueberry pancakes and lots of snacking in between. Break out the stretchy pants!

Jaron helped make breakfast on Sunday morning. And someone had the brilliant idea to put a soda can underneath the grill to catch the drippings from the bacon. Yep. That worked out well.

My SIL, Karen, is seven months pregnant. They do have a trailer, but I'll definitely give her a shout-out. It was pretty hot and she was a trooper. Thanks for the great weekend!

Cory's Job Search

2010-07-19T22:08:00.000-07:00

They say that finding a new job is all about the networking that you do. So here goes! As many of you know, Cory lost his job in May. He has taken a few weeks off to relax and re-group, but we're ready to get serious about the job hunt now.

So...for any of you who might know of a job opening or networking referral for someone who works in logisitics / supply chain / transportation management, we would greatly appreciate it if you would contact us.

We are doing fine. Thankfully I still have my job (and our medical insurance). Thank you all for your love, support and prayers.

Tennessee & North Carolina

2010-07-11T22:05:00.000-07:00

Cory and I went to a wedding in Knoxville, TN, a few weeks ago. And since we were out that way, and since I've never been to that area before, we decided to make a vacation out of it. We landed in Nashville, TN, and headed straight to the Cumberland River to take a ride on the General Jackson. FYI - this is the river that flooded and did so much damage in Nashville a few months ago. It's hard to believe that the river rose almost 50 ft. in two days. I was pleasantly surprised with how nice the city looked and how much progress they've made with the clean-up efforts. Opryland is still closed due to damage from the flood, but the Grand Ole Opry show continued at the Ryman Auditorium (which was the original home of the Grand Ole Opry). We took a tour in the afternoon and then went back to see a show later that evening.

It was pretty neat to be part of a live radio show. They had commercials throughout the program and every once in a while the announcer would come out on stage and prompt us to clap and yell a little louder.

We visited the Country Music Hall of Fame.

And saw Elvis' gold piano...

And remember the show "Hee Haw"? Well, this is their original stage set. It looks a lot smaller in person.

We stopped at The Hermitage (i.e. President Andrew Jackson's house). Of course it was being renovated so pardon the tractor in front of the house.

Then we headed through The Great Smoky Mountain National Park. I want to have a lane like this in front of my house someday...

The Great Smoky Mountain Park is unique because it hasn't always been a national park. It used to be inhabited with early settlers (see one of their cabins below). The settlers agreed to sell their land to Tennessee and North Carolina and the park was born! It's the number one most visited national park in the U.S. - it has almost nine million visitors every year.

This mountain is what inspired the song "On Top of Old Smoky". It was hot and humid in the valley but nice and cool up here.We were also on a quest to find some good BBQ (we're sadly lacking for good BBQ here in Idaho). 12 Bones, in Asheville, NC, was definitely in the hood but was probably our number one pick for good BBQ.

We also visited the Biltmore Mansion while we were in Asheville (BTW, I could definitely live in Asheville - it was such a cute little town). The Biltmore is owned by the Vanderbilt family and is the largest house in the U.S. It has 143 rooms - 45 of them are bathrooms (I hope I got those stats right). AMAZING!!

And of course...what we went for...Dave and Katie's beautiful wedding! So glad that we were able to be there for their special day.

And we were also privileged to see the lovely Kate while we were there!

I'll end this post by saying that Cory grumbled through every tourist site that we visited. However, on the night we got home, he turned on the TV and watched the show "Road Trip". This is a series that highlights fun road trips that you can take (they tell you the best places to visit, where to sleep / eat, etc.). Well wouldn't you know, they just happened to be showing the EXACT trip that we had taken (start in Nashville, then on to Knoxville, then through the Smoky Mountains, over to Asheville, drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway, etc.). And then he thought he was pretty cool because he had just been to all of those places...

Table Rock

2010-07-04T20:06:00.000-07:00

We finally have summer here in Eastern Idaho. It has been absolutely miserable up until about three weeks ago. Summers are so wonderful here but definitely too short. Guess we better start playing hard before it's over! We went camping and 4-wheeling at Table Rock (by Kelly's Canyon) a few weeks ago. We talked Grant and Connie into going riding with us. I think we wore them out, but they look like they're having fun here.
Cory and I sent them up the steep trail and then we went around on the safer trail. :-)

Nothing better than cooking outside on the grill (especially since it means that I don't have to do the cooking).

Grandpa took Ayla and Gracie for a ride. Gracie wanted to go faster, faster!!

Congrats to Brady & Alicia!

2010-06-23T08:39:00.000-07:00

Cory's brother, Brady, got married on June 12th. We are so glad that we got to be part of their special day. Brady and Alicia got married in the Logan Temple.
We saw a lot of this...

And a lot of this... It was so windy that day! Alicia handled it like a trooper. I'm afraid I would have been in tears!

Grandma and Gracie trying not to blow away.

Alicia was such a beautiful bride. I looooved the back of her dress!

Cutting the cake! Brady and Alicia went on their honeymoon to Vegas. They are back now and adjusting to married life. We wish them the very best!

Johnson's : 0, Bears : 2

2010-04-26T09:54:00.001-07:00

This weekend was the Spring bear hunt for the Johnson boys. What a difference two weeks can make. We went back to our camping spot on the Salmon river - you can actually see green on the trees now (never mind the fact that we drove through a snowstorm on Thursday night to get to the campground). Cory just happened to haul (via Knight) some bear bait for a client last week. Imagine, some guy paid for Knight to haul an entire trailer full of bear bait. But it worked out well for Cory because the client graciously gave Cory some of the goods i.e. old pies, bread, various scraps, etc. We also loaded up on dog food, honey and maple syrup. Brady and Cory set the bear bait out on Friday morning and they waited for two days...but no bears. They saw plenty of elk and deer and even some "evidence" of bears in the area. I think they were both a little disappointed in the outcome, but they had fun trying. Next time.

And what did I do for two days? I spent my time here. I've had so many projects that I have started and haven't had time to finish. And I suppose I could have done them at home while the boys were gone, but if I stay home, I tend to find other (less fun) projects that need to be done; see: cleaning, running errands, laundry, etc. So I packed up my scrapbooking supplies, several movies, a few good books and my computer (yes, we had WiFi from the RV park but no cell service) and did absolutely nothing but relax all weekend. It was nice to sit by the river and read my book and take a nap and not feel guilty about all of the things that I wasn't getting done at home. Now, back to reality today.

Salmon

2010-04-18T19:29:00.001-07:00

Cory couldn't wait any longer. He's been dying to go camping since the middle of February. So we packed up our gear and headed out last weekend. We stayed in North Fork (that's really the name of the town - if you can call it a town). The campground was really pretty - it backed up to the Salmon River. Note that it still looks like winter around here. Snow on the ground and no leaves on the trees.

The purpose of the trip: to scout out possible bear hunting sites. Yup. He's determined to get one this year. So we trekked through the wilderness, encountered some snow-covered trails and hit a rock that had fallen from the mountain onto the highway (I'll come back to this later).

We saw this herd of wild sheep. They look pretty malnourished from the winter. Good thing there's some grass for them to eat now!

And I had to document Cory's first "waste dump" effort. Yuck!

We left the campsite around 7:30 p.m. and headed home. Around 10:30, in the middle of nowhere, the front tire blew. Remember the rock that we hit earlier? Apparently it really damaged the tire. Thankfully, Cory managed to keep control of the truck so the trailer didn't start rocking too bad. We left the truck running for about an hour while Cory was changing the tire (because he was afraid of the battery dying). The spare tire was pretty flat and Cory tried to convince me that it just looked a little low since we were sitting on an angle. Whatever. Don't patronize me. I know a flat tire when I see one. But we didn't have any choice but to carry on. We didn't have cell service and we hadn't seen anyone pass by to help us. And since we had left the truck running, we were about out of fuel. So we limped down the road to Lone Pine - the sign said it was 44 miles away and we figured we could make it that far.

Well, we did make it to Lone Pine but it turns out that Lone Pine consists of a gas station with a little diner attached. They have one gas pump (no diesel) that doesn't take debit cards and they were closed by the time we got there. The next closest town, Mud Lake, was 33 miles away and we were really low on fuel at that point. We decided to stay in Lone Pine and attempt the drive to Mud Lake in the morning. We figured that if we ran out of fuel, someone would see us and stop to help. But when we went to crawl into the trailer and go to bed, we realized that the keys to the trailer were missing. Sweet! I seriously started praying so hard to find those stupid keys. I was exhausted and cold and couldn't imagine spending the night in the back of the truck when we had a perfectly good trailer to sleep in. After some serious digging (and praying), we located the keys. They had lodged up underneath the cup holder. Whew!

I'm happy to report that we did make it to Mud Lake on Sunday morning. I think we blew into town on fumes. We got fuel and air for the tire and finally headed home. Not bad for our first camping adventure of the summer. :-)

Hill Climbs

2010-04-18T19:09:00.000-07:00

We went to the hill climbs in Jackson Hole a few weeks ago. I've only been to one hill climb event before and I watched it from the bottom of the hill. This time, we took the ski lift to the top of the mountain and got to see the action up close. You might have to click on these pictures and blow them up so you can see the detail. It amazed me how the riders "danced" with their snowmobiles. They would jump from side to side of the machine in mid-air so that they could lean the right way to get over a hill, etc. The upper body strength that must require!!!

Watching a rider come up and looking down on the town of Jackson.

Brady and Alicia went to the top with us. They are getting married on June 12th! Hooray! Such cute lovebirds!

There were two ways to get down the mountain. You could either trek back up the hill and take the ski lift down (we had walked down a little way to get a better view) or you could slide down the hill on your rear end. We opted for the latter...and I had no idea what I was getting into. I wish someone would have been at the bottom of the hill to take a picture because I'm sure it was hilarious. You slide down the hill on your bum and your feet are out in front of you. Got it so far? Well, since your feet are out in front, they act as a "scraper" (picture a snowplow) and throw the snow all over your face (brrrr!!). So you're going down the hill at 50 mph (because it's been groomed for the skiers and your snow pants are slick) and you can't see a thing because your feet are throwing snow in your face (and the harder you dig your feet in to stop, the more snow it throws) and your face is burning because the snow is so cold. Sweet. Loved it. There goes my eyeliner...

As we were going up the ski lift, I couldn't figure out why there were TONS of guys hanging out on the hill. I figured it out pretty quickly. They are there to grab the snowmobile if a rider gets stuck and starts to slide backward. You can see a little bit of that in this video. We watched one poor snowmobile roll all the way down the hill (they have a net at the bottom of the hill to catch run-away sleds). I think the rider must have cried when he got to the bottom and saw his banged-up sled.

A Little Funny

2010-03-14T08:53:00.000-07:00

I needed a laugh this morning so I pulled out this video that I took of my cat. Precious looooves to climb inside and/or on top of anything that is placed on the floor. She climbs into boxes, shopping bags, etc. This time she crawled out of the bag and instead of going through the main opening, she climbed through one of the handles and got stuck. I was laughing hysterically as she cruised around the house with her tail swishing and the bag hot on her heels. She was highly offended that I was laughing.

FINALLY!!!!!

2010-03-03T05:54:00.000-08:00

Exactly 45 days after my car accident, we received the money from the insurance company. Seriously! And now that we are done with this stupid process, I will shout it from the rooftops and tell everyone I know that they should never, under any circumstances, use an insurance company called American Commerce. I've never dealt with a more incompetent group of people in my life.

It took them three weeks to perform the market analysis on my car and determine that it was a total loss. Since then, we've been trying to get the settlement offer from them. Just to be clear...the settlement offer should equal the dollar value of the market analysis. So it's not rocket science to simply transfer the dollar value from the market analysis onto a piece of paper and send it to me, right? Wrong.

They said their system showed that the settlement offer had been mailed to me on X date. And it never showed up. So I called back again. And this time they tell me that the settlement offer had been mailed on Y date. And it never showed up. So I finally turned this over to Cory since I wasn't getting anywhere. And he was ruthless. :-) Our friendly neighborhood insurance agent's name is Tracy. And after Cory was done with Tracy, she could recognize his voice the minute he called (i.e. he no longer had to give the case number to identify himself). The first day he tried to call Tracy, he kept getting sent to her voice mailbox. So he started to leave five minute messages of nothing. And then he'd call back and do it again. Just so she would have to check her voicemail and listen to nothing for five minutes. Perhaps Tracy finally got the message because she eventually spoke to Cory and agreed to email us a copy of the settlement offer.

Since American Commerce doesn't have a local office here in Idaho Falls, we had to sign a power of attorney form and send that, along with my car title, in order to get the settlement check. You can imagine my trepidation with sending my car title off to this company that is an absolute joke. Since we NEVER received a settlement offer in the mail, despite numerous times of them assuring us that it was sent, I really never thought we would see a check from them. I sent the title via FedEx so I would have a tracking number and I also included a nasty letter in the package. I advised them that due to the "undue hardship and emotional stress" that they have caused, I expected that I would receive a check from them by X date or else they would be required to extend my rental car allowance until such a time as I did receive the check. It must have worked (i.e. perhaps they sensed a lawsuit on the horizon) because they did extend the rental car allowance until yesterday. And yesterday is when we received the check. Unbelievable!

In retrospect, we may have done things differently. We deliberately chose not to file the claim with our insurance company because the accident wasn't my fault. We didn't want to have to pay our deductible and then have the accident go against my driving record while we were waiting for our insurance company to get a settlement out of American Commerce. But it may have been worth it. Battling an insurance company as an individual is an exhausting ordeal.

Another Chapter Closed

2010-02-03T14:20:00.000-08:00

Today I had to say goodbye to my car. And it broke my heart. This is what my poor baby looks like. A few weeks ago, some crazy old bat pulled out in front of me and I couldn't stop in time. It was 2:00 p.m., dry roads and the sun was shining (rare for this lovely town that I live in). I was headed to the grocery store. Minding my own business. And all the sudden she makes a left turn in front of me - she told the police officer that she "just didn't see me". She received the traffic citation and was remanded to appear in court to have her driving privileges evaluated. She is 88 years old and clearly should not have been on the road. At first I felt sorry for her. And now I just want to scream at her.

I will pay the consequences for her negligence for the next several years. After 2 1/2 weeks of fighting with her insurance company, they are finally in the process of issuing me a settlement. The car is a total loss - the repair bill added up to $7,600. I've decided that having insurance is an absolute joke. They don't make you whole. If that were the case, they would have fixed my car and not issued a salvage title. As it is, I will have to live with the settlement that they have offered and go buy a new car. And I don't want a new car. I want the car of my dreams. The car that was paid for. The car that I took care of so that it would last me for at least 10 years. We are using the money that we were paying for the car to save for a house.

And that leads me to fun fact #2 for 2010. Why do I need to save for a house, you might ask? Why don't I just sell my house in Utah and take the money from my down payment and buy a new house?? I just found out that due to all of the foreclosures in my neighborhood in Utah, I am now upside-down in my house in Utah. And to top that off, we are going to have to lower the rent by $150 - $200 beginning in May because the rental market is saturated right now. The rent we currently receive doesn't cover the mortgage payment.

And that leads to fun fact #3. The real estate agents are predicting that another wave of foreclosures is going to hit the market in the second or third quarter of this year. Which means the house value will drop even further. At this rate, it will be 5-6 years before we can even think about selling the house. Guess we'll be renters, in this town that I despise with all my heart, for the next 5-6 years. And really, let's be honest. At this point, I'm not just throwing money out the window. I'm shoveling it out the window. So let's just add a little more salt to the wound. It's one thing if you make a stupid financial decision yourself. Of course you should pay the consequences for that decision. But it's another thing entirely if you have to sit back and watch others make stupid decisions for you. I hate being stupid. I thought 2010 would definitely have to be better than 2009. So far, I'm not impressed.

At the end of the day, I realize that this is not a crisis. Cory and I are not destitute. We will not starve. It just means that it will take us longer to reach our financial goals. It just means that I have to re-adjust my hopes and dreams. And it might take me a while to be okay with that. Cory tells me to suck it up - this is life.

One funny thing about this whole ordeal. I did have someone from a chiropractic practice here in town call me to tell me that he had heard about the accident and wanted to offer me a free consultation and adjustment, if necessary. Really? I thought only lawyers (sorry Tams) were the ambulance chasers. You learn something new every day.

Our Magic Carpet Has Arrived!

2010-01-24T09:02:00.000-08:00

For those of you who looked at the pictures from our cruise, you may remember that we purchased a carpet (rug) in Turkey. They said it would take 6-8 weeks to get to us. Add in the holiday shipping delays, and it took a little longer than that. But we finally have it! This is what the package looked like when it arrived. I'll never be able to get it rolled up like that again.

They had me sign the rug at the store so that we would know it was really the rug we selected.

This is a wool on wool blend. Apparently it is mid-range quality, as far as Turkish rugs go. The cotton rugs are lower quality and the silk rugs are the best (obviously). The quality of a rug is measured in how many knots are tied per square inch. More knots = higher quality. We were told that it took someone 10 months to make our rug.

The rug is still in our living room so we can admire it for a few more days. We'll have to wait until we have a house before we can leave it out for good. Oh wait, we do have a house. Someone else just gets to live in it instead of us. But I'm not bitter...

Party Time!

2010-01-19T21:15:00.000-08:00

It's already been one week since Cory's birthday. Where does the time go?? Oh wait...I'm doing three people's jobs at work. There's no time for anything anymore. But I digress. Cory celebrated his birthday by going to the Packers' playoff game against the Cardinals. The Packers didn't win, but it was a great game!
Cory and Evan both drove semi trucks to Phoenix and Jordan hitched a ride. And no, I was not invited. :-)

Our celebration at home paled in comparison. Cory went to Mutual on his birthday and then he opened a few presents. My parents gave him a cover for his new chainsaw. Cory is so anxious to go out and cut something (anything!) down...

He also requested a book titled "Elk Hunting the West". This book now has a proud place in our bathroom. Happy birthday to my wonderful husband!

Homemade Bread

2010-01-10T19:45:00.001-08:00

As far as successes go, this one isn't monumental. But it was still a pretty big deal for me so I figured I better document it for posterity's sake. After all, it may never happen again. I made my first-ever loaf of homemade bread and it was actually edible! My brother tells me that I am turning into my grandmother. I'll take that as a compliment, thankyouverymuch. I received a wheat grinder for x-mas so now I can make my own flour and my own bread. Sweet! I'm also going to try sprouting some wheat and then drying it and making my own wheat germ. I have a recipe book of all the things you can do with your food storage. If anyone has any suggestions, I would certainly love to hear from you.

Happy New Year And All That Jazz...

2010-01-01T12:20:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a great New Year's Eve and I wish you all a healthy and prosperous 2010! It has to be better than last year... Cory and I went to dinner with Jared and Camille last night and then we went to chaperon a youth church dance. I was highly entertained at the dance but I think Cory was about ready to slit his wrists. The techno beat and the songs from Beyonce and Lady Gaga about did him in. I would never want to go back and repeat those awkward moments at dances. The sweaty palms, trying to hide from the guy that you didn't want to dance with, everyone grooving to the fast songs and then running for cover (or back to your safe group of friends) when the slow songs came on, etc. Good times.

I'm slow at posting our pictures from Christmas, so here are a few of them. Ashlee and Emilee helped me pick out new Christmas tree decorations this year. Hooray! Thanks girls! The tree came down two days after Christmas...

Cory got a toolbox for the back of his truck. And he gave me some of my fine china dishes (but they are still somewhere in UPS-Land).

Cory also received a chainsaw for Christmas. Let's please all take a moment to make that grunting noise that Tim-the-Toolman-Taylor makes. :-)

Karen got a window-pane for Christmas. She is so creative - she can turn old stuff into something cute and fun!

I think this was Jaron's box of socks...

Jaron & Karen gave Cory a little pan so he can make his own eggs when we are camping. When we were camping this summer, Cory informed everyone that "a lot of good things come out of Marisa's kitchen, but eggs aren't one of them." *GASP* I know...it's a rookie husband mistake.

We stopped by Grant & Connie's house to open presents on x-mas night. They spoiled us rotten too! I took some pictures of the rest of the fam, but they didn't turn out. Dang!

Thanks to everyone for another great Christmas. We are very blessed and fortunate!

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas

2009-12-22T20:57:00.001-08:00

And how, you might ask, can I tell that it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas? By my expanding waistline, naturally! :-) I've got cookies, gift basket goodies, candy, hot chocolate and other miscellaneous fattening items all over my counter. And I'm home all day, which means that I sit and stare at them ALL DAY!

Since I'm already packing on the pounds, a day making homemade chocolates at Grandma Jones' house seemed appropriate. The Johnson girls ventured to Grandma's house to try our hand at making fondant and caramels for dipping. Grandma Jones is an expert and I think it must drive her crazy to watch us fumble our way through the recipes. It takes a lot of praying...as Camille is demonstrating below. Got to get the temperature just right!
Ash is lookin' good making some caramel. It tasted fabulous!

The dipping part is pretty messy. Camille and Emilee make it look easy!

And here is our fearless leader. I must say that the chocolates all turned out really well. They are sitting in a pretty tin on my counter and I have a staring contest with them every day. They usually win...

Thanksgiving, Missionaries and Soldiers

2009-12-10T08:30:00.000-08:00

We had a great Thanksgiving dinner with the Johnson clan - I even tried some sweet potatoes and liked them! I did get up at 5:00 a.m. on Black Friday to go shopping. I was home and back in bed by 10:00 a.m. On Saturday, the Hollingsworth side of my family came to Idaho Falls for my cousin Cade's mission homecoming. He has been serving a mission for our church in Argentina for the past two years. They called him Elder Hollywood because the people in Argentina couldn't pronouce his name. The funny thing is...Cade's personality totally fits the "Hollywood" title. He is larger than life and it is so nice to have him home! Cade is pictured below (with the glasses) along with some more of my cousins.

Cute girls - this is Jordan and Laken. Jordan and the rest of her family (plus my parents) stayed at our house on Saturday night. We had 10 people sleeping in our tiny two-bedroom duplex!

Whitney and Jason are expecting a baby on Dec. 25th. We are so excited for them!!

This is Hudson and Channing. Hudson is one of the happiest babies I've ever met - he is a cutie!

In addition to celebrating Cade's homecoming, we also got together to see my Uncle Guy who has been serving in Iraq for the past six months. Guy got to come home for his two-week leave so that he could see Cade.

It was very enlightening to be able to hear some of Guy's stories from Iraq. He has seen a lot of horrible stuff - he couldn't give us many details because most of it is still classified. Guy is on his way back to Iraq for another four months (minimum). I can certainly see first-hand what a sacrifice it is for his family to have him gone. My Aunt Christine said she wasn't even in the mood to put up her Christmas tree - maybe next year. Thankfully some nice girls from her ward (church) came over and put up the decorations for her.

In addition to serving as a colonel in the army, Guy was recently set apart as the Area President for Iraq (similar to a Stake President). This is the first time that the Priesthood has been formally organized in Iraq since the time of Daniel. Guy is going to call some counselors upon his return to Iraq. He says that the calls have to be issued via Skype since it's too dangerous to move about freely and try to contact someone in person. Pretty amazing stuff!

I just want to take a moment to thank all of the military personnel who are serving our country right now and I would like to thank their families for the sacrifice they are making as well. What brave men and women!!

Mediterranean Cruise

2009-11-10T20:22:00.000-08:00

One dream that I've had for quite some time is to have the opportunity to go on a Mediterranean cruise. So Cory and I decided to grab the bull by the horns and take the plunge for our one-year anniversary. We booked the trip back in February and didn't really get too excited because we just knew that something was going to happen to prevent us from going. The cruise was relatively inexpensive since the travel industry is in the tank. And we paid $75 extra (per person) for insurance on the cruise in case we had to cancel for any reason. We used my airline miles for our airplane tickets, so we didn't spend much there (and no big loss if we had to cancel and re-deposit the miles in my account). And then these last few weeks, I just knew that one of us was going to get the Swine Flu and that would prevent us from going.

But October 29th came around and we found ourselves boarding a plane for Europe. I am very thankful for the opportunity that we had to go. It's been a tough year at work and half of my team lost their jobs. There's been a lot of uncertainty and fear. We feel very blessed that we both still have jobs. This was a much-needed get-away!

As you probably guessed, this is a picture of the Chicago skyline. We had a six-hour layover in Chicago so we took the "L" downtown to meet up with my cousin, Hannah, for lunch. I'm so glad she had time to squeeze us in!

After a 7 1/2 hour flight, we landed in Brussels, Belgium. We had another long layover so we took the train downtown so we could spend some time exploring Brussels. This is the Grand Place, which is considered to be one of the most picturesque squares in Europe.

Here we are in front of a famous statue in Brussels - the Manneken Pis.

My wonderful friend, Christiane, drove all the way from Cologne to meet us in Brussels. Here she is with Cory. Of course we had to have some Belgian waffles while in Belgium. Christiane also brought us a ton of FABULOUS chocolate from Germany! Do you know why the European chocolate is so much better than the chocolate you can get in the U.S.? It's because the cocoa concentration is so much higher in the European chocolate (like 50 - 70% vs. the 5% we have in the States).

Our cruise ship departed from Venice, Italy. We had a day to spend in Venice before our cruise and one day after our cruise. Of course we had to take a gondola ride while we were in Venice.

This is the Grand Canal in Venice. We are taking this picture from the Rialto Bridge.

I looooove Italian ice cream (gelato). I couldn't get enough of it while we were in Italy!!

This is St. Mark's Basilica in Venice. Next to the Basilica is the Doge's Palace. We took the secret itinerary tour of the palace and we got to see the room where Casanova made his escape from the palace.
Our first stop on the cruise was Croatia. We visited the town of Dubrovnik. So pretty!

We ate lunch at a quaint restaurant by the ocean. Cory really was excited about the lunch...

Croatia is the home of the cravat (tie). The women used to tie a scarf / handkerchief on the arm or around the neck of their husbands / boyfriends who were going off to fight in the Thirty Years' War. The French loved the fashion statement and it soon evolved into the tie that we know today. We did buy a tie for Cory in Croatia (not the one pictured here).

Our next stop was Corfu - one of the Greek islands. We went to Paleokastritsa, which is considered to be one of the loveliest spots on the coastline of Corfu. We sure thought it was pretty!

Anyone who knows me will tell you that my favorite type of food is Mediterranean food. I was so exited to try some of the local cuisine. Here we tried some bruschetta and tzatziki. Yum!!

Next stop: Athens. It rained almost the entire time we were in Athens. The rain did stop long enough for us to take some pictures of the Parthenon. It was truly amazing to think that we were walking where Plato and Socrates used to walk.

We then sailed to Turkey and stopped to do some touring in Ephesus. This is the Virgin Mary's house. It is believed that she spent her last days on earth in Ephesus with St. John (remember that Jesus, when He was dying on the cross, asked John to take care of His mother).

We got some little vases to fill up with water from the fountain / well at Mary's house. I am happy to report that the vase and the water made it home safely.

Next we visited the city of Ephesus. This ancient city was built in the 2nd century BC. It was the second largest city in the Roman empire. This is the library. The brothel was right across the street from the library. They built an underground tunnel from the library to the brothel. Husbands would tell their wives that they were going to the library - and then they would sneak over to the brothel. Scoundrels!

These are public toilets (for men) in Ephesus. Men would come here to visit and catch up on local gossip. There was a small stream of water running in front of the toilets. They would bring a sponge to dip in the water and clean themselves off. Those who were too lazy would put their sponge on the end of a stick so they wouldn't have to bend over. They also imported exotic flowers from Africa to cover up the smell. Cozy, huh?

Our last stop on the cruise was the island of Crete (Greece). While there, we visited the Palace of Knossos. This palace is thought to have been built by the ancient Minoans, who created the first modern city (i.e. they moved out of caves and into houses). The palace was originally built in 2000 BC.

I had to try a gyro while in Greece!

We had beautiful weather in Crete. And the water was so blue! We were sunbathing on the deck of the cruise ship as we sailed away from Crete.

On our way home, we stopped in London. We visited the Palace of Westminster. And of course, we snapped a picture of Big Ben.

We also visited Buckingham Palace.

I don't know why I couldn't move these videos up where they belonged (in chronological order). This video was taken in Turkey. We got to watch this woman weave a rug. They actually tie knots really fast to make the rug. The more knots they tie in one square inch, the higher quality of rug. We did purchase a rug in Turkey. It is being shipped to us and will take 6-8 weeks before it gets here (just in time for Christmas). I'll post pictures once I get it.

This video was taken as we were pulling back into Venice. The city is truly beautiful. Hopefully this will give you an idea of the buildings that we saw along the Grand Canal.

If you would like to see all of our pictures, you can access them on my online gallery at http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.jsp?token=757452135805:2058076801&facebook=true&sourceId=984136008703. If that link doesn't work, you can send me an email and I'll send you a link.

RZR, Rutabaga's and Tap Dogs

2009-10-12T17:13:00.000-07:00

October 10th insists on rolling around each year. Which means that I have to grow one year older. I've always told Cory that if he's going to send flowers, I would prefer that he do it when I'm not expecting it (i.e. NOT for Valentine's day, etc.). So I received 100 miniature roses on Oct. 9th. That was definitely a surprise! And Cory so graciously reminded me, first thing in the morning, that I am getting old and that I will always be older than him.

I had hoped to be able to spend the day in the mountains looking at all the pretty Fall leaves. This is what we saw instead. I was sorely disappointed. I did get to see some pretty leaves on our drive home from Grey's River though.

We had dinner at one of the few nice restaurants in Idaho Falls: Rutabaga's. Yum! Jared and Camille joined us for dinner. And Camille gave me some of these adorable cookies. Amazing! And they taste pretty yummy too.

After dinner, I made Cory attend a performance at a local theater here in town. I have to cash in on these opportunities when I can because under normal circumstances, he would rather die than go to a musical/play/ballet, etc. :-) You can't really expect much from the arts program here, but it was a decent show and something different for us to do.

Thank you for all of the phone calls, emails, cards and visits that made this birthday great for me!

Pumpkin Pancakes and Caramel Syrup

2009-10-04T17:36:00.001-07:00

Since we didn't have to go to church today, I actually had time to make a nice breakfast. My sister-in-law, Camille, posted a great recipe on her blog for pumpkin pancakes with caramel syrup. Check out Jared & Camille's blog in my links below if you would like the recipe. They were to-die-for good!!! I've been anxious to try them for a couple of weeks now but I couldn't find a can of pumpkin in ANY of the grocery stores. I finally asked my friendly local Albertson's grocer what the heck was going on. They told me that the pumpkin manufactures were actually out of pumpkin - I guess there was a shortage. I'm not sure if there is still a shortage, but you might want to stock up now for the upcoming holiday season...

We are now enjoying my most favorite season of the year. I don't like the fact that winter comes after fall, but I'm just trying to block that out for now. Fall means that it's time to watch football while snuggled up in a blanket on the couch. But last weekend we ventured down to Provo to watch the Cougars play against Colorado.

I got to sit next to the cutest Cougar fans at the game. Ayla and Kaitlyn were more concerned about whether or not the players got hurt and watching Cosmo (the mascot) perform than they were about watching the game. But they cheered at the right time and even yelled at the players every once in awhile when BYU made a less-than-stellar play. I asked Cory if he wanted to buy a BYU t-shirt and he said he would rather burn. Guess we need to try to take in an Aggies game this season too...

Happy Fall Y'All!!

Moab

2009-09-21T16:54:00.000-07:00

Our adventure for this past weekend: 4-wheeling in Moab. We had some fabulous tour guides to show us around. Layne and Ilene have been to Moab several times. We asked them to show us some of the fun trails and they planned a perfect weekend. Here the dazzling duo is trying out the RZR. I think Layne might put that on his Christmas wish list this year.

Here we are just starting out for the day. Cory made this trail look like a cake-walk.

You can't really tell from this picture, but we are almost completely vertical. Ahg!!! As you can see, I was holding on for dear life.

We also took some time to visit Arches National Park, which is just outside of Moab. We hiked for a while to get to the Delicate Arch (this is the arch that is pictured on some of the Utah license plates). It was well worth the hike - the view was spectacular!

Layne and Ilene knew all of the fun detours so that we could play. Again, you can't really tell from this picture, but this hill is straight up. We went up and around and came down the hill (which was quite the rush) but then Layne challenged Cory to see how far he could make it up the hill in the RZR. Apparently no one ever makes it up the hill, but they have contests to see how far they can go. Here is Cory's attempt.

There were several moments throughout the trip where I thought that Cory was going to fall off a cliff. I think this particular hill is called "The Escalato" or "The Escalator." Either way, Cory was determined to make it down. And he did. Barely! We thought that once he made it down the hill, we would be able to take a trail and go out and around and meet up with Layne and Ilene. Not so. The bottom is just one giant bowl, so you have to come up the other side, which is just as dangerous!!! I really thought Cory was going to tip over backwards, but he made it out just fine. Thank you, Layne, for the good guidance!

This was such a fun weekend! We are grateful that we had the opportunity to go and can't express our appreciation enough to Layne and Ilene. Let's do it again next year!

Bear Hunting

2009-09-10T21:05:00.000-07:00

What did the Johnson's do for Labor Day weekend? Well y'all, we went bear hunting! Cory sold the idea to me as an opportunity to go camping in the wilderness. We went into the Frank Church Wilderness area, which is just outside of Challis, Idaho. To get back into the wilderness area, we had to drive on a road that was just wide enough for one vehicle at a time. It was just like in the movies - one false move and you fall off the edge of the mountain. Here Cory and Brady are assessing the steep drop below. And take note of that peak in the distance that has a white speck on top; we'll come back to that later.
Here I am getting strapped into my pack. I about fell over backwards when I first put it on.

Our campsite was about a three-mile hike from the truck. On the way, we took a small detour to go up to the look-out. Remember that white speck I mentioned earlier? Well, this is it. The view from the top was amazing! All you could see were mountain-tops for as far as the eye could see. This look-out is used to keep an eye out for fires during the summer.

Amazing view from the top of the look-out.

If you look carefully in this picture, you can see the road that we drove in on along the ridge of the mountain.

We came down from the look-out and got our packs strapped on and were ready to start hiking again. And then Cory saw a bear across the valley. Those boys dropped their packs like they were on fire. It totally reminded me of the "stop, drop and roll" technique. Brady got a shot off but they missed the bear.

So we continued our hike into the wilderness. And just in case it wasn't already crystal clear, the forest service put up this nice sign that informed us that we were officially entering the "primitive area."

We camped near this beautiful lake.

At 5:00 a.m., the boys were up and ready to go bear hunting. I would have loved to stay at camp and sleep in, but I didn't have a gun and there were wolves everywhere. So I went on the bear hunt too...mostly to pack the food and take pictures.

The excitement was high and the boys had tons of energy early in the morning. They kept a steady eye out for any sign of wildlife.

And about three hours into the day, this is what they looked like. Apparently hunting bear is quite exhausting. So while they napped, I sat in the sun and read my book. After about four hours, Cory announced that he was bored and we went back to camp and took a nap.

We did see another bear by the side of the road on our drive back to Challis, but it was long gone by the time we got out of the truck and went back to find it. Final score at the end of this hunting excursion = Johnson's: 0, Bears: 2. I'm sure there will be a next time, though!

High Adventure Scout Trip

2009-09-03T09:42:00.000-07:00

I've been delinquent in getting this post published. A few weeks ago, Cory went with the boy scouts on a high adventure trip. He is currently serving as the scout advisor for our ward (church). Cory planned a great adventure in the Frank Church Wilderness for the boys. Apparently the scouting program has been a little neglected for the past several years, so the boys were thrilled to have this trip planned for them.

I should note that it snowed on the boys, in August, almost the entire time they were there. But they kept themselves entertained by pushing down dead trees. Cory came home with a HUGE bruise on his shoulder from slamming into the tree. Boys will be boys (even when they are 30+ years old).

They did a little fishing, too. Take note of the awesome cut-off shorts that Cory is wearing. Apparently his pant legs got wet and he got tired of them so he cut off the legs. And then he threw them in the fire before he came home.

The day after Cory left, I received a package in the mail. Cory sent me a gift card for a hot rock massage. So I got to pamper myself at the spa while he was out trekking through the mud and snow. Thanks, babe!

Thanks Bernie & Diane!

2009-08-30T17:16:00.000-07:00

When Cory and I first started 4-wheeling earlier this summer we didn't have a clue where to ride around here. Enter Bernie on center stage. Bernie has been 4-wheeling around here for years and he really helped us out. He took us out on our first ride of the year and he has given Cory tons of maps that provide details for good trails to ride. So yesterday we took Bernie and Diane on a trail that they had never been on before (over by Grey's River in Wyoming). We had a great time riding all day and ended the day with a yummy hamburger and huckleberry shake in Alpine.

I had to take this picture because under normal circumstances, Bernie wouldn't be caught dead riding in a Polaris. He's more of an Arctic Cat guy. He asked if this picture could stay in my camera. I decided to post it on the Internet instead. :-) Thanks for a great day!

And thanks to Grant for letting us borrow his GPS unit. Cory doesn't leave home without it. Are you ready to have it back??

If it wasn't for Texas...

2009-08-30T17:06:00.000-07:00

...I would lose my mind living here in Idaho Falls. Thanks to Textron for flying me down to Dallas for a quick business trip. And thanks to Linda, too. She was supposed to go but she told my boss that she didn't want to travel and that she thought I could really use a break from Idaho Falls. Woo hoo!! The two highlights of my trip were shopping at the Grapevine Mills Mall (Cory saves a ton of money with me here in Idaho Falls since there is NO WHERE to shop here) and having dinner with some fabulous people. Isn't Elizabeth just darling?? I can't get enough of this kid.
We had dinner at Breadwinners, which is one of my favorite restaurants in Dallas. This is the buttermilk pan fried chicken breast. Absolutely melt-in-your-mouth-to-die for! That's one of the hardest things to do when I visit Dallas...trying to choose a restaurant. I miss all of the good food!!

I missed those of you who couldn't join us for dinner. Next time. I miss you all!

On Top of the World!

2009-08-16T20:59:00.000-07:00

This weekend, I was told to pack my suitcase and to find a sub for church on Sunday. Cory took me on a surprise weekend get-away. I love surprise weekend get-aways!! I was only told to pack some warm clothes and that we would be camping on Saturday night. We left after work on Friday and stayed at a hotel in West Yellowstone. We got up early Saturday morning and drove into Yellowstone National Park where Cory had reserved a camp site. We unloaded our gear and headed off on the motorcycle.

On our way through the park we saw this black bear and a grizzly bear (not pictured). We did not, however, see President Obama (he was in the park this weekend).

We drove for about two hours to get to...The Top of the World (really, that's what it's called). On our way to The Top of the World, we saw this beautiful lake nestled high in between these two mountains. Keep in mind that this lake was at the top of two very tall mountains - and we were looking down on it from our view at the top of the world.

This is the view from The Top of the World. Elevation: 10,800 feet. It was an overcast day and we literally rode through the clouds. In fact, it snowed on us at one point. In case you're not doing the math in your head, that means it was only 32 degrees...on a motorcycle...on top of the world. We were freezing cold! But the view made it worthwhile. We stopped at The Top of the World Store and purchased a pin that declares that "We Survived Beartooth Highway." Barely.

This is one of the beautiful mountain lakes that we saw on our drive. I can't remember if this was in Wyoming or Montana. We kept bouncing back and forth between the two state lines. We stopped in Red Lodge for lunch. I wish that we could have spent more time there because it is such a cute little town (it kind of reminded me of Jackson Hole).

We went back to Yellowstone a different way - we took the Joseph Scenic Highway. The views there were breathtaking too. As we approached Cody, WY, it started to rain. And we were still 40 miles outside of Yellowstone by the time it got dark. So we strained our eyes to look carefully for critters on the side of the road. The ride took a wee bit longer than planned due to inclement weather. But nice weather would have made for a boring story... And Cory never does anything boring. Go big or go home.

We stopped in Jackson Hole on our way back to Idaho Falls and ate at one of our favorite restaurants: Merry Piglets. It's the closest thing to Tex-Mex this side of the Rockies (or the Tetons at that point). Thanks for a great weekend, Mr. Johnson!

That Famous Preston Night Rodeo

2009-08-09T16:27:00.000-07:00

It's the last weekend in July, which, of course, means it's time for That Famous Preston Night Rodeo. The reason it's famous: because it was the first rodeo in the U.S. to be held at night with lights (or so I've been told). And it's really not all about the rodeo. EVERYONE comes home for rodeo. All of the high school class reunions are held at rodeo time and many family reunions happen then as well. It is so much fun to bump into people that I haven't seen in years. The Hollingsworth family has a few traditions for rodeo weekend. We always go to the lake on Saturday. The best part about the lake: the food. Notice that everyone is gathered around the food table...

There is a parade all three nights (Thursday, Friday and Saturday). We used to have to park a trailer at "our spot" at least one week before the rodeo so that we could make sure and have a place to watch the parade. But my cousin, Courtney, bought a house on the parade route so now we just gather in front of her house. Thanks, Court!!

I missed the "outhouse on a trailer" float, but I did catch this nice float with some deer on it...

Saturday is the best night to watch the parade. Why? Well, it's because the Cream of Weber truck comes and they hand out chocolate milk chugs. This year we scored a whole crate. Nice work, Laken!

It's tradition to go to the rodeo on Friday night. I think my family takes up about three rows in the bleachers. It's so nice to have everyone there! We had a great clown this year. I always came home for rodeo when I was living in Texas. No one there could understand why I would come to Idaho to see a rodeo when there was a rodeo every night of the week in Texas!

And we watched the PRCA cowgirls and cowboys show us their stuff. Here is a sample of the bronc riding and bull riding (yikes!). See you next year!

Happy 80th, Grandpa Jones!

2009-07-28T18:53:00.000-07:00

Grandpa Jones turned 80, and we decided to celebrate in style. After all, that's quite an accomplishment! We rented a cabin in Island Park and settled in for a weekend of fun. We enjoyed the great outdoors (I came home with three mosquito bites on my face and six on one ankle), floated down the river, rode 4-wheelers and took some family pictures.

We also drove over to Jackson Hole to listen to the Bar J Wranglers perform. Let me expound. The Bar J is a working cattle ranch. Every night (literally seven days a week) from May - September, they host a chuckwagon dinner for their guests. They serve up steaks, ribs, sliced beef and BBQ chicken, complete with dinner rolls made in a dutch oven. After dinner, some of the cowboys perform. The Bar J has between 75,000 - 85,000 guests per year. Someone made the comment that the Bar J singers are like The Wiggles for old people, but they really do put on a good show. Cory and I got to drive over to Jackson with Grandma and Grandpa Jones and we learned some neat things about their courtship and family history. Thanks to all who helped to plan a fun weekend!

George Strait

2009-07-22T19:33:00.001-07:00

We went to see George Strait in concert at the Usana Ampitheater last weekend. Ben, Shayla and Riley kept us company. Riley got to go see George Strait for her 4th birthday. She wore out her parents' George Strait CD's and she even passed up Hannah Montana to go see George in concert. I wasn't really sure what to expect - people say you either love to see George in concert or you hate it. We were told that he doesn't put on a fancy concert with tons of bells and whistles; he just stands up there and sings. Well folks, that singing was absolutely mesmerizing. He played for 1 hour and 45 minutes and I didn't move the entire time. George is absolutely timeless and his music is amazing. It was a great concert!!

Blake Shelton was one of the opening acts for George Strait. He did a really good job too! We didn't get home until 2:45 a.m. (soooo glad that we live so far away from Salt Lake). *Ahem* I CAN.NOT remember the last time that I was voluntarily awake at that time of night. We both felt like we had been hit by a truck for the rest of the weekend. Guess that means we are getting old! Boo!

For some reason I get the urge to pick up a banjo whenever I see...

2009-07-16T20:13:00.000-07:00

...this. Our duplex doesn't have central air, so this is what my office window looks like now. Note that the cardboard even has a mailing label with my name on it. Someone has already suggested that I string some tinsel and Christmas lights to finish off the look.

4th of July

2009-07-06T19:38:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone had a great Independence Day! We spent part of the day riding around in the mountains of Wyoming.

Cory insisted that it was our civic duty to pull fallen trees out of the path i.e. he just wanted to use the winch (we could have easily gone around the trees). Below, Cory asked if he could take a picture of both of his winches. Now that's true love.

My family joined us at our campsite on Friday night. Right before they arrived, it rained for about an hour. The campsite was down a little hill off of the main road. My dad pulled the boat up because we were planning on going boating on Saturday. As soon as he pulled off of the road into the campsite he knew he had made a mistake. The ground was soggy and he got stuck. Cory hooked up the tow strap and hit the gas. Both of those diesel engines were roaring, black smoke was billowing everywhere and mud was flying like crazy. My dad didn't get his window rolled up fast enough before Cory hit the gas, so the inside of his truck was full of mud too. I tried to get my camera out in time to film the whole event, but I was too slow.

After the rain storm, the firewood was kind of soggy. Cory messed with it for a while and then he decided to get down to business and pour some gasoline over the wood. Voila! Instant campfire.

This is my mom peeling potatoes for dinner. They were fabulous! There's nothing like cooking in the great outdoors. Everything just tastes better. We stayed up late roasting marshmallows and playing card games. My dad found an old piece of wood that was actually an ant hill. He threw it on the fire and the ants scattered everywhere. Cory took care of them with gasoline too...

We did get to go boating for a little while on Saturday. Everyone needs to have a mug that is the size of their head.

Cory took a little nap on the nose of the boat - notice the Mountain Dew bottle that is subbing for a pillow. You'll also notice those dark rain clouds in the background. We didn't get to enjoy the sunshine for very long.

And we ended a great weekend with a great fireworks show in Idaho Falls. Afterwards we soaked in the hot tub with the Morton's. Ahhh!

FHE at the Sand Dunes!

2009-07-01T18:22:00.000-07:00

It was Cory's turn to plan FHE this week. The activity that he chose: playing at the sand dunes that are just outside of Rexburg. The sand dunes were a first for me and Cory said that he hadn't been in years. It took both of us a while to get used to driving around the sand dunes vs. driving in the mountains. It was a little unnerving to come to the top of a dune and not be able to see what was on the other side. It especially freaked Cory out - he would stomp on the brakes every time we were about ready to go over the edge. I drove for a while and he stomped on the brakes (or tried to) from the passenger seat several times. He finally announced that my driving was making him sick, so he got out and let me go play for a while. Fun times!

One more wedding...

2009-06-28T19:25:00.000-07:00

I've been slow to get this post published. Last weekend we had the opportunity to go down to "civilization" (i.e. Salt Lake) to attend my cousin Jason's wedding. He and Kortney were smiling all day long and they make such a beautiful couple. I absolutely loved Kortney's bouquet! We had fun hanging out with my parents and Karen and Jaron. The boys went to Cabela's and I introduced my mom and Karen to IKEA. We didn't have much time to shop because we had to get to the wedding luncheon. But my mom was enthralled by IKEA (I don't blame her) and I had to keep back-tracking to find where we had lost her. I think she finally walked out of the store with two pans and some scissors.

Camping Adventures

2009-06-16T20:08:00.000-07:00

It has been raining non-stop for the past few weeks and our summer is quickly slipping away without ever really arriving. Cory and I decided that we needed to get some summer fun in, even if the weather was horrible. So we packed up our gear and went camping again last weekend. The weather was beautiful on Friday night. We woke up to rain drops on the tent early Saturday morning but we quickly went back to sleep and woke up to sunshine. It didn't last long, though. We went for a ride up Bear Creek, which is by Grey's River in WY. We saw some beautiful back-country and got soaking wet and muddy at the same time.

This waterfall and stream were being created from snow run-off. You can't see it very good in this picture, but there is a ton of snow at the top of this mountain.

And yes, we did get stuck. We forgot to take the bow saw with us so that we could cut any trees that might be in our path. Instead of turning around, Cory decided that we could easily go OVER this huge tree. He got high centered and was thrilled when we had to break out the winch to help us get un-stuck. We wrapped the rope around one tree and we actually started to pull it out of the ground. Guess we were stuck pretty good. So I looped the rope around a couple of trees and that did the trick. And Marcy, we went past an area called Kennington Flat. Is that area named after Kyle's family?

Congrats to Nick & Linsey!

2009-06-11T21:56:00.000-07:00

'Tis the season for weddings. Hooray! I went to Preston yesterday for Nick and Linsey's wedding. Dylan, Carson, Spencer and Tyler were sure excited for their mom (and they looked so handsome, too). I've known Nick for about 19 years and I've known Linsey for 10 years. They are both amazing people and I'm so happy that they found each other! On a funny note, Nick was my boyfriend for about six months when we were in middle school. But then he moved on to high school and was too good for me. :-)

In an effort to be efficient, since I was already in Preston, I drove for another 30 minutes to get to Logan so I could pick up a trailer. That's right folks...Cory actually let me drive his truck. And, after much convincing, he agreed that I could pick up the trailer. Apparently the fact that I was raised on a farm, that I started driving a 2-ton truck to haul hay when I was seven, the fact that I drove my dad's 1-ton truck to high school starting at the age of 15 and I used to pull the boat all the time wasn't enough to qualify me to pull a trailer from Logan to Idaho Falls. Only his sense of good logistic management (think efficiency) allowed for this to happen. I'm happy to report that the trip was uneventful. And I had a VERY relieved husband when I got home.

Congrats, Jen!

2009-06-01T17:43:00.000-07:00

We went to Utah on Saturday for Jen and Rob's wedding. They were married in the Bountiful temple and afterwards they had a fabulous dinner in Park City. Jen was a beautiful bride and they both looked so happy. We are glad that they invited us to share their special day with them!

p.s. For those who are wondering, the inspection on my house went well. The renters have started to take care of the yard and the inside of the house was fine. Whew!!!

Memorial Weekend

2009-05-28T20:48:00.001-07:00

The theme for this Memorial weekend was mostly...rain. But we did manage to have a good time. We went for our season opener motorcycle ride on Saturday. We broke out the leathers and I donned my tattoo shirt (it's necessary to look the part, you know). We rode to Downey to have a BBQ with the Johnson clan. Cory, Jared and Grant worked hard to BBQ some fabulous ribs.

Clearly Ayla enjoyed the ribs...

Brady went for a spin on the motorcycle. He made it back to the house just in time to miss a major dust storm.

And can you see those clouds behind Emilee and Gracie?? Well folks, that's what we rode home in. Always an adventure.

You can't have Memorial weekend and not go camping. So even though the weather forecast predicted thunderstorms, we packed up the camping gear and headed to Grey's River, just outside of Afton, WY. We found the perfect campsite and I pitched the tent while Cory went to look for firewood. It was sprinkling lightly when we got there, but the rain soon stopped and we grilled hamburgers, drank hot Tang and enjoyed an awesome campfire. I think it rained a little during the night, but our trusty tent held up marvelously.

And this is the sight that we woke up to. I will mention that Cory woke me up at 6:30 a.m. I about killed him. It's a holiday. Clearly I have some more educating to do i.e. holiday = time to sleep in!! We were going to cook breakfast on the camp stove, but decided to be lazy and we went to a restaurant called Yankee Doodle instead. And the minute we got home, we both crashed and took a two hour nap! Ahhhh!

Phoenix!!

2009-05-21T21:59:00.000-07:00

Cory has been to Texas to visit some of my good friends. So last weekend it was my turn to go to Phoenix and visit some of Cory's friends. Here's the gang:

The temperature was a balmy 108 degrees, so we spent a lot of time in Dave and Katie's pool.

We also needed some liquid refreshment to help keep us cool. Cory decided to be the bartender and he mixed us up some fabulous (non-alcoholic) strawberry daiquiris. Yum-O!!

Cory also introduced me to some great sushi at a restaurant called Ra. Thanks to Dave and Katie for letting us come and crash their pad. It was so nice to meet everyone!!

Texas!!

2009-05-05T20:50:00.001-07:00

Those darn corporate travel budget cuts haven't allowed me to get to Texas nearly as often as I would like. A few weeks ago, my boss asked me if I wanted to go down to DFW. I jumped at the chance and I think I bounced off the walls for three weeks until the travel day arrived! My first stop straight from the airport was to visit Tamara, Adam and Elizabeth. Tams fixed a fabulous dinner, which was perfect after a loooong travel day. And it was so fun to see Miss Elizabeth! She has gotten so big since I saw her last September.

It was great to see all of my colleagues in the office. I also had the chance to visit with Thomas, Jennifer, Lauren and Matthew. Jennifer is opening a new wellness center in Dallas, which is so exciting for her! I got there just in time to see the last of the Blue Bonnets (flowers), which I used to get mixed up with the Blue Bell ice cream (just the name...). And I even saw one cockroach (thankfully it was dead).

I've been starving for shopping and eating-out opportunities (not that you would know from looking at me) here in Idaho Falls, so I took advantage of every chance I had to visit some of my favorite stores and restaurants. Hooray for Tex-Mex, wonderful sushi, great BBQ and Cafe Brazil! And I saved the best for last. I've often said that if airfare was cheap, I would fly to Dallas one Saturday night just to eat at the Canary Cafe. It's my all-time favorite restaurant (Mediterranean food, of course). And to go along with my favorite restaurant, I had the privilege of spending the evening with some of my favorite people. I am so thankful that they took time out of their busy schedules to come have dinner with me. I'm getting choked up just thinking about it. I miss you all! It was so nice to see you!

Until next time...

We watched General Conference. I swear we did...

2009-04-05T19:51:00.000-07:00

I was clipping coupons during Conference this afternoon and Cory was lounging on the couch. I have a little green calculator in my coupon binder so that I can crunch numbers in the grocery store to see if an item is really a good deal. Cory started fiddling around with the calculator and then the next thing I knew, he was snoring on the couch and he had the calculator perched on his forehead. I have no idea how he fell asleep like that but I had to hurry and leave the room because I was laughing so hard. This was definitely a Kodak moment!

Culture & Cage Fights

2009-03-29T19:10:00.001-07:00

Occasionally Idaho Falls surprises me and actually has some interesting things come to town. Case in point, the Museum of Idaho is now hosting the Titanic exhibit. Cory and I went with my Aunt Chris yesterday. As long as you weren't expecting much, it was a nice exhibit (meaning it was pretty simple and small). They had several artifacts from the ship and an iceberg that you could touch. They also handed out passenger boarding cards when you entered the museum i.e. you became one of the passengers on-board the Titanic. At the end of the exhibit, you could look and see if you survived or not. Thankfully we were all survivors. Whew!

And lest you worry that it's possible to become too cultured here in Idaho Falls, I'm happy to report that after we visited the Titanic exhibit, we headed over to the cage fights (think UFC fighting except it's just a bunch of local boys trying to beat each other up).

Our brother-in-law (Jared) is the ring doctor for the fights, so we get VIP ring-side seats. I think the worst injury last night was a broken nose, so Dr. Morton just got to sit back and enjoy watching the fights. The cage fights come to town every three months. We're waiting with bated breath for the next round of fighters...

I Miss My House

2009-03-14T10:14:00.000-07:00

At the risk of sounding like an ungrateful wretch, I've decided to publish this post. For those who may not want to listen to me whine/complain, please close your web browser now. We rented out my house in Utah yesterday and I've been crying buckets of tears ever since. What a cruel irony that someone else gets to live in my beautiful house in Salt Lake while me and Cory are stuck renting a duplex in Idaho Falls. And we will continue to be renters until we can sell my house (we don't need two mortgages ever again) - which might take years depending upon how fast the economy recovers. I am trying desperately hard to count my many blessings and recognize the many bounties that I enjoy, but this has just about done me in.

Friends

2009-03-07T13:57:00.001-08:00

Anyone who knows me will attest to the fact that I am not a very good cook. In fact, my brother stopped by a few weeks ago and about fell out of his chair when I told him that I was making cornbread (as a side dish) for dinner. I told my parents and they weren't really surprised. I believe my dad may have said something like, "well, we've never really known you to be much of a Betty Crocker." Thanks, Dad. So, I went outside of my comfort zone on Thursday and invited some friends over for prime rib. Thanks to Camille, we got a super great deal on some prime rib a few weeks ago. Cory cooked some Alaskan king crab (see post from Jan. 14th) too. The dinner was edible and we got to enjoy visiting with the Gibbs' family and the Evans' family. We even broke into the chocolate stash from Germany for dessert. I brought back about 5 kilos of chocolate from Germany and we have been savoring every morsel. :-) We are grateful for good friends and fun times!

Skid Row

2009-02-23T18:15:00.000-08:00

Cory is a big fan of what he fondly calls "butt rock". I'm a fan of the old-school butt rock, but not so much the new stuff. Clearly I'm in desperate need of something (anything!!!) to do here in Idaho Falls because when Cory asked me if I wanted to go to the Skid Row concert last week...I agreed. Oh my. Mostly, I laughed the entire time I was there. Let me set the stage for you. The concert was held in the "Old Ernst Building" i.e. it used to be a grocery store. It even still has the island in the center where the cash register used to be. This was the first-ever music concert held in the building. I wouldn't recommend that they have any more. L.A Guns was the opening act. I think I may have actually understood 20 words from all of their songs. They did let everyone know that they like to have their picture taken and they graciously stood at the back of the room for photo-ops while Skid Row was on stage. I don't think anyone went to see them. Cory, Jared and Scott were good sports about posing for me while I tried to take some pictures - it was a great people-watching experience.
I'm not sure if you can see it or not, but this is a picture of the crowd holding up their lighters. Yes, their lighters. The lead singer was prepping the crowd for a song and mentioned that "back in the day", people used to hold up lighters when they played this particular song. But nowadays, most people hold up their cell phones. The Idahoans in the crowd were seriously offended by the notion of holding up a cell phone. So they all whipped out their lighters. And the band was dumb-founded. Me too.

We saw a wide variety of people - and even some kids. It was a good quality show for kids...

And I don't even know what to say about this one.

The lead singer took every opportunity he could get to opine about our economy today. Let me share with you a few of his thoughts.

Thought 1: I see some Motley Crue, Kiss and AC/DC shirts out there in the crowd. And that's what it's really all about. Some great bands coming together to make some great music. We are all one united nation of rock. There are some people out there who will try to tell you that rock 'n' roll is irrelevant. You can tell them to !*#$ &%^$!!

Thought 2: Friends who drink together, stay together.

Thought 3: In this economy, we all need friends and music. You are all our friends and we have the music.

Now don't you all feel enlightened?? And to wrap up a great evening, after the last song, everyone just left. No one even pretended to want an encore. Peace out, man.

The Spa

2009-02-15T17:45:00.001-08:00

As a general rule, I despise Valentine's Day. I dislike the commercialism, the compulsory displays of affection and the mushy, sappy "yuck" that makes up the entire day. Don't get me wrong - I like it when someone does something kind or sweet for me, but those words are completely different than mushy or sappy. I am of the opinion that you should treat your significant other like it's Valentine's Day all year-round (please note that I do not profess to be perfect at this). In fact, I've even asked Cory not to give me flowers on Valentine's Day (or my birthday). I like to get flowers on a day that I would least expect to receive them. However, with all of the stress that has been in the air lately, and because it's still miserably cold here, I decided that we needed to do something to pamper ourselves. So we went to the spa yesterday and had a couples massage! Cory had a deep tissue massage and I had a hot rock massage. Ahhh! Then we had sushi for dinner. Yum! Perhaps Valentine's Day isn't so bad...

The Phenomenon That Is Church Basketball

2009-02-08T16:02:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year again. That's right - time for church basketball. Cory has been playing on our ward's team with the guys and I have been attending the games as head cheerleader. And I've decided that I just don't get it. These guys almost kill themselves every single game and yet they still seem to love it. For example, most of these guys are so out of shape that they turn every shade of red/purple imaginable while they are running up and down the court - it makes me worry that they are going to expire at any minute. One guy plays with a knee brace on. I asked him how bad his injury was and he said that he doesn't have any cartilage in his knee and that when he runs he can feel bone rubbing on bone. What?!?! And you still come back for more each week?? And for a church ballgame (think "love one another"), it can get quite violent / emotional. I've witnessed two near tackles and one pile-up on the court that resulted in one guy hyper-extending his knee as he went down. Can someone please explain to me why this is fun for men??? Clearly I need to be enlightened.

Christmas in January (and birthdays too)

2009-02-01T19:24:00.000-08:00

This weekend we went to my brother and SIL's house in Afton, Wyoming, for a family get-together. We didn't get to see my Uncle Dean on Christmas day because he got snowed in, so we finished opening Christmas presents with him. And we needed to have a birthday celebration for my mom, Dean and Cory (they all had recent birthdays).

We had pizza and cheese bread for lunch and my SIL made the most amazing banana cream pies! Oh baby!! Could my pants hate me any more??

My brother works as a diesel mechanic at the Simplot mine in Afton. Translation: he gets to work on some huge trucks / mining equipment and he absolutely loves it. He took us on a mine tour after lunch. We had to watch a safety video and put on safety glasses and hard hats. I've decided that it's impossible to look good in a hard hat, but we sure tried hard!

Just to give you an idea of how big these trucks are, note that we aren't even half as tall as the tires. I'm told that one tire costs $8,000. Sheesh!

We all watched in awe as this giant "shovel" scooped up ore and dumped it into the dump truck. Only four scoops and the truck was full! Thanks to Jaron and Karen for being great hosts! We had a wonderful day!

Date Night

2009-01-24T16:30:00.001-08:00

Every once in awhile, my husband gets the urge to get out of the office and go hit the open road. So last night at 7:00, we piled into the 18-wheeler and headed for Boise via Burley. It was super foggy and we missed our turn in Burley. We tried to turn around in an empty lot but with all of the rain and warm temperatures, we soon found ourselves buried in mud. Cory did everything he could to get us out, but two hours later, and with him being covered from head to toe in mud, we finally had to call a tow truck. The tow truck arrived at 2:30 a.m. and I thought all of our troubles were over. But while the guys were outside rigging up the equipment to tow us out of the mud, I proceeded to lose my wedding ring inside the truck! I was sobbing hysterically and praying with all my might as I frantically ripped up the carpet in the truck, clawed through the ashtray and proceeded to stick my finger in every possible crack and crevice in that big rig. I even broke two fingernails! It was dark and I was cold and I really thought I was never going to see my ring again. But remarkably, I did find it! It was right next to the passenger-side door. If someone would have opened that door, the ring would have fallen into the mud and been lost forever.

After that, I sat back and watched in amazement as that tow truck plucked us right out of the quagmire that we were in. And then I stupidly thought our adventures were over. We left one mudflap and two ginormous holes behind and dropped our load off on time. And then instead of heading for Boise, we headed back home. It seems that a missing mudflap is a big deal with the DOT. At 5:00 a.m. we were both so tired, and the fog was starting to get thick again, that we found a truck stop and pulled over for a few hours of sleep. And woke up to four inches of snow!! Like Cory always says, "Go big or go home." I'm thinking that we will try dinner and a movie tonight. We can't get into too much trouble doing that, can we?

Boys And Their Toys

2009-01-23T08:05:00.000-08:00

Cory has been whining for the past three weeks because we haven't had any snow and he hasn't been able to use his snow blower. So we did the "snow dance" last night and woke up to six inches of snow this morning. He was in heaven! Some features of the snow blower that are enough to make any grown man cry with joy: it's 26 inches wide, has a handle that allows you to swivel the chute and it has a headlight! The first time it snowed after we bought the snow blower, I didn't see Cory all night. He did our driveway, and the neighbor's driveway and then went down the sidewalk to the house next door...you get the idea. One lady even came out and asked him not to do her driveway because the HOA takes care of it. Cory is like a kid in a candy store when it's time to break out the snow blower. But I guess if you've got to clean the driveway, you might as well have fun doing it! Next on his wish list: a snow plow for the front of his truck. And I'm thinking that a trip to the Caribbean sounds pretty good right now.

Happy Birthday, Cory!

2009-01-14T09:32:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday to Cory! He turned one year older on Monday. I took a Turtle Oreo Fudge ice cream cake into the office. BTW - they say that you only have to let the cake defrost for 20 minutes before trying to cut it...but it's a lie!! We also had enchiladas and brownies and lots of other yummy treats. Jared, Camille and the kids stopped by for a while to help us celebrate. And Cory thoroughly enjoyed reminding me all day that "he will never be as old as I am!"

Holy Crab, Batman!

2009-01-14T09:25:00.000-08:00

Cory worked long and hard to procure some Alaskan King Crab. And this is the result. We put the crab in a huge pot with a monster flame underneath and voila! We had a feast in minutes! I think it might be a while before I can eat crab again...

Winter in Idaho

2009-01-14T09:17:00.000-08:00

In case you are wondering what people in Idaho do in the winter, just take a look at these photos. We went to Island Park last weekend. Cory posed by an ice sculpture from the Red Hat Society. And we watched in amusement as people strapped themselves to a parachute, pulled on some skis (or a snowboard) and tried to let the wind glide them across the snow. It seemed like way too much work to us!

Christmas & Mountain Dew

2009-01-11T19:43:00.000-08:00

Our first Christmas started out with me asking Cory if he wanted to open presents. He said that it was too early and that he was barely awake. It was 9:00 a.m.! So we loaded him up with Mountain Dew (note the can in the picture) and he managed to put a smile on his face (sort of).

Later in the day, Cory really did have a reason to smile when he got a new toolbox for Christmas. And it took him, my dad and my brother to put it together. Thanks to my Uncle Guy and Aunt Chris for hiding the toolbox in their garage for a month!

And I got a scrapbook table for Christmas. I couldn't wait to try it out! We set it up in our basement and I can just leave the mess when I'm done for the day and it's there waiting for me when I get back. It looks like a disaster area, but I'm having a great time! I've got lots to catch up on. 2008 was a busy year!

We Tied the Knot!

2009-01-11T19:20:00.000-08:00

I can't believe we actually made it! Cory and I got married on November 1, 2008. The entire time we were planning the wedding (and it was only two months), I kept asking myself why we didn't elope. But we had a wonderful day and are very grateful for the friends and family who were able to join us.