The Johnson Clan

We spent the majority of the week of Christmas with the Johnson's, and I am so glad we did. Although I have always loved them and loved spending time with them, being with them for a week has really made me feel like an integrated part of the family.  On Saturday, Jenny, Clayton, Jenny's friend Charlotte, Charlotte's husband (who's name I can't quite remember), and I went to Jake's Archery Range. Clayton and I have been wanting to go there for some time to test out our bow and arrow skills. It was a little shaky at first, but we weren't too bad! In fact, by the end, the majority of our shots were on the target paper. It was really cool, and I think we will try it again sometime. On Sunday everyone went to Scott and Kathy's ward, after which we went home and hung out all day. Tommy and Annie came home on Saturday, so we had a mini Christmas with them Sunday afternoon. Then in the evening we celebrated Clayton's birthday with burgers, pu...

Finals were more stressful this semester than they usually are. It might have been because there were so many, or because my classes are getting harder, or because I've done the finals week routine enough times that it's getting old. The best part of the week was actually Sunday night. Clayton and I had just woken up from a nap when we heard someone knocking on our door. Clayton went to go get the door, and minute later Emma was jumping on my bed! Man was I shocked (and super happy) to see her. Apparently Clayton had known for a while that she was going to be up in Utah for the weekend, and they schemed together to surprise me. We didn't really do anything, just sat on my couch and talked for a couple hours, but it was so fun. I love her. After finals were over we deep cleaned our whole apartment. At BYU all the single housing students have cleaning checks at the end of every semester. Married housing doesn't do it, or at least ours doesn't, but we figured ...

As an LDS member, I celebrated my 21st birthday a little differently than your average bear. There were no clubs, drugs, or alcohol. Instead I ate a lot of really good food, saw a bunch of friends, and finally saw Catching Fire.  Every year since I've moved to Utah (3 years ago) I have gone out to breakfast with my friends to Kneaders on my birthday for the french toast. It is to die for. I never go to that bakery any other day of the year, only on my birthday, so that it stays special. So, this morning Clayton and I met up with my friends Maria and Zach to go to Kneaders. It was actually Maria's birthday too. Twins. As usual, it was delicious. Belly aching from being too full delicious.  After breakfast, Clayton and I went up to campus to study. Finals are just around the corner, so taking a whole day off is a little stressful. There is just too much to do. Four hours later, we came out of the library, went home, cleaned our apartment, and then the Brandts came...

This semester Clayton and I took a class together called the History of Creativity. Basically it just goes through every major civilization in the pre 1500 era, what inventions and big ideas were present during that time, and the rise and fall of the empires. It was pretty cool. Unfortunately it was scheduled to be once a week for two and a half hours. Consequently, we never went to it. At the beginning of the semester when we did make an effort to go we just fell asleep every time, and so we decided it wasn't worth it. We're both doing really well in the class though, so I don't feel bad about our poor attendance.  This past Monday we had projects due that counted for a third of our total grade. I designed a Romanesque style church, and Clayton made the Taj Mahal out of shadows. They both turned out pretty cool. That evening we went to the class for the first time in months because some students chose to perform their projects.  We had someone play the bag pi...

When I was little my family went to the Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth, Texas to see the Nutcracker ballet. The Bass Hall was one of my favorite buildings ever. I thought it was so majestic. The carpets were red velvet, there were swooping staircases, and the ceiling was painted like the sky. Women wore sparkly evening gowns and men wore slick black suits. It was beautiful. I remember wearing my favorite church dress and sitting next to my sisters on the front row of one of the balconies. I felt so sophisticated.  One of my dreams was to play with one of my orchestras at the Bass Hall. When we lived in Texas I was part of the Fort Worth Youth Symphony, and after I had left they actually did perform there. Imagine my envy. Today as I was taking a shower, I was day dreaming about performing in the Bass Hall. Sometimes I get a little carried away in my shower dreams. As I opened the shower curtain, I was smiling and waving to my audience at the conclusion of my spe...

The day after Thanksgiving we decided that we had had enough of Provo, and it was time to take a mini vacation. Our friend Nathan lives up in Rigby, as do the Woods and the Bishops, and they invited us to come up for a few days over the weekend. So we packed our bags, grabbed some oranges for the road, and drove four hours up to Idaho. It's not far, but just far enough to let you feel like you've left the Utah bubble.  That evening we went to the National Forest about an hour north of Rigby to cut down a christmas tree for the Hardyman home.  When we got back to the house Nathan's dad, Paul, made a Thanksgiving dinner 2.0. Apparently they had Thanksgiving at their extended family's house, which meant that they didn't have any left overs. So, they cooked a whole turkey and all the usual sides just so that they could have left overs. I thought it was such as great idea that I wanted to cook a turkey too, and then I remembered that I have no idea h...

At the beginning of the month, Kathy asked us to write down one thing that we are grateful for every day until Thanksgiving. We spent today with my sister Dani and her family though, so we didn't get to share our lists. Here is mine: I am thankful... 1. for my husband. 2. for our home, and that it feels like home to us. 3. for heating in our apartment. 4. for our waffle maker. 5. that we live so close to our families. 6. that we actually get to see our families pretty often. 7. for Brigham Young University and the opportunities it provides. 8. that I live in a culture that values women's education and lives.  9. that I have the gospel in my life. 10. that Clayton is diligent in daily scripture reading and prayer. 11. that Clayton is also diligent about laundry. 12. for President Monson. 13. for American History. 14. that we are not in debt. 15. for the lack of snow this far in the year. 16. for my professors at school and how easy that mak...

First of all, I've realized that my videos are not working on the blog for some reason. Bummer. You guys are missing out. A couple weeks ago Tatum, Sierra, and I decided it was high time for another sleepover. So last night the girls came over (even Miss Penny Jane for the first few hours). Penny successfully took every item out of every cabinet, shelf, and available container. She even tried to eat a dish soap pod. Luckily she had Clayton following her around to make sure we didn't have to call poison control. We tried making pizza, but the crust didn't really turn out. I've made pizza a few times before and the crust was perfect, so we're not really sure what went wrong. Regardless, it was still edible, just crunchy, so we ate it anyway. Waste not, want not.  After that Dani and Greg came to pick up Penny and give us their left overs from their date. Then it was just us big girls and Clayton. We played Uno, acted out several Disney Princess movi...

Last night we had a little visitor. Dani and Tatum came to our house right after I got off work last night to bing us treat! Apparently Greg and Tatum spent a couple hours whipping up this batch of special cookies. They were a chocolate cookie with peanut butter filling. I don't know what they were called, but as my Nana would say, they were "sinfully delicious." They brought us a whole plateful, and now not even 24 hours later we only have two left. They were that good. We chatted for a while, and checked out our new phones. One of the cool features about the 5s is that it takes slow-motion video. Tatum was happy to be our dancer while we checked it out.

On Friday last week we went out with our friends Ryland and Megan. The Riverwoods is an outdoor shopping center, and every winter they decorate it in christmas lights and giant fires. Usually you can find bands playing or small concerts in the gazebo in the center too, so it's usually a fun place to go. This year they advertised that they were putting up more christmas lights than Temple Square in Salt Lake City. That's kind of a big deal. So we went to see what all of the hallaboo was about. It ended up being really pretty when they flipped the lights on. There were tons of people, free horse drawn carriage rides, a christmas concert, ice sculptures, and the Waffle Love truck. I've worked at a belgian waffle shop before, and I like to think that I know a good waffle when I eat one, so I can confidently say that Waffle Love has pretty decent liege waffles. Mrs. Stephanie Wood had her birthday on Sunday, so on Saturday we met up with Matt and Stephanie to celebrate....

Clayton and I have been having couples come over for dinner every Tuesday night. It's perfect because I have to leave for work at 7, so if we invite them over for dinner at 5 then it's the perfect amount of time to get to know them without feeling like they're staying too long. Haha. Tonight we had over Aaron and Alexis. They are a couple in our ward, and we really liked them. I think they're the first couple that we've had over that we didn't already know.  Aaron is studying Industrial Design at BYU, and he just started his own company. Alexis works as a tech teacher at a charter school in west Provo.  For dinner I made creamy potato soup in bread bowls. I know. Look at how domestic we're becoming. Having couples over for dinner, making bread bowls, what's next? Sometimes I want to take a picture of my guests as proof that we had people over, but I feel too weird telling them I'm taking a picture for my blog. It's somethi...

At our wedding we were absolutely spoiled with wedding gifts. We've been working on thank you cards for months and still have a ton to do... not that I'm complaining. It actually been kind of difficult finding time to write them. We have a deadline though, we want to get them all done by the end of Thanksgiving break. One of our totally awesome presents was this baby. It's a belgian waffle iron, and I've been dying to use it. This morning we had a couple hours before I had to run to work (I covered a friend's Saturday morning shift at the library because she is running a Ragnar in Las Vegas), so we made waffles! They were really good, we will definitely be making waffles more regularly. We were running short on time though by the time we were eating them. I guess Clayton was a little too rushed because he accidentally knocked his whole plate of syrupy-powdered-sugary-waffles right on his lap. I was laughing so hard I nearly choked on my waffle. At that...

This year Clayton and I bought ROC passes, which gets us into every BYU home basketball game. Of all the college sports, basketball is definitely my favorite. We got to the Marriot Center thirty minutes early and still ended up getting in last and having to sit in the nose bleed seats. Maybe next time we'll camp out 3 or 4 hours ahead of time. Our friends Matt and Stephanie came late too, but at least we all got to sit together. The game was awesome. We creamed Weber State.

This week just flew by. I think that tends to happen more when you're really busy, there are a lot of deadlines, and you're trying to procrastinate. This week I had tons of meetings with my research group. Right now we are working on a study on pain sensitivity between genders. Interesting stuff. I also had two exams and a couple papers due. Not to mention that our ward Halloween party was on Tuesday night, the hospital Halloween party was on Wednesday night, and Thursday we celebrated the real Halloween. After the week was over we were completely drained. So instead of spending our weekend trying to catch-up and get ahead in our classes, we took it off. We slept in, watched some movies together, and went shopping.  I like to think that I'm a fairly low-maintenance kind of girl, I mean I only wear make-up, do my hair, and match my clothes on Sundays, but man do I like to shop. And since married couples budgets are particularly tight, I haven't been shopping in months...

Tomorrow is our ward Halloween party, so we had to get cracking on these costumes. We blasted the Halloween playlist on Pandora while we worked, and we made brownies for needed boosts of stamina. It took a long time, but I think they turned out awesome!

We have found a new favorite restaurant! We were driving home from the Riverwoods last night when we drove by this restaurant on the side of the road named Spicy Thai. Thai food sounded really good at the moment, so I convinced Clayton to turn around. Gotta love spontaneity. Clayton's never been a huge fan of Thai food, but he hasn't really given it much of a chance. He ordered the spicy pineapple curry and I ordered the sweet potato curry. Both were so good that we agreed we would come back soon. The last time that Dani and I took a road trip down to San Diego to see my aunt Anna and her family we had thai take out. For dessert they had ordered sticky rice with coconut and mango, and it was so amazing that I'm pretty sure I ate most of it. So imagine my excitement when I found out that Spicy Thai has the same dessert! We were too full on curry to order a dessert, but I might make a special trip there just for sticky rice with coconut and mango. Today Dani and...

Back in Elizabethian days, acting and stage performances were very different from how they are today. There were no producers. No costume designers, so every costume was made of whatever the actor had on hand. The audience was very interactive. They'd cheer, boo, they'd converse with the actors on stage, etc.  There wasn't very much rehearsal time, most stage groups were brought together from a week in advance to the morning of the show and they would "rehearse". There was a lot of improvisation.  Well the Grassroots Shakespeare Company tries to make their plays as authentic as possible.  We had been to a Grassroots play before in Salt Lake, I think we saw McBeth that time. This time it was the tale of Doctor Faustus, a greedy magician willing to sell his soul to the devil for fame and fortune. It was an awesome play! The actors are so energetic and funny. We brought some blankets and hot chocolate, making it the perfect pre-Halloween date. Th...

Last night was our wards monthly temple night. Clayton got home a little late from work and found me still asleep from a nap that was supposed to end an hour earlier, so we were a little late. We drove to the church where we were supposed to meet up with everyone, but I guess they left earlier. So we just went by ourselves, which is just fine. You can't really ruin a temple date. Afterward we drove by Taco Bell because our cupboards are a little on the bare side.  Meal planning kind of stinks. It takes a long time, it's hard to find easy recipes, and cooking the food takes forever. The down side is though that since I haven't been cooking lately we've been eating like homeless people. I actually feel unhealthy.  As far as good news goes, I have an interview next Wednesday with Professor Birmingham. It's a social psychology research assistant position, which would be great to have on my resume. I guess we'll see how it goes. 

Today I went to the hospital to do my volunteering, just like every Wednesday night. Unlike the usual Wednesday night though, tonight was the Halloween Dance. It was supposed to be next week, but the program directors decided to move it up a week so that we could have a Halloween party next week. Working for a mental hospital sounds like such a party. Of course no one informed us that we were having a dance, so we were slightly shocked to see all the patients walk in with scary costumes on. Really scary. Actually, I'm not positive that some of them actually did dress up, which is my insensitive way of stating that some of the patients appearances gives me the goose bumps on a normal, non-halloween costume party day. Insensitive, but true. We danced for over two hours, they LOVED it. Some of them were copying what we were doing, some were off in a corner dancing by themselves, and some just stood around and watched. I mentioned my new friend Joe who is a patient at the hospital. We...

For weeks Clayton and I have been trying to think of what to be for Halloween. Our friend Nathan came up with the brilliant idea of getting a group of our friends to all be giant cereal boxes. He's going to be Mini Spooners, I'm going to be Life, and Mckenzie and Clayton don't know what cereal box they will parade around in yet. We needed some cardboard boxes to make our costumes with, so tonight we invited over our friends, drank some hot chocolate, caught up a little, and then we went driving around Provo to do what we do best. Dumpster Diving.  We hit the jackpot with this lovely blue dumpster behind a craft store. Huge cardboard boxes galore were stacked in there. Some of the smaller ones fit in the trunk, the others got to ride in the back. As did Mckenzie and I. It was pretty cramped, but I'm glad we found so many to work with. Now all we need is lots of paints and a free night to create our masterpieces. Or plan B is to use the printer in ...