Hooray...

THEY WON'T REALLY STAY THAT WAY...

I was going through a bunch of pictures on my computer yesterday and came across so many pictures of me and my niece Tasha taking "self portraits" of ourselves making funny faces...most of them cross eyed. This girl is one of the true lights and joys of my life and has kept me laughing during even some of the most difficult times in my life. We have so dang much fun together! As you can see, occasionally we have gotten others to join in the antics, but usually it's just us laughing, making funny faces and taking pictures of ourselves! I couldn't help smiling as I was going through all these pictures! I LOVE MY NIECES AND NEPHEWS!!!!

~

It looks like Mom's good old warning...

"Don't cross your eyes or they'll get stuck that way"

is nothing more than urban legend!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Thanks for a fun night honey! I love you!

Doing My Part...

WHAT USED TO LOOK LIKE THIS....

NOW LOOKS LIKE THIS...

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After some inspiration from friends like Sari, Rachel & others as well as features on the Today Show and other news programs, I have been trying to do my part in the "Go GREEN" movement. I purchased these great bags about 2 months ago for $1.99 each at Pier One (you can find them all over in various sizes and for various price points, some even fold up teeny tiny and fit in your purse!) They are awesome! I keep them in my car and use them each time I go to the store (any store...grocery store, Target, Ross, Deseret Book). It is so great to politely decline a plastic bag for the use of one of my much cuter, bigger, more efficient re-usable bags! Each bag will fit about 2 1/2 times more than a regular plastic bag, they can be washed in the washing machine and most grocery stores now offer a 5 cent discount per reusable bag! That adds up fast and pretty soon... your bags are paid for! (see the facts, below)

Okay...you all know that I am by no means a crazy tree hugging environmentalist, however, as socially responsible adults...we could all do our part, right?

Here are some interesting facts that I found about plastic bags...

Consumption

• Each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide. That comes out to over one million per minute. Billions (yes, billions)end up as litter each year.
• It only takes 4 grocery trips for an average family to accumulate 60 plastic shopping bags.
• According to the EPA, over 380 billion plastic bags, sacks and wraps are consumed in the U.S. each year.
• According to The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. goes through 100 billion plastic shopping bags annually, most of which eventually end up in landfills. (Estimated cost to retailers is $4 billion)

Impact

• Plastic bags suffocate, disable and kill thousands of marine mammals and sea birds worldwide each year. When the animal dies and decays, the plastic bag is free again to repeat the deadly cycle.
• Plastic bags don’t biodegrade, they photodegrade—breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways and entering the food web when animals accidentally ingest.
• As part of Clean Up Australia Day, in one day nearly 500,000 plastic bags were collected.
  Windblown plastic bags are so prevalent in Africa that a cottage industry has sprung up harvesting bags and using them to weave hats, and even bags. According to the BBC, one group harvests 30,000 per month.
• According to David Barnes, a marine scientist with the British Antarctic Survey, plastic bags have gone "from being rare in the late 80s and early 90s to being almost everywhere from Spitsbergen 78° North [latitude] to Falklands 51° South [latitude].
• Plastic bags are among the 12 items of debris most often found in coastal cleanups, according to the nonprofit Center for Marine Conservation.
  

Each high quality reusable shopping bag used has the potential to eliminate hundreds, if not thousands, of plastic bags over its lifetime.

Renew...Reuse...Recycle!

Synchronized Swimming for Talent Show

Maybe we'll take our show on the road! :)

Shameless "Talent" AND a Gold Medal Winning Pie...

I have to share and document...

Last night was our Ward's Annual Pie Contest and Talent/No Talent Show. The Young Women were asked to have a pie to enter as well as a "talent" or performance of some kind for the show portion of the evening.

Oh my did we have fun with this one!!!

Gina had the fantastic idea of doing a syncronized swimming routine with all of the girls. We gathered together on Wednesday night to make a pie and choreograph our routine. I am not sure if we could have laughed harder or had more fun...

Here's a few pictures of the girls brainstorming choreography ideas...

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Jorie's (one of our girls) mom was actually a synchronized swimmer (seriously?), so she had some really great moves for us. She was so hysterical and poised in every move she made. She kept us all laughing and was a great dance leader!

We found these great swimsuit dresses for the girls to wear over their clothes and we all wore these ridiculous goggles (as well as any other random "water things" we could find around our houses)...

(if anyone needs props for a ridiculous skit...Ta Da! Let me know! I have several matching swimsuits, goggles, orange life vests, etc.)

.

I wish that I had better pictures of our actual routine... I am trying to get some video and better pictures (bless Chris' heart, but the pictures he took suck! Although it's probably more my camera than his skills)

Here's just a little taste...

SO FUN!

And the best news of the night...

Our Pie (Sour Cream Apple with Cinnamon Struesel Topping) won the... GOLD MEDAL!

...just before we put the pie in the oven...

...hot out of the oven...

...and with our GOLD MEDAL!

yes...it is a real medal, engraved and all! WAHOO!

2008

1st place

Pie Bake

Contest

Any ideas about what we should do with our medal?

Tagged!

Okay, so I have been tagged a few times now, each time a different tag requesting different info. I figured that I would just combine them and give you a whole variety of useless info about me!

Enjoy!

5 things on my to do list today:

1. Call my Mom

2. Unload the dishwasher

3. Reply to email

4. Take a bath

5. Make a grocery list

5 Snacks I enjoy:

1. Chocolate covered cinnamon bears

2. Salt & Vinegar Pringles

3. Sugar Snap Peas

4. Diet Coke (does that count as a snack)

5. Reeses Pieces (or almost anything peanut butter/chocolate flavored

5 Places I have lived: Okay...could I be any more boring...

1. Orem, UT

2. Provo, UT

3. Layton, UT

4. Lehi, UT

5. SLC, UT

(I really like Utah, okay!)

What would I do if I were suddenly made a Billionaire:

Too stressful to think about. Not sure it would be a good thing!

5 jobs I have had:

1. Classic Skating Rink Snack Bar (yep...I made churros!)

2. Leisure Zone

3. Brackman Bros. Bagels

4. Rumbi Island Grill

5. Babinski's

Five Favorite TV Shows....

Hooray for an end to the writers strike!

1. The Office

2. 30 Rock

3. Today Show

4. 24

5. Flip this House

Five things to do before I die:

1. Be a Mom

2. Travel

3. Travel some more

4. Travel even more...

5. Go on a mission with my husband

5 Things you didn't know about me:

This is where I am supposed to tell you all the wierd & crazy things about me...where to begin! :)

1. I am a clean freak. My house is almost always in order, but my closet looks like a bomb went off. I totally relate to that epsiode of Friends where Monica has the secret closet.

2. I get a lot of speeding tickets. I'm not a crazy driver, just unlucky...Chris drives way faster than me and has none!

3. I HATE Styrofoam. The sound of it makes my skin crawl!! (along with cotton balls, snow crunching and a whole list of other things)

4. I am alerygic to morphine. What a sad discovery.

5. I watch the Today Show every morning, as well as the news every night.

Husbands Full name: Christopher Michael Johnson

How long have you been married: 1 year and 21 days :)

How long did we date: It seems like it was about a minute and a half...

Who said I love you first: Him...I was scared out of my mind

Who is taller: Chris 6' versus my 5'4"

Who sings better: We both suck!

Who's smarter: Probably Chris. However, I think I have more street smarts and I always seem to be right! Hmmm

Who does the laundry: Me, but he'll help fold if I ask him

Who pays the bills: Him...

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed: Depends on which was you are looking at the bed?

Who mows the lawn: What lawn?

Who cooks dinner: Me, but Chris usually does the dishes!

Who drives: Chris

Who's more stubborn: Me, without question! Poor Chris

Who kissed who first: Chris...second date

Who asked who out first: He did

Who proposed: Chris

Who has more siblings: I do. I'm the youngest of 8, Chris is the youngest of 5 with a twin

sister.

Who wears the pants on the family: Not sure...I'm definately bossier! Chris just goes with the flow and puts up with me.

Wow...that was exhausting!

I WANT MY MONEY BACK!

Are you kidding me? Not even a hot, shirtless Matthew McConaughey was worth the $7.75 and 2 hours of time that was wasted on this movie! Not a good movie...slow,cheesy and annoying!

Last night we had "Girls Night Out" with several of my longtime friends. We met at Thanksgviving Point, wandered around the shops oogling beautiful things, even randomly bumping into my favorite Ron and Sue, my uncle and aunt from So. Cal (so fun to see, chat and visit with them), then we ordered dinner, laughed, talked and got caught up on everyone's goings on. It was a great night with the girls....minus this stupid movie!

Shannon, Julie, Sari & Melissa! So great to see you guys! All of you that couldn't make it...we missed you...(however, you didn't miss much of a movie)! I'm totally up for ordering in and hanging out playing games for next time.

Thanks again ladies....LYG!

Highlights of the weekend!

FRIDAY started with this...

with her!

I know there is still a foot of snow on the ground and I should really still be wearing my moon boots...but WOW, was it nice to wear flip flops and pretend for a day!

SATURDAY... we did more of this...

Okay, who am I kidding...Chris did all the work (with some help from family)
...all I did was pose for this ridiculous picture!

SUNDAY's highlight was this:

Sunday was my first day in YW's. I had each of the girls (and leaders) bring a fresh flower that best represented them and their personality so that we could all get to know each other. We put all the flowers together in a bouquet and delivered it to the outgoing President. I wish that I would have taken a picture of the final bouquet that we created with all our flowers. It was beautiful!


And there is still one more day off to go....

Is it Spring yet?

Can you believe how beautiful these tulips are?

A loved and cherished friend showed up at my house over the weekend to absolutely brighten my world with this thoughtful gift! Wow, am I lucky!

SO, if I wasn't already looking forward to SPRING... I certainly am now!

Thank you from the bottom of my heart!!