More Arizona Fun

Here are some pictures for actual proof that we DID see my family (the Nilands) over the holidays. As a family we had much fun and many adventures. Here we are at a park... we went on a walk, talked, played a short game of touch football, and tried to feed the fish.....

Another day we went to the park as well, this time to fly my dad's new remote airplane. The airplane worked out really well, until the wind picked it up a bit - it flew straight into the sun - we couldn't see it - lost control - and it crashed on a nearby rooftop. No worries... our fearless boys were able to recover it triumphantly. No permanent damage done. :) Here they are, proudly displaying the airplane... Jeremy, my Dad, brother-in-law Jimmy, and nephew Davis.
While the boys ran after the airplane... us girls stayed behind and laughed. Here's Marla (my younger sister), me, and my adorable niece Sarah.
The whole Niland clan out for a traditional Olive Garden dinner. Yum!!

And here we have my Dad and Jeremy, enjoying the feast. :) I think that I must be eyeing Jeremy's food... maybe I wanted a bite....
Anyway, it was a wonderful trip to see my family.... these pictures just can't do our adventures justice. We can't wait to see them again!! Hopefully it won't be long!!! We love you guys!!!

Three years!

Three years ago, Jeremy and I were sealed for time and all eternity in the Mesa, Arizona temple. It was a wonderful day three years ago - and an even better three years of happiness, love, and friendship since then. Marriage is a million times better than I had ever dreamed it would be! But that's probably just because I am lucky enough to be married to Jeremy. :) Well, three years down.... and (happily!) an eternity to go!

Christmas in Arizona!

Christmas break was heaven on earth! We were lucky enough to visit with all of our favorite people on the planet - our family!!! We flew in to Arizona on Christmas evening, since as a nurse I had to work both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. But it ended up working out perfectly!

We headed straight to the Nilands (my family) for Christmas dinner and presents. Yeah!! After a perfect evening, we spent the next 5 days in Gilbert visiting with my family and Jeremy's Dad. It was absolutely incredible to visit, sleep in, NOT got to work or school, go bowling, eat out, meet our cute new nephew Jake, play at the park, talk to my missionary brother on the phone, go on walks, eat Mom's yummy home cooked meals, play games, ETC....

Nothing is better than visiting with family. :) In fact, my family had so much fun getting together - that ALL of us completely forgot to take any pictures. Oh well, hopefully we remember next year. :) So... here are a few photos from our time with the Johnston clan.

Jeremy and I opened presents with his Dad's family on Dec. 26th. It was so fun to watch all of our nieces and nephews as they opened presents. It is always wonderful to be around kids at Christmas time! Just a few of Jeremy's crazy family members! By the way, I feel like I got extremely lucky in the in-law category - the Johnstons are crazy and wonderful and FUN!!! I love this family!!

One afternoon at Dad's house we all went to a nearby park and invented a game called "Ultimate Ball". We had a blast! We especially enjoyed the beautiful Arizona winter weather!!!

Finals are over!!!

Well, Jeremy has officially survived his first semester of law school! Yeah!!! Finals are done!! Unfortunately (or maybe it's a blessing in disguise so that we can enjoy the holidays), we won't hear how he did until the end of January or beginning of February. Overall, he felt very good about the semester. He worked hard and felt like he did pretty well. I was happy, because even in the midst of finals he somehow found time to talk and spend time with me. What a guy!

Also, we just found out that Jeremy has been accepted for an externship (he earns college credit for the experience rather than $) this summer in.... (where else??) ARIZONA!! We are thrilled and feel very grateful that he has been given this opportunity. He will be spending 5 weeks at Maxwell & Morgan, an HOA law firm located in Mesa (on Power Rd. just north of Guadalupe). For more info about the law firm you can visit www.hoalaw.biz.


So, the only bummer part of the deal, is that while he is headed to AZ, I have to stay up here in Utah. Seeing as I have a job, responsibilities, and an obligation to help women birth their children, I can't really leave all of that behind and frolic away to Arizona for 5 weeks. So we will have to be apart. :( But I will take a two week hiatus (a.k.a. paid vacation) and come down to AZ to visit my wonderful husband and family.

Well, we'll fill you on all of the other adventures in our lives later. Hope that all is well with all of you!! Happy Holidays and Happy No School for Jeremy!!

Jeremy's Life: An Update (by Kendra)

Well, I can't believe that the ominous FIRST SEMESTER of law school is already drawing to a dramatic close. Finals begin for Jeremy on December 7th - which is quickly approaching (but lets not think about that). Since he obviously doesn't have time to catch you all up himself, I'll fill you in on the life and happenings of Jeremy Johnston.

This is Jeremy on his First Day of Law School. What a stud! I'm SO proud of him. Anyway, this semester Jeremy is enrolled in Contracts, Criminal Law, Legal Writing, a Professional Seminar and something else that I can't remember at the moment. He is really enjoying his professors and his fellow law students. Mostly, he is very grateful and pleased with our decision to attend BYU law school.
This is a photo of BYU law school, a.k.a. Jeremy's home away from home. Fortunately, Jeremy is LOVING Law School (which is convenient since he has to spend every waking moment thinking and breathing it). He comes home so excited about all of these interesting cases that he is studying and wants to fill me in about the facts of the cases. He also makes jokes using all sorts of weird legal jargon - and then laughs as if he is so hilarious - but I just don't get it. :)


Mostly, I think that he is very proud to have his very own desk (#166) assigned to him in the law library. The desk has a filing cabinet and big storage shelf - that locks. Jeremy has made it feel more like "home" to him by adding a kleenex box, a picture of Christ, and a waste basket. P.S. Note the glazed over look in Jeremy's eyes. That's what happens when you read case books for 16 hours straight. Poor guy.

While he is loving law school, it is also a LOT of work. As finals quickly approach I feel like I understand more and more where the term "law school widow" originated from. But, I can't really complain. I'm so proud of him! AND... I'm SO incredibly lucky to have such a hard working husband!!!! He puts in long hours studying at school, and still finds the energy to be a phenomenal and helpful husband when he comes home. Again, what a stud!

Besides all of this Jeremy sleeps (very little), volunteers as a student mentor (weekly), eats (as much as he can), studies (A TON), hangs out with me (as often as possible), follows the 2008 presidential electial (when he can), works (VERY VERY part time), showers (daily), works at the Provo Temple (weekly), plays raquetball (rarely), watches football (weekly), etc.... etc....

The traditional highlight of Jeremy's life (besides me of course) is the BYU football game each week. This last week we beat our rival University of Utah in the Holy War.... which was a FABULOUS game and an even sweeter victory. Football carries Jeremy through each week... I don't know what we'll do when football season ends.... lets not even talk about that. :)

Well, we live a great life here in Provo, Utah. And that just about sums up Jeremy's life... from Kendra's perspective.

My Mom came to visit!

Yeah for Mothers!!! My Mom flew in from Arizona to spend a few days with me in the beginning of November. It was SUCH a fun trip! It was so nice to have someone to spend the day with while Jeremy was off studying at Law School. We shopped and talked and went out to eat.... could life be any better?? I miss her already!

I think you all should know. My mother has a gift. She is the best organizer I know! She can take a closet that you thought was previously organized and fit twice as much stuff into the space! So... since I am well aware of my mother's many talents.... I put her to work when she came to visit me (I know - I'm a terrible daughter!). We tackled my coat closet and two huge cupboards that are above my washer and dryer. She was amazing!!! We fit so much more into that small space than I ever thought was possible! I love my newly cleaned and organized spaces. P.S. THANK YOU MOM!!!!!!!!!

Our next task was some SERIOUS cooking. See, I hate cooking meat. It takes so much time... defrosting... cooking... cleaning up from the mess. I feel like I could make most meals in half the time if I didn't have to cook and cube the chicken. For a while now I have been trying to cook up some chicken ahead of time so that I can just take it from the ziploc bags in the freezer and throw it straight into a casserole. But it is boring to cook chicken, and time consuming. SO... once again my mother and I went to work. During one afternoon we went ALL out and cooked 20 pounds of chicken and 8 pounds of hamburger!!!!! It took us about 3-4 hours to complete the project... but we figured that I won't have to cook meat again.... EVER!!! Hopefully it can stay "fresh" in the freezer. :)

Anyway, although it sounds like all we did was work... work... work... We actually did a lot of talking, relaxing, going on walks, eating out, visiting, and laughing. It was so fun to spend quality time with my mom!! I can't wait until Christmas when I get to go home and spend more time with my family!!! And I especially can't wait until Jeremy graduates from Law School so that we can move back down to Arizona and enjoy quality family time on a more regular basis. I love you MOM!!! Thanks for coming to visit me!!!!

Amber came to visit!

Well, a few weeks ago I went to check the mail... and we had received a letter from our very cute, lively, and fun 5 year old niece Amber!! She lives in Kansas, so we were pretty excited to hear from her. I opened the letter.... and out came AMBER!!! She had made a paper doll of herself (complete with a photo of her own head) and sent it to us.... so that she could "visit" us. Clever, huh?? So we took a couple of pictures with her and wrote her a letter back, telling her all about the wonderful "adventures" that we had together while she was visiting us in Provo. Here's some of the pictures. I hope that you enjoy them!! We sure did!!

The adventures of Amber:

While she was visiting I taught her how to quilt - she was a natural!
We relaxed in the evening and snuggled up all together to read bedtime stories. Jeremy read all of the voices, and I read the parts of the narrator.
Some evenings Jeremy would take a break from studying and play cards with Amber and I. He usually cheated, but Amber usually won anyway.
And a trip wouldn't be complete without yumy desserts. We especially loved eating ice cream with Amber.
Thanks for visiting us Amber!!!! We love you so much!!! We hope that you can find the time to come visit us again soon!!!!

Quilting!

So, as a lot of you have heard - I've taken to quilting lately. I absolutely love it! Weird, huh. I never would have thought that I would be a quilter - but here I am... quilting away. So, I wanted to show off the fruits of my "labor".

Here we have Exhibit A: Quilt #1
This was my first attempt at quilting back in July & August. It is a simple blue and white rag quilt. My Grandmom got me started on it when I went to visit her in California this summer. We picked out the fabric and cut it all into squares together (sorry about your thumb Grandmom!). I loved putting this quilt together. It was fast and easy - but I did learn a lot from it.... like how to thread my hand-me-down sewing machine!
This is the back of Quilt #1.

Exhibit B: Quilt #2

Well, I was bored of blue after Quilt #1... so I decided to go pink! This is a fun and simple design that one of the nurses that I work with showed me how to do. It was great - because it is easy, and yet it looks complicated - the best kind of a quilt. :) It was my first time to try basting and machine quilting - which was an adventure. I only sewed the quilt in half the wrong way once! I love this quilt though because it is so cute and pink and feminine.

Well, then I was bored of pastels.... so here is Exhibit C: Quilt #3
It's a tad more colorful than the other two quilts. :) Jeremy actually helped me pick out these fabrics, we had a hilarious Saturday night trip to Joanne's Fabric store - where we deliberated very seriously about the tones and hues of the colors in the various fabrics. He's a great sport! Anyway, I also machine quilted this one. And I love the back of the quilt almost as much as the front. It's just fun and LIVELY!

Anyway, thanks for letting me share my new hobby with you. Stay posted for more of my quilting adventures.

The Sad Truth

Life has been stressful here on the homefront... so I figured that I better 'fess' up about the truth behind the current Johnston Family eating trends. I know, I know... I allegedly love to cook. Oh, and I claim to try to live life as a healthy and frugal human being. However, when life comes at you fast - sometimes you just throw caution to the wind and find happiness as you head on out to eat. :) Here you have the evidence before you.....

So the truth is: Jeremy and I LOVE to eat out. To help myself cope with the guilt of having this unhealthy habit - I have become a big restaurant coupon connoisseur - so I flip through ads looking for tempting deals like "buy one 6" sub, get one free", or "buy one large specialty pizza at regular price and get any large one topping pizza for 99 cents."

We also have those infamous "buy 10 get one free" cards in Jeremy's wallet for every restaurant within a 15 minute radius of our home. I used to wonder how people ever got all the way to 10 on those cards - now I wonder how we already got to 10 - AGAIN. We even have a separate file in our filing cabinet for the take out menus of all of our favorite restaurants - that way we can call ahead to order our meals "To Go".

When I'm feeling guilty about the nutritional value of our meals, I have an easy fix - we stop by Jamba Juice for a healthy, delicious, refreshing smoothie (that counts as our servings of fruit for the week - right?).
Oh, and if I start to stress about how we have gone out to eat "too much" recently, then I rationalize by finding some sort of occasion to celebrate - which means we - of course - need to go out to eat. I believe that we have now celebrated Jeremy's birthday with a trip to Olive Garden, Wendy's, Papa Johns, and Tucanos. Hmmm...

If we are not in the season of anyone's birthday - then we celebrate Friday and Saturday (it's the weekend) or Monday (Family Night). Tuesday and Wednesday are up for grabs as well, we simply celebrate that we have survived yet another grueling day at school/work.
Well, I'm sure that we all have our little secrets... and I wanted to come clean on the Johnston Family's bad little habit. Someday, I anticipate that we will overcome this shortcoming. But for now, I'll just keep enjoying the food. :)

And.... whoever is out there reading this... thanks for listening. We miss you ALL!!!!

My Project

Well, last Saturday I got a little bit bored. Jeremy was preparing for his first day at law school (aka studying for 10 hours) - and the house was already clean - so I had nothing to do! I was concerned... law school hadn't even started yet! I figured I better come up with something that would entertain me for quite awhile... so I decided to refinish a table that Jeremy and I have so that it would match the decor of our front room and function as a computer desk. I had NO IDEA where to start, so I called my Dad for some detailed instructions. Then I ventured off to Home Depot to pick up supplies, and came home to begin making a mess - my first wood working project! The table was my victim, it fought hard against me... but I won in the end. Here are some before and after pictures to show you the journey.
We don't exactly have a garage, or a good place for making a mess of this proportion - so I just put down a tarp and went at it with some sandpaper in our spare bedroom. It worked out okay - except that I had to vacuum the whole room (from head to toe) when I finished - because there was a thick film of sanddust everywhere!
Sanding the table was a lot of work, but really fulfilling. It felt great to put some real muscle power (the limited muscle power that I have) into a project. It was exhausting, but rewarding. The wood was so beautiful when I finished sanding it, that I almost felt bad staining it.
This is me putting the final coat of polyurethene on the table. We had to open up all of our windows, but the stench of still filled the house. Sometimes I still think that I am smelling it... maybe the fumes got to my brain.
Jeremy ended up helping me out with the finishing touches. We spray painted the legs of the table together, and then when everything had dried he was the one to screw the table top back on so that I could admire my finished product!!
And... voila! A week later, I have the table completed. It's not perfect - but it's functional. Jeremy and I are both very happy with it. The table matches the decor of the rest of the room really well (but you can't see that in this picture - sorry). Best of all, now that the table is finished I was able to clean up my spare bedroom so that it is actually functional again! Yeah for not living in a dusting, fumey pigsty anymore! AND.... now that the table is done, Jeremy set up my new desktop computer - which allows me to be online at home!!!! Yeah for being connected with the world around me!! I don't think that I have left my computer all day. So... expect to be hearing more from me soon. And keep posting exciting things on all of your blogs - so that I don't get bored again and get any more crazy ideas about attacking any other pieces of my innocent furniture.

Founder's Day Dinner

On Thursday evening (August 30th) Jeremy and I went to our first law school "event". We drove up to the Little America Hotel in Salt Lake City to attend the Founder's Day Dinner, an annual event for the J. Reuben Clark Law Society which commemorates the founding of the BYU Law School. BYU Law School alumni, professors, and students were invited to attend the event. The hotel was beautiful and elegant. It felt fun to go out to a "nice" event. Being new to the law school there were only a few familiar faces. Jeremy and I were mingling with the other 1Ls (first year law students), when we turned around and practically ran into Elder Dallin H. Oaks - who was directly behind us! I said something classy like, "Oh - hi," but Jeremy saved both of us by saying, "You're Elder Oaks." Elder Oaks just smiled and laughed, and we shook his hand. Wow! So, this is the ballroom at the Little America Hotel where the dinner was held. We sat at tables with 4 other couples, chatting about law school and life in general. Dinner was yummy. What more can I say? Then Elder Bruce C. Hafen spoke about how the BYU law school came to be. It was amazing to hear about all of the little (and big!) miracles that occured to help BYU law school be where it is today. Jeremy and I went away from the event with full tummies, and a deeper sense of appreciation and gratitude for our opportunity to be here at BYU during this phase of our lives. It will be a hard journey - but it will be worth it!

Johnston Family Vacation

The Johnston Family Roadtrip was phenomenal - to say the least. What could be better than being cramped into a 15 passenger van for hours after hours, eating fast food, and playing Road Trip games... all with our favorite people on earth!!! It was five days of heaven! And I'm being serious. :) The road trip started when Mom and boys left Arizona to head for the great flatlands of Kansas, where they picked up Brent and Michelle and their cute kids. Then they continued on to Chicago - where Troy, Jeremy, and I flew in to join the gang. From there we headed up to Michigan to pick up the lovely Moore clan. We then went through Canada, stopped briefly (and I mean BRIEFLY) at Niagra Falls, and then on to Palmyra, New York to see the Hill Cumorah pageant.... and then it all happened again (in reverse). It was so fun!!!
One of the many perks of the family vacation - was that I got to hang out with my nieces and nephews. Ally and I had an especially good time together. She has the funnest personality! Julie and Hunter took us to a beautiful park up in Michigan - it might as well have been an oasis in paradise for all we were concerned. We had a BBQ, ate our hearts out, played ultimate frisbee, and waded in the nearby lake. Ally and I had a great time together there, exploring the water and sand. :) Kids are such a fun adventure!
I will never forget the time that the Johnston family spent at Niagra Falls, it was so brief - yet perfectly meaningful. :) It had been a long drive already that day, we were in a time crunch to get to the Hill Cumorah pageant, several kids were asleep, and we couldn't (oddly enough) find a place to park a 15 passenger van towing a trailer. So... we just decided to drive by the Falls. Michelle and I jumped out to take some pictures (to make it look like we were really there), the van made a U-turn, and then Michelle and I jumped back in. It felt adventurous. Boy, we really live on the edge.
Here are the boys, waiting for the main event - the Hill Cumorah pageant.
And here are the girls, running (as a group) to the restroom while we're waiting for the Hill Cumorah pageant to begin. The trip was a wonderful experience and memory. Thank you Mom for making it all possible. And thank you to the whole family for being the wonderful people that you are!! We love you and miss you already!! And Mom, where are we going next year???

Visiting the Family in Arizona

After returning from our fun-filled California adventure - we worked for one week and then hurried off to the heat of Arizona to visit our favorite people on earth ... our FAMILY!!! My older sister, Tiffany, is pregnant and had been on bed rest due to bleeding for quite some time - so we were dying to get down to AZ and help out in any way. We got to spend five glorious days taking care of her 2 adorable children and helping out with little things around the house. Davis is almost 4 and Sarah is 14 months. They were a blast! Jeremy won the award for most entertaining uncle - he played more games with them then I had ever heard of or dreamt of. One of the highlights was the "tent" he constructed one morning with Davis. I think Davis lived in there all day. :)
Sarah and I had a great time just cuddling and playing together. Her smile is the cutest thing in the world. I was devastated each time she had to go down for a nap. What a doll!!
But the trip wasn't all work and no play. Jeremy and I both took turns slipping away to see the rest of our family in Arizona. Jeremy got to play raquetball with his Dad and golf with our brother-in-law Jimmy. We also got to have dinner with Dad and Theresia, visiting with their family. And of course we had to head over to visit Spencer, Kelyn and their cute boys. The picture below is Jeremy, Spencer, AND Samuel in a tent the size of a walnut - who ever thought that they could all fit in there?? Or want to fit in there?? Anyway, as usual the trip was wonderful. It was great to visit family and friends, and of course, we all bonded and became a little.... closer.
We can't wait until we can live close to family again. We miss them already!!! But it is wonderful that Arizona is not too far a place to occasionally visit. Hopefully we'll see you all again soon!!!

Sunburnt and Happy

Well, Jeremy and I are enjoying the magnificent central coast of California - and all of the perks that it brings. We are visiting in San Luis Obispo, California (a.k.a. "the land of perfect weather"). Both of my parents grew up here, so my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins mostly still live here. I have visited San Luis most summers in my life, and it is great to be back here again. Jeremy and I haven't been here for 2 whole years!
Anyway, My grandpa lives on the 18th hole of a very nice golf course - and when he heard that we have become interested in golf, he was excited to treat us to 18 holes of golf. He also gave Jeremy and I each a set of "hand-me-down" golf clubs and a pair of golf shoes (Jeremy has already noticed a sizable difference in his golf playing abilities). Anyway, this golf excursion must be the main attraction in the celestial kingdom, because nothing has ever been so heavenly. It was 70 degrees, the sun was shining, a gorgeous breeze was blowing, and we were walking around on a perfectly manicured golf course. At the ninth hole we called in our lunch orders, and then we stopped at the Club House Grill to pick up our freshly grilled cheeseburgers, french fries, fresh fruit, and beverages. We were living the high life! We played best ball and reached our pathetic but worthy goal of scoring 20 over par. Anyway, it was fun - definitely the highlight of the trip so far. Jeremy seemed especially happy - free golf and free food - is there anything better in life?
Unfortunately, I came away from the expereince with QUITE the sunburn. Generally I tan, not burn - so this sunburn is a pathetic reminder to me that with my new schedule in the working world - I definitely don't get out as much as I used to. Bummer. Last night when we came home I changed directly into my swimsuit - the only thing that didn't sound painful to lounge around in! Then Jeremy spent most of the evening applying and reapplying aloe vera to my poor scorched neck and arms. Even this morning I still have a certain "glow" about me. Anyway, sadly I may have to stay out of the sun today. Hopefully this will turn into a tan quickly so that we can hit the beach. I know... I know... life is tough.

Well, it feels good to be on vacation - I highly recommend the practice to you all.