Adventure Time!

I now realize that when it comes to doing useful things, such as getting a job, I have zero skills. It's kind of depressing actually, but that's alright. I'm going to have to work on that it seems so that I may be somewhat useful in any way shape or form. Anyway, because of my uselessness and failure to get employed during the first few months of our marriage, we decided we needed a killer job for the summer. Thanks to my sister and brother-in-law, we were so blessed to get an impeccable hook-up with an incredible summer job! Not only is it a great job, but it's also in a GREAT place...we're movin' to FLORIDA!!! My brother-in-law, Casey, used to install security systems for a few different companies during a few of his summer breaks, and he just so happened to be great friends with one of the best security salesmen in the business. So, we (and when I say we I mean Justin) called up this guy inquiring about the job, and he had the sales manager for the team he's on give Justin a call. He called, we met up for breakfast, he told us about the job, and it turns out his team is the number one team in the whole company! He writes all of the training manuals for the company and is a killer salesman himself, selling almost 400 security systems in one summer! Needless to say, he's really good, and also wants his whole team to be good. The whole team tries to build each other up, and though there's healthy competition within the team, their goal is to help everyone do their absolute very best, because they know if each individual succeeds, the whole team succeeds. It's a great group of guys, and about 3/4 of them are married and will have their wives there with them. The wives get together quite often and do all sorts of fun things. So anyway, Justin got the job and will be selling Vivint security systems (which are pretty amazing systems...it's mind boggling all the technologically advanced things that thing can do). We'll be moving down to Orlando, Florida the end of April, and we'll be there until the end of August. Then we'll come back to Provo, and Justin will do another semester at BYU. I'll be doing a semester online through BYU-I while we're in Florida, so that should keep me pretty busy...I'm positive I won't be bored! It'll be an adventure for sure! I can hardly contain myself a lot of the time, that's how excited I am about this whole thing! Aside from the year and a half I lived in Missouri and the few months I've now lived in Utah, this will be the first time I've lived anywhere outside of Idaho! Not just Idaho, but small town Idaho! We're both so excited! Justin has had a little bit of training and has already sold a security system, and so far he says he's had a lot of fun doing it! He's looking forward to this summer...so am I! Hooray for adventures!! :)

Hair = GONE!

I don't know what exactly it was that got into me, but a couple weeks ago in an attempt to face some of my fears, I had a genius idea to chop my hair off...for real this time! I was planning on piercing my ears as well...but I have been able to bring myself to do it. Anyway, I just wanted something a little different, since I've basically had the exact same hair style since like 6th grade...no big deal, right? I told the lady to cut it shoulder length at the very shortest, and she said, "Ok!" Then she went to work, and the next thing I know, my hair is gone, gone! Like way above my shoulders gone! I can now barely put it in a pony tail! I'm limited to like 1 maybe 2 hairstyles...definitely something I'm NOT used to! My hair hasn't been this short in a long, long, LONG time...like early elementary years! Perhaps even all the way back to the time when I was feeling cosmetoligetic at the age of 8 and chopped my hair off myself. It's a cute hair cut, it's just way different than what I'm used to. I cried the first day, and I still miss my long hair and being able to do so many things with it, but I'm now coming to grips with the new do, and it'll be ok...for now anyway. I'm growing it out! :) Thank goodness Justin likes it. I was so nervous he was going to think it was ugly at first, because he said I could cut it as long as it wasn't short enough that I couldn't put it in a pony tail anymore...oops...I guess technically I can, but it isn't pretty. Justin got me a crimper that I wanted for Valentine's Day, so I can finally feel like I can do something different with it. I really like it crimped, so that's been a blessing really! Well, goodbye hair...hello new me!

Will You Be My Valentine??

Well the Mr. and Mrs. had their first Valentine's together! So I've never really had a "Valentine" before, and neither had Justin, so this was such a fun day for us! We both got spoiled, but I think I had the most fun! So I got up at 6:00 that morning and put cute little one sentence love notes on all kinds of things around the house. For example, I spread kisses on the floor in the hall and had a note that said something like, "Let me kiss the ground you walk on." And on the light switch it said, "You are the light of my life." The toilet said, "No one could flush away my love for you." Anyway you get the point! It was so fun watching his face light up as he'd find one throughout the day. He still hasn't found them all. ;) I also made a little powerpoint on his computer that came up when he opened his laptop that was all the reasons why I love him with on of our songs playing in the background. He loved it, and that made me happy! Then he took me to Texas Road House (my favorite!) Then he said he had to go grab something real quick, and he came back with gorgeous orange gerber daisies...he knows I hate roses! :) Then when I got home, there was a pile of amazing gifts, including the hair crimper I've been wanting for awhile now, some new socks (Yay!!),some candies, olives (that he later confessed he got out of the cupboard...haha!), and the most beautiful, lovely, and sweetest card. I couldn't have asked for a better or more thoughtful and amazing husband! It was definitely a HAPPY Valentine's day in the Johnson household! :)

The Mr. and Mrs.

Turns out I'm now married!! Woohoo! Justin has been one of the biggest blessings in my life, and I'm so grateful to finally be married to my very best friend! We've been married for almost 2 months now, and it's seriously been an amazing 2 months! We've done so much and I feel like I've traveled the world! We were all over the place for like the first 3 weeks of being married and it was a whole lot of crazy fun! We spent Christmas at my house in Malta, then Christmas day we flew all night to California, then Florida. We got there about 6 in the morning then spent like 5 hours just hangin at the airport...lovely! Then we got on a bus that took us to Port Canaveral, Florida where we boarded the ginormous Monarch of the Seas cruise ship. That thing was bigger than the entire town of Malta I swear! Then we hit the open seas! Nothin but water and more water for like 18 hours! So gorgeous! It was absolutely incredible! Then we got to Nassau, Bahamas! The water was beautiful and completely transparent. You could see everything it was so clear. Though the water there was breathtaking, the actual city of Nassau was not so breathtaking...quite run down and, I hate to say it, but basically white trash! Kinda scary to be honest! We rode a glass bottom boat, which was pretty cool, and then just spent a little while at the beach. Don't worry though...it was COLD! Ok it was a whole lot warmer than Idaho, but I froze basically the whole time! Oh well! It was still amazing! As we were walking along the road on the way to the beach, some black man came strollin by, high as a kite, smiled an almost toothless smile and said, "Smoke weed!" Well alrighty then! Interesting place Nassau is...quite a culture shock for this pure country girl from middle of no where Idaho! After the day at Nassau, we sailed all night to a private owned island called CocoCay, Bahamas. The cruise line owns it...jealous! I'm tellin ya, that's the way to go...own a tropical island and have it all to yourself! Now that would be the life! Anyway, while we were there, Justin snorkeled, but naturally I was too chicken so I just floated on a mat next to him! That was fun even though it was still fairly chilly. It wasn't too long after we got back on the boat that it started pouring rain! That's another gorgeous site...rain in the middle of the ocean! Of course rain is my favorite on land, but it was even better on the ocean! Oh and I forgot to mention the food! The food was divine! Basically all you can eat buffet with all kinds of yummy stuff all day long, plus unlimited soft serve ice cream! Then dinner was all fancy, and I didn't even know what 95% of the stuff on the menu was! I wasn't very adventurous when it came to food, so naturally I played it safe and got either sirloin steak or salmon every night. Justin was a little more adventurous, but not too much. He did try French onion soup and a nasty shrimp ravioli that not only looked disgusting, but smelled even worse! Yuck! He didn't care for it either. The funniest though was we had to be really careful what dessert we ordered...half of it had either some sort of alcohol or coffee in it. Justin ordered some chocolate dessert thing that sounded and looked really good, then when he found out what was in it, he told them he changed his mind...it had a coffee sauce on it. Whoops! I think we were the only ones on the entire ship, which contained like 500 people, that weren't completely drunk out of our minds! Everywhere you turned there was alcohol in some variety in your face! It made me realize how grateful I am that neither one of us has to turn to a substance to think we're finding joy and happiness and relaxation. If I'm going to go on a trip like that I want to remember it, and not get home and realize I have no idea what just happened. There truly is wisdom in the word of wisdom! :) Though the cruise was a blast, I was really glad to be back in Florida and on our way to Washington D.C. for the second reception! Mom, Dad, and even Jared flew out for it, and it was so fun! I know Dad and Jared loath traveling, especially flying, but I'm so glad they went! It meant a lot and was seriously so fun to have them there! And really deep down I think they enjoyed themselves too, though I'm sure they won't admit it! We definitely enjoyed our time in D.C., however we were also glad to get to Utah and finally be able to move in and get settled down. We'd been living out of a suit case and had only slept on an actual bed a handful of times. However, we had quite the surprise when we got here...our apartment complex is brand new, and we're one of the first people to live here. They're still building part of it, and when we got here we found out that they weren't quite done with our apartment, so we couldn't move in yet. They had us stay in one of the other apartments that was done for a week. Talk about rough. We couldn't move anything in, and we had to sleep on the floor. We couldn't use anything in the kitchen either, so we had to eat out for every meal every day...not cool! It was fun for about a day...then I was ready for some real food and a real bed. We finally got moved in though, and our apartment is so cute and nice and perfect for us. It's tiny, but perfect! I love having our own stuff...our own dishes, washer and dryer, couch, TV that we can watch whatever we want whenever we want, food, fridge that we don't have to share with anyone, bathroom, and just everything! I've thoroughly enjoyed cooking and baking and even cleaning! I love finding ways to make Justin's day better and ways to make him smile and laugh! He's amazing and does so much for me and makes me so much happier than I ever thought life could be! I drop him off and pick him up everyday, and I think it's so fun! I get so lonely while he's at class though. I always so excited to pick him up and have him home for the rest of the day! I'm so pathetic...I don't think I can do anything without him! I don't know what I would do if he actually had to go somewhere like overnight and I couldn't go...I don't even like to think about it! Ok moving on! Of course I have to wait until he's home to go anywhere, because I'm still too terrified to drive anywhere in the city. I only have to go straight on one road to take him to class and pick him up, and I can do that much, but I don't drive any farther than that by myself! I know...I'm ridiculous, but I don't mind admitting that I'm a chicken. I'm ok with that...for now anyway. It's gonna take me a while to be ok with there being multiple stop lights and more than a couple cars on the road at a time. Other than that though, things are great and so fun! I think I speak for both of us when I say that married life is amazing and so much fun! I'm so grateful to be able to spend eternity with Justin! I love him so much! He's so cute and always doing the cutest little things to tell me he loves me or is thinking of me. A few weeks ago I went to pick him up and when he got to the truck he had a bouquet of the most gorgeous flowers in his hand! It was adorable! He's just amazing! I married the most incredibly best man in the whole world...and he's all mine! I love my Mr.!!! :)

"You are out of control!"

This winter while I was off track I substitute taught at several of the schools in the Cassia County school district. For the most part it was pretty fun and I thoroughly enjoyed it! I love being with children! They always say the cutest things and are so honest! They definitely kept me busy, entertained and thankfully they made time fly by quickly...which is always good! Anyway this week is the first week that I've worked everyday...usually it's 3 or 4 days a week, but I was lucky enough to get 5 this week. Monday was the Kindergarten in Raft River, Tuesday was Jr. High math in Declo, and Wednesday through Friday I taught Kindergarten at Dworshak Elementary in Burley. Monday and Tuesday were both pretty good, but I was super nervous about the rest of the week, and after Wednesday I wasn't quite sure what in the world I'd gotten myself into. The kids were awesome and cute, but the other adults that were in the room with me all day were about to drive me CRAZY! I was really dreading going back the next day, but I did anyway. It turned out to be a lot better than the day before, and Friday was so much fun that I'm almost wishing I could go back on Monday! There were some of the cutest kids I'd ever seen in my life in that class! There was one in particular that definitely was my favorite. It was a little boy named Ty Asher Gibbons...that's how he introduced himself and after he would write his name on his paper he would show me his paper and say, "Do you know what that says? That says 'Ty Asher Gibbons' cuz that's my name." It was so cute! Then a while later I was handing a group of kids another worksheet (one of like 1000 worksheets they did everyday! Craziness!) and I accidentally handed the kid 2 papers instead of one and I said, "Ooops! I gave you 2! That was silly of me wasn't it?!" and Ty Asher Gibbons shook his head, looked up at me and said, "Miss Jones you are OUT OF CONTROL!!" Oh my goodness it was the funniest thing ever! He was simply adorable! These are just two of the countless things he did everyday that just made me wish I could take him home with me. Ty Asher Gibbons is not only adorable, but he has a story. He's literally his big sister's hero. She is alive today because of Ty. Ty's big sister was diagnosed with luekemia and was in desperate need of a bone marrow transplant, otherwise she was going to die. Ty was the only one who had a match to hers, and he willingly and wholeheartedly gave her his bone marrow to save her life. I don't know how old he was when this took place, but he's only 5 years old right now! Can you imagine?! He, being so young, delicate, and fragile, loved his sister enough to go through such pain and agony so that she could live. That is one strong, amazing little boy! Though he doesn't realize it and I'll probably never see him again, Ty Asher Gibbons deeply touched and had a great impact on Miss Jones. He taught me more than I could ever have hoped to teach him! Ty Asher Gibbons is one little boy I will never forget!! Ty Asher Gibbons is my hero!

Saying goodbye to Kathy Selden...

Well the play is officially over. SAD DAY!!! I never thought I would be that sad when it ended, but my goodness that was rough! That was seriously one of the funnest things I've ever been involved in, and all the people I met and got to know really well were absolutely incredible and will be lifelong friends! They are just amazing! I had to laugh because I had a few different people ask me on a few of the nights if Dan was my husband in real life...umm NO! He's only 20 years older than me and has a wife and two children...ya no he is definitely NOT my husband! haha! They obviously did not read the program at all. We got a pretty good laugh out of it though. With the end of the play I thought that'd be the end of Singin in the Rain for me for a while, but boy was I wrong! My niece, Reagan, (my little mini me) has watched the movie twice in the last 24 hours! She had the hardest time understanding that in the movie I'm not the girl who plays Kathy. She kept arguing with me and saying, "Janelle that's gotta be you! It looks just like you!" haha! Kids say the darndest things! haha! When we woke up this morning the first thing Reagan said was, "Janelle, I need you to do my hair and make up like Kathy Selden!" Lucky for her I am now a master at the finger wave! She then insisted that I turn on the movie and she acted out the whole thing! It was the cutest thing! Well it was sad to see it end, but life must go on. It's time to move on to the next adventure that lies ahead of me. I'm not a huge fan of change, but with change comes learning and experience and growth, so I guess I'll just have to get used to it! haha! Singin in the Rain will be an experience and a memory that I will cherish forever! It truly was a dream come true for this little lady! So thank you Kent Severe for having a vision I thought to be impossible and believing in me enough to give me the opportunity to make my dream come true! :)

Off and runnin...

Well I guess it's my turn to start a blog...that's something I never thought I'd do! There's a first for everything though right?! However I am slightly retarded when it comes to technology, so it's probably going to take me forever just to get it all figured out...I'm already frustrated because I can't figure out how to make it cute! haha! Oh well I guess. Well as many of you know I have been enjoying the role as Kathy Seldon in Oakley Valley Arts production of "Sinigin' in the Rain" for the last few months! I know...I'm a nerd! haha! It has seriously been just a blast, and really a blessing. I've learned so much about myself while pretending to be someone else...crazy I know! It's been great to be back on stage and in front of an audience. I was so nervous and sure that they'd made a mistake when they asked me to be Kathy...I've never had a lead role before and OVAC is known for having a killer good cast for their productions and I'm no where near as talented as the rest of the highly experienced cast! I definitely had my work cut out for me, and with the Lord's help I've somehow made it through! I've met several wonderful people and made lots of new and amazing friends while being in the play, which for me says a lot!! I absolutely HATE meeting new people! It scares the crap out of me, and if it's at all possible to avoid it, by all means I do just that! Actually I try to avoid people in general...unless of course I'm on stage. and then I'm right at home and just fine! In fact the more people the better! :) I know that's pretty contradictory, but it's true...what can I say? I'm practically a living, breathing oxymoron! So anyway the play has kept me well entertained and soaked up most of my time since the middle of January. I really appreciate all the support that I've had from some family members and close friends while I've been in the play. They believed in me when I didn't believe in myself and I couldn't have done it without them! I also really appreciate all those who have come to watch the show so far! It really means a lot to see a familiar face there! It just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside! :) And if you haven't seen it yet it's not too late! We still have 4 more performances...one today, then Thursday (March 17), Friday (March 18), and Saturday (March 19)! I would love to see you there! Now I realize some of you can't make it becuase you live so far away, but I understand and I know if you lived closer you would have come just cuz ya love me so darn much! haha! But you're there in spirit and I appreciate your support all the same! Don't worry, I'll still love you! :)