Ashley and Jacob

So I'm an hour late...

2010-08-27T20:13:00.001-07:00

What? You never cleaned your house last minute before taking pictures the whole world could possibly see?

Yeah I thought so.

First Off. Master Bath.

Old Vanity/Toilet/ non-existent flooring

Looking In New.

Old Medicine cupboard(s)

Mirror and Medicine Cabinet

Old Shower Handle

New Shower Handle

Had to keep the ugly silver bar :(

Old Shower Head

New Shower Head

New Lights

New Towel Rack

New Toilet

New Toilet Paper Holder

New Window

Oh.. And I decided you guys have to wait for the rest of the rooms. Maybe one a day so you don't get too overwhelmed?

24 hours, I Promise!

2010-08-26T19:10:00.000-07:00

So now that I have spent the past 5 months of my life fixing my house like crazy, moving in, getting settled and figuring out how to be the boss of the house for the first time in 3 years, I think it is time for an update.

Give me 24 hours, a camera with full batteries, and I will have post after post of before and after pictures of the house.

Can you wait that long? Hopefully the dishes can :)

I got a call this morning....

2010-03-26T12:22:00.000-07:00

Literally 15 minutes after Jacob left for work. The title company called wanting to set up our signing appointment. We could have signed our papers today, but alas we will have to wait...

Monday.

9:00 a.m.

Big Fat cashiers check for closing costs.

1 or 2 day wait.....

The house (and keys) are MINE!!!

Dear Stardust....

2010-03-26T12:19:00.000-07:00

You have done the wonderful job of finding me new kitchen cupboards. Instead of looking like this, as it does now, the walls will soon be graced with your new cupboards. All for only 1400.

You're the best!!!

Picture of the House.

2010-03-22T20:46:00.001-07:00

Just imagine these three pictures together in one. I couldn't pull it off in Photoshop, so you will just have to work with me here.

And my pretty green backyard with a garden smack dab in the middle. (see pile of brown dirt) I have lettuce growing, and I didn't have to do a thing!!!

First Tooth & Pictures from the Phone

2010-03-22T20:31:00.001-07:00

Jessica got her first tooth last friday... the day before her 9 mo. birthday (just like crawling and 8th months). It is still working its way out, but that was when we felt it first.

Not much else is going on except I am working on packing up all my things, trying to finish some projects that I know I will not be getting around to for a very long time if they are not finished before we close on the house.

Oh!! Almost forgot. I chopped off my hair. I had been thinking about getting a haircut for several months, so while I was in Snowflake I went to Showlow to the NPC cosmetology clinic and got my hair cut. I was able to donate 10 inches to Lawks of Luhv (I know the spelling is off here but I don't want to be showing up on tons of search engines... already have had a couple visitors because of it...) (Yeah!! I was thinking about it already but just decided to cut my hair and didn't realize I could donate it there until one of the instructors asked if I wanted to since we were cutting off so much)

Here are some random photos that were on my phone. Enjoy!!!

Sleepin on the job. Seriously, how hard can eating be?

Hey Mom, what are these?

I want to go for a ride!!

Tryin' to reach the toy in the walker.

Cousin stare down.

Being held by Grandma H.

With Grandpa E.

The things Daddy and Grandma will do to make the baby happy.

Trying on Halloween Costumes.

Christmas tree cutting at Old Sunrise.

Who cares about the tree? Dot's gotta keep her nails clean... and Gertie has to take pics of the whole event.

And for the talented sisters (Christy made the "BE" blocks, and Gertie made the photo blocks)

Jessica Walked!

2010-03-18T14:15:00.001-07:00

I think the VIDEO says most of it. My hands are close to her, but not touching, and today was the first time she has EVER taken a step without holding onto something... and she goes all the way across the room.

Hopefully she will do it again when Dad gets home from work. If not, he will just have to settle for the video.

Lovely.

April 11

2010-03-15T21:15:00.000-07:00

Tax day? No, thats the 15th....

Birthday? No, thats later this year....

Anniversary? Nope, already past this year...

...

April 11th is the day that I get to call this:

Mine.

Jessica Crawls... I am in Snowflake...

2010-03-15T21:09:00.000-07:00

This is a few weeks late, but Jessica started crawling last month, the day before she turned 8 months old. HOORAY!! .... Now she is getting into quite a few things, but not too much. The first week or so she kept wanting to crawl to the TV stand with all the electronics and their pretty lights. She got close then kept reaching out to grab things, and I kept putting her hand back on the floor and saying "no". After about the 6th or 7th time, she realized I was serious and started to cry, at which point I turned her around and gave her a different toy to play with. Thankfully it only took 5 or 6 times of doing that for her to quit trying altogether.

She is doing really well with crawling over steps. From the Family Room to Arizona Room, there is a five inch drop and she has face planted on the tile several times, but now she goes over the drop no problem except when she is tired.

Jessica has become so attached recently. If she is not with someone she knows (grandma, grandpa, mom or dad) then she gets hysterical. I left her in the nursery when we had our Relief Society luncheon last Saturday, and she lasted maybe 5 minutes. And with my Mom and sister today, she is only happy if I am in direct sight, and sometimes only when I am holding her.

....

So this morning I was sitting down for breakfast, and my mom in law asked what my plans were for the day and I did not really have a response except ... uuhhh.... uuhhh.... SO, I thought about what I wanted to do (since this is my week off from tutoring because of spring break) and I decided to come up to Snowflake. I had planned on it earlier in the year, but had never made official plans, and pretty much decided against it last night, but then I changed my mind this morning about 7:30, by 9:30 I had washed the dishes, packed and headed out the door, leaving the hubby behind to fend for himself for a couple of days.

Jessica slept all the way to Payson, had a bottle, got a diaper change in Forest Lakes, Graham Crackers in Heber then fell asleep while finishing them off and slept the rest of the way to my parents place. It was a fabulous trip. I LOVE that she can feed herself now!!! I just hand back the crackers, and she devours them. So much easier than having to stop every time she gets fussy. Just pull out a cracker!! Should have named her Polly :).

So for Snowflake. I don't know what I am going to do while I am here, but it doesn't really matter, it is just a change of pace and it is wonderful. So far I got to help my mom edit her essay, build a fire (first try!! wahoo! I am so talented!!), watch my nieces and nephew and chat with my hubby while he was on his way home from work.

Fabulous.

Jessica talks!!!

2010-03-08T14:41:00.002-07:00

Hear Jessica say Grandpa, Dad, and All Done HERE

Any Resemblance?

2010-03-04T21:31:00.006-07:00

So here is what I found when I was looking through the pictures we took while we were in Sedona:

You'd think we all like to smile or something :)

I LOVE the colors we saw on the hike. Reds, Yellows, Greens, Pastels. Beautiful!

These berries were completely dry. So beautifully preserved!!!

Now what would a trip be without pictures of the clouds?

Our stop at Montezuma's Castle on the way home.

So ready to be done.

LATE POSTING: She is here!!!

2010-03-04T21:30:00.001-07:00

Who: Jessica Lynn Johnson
Day: Saturday June 20, 2009
Time: 2:47 pm
Weight: 8 lbs 3 oz
Length: 21 inches
Pictures:

Sorry it has taken me so long to get this posted, I don't really have an excuse other than I have someone that depends on me for absolutely everything... you know how it goes. Anyway, for those of you who have absolutely been dying to hear the gory details of the delivery here it goes...

Saturday morning I woke up about 4:00 to go to the bathroom, and on the way my water broke. Soaked my clothes half way to the knee. Lovely feeling, I know. I did not want to wake up Jacob right away because I knew it was going to be a long day for him, so I got a few things together, and then I woke him up. We got to the hospital around 4:30 a.m. and sat in the triage room until close to 6:15. I hate those small, uncomfortable beds in there so I was glad when we finally got a room in Labor and Delivery. I was dilated to 5 by 7:30 (at which time I got an epidural), and stayed that way until they gave me pitocin (around 10) to speed things up. By ......

So I never finished this post. So here is a rough (8 months later) finish.

They gave me another dose of the epidural around 11:00 or so because it was wearing off and I was feeling the contractions although I though I was just feeling the pressure. I was getting tired really fast and when I started crying over nothing they told me I was getting more medicine. 5 minutes later I was talking and laughing again like nothing happened. About 1:30 they decided I was dilated enough so they prepped the room for the delivery and had me start pushing about 1:45. An hour later Jessica was here. I needed a few stitches, but everything else went really well. It made me cry to see Jacob holding Jessica and the way he looked at her. He was smitten from the first moments.

I was so happy to have so much family there with me in the Delivery room. Jacob, Mom (both of you), Deanna. And all of you waiting in the lobby. That was such a special day and I am glad so many of you could share that with us.

By the way, I loved the epidural. My mom kept looking at the monitors, then looking at me and asking, "and you didn't feel that?" ... Mine was the first delivery she has witnessed with an epidural.

Jacob

2010-03-04T21:00:00.004-07:00

Alright. On to updating on Jacob. He is still as handsome and as wonderful as ever in case you were all wondering...

Oh I love this man. He does so much for me and Jessica. He works so hard to bring home the dough... guess its up to me to cook it :) hehe.

Jacob finished classes in April of 2009, graduated in May, took his board exams the end of that month, waited for his results and certification to be able to put out official applications for work. So he put out applications, and applications and applications. In AZ, in UT (daring eh? We all know how he dislikes the cold, so that would almost be considered suicide right? hehe). .... June. Nothing. July. Nothing. August. Nothing... get the picture? We were getting worried. Finally October rolls around and he sees a job opening at the hospital he did his Clinical work at and applied for it. It was only part time, but got to start somewhere eh? He got the job, and started his 'training' the week before Thanksgiving (full time for the first three weeks. Fabulous), so he missed out on all of the festivities with my family, but got to have a nice dinner with most of his family.

He was able to work a few extra days here and there when his colleagues wanted a day off and needed to find someone to cover for him. Just before New Years on Sunday, he was talking to one of his co-workers who mentioned that she was working extra hours at another hospital in the same network, so she mentioned his name to her supervisor, who emailed Jacob, Jacob was interviewed and was working by Wednesday. He was able to work at the first hospital part time and fill in the rest of his hours at the second for about a month.

When one of his other co-workers told everyone that she would be having surgery, they asked Jacob if he would cover her shift while she recovered. At this point the second hospital did not need him as much because their person who was out came back, but he was able to keep up the full time with the switch. Then, a full time position opened up at the hospital, he applied for it as well as another co-worker. She got it. But, he got her shift. YEAH!!! Officially full time!!! Hooray lower health insurance premiums!!

He now works from 12:00 noon to 8:30 p.m. so I get to see him for several hours in the morning, make lunch and eat with him, make his dinner, and send him off to work. I am LOVING this schedule! (also too because Jessica goes to bed at 7:00 so I have 2 hours to do WHATEVER I want to do! And tonight that whatever led me to the conclusion that I want to start blogging again.)

Some reasons I love my Jacob:

*He loves to take me to my favorite stores (DI, Savers, etc.) and find awesome deals with me. In the past 3 weeks we have found a Kitchen aid for $80, a medela double breast pump for $25, a little people Manger scene for $15, Tons of toys for Jessica all for not more than $10.

*He loves to help me fix up things that we find at said stores. We are taking apart the kitchen aid, re-greasing it, replacing missing parts, etc.

*He is willing to try new things. While he was looking for work, his car needed work, so he searched this wonderful thing called the Internet and found tutorials on how to fix what needed to be fixed and got to work.

*He indulges me in my whims. In October I decided I wanted to getaway for the weekend, so I took him on an adventure to Sedona. He had no idea where we were going until we were leaving town. Jessica loved being on Jacob's back in the Snugli.

... Isn't Life Wonderful?

2010-03-04T20:27:00.003-07:00

As a precursor, I want to let you all know how and why I came to the conclusion that I needed to begin my blog again.

#1 Relief Society Session of Conference, Dieter F. Utchdorf's talk on Creating (See video HERE). I WANT to create. This blog will allow me to create memories for myself and others.

#2 I see your blogs and realize how much you inspire me to do so many wonderful things, and I want to be able to inspire others the same way that all of you inspire me.

#3 Remember. I want to remember the happy times, the sad times, the hard times, the easy times. I don't really write in a journal that often, so how am I supposed to pass my life memories on to my children if I don't write them somewhere.

#4 Change. I am ready for a change in my life. I need something that makes me want to be a better person, makes me want to make changes for the better, to become the person that I have always wanted to be and I feel that I just might be able to make some of those small changes through this blog.

Now that I have told all of you why I feel a need to return to the blog, there are many things that I need to update everyone on.

So the first thing is Jessica.

Jessica Lynn was born Saturday June 25, 2009. 8 lbs 3 oz, 21 in. long, somewhere around 2:45 in the afternoon (I was focusing on getting the baby out, not the time, and even though I have seen it written down a dozen times I still cannot remember). Her first night was a rough one, she would hardly sleep at all, and I was getting so tired. Finally around midnight we called in a nurse because I could not get her settled down. The nurse brought a bottle of formula. Jessica drank an ounce, and went right to sleep. :) My good little eater! The rest of the hospital stay was not very eventful.

We were able to come home on Monday afternoon, and again the first night was rough. Jessica in a bassinet next to my bed. She would fall asleep, and wake up half an hour later. I made it through about 2:00 a.m. and then could not take it any more. I needed some sleep. Jacob took over for a few hours while I got some shut eye, and then I took over again at 5 a.m. After a little sleep I realized that she might be cold since our house is colder than the hospital, so I put a hat on her (should have thought of that before!) and she went right to sleep for a few hours.

The next few weeks we were getting used to having the baby at home, nursing and the like. At six weeks Jessica started sleeping through the night. At first it was from about 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. and it gradually got longer and longer. Now she sleeps from 7:00 p.m to 6:oo a.m. She started smiling about a month old, laughing at 3 months, rolling from front to back at 4 months, back to front at 6 months, crawling at 8 months (2 weeks ago tomorrow!).

She babbles all the time, she can already say "all done" and I am pretty sure she knows what she means. Sometimes she will push the bottle away from her and say "dah dah" with the first 'dah' a high pitch, and lowering the pitch on the second 'dah'. It is the cutest thing. Jessica definitely plays hard to get. It is difficult to get her to laugh, she usually only laughs when she is tired, or when something random happens. For example, a couple weeks ago Cheryl (Jacob's mom) was having the Webelos in the ward work on their fitness badge, so we all walked down to the school and the boys were doing standing long jumps. Jessica started laughing a gut laugh when one of the boys jumped, so he kept doing it over and over to get her to laugh more.

Two of Jessica's FAVORITE toys are: my keys (probably typical of most little ones), and tissues. Yes, as in the ones that you blow your nose into. She loves to take them and tear them into a million little pieces. I will have to let her have at it sometime and take a picture of the end result. These can seriously keep her occupied for half an hour.

This is about all I can think of for the moment, but I will update you more as I REMEMBER things.

*** This has already been so therapeutic for me. I finally feel like I have something back that I have been missing for a long time. ***

2010-03-04T20:23:00.003-07:00

Dear Readers,

I have decided to publish a retraction to my last posting. I have decided that I want to start blogging again. I have not been on for several months until the past few weeks and I realized how much I have actually missed reading everyone's blogs, and being able to read my own.

So here is to 2010, the year of REMEMBERING. Remembering the things that make me happy, remembering my friends, remembering my Savior, and sharing that with all of you.

I hope you can all forgive me for being such a slacker!

Ashley

Word of the Year

2009-08-10T08:17:00.002-07:00

So it only took me seven months to finally decide what my word of the year is, but I finally did it. My word is SIMPLIFY. So with that, I am going to leave some things behind, things that I am not really committed to.

#1 is facebook (although I do like to reconnect with old friends, I don't know that it is worth my time to check it every day, or even once a week.)

#2 is probably this blog. I don't update it often enough for it to really let you all know what is going on in my life, so instead I think I will just start calling people and building a real relationship... not just an "I know what you have been up to" relationship. So if you want me to call you just leave a comment with your number if you don't know if I have it or not and if you know that I have your number, just tell me how good I look or something :).... don't worry the comments will not be public so I will be the only one that gets your number.

Hope to hear from all of you!

Nope, not yet.

2009-06-13T09:52:00.002-07:00

For those of you that are anxiously awaiting the post that will announce to the world that I have gone in to labor, you will just have to wait a little longer. This little one seems very content hanging out where she is at, she must really like being curled up in a little ball with little/no stretching room.

So yesterday I was having contractions for several hours, only about a few minutes apart, but they did not seem like they were getting much stronger and I could still walk and talk through them. I really did not want to go to the hospital, sit there for a few hours (so uncomfortable) and have them send me home, so I hung out at the house, read a couple chapters from a book, took a nap and drank TONS of water (I can't believe how much I have been able to drink this past week!!). Eventually the contractions stopped, or at least I was distracted enough to not notice them anymore.

So anyway on to the rest of my week... Jacob got back from Virginia/D.C. on Monday (his b-day) and I took him (well, he drove of course) to Krispy Kreme for his FREE dozen doughnuts, which I gladly ate half of. I finally cleaned up the 'nursery', but when half of the things you own are in that one room, it doesn't stay clean for long... Then yesterday was my b-day, so Jacob and I took another trip to Krispy Kreme for my FREE dozen doughnuts and then last night we went to Coldstone for our FREE ice cream. Gotta love the birthday freebies!!

P.S. If you want the birthday freebies, all you have to do for the Krispy Kreme is show up on your birthday and show your ID and you get a free dozen... for Coldstone you have to sign up for the birthday club on their website, and you can print out the coupon (good for a week before/after your birthday)

Lovin' College Classes

2009-06-06T21:06:00.002-07:00

You definitely have to love what you learn in College. My second semester at ASU I took a programming class, which came in handy today. I felt like changing up my blog a bit and putting in my own picture as a background, and I wanted to change the layout so with the help of Simply Chic Blog I was able to get the code to use my own picture. I uploaded my picture to the internet (after much hassle with getting it the right size) and then proceeded to change other coding to make my posts wider so I could get more on each line. Now I am not all that great with programming as it has been 3 years since I finished the class, but I am sure glad I know enough to get what I want done (or get me into trouble - whichever way you want to look at it).

Hopefully Jacob likes the new look, otherwise I will have to change the background pic to another picture that I took, or a picture I will create. No more of these backgrounds anyone else in the world can use. I want mine unique and I want it to fit my personality.

2009-06-06T10:50:00.001-07:00

So I was just catching up on blogs and I saw my sister's post from this morning. It reminded me of when I was growing up in Snowflake and we had irrigation every couple weeks and we would go out and play in it. I miss those days. When I buy my own house, I really want to have irrigation so that my kids can play in it like I used to.

Head Chicken Herder... can I buy your house (in like 10 years when I have enough money to buy a house?)!??! Of course I would have to beg and plead to get Jacob to be willing to move up where it is actually cold in the winter since he absolutely loves being WARM all the time. 10 years should be enough to convince him (feed him enough so he can build up a store of fat that will keep him warm) right?

30 minutes down, 115 hours to go. YIKES!!

2009-06-03T18:39:00.000-07:00

This will be the longest week of my life!!! Jacob has just left for Virginia to visit one of his friends and will get home Monday afternoon (his birthday). One thing that will be nice is I will be able to take over the entire bed for the week! Hooray!! But, there are a couple things I am going to work with. First, Jacob and I have never been apart for more than two days in our 3 1/2 years of marriage so this will be completely new (at least I will not be alone living here with the in-laws). Second, this baby better not come until after he has gotten home. No way I want to go through labor and have him gone, but if it happens, it happens. At least I have my mom and Jacob's mom here in town just in case. Everyone wish me luck though. I am definitely going to need it!

3 1/2 Weeks to go!!

2009-06-01T11:33:00.000-07:00

36 down, 3 1/2 to go (or less). So I was taken off of bed rest almost two weeks ago. Must admit I am glad it was short lived, I am so not good at sitting down when I have to. I was dilated to 2 cm when they took me off bedrest, and at my appointment last Wednesday I was 2 cm still, but 50% effaced. I have still been having a lot of contractions, but they are so irregular and not really painful that I have just been ignoring them.

To be honest, it has been hard to transition from being a full time student being BUSY all the time to having hardly anything that I have to do. I know that will change in just a couple weeks with the arrival of the baby, but for now I just don't know what to do! I find myself sitting in front of the TV way more than I would like to (I don't particularly like TV at all, one or two shows a week and even then I record them and skip the commercials). I seriously need to pick up some hobbies as I cannot remember what my hobbies were before I got so busy with school.

Anyway, not a whole lot else is going on right now except Jacob is still looking for a job and waiting to get his x-ray certification. Anybody have connections to a hospital here in AZ that is needing an x-ray tech?

Done! Finally Done!!!

2009-05-09T12:50:00.000-07:00

Wow! I can finally breathe again!! I am done with my student teaching and Jacob is done with school, except for his board exams on the 20th. It is hard to believe that we are done, I don't know what to do with myself. Trying to come up with things to do is harder than I thought it would be. Of course it makes it only more difficult that I have been put on 'modified bed rest'. I was having quite a few contractions Thursday morning so I called up my doctor and they told me to get down to the hospital. They hooked me up to the monitors and I sat there in the hard hospital bed for about 3 hours. They came in a couple times to give me tributiline shots, but since I was contracting pretty much every time the baby moved around they told me to take it really easy for the next few weeks. I have to sit down and stay out of the heat as much as I can, and 'no shopping at walmart'... Any ideas on what to do from those of you who have been on full bedrest? This is only my third day and I am already wanting to do things that I probably should not be doing...

Belly Pictures!!!

2009-03-01T17:42:00.000-07:00

So I finally decided to upload the pictures that Jacob has been taking of my belly. It seems my belly is not the only thing that is getting bigger... :( Oh well. Comes with the territory I guess.

Hope this makes it a little more real for you Mom!

Week 7

Week 8

Week ???

Week 9

Week11

Week 13

Week 16

Week 20

Week 23

Blog Surfing

2009-02-16T15:29:00.000-07:00

So I know I have blog surfed in the past, but today it was especially exciting because I found so many friends that I have not talked to in a long time. So, a huge THANKS to everyone for having their friends listed on their blog so I can search through and find my friends. ... It is interesting that we can find old friends through someone we would not expect.

Here are the pics!!

2009-01-30T19:40:00.000-07:00

Right before she crossed her legs, and we couldn't see anything anymore...

Feet and Arms.

Some cross-sections of the baby's body.

Here are the profile pictures of her face.

Here are the front shots of her face.

Hope you all enjoy!!!

Drumroll Please...

2009-01-30T07:16:00.000-07:00

So I know you have all been waiting for this... I had the ultrasound yesterday and the baby decided to cross her legs.... right after we got the pic of course. It's a girl!!

Tell you more about it later, but I am running late for school.

Shopping Horror Stories...

2009-01-27T20:43:00.000-07:00

Well, not a horror for me, but for everyone who is not me wishing they were...

I have a story for everyone (well two really). About two and a half years ago, I was AD SHOPPING... you know where you get the grocery store ads in the mail and then you actually LOOK at them and see what is on sale. One week, Albertsons had corn on the cob on sale for 8 ears for $1. Since I was still living in my apartment at the time and had very little freezer space, I decided to get a rain check since they were so cheap (back when they had no expiration date)... anyway, I put the rain check in my purse and went on my merry way. About six months later I was on the ward activities committee and we were wanting to have a ward bbq with chicken, hamburgers etc. ... and corn on the cob. One problem. It is WAY out of season and about $5 for a pack of 4. Not a problem for the AD SHOPPER. She still has her rain check. So I go to Albertsons and ask if the rain check is still good and the manager told me it was, so I picked up 16 packs of corn but the total would have been around $80, but with my rain check it was only $8. Now I am not good with math or anything... but that is about a 90% savings there. I became known as 'the corn lady' in the Albertsons produce section because of that one shopping trip.

*****

Anyway, I think I have earned a new nickname tonight, but this time at Safeway. We can call me 'the granola bar lady'. Yet again, I was AD SHOPPING (CONVERT TODAY!!!) and put a star by all the goods that were on sale that I would actually use. I got through the ads for Safeway, Bashas, Albertsons and Frys, then when I finished drawing my stars, I pulled out a piece of paper and began writing which stores had what deals so I went through the ads again, this time only looking at the stars. Well, I write down the Safeway deals first, then went on to Bashas, and noticed that they had a manufacturers coupon for Quaker Granola bars ($3 off 5 or more) and I remembered that Safeway had the same Quaker Granola bars on sale for buy 2 get 3 free.

Now, the Safeway deal by itself was great, but adding in that coupon from the Bashas ad made it even better. So today after school I headed over to Bashas to get a couple more ads to stock up on a great deal, but they only had one more, so I have two $3 off coupons. I send my husband to Safeway to get the goods while I am at the school open house, but he did not have the Safeway card (and they don't let you borrow theirs) so he just came home. So once I came home I picked up the coupons and heard him mention something about another $1 off coupon boxes, but that my coupon was better so he didn't bother... so here is how the rest of the story goes.

Got to Safeway, found the Granola bars, put them in my basket, then saw those coupons he was talking about, $1 off two boxes. What the heck, I will give it a try. Grab five of them (since I am getting 10 boxes) and head up to check out.

They scan the Granola Bars, comes to 29.90. Ouch! People really pay that kind of money for granola bars?

Give them my (mom's--- thanks, you can have some of the goods it you want) Safeway card number and the total drops to 11.96.

Give them the coupons. Total drops to $5.96 from the Bashas coupons and then down to $.96 after the coupons I picked up in the store. Now, I could do the math, but it was already on the receipt so I won't bother, I saved a total of $28.94, or 97%. That completely blows CORN LADY out of the water, wouldn't you say?

Now if you think about it, I got 10 boxes of 10 granola bars each. Since I paid only $.96 for 10 boxes, that means I paid less than 10 cents per box, which means I paid less than one cent for each granola bar.

Anyone want to pay me to go grocery shopping for them?

The big day is coming!!

2009-01-24T19:19:00.000-07:00

We are having THE ultrasound this coming Thursday and we want to know everyone's opinion on what we are having. Jacob is saying a girl (mostly because of probability) and I am saying a boy. Just leave a comment and we will see who guesses right!

Merry Christmas to Everyone!!!

2008-12-25T09:38:00.000-07:00

So, I thought I would share with everyone the present I gave to my Dad this morning. Picture this... A card on top of a box...

Inside.

Back

And then, inside the box he comes upon these cards...

And then, at the very bottom of the box, he gets these....

For those of you who don't know.... #20 for my parents is # of grandchildren... :)

Hooray! Freedom!

2008-12-19T13:31:00.000-07:00

So I finished my last final on Tuesday and did exactly as well as I thought I would. It brought me to a C+ for the class. I ended up with a B+ in my teaching methods class, and still have not heard about the other three classes, but I know that two of them will be A's.

Today I dropped by the school that I will be student teaching at next semester and got the textbooks for the two math classes I will be teaching. Lucky for me, they changed my mentor teacher's class schedule so now he has 2 typing classes, 1 computer animations class, 1 advanced 7th grade math and 1 first semester 9th grade Algebra. That means that I only have to plan lessons for two classes!!! The other three I get to follow the curriculum he already has set because that is not my area of emphasis. Gotta love how they do that.

Hooray for Christmas and trips up north! See ya all after (while) I have tons of fun in Snowflake!!! **in case you were dying to know I am heading up Christmas Eve afternoon and staying until I don't know when, probably whenever I feel like coming home.

So done with School

2008-12-15T20:43:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I have this issue with finals this semester (I only have two of them), but it seems that I have run out of steam for school and I do not really care any more. You know how I was always the one that had to get the A+, and sometimes had to settle for an A or A-, well these past couple weeks I have decided that for these two specific classes, I really don't care if I get a B or a C (Oh shocker, I know!).... The only thing I was concerned about, but only slightly, was making sure that I still graduated with honors. I have to have something to show for all my hard work. Anyway, after a couple quick mathematical calculations including my projected A's for three of my classes, I realized that I only have to have a D in these two classes to get the GPA for Summa Cum Laude for graduation next semester, but I have to have C's to actually graduate so no lower. Added to that I only have to get a 54% on my project that was due this morning (and was turned in late :0...) to get a B in the class... and only a 20% on my final tomorrow for a C in that class (60% for a B). SO.... I decided that I am way okay with failing my last ever final exams and still getting my honors at graduation.

Senioritis. Gotta love it.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

2008-12-06T19:24:00.001-07:00

You Are Jasmine!

Independent and adventurous. You don't want much; just to break out of the guilded cage society has put you in and experience life to the fullest. Following orders isn't really one of your strong points, and you would rather live a life of poverty than being forced into something that you hate.

Take the Quiz!!!

http://www.greatestjournal.com/quiz.bml?Q=16354

Opening Doors

2008-10-27T10:06:00.001-07:00

It is amazing to me how the little things people do to help each other often go unnoticed. I am sitting here in a computer lab at ASU and I was looking toward the door and saw a man open the door to walk in to the hallway, and a woman was leaving the hall at about the same time so he waited and held the door open for her. I don't know why this particular incident struck me as I have seen it happen so many other times, but it made me think of how much better I can be at doing all those little things. If I could just learn to love everyone just a little bit more and see everyone as a Child of God and the respect that is due to everyone just because of that then doing all of the little things to help people throughout the day would be so much easier. I guess just seeing that made me realize that that is the kind of person that I want to be more like. If only everyone be a little more like that, the world would be such a better place.

X-Rays Anyone?

2008-10-12T21:06:00.000-07:00

As a precursor, I think these are cool but to some they may be a bit graphic so be warned. I personally did not take these images but are severe cases that I have found throughout the internet. Fortunately, I do not get this much of trauma cases where I am at the Baywood hospital.

This one was from a domestic violence incident where a 12cm nail was used.

This one shows why they have the recall on the magnetix(I think that's what they're called). A boy swallowed the pieces and they reconnected before they could pass through.

This one is a result of a patient coming in complaining about a toothache and surprise! Those construction workers shouldn't play with nail guns.

And for the last one, this is a more recent case from Britain where a teen was assaulted, the stock was broken off.

Although I do get some interesting x-rays that come in through the ER, some are a bit too strange to be able to post. Anywho, hoped you have enjoyed a bit of these interesting cases.

Jacob

2008-07-21T20:19:00.000-07:00

You are PAPER!

You are an all natural basic person who likes to act as a foundation to others. You are willing to take a backseat in most of your relationships and let others take the spotlight, while you show your support and help them shine! Underneath it all, you are the one who makes it all happen. You are the focus and stability in any group, even if you are not the leader. Others look to you to set the pace and provide ideas for ways to get things done. But Paper Beware - sometimes you get a little edgy with the people who look to you for support and can give them some papercut remarks that can hurt their feelings. Remember to watch what you say, because you are best when leading by example.

Quiz Link

(This Post thanks to Heather)

AEPA / COUPONS

2008-07-17T22:01:00.001-07:00

Ok, Sorry for the delay, but it has been extremly busy around the Johnson/Eilertsen households... and unfortunately you will not get all of the updates unti tomorrow when I have a little more time.

The biggest news for now is that I survived my AEPA exam. I was at Gilbert High School last Saturday from 8:00 until 5:00 with about an hour break for lunch, but the rest of the time I was testing testing testing. I was fairly nervous about it just because I did not know what to expect, but once I got in there and started the test, it pretty much covered the basics for both the professional field knowledge portion and the mathematics portion. I will be surprised if I did not pass both of them, but you never know. We will find out the results in a month and I will let you all know how it went.

So I just started the coupon shopping this past week (since I actually have time now) and I found that Walgreens had a lot of coupons that were for the same product as the coupons in the mail, so I doubled up the coupons, made my list and went shopping tonight. There is both good news and bad news to this story...

Bad news: I spent $100.
Good News: It wasn't mine (it was my mom-in-law's).
Good News: I saved her $82.

So I am totally excited about coupons now... I know that not every shopping trip will save me this much, but it was exciting nonetheless.

Oh Speaking of Coupons, I got an email from Walgreens and they have 10 cent 4x6 prints, so if any of you have been needing to print off all those digital photos, the promo code is FUN but it is for 50 prints or more (only 5 bucks) and I think you have to order them online. You better order them quick though because the promotion ends on 7/19.

Eventually I will get around to sorting through my pictures from my trip to forest lakes and my family reunion and maybe eventually I will post some of them on here so you can all see them.

That's it! I Quit!!!

2008-06-20T21:34:00.000-07:00

Okay, so last Friday I come home to an empty house (in-laws were out of town) so it was just me and Jacob, which was great, so I pumped up the air mattress in the living room and we watched about the first 10 minutes of a movie on it then decided the couch was more comfortable. Anyway, to the point, after the movie Jacob told me he thought I should quit my job because it was causing me so much stress etc. so he said I should think and pray about it again, so Sunday night I did just that and decided that I should quit, job prospects or not although I did have an idea or two about where I would look. Monday morning I woke up and called the Math Department Chair at Dobson (I interned with her last fall and she had offered me a summer tutoring job back in February but I declined since there were not enough hours to work) I left a message and asked her if they still had a need for a tutor and for her to give me a call back and I headed off to work. At work I gave the director my notice just as I was leaving for lunch and I told her I could stay until they found a replacement, up to two weeks... Little did I know that I had already gotten a call and a message from Kelly (the dept chair) saying that they had already hired a tutor but since one of the teachers had dropped out for the second summer session that she had gotten permission from her principal to hire a second tutor for the second session, which starts Monday... So I call her back saying that I will take the job, go home eat my lunch real quick, go to Dobson, pick up the application and head back to work to tell the director that I will only be working through the end of the week. Tuesday morning I go to the district office, fill out the new employee paperwork and here I am, I just finished my last day at the daycare and it is such a stress reliever. I am so excited to actually have a little bit of time to study for my AEPA (Arizona Educator Proficiency Assessment) that I have on July 12th. Imagine trying to study for an 8 hour test when I only have a couple hours in the morning to do anything and the same in the evening except I am so tired that all I want to do is sleep! Yeah, wasn't happening. So that is what is going on with me right now, I never expected to actually find a job that quick, although it is only for 3 weeks...

Work Again...

2008-06-13T13:45:00.000-07:00

So I am just frustrated now. Just when I feel like I am doing okay at the job, someone in the office comes and tells me something else I am doing wrong. I feel like all I ever hear are the things that I am doing wrong. I have only had one person tell me that I am doing something good, and that was yesterday. Four weeks there, and only one good thing? I hate this roller coaster of emotions. I feel like quitting then I am fine and I am just starting to feel like I am doing okay and then they come up with something else and I am right back to where I was last Friday, I feel like quitting. If only I did not have to worry about money I would have been gone last week. Too bad that the money disappears faster than it comes in, even without having to pay for food or rent. Even with this summer job I don't know how we will make it through this next year, I guess I could work mornings in the fall, but when would I have time to do my homework? And in the spring there is no way I can work while student teaching. I just really can't wait until I graduate and I don't have to work pitiful summer jobs anymore and I can stay home and be a mom. I am sure it is hard work being a mom, but at least you don't have people telling you everything you are doing wrong for the most part. It would make a huge difference if they were to focus more on the good things I do and tell me things to work on somewhere in there, but I am not getting very much positive feedback at all. Anyway, now that I have spent my lunch break ranting and raving I have to go back to work. Can I just cry?

So is the only reason I don't like my job my attitude? Maybe I am just fooling myself.

Birthday Treats/ Job

2008-06-12T21:40:00.000-07:00

So today was a much better day than the last week has been, (isn't that the way it is supposed to be on your birthday?). Anyway, I had a great day at work and when I got off work I had three happy birthday messages on my phone which was really exciting because the last time I got a call on my phone was last saturday... anyway, when I got home Jacob reminded me that Krispy Kreme gives you a dozen glazed doughnuts for free on your birthday (there is finally one in AZ again!!! It's on Superstition Springs Blvd between the 60 and Power on the north side of the road right by PF Changs) So since today is not only my birthday, but it is also Cheryl's (my mom in law) birthday, we all went together and got two dozen doughnuts for free. So Yummy!!! When we got home I remembered that I had signed Jacob and I up for the Coldstone Creamery Birthday Club and you get a coupon for a free ice cream good for about two weeks, but Jacob never got his so I signed him up again. When I got on there to check out the coupon, I realized that you can add 5 family members so I added everyone else here in the house (David, dad in law, Cheryl, mom in law, Matthew, bro in law, and Jacob and I) Since Jacob's Birthday was on Sunday, Cheryl and Mine is today, and David's is next wednesday, we can all go get ice cream together! I LOVE FREE STUFF!!!

I would have to say that this has probably been one of the best birthdays I have had. Jacob's present to me was playing Happy Birthday on the guitar (no singing included), it was really sweet though because he is just starting to learn to play and he obviously spent a good amount of time learning how to play the song. He was nervous about it too... hoping he could remember it.. He is such a sweetheart, he does so many little things for me and he is always so thoughtful.

As far as the job goes, I decided that the only reason that I do not like my job is because of my attitude, so I decided that I would be happy with my job and it made a big difference today, so I think I will be able to stick it out the rest of the summer. Who would want to hire me for a month and a half anyway? Good luck with that.

Anyway, I hope all of you have as good of a birthday this next year as I had today. Love you all!!

Ashley

Stress/Trip/Scanner

2008-06-11T07:30:00.000-07:00

Sorry about taking so long to post anything new. I started working at a daycare about a month ago and my schedule is awful, 9:30-6:30, so I have just enough time in the morning to get nothing done and I am so tired in the evening that I don't get anything done then either. This job is making me so stressed out that I am actually looking for a new one already, so if any of you know of any jobs here in mesa I would love to hear about them!!!

Jacob and I got to go to Snowflake almost two weeks ago now and it was a blast. I helped mom put together a flower bed and I got to drive their tractor too! Seems silly, but it was really exciting. Mom was wanting some pitures of flowers to print out and hang in her living room so I took my camera and went around the yard and took pictures of all her flowers and they turned out pretty good, so now she just has to print them out and hang them up. I saw their stairs for the first time too, they look really great. They did an awesome job.

So I know I'm jumping from subject to subject, but Jacob and I were cleaning up our room and organizing a couple weeks ago and we realized that I have nearly a full shelf on our bookshelf devoted to notes from my past classes, stuff that could be valuable in the future if I ever needed to look something up... so we decided it would be a little more space efficient to buy a scanner and save that whole shelf of notes on the computer, so we splurged and bought a scanner on ebay for just under $100. We got it last week and I scanned in a whole 2 inch binder with over 500 pages in less than an hour. Could you imagine doing that with a flatbed scanner, page by page?!! Ick! This scanner has an automatic document feeder that holds up to 50 pages as well as a legal paper size flatbed scanner. If you want, you can even scan double sided, but it takes quite a bit longer so I have not used it very much. The only bad thing is that it does not scan pencil very well (which is several of my folders of notes for math) but that is okay because it does great on the other stuff, don't know about color documents because I have not tried it yet. It also has a scan function that actually scans typed documents and sends it right back into Microsoft Word and preserves the formatting. It is great fun. If anyone ever needs to scan stuff into the computer, just come on over and you can use my handy dandy scanner...

Nieces and Nephews at dinner

2008-05-16T20:58:00.000-07:00

I was just looking through the pictures on my camera tonight and I found some pictures of my nieces and nephew (Matt and April's kids) so I thought I would share. Eventually I will get some pictures of Jacob and I on here, but until then you will just have to live with these cuties.

Sabrina was just a little grouchy and did not want her picture taken so she decided to act like she was mad so we wouldn't take any pictures, but we did anyway, which frustrated her more...

Okay, so Ethan didn't really blow all those bubbles with his nose...

Classic Samantha smile. Can't ever get her to smile normal when you want to take a picture, she has to make it the biggest smile ever. So cute.

Jean Quilt/ Summer Job

2008-05-16T15:33:00.000-07:00

So I decided about 3 months ago that I wanted to make a jean quilt... so I cut up all of the worn out pants that Jacob and I have and put them in a drawer... Then I went visiting teaching a few weeks later and mentioned I was making a jean blanket and the girl I was visiting went into her office and pulled out a stack of jean squares that were extra from her jean quilt so she gave them to me... but I still did not have enough so they went into the drawer too. I still don't have enough, but yesterday I sewed what I do have with my mother-in-law's amazing serger. She bought it a year ago and has not used it yet, so I was the one that got to figure it out, but it did not take that long and the back of the quilt is just beautiful and it was so fast! I got this whole square (it barely covers our queen size bed) done in less than 4 hours. All I have to do now is find a king size sheet for the back, some fabric for a border around the edge to make it big enough and sew the rest of it together. The dark blue border on the pic is actually some valances that Cheryl (my mother in law) bought for Jacob's room to decorate it just before his mission, but it never got put up. I was thinking about using that for the edging, but it just would not be very comfortable with all those buttons, but I thought it would make some really cute throw pillows. Any suggestions?

For all of you who are interested, I finally found a job (at a daycare)... I went in today to "observe" and hopefully today was really just a random day because they were all so wild and did not listen to the teachers... Boy am I in for a treat this summer! They are talking about splitting the kids up into two classes of 15 max, but right now there is about 30 kids in there (4 year olds). They also have a dress code, so I had to go shopping for khaki pants... I hate shopping for pants. So I went to the Fiesta Mall and started at Sears with no luck. I was getting tired so I walked to the food court and bought myself a strawberry smoothie (don't tell) and then decided to try the Dillards clearance racks and I actually found a couple of pairs fairly quickly (only tried on 6 and liked 3 of them) and they were only $20 each so I bought two of them and then as I was walking out to go home I decided to get my make-up done, since I don't spend time on it myself. It was quite fun. Too bad I can't go in every day to get it done, then I would actually wear a little bit of makeup! Anyway, that's all of my fun stories for now. Love you all!!

Grades are in

2008-05-12T20:13:00.001-07:00

I am completely excited right now!!! All of my grades have been reported and I actually got a 4.0 this semester! I thought all hope of that was lost when I bombed my Calculus final (I got a 43% on it) but with the help of some very needed extra credit I was able to barely get in the A- range. I got A's in two of my other classes and an A+ in the fourth class which basically cancelled out the A- to an A. Hopefully next semester will go just as well and I can raise my gpa the .05 I need to get summa cum laude for graduation (3.8)! Anyway, I thought I would share my exciting news with everyone (maybe it is only exciting for me). Hope you are all doing well!!!

School is OUT!!!

2008-05-06T17:06:00.000-07:00

I just took my last finals today. Hooray! ...but I did not do so well on one of them. For some reason my mind completely blanked on notation. I knew the point I was trying to get across, but I had no idea how to write it correctly. I am guessing (on the high end) that I got about 30% on the test... But at least I had nearly 100% before the test, so I will probably still have a B in the class which is not too bad, but that only makes it worse because I was doing so well and the last day to have it go from a great grade, to an okay grade. My other finals went really well though, I will be surprised if I don't get A's in all of the rest of my classes.

Jacob still has a couple weeks of school for this term and then it is straight into another term and he will finally have a week break in the beginning of July which will be great. Hopefully he can hang in there until his program ends next May, but he is having a tough time with things.

Hope you are all doing well, and hopefully I will post again soon with news of a summer job!

I FINALLY DID IT!!!!

2008-04-26T00:17:00.001-07:00

Hey Everyone,

I thought it was so much fun peeking around at everyone's blogs that I decided that I would start one so that everyone can see what I am up to (which is not much). Hopefully I will update it fairly often!

Ashley