Alive and Well

We are well aware that we have been major blogging slackers lately. We deeply apologize to all of our followers, although I'm sure that by not blogging for the past three months, we may not have anyone left to read our blog. For any patient and dedicated readers out there, we will give you a brief rundown of recent events and a commitment to be better bloggers!

I am still working in the NICU and loving it, and Jeff is still working as a medical assistant and waiting to be accepted to PA school. Prayers for him, please!!!

We got some time off for Thanksgiving and, of course, traveled to Idaho Falls to spend time with some of his family. Like always, we had a great time playing with Sadee and Ava, shopping, and eating delicious food. I tried to be better at taking pictures, but what's below is all I got. 

 

 Sadee and Ava after putting on mascara, blush, and lip gloss. Pretty little girls.

 Swimming in the neighbor's fabulous indoor pool. I succeeded in getting Ava to go down the slide all by herself. You'd think I would have gotten a picture of that, right? Well, I suck at taking pictures.

This super flattering picture is documentation of the horrendous drive home. It took twice as long as normal and we were miserable. Stupid snow...

Jeff and I also did some Black Friday shopping. We stayed up all night and parked outside of Sports Authority at 1:30am. The store was to open at 5:00am and we REALLY wanted to be one of the first 85 people in line so that we could get one of the gift cards they were giving away to the 85 customers. Well between the two of us we got a whopping $20 in gifts cards while another couple got $750 together. The jerks! Life is not fair. We got out of our car and in line at 4:00am (that's when the first people got in line) and stood for an hour in -14 degree weather. Wowzers. That was freaking cold. It was an adventure to remember to say the very least.

Off to bed now. Look for more posts in the coming week!

Summer 2010

Yes it has been an eternity since we last updated our lives. So many things have happened since our last post, most importantly COLLEGE FOOTBALL has began. My wife might kill me for that one. So here is our update.Jeff- As many of you know I applied to PA school last year. I had 5 interviews and was on an alternate list. It didn't work out this year so I am just finishing up some applications to apply again. I am currently taking some independent study courses to improve my GPA and I also have been working as a Medical Assistant at Cherry Tree Family Practice. It has been such a blessing to get the job through networking. It pays decent for a health care experience job and is great for work experience for my application. I work with a team of 3 PA's, a Physician, and an NP. I draw blood, give injections, and do all the responsibilities of an MA. I love it. I often find myself looking at people's arm veins. Yes it's kind of weird. Okay, really weird. Other than those things my life is about movies, football, and the wifey.
Brianne - In July, my older brother got married. So I have a new sister-in-law. Yay! She's from Alaska. Here's us at their Oregon reception. It was 100 degrees that day and my hair was a sweaty mess. I was impressed at how good Natasha looked all day even in her 3/4 length sleeve dress.


Here is the cake my step-mom made. She's a chef, but I had no clue she could do wedding cakes. I thought she did a really good job.
And this picture is just to embarrass Jeff :)

In the beginning of August I ran the Provo River Trail Half Marathon again. I was really excited for it because the first 5 or 6 miles is a slight downgrade which obviously makes it easier to run faster. I had a goal to beat my record by at least 5 minutes. Well that did NOT happen. I was dying after mile 7 and only beat my time by a whopping three seconds. It was a bit depressing. But I'm planning on running another on almost the exact course on October 30th. We'll see how that one goes...


We also recently bought a new car! It's 2010 Nissan Altima in Pearl White. We bought it used with only 2,000 miles on it and got a REALLY good deal. We love it!


And finally, the news that has been a long-time coming: I GOT A NEW JOB! I will be working in the Newborn ICU at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center! I still can't believe it. I start on the 20th and cannot wait!

STEVE YOUNG IN THE FLESH

Growing up I was a huge Steve Young fan. I lived and breathed for the 49ers and seeing them win their 5th Superbowl in 1994 was probably a top 5 sports moment in my life. However I watched Steve Young hundreds of times on the television I didn't get to see him play football in person. Sunday I was able to go to a Provo Freedom Festival Patriotic Service. Steve was the keynote speaker which was SWEET!!! The meeting was really good. We clapped along with all the former military veterans in the audience as all their songs were played by orchestra. Jenny Frogley (a great LDS singer) was also there and the whole meeting made you proud to be an American. Steve spoke about service being the key in making this nation great. He spoke of when he first step into the shoes of Joe Montana and how he so bad wanted to live up to the his and all the fans expectations. He worked his butt off and use to compare stats after each game to see if he was in line with Joe. After the first year he could see he wasn't in line and all the hard work wasn't paying off. Frustration began to enter and he went to the late Truman G. Madsen for advice. Truman said, "Steve do you know how many receptions Jerry Rice has? Do you know how many Touchdowns?", Steve had no idea. Steve Young went on to say how Truman said work just as hard but work that hard in serving others, serve your coaches, teammates and anyone else that comes in your life. Steve later said, "the moment I stopped obsessing about myself, I became the quarterback I always wanted to be, the moment I stopped obsessing about the MVP, I won the MVP." What a great lesson as we celebrate our freedoms this week. Let us remember those that served us and gave their lives for our freedoms and begin serving others.

Brianne Johnson, RN, BS

For anyone who hasn't heard yet, I would just like to say that

I'm an RN!

Life is good. I took the NCLEX Tuesday morning and got the minimum number of questions which is 75. The maximum number you can get is 265. Soooo glad it stopped when it did. The test was a bit nerve-wracking, I'll admit. I was literally shaking on questions 74 and 75 because I wanted the computer to shut of sooo bad. I have a ton of other nursing friends who passed this week too (and who will pass in the coming weeks as well). Yes, we all graduated in April, but now the hard work and studying is

officially OVER!!!!!!!!!

WAHOOO!!!

I had a lot of fun at work yesterday writing "RN" after my signature. No more "LPN"!!!! And of course, I got another big fat raise.

Can you tell that I'm happy??

Parasailing

Somehow I completely forgot our parasailing adventure in the post below. It was a really fun-but-not-at-all-scary ride. On the boat ride out, we saw dolphins and mating sea turtles. We didn't see any sea animals when we were up in the air but we had a beautiful view of Cocoa Beach and could even see the Kennedy Space Center.

To be totally truthful, I was glad that we were able to go parasailing, but you really only need to do it once in your life. I thought it would be a bit more of a thrill, but when we were in the air, it felt like we were just sitting really, really high. We couldn't even tell we were moving. However, I really would still recommend doing it once.