1. I was
born in Ogden, lived in Kaysville for 3 years, lived in Ogden for 6 years, moved to the Ogden Valley and have been there ever since!
2. I am the
oldest of 5 kids. 3 little sisters, one brother.
3. Some
childhood memories & facts: My first word was "shoe," when my parents tried to get me to say "I love Mommy" I would say slowly, "I......love.....PIZZA!" I loved playing Barbies and would play for hours with Raquel, I pretended to be a Power Ranger while jumping on the trampoline, I had lots of pet rabbits, I got 2 black eyes, and I vividly remember hearing Santa Clause and the bells on his sleigh and ran to bed crying in fear that I wouldn't get any presents.
4. I've never had
braces, still have my wisdom teeth, tonsils, and appendix. I don't have glasses or contacts. And I've never broken a bone.
5. I love watching
FRIENDS. Seriously.
6. My favorite color is hot
pink.
7. I have a really really good
memory. I remember everything.
8. I love
change.
9. I was a class officer in
Jr. High and on the yearbook staff.
10. I want a
baby grand piano someday. And I want one that's wood. Not black.
11. I love
concerts. I've been to Rascal Flatts 4x, Keith Urban 2x, Kenny Chesney, Alan Jackson, and Josh Groban.
12. I love cereal, cheesecake, string cheese, eggnog, Pizza, Reeses, and fondue.
13. I have a weird fetish with
Elvis Presley. I have books about him, a huge poster of him, a life-size cut out, and all his music. And lots of fun things my friends have given me as gifts:)
14. I always remember my
dreams.
15. I'm
left-brained: I love math and statistics and majored in it. And I'm
right-brained: I love drawing, painting, and taking pictures.
16. I've ridden a camel twice, an elephant twice, had snakes wrapped around me, and swam with dolphins and stingrays.
17. My mom was my
piano teacher and taught me starting at age 7.
18. I have a really good sense of smell and direction. If it weren't for me--Ben would be lost roaming somewhere.
19. I took 5 AP
classes. American History, Calculus, English, Art History, and Art.
20. I was on the
swim team, and the water polo team.
21. I want to go skydiving so bad.
22. I think I have the coolest
wedding ring in the world.
23. I had my first
kiss in 7th grade.
24. Ben and I kissed on our
first date. And that was when I knew I wanted to marry him:)
25. I used to go skinny dipping all the time with my friend Mo, and we would never pee in the outhouse at girls camp.
26. I don't like
little dogs or big cats.
27. I've been to 15 different
countries: Mexico, Morocco, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, China, Singapore, and India.
28. I love
Disney movies. Always have. Aladdin, The Lion King, Mulan, Emperor's New Groove, Cars and Finding Nemo are my favorite.
29. It takes me a really long time to get ready for
bed. Usually I just sit in there and talk to Ben while he gets ready and then force myself to brush my teeth and stuff to go to bed. Don't know why.
30. I want 4-6
kids. And I have all my names picked out. I actually have too many and have no idea how I'm going to narrow it down. We might just have to have 9 kids:)
31. I'm a True Aggie, and a True
BLUE Aggie.
32. I didn't see Dumb and Dumber, Tommy Boy, The Patriot, Braveheart, or Gladiator till I got married.
33. My favorite ice cream is
Cookies & Cream. I rarely get anything else. And when I have it at home, I have to put Hershey's chocolate syrup on it and some milk...cause it's more like a shake and I love the little crystals the milk and ice cream make!
34. I love the
*NSYNC Christmas CD! I have a countdown till I can start blasting it. It's one of my favorite things about the season.
35. One of mine and Ben's new favorite card games is
Rook. My grandparents taught us in Newport and we played it every single day until he started work this week.
36. I love the way Ben
smells. He doesn't have BO and his sweat actually smells good to me.
37.
Texting is a way of life for my family. My mom and I text everyday. My dad and my Grandma do too!
38. I should call Ben '
Gaston.' (from Beauty & the Beast) .... "And every last inch of him's covered in HAIR!" And I love it.
39. Ben and I had our first
date on January 6th, called the temple on May 10th, got officially engaged on May 27th, got married on July 26th.
40. I love playing all
sports, but my favorite sport is volleyball. I love water skiing, snow skiing, and ultimate frisbee.
41. I do
Jane Fonda. I know right. I have her New Ultimate Workout VHS and it is so good. Ben always made fun of me when I'd say the abs and legs are so hard. So I made him do it with me and he was sore for 3 days.
42. My favorite part of opening a new carton of ice cream is scraping off the lid!
43. I always
spill on myself. ALWAYS. No matter what. No matter WHAT!
44. When it comes to eating, I can be pretty
particular. I love to save the best for last so I eat the worst part first! For example, I eat crust first on pizza and sandwiches:)
45. I love my
family so so so much. And all my new Garrison family!
46. Ben and I still have all 8 of our
grandparents.
47. I don't like "unnecessary repetitive noises..." (e.g. chewing with the mouth open, picking things, clicking things, tapping fingernails, etc).
48. I used to
win at everything. (Probably used to being the oldest)......UNTIL I met Ben. Now I lose at everything and it drives me crazy.
49. I don't drink pop. I only like
Coke when I'm in foreign countries.
50. Ben and I are probably going to live somewhere
foreign within the next year, like South Africa or Brazil. For real.
So I bet you know me a little better! :) I tag anyone who took the time to read this long thing!
Then we and a bunch of the employees went to the Giants game at the AT&T Park. What a beautiful baseball park! Seriously, it was so cool. It's right on the water so behind the field is ocean and the Bay Bridge. Way cool. And Ben's coworkers are really impressive, nice, and fun!
So the game was fun...as much fun as a bad baseball game can be:) The Giants aren't so good so it was mostly just fun to be with Ben for the night!
Starting Monday--no more boredom! I got a job today that will be perfect for me! I'm still going to be a substitute as soon as I take the test next Saturday, and that'll be a 7am-2:30ish Mon-Fri job. And today I got one as a math tutor at a really great Academy in Danville! It's Mon-Thurs 2:30-9:30pm which is perfect because Ben doesn't get home till then anyway. And I could sub and do this if I wanted. Which will just pass more time and make more money! It pays really well and I can choose my schedule. And both jobs will help me eventually get a real teaching position.
1. I was born in Ogden, lived in Kaysville for 3 years, lived in Ogden for 6 years, moved to the Ogden Valley and have been there ever since!
We went to magical Disneyland on Tuesday and Thursday. It was a blast. It's such a happy place!
The Tower of Terror!! I love this. We all said, "Ok everyone pretend to be sleeping when they take the picture." But I don't think my mom got the memo...
I love them!
We played Rook ALL week and haven't stopped since! We love that game! Thanks Grandma!
Funny story. We went to the Tiki Tiki room, and anyone who's been knows that you just sit in the air conditioning and the lights go dark and you listen to the birds sing! Ben was apartently really tired and fell FAST asleep. Even when everyone was getting up and leaving and the lights came back on, he was just gone. So we told everyone to leave and the workers coming in that we were going to leave him and hide for when he woke up. So everyone was gone, and he was still in the corner like this:
The worker lady went up to him and woke him up and he said, "Oh...how long have I been here?" Then he walked past us to leave and we all jumped and screamed and scared him. It was SO funny!!!
It was such a fun week. We hung out on the beach, laid by the pool, swam, read, played Rook and other games, and just had so much fun together! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Johansen! We love you!
Doesn't he look good? Mmm! ;)
Ben and my baby pictures, my wedding gift to Ben. Here's 2 drawings I did in high school, the first one won first place in a Utah District art contest:
I have found some really cool things I want to draw and I'm really excited!
Then we drove to Sausalito. A quaint little town known for it's thriving artist community. Which I loved! We strolled along the water, watched the sea lions, rested at the plaza and listened to the splashing fountain, soaked up the ambiance in a cute open air cafe, and browsed through all the unique shops.
Here's the view of San Francisco from Sausalito:
We had a lot of fun on our last little adventure for a while. And Ben starts work tomorrow!! And I'm stuck in the horrible task of finding a job...
We took a ferry out to the island and then did the tour of the prison. So cool! To be honest, I really didn't know anything about the prison before this trip. It served as a lighthouse, then a military fortification, then a military prison followed by a federal prison until 1963. Some famous prisoners were held there like Al Capone. There were many escape attempts, but only one was successful. Three men escaped by digging holes in the back of their cells with spoons! The escapees also stole several raincoats to use as a raft for the trip to the mainland. Leaving dummy heads made out of cement and soap in their cells with paint brush bristles as hair, they escaped. And they were never seen again! Anyway--cool stories. Read more on Wikipedia or something. Pretty fascinating.
After the tour, we headed back to the car and got the bikes out. We biked through Fisherman's Wharf and all along the coast up to the GG Bridge. It was quite a ride! Lots of uphill parts (I'll be pretty sore tomorrow) and it was SO windy!!
When we finally got there it was even windier. I thought we'd just blow over a couple of times. It was SO cool. That bridge is pretty amazing. We rode all the way across, then headed back.
I look marvelous darling, just marvelous.
We happened to be headed back right at 5:30 OUT of SF.....don't ever let this happen. We were at standstills in traffic on a span of about 4 blocks for like 45 minutes. It was insane. But we're home now and had a great day in San Francisco!
Labor Day weekend post coming as soon as my mom sends me all the pictures! :)
