Shelly Johnson

Bald Eagle Day & Sledding - A Fountain Green Fantasy

2010-02-23T22:03:00.007-07:00

The first week of February is Bald Eagle Day in Fountain Green. My mom and I went down for a fun weekend with Kristen, Mark, Sammie, Joe & Jake, Riley & Millie, Michelle, Colby & Annie, and Mardi, Gray & Ridge (15 of us in all). It was a lot of fun and a little bit crazy. We also visited the fish hatchery, went sledding, ate yummy food and enjoyed each other's company for two full nights of entertainment. Winter is such a fun time to go to Fountain Green because we can just relax. There's always too much work in the summer to just "hang out" the entire weekend.

The picture below is at the Fish Hatchery seeing a stuffed Bald Eagle and receiving our "Bald Eagle Day Pins".

No matter how many times we've seen the fish at the hatchery, it never gets old. The kids love watching the fish get fed and splashing in the water.

This is the first tree that we saw Bald Eagles in. If you look closely, you will see 18 total in one tree. We struck a gold mine here. The department of Wildlife Resources had set up scopes so that we could get a closer look. The kids enjoyed looking through the scopes.
Overall, we saw about 40 Bald Eagles that day. February is the best time to see Bald Eagles in Sanpete County.

Jake and Annie are trying to get a closer look. I don't know that Jake really knew how to use the binoculars, but he wanted to be like the big kids. He was so cute.

The Eagles would perch themselves right next to the road. This was an awesome experience to see them so up close and personal.

It's hard to tell, but when that Eagle spread its wings, it was wider than the van. It went right in front of Michelle's van. What an awesome sight!

Kristen just got a new camera for Christmas. She was able to get some pretty good pictures. It would have been nice to get out of the vehicle more often and set up the tripod. All of our bird pictures were from the middle seat of my vehicle as we were driving or parked alongside the road. Not bad considering the circumstances.

This Bald Eagle was in a tree just by the road.

This Bald Eagle was in a tree just above someone's house. How great it would be to just sit in the house and look at the eagles from your windows. Such magestic birds!

This is Millie all dressed up for sledding. Isn't she cute?

We found an awesome hill that gave us a great thrill without being too dangerous.
This is Mardi, Annie, Jake and Millie enjoying the wind in their faces as they flew down the hill.

Colby doing a solo ride. He was into finding the path not traveled and kept trying to go higher and higher. What an adventerous kid.

Samantha shaving her way down the mountain.

Samantha, Gray & Jake flying down the hill. I love their expressions.

Michelle and Gray enjoying their version of the two woman sled ride. Think they enjoyed it?

On their way back up. It was a great workout. Especially since we carried a lot of sleds and kids up the hill.

Riley, Joe & Ridge having some male bonding time together.

Annie taking a solo run. All the kids were so brave and just kept wanting to do it again and again.

Jake catching a ride back up the hill with whoever he could convince to take him back up.

What a great day Saturday was. These are a few of my favorite things about winter in Fountain Green.

David & Lee Johnson - Married November 21, 2009

2009-12-28T20:37:00.006-07:00

David and Lee were married on Saturday November 21, 2009 in the Fountain Green Dance Hall. It was truely a beautiful day and enjoyed by all. We are so excited to welcome Lee and Kinlee into the Johnson family and are so happy for all of them. We're thrilled they found each other and think they make a cute little family.

Following are some of the pictures from their celebration.

>

Family Pictures

2009-12-28T12:19:00.010-07:00

After about 7 years, we decided that it was time to take a new family picture. We have welcomed some wonderful additions to our family since our last picture. We enjoy spending time together and love the fact that we all live fairly close to mom so that we can stay in touch and see each other often. We all live within 20 minutes. What a blessing that is.

The picture below is a group picture of all of us.

Here's a picture of the Johnson children with mom:
(Back L to R) David, Scott, Mark, & Nathan
(Front L to R) Kristen, Mom & Shelly

Here's Grandma with all of the grandchildren. This was a difficult picture to take. They really are more happy than they appear in this picture. We were just grateful that they were all looking in the right direction for this picture.
We have 8 grandchildren from the ages of 1 to 15 years old.

Mark & April, Riley (9 yrs old), Amelia (4 yrs old) & Brianna (1 yr old)

Scott & Laura, Megan (15 yrs old)

Shelly

Kristen & Mark, Samantha (11 yrs old), Joseph (8 yrs old) & Jacob (3 yrs old)

David & Lee, Kinlee (3 yrs old)

Nathan

Capitol Reef, The Living Desert!

2009-11-04T23:50:00.003-07:00

In my Science class, we went on a field trip to Capitol Reef. We had to make a digital story about our experience for one of our assignments.

We posted this video on YouTube.
If you are interest in watching it, click here.

Warning: The movie is almost eight minutes long.

Hope you enjoy it!

Time flys when you're having fun!

2009-11-04T22:13:00.004-07:00

Well, it's been six months since my last blog. I've been a huge blog slacker. It's also been a crazy six months for me. I've been trying to make time to blog but haven't been able to download and organize my pictures because the pictures on my computer are already so unorganized and saved in all the wrong places. I haven't had a spare minute to organize my pictures and I haven't wanted to multiply the problem by downloading new pictures. Therefore, I just end up taking pictures and never download them. SLACKER!!!

So I'll give you the cliff notes version of the last six months of my life and you'll just have to visualize the pictures in your head. One day I might post some photo's, but until I have more time to organize and download them, it might not happen for a while.

April - In April, I finished my first semester back to school. My classes were very intense and kept me busy all of the time. I was able to earn all "A's", but I worked my butt off for everyone of them.

May - I was looking forward to taking the month of May off but was almost as busy in May as I was during school. I spent the month getting all the final touches ready for girl's camp and volunteering in Kristen's kindergarten classroom. I also did a lot of work around the house and yard. It seems as though we are NEVER without a major project to be working on.

June - The day that school got out, Kristen's family, Nathan, my mom and I all headed out to the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon and Zion's Canyon. We had a really great time. The campgrounds were wonderful and the views and hikes were amazing!!! The weather was great as well; a little on the cool side, but much better than too hot. It was a lot of fun and I'm so glad that we got to go.

As soon as we returned, I babysat Jacob for a few days while Kristen took some summer classes. During this time, I also finished up camp plans and studied for the Praxis exam (a pre-entrance teacher's exam) that I was taking the following Saturday. I only had one week between our trip and girls camp so it was a lot to cram into this busy week. I love spending time with Jacob so that's never a sacrifice for me.

Camp was so much fun and we had a great time. All of the planning really paid off. The weather was horrible. It rained everyday and we had to learn to fly by the seat of our pants. We wore our winter coats most all of the time. Despite the weather, it all turned out great and I'm grateful for the experience.

The following Wednesday after camp, I started my summer semester for seven weeks of intense math. I was at school everyday from around 7:30 a.m. until 6 or 7 at night. I took a ceramics class for fun and it was a welcomed break in the middle of the day. The rest of the day was spent with study groups, in my math class or in the math lab. I became a permanent feature at the math lab and really relied on the tutors there. It's been about fifteen years since I took the first part of this class and so I was starting out the class with a huge disadvantage to the rest of the students. I didn't have much of a life for those seven weeks and I'm so grateful to my family for picking up the slack where I left off. In the end, I earned an "A" out of my math class. What a relief!!! I was glad that I had all of the extra help and time available to LIVE at school and help me earn that grade.

July - I was still living at school during the month of July. I didn't have much of a life beyond school. The highlight of the month was getting the results to my Praxis Exam and finding out that I passed. I'm positive that the only reason I passed this exam was because I was serving as the stake camp director at the time and was giving service. What a blessing it was to be given that extra help on my exam.

Lamb Day was in July and we had a great time visiting with all of the family and friends. I love Lamb Day and spending time in Fountain Green. This summer we have been busy painting the soffit and porch and window sills on the outside. Almost every weekend we had a new project in Fountain Green that we were working on (as always).

August - School ended on the 14th of August. I then only had one week off before starting my fall semester. This week was spent trying to put away girl's camp and organize my life to prepare me for another intense semester.

We were able to get away a few different weekends during the summer for small local camping trips. I didn't get near enough times out in my trailer, but hopefully that won't become the norm in the future. I look forward to becoming a teacher and having summers off so that I can take more camping trips. I love camping (especially when I'm not in charge of the whole thing and can just go with the flow - unlike girl's camp when we have to schedule time to wash our hair - which I didn't even have time for this year at camp). We live in such a beautiful place and have so many opportunites around us that we need to take advantage of.

September - I kept hoping that the fall semester would be easier, but once again it is very busy and keeps me highly involved. It's a good thing I suppose. It keeps me focused on doing all of my assignments and learning all of the skills that I'll need to have as a teacher. I don't love that part of school when you don't even have time for a personal life. But I don't have that exciting of a life anyway so I might as well spend that time on school.

I was blessed in September to receive a scholarship that will pay the full amount of my tuition until I graduate from school. What a relief that was. Living on unemployment doesn't provide enough to pay for school as well. It's a good thing that I live at home with my mother or I wouldn't be able to have the wonderful opportunites that I have in my life.

On September 18th, Nathan bought the house across the street from my mother's house. We love having him as our neighbor and getting to see him on a daily basis. I've been super busy helping him paint his entire upstairs and installing new windows. I'm so excited for him and his new opportunities with this house. He is good at everything and has been able to redo all of the electrical, lighting and small repairs that we've been working on.

October - In the month of October, we installed new windows at Nathan's house. I just hired one of my previous workers and Nathan and I did all of the prep and finish work. The rest of the family has also been a big help to Nathan and we appreciate all the work that they have given to help him make his house beautiful. His windows look so great and have made a huge improvement on his house. I'm glad that I had the contacts and skills to help him out with that.

David met the love of his life and became engaged. They will be getting married on November 21st. We've been busy helping him as well. We are excited to welcome Lee and her three year old daughter Kinlee into our family.

I finally made time to have a party with family and friends for Halloween. It was a lot of fun getting together with everyone. We fit 37 people (19 of which were excited kids in costumes) into our house for a haunting evening. I need to make more time in my life for these special moments.

We went to Fountain Green for Halloween. What a blast that was. They have some fun Halloween traditions that we had never experienced before. On Saturday, the school had a carnival with all the blow-up slides and climbing wall. Following the carnival was Trunk-or-Treating at the city park. Immediately following the trunk-or-treating all the kids in town came to Main Street. We had a ton of trick-or-treaters and decorated the house with Nathan's fog machine, bones and scary music. Later that night, all the teenagers come and "steal" everyone's Halloween decorations and pumpkins and put them on the top of the post office. We all rushed down to the post-office the following morning to see it all decked out. They really did a good job and it was fun partaking in these fun traditions. It might just become our new tradition for us if Hallween is on a weekend.

November - We look forward to David and Lee's wedding later this month and have been busy trying to figure out the menu. They will be getting married in Fountain Green at the dance hall. I'm sure that it will be beautiful.

Today I started a field experience in a kindergarten classroom for the next three weeks. I'll have a ton of lessons and assignments that need to be completed during my field experience, but I look forward to a break from my regular school classes and the daily pressure I feel from trying to complete all of my assignments, papers and reading. It will also be good to work with the kids and really get to experience being in the classroom.

Well - that's the long version of the last six months of my life. Hopefully, I'll have time during my field experience to organize my pictures and will be able to post some pictures to accompany this lengthy blog.

I have a great life and LIFE IS GOOD!!! I just wish that I had more time to spend with those I love.

Wicked the Musical

2009-04-19T20:09:00.006-07:00

This weekend I had the opportunity to go see "Wicked the Musical" with some of my family members. It was GREAT!!! I was lucky to get through the phone lines on the day that the tickets went on sale to the general public and I bought the maximum amount of tickets allowed (eight). I just knew that I was going to get tickets and told my mom that I'd get through the lines. No one believed me. It was a wonderful suprise.

The performance was excellent and we all had a great time. Kristen, Nathan, my mom and I all saw Wicked in Chicago several years ago and I've been addicted to the music ever since then. This performance was as good as it was in Chicago. Kristen didn't want to give the ending away to her kids (Sammie & Joe) and it was really fun to see their expressions when it was over. Megan gave us a concert version of the music the whole way there. It was nice to be able to go together and I would love to see it again (especially since I had the worlds tallest man in front of me and I could only see the performances when they were on the sides of the stage - anything center stage was in the view of this man's head).

It was a nice way to end the weekend since the first part of it was spend putting on a funeral for my mother's brother (uncle Richard). The weather was excellent for a funeral. He was in the military so they had a 21 gun salute by the military at the funeral. It was nice to see his friends and all of the family members that came and shared memories of "Muff".

I'm ALIVE!!!

2009-03-20T16:19:00.001-07:00

Just for Fun!

2009-03-05T21:45:00.004-07:00

Here are the rules: Bold the things you've done and post on your blog!

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars in the backyard
3. Played in a band (Does Jr. High band count. If not, I played the bass drum in the wool city band in Fountain Green).
4. Visited Hawaii - I'm going to someday though.
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo -in my car all the time.
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea.
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty (no but I have seen her in person)
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies - I helped Kristen one year.
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason - I've bought them for myself though.
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma - But I fainted afterwards.
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book - It was a class assignment for Unified Studies
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Kissed a stranger at midnight on New Year’s Eve
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life.
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

Belinda the Butterfly

2009-02-21T09:00:00.006-07:00

I'm taking a technology class right now at school. We just finished making a digital story for one of our group assignments. It was a big project that took a ton of time. It was a lot of fun and I'm glad I learned how to use this program so that I can make movies in the future. The story that my group made was Belinda the Butterfly. The purpose is to help teach Kindergarteners about the lifecycle of a butterfly. We've posted it on YouTube and I've linked it to this blog if you want to watch it. Be warned that this was made for children so it may not be your cup of tea, but it is quite entertaining and my nephew Jacob just loves it. He keeps saying "more please" as soon as it's over. If he gets his way, Kristen will get very sick of hearing my voice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4NbqbMMiFQ

Kristen mentioned that I'm going to post pictures from Bald Eagle Day in her blog. I'm getting to this assignment from her - but it has to wait till my school assignments are a little more under control and I need to get the camera back from Nathan who is out of town. Look for those coming in a few more days.

I also had to make a class website for one of my assignments in my technology class. The whole time I was doing this assignment, all I could think about is how excellent it would be to have a camp website. It took all my will power to finish my school assignment before working on my camp website. I have been working frantically to get my camp website going before my first camp meeting that took place this week. I found a church building in my stake where I could connect to a neighbors internet (with permission) and moved our meeting to that building so that I could introduce my website to all the ward camp leaders.

It was so nice to have this website because I did't have to print any forms for the leaders. I just linked all my documents to the website and gave all the information to the leaders so that they could print their own forms. I'm hoping that with this website I'll have less questions and more organized camp directors. They were all excited about it and so am I.

My camp website is stake specific but has some fun camp ideas on it if you are interested in looking at it.

http://sites.google.com/site/sharonparkstakeywcamp/

So that's what's been going on in my life: school, school, more school and ton's of camp. Not much time for anything else. It's been good though and I'm enjoying life.

Have a great day!

My Crazy Brother!

2009-01-26T00:30:00.004-07:00

So any of you who know my brother Nathan won't be too surprised by his new creation in our front yard. He has managed to build this life size igloo. He was so disappointed that it was so warm over the weekend because he really wants this thing to last and turn to straight ice. I keep reminding him that it won't last, but he keeps nursing it like he expects it to. He's so funny! The first picture is one that I took at 11:30 p.m. one night. He wouldn't come in till he shoveled all the snow on our lawn onto this igloo. He's glad that it snowed today so that he can finish it with fresh wet snow and start the process of icing it up.

He also just finished working for Coke and started working for the school district. He's really enjoyed working for Coke and had a lot of fun driving a Coke van. Especially since his lifelong love has been Coke. But the School District will be better hours and a promotion from his last job. We are glad to have him back on weekends to help with projects in Fountain Green. We've missed him being able to come with us since he's been at Coke. He's a good project guy - but usually only if it's his idea first! The trick is to convince him that the project that needs to be done was his idea and you've got a project manager.

It's a Whole New World!

2009-01-14T10:26:00.003-07:00

So I've now finished my first week of classes in the Education Department at UVU. I'm amazed at what a different experience it is this time through. The last time I attended college at UVCC, computers didn't really play a huge portion of my education. This time through, I discovered very quickly that technology is a MAJOR portion of my educational experience.

It's a good thing that my friends pressured me to start a blog and sign up on facebook a while ago. It's also a good thing that I've been able to use the computer, e-mail and photoshop in my church calling over the last few years. My first week of school I discovered that most all of my classes give their assignments on class web-sites and my assignments are due through a blog I set-up for that class. Several of my assingments have been to search different web-sites and research materials on the web. I purchased a new computer before I started school and have been able to take it to class and follow along with the instructor. I use it to take notes, turn in assignments and stay organized.

I've also done more reading in the last week than I did the entire year last year. I know that I have a ton more reading coming my way. It's a little bit overwhelming when I'm not use to any kind of schooling and being able to do what I wanted after work. Those days are gone. Now I'm the homework queen.

It's a whole new way of living. I hope that I'll be able to accomplish my church responsibilities and still have a social life while being a student. I'm excited for this new opportunity and look forward to all the exciting things I'll learn along my journey.

What a difference a day makes!

2008-12-26T21:50:00.002-07:00

What a crazy month this has been since I've been layed off. I've been trying to decide what I want to be when I grow up and haven't had any luck or feelings one way or the other. However, I knew I didn't want to do construction or something as unstable as that again.

One day, I decided to stop by UVU to see how many credits I had and what it would take for me to go back to school to become an elementary school teacher. The next day I was enrolled into the Elementary Education program and will be starting in January.

Through a series of miracles I found out that I only had 2 classes (5 credits) left before I would be able to enter the program. UVU waived one of those classes and the other one I will need to take in the Summer. There is also a Praxis test in January that I will be able to take at a later date (March).

I'm so grateful for the wonderful academic advisor who helped pull all of these strings for me to make this possible. Without her help, the soonest I would have been able to get into the program would have been in the fall. But because of her assistance, I'll be able to start and graduate 9 months sooner and be able to complete my education in 2 years and graduate in December 2010.

This is the direction I was originally headed before I left on my mission a million years ago. I had received my Associates Degree before I left and should have been able to come home from my mission and start into the program. Because they didn't have their own program at the time, it would have taken a miracle the first time around for me to be accepted as one of the 30 students a year that made it into the program. It would have also taken me an additional 3-4 years after my mission to complete because they changed so many of the requirements. That's why I changed directions and went to hair school instead. UVU has their own program now and it's an excellent one. I'm excited to be able to go back and finish what I started all those years earlier.

I'm nervous to go back and start up with students that are much younger and smarter than I am. I'm hoping that some of my life skills will help pull me through. However, I will need to study harder and work harder in order to keep up I'm sure.

I am also grateful for the opportunity I've had to do hair and work at Hansen's for the last 15 years. I'm sure I'll use many of those skills in my next adventures.

I know it's going to be hard and I don't know how I'll be able to work and go to school at the same time (because of my class schedule and required field work), but I'm sure that it was meant to be by how easy the process has been so far. Everything will work out one way or the other (I hope).

I'm especially excited to be done in 2 years and be able to have summers off so that I can go camping and spend more time with my family and friends. Since Kristen is also a teacher, it will be nice to be on the same schedule as her. Teaching is a more secure career with great benefits. I also think that the benefits of working with children will be well worth it. I'm excited.

Wish me luck!
Miss Johnson

Good Luck Chelly!

2008-12-10T22:18:00.005-07:00

I've had the opportunity to work for Hansen-All Season's Insulation for the last 10 1/2 years. With the downsizing economy, they were forced to close down their window's department that I was managing and I was unfortunately layed off on December 1st. It's been a great 10 1/2 years working for them. I've made a lot of great friends and had some wonderful experiences with them. I'm really sad to leave them and hate having to start all over, but I'm grateful for the opportunity I had to work for them.

They gave me a lovely lunch before my last day and had this cake wishing me good luck. It was so delicious!

These are some of my good friends I've made during my time with them. I will miss them.

I look forward to finding another job that I will enjoy as much as I did this one. If you were to have asked me 10 year ago where I saw myself in 10 years, I would have never imagined the experiences I've had. Who knows where I'll be 10 years from now. I'm excited to find out!

For now, I'm going to enjoy the holiday season and try to figure out what I want to be when I grow up.

Any suggestions?

Tagged - 8

2008-11-20T08:55:00.003-07:00

8 TV Shows I Love to Watch:
1. The Ellen DeGeneres Show - (She just makes me laugh)
2. Jon & Kate Plus 8 - (And I thought my life was crazy)
3. Little People Big World - (I can't help liking this one)
4. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition - (get your klenex ready)
5. E.R. - (I've watched it this long, what's one more year)
6. American Idol - (I can't wait till January)
7. The Rachel Ray Show - (I really don't understand why I still record this one)
8. The View (Another show I need to give up - It's really not good)

8 Places I love to Eat:
1. At Home with family and friends
2. Dutch oven meal in Ftn. Green
3. Wendy's
4. Creamery on 9th
5. Bajio
6. Apollo Burger
7. Papa Johns (eaten at home)
8. One Man Band

8 Things that Happened Yesterday:
1. I went shopping with Kristen and helped her find 4 bra's and one pair of panties for $30.00 (full retail price would have been over $127.50 - I LOVE SALES!!!)
2. We finally got curtians for our home theater room (anyone up for a movie - we're ready now!)
3. We installed the curtians in our home theater room.
4. I gave 3 haircuts
5. I invented another dinner that was just okay.
6. I FINALLY returned some hardward at Home Depot that has been in my car for about a month (I hate doing returns).
7. I got some good lovin' from Jacob while Kristen was trying on Bra's.
8. I picked up Kristen's Christmas present from the store. I LOVE IT!!! I don't think I'll be able to wait till Christmas to give it to her!

8 Things I am Looking Forward To:
1. Starting a new job (I'm not looking forward to finding it though)
2. Taking the month of December off while I find my new job.
3. Weekends
4. Putting up Christmas Decorations
5. Getting my life organized - I need all the help I can get!!!
6. Thanksgiving weekend trip to Salt Lake to see the lights and spend time with family
7. Getting married (hopefully it will happen during this lifetime)
8. Having children of my own

8 Things I Love About Fall:
1. The beautiful colors of fall
2. The wonderful smells of fall. There's nothing like it.
3. Driving in the Mountains and collecting leaves
4. Cooler weather - I love jackets and hoodies
5. Hearing the leaves fall when the wind blows
6. Harvesting the garden
7. Opening up our Indian corn that we grew and seeing the beautiful colors. It's like Christmas!
8. Making chicken noodle soup

8 Things on my Wish List
1. Finding a good job!!! I'm available if anyone knows of a good position out there.
2. Being able to still go to Fountain Green, camping and spending time with family after I find my perfect job.
3. Having a clean and organized house - I'll work on this while I'm in between jobs.
4. Getting my vehicle paid off - I need a job first.
5. Being able to still serve as Stake Camp Director after I get my new job - Can you tell that a new job is on my mind? My last date of employment is November 30th but last physical date worked will be the 26th of November - Happy Thanksgiving! :)
6. The will power to get fit and healthy - why does it have to be so hard
7. Getting Married
8. Having children of my own (I'd love my full time job to be a mommy - but since that hasn't happened, I better find something that will pay the bills)

8 People I'm tagging
1. Lanelle W.
2. Marissa R.
3. Erin H.
4. Holly K.
5. Tori H.
6. Becca M.
7. Mardi B. (You've been double tagged now)
8. Michelle C. (You get double tagged too)

* Never Forget *

2008-11-04T15:27:00.007-07:00

This is the USS New York!

It was built with 24 tons of scrap steel from the World Trade Center. It is the fifth in a new class of warship - designed for missions that include special operations against terrorists. It will carry a crew of 360 sailors and 700 combat-ready Marines to be delivered ashore by helicopters and assault craft.

Steel from the World Trade Center was melted down in a foundry in Amite, LA to cast the ship's bow section. When it was poured into the molds on Sept 9, 2003, "those big rough steelworkers treated it with total reverence", recalled Navy Capt. Kevin Wensing, who was there. "It was a spiritual moment for everybody there." Junior Chavers, foundry operations manager, said that when the trade center steel first arrived, he touched it with his hand and the "hair on my neck stood up". "It had a big meaning to it for all of us", he said.

"They knocked us down.

They can't keep us down.

We're going to be back."

The ship's motto?

Never Forget

I was cleaning up my old e-mails and found this one. I wanted to do a blog on it because it touched me so much the first time I read it. I felt very patriotic and proud of this new ship in honor of the World Trade Center and what it represented. I hope that with the election today that we can be reminded of what a wonderful country we live in (regardless of who our next President will be).

I Love America!!!

Happy Halloween!

2008-11-02T21:36:00.018-07:00

I had a GREAT weekend! On Thursday I helped out with a Stake Y.W./Y.M. party at the church. I borrowed Kristen's clown costume that we spend the entire weekend sewing about a month ago.

On Friday I helped in Kristen's class for their Halloween party. We took Jacob and he got to hang out with the kindergarteners as well. He had a great time. It was kind of a crazy day at school, but the kids had a blast.

After I got home, I set up all the Halloween decorations in my yard for the trick-or-treaters. We had a coffin, skulls, bones, spider webs, black lights and a fog machine. I'll bet we had over 100 trick-or-treaters. It was perfect weather and we had a great time visiting with all of the people who came over. The kids had a great time laying in the coffin and playing dead. Riley's favorite part of Halloween this year was being "in charge" of pushing the fog button on the fog machine. It was a lot of fun. All the kids got a turn pushing it and feeling like they were "in charge" of it as well. We only made a few kids cry.

Saturday was spend cleaning up and helping in Kristen's classroom to get everything ready for November. I'm sure I never realized how much time it takes for teachers outside of classroom time when I was a kid. I help Kristen out as much as possible, but she's there late everynight and spends many weekends there as well. Not to mention anything about how much time she spends in the evenings at home. We all need to be more grateful for our teachers. You're a great teacher Kristen.

Friday night we went to a party for our friend Peggy Wilkinson. She just turned 80. Her health is in poor condition. It was so good to see her and our friends from Wilkinson's Trophy and the old 1st ward. Both Kristen and I worked at Wilkinson's Trophy for over 7 years each.

After that, we went to see "Aida" at the Hale Center Theatre in Orem. It was a great performance and I really enjoyed the show. "Aida" was the first show I saw in New York so it has a special place in my heart.

Today was Brianna's baby blessing (Mark and April's daugher). She is their 3rd child and 7th Grandchild in the Johnson Family. It was a nice blessing. The rain made it hard to get everyone together afterwards for a family picture so I could only get a few small groups.

Lagoon - That's Where the Fun Is!!!

2008-10-23T20:20:00.010-07:00

We were among the crazy multitues of people in Utah who went to Lagoon for UEA. We thought it would be better on Friday than on Saturday, but there were still a ton of people there. In fact, it felt like the whole state of Utah was also at Lagoon with us. Depsite all the herds of people, we were able to ride everything that we wanted to (some of them multiple times) and we has just a wonderful time.

Kristen and I thought it would be fun to stay at the Lagoon campground so that we could stay until the last ride closed. When we were kids, our family stayed at the Lagoon campground almost every time we went. We have so many fond memories of that. That's why we thought it would be fun to stay there again. Since I'm the trailer owner and self proclaimed "favorite aunt", most of the activities that I do are with Kristen's family. I'm so grateful they have adopted me into their family and that I get to have all these fun experiences.

We went early and dropped off the trailer at the campground, made a sack lunch and dinner to take with us and tried to hurry to be at the gate when it opened at 11:00. Kristen didn't think we were going fast enough and was practically running to the entrance. It was so funny to watch her pushing Jacob in the stroller and yelling at us all to go faster.

Kristen and I have decided that we aren't up to the rides like we were when we were kids so we took a dramimine and it made a whole world of difference this time. We went earlier this summer and couldn't handle the rides like we did when we were kids. It was much better this time around.

It was so much fun to watch the excitement on the kids faces as they went on all of the rides. I'm sure I've never been on the merry-go-round as many times as we did this time. Jacob just loved it and wanted to keep going on it. He was a bit nervous at first but warmed up to it very quickly and wanted to keep going and going and going. I hung out with Jacob in the kiddy area a lot while Kristen and Mark took the bigger kids on all the rest of the rides. We tried to stay together as much as possible and had fun being together.

After the last ride closed and there wasn't anything else we could do in the park, we walked a few steps to our trailer and everyone was asleep within 15 minutes. How wonderful is that??? That's the way to experience Lagoon! Next time we'll have to choose a lesser busy weekend to go though.

On Saturday when we woke up, we had just enough time to make green eggs and ham and purple pancakes before loading up and heading out. As a side note, if you want to make your eggs green, you need to add blue food coloring. I know that sounds kind of basic, but I just learned that trick and they sure had a prettier green color than my previous attempts (thanks Paula Dean).

On our way home, we stopped at Gardner Village where we met the rest of the state of Utah. That was even more crazy than Lagoon so we quickly walked through the maze of people and headed home to winterize the trailer. I just finished winterizing it tonight with the antifreeze and felt a little sad to put it to bed for the winter. I'm already looking forward to many more fun camping experiences next year. (I hope I have a job that allows me to go camping still.)

Girls Camp Theme 2009

2008-10-16T13:52:00.005-07:00

So I mentioned in my first official posting that I'd probably blog about girls camp. I am currently the Stake Camp Director and love it. I am hoping to be able to attend camp again next year but I'm in the process of finding a new job and I can't fully commit to camp until I know if my new job will allow me to be off for camp in addition to family time off (camp is NEVER a vacation - it's A LOT of work - but wonderful!). I don't know what it would be like to have a summer without girls camp in one form or another. I'm really hoping that I'll be able to go and that I'll have a job that makes it possible for me to continue to serve.

Because I want a job that will keep me busy and that I can succeed at, I want to start planning the camp theme as much as possible right now so that I won't be stressed out next summer trying to fit it all in. Especially since I'm not as busy while my current job phases out (they are closing down the windows department that I manage due to a lack of business).

I have a really good idea for the theme already (that I'm stoked about), but want to have a few other options to choose from and would like some help from anyone that has a fond memory of a camp theme.

The churchwide mutual theme for 2009 is from 1 Timothy 4:12 ("Be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity"). While I don't have to plan my camp theme around the mutual theme, it really works out good if I can.

I know I'm crazy to be thinking about this before Christmas even comes, but I like to announce the theme to the wards by January and need time to work it all out in my tiny little mind before then.

I look forward to hearing about some of your memories about camp themes that have been successful for you as a youth and/or as a leader. Please share your comments with me so that I can have other options that have been successful. Why re-invent the wheel - if it works, don't break it! Right?

What a Wonderful Weekend!!!

2008-10-07T13:47:00.000-07:00

I LOVE FALL IN FOUNTAIN GREEN!

Last weekend (Conference weekend), we went to Fountain Green with the Baumgartens and the Cochrans. It was a ton of fun. We first stopped in Santaquin at the Red Barn for a wagon ride to their pumpkin patch. We didn't need to buy any pumpkins because of our crop in Fountain Green, but it was fun to watch the kids run through the pumpkins and we all enjoyed the ride to their crop.

We were able to watch all 4 sessions of conference. It was nice to stay in our P.J.'s and just relax while the kids played. In between sessions on Saturday, we took the kids up to the Fish Hatchery. I have no idea how many times we've gone to see the fish there, but it never gets old. We all had the opportunity to feed the fish. It was fun to see the fish splash all over us as we gave them their food.

Saturday night the big boys went to the Priesthood Session in Moroni while we stayed home with the kids. The girls all had a "Girl's Night In" party and painted nails with fun Halloween decals. We put the little boys in the front bedroom to watch a movie while we had the girls party.

The kids had a great time playing with each other the whole time. Everyone got along so well and we really had a blast. The kids were really good for being stuck in the house both days (the weather was really rainy and we were only able to be outside a little bit on Sunday afternoon).

I was able to harvest a few of my pumpkins and sunflowers that I have been growing all summer long. I still have a bunch on the vines that we didn't harvest because they aren't orange enough yet. I LOVE growing pumpkins. I would love to do the whole backyard with pumpkins (if I didn't have to worry about getting water to them). The Indian corn isn't ready to harvest yet but I'm looking forward to that day. It's like Christmas morning with each ear that we open.

My biggest challenge that weekend was building a huge roller coaster out of K'nex. Nobody thought I'd get it finished in time for the kids to play with this weekend. Well, I probably wouldn't have if Kristen didn't come and help with the last part. We finally did finish it just in time for the kids to play with it for a short while before loading up the cars and heading for home. We'll be leaving this one up for some time now.

It was so nice to get away and relax with good friends, good food and great messages of hope.

Here we go!

2008-10-03T06:47:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I don't really understand this whole blog world that I live in. At first, I thought "why on earth would anyone want to write about themselves on the internet for the whole world to see". And then I found that I love reading other people's blogs and check them regularily for updates. That doesn't mean that I expect anyone else to enjoy reading my blog. But I guess this is the modern way of keeping a journal - only everyone gets to read it. And only because I suck at keeping a real journal, I thought I'd give this whole blogging thing a try.

The funny thing is that almost every blog that I read is a brag session (no offense) for people to talk about their spouse and children. I don't have either of those (and I live a really boring life) so I don't know what I'm going to blog about. Therefore, I'll probably just blog about girls camp, recipes I enjoy and activities that I do with my nieces and nephews. But, if I were to keep a real journal, those are probably the same things that I'd write about as well.

Also - I'm really bad at just leaving the mass amount of pictures I take on my memory cards and never printing them or doing anything important with them (I leave a camera in my purse at all time). Maybe this will be an outlet for them to come from the dark and be on display for a short while. I need to get better at managing my photos as well.

So... here I go on this journey of blogging. I don't know what I'm doing or how to manage a blog site (I'm going to have to take lessons from Kristen, Michelle and Mardi). I don't have anything important or exciting to share and I can't promise this blog site to be a very good one. But, this is my life. Welcome to the world of Shelly. Let the fun begin...

Shelly Johnson

2008-09-11T14:01:00.000-07:00