What we are looking forward to in 2011...

Since 2010 is coming to a close I thought I would update with a few things Darrell and I are looking forward to this year. To start off at the end of January Darrell and I will be spending a week here:

The Inn at Mazatlan, my parents have had a time share here for years and this year Darrell and I will be going with them to spend a week in the sun! I am SO excited!! I have been here several different times on vacation and my family has many memories that were made hanging out at the beach here and wandering the town. I am really looking forward to taking Darrell and showing him one of my favorite vacation spots. Plus it will be a nice break from the snowy, icy, cold weather we have been having here in Utah.

I would say the next big thing after that is this:

Yep, I'm pregnant!!! This is our first ultrasound picture that was taken on he first of December. It's a little fuzzy and hard to see but there is definitely a baby in there. As of today I am 13 weeks along and our little bundle of joy is officially due on July 7, 2011. We will find out at the end of February whether it' a boy or a girl. Darrell and I are very excited and a little nervous at the same time. We will be very busy in 2011 and we can't wait! Hope everyone is doing well!

Alaskan Cruise!!!

We went on vacation with my family a few weeks ago on an alaskan cruise. There was 14 of us all in our group. We went to celebrate my dad turning 50 this year. We were gone for 12 days. We did a cruise and then a land tour where we traveled by bus and train. Alaska is BEAUTIFUL!! We also had really good weather. There were only maybe two days where it was actually cold and even those few days it was only in the morning. We did some really fun stuff like zip lining, white water rafting, I went halibut fishing, we rented bikes, we went swimming, and most of all did a whole lot of relaxing. We saw Mt. McKinley the tallest mountain in north america. We were really lucky to see it. Our tour guides kept telling us that only 30% of people who visit Alaska get to see it because it's usually covered in clouds. It was a great vacation. Here are some pics:

The day we rented bikes in Talkeetna.
Here is Mt. McKinley. It looks like a cloud in this picture.
Our cruise boat stopped in front of a glacier (so cool!)
In our zip lining gear.
My dad, me, my aunt Carol on the day we went halibut fishing.
I was the only one who caught a halibut that day! I was very proud of myself. I got it sent home to me and it was so good!

We had so much fun! Darrell was taking pictures like crazy. These are just a select few.

Camping!

Over the July 24th weekend we went camping with our good friends the Schramers. We went down to the desert kind of by Price. Back in the 1930's there was a homestead act in that area and if you fulfilled the requirements you could keep the land. My great grandfather and his brothers did it and so the land is still in my dad's family. It's private land and so there is almost never other people camping out there. It was a lot of fun but I think we all agreed that camping in the desert in July was probably a mistake because it was HOT. Poor Yoko had hard time. We did have fun though. We did some target shooting with Darrell's arsenal, we had sparklers for the 24th, did a little hiking, had campfires, and a lot of fun conversation! My dad has a farm down there in a town called Cleveland and we took off in the afternoon and went to visit him. That was the highlight of the trip for me because we were got sprayed by his huge sprinklers in one of the hay fields! It was a very fun camping trip. It never really seems like summer unless you go camping for some reason. Thanks Matt and Brittnee for putting up with us for a few days, we had a lot of fun!

Darrell, me, Brittnee, and Matt. We were so relieved when the sun started to go down!

Happy Anniversary to us!

We celebrated our three year anniversary in June. To celebrate we went to dinner at a really nice steakhouse in Salt Lake named Spencer's. I am so glad I am married to Darrell!

So it's been a while...

I guess it's about time I updated our blog seeing as it's been six months or so. Darrell and I had a really great summer this year. We did a lot of fun things that I will also post about. For now I will just give an update on the Johnston family!

Darrell started school again a few weeks ago! He is taking a few night classes through UVU. After this semester he will have his associates degree. Next semester he will need to take physiology and the we will be applying to some bachelors programs for prosthetics and orthotics. It has been hard for Darrell to get back in the habit of going to school and doing homework again but it's going well for him. It will be good for our family for him to finish up his schooling.

I am working graveyard shifts as an RN at a nursing home close to where we live. I really love it! It is sometimes hard to work the graveyard shifts especially now that Darrell is in school again. We don't see each other as much as we would like to. But I really do enjoy being a nurse so far. I feel like I am always learning new things. I am glad that I work in a filed where I can always learn something new every day.

Other than that nothing else is really new with us. We are just living life and loving it! I will post more about some of our summer activities later!

Amanda Johnston R.N.

I am so excited!!! I just found out that I passed my state boards and I am officially a registered nurse! I took my test on Tuesday and it was so scary... They take the security pretty seriously there. They scan your hand for prints, they make you show your drivers license, they record you the whole time (so they can see and hear you at all times), they make you turn out your pockets ( they even checked the hood of my hoodie), and you cannot enter or leave the testing room without being escorted by the test administrator. I was prepared to get at least 120 questions but my computer shut off after 75 questions (which is the minimum). The questions were really hard. I felt like I did not know the answers to any of them. I came home and looked up the answers to a few questions that had stuck in my mind and realized I got them wrong so I was kind of freaking out a little but it turned out alright. I am so relieved! It feels so good to finally achieve something that I have been working really hard for for a year and a half. Yay for me!!!!

Nursing school is OVER!!!!

I have finally finished nursing school!! I am so excited and relieved to finally be able to say this. The past year and a half have been quite stressful for me. I have worked so hard and now it's over, thank goodness!! This past week has been so hard for me. At my school we are required to pass an exit exam in order to graduate and we had two chances to take it. The first attempt was last Friday and I failed it. I was devastated. To add to that my parents and two of my siblings went to Mexico on vacation this week without me (Darrell and I were supposed to go to but ended up not being able to because of my school schedule), with my mom being out of town I am babysitting her two dogs (I also have one of my own), my grandma had a major surgery and is in a rehabilitation center (I have been going there every day to check on her), I have had a nasty ear infection and a sore throat, and I have been panicking about my second exit exam attempt. So needless to say it has been a really rough week for me. Today when I passed I had a hard time not crying because I was so relieved! I am so grateful for Darrell for helping me out this week. I have been sick and pretty emotional. He has done everything he could to take care of me and try to cheer me up. I am also grateful for my little brother Clint. He came to my house last night and he and Darrell gave me a blessing. I am so glad, I felt totally calm afterwards and I was able to sleep pretty well. That calm feeling stayed with me today until the last 5-10 questions of my test (I then started getting nervous because I would be getting my score soon). I am also so grateful to both mine and Darrell's families. I truly could not have done it without them!!!

Now I am finished with nursing school I just have to take my state boards to get my RN. Wish me luck! I should be able to pick my test date next week!

Flashback Friday...

This is Darrell and I shortly after we started dating at my brothers wedding. Darrell had such long hair!!!

Halloween!!!

Not sure why this picture ended up sideways but it's still funny!

My mom's Halloween costume she wore to work!

Darrell and I actually dressed up and went to a Halloween party this year! Darrell wore my mom's gorilla suit and went as King Kong and I went as Ann Darrow. It was a lot of fun!

Darrell, me, Matt, Brittnee, and Devin at Matt and Brittnee's Halloween party!
I have always wondered what I would look like as a blonde and now I know I am meant to have dark hair!! While Darrell was wearing this mask and breathing at the same time it would fog up his glasses!

The last few months...

The last few months have mainly been spent doing school stuff. I am now in my last semester of nursing school. As long as I continue to pass I will be done with school in January and able to take my state boards after that. Here are a few pics of other things that have been going on...

My older brother Travis and his wife had their first baby in August!
She is pretty darn cute!!
I turned 25 in August. I was not very excited to turn 25 but my family was and they took me to Buca Di Beppo in SLC for dinner (I have always wanted to sit at the popes head table). Darrell, my mom, and my sister came to my school the day of my birthday and brought me flowers and treats for my whole class and then made my whole class sing happy birthday to me.
This is a picture of a rainbow we saw over fathers day weekend camping at my dad's ranch.

Happy Birthday Dad!!!

(My Dad wearing his ranch hat)

Every year when I wish my Dad a happy birthday he always tells me he stopped having birthdays a long time ago. In spite of this we celebrate anyway. In honor of my dad (and because I have not blogged in a LONG time) I thought I would list ten things I love about my Dad....

1. He is the smartest person I know

2. I don't now of anyone else that has more integrity than he does

3. His bark is definitely worse than his bite

4. He always gives people the benefit of the doubt

5. He is the hardest working person I know

6. He always thinking of how he can make his family's lives better

7. I love when he starts singing "When I was a lad in a fishing town an old man said to me..." (The Mermaid Song by Bobby Bare, check it out and picture my dad singing it!)

8. I love when he says "If it weren't for this glass eye of mine I'd shed a happy tear!"

9. I love how in my nanny days when I would get really homesick I would call my Dad and he would cheer me up.

10. I love his sense of humor

My dad is my hero, Happy Birthday Dad! I love you!

-Amanda-

I feel like an idiot!!!

The last few days have been so stressful! My finals for this semester have started and I have been really stressed out. Darrell and I were out of town all weekend in Reno. Darrell had a conference for work to go to and I went with. I had a lot of studying to do though so I decided to take some of my text books. As we were leaving the hotel on Sunday morning to head for the airport I had Darrell put my psychiatric nursing text book in our suitcase because my backpack was heavy. So on Tuesday morning while I was getting ready for class I was searching for my psychiatric text book and couldn't find it ANYWHERE. I started to freak out thinking that maybe it had gotten lost when they searched our bag at the airport or something. Textbooks are SO expensive and I have a final for this class next week, and I hate showing up to class not having my text books. Anyway, I called Darrell on the phone while I was freaking out (he was at work) to ask him if he had seen it. He of course said no and I yelled at him because I was really worried and frustrated. I still couldn't find the book so I left for school and when I got there a few minutes early I started to pull some stuff out of my backpack to study and there was my psychiatric nursing text book in the back of my backpack. I could not believe it. I guess I stuck it in there before school on Monday morning and forgot about it! I just sat there and laughed at myself. I was really embarrassed but I apologized to Darrell later that night and he laughed at me. I guess I deserved that. 

School is going o.k. right now. I have two take home finals to finish and then two big finals next week I need to study for. I passed my skills lab final on the first attempt yesterday! I was so happy! The lab finals are the worst. I had to demonstrate some of the skills I have learned this semester  with an instructor watching and if you make any mistakes at all they fail you. They give you another chance to try again a second time but if you fail again you have to take the lab class over again the next semester and you would also have to repeat the medical-surgical class and the clinical to because they are all connected. 

I have been a really lazy blogger lately I will try to do better!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everybody!! I haven't posted in a while because I have been really busy with school and other than that we really haven't been up to much. Darrell and I were in Orem this morning and he wanted to stop at a gun store for a few minutes to look around. We ended up walking out with a new gun in tow. It is a .22 pistol. Darrell decided that the ammo would be a lot cheaper than the 9 mm we already have. Plus the new gun won't kick back as much which I really like! The sales guy was kind of funny because Darrell asked me if it was o.k. to go ahead and buy it and when I said yes the sales guy thought it was funny because when most guys buy a new gun they are hoping their wives don't find out about it! I hope everybody is doing well!

My moms new baby...

Last weekend my mom brought home the most ADORABLE thing I have ever seen, a yorkie puppy!! The one in this picture is not it but it looks the same. She is so tiny and playful. I love just going over to my parents house to play with her and hold her. Unfortunately my dog Yoko can smell the scent of this new puppy whenever I have just come home from my parents and acts like I have betrayed her! 

I hate being sick.

On Sunday afternoon I started getting a sore throat while making dinner at my parents house. I took some airborne and felt a little better but the sore throat was still there. Monday morning I woke up with my throat so sore and swollen I could hardly swallow. I also felt like my whole body hurt and I was still really tired. I had to go to school until 2 in the afternoon so I took some ibuprofen stuck some cough drops in my back pack and left. Tuesday morning I felt even worse because along with the sore throat and body aches I had a cough and I couldn't breathe out of my nose. I also had school that day that usually lasts from 10:00 am to 6:30 pm. It was the most awful school day ever. I just did not feel well and I wanted to lay down and sleep SO bad. Lucky for me there was a gas leak in the building and I ended up getting to leave school 2.5 hours early!!! I went to the doctor yesterday because I was fairly sure I had a sinus infection. He sent me home with some antibiotics. My clinical day is on Thursday every week but this week was cancelled which is good because it saved me from having to wake up at 5 am. I actually started to feel a little better today so hopefully in a day or two I will be back to normal. Darrell has been so great taking care of me this week while I haven't been feeling well. He took me to buy medicine and drove me to several different pharmacies to find these little tablets you throw in the shower that let out menthol vapors to help your nose. He made me dinner when it wasn't even his night to do so, and the other night I woke up in the middle of the night not being able to breathe very well, coughing, etc. and he got up and got me medicine and water. I don't know what I would do without my wonderful husband sometimes!

Under the Sea 3D

I had a bit of a rough few days and was feeling pretty down and so Darrell decided he needed to cheer me up. I had mentioned a few days ago that I had heard an advertisement for this imax movie called Under the Sea 3D and that I wanted to see it sometime. So Darrell took me to breakfast and then drove to the Hansen Planetarium in Salt Lake so we could see this movie. I enjoyed it a lot. We got to see sea lions, dragon fish, lion fish, cuttle fish, sharks, stingrays, sea snakes (GROSS), eels (GROSS), and so many more sea creatures. I really enjoyed it a lot! I really have the best husband in the world! Thanks for a great day babe, I love you!!!

25 random things about me!!!

I did this on facebook and thought it was kind of fun to hear random little things about people you wouldn't have ever known before. Here is mine:

1. I sing in the shower

2. I sing in the car

3. My dream vacation is to go to Greece

4. I have been skydiving twice

5. I lived in New Jersey for almost three years and worked for two (very difficult) families

6. I have been inside the crown of the Statue of Liberty

7. I have seen several shows on Broadway and loved them all! (the Lion King, Mamma Mia, the Phantom of the Opera, Hairspray, Wicked, Les Miserable)

8. I love my dog a lot

9. I watch the Bachelor and am annoyed if I miss an episode

10. I love the Beatles!

11. I had a pony when I was little and it was so cool! His name was Rocket and my older brother and I loved him a lot!

12. I do NOT appreciate being woken up at indecent hours. I hear I get pretty mean when it happens. 

13. I am pretty close to my grandparents

14. I HATE being cold. I would much rather be hot

15. My husband is my best friend in the whole world. 

16. My dad is my hero

17. I like Led Zeppelin

18. Niagara Falls is one of the most AMAZING things I have ever seen

19. I like to cook and I think I do pretty good but I suck at baking

20. I think snakes are disgusting. The way they move is not natural.

21. I am scared of chickens. When I was little some chickens of my Grandpas chased me while pecking and scratching me and I am still traumatized.

22. I have been to a town called Intercourse. It's an amish town in Pennsylvania!

23. I have been to Washington D.C.

24. In high school I fractured a bone in my arm while toilet papering a guys house with some friends.

25. I got pepper spray in my stocking this past Christmas

I think everyone should do this for fun!

Finally a new post!

Wow it has been a long time since I last posted! Life has been pretty crazy. School has been really hard but it is going well. I just finished my second semester. I have school two days a week pretty much all day and then one day of clinical rotations. Up until this past week I was working every weekend taking care of an elderly lady in Alpine but she passed away last week so now I need to look for a new job. I am not really looking forward to that. 

We had a really nice Valentines day this year. Friday night I took Darrell to the shooting range for his present. He has been wanting me to go shooting with him for a long time. I didn't shoot the gun though. We were at an inside range and the guns are just really loud and when people shoot it vibrates the walls. It's kind of scary. I promised Darrell that next time if we went outside I would shoot the gun. Friday night Darrell surprised me with flowers and a comic strip he made on his laptop giving me different clues as to where to find the stuff he bought me for Valentines. It was very cute! Saturday we actually went to the funeral of the lady I took care of then we came home watched some movies and Darrell made me a really yummy dinner!

I wish I had some pictures to post but my memory card is full and I really haven't had the time to get the pictures on a cd to make room for more so I haven't taken any new ones lately. My parents just bought the rock band video game and we have all played it a bunch of times and I wish I had some pictures of that!

Hope that everyone is doing well!

Picture Tag!

 I got tagged by my friend Keri to post the fourth picture in my fourth picture file. This is my moms dog Hershey. Hershey got added to the family a few years back while I was living in New Jersey. The story of how my mom got Hershey is actually very weird, gross, a little funny, and sad. So my mom is a nurse and she was working in a nursing home and one of her elderly patients (who had dementia) had a twin sister she had always been close to who lived by herself somewhere in Salt Lake. One day while my mom was at work her elderly patient started to get very upset yelling that her arm hurt and she was worried about her sister. Then she started yelling that her sister was dead she just knew it! Anyway, I guess this went on for a while. so finally my mom decided to call this woman's son. The son came to see his mother and promised to go check on her sister his aunt. When he went to check on her sure enough he found the woman was indeed dead. She had I guess died a day or two before that while she was sitting at her kitchen table eating her morning cereal and her poor little dog hershey had been there with her the whole time. The family didn't know what to do with the dog and were just going to give it to the pound but my mom fell in love with her and offered to take her. Hershey is such a funny dog. She will follow my mom around the house all day and when my dad gets home from work she gets all sad if he does not greet her first. She makes a great addition to the family!

 Sorry about the long story with the tag. I just think it's a funny story! My mom tells it a lot better though. Anyway, I tag: Bridget, Kristin, Amanda A., and Marissa  

Happy Birthday Dad!!!

 Halloween is a fun holiday in my family because it also happens to be my Dad's birthday! I love my Dad so much. My Dad is the most honest, smartest, hardworking person I have ever met. I am so grateful for the example he is and all of the things he has done for me over the years. Thanks for everything Dad, Darrell and I love you so much! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!